[Ana Cabrera, Cnn:] Thanks for joining me on this Sunday. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. And we begin this hour with new and harrowing milestones in the coronavirus pandemic. At least 140,000 Americans are dead. More than 3.5 million that we know of have been infected and in some of the nation's had hotspots the numbers are especially grim. In Florida, no ICU beds are available at 49 hospitals statewide. Arizona is reporting the highest one-day death count since the pandemic began. And we just learned both Georgia and North Carolina set record daily highs for new cases. The numbers can't be denied. But yet the president continues to push the debunk claim that cases are up because of testing.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] Cases are up. Cases are up, many of those cases should even be cases. Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing. No country has ever done what we have done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world.
[Cabrera:] Again, the numbers don't lie. In Arizona Saturday a staggering 39 percent of test results came back positive. 39 percent. Other states are also reporting record high positivity rates. Health experts argue the increased rate of infections far outpaces the increased rate of testing. Despite those facts the president is making an astonishing prediction. One we've heard from him before. That this virus is just going to disappear.
[Trump:] I will be right eventually. You know, I said, it's going to disappear. I'll say it again, it's going to disappear and I'll be right.
[Chris Wallace, Fox News:] Does that discredit you?
[Trump:] I don't think so.
[Wallace:] Why?
[Trump:] I don't think. You know why it doesn't? Because I have been right probably more than anybody else.
[Cabrera:] Straight to the White House now and CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, I just played a couple of moments there from the president's appearance on FOX News this morning. Another claim he made has to do with how much other countries test their citizens, versus the U.S. Give us a fact check.
[Jeremy Diamond, Cnn White House Correspondent:] That's right, Ana. What we saw from the president in this interview is more of what we more of the same of how we have seen him handle this pandemic from the very beginning. And that is, the president downplaying the threat of the virus and deflecting responsibility for what is going on as well as fighting with the science and the facts. And one of the facts that the president continues to tangle with is this notion that testing is responsible for the surge that we are seeing in the United States when we are not seeing that kind of surge in the European Union, for example. Listen to how the president sees the difference in what's happening.
[Trump:] They're having surges.
[Wallace:] Their surges are 6,000 in the whole European Union.
[Trump:] They don't test. They don't test like we do.
[Wallace:] Is it possible that they don't have the virus as badly as we do?
[Trump:] That's possible that they don't test. That's why it's possible. We find cases and many of those cases heal automatically. We're finding in a way, we're creating trouble. Certainly we're creating trouble for the fake news to come along and say, oh, we have more cases.
[Diamond:] You wanted the fact check, Ana, here it is. Cases are up 194 percent while testing is only up 37 percent. So clearly the rate of positive cases is rising much faster than testing. As it relates to the United States and the European Union, the U.S. is currently experiencing a positivity test rate for coronavirus of nearly 9 percent, compare that to European Union countries, most of them are under the recommended 5 percent positivity test rate Ana.
[Cabrera:] We know the president really wants to reopen the country. That perhaps is one of the reasons he keeps on trying to downplay the coronavirus. And a lot of Americans are wondering about this because their concern about their financial situation, Jeremy, is more help on the way in terms of stimulus payments? What do you know?
[Diamond:] Well, there have been informal conversations between the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the last couple of months and the last few weeks in particular. But the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said today in an interview that tomorrow those discussions between the White House and in particular Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill will begin in earnest. Now the question is what will be included in this bill. It's expected to have roughly $1 trillion price tag based on what Republicans are at least looking at. But even between Republicans on Capitol Hill and Republicans at the White House, before they even get to the part where they're negotiating with Democrats, there have already been some disagreements, one of them in particular is over the question of whether or not to add funding to the CDC. The White House somehow is arguing that there should not be additional funding for the CDC. That's a position that's opposed by many Senate Republicans. This bill is also going to have some economic components to it as well. At least that's the expectation. It will have some protections for businesses. That is one thing that the White House is looking for and that President Trump in particular has talked about. And Democrats are also looking to add those to get those unemployment benefits, the supplemental unemployment benefits for Americans amid coronavirus to have those extended. They are expected to expire soon. So that is something that lawmakers are looking to have included in this next relief package Ana.
[Cabrera:] Nothing obviously a done deal yet. Jeremy Diamond, at the White House, thank you. Today, Florida reported another 12,000 new COVID-19 cases. It's the fourth time Florida has reported such high numbers. And as we also learned, 49 hospitals statewide have no ICU beds available right now. CNN's Randi Kaye is in West Palm Beach, Florida. Randi, we know the governor still refuses to issue a mask mandate, but the numbers aren't heading in the right direction, and it's not because we're testing more.
[Randi Kaye, Cnn Correspondent:] No, absolutely not. We know that nationally and also as well here in the state of Florida, as you mentioned, more than 12,000 new cases, 12,478 new cases in the last 24 hours. That brings the total to more than 350,000 cases statewide. Also another 87,000 deaths so we're looking at just under 5,000 deaths statewide here in Florida. This is also the fourth day this month, and since the pandemic began, that we've seen more than 12,000 new cases in a single day. So the numbers are certainly alarming. Statewide, Ana, 9300 people hospitalized across Florida. In Miami-Dade, one of the hardest hit counties certainly here in southern Florida, ICU capacity at 127 percent. They have zero ICU beds left and they are in such demand that they are now converting regular hospital beds to ICU beds. In fact, more than 2,000 people are now hospitalized in Miami-Dade County, 507 patients in ICU beds, and 286 patients requiring ventilators. So certainly a lot of concern there. But statewide as you said also, 49 hospitals now at last check without any ICU beds, Ana. So the numbers are not good, but they are getting some Remdesivir here in the state of Florida. We know that does help COVID-19 patients so they are bringing that in, 30,000 vials apparently, in the next few hours, going directly to the hospitals. The governor said he went straight to the White House. He knew that we needed it. And he does hope that it could help and possibly save 5,000 to 6,000 patients here in the state, Ana.
