Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield 2

Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield 20200627

Peaks, and if youre in any one of these 32 states, you are seeing surging infections as the country surpasses 125,000 deaths. At least 11 states are now pausing plans to further reopen their economies. Arizona, texas, florida and others delaying their next phases of reopening. For example, suspending drinking at bars and limiting capacity at restaurants and other businesses to 50 to 75 . But as states grapple with the virus spiking, an optimistic tone is coming from the white house. Vice president mike pence saying at the first Coronavirus Task force briefing in two months that the u. S. Is opening, im quoting now, safely and responsibly. Weve all seen the encouraging news as we open up america again. More than 3 million jobs created in the last jobs report, retail sales are rolling. And of course the extraordinary progress in new york, new jersey, connecticut and new orleans, areas that just a matter of a month ago were struggling under the weight of this pandemic. We have a team of reporters around the country covering the latest developments. Lets begin in florida with those staggering new case numbers. Cnns randy kay is in riviera beach. How are folks reacting . Reporter not well. The news is not good, 9,585 cases here in florida in just the last 24 hours, up more than 600 from the day before, as you said. Not good. Put the governor says it is all about the testing. He says that theres been a test dump, that theyve increased testing. In fact, theyve almost doubled it from 24,000 to 45,000 tests a day, so thats been what he says is cause for the increase actually. But we are seeing a higher Positivity Rate in the state of florida, mostly among young people, 3335 years old, mostly asymptomatic cases. When you look at people out and about and going to restaurants, you wonder if any of those young people hes talking about who are asymptomatic could be part of that group. Still the governor in the state of florida saying im not going to mandate masks. Im going to leave it up to the local governments. Im going to trust that people are going to make the right decisions. We saw a lot of people out here all day today without any masks on, even though it is mandated here in Palm Beach County where i am. We talked to a few of them and heres what one of them told me. No, i left my mask in the car. But because of social distancing can take place here and you cannot be close on everyone, i havent worn my mask out here on days most of the time. But i do have it in the car, so when i go to stores and other establishments, when im indoors i wear it. But outside were able to social distance and be beyond six feet and i havent necessarily worn it. Reporter granted, outside is safer, but even sanjay gupta has said that its better to wear the mask when youre outdoors and here it is mandated in Palm Beach County. Orange county mandated, hollywood mandating it. People have strong opinions. Some people say we should wear it, its selfish not to wear it, or there are others who say im not going to wear it, i dont wear one when its flu season, i dont need to wear about wearing it for coronavirus. Clearly this is much more serious than just giving someone the cold. Quite the variation of rationales. Lets go to natasha chen in pensacola beach. How is the surge affecting people there, particularly the Business Owners . Reporter right, so yesterday is when the state shut down standalone bars. They now have to transition back to togo drinks and what theyve done, because people cant consume the alcohol inside, is that theyve set up these umbrellas and stools and tables out here not on their property. They were given permission to set that up so people can take the drinks and the food outside. Now, at the same time, restaurants that include bars can still operate, and so some of them feel very singled out by this. Here is one of the coowners of paddy o learys talking about the shift and having to close down a few weeks later. We cant stand another three months being shut down and just serving drinks, like togo drinks. Thats not going to pay the mortgage. Weve got a mortgage just like you do for a home. Weve got a mortgage, too. And our employees have to be paid and our vendors want paid also. So its going to be very tough if they do an extended period of time. Its going to really hurt. We cant survive on it. Its just going to come to a catastrophic conclusion for not only us, but for a lot of other owners. Reporter so were talking to some other owners as well. Everybody is kind of wondering whats going to happen because theres no date that theyve been given that they can reopen and their employees may have to reapply for unemployment. And speaking of the restaurants with bars that can still operate right now, we were at one of those restaurants last night. A lot of people coming in, of course, theyre maintaining social distancing and reduced capacity, but the bars in those restaurants are still fully operational, fred. All right. Natasha chen, thank you so much for that. Joining me now to talk about the rising case counts, the mayor of miami dade. Good to see you. How concerned are you about these rising numbers . I mean, florida now seeing more than 9,000 new cases in a single day. Your county in particular has been hit hard by the coronavirus as well. Well, what concerns me is not so much the rising number as it is the rising Positivity Rate. We ran a medical study here a couple of months ago that indicated over 200,000 people here had the antibodies. So we know that the official count is probably underreporting really the number of people that have had coronavirus here by a factor of ten or maybe even 20. But the rising number of positives, the percentage, is really what is causing me some concern. We were running around 8 and now were running the