U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Surpass 7,100; Trump Announces New Face Mask Recommendations; NYC Mayor: NY Doesn't Have Enough Ventilators For Next Week; Trump Names Acting Intel Community Inspector General; Medical Staffers Risk Getting Disease To Treat Those Fighting It; NYC Seeking Health Care Workers To Assist Hospitals In Need
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The CDC now recommends face coverings in public--</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: --with the masks. It's going to be really a voluntary thing. You can do it, you don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mounting frustration among governors who are looking to the White House for help to get ventilators, masks and other lifesaving equipment.</s>GOV. J. B. PRITZKER (D-IL): This will go down in history as a profound failure of our national government.</s>PETER NAVARRO, ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: as we speak, we're putting in place a better system in real time.</s>DR. MEETA SHAH, RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It's just amazing to me how quickly people turn. They come in and suddenly they looked OK and then they don't.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, doctors and nurses come to work to fight COVID-19.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think somebody going to stick with me through all of this is just kind of the initiative people are taking and the ingenuity people are exhibiting just like figuring this out as we go.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is New Day weekend with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.</s>CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: 8: 01 is the time, so grateful to have you with us, as I know so many of us are looking for hope right now after the day that we've seen of record setting COVID-19 numbers.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the U.S. reported 1,169 deaths yesterday alone. The country has lost more than 7,100 people to the virus,</s>PAUL: We're talking about mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, there's no corner of a nation that's been left untouched by this tragedy. So as you wake up this morning, the number of cases is growing. More than 278,000 people across the country have now been affected.</s>BLACKWELL: Right now almost the entire country is under a Shelter in Place Order, but - not the entire country, but despite the recommendations, you see the states there that do not have these orders and the President will not issue a national order. He says it's best that the governors decide what's right for their state. As that curve continues to push upward. The President is just playing, "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality it seems. Moments after unveiling these new recommendations that Americans do wear face masks, the President quickly noted that he will not wear one.</s>BLACKWELL: CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes is live at the White House. So he says, it's recommended to wear face mask. He says that he will not. Why?</s>KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Victor. So essentially, he was asked why he wouldn't wear a face mask. And he said that if he was sitting in the Oval Office with dignitaries or leaders, he just didn't think that something covering his mouth would work for him. But there is a larger point here, which is that this is just the latest in a series of mixed messages that we've seen since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak here in the U.S. We know President Trump at one point was saying that people shouldn't be concerned, that this was not going to be as deadly as the flu. Now, of course, he's saying something different. But the whole time we saw those public health officials saying we just don't know that and people should take this seriously. The other thing we know from President Trump, at one point he said that the warm weather would end the virus that would likely be over by April. Of course, right now, it is April, the virus is not over. We haven't even reached the top of the curve. All things that health officials were noting while President Trump was saying. And this and this is really leaving Americans confused, particularly when it comes to the latest guidance. When you mentioned that CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, one of the government's top health agencies recommending that people wear some sort of fabric or cloth, saying that this could help stop the spread. And then you have President Trump saying this.</s>TRUMP: So with the masks, it's going to be really a voluntary thing. You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it. But some people may want to do it and that's OK. It may be good, probably will. They're making recommendations. Its only recommendations. Its voluntary.</s>HOLMES: Just a reminder that these recommendations are to help flatten the curve. And while, President Trump himself might not be taking this extra precaution, those around him are taking an extra precaution that not all of us have the luxury of which is, that anyone who is expected to come in contact with either the President or the Vice President, will now take a Corona virus test. The White House told us this yesterday, it's the 15-minute quick test before they can interact with the President or Vice President. So it won't matter quite as much if he's not wearing that face mask, because we'll know as those dignitaries or leaders go into the oval, whether or not they actually have the virus.