[Cabrera:] Right. That's one of the only proven treatments right now. Randi Kaye, thank you for that update. The president also made another misleading claim in his interview with FOX News. This one is about the mortality rate. Listen.
[Trump:] I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world. Do you have the numbers, please? Because I heard we had the best mortality rate.
[Kayleigh Mcenany, White House Press Secretary:] Sir, this
[Trump:] Number one low mortality rate. I hope you show this on air because it shows what fake news is all about.
[Wallace:] OK. I don't think I'm fake news, but we'll put up
[Trump:] Well, yes, you are.
[Wallace:] We'll put our stats on.
[Trump:] You said we had the worst mortality rate in the world, and we had the best.
[Wallace:] I said we had
[Cabrera:] With us now is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Ashish Jha. Doctor, great to have you with us on this Sunday. What do we know about the mortality rate in the U.S. right now? And how does it compare to other countries?
[Dr. Ashish Jha, Director, Harvard Global Health Institute:] Yes, thank you for having me on. Mortality rate is a bit of a funny statistic. So let's talk about what most public health experts actually track. I mean, certainly we've had more Americans die of this disease than any other country. Even if you do, Ana, per capita basis, you know, just based on the fact that we are a bigger country, we still have one of the highest numbers of deaths. You know, I think what the president may be alluding to is number of deaths over number of cases. And that's actually a hugely misleading statistic because when you get a massive outbreak like what we're having in the south right now, your cases go way up. Deaths tend to lag and your mortality starts looking better in the short run. So nobody tracks short-term mortality rate because it can be very, very misleading. If the question is on a per capita basis, how's America doing in terms of deaths, the answer is well, we are one of the worst in the world.
[Cabrera:] OK. Those are the facts. Thank you for all of that. This weekend, the CDC updated some guidance for self-isolation if you test positive saying you don't need to isolate more than 10 days if symptoms have improved and you don't have a fever for at least 24 hours. This at least sounds like some good news, especially when you think people may not have to take off a full two weeks of work.
[Jha:] Yes, look, I think we're learning a lot about the virus. I think that's an important update. I have looked at the underlying data behind their new recommendations and what we find is that a vast majority of people stopped shedding the virus by about 10 days after their symptoms, especially if they've stopped having fevers. So I like that update on the recommendation. It does make it a little bit shorter. I will add one caveat which they acknowledged, too, which is if you are going to be working in a high risk situation, so if you work in a nursing home or if you're a health care worker taking care of patients, you should probably continue a slightly longer duration of isolation because a small percentage of people will continue shedding virus and obviously if you are in a high risk situation, we really can't afford that. But for most people I think that's probably right.
[Cabrera:] This is another update because we heard the White House testing czar say this week you don't need to repeat tests if you've tested positive for COVID-19 saying the two negative test standard is no longer needed. One, do you agree, and two, can that make a difference now with the testing shortcomings here in the U.S.?
[Jha:] Yes, so we really have a pretty substantial shortcoming of our testing. So we are starting to ration and we're trying to figure out where can we cut back on testing. I think it's reasonable, again, if you're not in a high risk situation, work situation, let's say, it is reasonable that after 10 days of no or after the onset of symptoms, if you want to get back to work, and again, you are not working in a high risk situation, you may not need negative tests. And again, that's just based on the data that we're learning that most people stop being infectious, so I do think it's progress. It should save us a few tests. It's not going to get us out of the testing quagmire that we're in. We will still need to fix it but this could help on the margins.
[Cabrera:] Why do we have a testing quagmire still? And what would fix this?
[Jha:] You know, there is this kind of world view in the White House which baffles every you know, every doctor, every medical expert I know, that they have I think they really believe that more testing is bad for America. And they I don't understand, of course, we know that because of a lack of testing, outbreaks are getting worse. We know that because of a lack of testing, it's going to be hard to get kids back to school. There's all sorts of costs of not having enough testing, but the White House does not seem motivated at all to try to fix it.
[Cabrera:] The conversation about reopening schools obviously is a big one and it continues, it will continue until the fall and there's this new study out of South Korea finds children older than 10 spread as much as adults, but children younger than 10 transmit far less. You called this one of the best studies we've had to date on this issue. What do we need to know?
[Jha:] Yes. So it is a really high quality study. It's large in terms of its sample size. It's carefully done. South Korea does a really terrific job of testing and tracing which is why they have such low numbers of cases. And what they find in this study is that older kids seem to essentially transmit the way adults do. But younger kids do transmit a lot less. Is this the final data point? No. And there have been a lot of other studies that have found similar effects. Some studies have found that even older kids transmit less. I guess I would say two things. One is, we're not sure yet. We're still learning, but I think the data is becoming pretty clear that the young kids really do transmit less and that to me means one more reason to think about how to get younger kids back to school, assuming you are not in a hot zone with wild outbreaks of virus in the community. I think we can really start thinking about is there a safe way to get the young kids back in.
[Cabrera:] OK, Dr. Ashish Jha, that's good news. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.
[Jha:] Thank you. Thank you.
[Cabrera:] The battle between the governor of Georgia and the mayor of Atlanta just intensified with accusations of racism and sexism, and it couldn't come at a worst time. The state just set a new record in daily cases. We'll take you live to Atlanta next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.