New Infections Rise In 31 U.S. States; Coronavirus Task Force To Resume; Resurgence Of COVID In Europe - From Risk To Reality; Crowds Overwhelm British Beach Town in Major Incident; U.S. Economists Worried about Virus Resurgence
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, and thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Was it just too fast, too soon? With most U.S. states reporting new cases of the coronavirus increasing, how did they get it so wrong? It's not exactly the kind of defense Formula One may have wanted but the former F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone, defends his sports record in his own way on diversity. And the tragedy of Madeleine McCann. Thirteen years later, German police believe they know what happened. And what we're learning about the man they think did it. The United States is once again in the midst of the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. For weeks the rate of transmission has been accelerating and on Thursday Johns Hopkins University reported 37,000 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily total since this pandemic began. Chances are, though, it's much worse. The Centers for Disease Control says the actual number of infections is likely 10 times the official count. That would mean 23 million people. Dr. Robert Redfield says now there's more testing, it's clear that a large percentage of the population either have mild or no symptoms that all. And younger people, 18 to 44 years old, are testing positive at a much higher rate.</s>DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL: This virus causes so much asymptomatic infection. We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak.</s>VAUSE: New infections are now rising in 31 U.S. states. Texas and Florida are reporting new daily records. Hospitalizations in California up more than 30 percent in the past two weeks. And again, the head of the CDC says social distancing remains quote, "the most powerful tool we have to fight the virus." In Chicago, they are deploying social distancing ambassadors, in parks and other public areas. But in one British beach town, not so much a pandemic but pandemonium. Thousands of sun-seeking tourists crowded the shores of Bournemouth on Thursday with little regard for the virus. The local council declared it a major incident, urging the public to stay away from the beach. Well, the surge in the number of U.S. cases is prompting the White House to hold its first coronavirus task force briefing in nearly two months, expected Friday morning. CNN's Erica hill has the day's other headlines from across the country.</s>ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the nation's three most populous states California, Florida and Texas things are going from bad to worse.</s>DR. DAVID PERSSE, HEALTH AUTHORITY, HOUSTON HEALTH DEPARTMENT: I don't think history's going to look back forgivingly upon the United States and Americans for going down this road.</s>HILL: Los Angeles County now has more confirmed cases than any other county in the country.</s>GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CALIF.): We're still in the first wave of this pandemic.</s>HILL: Texas pausing its reopening to quote, "corral" the spread of COVID-19. Also restricting elective surgeries in four counties.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're running out of that time.</s>HILL: Texas Medical Center now using nearly all its regular capacity ICU beds in the greater Houston area. Hospitals also are concerned in Florida, which just added more than 5,000 new cases. Governor DeSantis resisting calls for a statewide mask mandate.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's incredibly unfortunate that this has become so political.</s>HILL: While in hard-hit Miami where masks are required, the mayor is now considering a fine for anyone who ignores his order.</s>MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ, MIAMI: If we don't want to go backwards, the only option that we have right now is to order masks in public.</s>HILL: The CDC confirming more young people are contracting the virus. In Ohio, where cases have jumped in the last 24 hours, nearly 60 percent of the state's cases are people between the ages of 20 and 49.</s>GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OHIO): We have increased testing but no analyst that I have talked to believes that the total increase is due to that at all.</s>HILL: Hospitalizations and ICU admissions also up, especially in the Cincinnati area. Across the country, for every person diagnosed, 10 more were likely infected. As many as 20 million people, according to new findings from the CDC.</s>REDFIELD: That's about 10 times more people who have antibodies.</s>HILL: There is new concern for pregnant women. The CDC reporting Thursday they may be at higher risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms, especially black and Hispanic women. Disneyland's reopening now delayed, California says it hasn't met the criteria. Apple closing more stores in Florida because of the virus.</s>MAYOR BILL DIBLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: The data is telling us yes right.</s>HILL: While in New York City, plans are underway for phase three bringing back indoor dining, sports and dog runs on July 6th. Erica Hill, CNN, New York.