Live Coverage of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery; Memorial Day Weekend Crowds Portend Increase in Coronavirus Cases
HILL: The United States, nearing 100,000 deaths due to coronavirus. The crowds, though, were out over the Memorial Day Weekend, leaving many to ask if it's all too soon. I'm joined now by infectious disease specialist Dr. Carlos Del Rio. He's also the executive associate dean at Emory University Medical School for the Grady Health System. Doctor, always good to talk to you. You know, I'm curious, we saw these crowds out over the weekend. There are some concerns, even out of Arkansas, from the governor about a second wave. Vice President Pence, though, the other day, praised Georgia's efforts -- of course, where you are, in Atlanta -- saying that Georgia was leading the way. Is that what you're seeing in your state? Is Georgia leading the way as an example for reopening?</s>CARLOS DEL RIO, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: Well, you know, it's too soon to know. I think after the governor made the -- you know, opened the state, people still stayed at home. There wasn't this huge amount of people going out. Now, we'll see, after the Memorial Day Weekend, what happens. But we are beginning to see an uptick in cases in Georgia, and I think it's clearly a result of people relaxing social distancing. And I think we need to remind people, this virus is still around. It hasn't gone away, and you can still get sick, you can still die. So we need to be careful, and I think reminding people that, no, it's not over, it's not yet over. And we need to -- you know, while we're relaxing measures, we still need to continue thinking about social distancing, we still need to wear a mask, we still need to wash our hands.</s>HILL: There's also the question of, as there are more cases popping up and as you point out, there are a lot of folks looking at, OK, so when are we starting to see this spike? And then we'll backtrack a couple of weeks and see how it all coincides with easing of restrictions. There is more testing going on as well. How do you look at the numbers and square where we're at? Is it more about testing from around the country? Is it more about easing restrictions?</s>DEL RIO: Well, I think testing is important, that it goes up. And I think we all are wanting to see about 30 tests per thousand population in every state, and I think a state that achieves that is doing a good job. So testing is critically important because you're going to have outbreaks, there's no doubt about that. If you're having -- as you're easing restrictions, you will see these outbreaks. But what you need to be able to do is rapidly identify them, rapidly contain them and prevent that they spread further. It's almost like a fire department strategy, you need to contain the fire before it breaks into an entire neighborhood or entire forest being on fire. So the sooner you pick up cases, the sooner you identify them and isolate them, the better it is. Now, cases will go up. So I don't worry that much about cases, I worry more about ICU and hospital bed capacity. We need to monitor those things.</s>HILL: And that's --</s>DEL RIO: And again, if you look at those, those are critical components because the cases that go into the hospital and go into the ICU is really where we have our limited amount of beds. And where we need to be careful that we not exceed our bed capacity.</s>HILL: And that is so important, to make sure that if there is a spike, if there is a surge in cases, that the hospitals in the area are equipped to deal with that, as we're seeing the concerns come out of Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Carlos del Rio, always appreciate your insight. Thank you.</s>DEL RIO: Thank you, Erica.</s>HILL: Brazil's president, greeting supporters while not wearing a mask despite the growing outbreak in that country. Overnight, the U.S., also announcing a travel ban for folks flying in from Brazil. Details and a live report, that's next.