[Michael Holmes, Cnn International Anchor:] More than 16 million cases of the coronavirus worldwide. The U.S. alone, home to more than a quarter of them. Also, fight or flight. When one mistake can mean their life or yours. We'll explore the stress facing doctors and nurses on the front lines in the battle against COVID-19. And stars and stripes no more. An American consulate closes as China retaliates for the loss of one of its consulates in the U.S. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I am Michael Holmes. Hello. Welcome, everyone. Coronavirus cases are climbing. The crisis is deepening, and time is running out for millions of jobless Americans. Now just days away from losing special unemployment benefits they've been relying on during this pandemic. Senate Republicans are sent to roll out a trillion-dollar relief package on Monday, but they've been fighting for weeks over the size and scope of any new unemployment aid. And there could be a lot more wrangling before any money actually gets to the people who need it. The U.S. has about a quarter, as we said, of the 16 million COVID-19 cases worldwide. And this week, the country could hit another mark no one wants to see, as it marches towards 150,000 lives lost to the virus. On Sunday, Texas announced it had topped 5,000 deaths. And now parts of the state are facing yet another disaster, reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Hanna. Florida is the second biggest epicenter in the U.S., just behind California. For 23 days this month, the state has reported more than 9,000 new cases Sunday. No exception. Intensive care beds in the state are filling up. And despite that, officials are still looking for ways to continue to reopen. Randi Kaye tells us the state of play.
[Randi Kaye, Cnn Correspondent:] Here in the state of Florida, another 9,259 new cases and 77 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths for Floridians to more than 5,800 now. And Florida now has the second highest number of COVID deaths in the country. Meanwhile, statewide, still about 9,000 people are hospitalized. And the there's about 18 percent of adult ICU beds left in the state. Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade, one of the hardest hit counties here in southern Florida, they're looking at a daily positivity rate there of 18 percent. And the ICU beds also running low. They're at 146 percent capacity, so now they are converting regular beds to regular hospital beds to those ICU beds so they can help treat those patients with what they need. Meanwhile, people in Miami-Dade still not paying attention to that mask mandate and social distancing. They're supposed to wear a mask when they can't safely social distance inside and outside. Miami-Dade Police Department telling me that they've issued 115 citations for businesses. That's a $500 fine. And also, another 174 citations to individuals. That's a $100 fine. Meanwhile, bars and breweries could soon reopen in the state. Here in Palm Beach County, the restaurants are already open. They're open to about 50 percent capacity. But the bars and the breweries were closed at the end of last month. So now the chief business regulator is saying they could open soon. He's looking for a safe and smart way to do so. Meanwhile, the Florida Brewers Guild certainly on board with that. They say that they represent about 300 breweries. They wrote a letter to the governor and the business regulation chief saying that 100 of those will close if they don't reopen soon. And they also say that the industry gives about 10,000 jobs to the state, and a third of those jobs could be lost. I'm Randi Kaye reporting on Singer Island, Florida. Back to you.
[Holmes:] Doctors, nurses, they are all, of course, constantly reinventing the medical emergency playbook as coronavirus throws ever more challenges at them. Now, you're about to get a look inside a hospital in Georgia that has been slammed with new COVID-19 patients and taking extreme measures to try to save lives. Here's Gary Tuchman.
[Kristine Haben, Registered Nurse:] I'll be with you all in a second.
[Gary Tuchman, Cnn Correspondent:] She is not doing well. A female COVID patient being transferred from her room to the intensive care unit at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia, a state where COVID deaths have nearly doubled since earlier this morning.
[Haben:] It's exhausting. It has pushed me to my limit. It has shown me that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was.
[Tuchman:] Kristina Haben is an RN at this hospital, which is in a part of Georgia that was a hot zone earlier on in the COVID crisis. But numbers started dropping. The state started reopening, leading experts say, to what's happening now.
[Haben:] Just when you think that we might be getting ahead of this thing, it's going to come back, and we're starting all over again.
[Tuchman:] This used to be a corridor for regular hospital in-patients. It has now been transformed into an additional intensive care unit just for COVID patients. Dr. Stephen Morgan is treating many of them.
[Dr. Stephen Morgan, Northeast Georgia Medical Center:] Yes, I have to admit, I thought we were probably clear. You know, I think a lot of us did.
[Tuchman:] Dr. Morgan says the rising COVID numbers make the job more difficult, more fatiguing. He checks on a middle-aged COVID patient and is gratified by his progress.
[Morgan:] A real strong guy. Got started out on some Remdesivir as soon as he can to to the hospital.
