Long Lines At Airports As Returning Americans Undergo Screening; World Takes Drastic Measures To Stem The Spread Of Coronavirus; President Trump Tests Negative For Coronavirus; Georgia Postpones Presidential Primary Due To Coronavirus; Spain Imposes Nationwide Lockdown To Stop Virus Spreading; France Shuts Down All Restaurants, Cafes, Cinemas And Clubs; Google Partners With U.S. Government To Develop Coronavirus Web Site
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.K. government scrambling to make sense of new regulations from the United States.</s>KATHERINE ROGERS, PASSENGER ARRIVING IN THE U.S.: We got on an escalator and there were people that's piled at the bottom.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New Orleans police shoo St. Patrick's Day revelers gathered in the Irish channel.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very disappointed that the mayor decided to squash all the good times for St. Patrick's Day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Car after car, bumper to bumper, in a single-file line, this is now the front line in the war against COVID-19.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we don't want to do is to flood the waiting rooms and emergency departments with patients who are sick.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what Spain's coronavirus state of emergency looks like in Madrid.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not reached our peak. We will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death among the vulnerables.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Big changes are creating major disruption around the world. Countries are moving to stop the spread of the coronavirus.</s>CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. The U.S. first of all is expanding its European travel ban to include the United Kingdom and Ireland. That starts at midnight and the president says domestic travel restrictions may be next.</s>BLACKWELL: Americans coming back from Europe are finding chaos. Hours- long delays. Look at these lines.</s>PAUL: Oh, my gosh.</s>BLACKWELL: They're waiting to go through customs and health screenings at airports and that's raising some serious concerns about hundreds of passengers crowded so closely together potentially exposed.</s>PAUL: Dramatic emergency measures are in place in Europe. France is closing all non-essential businesses such as restaurants. People in Spain are ordered to stay in their homes. And Vatican is canceling public Easter events.</s>BLACKWELL: Now there is good news on the health of the president. President Trump says that he is tested negative for the virus after coming into contact with two people who tested positive. 2020 politics also feeling an impact. The state of Georgia is moving its presidential primary to May 19th joining Louisiana in delaying voting.</s>PAUL: Now the reason for the urgency it's clear in the numbers here. Take a look. 60 people have died in the U.S. There are now more than 2,800 confirmed cases. And around the world the latest data on confirmed cases from the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University ranges from more than 140,000 to more than 150,000, and more than 5,000 people who've died.</s>BLACKWELL: And we have reporters around the world covering all angles of this. Al Goodman is standing by in Madrid. Catherine Norris-Trent is in Paris. Sarah Westwood is in Washington. We're starting with CNN's Polo Sandoval in New York. Polo, major lines there.</s>PAUL: Yes. The airports look -- they look disastrous. I don't know who would even want to think about being in that line. Especially when we talk about how people are supposed to keeping some sort of distance from each other. What are you seeing?</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an excellent point here, Victor and Christi, because of course you have the government asking people to practice social distancing. But for many Americans and permanent residents in the United States, upon their return they're greeted by these massive lines, people crammed into hallways to essentially go through the customs process. However, that's really just the beginning. Of course, as of the last couple days the government has been enforcing this additional health screening. I want you to hear from passengers from across the country what they're experienced after a long flight home and then what they've encountered at airports here at home.</s>ROGERS (on the phone): We got off our plane and we're directed down a hall and the international terminal. And we got on an escalator and it was just absolutely -- there were people just piled up at the bottom.</s>JULIA BAZALUK, CAME FROM LONDON: I spent three hours, I think, maybe a little bit more, waiting to first get to customs and then waiting to get second step where I'm not sure what was happening.</s>EMMA REUSCH, FLYING IN FROM PORTUGAL: Very crowded which is not ideal considering what this contagion is. It's the worst system I can think of.</s>SANDOVAL: Also remember exactly how we got here. You remember just a couple days the Trump administration announced its plan to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So what they did they designated 13 airports across the country including here at New York's JFK requiring those passengers returning from about two dozen European countries to land at those airports. They can undergo that CDC mandated screening. You hear from officials, they're explaining that this is all because of these enhanced measures that are meant to protect the health and safety of people in the United States. Now when you hear from other officials there's certainly no shortage of criticism including Illinois' governor. Chicago's O'Hare also saw some significant lines. The governor there saying that the crowds at the airport are unacceptable and need to be addressed immediately. The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf did also go Twitter asking people for patience. At this point they are saying that the process of actually going through these health screenings which includes filling out questionnaire and then being checked out for possible symptoms last only about a minute, Victor and Christi. But multiply that by hundreds of thousands of passengers that are trying to make their way back into the United States. Well, the results are those massive lines. The government certainly has a lot to make up for. Especially given the inconvenience and of course the concern that many passengers experienced yesterday.