Coronavirus Now in All 50 States; Anyone Entering Italy Must Self-Quarantine; Macron Says France Is "in a War" against Virus
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, millions of people on lockdown around the world. Borders closed from Eastern Europe to America's West Coast. As the coronavirus spreads, so, too, the drastic measures being taken to try and limit the impact of the virus. Countries also going to great lengths to stem the economic fallout. The Trump administration announcing a $1 trillion stimulus package to cushion our faltering U.S. economy. And Joe Biden sweeps key primary states, giving him a nearly insurmountable delegate lead, a turning point perhaps in the Democratic primary.</s>VAUSE: Two weeks. No more. That's all the time the U.S. has left to prepare for an approaching viral tsunami. In two weeks the number of coronavirus cases is expected to surge here. So, too, the death toll and the strain on an already stretched health care system because, in terms of preparation, the United States is a lot more like Italy, which saw the virus explode two weeks ago and is now in Europe's hardest hit country. The coronavirus is now confirmed in all 50 U.S. states. More than 100 people have already died. But the worst case scenario could see as many as 2 million dead. And right now avoiding Italy's fate rests on a response which varies from state to state, city to city, an inconsistent patchwork of measures, ranging from aggressive action, which changes daily lives, routines, the very fabric of society, to almost nothing. And the economic pain already being acutely felt and the Trump administration is proposing a trillion-dollar stimulus package. According to a congressional source, the Treasury Secretary has warned the unemployment rate could rise to 20 percent. Word of that possible massive stimulus spending sent stocks soaring. The Dow up 5 percent. The Nasdaq and SNP up 6 percent. And a sign perhaps of life to come in Northern California. A shelter in place order has left busy streets empty, 8 million people ordered to stay home. And the New York City mayor has warned he's considering issuing the same order. And residents should be prepared to shelter in place. The governor of New York state, though, says he does not believe at this point such action is necessary. As officials impose stricter measures to slow the outbreak, millions across this country are making big adjustments in their daily lives. We begin our coverage with CNN's Erica Hill.</s>ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Empty restaurants. Lonely streets. Millions ordered to stay in their homes without a clear end in sight.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These measures will be disruptive to day-to-day life but there is no need to panic.</s>HILL (voice-over): The San Francisco Bay area's shelter in place order has prompted questions about whether similar measures could spread.</s>ANDREW CUOMO (D), GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: Part of the year, the anxiety, people spread rumors, well, maybe you're going to quarantine New York City. And I have no interest whatsoever and no plan whatsoever to quarantine any city.</s>HILL (voice-over): And yet concern is growing by the day about how long any measure will last and what will be left when it's over.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Small businesses are calling into my office one after the other. People are not going to the barber shops, they're not going to the restaurants, restaurants are being shut down, et cetera. We are seeing a massive collapse in the economy around this country.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The unemployment requests, first-time requests for benefits that are coming in literally this week as we sit here are overwhelming.</s>HILL (voice-over): The White House today announced help is coming.</s>STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: We're looking at sending checks to Americans immediately. Americans need cash now and the president wants to get cash now. And I mean now in the next two weeks.</s>HILL (voice-over): How much, when and who will be eligible remains unknown. The pledge comes as airlines are asking for an estimated $50 billion government bailout. And dozens of retailers announced nationwide closings, including Disney, Macy's, Nordstrom and Foot Locker. Supermarkets across the U.S. are adjusting their hours, opening early for seniors in an effort to minimize their exposure. State and local officials preparing for an anticipated surge at hospitals and medical centers as elective surgeries are canceled. Patients are discharged more quickly and new facilities are prepped to offer additional capacity.</s>DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: We can't do our jobs if we do not have access to our equipment and we don't have access to, you know, fresh supply lines.</s>FAUST: And so we need to do everything we can to stave that off.</s>HILL (voice-over): The government has yet to provide a clear answer on how they'll meet the need for life-saving ventilators, advising states to get their own while calling on other industries to help meet the need for industrial masks.