last two weeks over 14 . So thats whats causing me a little bit of concern. What do you think is behind that . Well, without a doubt weve seen a huge spike in the 1834yearold group and the 3544yearold group. These two groups have spiked way up. The older folks like me, im 66, weve seen a rise, but nowhere close to the spike and the rise weve seen in the younger population. Look, in the last 11 weeks, actually last nine weeks, weve seen a decrease in the average age of positives come from 54 years old down to 43, and we expect that to keep coming down. Thats the problem were facing, its the younger people that are getting infected, which may then give it to their parents or grandparents, which again is the age group were concerned about. Youve just taken a big, bold step, if we can call it that. After the florida governor, ron desantis, being one of the first governors to begin reopening beaches in may, and now you have said to everyone, hey, Miami Dade County beaches and parks are going to be closed fourth of july holiday weekend. I guess you could have done it this weekend. What is it that you are saying to people about closing the beaches on what is typically a very busy, popular time in which to go to the beaches, july fourth weekend . Look, i did that in consultation with the governor. He knew exactly what i was going to do and he was in favor of it. He understands that things are different here in miami dade. We expected huge crowds to be at the beach. It would have been very hard for us to control our social distancing and having people abide by the rules. Weve also seen here in the last, lets say, couple of holidays when you have, say, mothers day or when you have memorial day, two weeks later we see a spike in the number of cases. We saw a spike in the number of cases. We thought the same thing would happen now and we dont want a spike on top of a spike. And so in order to be proactive we took the step of closing the beaches down. We also will close the parks at 8 00 so there wont be any fireworks. We also reiterated our prohibition on groups of more than 50 people and also we are now, in the hot spots, we are putting what we call surge teams out, giving out masks and hand sanitizers in those zip codes where were seeing a spike in the number of cases in order to try to bring this positive rate down, down below 10 . Thats what we want to see. Among those measures, i didnt hear you say anything about mandating of masks, like miami has mandated that. Theres a 500 fine if youre not wearing your mask. And you said you consulted with the governor. Have you also been talking to the mayors of any of those beach communities in your county about other drastic measures that you want to take . Or maybe i shouldnt say drastic, just measures you want to take. Listen, i talked to all the mayors, but in actuality what we set as the rules here in Miami Dade County are the rules for everybody. Cities can do more than what we do, but ours is the base. They cant do less than what we do. So i speak to whats called the Dade County League of cities all the time, three times a week, and tell them and we discuss the things we need to do, what the orders that im going to issue. Each city has a right to be more stringent, but they cant be less stringent. We have had a policy here in miami dade that you must wear a mask indoors all the time, you must wear a mask outdoors when you cannot maintain a social distance of six feet. Thats still the rule here in miami dade. I spoke to our medical advisers. Theyre okay with that rule. Other cities can be more strict and i understand that some coasting cities, miami beach, they have a lot of people Walking Around and it would be really tough for somebody to put their mask on and take it off. So it kind of makes sense to say just leave the mask on all the time and it makes it easier for enforcement. But those are the rules here in miami dade and they have been in place for two months. Are you hearing from people, citizens, people who have made plans to travel there for fourth of july . Are people mad that theyre not going to be able to go to the beach fourth of july weekend . Im sorry if they are, but safety comes first. Im a firefighter, a former paramedic. Again, i speak to my medical advisers all the time. We have seen spikes in previous holiday weekends. We dont want to see the same thing happen. Weve seen spikes in the younger people, which are the ones more apt to go to the beach, party, do all those things. So were actually targeting those things that younger people will be doing and want to do it together as groups, because thats where the problem is right now. We dont want them their contamination rate, their infection rate to increase. They, in turn, can then bring it home to their parents and grandparents. Those are the things were doing. And im sorry if youre coming to south florida or coming to miami and you wont be able to go to the beach. Theres still a lot of other things you can do. But i have to look out for the health and welfare of the people of Miami Dade County first. Mayor carlos jimenez, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Still ahead, youre going to see more of this. Why people are honking right in anaheim california, not far from disneyland. Well explain. Ice will do. Thats why were expanding your range of choices. 