Johns Hopkins: Coronavirus Tops 4 Million Worldwide; Virus- Linked Illness Strikes Children; U.K. Prime Minister to Announce Next Phase; Cases Climbing in Latin America; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Robert Redfield and Dr. Stephen Hahn Quarantine After Virus Exposure; Spain Relaxes Lockdown Rules
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio 7 here at CNN Center in Atlanta. I am Michael Holmes. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the heads of the CDC and FDA self-quarantining after possibly being exposed to the coronavirus at the White House. The new normal across the United States, businesses reopening, restrictions easing despite experts warning. It's an experiment that could have deadly consequences. And a question families in Latin America are asking more and more. Where are the bodies? Missing remains compounding the grief and devastated survivors.</s>HOLMES: As nations around the world slowly emerge from their lockdowns, we have hit another disturbing milestone in the spread of coronavirus. Johns Hopkins University reporting the number of cases around the world topped 4 million on Saturday. Nearly 280,000 people have died. And it didn't take long to get to this point. You can see how fast the pandemic spread after the first million cases were confirmed early last month. It took less than two weeks to reach the next million and the next and the next. About one third of those cases, 1.3 million, are, of course, in the United States, with more than 78,000 lives now lost. Almost every state in the U.S. will be back in business by Monday to some extent. People in Los Angeles allowed to golf and hike again this weekend. And as the U.S. balances opening back up with staying safe, the pandemic is hitting close to home. Some of the most prominent experts leading the administration's response to the crisis, it looks like they might have been exposed. CNN's Jeremy Diamond with more on the steps they are now taking.</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Three top doctors on the White House Coronavirus Task Force are now going to be teleworking, working from home and carrying out some form of self quarantine for the next 2 weeks after coming into contact with someone at the White House who tested positive for coronavirus in just the last week. That is Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Stephen Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration; as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become one of the most public faces of this White House's response to the coronavirus. All of them announcing that they will be working from home for the next 2 weeks. Dr. Anthony Fauci telling our colleague Jake Tapper that he will be undergoing a, quote, "modified quarantine" for the next 14 days, working from home and wearing a mask at all times of the day. Though he does note that if he is called to the White House from Capitol Hill, that he will go but will take every precaution necessary. A similar message we are hearing from a spokesperson for the CDC, saying that Dr. Redfield would go to the White House if he had to fulfill any responsibilities with regards to his role there. But he would be wearing a mask. Of course, very notable that we are seeing these 3 top medical experts on this Coronavirus Task Force, all of which are undergoing some form of self quarantine. What we have not seen is a sort of unified, centralized approach from the White House as to how to deal with this. Earlier this week, a White House spokeswoman, Katie Miller, she tested positive on Friday. A couple of days before that, we saw one of the president's personal valets also testing positive, a Navy official. Again, no message from the White House about whether anyone who's come into contact with them should go into self quarantine. It seems to be much more of a piecemeal approach. What is clear, though, is that, as the country begins to reopen and many workers are being asked to come back to work, even here at the White House where there are the most strict protocols, officials coming into contact with the president now being tested daily. Temperature checks being conducted for anyone coming on to the White House grounds. Even here, the coronavirus is seeping in -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.</s>HOLMES: New York of course, still the American pandemic hot spot.</s>HOLMES: The governor calling the death rate, quote, "infuriatingly constant," although the number of new cases does appear to be going down. But now there is a disturbing new twist, a mystery illness that might be linked to COVID-19 has struck children and for three of them it was deadly.</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: New York's governor Andrew Cuomo calling these recent pediatric hospitalizations as not new but as disturbing, particularly for parents. At least 73 children in and around New York that have been hospitalized with symptoms that, according to the governor, are similar to toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease. The governor being very clear that these are likely or possibly related to COVID infections. Still many questions relating to these recent hospitalizations, including 3 children that have not survived.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Now these are children who come in and do not present the symptoms that we normally are familiar with, with COVID. It is not a respiratory illness, they are not in respiratory distress. But the illness has taken the lives of 3 young New Yorkers so this is new and it is developing.