</s>VAUSE: Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider is an internal medicine physician at California-Pacific Medical Center and founder of endwellproject.org. And she is with us from San Francisco. Doctor, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time.</s>DR. SHOSHONA UNGERLEIDER, INTERNAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN CALIFORNIA- PACIFIC MEDICAL CENTER, FOUNDER OF END WELL PROJECT: Thank you for having me.</s>VAUSE: OK. So much for that second wave towards the end of the year. Clearly, the virus never went away. I want you to listen to the Governor of Arizona with a grim statement about the weeks ahead.</s>GOV. DOUG DUCEY (R-ARIZ): I don't want there to be any illusion or sugar-coated expectations. We expect that our numbers will be worse next week and the week following in terms of cases and hospitalizations.</s>VAUSE: Okay. So bad times ahead. The reason why we had the national lockdown, it was to buy us some time so the health system wasn't overrun, so that hospitals could keep up with the people who were infected. Essentially, to get ahead of this. And to prepare for, I guess, for this moment which we were expecting a little later. But are we prepared to deal with this now?</s>UNGERLEIDER: Gosh, John -- in some places yes, and other places no. I think hitting another record in the number of new cases just today in the U.S. is extremely distressing. And points to the fact that maybe we're headed in the wrong direction here. Young people are now the biggest sources of cases as was pointed out and hospital beds in places like Texas and Arizona are filling up. There still isn't enough testing and contact tracing happening to find these new cases and isolate them from the general population. So there's really no question about what's needed here. We need mask- wearing in public to be mandatory, we need more testing and contact tracing all over -- of cases -- to find their recent contacts. And anyone with even a slightest COVID-19 symptom or with close contacts with a known case needs to get tested and self-isolate immediately. And most of all, we need clear, consistent messaging from all of our government officials that support these efforts.</s>VAUSE: Yes. That is something which -- you can hope for that, it's just not going to happen, it seems. At least from the federal level. The CDC dropped a few headlines on Thursday. Including this belief that the number of real cases in the U.S. could be 10 times the official number of 2.3 million. That's 23 million people. On the one hand it's a staggering number considering, what, there's 10 million [sic] cases worldwide, 23 million would be in the U.S. But isn't that in line with the expectations, isn't that a formula they do for countries which have inadequate testing?</s>UNGERLEIDER: Well, John, I think from looking at the blood samples across the country for the presence of antibodies to the virus which is what was done -- so for every confirmed case of COVID-19, as you pointed out, 10 more people had antibodies. So these are the proteins in the blood that indicate whether a person's immune system has previously come in contact with coronavirus. So estimating that around seven percent of the U.S. population or more like 23 million people are walking around either with active infection or recent infection is really significant. I think looking at these numbers, taking them very seriously and then planning accordingly for an increased number that we're planning to see going forward, is really what we need to be doing right now.</s>VAUSE: Yes. This time round compared to the last time with the surge in cases, it seems to be coming with a twist. I want you to listen again to the director of CDC. Here he is.</s>REDFIELD: I think, obviously, that we're seeing right now, infections that are targeting younger individuals.</s>VAUSE: It seems young people were spared for the most part. In Europe they sort of became vulnerable, they're as vulnerable as anybody else. Here in the U.S., it seems that they're the ones who are bearing the burden of the infections. Is there a simple way to explain how that has transitioned?</s>UNGERLEIDER: Not really. I think that with wide spreads or community spread as it's happened here in the U.S., it makes sense that there are many more cases of young people that are turning up. And the best possible way for young people, for older people, for everybody, to reduce the spread of infection is to stay away from other people. So this social distancing being so important. And I understand it's summertime. People, young and old want to be outdoors, enjoy themselves, be with friends and family. People, I think, are tired of staying home. But the stakes are just so high. We need people to know that, of course, this virus is invisible, it spreads so easily from person to person via droplets from talking or from breathing. And when people congregate, even outdoors, much like what we saw at the beaches in the U.K. and they don't wear masks, this is a recipe for a disaster. I think our behavior every moment matters. And our actions today can put the lives of the people that we love in danger.</s>VAUSE: I'm glad you mentioned --</s>UNGERLEIDER: So I think --</s>VAUSE: Sorry. I'm glad you mentioned beaches in the U.K. because here's kind of a report from CNN's Nic Robertson. Sorry to interrupt. But listen to this.