</s>PAUL: Yes. Concern more than anything.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes. Polo Sandoval for us there at JFK airport. Thank you so much. Let's take it to Europe now where more countries are enacting stricter measures to limit the spread of the virus. We'll take you first to Spain. Nationwide travel restrictions are now in effect. Spaniards must stay inside their homes. Few exceptions here like going to the hospital, to buy essential supplies as well.</s>PAUL: Now, after a spike of more than 1,500 cases in a day, including the Spanish prime minister's wife tested positive, that's what prompted all of this. Al Goodman in Central Madrid for us right now. Al, help us understand what it's like there.</s>AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christi. This is the first day, this Sunday morning, where the whole nation of Spain wakes up and they understands what the rules are to enforce them staying at home except for those exceptional visits out for so called essential services. A day ago they knew there was going to be state of emergency but it was still unclear. But last night, Saturday night, the prime minister made an extensive statement laid out the rules and those have been now been published everybody to see. And we're seeing enforcement picking up late last night right here in the center of Madrid. Police telling people to go home. Get off the streets. If you don't have something to do. They stopped me. If you don't have something to do, you need to be back at the house. The prime minister telling the nation these are very difficult times. Here's how he put it.</s>PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): As you all know, Spain is facing a public health emergency that requires extraordinary decisions. A pandemic that is global and that involves serious harm to people's well-being. The measures we are going to adopt are drastic and will have consequences.</s>GOODMAN: Now, there are more than 6,000 cases nationwide. The prime minister also saying these could go to 10,000 in this coming week. The death rate approaching 200 and half of those deaths and half of those cases are right here in the capital, which is really shut down. People have never seen it like this. I've been here for a long time. I've never seen it like this -- Christi.</s>PAUL: My goodness. Al Goodman, thank you so much for bringing us that.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. Let's head north to France now. The streets quiet this morning after sweeping restrictions announced by the French prime minister went into effect just a couple hours ago.</s>PAUL: Yes. All non-essential businesses, closed. The rule began about six hours ago at midnight it includes restaurants, cafes, cinemas, clubs. Catherine Norris-Trent is a reporter with France 24. She joins us now from Paris. I'm wondering how people are reacting to that. It's one thing to say, stay in your home. It's another thing to virtually shut everything down that they would normally do.</s>CATHERINE NORRIS-TRENT, REPORTER, FRANCE 24: Yes, Christi. People are still adapting to these sweeping new restrictions here in Paris. It was something of a shock to a lot of people here in France when the prime minister went on national TV around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night and announced that there would be this new level of shutdowns. All restaurants, cafes, bars, theaters and all shops selling non-essential items such as food or medicine. They are all being shut down as of midnight on Saturday. So people are adjusting to this new reality. The streets in central Paris are quieter than usual but some people are still out and about, taking a walk. People going for a jog. So it's not complete lockdown. You're still allowed out of your house but a lot of places where there would be social gathers or social contacts have been shut down. And that is going to be something to get used to here in France, because it's a big part of French Parisian culture, of course. And right up until the lockdown at midnight on Saturday, people were still out enjoying a meal or a drink on the terraces of the French capital saying they wanted to do that while they still could. We're entering a new phase now, though.</s>BLACKWELL: Catherine, the French will have to navigate what several states here in the U.S. will have to on Tuesday and that's voting. There are local elections there. Undoubtedly, people will be brought together. What are the specific precautions, the guidance for voters?