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As the case count grows, some workers at disneyland are pleading with the company to keep the park closed. Were following the protests this afternoon. Paul, this is quite the contrast. You have so many people across the country who are saying open up business. Employees here at disneyland are saying no, were not ready to come back. Whats going on . Reporter disneyland is saying no for now at least. You look and the cars are all part of the protest. Disneyland delaying its opening. It was scheduled for the 17th of july but they saw the coronavirus spike and disneyland is saying when it does reopen that it will have reduced capacity, temperature checks for guests before they show up and temperature checks for employees when they leave their shift at the end of the day, increased cleaning. They also expect to have more social distancing in place. But yeunion reps are saying we need more routine testing when it does open. Here is one of the union reps. We should note disneyland has about 20 unions. Austin lynch, super quick, when this park reopens, what do you want them to do . They need a comprehensive plan, that begins with testing, which theyre saying no to. Theyve got to tell us the details. We asked them what happens if a cook gets sick, how are you going to test and protect the other folks in the department . They dont know. How are you going to handle the increased cleaning . They dont know. Beyond that, we asked them you need to do comprehensive regular testing. Theyre not willing to do it. Our members lives are precious and when you open the theme parks, you open california to the world. So if were going to do it, we say do it tomorrow if it can be done safely, but do not do it until you have a plan to keep everybody safe. They dont have that right now. We appreciate you taking time ought. To austins point, disneyland gets Something Like 21 million visitors a year, so it is a litmus test for all of california, fred. It is, indeed. Thank you so much. So california is experiencing a surge in covid cases and so is texas, its seeing an increase. Joining me right now is dr. Cedric dark, assistant professor at Baylor College of medicine. Good to see you. Good to see you as well. I understand this is kind of full circle for us. I understand that you may have treated one of my parents, my mom or dad. And now here you are in texas and texas is the birth state of both of my parents. So here we are again, this time talking covid. Lets talk about this surge. According to a recent Antibody Survey by the cdc, the total number of coronavirus cases may actually be six to 24 times greater than current levels. If that is the case, what should be happening to contain these staggering numbers . Well, i would certainly say thats true. One of the reasons why the numbers are probably higher than were seeing is we cant test everybody. Were still at a point where were not able to get tests to every Single Person that we would like to in our Emergency Departments around the country and specifically in texas as well. One of the things we need to do is ask the public to wear masks when theyre out, to remain physically distant and we need our politicians to listen to Health Care Workers on the front lines of this. If we dont do that, were going to wind up in a terrible position where the coronavirus rates are going up. And as you can see, hospitalizations are going up and the next thing after that, were going to run out of icu space. Some would argue that we are there now in some pockets. So how personally frustrating and professionally frustrating is this for you that it seems like a broken record, so many of you in the medical community are saying at a minimum, wear your masks. But then you hear people arguing against it or even just Walking Around pretty defiant, theyre not going to wear the masks. Yeah, honestly, this is, as you said, both professionally and personally frustrating for myself and for a lot of my colleagues. When you look at a place like texas and compare it to a place like australia where they have a better handle on this disease than we have here, we have similar population sizes, 25, 29 million people. But a couple of differences, in australia they have universal coverage. In texas we have about 18 of our population uninsured. I think you had the mayor of miami on before, florida, 13 uninsured. Thats one huge reason why we have this problem, is that we dont have coverage for patients and it makes it difficult for them to access care when they need to. The other thing thats very important that our federal government has failed on is countries like australia have mandatory paid leave. So if people want to go to work, but are sick, they can stay home and actually be covered for that. Whereas here, people that need to pay their bills have to show up whether theyre feeling ill or not and that puts everybody in society at risk. So in texas, Governor Greg Abbott admits that he allowed bars to reopen too quickly, but in your view is the damage already done . Well wait and see what actually happens. Ive been pretty hard on Governor Abbott because i think he made a huge mistake in terms of reopening the texas economy a little too fast. Im happy that he admitted his fault and that he opened the bars too fast and other parts of the economy too quickly. He dialed it back down a little bit to what we call phase two of the texas reopening, but in my opinion i think he needs to dial it down further to phase one where restaurants are only open at 25 capacity. Because as weve seen, once we open up to phase two, the number of cases and hospitalizations in texas started to increase pretty much exponentially. If we dont get it back down to a slower rate of growth, this is going to get out of hand and we wont be able to control it. The virus doesnt care what we do about our economy. The virus is just going to infect people willynilly if we dont slow things down ourselves. Doctor, thank you so much. Thank you for all that you and your colleagues are doing. And possibly, most likely, my mom is watching, so shell be glad to see you again. This time coming from her home state. Thank you. Thanks so much. Well be right back. Where will you go first . Wherever you make go, lexus will welcome you back with exceptional offers. Get zero percent financing and make no payments for up to 90 days on all 2020 lexus models. Experience amazing at your

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