[Alisyn Camerota, Cnn Anchor:] Developing overnight, hospital and health care workers bracing for an onslaught of coronavirus patients. At this hour, there are nearly 9,000 cases across the United States. That's a 45 percent increase since just yesterday. One hundred and forty-nine Americans have died. Also developing overnight, new information that Americans of all ages can be seriously sick from this virus. It's not just the elderly. New data from the CDC shows nearly 40 percent of the first patients in the U.S. who were sick enough to be hospitalized were age 20 to 54. A member of the coronavirus task force now pleading with millennials to take the outbreak seriously and to stop socializing.
[John Berman, Cnn Anchor:] Overnight, President Trump signed a multibillion dollar emergency aid package that provides paid sick leave for some Americans in quarantine and free coronavirus testing. It comes as Congress works out the details of a $1 trillion economic stimulus package that could be finalized early next week. Two members of Congress have tested positive for coronavirus, both of whom were voting as recently as Saturday morning. This morning, the entire Georgia legislature, their staffs and the lieutenant governor, they're in self-quarantine for 14 days after a senator there tested positive.
[Camerota:] Now, across the country, health care workers on the frontlines battling coronavirus are reporting a severe shortage of supplies that they need for these critical tests. CNN's Drew Griffin joins us with more on that. Drew, what are you learning?
[Drew Griffin, Cnn Senior Investigative Correspondent:] Alisyn, there's a reason my doctor's office just this morning sent an e-mail saying, if you're mildly symptomatic, don't come in because we don't have tests. The supplies are simply running out.
[Griffin:] In the cascading shortfalls of the national response to coronavirus, testing labs across the country are sounding the next alarm, telling CNN there are shortages, not just in tests, but the components needed to conduct the tests. The head of a 51- hospital network in the west says key parts are missing.
[Dr. Rod Hochman, Providence St. Joseph Health:] In certain cases it's reagents, some of the chemicals that are used. And even in certain cases, it's just the availability of the appropriate swab in order to take the sample.
[Griffin:] It's the same story at New York's Presbyterian Hospital.
[Dr. Yoko Furuya, Infectious Disease Specialist:] There do continue to be some challenges around expanding the testing significantly at this point.
[Griffin:] And at the University of Nebraska's testing lab.
[Dr. Mark Rupp, Infection Control Chief, University Of Nebraska Medical Center:] We're in the situation now where we actually don't have the reagents to do the extraction from the samples so that we can run the tests.
[Griffin:] Health officials in multiple states tell CNN they do not have enough tests for people who need them because of a shortage. In Minnesota, the state health agency is limiting testing to only the highest priority specimens due to a national shortage of Covid-19 laboratory testing material. The Ohio Department of Health told CNN they're only testing our most vulnerable patients due to a global shortage of supplies. And in West Virginia, the state health officer says she had to scrape together supplies from flu tests.
[Dr. Cathy Slemp, West Virginia State Health Officer:] There's all kinds of things in the chain of testing. There's swabs, there's extraction things, et cetera, et cetera. There are shortages on many pieces of it.
[Griffin:] West Virginia still has a critically low number of tests. Military veteran Kenneth Hawthorne says he's been to the emergency room three times in the past two weeks, sick with a cough, fever, but tested negative for flu. He says he cannot get tested for Covid-19.
[Kenneth Hawthorne, Falling Waters, West Virginia:] They keep telling me that my wife and I, we're at low risk. So we weren't priority to take the test.
[Griffin:] A major test maker, Roche Diagnostics Corporation, tells CNN, demand for its test is greater than our ability to supply it. How did this happen?
[Hochman:] Well, I think we needed to rethink how we're going to deal with an epidemic, or pandemic in this case. The minute there was an outbreak in China several months ago, that should have started a whole sequence of events going. Now, as everyone would say, that's that's the history, but what are we going to do now?
[Griffin:] Industries are responding, ramping up production. And both Lab Core and Quest tell CNN they are greatly increasing the number of tests they can process per day. But, in the meantime, the CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories calls the situation a huge problem. I'm really concerned that we are not going to have the capabilities to test those who really need and should get a test. And, John, the Food and Drug Administration tells us they're aware of these shortages, are trying to provide alternative sources for some of these people that need testing products. But, really, this is akin to the whole toilet paper run. And until that manufacturers can catch up with this ever increasing demand, we're going to be in the same situation. Laboratories, health departments, et cetera, are just looking for supplies anywhere they can get them and they're not available. John.
[Berman:] Yes, if you don't mind me saying, the difference with toilet paper is, no one's going to die if they run out. People are going to die if there's not the testing that needs to happen. And we've been hearing from people all morning, Drew, and we will hear more from hospital and emergency rooms that are just, at this point, they're just assuming people are sick because they can't get the tests that they need. So, Drew Griffin, thank you so much for your reporting on this. It is crucial this morning. So, at this hour, 149 Americans have died with coronavirus. We want to take a moment to remember some of them. Eighty-four-year-old John Knox, a retired New York City firefighter, a Marine, passed away on Monday. After the September 11th attacks, he came out of retirement and worked at Ground Zero. It left him with decreased lung function. His son spoke to Anderson last night.
[Zachary Knox, Father Passed Away From Coronavirus:] And he was just a very kind, sweet man. All the people he always looked out for his men and the people around him. Is that if you needed him, he was there in a heartbeat.
[Camerota:] And seventy-seven-year-old Richard Curran passed away on Sunday after reportedly falling ill last week. Curran lived in an assisted living facility in Ft. Lauderdale with his wife of 57 years. The Chicago native is survived by his wife, daughter and two grandchildren. And one New Jersey family has been devastatingly hard hit. Three members of the Fusco family have died. It's believed seven members of the family contracted coronavirus at a family dinner more than a week ago. The 73-year-old matriarch, Grace Fusco, passed away just last night without knowing that her two eldest children had also died in the past few days. Three of the siblings are still in critical condition this morning. Grace was a mother of 11 and grandmother to 27. We'll be right back.