From now, may 1st, even sooner. Well talk to dr. Birx about that, as well as whether the federal government is able to provide tools with widespread testing without risking a second wave. Democratic president ial frontrunner joe biden and facebook founder and Ceo Mark Zuckerberg along with his wife, dr. Priscilla chan, and how facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg initiative are working to combat the virus. At the bottom of our screen, you can tweet us your questions with cnntownhall. You can leave a comment on the cnn facebook page. A lot of you have written in questions. Well try to get to them. We will start where the country is now as new cases are plateauing, even going down in some key hot spots, but at the same time the death toll does keep climbing. Its nearly doubled in the week since our last town hall making the return to some sort of normal, whatever that may mean, such a tough slog on a bitter road. Reporter we are getting some new details about what life will look like when things begin to reopen. Radically different. The president continues to suggest may 1st. Thats a few weeks from now for a possible reopening of the country. Reporter the cdc director warns we should expect a second wave of coronavirus outbreak in the fall. Reporter there are more than 650,000 cases in the United States. 32,000 have died since february 29th. There are signs the number of cases are leveling off in some states and theres more focus on when the u. S. Might start to reopen. Theres no doubt what weve seen over the last several days is a flattening out. Hopefully that trend will continue. Reporter governors across the country are forming coalitions in figuring out the next steps in opening up. Californias governor washrns oa new normal. You may be having dinner with a waiter with a facemask and gloves. Without a vaccine, social distancing measures may need to stay in place until 2022. Scientists from the National Institutes of health are working on one that could be ready as early as fall. We are targeting fall for the emergency use. That would be for Health Care Workers and people who might be in Constant Contact and risk of being exposed over and over. If successful, it could be available to the wider public by spring of next year. The situation remains extremely serious. Places like new york and detroit where some of the bodies of the dead are overflowing morgues and hospitals. Images like these, a reminder of the human cost of this pandemic. With just that in mind and the sense of caution to folks, we turn to the question of where we stand and where the suggestion was unveiled for easing some restrictions in phases and places with state governors taking the lead and implicitly the responsibility are realistic or not, sanjay. Yeah. We see the numbers. Everyone is paying attention to the numbers. The number of deaths is sadly going up but we are hearing of progress. Theres plateaus, even some places where the rate of infection is going down. We see that. We know that. We hear there is some promise around a vaccine where a vaccine may be available to the general public as early as next spring. That would change everything. Theres a lot we still dont know. We are learning people who are presymptomatic can spread the virus more than when they get sick. Before they develop symptoms might be the time where they spread this the most. And also were hearing, you know, about what the country might look like as we start to reopen. Were still starting to learn about that as well, anderson. Also, every epidemiologist and scientist weve discussed testing, Contact Tracing. Testing, different forms of testing, antibody testing, testing people who are asymptomatic in order to get people back to work. Didnt hear a lot about that from the white house today. Its not in their phased plan. Well, they talk about a bit about the fact that the states, this is a core state responsibility for the states to be able to have efficient and safe testing but, you know, i think that practically speaking, we always focus so much on the numbers, but i think the question people should probably be asking themselves who are watching, right now if i needed to get tested, do i know who to call, where to go, how to get my results. Everybody in the country has to answer that question, anderson. If you go into a place of business, a restaurant, whatever it might be. There may be these additional sort of protocols in order to make sure that people are trying to reduce the spread of the virus as much as possible. Thats got to be a thing coming out of the back side of this curve. Well have a lot more on testing in the next few hours. Want to get to our reporters around the globe starting with erica hill who has guidelines and how they may work. Erica . Reporter there are actually three phases to these guidelines, anderson. Its important to point out before you get to phase 1, there are some criteria that needs to be met. There needs to be a sustained decrease for 14 days. There needs to be available testing as you were just talking about from sanjay, also an available supply of ppe and hospitals at a precrisis level. Once that is met, there are criteria for individuals and employers, three different phases. In the first phase, individuals are told they should continue to maximize physical distancing when theyre out. Limit