</s>BLACKWELL: Kristen Holmes for us there at the White House. Thank you.</s>PAUL: I don't know if you've heard what's expected tomorrow, but supply shortage, as we know, are still among some of the biggest issues in New York. And the city's mayor is now saying tomorrow is D Day. What he means by that is that is the day the city is expected to just run out of ventilators.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's go to CNN, Athena Jones. She is following the latest in New York. And the numbers we're getting out of New York City, New York State at large really are just saddening, Athena.</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are. It's frightening to see these numbers. Victor, the report from yesterday, New York State has over 100,000 cases, nearly 3,000 deaths. That's the biggest one-day increase in deaths. So this is still the epicenter of this crisis here in the United States. And of course, New York City is the epicenter of the epicenter, accounting for more than half of those of those cases, at just over 56,000 cases. And we're seeing it in the hospitals. You talk to hospitals, you talk to ER doctors, you talk to intensive care units, they're talking about overflowing hospitals. And that's why there's so much discussion about supplies, whether it's ventilators or personal protective equipment to keep hospital workers safe or its hospital beds. That's why we're here at the Javits Center were 2,500 extra beds are now going to be treating - begin treating COVID patients on Monday. And just resources, you hear state and city officials talking a lot about the need for more resources, particularly a Mayor de Blasio talking about running out of ventilators. He said that the city of New York will need a total of 15,000 ventilators to get through April and May. And just for next week, the city is going to need a minimum of an additional 2,500 to 3,000 ventilator. So this is something that's getting a lot of attention every single day in the press conference we're seeing. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said of the state's hospital system that they need to work together. All the hospitals need to work together to shuffle around not only equipment, but also patients if one hospital gets overloaded. He has asked hospitals upstate to loan 20 percent of their unused ventilators to downstate hospitals in the city and on Long Island who are experiencing a real surge. And he has also signed an Executive Order that will allow him to take ventilators and also this personal protective equipment we've been talking so much about from institutions that don't need them right now and to move them to places that do need them. He says that those places will be either reimbursed for the cost of that equipment or they will be returned to them. But this is kind of a massive effort to make sure all the hospitals have what they need. And so why de Blasio talked about tomorrow being D Day for ventilators, the hope is that these efforts, this Executive Order announced by the Governor will begin to make sure that those ventilators gets where they need. So a really a massive effort as we are still pretty far it seems like from the apex of this, at least in New York,</s>PAUL: And so many changing gears it seems every day. Athena Jones, so glad you're on it live for us from New York City. Thank you.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's bring it down Dr. Ashish Jha. He's the Director at the Harvard Global Health Institute and a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Jha, good morning to you. Good morning.</s>BLACKWELL: So let's start here with something we heard from the President. He has resisted calls for a National Stay at Home Order. One of the justifications was that some of the states that have not enacted these stay at home orders, he says, that they are and this is the quote, "Not in jeopardy." Now, their confirmed case numbers may be low, but what's your assessment of there being states in the U.S. that are quote, "not in jeopardy."</s>DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEATH INSTITUTE: It's very hard for me to know exactly which states are in jeopardy and which ones are not. And that's because many of the states that have very few cases actually haven't been doing that much testing. So if you're not testing people, you won't have cases, or at least it will look like you don't have cases, but they very well might. So I think one important issue nationally is that we've really still got to ramp up testing. I know we hear about this all the time. I'm sure your listeners are getting a little tired of hearing about it. But we are still far away from the kind of testing we need. And until we do, we don't know which places are the hotspots in which places are not.</s>BLACKWELL: The President has been lauding this 100,000 tests per day for several days now. Obviously, you think that's not enough. Where should we be?</s>JHA: Yes, we clearly should be doing more. And by every bit of evidence, we should be doing more. There isn't a precise estimate and it depends on how much disease there is in the community. The estimates that I have seen, and the ones that our group has calculated, suggests we should be doing three to five times as many tests as we are doing right now. So we have a long way to go to doing - to getting to the kind of tests we need. Before we will have a full complete picture of how bad the virus infection rates really are in America.