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Here in the U.K. authorities have declared a major incident at one of Britain seaside holiday towns. Why? Because it's not holiday time but the beaches were absolutely crowded with thousands of people flocking out on what has been a very hot couple of days here. The concern is that they're not social distancing and the people in that town are not ready for people from other parts of the country to come on vacation.</s>VAUSE: You know what I find really incredible is that the number of young people I know who heard the -- the initial report that came from China that young people were sort of almost immune to all of this -- but they've heard nothing since.</s>UNGERLEIDER: Yes. I think seeing situations like this where probably, in about two weeks, as is the typical lag time between people congregating and seeing spikes of infections, if somebody -- if people who are on those beaches in fact do have COVID-19, that is the perfect storm. The perfect recipe for disaster. People being close together despite their being outdoors but not wearing masks. Talking, laughing, spending many, many hours with one another. That is how this virus spreads. And so we need to be talking about what everybody, including young people, should be doing to prevent the spread. Our behavior absolutely matters and we all have the power to save lives. If we listen and pay attention.</s>VAUSE: Yes. As you say, just looking at that beach, it's understandable why people want to be there but this is not 2019 anymore. So, Shoshana, I'm going to leave you there. Thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it. And there are concerns, once again, the coronavirus could overwhelm healthcare systems in some parts of Europe.</s>DR. HANS KLUGE, EUROPE REGIONAL DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: In 11 of these countries, accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked, will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe.</s>VAUSE: According to the World Health Organization, what was once a risk of resurgence in Europe is now a reality. The 11 countries which were mentioned stretch from Sweden in the north down to Albania in the south, Kazakhstan to the east. And now for the mass invasion of an English beach by tens of thousands of tourists, there are now fears of a surge in COVID-19. Adding to those concerns, plans to relax the lockdown there in England in two weeks. ITV's Juliet Bremner explains.</s>JULIET BREMNER, CORRESPONDENT, "ITV NEWS": The plea was to stay away but nobody seemed to be listening. Tens of thousands from across Southern England and the Midlands descended on Bournemouth today. It was impossible to keep a safe distance from strangers, and there was little or no awareness of any health risks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you come to Bournemouth today?</s>SECOND UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? I'm enjoying -- today's really nice weather, yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a really hot day. I thought I'd take advantage of it, by the time the rain goes back. All of the rules on lockdown are just being kind of like eased on.</s>VIKKI SLADE, COUNCIL LEADER, BOURNEMOUTH, CHRISTCHURCH & POOLE: What's fairly obvious is that people don't believe COVID is a problem anymore. That's fairly obvious from people's behavior.</s>BREMNER: The M3 was close to a standstill as sun-seekers drove from as far away as Birmingham and London. The local Conservative MP told me police must be given more powers to deal with the deluge.</s>BRITAIN: Dorset can't cope with this. If we need messaging at Waterloo Station or Birmingham International or, indeed, on the M3 -- there's big signs on the motorway to say Bournemouth is now closed, there is a major incidents in play, please turn around or go somewhere else. If the police don't have the necessary powers, we should be operating very quickly in Westminster to give them those powers to deal with this enduring (ph) emergency.</s>BREMNER: For people living close to beauty spots like Durdle Door in Dorset, it feels like an invasion. One counselor trying to turn back vehicles was physically and verbally abused.</s>LAURA MILLER, DORSET COUNTY COUNCIL: Unfortunately, a gentleman spat at me through his car window. Fortunately, it landed at my feet. I think the main problem is the aggression. People have traveled four, five hours in their car. They're hot, they're grumpy.</s>BREMNER: Along the south coast, they're attempting to stop the crowds and a second wave of COVID. But it's a battle they fear they may be losing. Juliet Bremner, "ITV News."</s>VAUSE: Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, was one of the first to warn about the dangers of a global pandemic. He did so years ago. You can watch his interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta during CNN's "</s>GLOBAL TOWN HALL: CORONAVIRUS FACTS AND FEARS" about 45 minutes from now, 7:00 am in London, 2:00 pm on Friday in Hong Kong. You'll see it only here on CNN. Well, with Formula One working to improve its record on diversity, the former boss may not be helping a whole lot. What Bernie Eccleston has to say about race, and why the sport isn't as diverse as it could be.