gatherings to groups of ten or less and also limit nonessential travel. As you move into phase 2 for individuals, the recommendations are that vulnerable individuals should continue to shelter in place. Social meetings should be limited to 50 people or less and nonessential travel resumes. When you move into phase 3, the recommendations are that vulnerable individuals can actually resume their public interactions and lowrisk populations should consider minimizing the time they spend in really crowded environments, anderson. Erica, when you look at the various criteria, youre in new york. When could a place like new york or new york city possibly even go into phase 1 where some stuff starts to reopen . Reporter honestly, sanjay, its hard to imagine that happening. We know some states could be in phase 1 tomorrow. New york is not one of those states. Governor cuomo suspending new york pause through may 15th and the governor continues to point out, without the testing that you have talked so much about, without a vaccine its still impossible to know who can be out and about. And also, he says, they still need to assess which businesses could open safely. So there is a lot of work still to be done here. Yeah. Erica hill. Thanks. Want to go next to china which has come under broader suspicion for lack of transparency. David culver is in shanghai for us. David, lets talk about the origin of the virus in china. We spoke last night about an Associated Press investigation. Cnn is investigating whether the virus came out of a lab. What more do we know at this point . Reporter well, that investigation is something that u. S. Intelligence officials have told cnn is one of the things theyre looking into as a possible theory in how this all started. And of course the chinese from really the start of them making this public have directed our attention to that wet market, the wuhan seafood market. That was seen as really the epicenter of all of this. With this new investigation thats apparently underway by u. S. Officials, it seems theyre looking into the potential that started in the lab and spread outside of that. Cnn has been reporting that they dont believe the u. S. That is, that this was done in some sort of bioweapons fashion, however, it does raise a lot of questions as to how much transparency theyre getting here from the Chinese Government in particular. You mentioned that a. P. Report because that brings up some concerns, anderson. In particular, how that was handled early on and what could have been done perhaps that would have maybe stopped the spread of this. In particular, over six states. Youre looking at january 14th to january 20th. According to the Associated Press, there was a teleconference on january 14th in which Health Officials made known to top government officials the potential severity of this outbreak. What we saw publicly from the 14th up until the 20th was things were downplayed significantly here. We even on the 19th, five days after that call, had one of the leading Health Officials saying that everything was preventible, controllable and not contagious. It was only until the next day did things take a dramatic turn, and they did admit that there is likely humantohuman transmission. People asking why do we look at this with such skepticism and i think its important. If we are looking at china as a bell weather of what america is going through, we need to look at how its been handled and how the rest of the world should be stepping forward if theyre looking to see some sort of progress in this. We have to trust whats coming out of china if its going to be the bell weather. David, what does this mean in terms of where china and the United States are right now . At one point theyre helping each other fight the pandemic. There is a lot of criticism lately. Where do things stand from your point of view . You know, sanjay, ive been reflecting on this a lot because i think this is a really dire situation that perhaps will go past this outbreak. I think what we are seeing here is the potential decoupling of the Worlds Largest economies. Youre noticing it from the ground level, one, that the rhetoric that we see, its a blame rhetoric, not only happening at the polite sized level which is certainly an intense back and forth, but also amongst state media and chinese social media, too. Its echoed in u. S. Social media to be quite fair. Walking around here, weve noticed an increased distrust of foreigners and weve noticed that this is something that is not backing down. Its only seeming to intensify with each passing day. You can only imagine that if thats whats really playing out, thats where were headed, any sort of cooperation in how to handle this is going to follow through. You dont even have agencies like w. H. O. , which certainly te u. S. Has backed down on funding and puts a lot of question and skepticism in to be able to be that over arching power to say lets see how these two economies and two can Work Together on this. Its becoming a difficult situation thats becoming worse with every passing day. David culver, thank you very much. Next, some countries are starting to cautiously ease restrictions and the United Kingdom is extending them. Christiane amanpour, thank you for joining us. Easing restrictions, where and what are they doing . Reporter well, weve been reporting