</s>SANDOVAL: These hospitalizations are certainly getting the attention of health professionals, not just here in New York but across the country, especially since, from the beginning, we had heard that it was perhaps some of the younger people who were possibly not as vulnerable to this illness. But now this new information that is being released by governor Andrew Cuomo is suggesting otherwise. We should finally mention that the CDC is working with the state of New York. Their main goal is to try and develop some kind of criteria that would be applied across the country as they continue to look into these illnesses -- reporting in New York, I'm Polo Sandoval.</s>HOLMES: Many Americans are getting a glimpse of the so-called new normal this weekend. Most states easing back some restrictions, despite warnings from some health experts it's too soon to be doing even that. CNN's Natasha Chen shows us how people are adapting.</s>NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By the end of the weekend, all but three states will have eased quarantine restrictions in some way, even in once hard hit Rhode Island, where the governor said Friday her state will be the first in the northeast to lift a stay stay-at-home order.</s>GOV. GINA RAIMONDO (D-RI): If you look at the facts on the ground, the data on the ground, we're doing better. And so therefore we're in a better position so we can start to lift our restrictions a little bit sooner.</s>CHEN: Restrictions are lifting from coast-to-coast. In North Carolina retail stores have reopened, but at 50 percent capacity. In Delaware, stores can now offer curbside pickup. That goes for California as well, where stores can also now deliver just in time to send flowers for Mother's Day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For me as a small shop, I'm not going to let anybody in. But at least I can operate, cannot just open everything, because we will have a second wave and then we will go back to square one.</s>CHEN: San Francisco has decided to keep businesses closed until May 18th. But the rest of the state has some businesses reopening with modifications.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stay out of the politics. I need to open. We're ready.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what we have right now for takeout.</s>CHEN: Nevada and Alaska have now joined more than a dozen states to resume dine-in services in restaurants with restrictions. People can also now get a drink at a bar in Alaska at 25 percent capacity. In Arizona, people can get their haircut by appointment only. Same for Texas, with owners eager to open doors.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything is ready and my clients are more than ready.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything, I lost everything. Destroyed my business. I lost my business. That's what it has done.</s>CHEN: In Iowa, people can go back to the dentist, go to campgrounds, the drive-in movies and tanning facilities following special guidelines. Tennessee now joins Georgia in allowing people to go to bowling alleys. Pennsylvania is taking a county by county approach to reopening. Welcome news to this chocolatier in the town of Williamsport.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hoping that the people, especially those who are, let's say, under age 60 come out more because, again they -- you need to just get out I think.</s>CHEN: Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.</s>HOLMES: The British prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce the easing of some lockdown restrictions in the hours ahead. The press association reporting Boris Johnson will likely unveil a new COVID-19 warning system with five levels. It's also reporting that he is expected to say the U.K. is close to moving from level four to level three.</s>HOLMES: CNN's Milena Veselinovic is standing by in London. Good to see you. Everyone there awaiting the government's next move. What are they likely to hear from the PM?</s>MILENA VESELINOVIC, CNN PRODUCER: We do know that the PM will announce kind of a road map for the next stage of dealing with this coronavirus outbreak. And we do expect that slogan, which had been ubiquitous, stay home, stay safe, will be revised. There's a rule that you can only go out once a day. That's expected to be scrapped. We're also expecting some guidance when it comes to face coverings. So far the U.K. government say they provide little benefit but there have been reports and rumblings that they may recommend them in enclosed places, where social distancing is not possible, such as supermarkets and public transport, something the Scottish government has already done. But beyond that, any further changes are likely to be small and incremental. That's what the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said this week when he warned there won't be a return to business as usual, there will be a new normal that U.K. citizens will have to get used to. And officials have tried to dampen down this excitement that somehow Monday will be like a freedom day, where all of these measures will completely fall off. And that's because social distancing will remain at the core of the strategy to battle this outbreak. Even when all of these restrictions start falling off, social distancing will remain in place and that also means that certain things won't be able to operate as usual, such as public transport. We've heard from the transport secretary on Saturday that, even with the full capacity of the network, it will only be able to accommodate about a 100th of passengers so that it can comply with the rule that there needs to be about two meters between two people. And, of course, with those people who have hope that the prime minister's announcement means they can finally go for that drink or a meal in a restaurant, they will be bitterly disappointed, because reopening bars and restaurants is not likely to feature on the agenda anytime soon.