[Tuchman:] But it's a very different feeling as registered nurse Haben walks into this room. This man is being treated in a specially- designated COVID unit. This is not the ICU, but there is worry that he might end up going there. [on camera]: This patient has been here for two days. There's a lot of concern, obviously, for anybody in the COVID unit, but particularly for this man, because he's very ill. [voice-over]: He has been given sugar water to keep his blood sugar up, as well as insulin.
[Haben:] One of the hardest things is knowing that the last time that that patient's family saw them could possibly be the last time that they get to see them.
[Tuchman:] This medical center is prepared for more and more patients being admitted. This unusual-looking structure sits in a hospital parking lot. Patients will soon start getting moved inside. [on camera]: This rapidly constructed hospital addition consists of 44 shipping containers piece together. There are 20 rooms for COVID patients.
[Betsy Ross, Nurse Manager:] Everything that you would get in a traditional hospital room inside the hospital, we are capable of doing here in this unit.
[Tuchman:] Everyone we talk with here expresses pride at what we are doing, but as the numbers go up, so does the concern and, in some cases, fear.
[Tamika Johnson, Charge Nurse:] Well, I guess you know what post- traumatic stress is. That's how I feel. I mean, it's like, I feel like something that we should be able to prevent from happening. It's like we have no control over it in reality. And the patients pass away. It's almost like, we get so close to them, it's like losing a family member.
[Tuchman:] These doctors and nurses also consider each other family members. People they work with, fight this virus with, for as long as it takes. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Gainesville, Georgia.
[Holmes:] Now, that's the situation facing medical professionals in Georgia. Now a quick look at conditions in Miami, one of the worst hotspots in the U.S. Healthcare workers out of Miami Hospital are suiting up every day like this: layer after layer of personal protective gear to keep themselves safe. But a growing numbers of doctors and nurses say they need more than just physical protections. One doctor who had the coronavirus himself says it's the unknowns of the virus that are taking a big toll on him and his colleagues.
[Dr. Mark Supino, Jackson Memorial Hospital:] In Florida, we are used to hurricanes, right? So you've got the warning the hurricane's going to hit. The hurricane hits, and then you have the aftermath. But a hurricane tends to be sort of a finite amount of time. And this is infinite. And so you don't have this knowledge of an aftermath, when you have no idea how long the hurricane is lasting. So that definitely makes the day-to-day difficult AS healthcare workers, is not knowing when is the end.
[Holmes:] More now on the mental and physical burden facing doctors and nurses, I'm joined by Dr. Dhruv Khullar. He's a physician and assistant professor of health policy at Weill Cornell Medicine. Such an important issue. I think for those of who have never been in such situations, it's impossible to know the real level of stress and trauma that healthcare workers are dealing with. Just try to explain the visceral nature of that experience.
[Dr. Dhruv Khullar, Assistant Professor Of Health Policy, Weill Cornell Medicine:] Yes, thank you for having me on. And I think it's such an important issue to understand what healthcare workers are going through on the ground right now during this pandemic. You know, I think it's been overwhelming in a lot of areas. At the beginning, particularly of the pandemic, a lot of folks did not have personal protective equipment. They didn't have the resources that they needed. I think we're at a different place now, but nonetheless, seeing the number of COVID-19 patients come in, caring for them day in, day out, is a struggle for a lot of healthcare providers. And it continues to be that way.
[Holmes:] You know, for many of these workers, I mean, and young doctors and nurses and therapists, and the like. They would never have seen anything like this. And by that I mean, the volume of patients, the deaths, the suffering. And on top of that, the fear that they could contract the virus themselves. How widespread do you think post-traumatic stress issues are or might be for the frontline workers?
[Khullar:] You know, it's a great point. I think one thing to recognize is that medicine has always been a demanding profession. There's always been a lot of challenges that people have had to go through as they're caring for patients. So there is that baseline. Those things have been exacerbated during the pandemic. It's been challenging for a lot of folks. We're seeing some studies that are coming out of China, coming out of Italy, places where the pandemic hit early and hit hard. Some of those studies are suggesting that people have symptoms of PTSD and depression, up to 50 percent of frontline clinicians. Now, I don't think that it will continue. My hope is that some of those symptoms will improve over time and particularly as we're getting better, more experienced at caring for patients, as we have the resources that we need to do so. My hope is that clinicians now don't have those high levels of PTSD or depressive symptoms, but it's certainly an ongoing issue that we need to be aware of and that we need to help people through.
