Detroit Emerging as Virus Hotspot
SCIUTTO: We've said this multiple times, if you think this is a one city or a one state problem, clearly it is not. Every day we're hearing of new hot spots. Michigan -- Michigan is now seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. Detroit, in particular, emerging as a hot spot. The U.S. surgeon general says it is one of the cities that could see the pandemic hit even harder next week. At this point, 146 cases, three deaths in the city of Detroit. Joining me now to discuss this and the broader issues, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Mayor, thanks so much for taking the time. We know you've got a lot on your plate here. We're trying to get the word out so folks understand what's happening around the country. Tell me about the situation in Detroit now. Folks have heard a lot about New York. They've heard a lot about Washington state. But now we're seeing this pop up in other places. How bad is it there?</s>MAYOR MIKE DUGGAN (D-DETROIT-MI): Well, Jim, your numbers are a couple of days old. We have 800 cases in Detroit out of 3,000 in the state of Michigan.</s>SCIUTTO: Wow.</s>DUGGAN: And Michigan has surged to one of the top five in the country. You're seeing the same kind of pattern right now in Chicago and Illinois. And it's just a matter of time before you're seeing it in Philadelphia, in Houston. And right now it's all hands on deck. And this community is coming together. We're running our first regional testing site, this opening this afternoon at the state fair grounds. And what it took to put together the test kits, the masks, the lab capacity, even the swabs, to get that started was a challenge, but we'll be up and running today.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. You know, the president yesterday downplayed the needs, the demands for essential equipment such as ventilators, saying, in his words, I think a lot of the equipment being asked for, I don't think they will need. You ran a hospital for nine years.</s>DUGGAN: Yes.</s>SCIUTTO: You ran one in the midst of a previous outbreak. Does the president have a sense of the reality?</s>DUGGAN: Well, I ran the eight hospital system Detroit Medical Center before I was elected mayor. But in Detroit, William Knutson (ph) is famous. He was the president of General Motors and President Roosevelt, two years before World War II, got him to leave GM and run America's war production board. And he was a huge factor in what people came to know as the arsenal of democracy. And I feel like we need that right now. We need a national leader. And the thing I don't get is, whether you're for or against Donald Trump, he built some of the biggest, most complex developments all around the world. He understands supply chain probably as well as any president since Eisenhower. And I'm hoping that he puts that expertise to work and we get a national leader because right now -- I was in the hospital business. I can get on the phone. I can get swabs and masks. But every mayor and governor in this country are fending for themselves. And some are succeeding in a significant way and a lot aren't. We really need some national leadership.</s>SCIUTTO: I want to ask you, because a draft letter to patients and families was leaked from the Henry Ford Health System in metro Detroit and it outlines plans for how patients would be prioritized. I'm just going to quote from the letter there -- here. It says treating these patients, patients who are described as unlikely to survive, would take away resources for patients who might survive. Now, the hospital tells CNN that's not an active policy, it's part of their emergency response planning. But I wonder, and, again, drawing on your experience, having run multiple hospitals, are we heading towards that point where we're going to have to ration medical equipment and treatment?</s>DUGGAN: Well, I think New York is probably there now as well. Henry Ford is one of America's great healthcare systems. And what they put out was honest. Those who haven't formally put it out, every major hospital system in New York and Detroit and Chicago and Seattle are having exactly these same conversations internally. And we're trying to bend the curve. The governor of this state has put a shelter in place order in. And where everybody is doing everything we can to stop it. But you would be irresponsible as a health care system CEO if you weren't planning for that eventuality.</s>SCIUTTO: Goodness. Goodness. That is quite a -- quite a taste of the reality to come. Listen, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, we appreciate it. I just want to wish you, I want to wish your team, but also the people of Detroit the best of luck as we all go through this.</s>DUGGAN: All right, thanks, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: Take care. A quick look now at the markets. And a three-day rally you've been watching seems to be losing steam. Stocks opening lower. This after the devastating jobless claim numbers on Thursday. We're going to watch the market for you. Just one indicator of many as to the effect of the economy of all this. Bigger picture. Some hospitals now scrambling for another piece of essential equipment, those N-95 masks. The ones that can protect healthcare workers from being infected. One plant is now racing to make the masks. Gary Tuchman is there.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, heroic efforts taking place at this Utah factory to dramatically increase the production of those N-95 respirator masks. We'll have the story when we come back.