U.S. Government Projects Massive Rise in Coronavirus Cases Ahead.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And, right now, the number of deaths in the United States from coronavirus continues to climb. It is now up to 68,326. At this time a month ago, the death toll was 8,162. And we have some breaking news just in. Two new projections indicate a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and deaths. The leading model from the University of Washington, frequently cited by the White House, has revised its projected death toll from 72,000 deaths in the U.S. in August to nearly double that, 135,000 deaths. President Trump is also now openly estimating that the U.S. could see up to 100,000 people die from coronavirus. That would be more than all of the American lives lost in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined. Plus, a separate internal document obtained by "The New York Times" reveals that the Trump administration is expecting an acceleration in how many people are infected and killed from this virus, predicting up to 3,000 people in the U.S. dying every day by June in a new document from the Centers for Disease Control. And yet, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports for us now, President Trump says some states are still not reopening fast enough.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As states ease restrictions and start to reopen, the administration now privately estimates that the number of daily deaths from coronavirus could sharply increase over the next month. "The New York Times" obtained an internal document that projects the daily death rate would continue to increase to as many as 3,000 per day by early June. The same document also estimates the number of new cases could jump from 25,000 a day to 200,000 by then. The White House didn't deny the document's authenticity, but said it didn't come from the West Wing and the data is not reflective of any modeling done by the task force. The task force hasn't met in person since Friday. President Trump acknowledged in a town hall on FOX News Sunday night that the virus could be much deadlier than he previously imagined.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible thing. We shouldn't lose one person over this.</s>COLLINS: That's twice as high as a few weeks ago, when the president said the death toll could be as low as 50,000.</s>TRUMP: The data suggests that, nationwide, we are the past the peak on new cases. Hopefully, that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress.</s>COLLINS: Even as he acknowledged that the death toll could now be much higher, Trump said he favored easing restrictions and pushed ahead with his desire to reopen the country.</s>TRUMP: At some point, we have to open our country.</s>COLLINS: Trump is also disputing what he knew and when, and says he wasn't briefed in person the coronavirus until late January.</s>TRUMP: On January 23, I was told that there could be a virus coming in, but it was of no real import. In other words, it wasn't, oh, we have got to do something, we have got to do something.</s>COLLINS: "The Washington Post" reported last month that there were repeated warnings about the virus in the president's daily briefing document, which the Office of the Director of National Intelligence denied. Sunday night's town hall was held at the Lincoln Memorial. And at one point, Trump asserted he's been treated worse by the media than President Lincoln was.</s>TRUMP: I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there.</s>COLLINS: Now, Jake, a White House spokesman said earlier that those new projections had not been vetted through the interagency process, and they noted that the president's phased guidelines about reopening the country had been endorsed and agreed to by the nation's top health experts, basically indicating that right now they do not plan to change their approach just because of these new numbers about that death toll being revised up, possibly as soon as by the end of the month.</s>TAPPER: Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks so much. In the coronavirus epicenter, in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo urge caution today that, while the number of cases and deaths is declining in his state, those declines are not nearly as fast as he had hoped. And there is still a long way to go before New York will begin to reopen. California, on the other hand, is starting to relax some restrictions. Moments ago, the governor there, Gavin Newsom, announced retail stores can start to reopen Friday on a limited basis. CNN's Nick Watt is in Santa Monica, California, for us right now. Nick, how would this plan of Governor Newsom's, how would it work?</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he is going to lay that out for us on Thursday, he says. I mean, Jake, this is big breaking news. This is from the state that was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of this stay- home policy. And now Governor Newsom says that 50 -- 5-0 -- days after he announced that policy, we will start relaxing some of those restrictions. So, retail will be a lot of curbside pickup. He says there will be severe modifications in all of this, but 50 days after he said we got to stay home, he's now saying we can begin to come out.</s>WATT (voice-over): Today, restaurants can reopen in Nebraska, bars in Montana, offices in Colorado. Yes, some social distancing restrictions remain, but, by the end of this week, more than 40 states will be partially back open for business.</s>ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Well, we have been staying indoors, we have been slowing down the spread. But what we haven't done is gotten rid of the virus.</s>WATT: Parks packed some places over the weekend, authorities had to act. In D.C., crowds gathered for a flyby Saturday.</s>MURIEL BOWSER (D), MAYOR OF WASHINGTON, D.C.: This virus has not left the district. In fact, we're where we thought we would be in having peak experiences during the month of May.</s>WATT: And there's a warning as the weather gets warmer.</s>SLAVITT: People get together, have big events. And then we really pay the price for May in June.</s>WATT: In 15 of our states, the daily new case count is falling, among them, those Northeast hot spots.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): You see the decline is, again, not as steep as the incline. But reopening is more difficult than the close-down.</s>WATT: But in 20 states, the daily new case count is still rising, among them, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois. New York City now making its own tests. They say 30,000 will be available by Friday.</s>BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: This is a first in our city's history.</s>WATT: In Los Angeles, free testing now for all, but heavy traffic reportedly causing some problems on the sign-up site. The governor of California will now allow some retail to open Friday, with significant modifications. He says certain areas of lower concern can move even faster.</s>GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We will afford them that right with conditions and modifications that meet the health needs of the entire state.</s>WATT: Meanwhile, the White House is now focusing on 14 potential vaccines.</s>TRUMP: We are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year.</s>DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Miracles can happen. It could come together, but I'm certainly not banking on it.</s>WATT: The makers of that potential therapeutic, remdesivir, say they have had donated 140,000 courses to the federal government.</s>DANIEL O'DAY, CEO, GILEAD SCIENCES: They will determine, based upon things like ICU beds, where the course of the epidemic is in the United States. They will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week.</s>WATT: Now listen to this, our weird normal. Today in</s>D.C.: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oyez, oyez, oyez, all persons having business before the Honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to give their attention.</s>WATT: That's the Supreme Court for the first time in history meeting by teleconference.</s>WATT: Now, Jake, you mentioned that model from the University of Washington has just nearly doubled its projected death count in the U.S. to 135,000 by August. Now, one of the professor's involved was asked why. He said, well, certain outbreaks in the Midwest have caused concern, but also -- and this is key, he says -- that before social distancing restrictions were relaxed, there was increased mobility, and he says that some of those restrictions have been lifted prematurely, and that is why they are upping their estimate of the eventual death count -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Nick Watt in Santa Monica, thank you so much. Coming up: A division of the National Institutes of Health is now looking at coronavirus and our kids. A former CDC disease detective will join me on why children are apparently less likely to be infected. Plus: Want to leave the house? In one country, you will have to text the government a reason why. We're going to go live on the ground with a look at one nation's success story so far. Stay with us.