</s>HOLMES: It will be interesting to see how they handle that on the tube. Appreciate that. Let's hear from a scientific expert now. Professor Keith Neal has spent more than two decades researching infectious diseases at University of Nottingham, now live. Here in the U.S. you have a lot of concern about states reopening while case numbers are still going up. I mean, what are your concerns in the U.K.? What are you hoping to see when the prime minister unveils these plans?</s>KEITH NEAL, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM: I think your previous correspondent from London covered everything that we really know. Although it seemed to be leaked that we will escape a bit more, clearly it's being reined back. I'm not sure, given how our politics work, how it was that lockdown was going to be released because it never was going to be. I think there's an increasing realization that outside activities are pretty low risk, if at all risky. And I'm concerned that we've stopped people sunbathing in the park two meters apart. When you're breathing out, any germs you're breathing out hit the ground in a few centimeters. So I think we need more clarity. We may get that at 7 o'clock this evening.</s>HOLMES: What are the risks of a botched reopening, moves made perhaps in haste, more in line with political motives than scientific reality?</s>NEAL: I think the bigger issue is anybody can tell you what's going to happen is probably not, is having, is really not telling the truth. At the moment, we're relying on modeling and that requires on the quality of the data going on. And that's generally the best we've got. The models we had in the U.K. were based on swine flu and it was able to track the epidemic effectively. And essentially, we know the parameters for swine flu and for COVID-19. And the model could easily be adjusted. So it's quite easy to work out that we're going to have a big crisis if we didn't do anything. The difficulty now comes as we don't know how to model which bits of the lockdown have been successful. There was work published from looking at 30 different countries going into lockdowns this week, looking at what was probably the most effective strategies. And essentially, it was largely thought, store closures were a bit difficult to assess, mainly not so much because of the stores but more people going back to work. And mass gatherings were a complete no-no. But I think in states where you're lifting regimes with upgoing cases, until you get on top of this.</s>NEAL: I think that's a very dangerous strategy. I think somebody quoted the Rhode Island state, where cases are coming down, where a measure of relaxation is more sensible.</s>HOLMES: The thing is, however you do the reopening, we're not going to know immediately the fallout, are we? We're going to be continually looking, as we always have, at lagging data. Today we're seeing the result of behaviors of two to three weeks ago.</s>NEAL: We are. I think a lot of the media concentrate on deaths. And that really is like trying to wage a war with your military intelligence based on what was happening a month ago, slightly shorter. The number of new cases diagnosed and the number of people being admitted to hospital is telling you what happened one to two weeks ago, which is a much better measure. So assuming people are getting admitted for the same reasons, and there should be no reason a developed country which hasn't got overloaded, that should probably stay the same.</s>HOLMES: I want to ask you, because here in the U.S., we've essentially got a cluster, if you like, of cases linked to the White House. I mean the vice president's press secretary, a valet close to the president, Secret Service agents and so on. And now you've got the heads of the CDC, the FDA, Dr. Fauci all quarantining in some form. You have the president still downplaying widespread testing even though those new cases in the White House wouldn't have been caught without testing. What is your feeling on downplaying? And how important broad testing is toward a successful reopening?</s>NEAL: I think the more information you have about the epidemics, it's actually crucial, because it's actually what tests you do and what you do with them. I think going back to your cluster of cases, among experts, we had a similar thing among our politicians and advisers at the early stage of the epidemic. And it reflects the close working arrangements before we went to more teleconferencing. I think this no testing is crucially important. And testing people with symptoms so you can contract trace them and isolate and therefore try to break chains of transmission. Because we are increasingly realizing people are asymptomatic. If A gets tested and tests positive they have quite possibly infected B and that way you can bring the outbreak under control. There are other aspects of testing. One good study was done in a New York hospital that, for good reasons, screened all the pregnant women coming in. In that way you get an idea of how much there is in the community at the same time as being able to practice quality infection control. And they showed about 16 percent, about a month ago, of pregnant women coming into that particular hospital, because, doing it for admissions, they could be coming in for COVID-19 reasons.</s>HOLMES: It is fascinating. As you say, when they say, the president says we don't need much more testing or widespread testing. It's so well-put that, you know, if you isolate B, he's not going to give it to C. That's exactly right. Got to leave it there, Professor Keith Neal. Thank you so much.</s>NEAL: Thank you very much. Goodbye.</s>HOLMES: The second largest city in Ecuador has gone through a horrific time with COVID-19. Its cemeteries are proof of that. But one young man can't bury his deceased father. The harrowing reason why when we come back.