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're asking them to donate their N-95 masks to their local hospitals and also forego making additional orders.</s>HILL (voice-over): Questions about supply as the demand for answers grows.</s>HILL: Testing is still a major concern across the country. Here in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio says as of Thursday they're going to be opening up more testing. In fact they're going to get to the point where they'll be able to do some 5,000 tests a day in very short order. And perhaps even more importantly those results will be back in just one to two days -- back to you.</s>VAUSE: Erica, thank you. The United States and Canada are considering suspending all non- essential travel between the two countries. A Trump administration official tells CNN an announcement could come in the next 24 to 48 hours. But the agreement is not yet final. Negotiators are working out the definition of non-essential and what kinds of vehicles would still be allowed back and forth. But they stress business and trade between the two countries will continue. In an unprecedented move, the European Union has closed its external borders to all non-essential travel. For the next 30 days, only goods and medical equipment will be allowed to cross, along with people deemed necessary to deal with the virus. The E.U. hopes to encourage members to reopen their internal borders, allowing a quicker response to the virus. France, Spain, Denmark, most recently Germany have all closed many if not all of their borders. The U.K. in its post-Brexit transition is expected to follow suit. Members of Europe's Schengen zone, like Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, are exempt from this agreement. We're following developments across Europe. Journalist Al Goodman is standing by in Madrid. Senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is standing by in Paris. But first we go to Rome. Reporter Delia Gallagher is there. What is the latest there from Rome, Delia?</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, a couple things happening here. One is, of course, confronting the ongoing emergency numbers from yesterday. We're up to some 31,000 total cases with, you know, a jump in about 3,000 new cases. There is, of course, the acute emergency in the north for ICU beds, for ventilators. They have received some ventilators from China, for example. They are building out new temporary hospitals that will have some 600 beds in them in the Lombardy region with some more ICU beds. And an American NGO called Samaritan's Purse has come over to a town called Cremona, where they are also helping to build out some temporary hospitals to try and confront major emergency in the north, which has more than half of these 31,000 cases. The other thing that's happening here, John, is watching these numbers. We have been in lockdown for the whole country now for about 10 days. Experts are saying that's too soon to make any positive determination on whether the isolation is working. But of course, the towns in the north have been on lockdown for about three or four weeks now. Those red zones began much earlier than the rest of the country. So Italy is watching very closely its numbers to see if indeed some initial results from these smaller towns, John, that have been on lockdown for a longer time are showing a trend, in which the positive cases have slowed, which suggests, of course, that the isolation is working. So there's a lot of discussion right now to see whether or not in the next week they're saying will be crucial, the next 10 days to two weeks, to see if countrywide this major lockdown, which has been in place now, will have the desired effect on the numbers -- John.</s>VAUSE: OK. Delia, we appreciate that. Thank you, Delia Gallagher there in Rome. CNN's Jim Bittermann. It was just a few days ago when the president, Emmanuel Macron, was scolding the population for not taking this viral outbreak seriously enough. What's happening now?</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, now they are taking it seriously because, in fact, the real measures, the real lockdown measures took effect yesterday at noon. And the fines, if you're out and about without this special form that you're supposed to be carrying at all times, the fines start today. The police are going to start enforcing it; 100,000 police across France have been mobilized for this. One of the things that's interesting this morning, John, is our sister network, BFN, has done a poll just to see how the French are feeling these days about coronavirus and 81 percent, that's to say up 20 percent from just five days ago, 81 percent feel that it's a very serious problem and they're worried about it.