[Holmes:] And you know, I've covered a few wars and conflicts over the last 40 years. And I know with the impact can be. That sense that if you are not there, no one can understand what it is like. Is what these brave people experience akin to a war-like war zone- like experience. And what help are they getting, and what do they need?
[Khullar:] Yes, you know, I think things have evolved a lot over the past few months. I think at the beginning of the pandemic, there were real fears about not having adequate PPE, about not having the number of oxygen delivery devices that folks needed. Those things have improved, thankfully. We're doing a much better job with having testing, with having PPE, with having oxygen delivery devices and ventilators that we need. But nonetheless, the number of patients that are coming in, particularly in hard-hit areas where this pandemic is continuing, where where there's not great adherence to masks and physical distancing, it still feels like a deluge of patients and challenges for healthcare workers, doctors, for nurses in some of these areas. You know, one thing that I would say is that, you know, I worked in New York City at the height of the pandemic here in April. Nearly every single patient I cared for had COVID-19. We implemented the right public health guidance. People adhere to it. By mid-June, there were times where I had no patients who had COVID-19. So I want to also give hope to doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists that are out there right now and struggling in some really hard-hit areas, that things will get better. That we need to continue to work on public health and communicate effectively about the importance of these issues. And my hope is that things will continue to or at least start to improve in the coming weeks.
[Holmes:] When it comes to the stresses of the impact and I think, you know, there have been suicides among healthcare workers and even doctors and so on. When it comes to the levels of stress and what they are up against, what would you like people to know about what is happening in these ICUs? What message do you want them to take from the conversation we've just had and the article you wrote in "The New Yorker"?
[Khullar:] I think the the main thing I want to communicate is if you're feeling stressed, if you're feeling anxious and depressed there's help out there. Your peers are there for you. COVID-19, for all sorts of reasons, can be a very isolating illness, both for clinicians, doctors, nurses, as well as patients and families. And so we need to make extra efforts at this time to stay connected with one another. That might be through facetime, through support groups, through phone calls, through text messages. Whatever it might be in your case. Given the need for physical distancing, even from one's own family in a lot of cases, a lot of my colleagues are not staying with their families right now, to make sure that they're not passing on the virus to their loved ones. So we need to make extra efforts to stay connected with either healthcare workers, with our friends, and with our families.
[Holmes:] That really is an important point. Doctor Dhruv Khullar, thank you so much. I really appreciate you doing what you do. And the article in "The New Yorker," people should check it out. Thank you.
[Khullar:] My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[Holmes:] While Brazil now has more than 2.4 million coronavirus cases. And it took only five months to get there. A coalition representing more than a million healthcare workers in the country says President Jair Bolsonaro is responsible for, quote, "crimes against humanity" for how he's responding to the epidemic. Nick Paton Walsh is in Brazil. Here is his report.
[Nick Paton Walsh, Cnn Correspondent:] A slight respite, perhaps, in the numbers Brazil recorded in 24 hours that ended on Sunday. Only 24,000 new cases. I say only because in the three days previously, every 24 hours had seen over 50,000 new cases. Terrifying numbers, frankly, for a country whose president's tested positive for two weeks, despite playing down the severity of the disease, and emerged on Saturday morning on Twitter to say that he, in fact, tested negative, essentially giving himself a clear bill of health. But brandishing like he has done over the past months, particularly during his illness, the medicine hydroxychloroquine. Now that's, according to doctors and scientists globally useless if you have coronavirus and possibly even dangerous. Yet still, he continues to tout it, particularly here in the seats of government, the capital, Brasilia. In the day, Saturday, in which he declared himself negative, he went to a motorcycle show and talked about he wouldn't even have known that he had the coronavirus, had he not tested positive, in stark contradiction to his earlier statements that, in fact, he had felt he had a slight fever. And has seemed more focused on an ongoing battle over freedom of speech in social media in the country, than necessarily fighting the virus that's sweeping across the country. Stark criticism leveled against him, though, by medical professionals, who put together a 62-page document that they're sending to the Hague, to the international court there, to essentially accuse President Jair Bolsonaro of crimes against humanity, suggesting that his rhetoric playing down the disease. The failure of his government to act decisively may well have contributed to so many of the deaths still surging here in Brazil. A slight respite to those numbers on Sunday, only 24,000. That's after a horrifying week, frankly, where most days saw 50,000 new cases. The surge still continuing here. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Brasilia, Brazil.
[Holmes:] Well, days after the U.S. forced a Chinese consulate to shut down, Beijing retaliates by closing an American consulate. We will take you there live when we come back.