</s>BLACKWELL: We've talked throughout the morning and heard from some of the medical professionals who are dealing with the long hours and the psychological challenges of fighting COVID-19, but also the lack of protective equipment. You tweeted this, and I'd like you to expound. You tweeted, "If we had enough PPE and providers still got sick, I would say society did its best. Providers must do theirs. But our government is choosing not to do everything in its power to provide PPEs and that raises an ethical dilemma." PPE is the personal protective equipment. Talk about that dilemma and should we expect some health care workers to say, "I can't do it. I won't do it. I won't put my family in jeopardy."</s>JHA: This is the first time I've really thought about the ethical dilemma in this way. My feeling has been, look, as doctors and nurses, we have an ethical obligation to our patients under any circumstance, we've got to go take care of them, and I still believe that. But society has an ethical obligation too, which is, they're supposed to provide protective equipment and our government has failed doctors and nurses on the front line, has not provided that. And I would argue has chosen not to provide that. Is not doing everything it can. And so then the question is, do doctors and nurses still have an ethical obligation, not only to put themselves at risk, to put their spouses at risk, put their kids at risk, put their parents at risk, when society is saying you're on your own figure it out. You know, would we expect a fireman or firewomen to run into a burning building if we said we're not going to give you protective equipment? Would we expect police officers, if we said we're not going to give you what you need? I think it is an ethical dilemma and I think as society we really have to think about what are we asking doctors and nurses to do and is it fair?</s>BLACKWELL: Yes. We hear some of those doctors and nurses struggle with that, and we've been hearing for them for weeks now. One more from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that the administration's decision to bar 3M, specifically, from exporting N95 masks, the respirators, to other countries that are in need now, Canada being one of them, will come back to bite the U.S. I'm paraphrasing there. What's your assessment? The theory here is that if the U.S. bans exports, China will ban exports, other countries will ban exports and the country with the most confirmed cases in the world, the U.S. will suffer in the long run.</s>JHA: Yes, look, I'm very - I'm very sympathetic to the idea that a lot of people are feeling right now that we shouldn't be sending our stuff elsewhere when we need it here, and I get that. The bottom line is that we're all going to get through this if we're willing to share equipment. So right now we're getting shipments from China and Russia and other countries. I think we should test those equipment, make sure they're high quality. If they are, we will use them. And then when other countries get into trouble, we should ship ours, if we don't need it, that's how we're going to get through this, is by sharing and by realizing that the war is between the virus and humanity, not between America and Canada and not between America and China. If we can take that approach, I think we're going to be much better off than everybody for themselves.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's wrap up with a viewer question here. This one from Candice (ph). Is the severity of COVID-19 related to blood type?</s>JHA: You know, there's been a lot on this. And I just, I don't think the facts are in. I don't think that there's any compelling reason to think that blood type is going to end up being a major determinant. What we know is age, chronic disease, immune compromised, those are the big factors. But, we'll have to see what the evidence tells us. But I don't think about that as a major factor at this moment.</s>BLACKWELL: Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you so much for your insight,</s>JHA: Thanks for having me.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. We are getting questions from some viewers. We want your question. Coming up. We have more experts throughout the show answering your questions, let us know what's on your mind. You can tweet us, I'm @victorblackwell. Christi is @Christi_Paul. We're also grabbing some questions from our Instagram accounts as well. And we will do our best to get your answers here on "</s>NEW DAY." PAUL: Yes, thank you so much. We want to make sure that, obviously, you do get those answers, because that's a priority to you. Listen, across the country, we know that health care workers, they are making extraordinary sacrifices, some you may not even realize, just to save fellow Americans from the coronavirus. We're talking with a nurse who traveled to help a state that is not her own. But she answered the call for reinforcements. What she's seeing now at the frontlines in New York.</s>BLACKWELL: Plus, the President's names a new Intelligence Community Inspector General, after firing the previous Inspector General, the latest developments from Washington, coming up.