</s>BITTERMANN: And even more importantly, 93 percent say they are in favor of the kind of lockdown measures that are being talked about and are now in place. So it is an amazing sort of cohesion here within the French population and right across the political classes, because I think there's some understanding that it's something that's bigger than everybody. So as these measures take place today, there's stories coming out of all sorts of problems everywhere. For example, on the eastern part of France, the military's been called in because the hospitals are overloaded. There was a report overnight that a prisoner in the main jail just outside of Paris died and that, of course, would be a really bad sign because it could spread very quickly within the confines of a prison. There's a lot of problems the French government has got to address, not the least of which is that they want to make sure people stay united over this idea that this lockdown is going to continue. By the way, they promised it's only 15 days but they're also saying it could be prolonged. If it was prolonged beyond 15 days, people might have a different attitude -- John.</s>VAUSE: I guess we'll see. Jim, 15 days seems to be the minimum. Others are saying it may be 28 days, maybe longer. But we'll see. Jim Bittermann, thank you for that report from Paris. Spain has the most cases in Europe behind Italy, more than 1,100 infections, nearly 500 deaths. Journalist Al Goodwin joins me now from Madrid. I guess for Spain the worst is coming.</s>AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: The worst is just -- we're peaking now as far as we can tell. The figures you just gave, the latest figures we have, more than 11,000 cases and nearly 500 deaths. What's the change? Those figures are about 15-16 hours old, John, so we're waiting for new figures. But what we're seeing is the number of cases has gone shooting up like this. And now the deaths had been slowly increasing and yesterday started to shoot up. So the government on the health front is rushing resources in, 500,000, half a million surgical masks arrived from China to Spain yesterday. At the same time, the government, central government distributing another half a million masks out to the 17 regions. There has been vast calls all across the country, we don't have enough equipment, we need the masks, the gloves and the equipment to did the testing. I'm right at the very heart, the center of the Spanish capital. We see a military unit from a base on the outskirts of Madrid, patrolling this area to supplement the police, who've been issuing fines already. In France, they're about to start issuing the fines. In Spain they've been issuing the fines, hundreds of fines in the last couple of days, because the emergency, state of emergency went into effect here on the weekend. Now the Spanish government, while people are basically confined to their homes, they can only go out to buy food, to the pharmacy, a few other things, the government moving late yesterday to try to ease the anxiety over the economic impact, promising a 200 billion euro or about $220 billion aid package for things like suspending mortgage payments. You'll be able to get unemployment payment, even if you didn't work enough time in the temporary economy to collect. They're trying to ease the fears of the business owners, the workers, the unions. They've got a lot to handle now -- John.</s>VAUSE: To say the least. Al Goodman with the latest from Spain in Madrid. Thank you. A consistent message from elected officials has been that Millennials are the key to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the White House coronavirus task force once again urged young people to stay home, even if they do not feel sick or have any symptoms.</s>DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Every single generation has a role to play. We're asking the younger generations to stop going out in public places, to bars and restaurants and spreading asymptomatic virus onto countertops and knobs and grocery stores and grocery carts.</s>VAUSE: So why is this so critical? CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Young people can be a risk to people with these pre-existing conditions. And even if there's higher populations of elderly people in some of these states, there are still elderly people in all these states and people with these pre-existing conditions in all these states. So that's the one thing I think we're going to keep coming back to, is that it has sort of felt like a patchwork thus far, one state handling it one way, another state another way. And I kept thinking that the federal government would come out with recommendations, which they have. But then still allowing some of these other states to follow their own recommendations; Alabama, for example, saying 25 people or more. It's not so much the number of people, Jake, to be clear. Those are arbitrary numbers. But I do think there needs to be national guidelines on this that everyone should abide by.</s>VAUSE: And Dr. Gupta will answer more of your questions at a third CNN global town hall. "Coronavirus: Facts and Fears." That's Thursday 10:00 pm Eastern here in the United States. 6:00 am in Abu Dhabi, 10:00 am in Hong Kong. The program will replay a few hours later, 8:00 am in London, 4:00 pm in Hong Kong. Still to come, the U.K.'s biggest pharmacy chain is facing unprecedented demand for things like hand sanitizer and other coronavirus essentials. We'll explain how they're fighting to keep their shelves stocked. Also ahead, more wild swings for markets around the world. Live in Tokyo, we'll look at stocks around Asia.