over the last couple of days that places like austria and denmark have been slowly reopening, but now germany from april 20th is going to start to slowly reopen some nonessential businesses, very specifically, only businesses that are about 800 square meters in you know, in size and theyre not going to be opening restaurants, gyms, cinemas, sports, all of that. Thats not going to happen. Early may theyre going to start school again. Theyre starting at the older age, High School Age for schools. They believe that theyre very, very intensive, early action, testing, tracing, isolating has allowed them to keep this pandemic in their nation under control. Yes, theyve had infections, but their mortality rate has been dramatically less than practically anywhere else in europe, by a huge factor. They had icu beds, they had a huge amount of infrastructure and ventilators and the whole lot. I spoke to the Health Minister today, and they say, well, now its going to be a new normal and were going to have to reassess in two weeks. From april 20th theyll start nonessential businesses and may 2nd the schools. I think everybody should be watching germany. Christianne, a lot of comparisons. There are other countries at the other end of the spectrum, so to speak. What about them . What do you think is next for them . Reporter well, italys seeing, as youve been reporting, of course, intensively, a dropoff in the number of infections and more of a stabilization. I think one of the things, whether its italy you know, there was a g7 call today. President trump was on a Conference Call with italy, germany, france, canada, all the major allies, and they come to the conclusion in this over and over again that there needs to be a global sustained effort to fix this, there absolutely has to be. To that point they reasserted their support for the w. H. O. The german Health Minister said to me he doesnt think its the right time now to either be defunding the w. H. O. , which is the only International Organization dealing with it, not only in the developed world but soon to be the only one in the developing world. So he said, you know, this is a setback, this withdrawal of money, and its about peoples lives. So politics shouldnt be involved here. And all the other allies gave their support for the w. H. O. At this time as well. Christiane amanpour, thank you very much. Joining us now is White House Coronavirus response coordinator dr. Deborah birx. Well be right back. Complete financial plans. 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Government activities to combat hiv aids and Global Health diplomacy. Thank you for being with us. First time in the town hall. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Just from a logistical standpoint, are individual states, do you think, ready with enough equipment, tests, supplies, you know, people to actually do real serious Contact Tracing to begin doing this . I think theres two really critical pieces there. One is mapping every single platform that can run these tests, and thats what weve spent the last week doing to really work with governments and work with governors and mayors to really understand the depth and breadth of equipment that can run these tests in their state and in their cities and thats been really critical. Then were marrying that up with cdc. Cdc already has about 500 plus people on the ground in many of the states. They will be ensuring that theres people in every state to really support the local governments and the state public Health Officials to really analyze each one of these gating criteria and determine exactly where they are, what needs to be done. Were going to talk a little bit more about testing, dr. Birx. Thank you, by the way, for your service. Really appreciate it. The Contact Tracing though, ive heard estimates that, you know, you could need hundreds of thousands of people to adequately do Contact Tracing. Now were learning that people may spread this even before they have symptoms and in the presymptomatic phase they could be more contagious. Do we have enough infrastructure to Contact Trace the way that we need to . I think thats why the criteria that you can see the that the federal government has recommended are fairly strict, and thats to give states really the time to really set up exactly how theyre going to Contact Trace with the cdc in the background supporting. I think those two pieces together will really need to move forward over the next few weeks as the states move through and really decrease the cases. Again, i wanted to start we know mortality is a lagging indicator and we know thats going to continue as it did last week into this week. I mean, is the this may not be in your purview, but if a state is wanting to hire, you know, 1,000 people or 2,000 people to do Contact Tracing with the Public Health department and quickly train them and get them to do that, is there money that the federal government will give to the state to do that . Well, i think you know in the c. A. R. E. Act, even the act the phase 1, there was funding given to cdc for this very reason, to really strengthen the Public Health responsiveness at the state level, and thats really going to be critical, both for right now and potential for reoccurrence in the fall to make sure were really ready. Then were going to have both the combinatio