</s>NORRIS-TRENT: Yes, that's right, Victor. There are local elections taking place. The first round of voting in those elections start at 8:00 a.m. local time here in France, and there are precautions at all of the polling stations. Voters are being asked to stand three feet apart. There are markers on the ground set out in tape by election officials to keep people a good distance apart and then they're being told to let elderly or sick people through as a priority so that they don't have to stand around in cues. Voters are also being asked to bring their own pens and if possible their own ballot slips to the polling stations, which they've been sent via the post. They are also having regular disinfectants of the voting materials and the ballot boxes at the polling stations. So a lot of security measures being put in place, but the government and President Macron have come under a great deal of criticism for continuing to hold these elections at a time when the other sweeping restrictions have come into force. Opposition politicians saying that they don't understand why the vote hasn't been postponed and even we have doctors coming out publicly, writing open letters saying that it is dangerous and risks further infections to continue with this vote.</s>BLACKWELL: And we heard here in the state of Georgia that's why the primary has been delayed two months. Catherine Norris-Trent, for us in Paris. Catherine, thank you.</s>PAUL: Thank you. So the White House says President Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus, which comes as a surprise. Or after I should say a surprise announcement from the president yesterday, that, yes, he had taken the test and he did so on Friday.</s>BLACKWELL: Washington is up next. Let's go to CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood for us. So the president and the White House, I mean, they have vacillated on will he take the test, will he not take the test? Is there a reason to? He has finally now done it. Why the change?</s>SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, that's a great question, Victor, because in a memo released late Friday night the president's doctor, the White House physician, said there was no reason for the president to get tested, because the interactions that he had with people who had subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 didn't meet what the physician described as a high risk interaction. He described them as low-risk interactions and therefore the president in his words did not need to be tested. Now that came out late Friday night. President Trump appeared in the briefing room yesterday and told reporters that he was tested Friday night though and the White House hasn't clarified whether that came before or after his doctor publicly stated that the president would not be tested. But, nonetheless, the White House physician releasing another memo yesterday saying that following in-depth conversations with the president, they mutually decided that the president would be tested for coronavirus. That test came back negative. Now meanwhile Vice President Mike Pence sent an all staff email yesterday encouraging White House aides, administration officials to practice social distancing, to avoid physical contact with each other. This comes as sort of seems the White House is takes the threat of this virus more seriously for its own staff members and for the people around President Trump. For example, reporters yesterday had their temperatures taken before they were sent into the briefing room. One reporter who registered 99.9-degree fever was actually turned away from that briefing. So measures are being taken to screen the people who are spending time around President Trump and Vice President Pence now, Victor and Christi.</s>PAUL: Yes. A lot of people are wondering if there's one site they can go to, to get more of the information that's out there nationally. The president we know on Friday had mentioned this national Web site Google was going to build. And he said that it would be done very quickly. Google disputed that. Do we have any clarity on that Web site this morning?</s>WESTWOOD: There's a lot of confusion surrounding that Web site that the White House said they were partnering with Google to create. Now Google came out on Friday suggested they were not building a Web site that was national in scale providing information about coronavirus testing. This is after President Trump got up in the Rose Garden and said that they were partnering with Google to very quickly launch a national Web site that could help people find out whether they needed to get tested and where they should go, but last night in a series of tweets Google did say they were partnering with the Trump administration to work on such a Web site. And Vice President Mike Pence tried to offer some clarity in the briefing room yesterday saying that there will be a pilot version in the San Francisco Bay Area that a subsidiary of Google is working on and they hope to test it there, and then roll it out to the whole U.S. at some point. That San Francisco Web site will be launching on Monday. But, again, a lot of confusion surrounding the rollout of this Web site. It does not appear that a national version is coming anytime soon.</s>BLACKWELL: Sarah Westwood for us there in Washington. Sarah, thank you. So we would like to know how the coronavirus outbreak and the response to it is affecting you. Here's a tweet we received from Megan. "I manage a grocery store." I know where this is going. "We are all tired. This is worse than any food holiday with less staff." I mean, the shelves are empty, the parking lots are full. You go to any grocery store it's the same story. We'll be sharing your stories throughout the morning. Send us a tweet @victorblackwell, @christi_paul. Use the #NEWDAYWEEKEND. We really do appreciate hearing from you. We want to hear your stories, your thoughts. We're all kind of in this thing together.</s>BLACKWELL: Indeed we are.</s>PAUL: So cruise ships, they're being kept at sea as more passengers are diagnosed with coronavirus. So the question is, are they able to get the medical treatments that they need? Are the ships going to be allowed to dock? We'll talk about it.</s>BLACKWELL: Plus, acts of kindness in the middle of a pandemic. How a few good deeds they are making a big difference.