More than 2.8 Million People Infected Worldwide; Some Governors Report "Flattening of the Curve"; Interview with Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR); CNN: White House Officials Discussing Plans to Replace HHS Secretary
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. Around the world right now, more than 2.8 million people are known to be infected with the potentially deadly coronavirus. Probably a lot more than that. Earlier today, the number of people killed by the virus surpassed 200,000. More than a quarter of those fatalities are in just one country, the United States of America where more than 53,000 people have now died after being infected. All of that in only seven or eight weeks. Despite those still rising numbers, a glimmer of hope at least in some states tonight where governors report the number of people sick and dying from the virus are for now at least leveling off. It's called the "flattening of the curve." In Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska, governors are gradually easing the lockdown restrictions. Some businesses, public spaces and recreations centers are being allowed to reopen under various conditions. The people in Atlanta protested at the governor's residence today, insisting that it is too soon for business at usual and that people's lives are at risk. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization issued a warning today to people who have already been infected with coronavirus. Scientists, they are now saying, there is no evidence to support the possibility that people who had the virus are protected against getting it again. And this just coming into CNN. Top U.S. Army officials announcing that there will be a graduation ceremony at West Point in June. This pictures from last year's graduation. The secretary of the Army confirming that the graduation will include appropriate protective measures for the 1,000 graduating cadets and their families. President Trump said earlier this month, he would give the commencement address at West Point. Let's begin with some breaking news coming into THE SITUATION ROOM. Right now, amid criticism over the response to the coronavirus pandemic. I want to go to our White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, you have some significant new reporting right now on a potential major departure. What can you tell us?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Well, a senior administration official has confirmed to me that White House officials are discussing plans to remove Health and Human Services Alex Azar from his position leading that key department of course in this coronavirus response. Wolf, this comes after a week of several critical stories about Alex Azar and his handling in the early days of this coronavirus pandemic. One of those stories in particular caught the attention of a lot of officials which was that Alex Azar, his chief of staff, his most recent job was as a dog breeder and that this official, this chief of staff was put in charge of the early White House Coronavirus Task Force. So, that is what we are hearing now. Wolf, of course, one official did stress to me that none of this is imminent. In fact, it seems that there is no real appetite inside the White House for some serious shake-up during this coronavirus pandemic. This -- we are still, of course, Wolf, as you know, still in the middle of the response to all of this. And, of course, Wolf, any plan to fire the Health and Human Services secretary would need signoff by the president. That has not happened yet. So again, a lot more could still happen. But a senior administration official confirming that there are discussions among White House officials about potentially replacing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: There are reports they are also putting together a short list, potential candidates out there. He really hasn't been - correct me if I'm wrong, many of the White House task force briefings, at least in recent days. Is that right?</s>DIAMOND: Yes. He certainly has not been. And Wolf, you to also remember early on in this pandemic when this really began to catch the attention of White House officials and of the president. Alex Azar was previously in charge of this Coronavirus Task Force. And when President Trump returned from his trip to India in late February, as the stock market was crashing, as the CDC was warning of severe disruptions to daily life for Americans. The president returned to Washington in that very day, decided to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of that task force. That was a decision at that time that caught Alex Azar and several other officials complete off-guard. It was not something that the president had telegraphed until he arrived at that White House briefing room, the podium that day and announced that he was going to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge. So, Azar has certainly already previously been sidelined in his role as a top official in the response on all of this. Of course, he still is a member of the task force, a key member of that task force. But you're right, Wolf, we have not seen him as frequently at many of those briefings. And again, the media coverage of Alex Azar in the last week has not been positive because there's been a lot of blame and put on to Alex Azar for the early response to this pandemic in late January and in February including the facts that some officials say they believe that Alex Azar wasn't serious enough in conveying to the president how serious of a threat this coronavirus truly could be.</s>BLITZER: We haven't seen him doing a lot whole of media interviews either which suggest maybe the president doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in him right now. We are hearing a suggestion, you know, Jeremy, that the president may also be considering whether he actually wants to continue those daily press briefings in the White House briefing room. What are you learning about that?</s>DIAMOND: That's right, Wolf. And we did see the president tweet just a few hours ago that he really doesn't think it is worth his time and effort to continue attending as many of these coronavirus press briefings. That may be of course how the president is spinning this to try and justify the fact that he is it seems beginning to scale back his appearances in the White House briefing room but no mistake, Wolf. The reason why that's happening is because the president's allies and White House aides have really been urging the president to scale back those appearances. Not because of the questions that he's being asked as the president suggested in this tweet earlier tonight, but because of the answers that the president is giving and because of the statements that he is making in those White House briefings. Of course, Wolf, it was just a couple of days ago when the president suggested that people might drink or ingest disinfectant to try and rid themselves of the coronavirus. That was a suggestion that of course was not only wrong but dangerous because of course it could be lethal for Americans to ingest those kinds of products. But it certainly did exacerbate those concerns, Wolf, from those White House aides, those allies of the president, both inside and outside of the administration who really feel like some of the times these briefings because of how long they go on, because of the statements that the president is making. That they really are self-defeating for the president and certainly has sparked concerns among the political advisers to the president as far as his chances for reelection.</s>BLITZER: Yes. There was a meeting of the task force today at the White House. But no press briefing afterwards as they usually. Yesterday was a very short and the president refused to answer questions following that - opening statements yesterday as well, only about 22 minutes yesterday. Sometimes they have been going on for 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours, those press briefings. All right, Jeremy Diamond, excellent reporting as usual. Thanks very much. In Arkansas right now, there are some cautious steps towards reopening. The Governor Asa Hutchinson says he's hoping to open many businesses and group venues like churches, for example, on May 4. But is it too soon? Today, CNN learned that the state prison in Gould, Arkansas with at least 800 inmates have now tested positive for coronavirus along with at least 33 staff members. The Governor Asa Hutchinson is joining us now. Governor Hutchinson, thanks so much for joining us. I want to discuss what is going on in your state in a moment. But I wonder if you want to give us your reaction right now to the possible shake-up that we have just been reporting of the news organizations are reporting as well, at the Department of Health and Human Services?</s>GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): Well, I've always had a very good relationship with Secretary Azar. They have been very responsive to us on the waiver request that we've had. So, you know, the president obviously has to have his team in place. But I think he has been a positive force in terms of dealing with this crisis and helping the states get through it.</s>BLITZER: Let's talk about your plans to get the economy going in Arkansas. And all of us hope it will get going soon. You got to air of course on the side of caution. The White House guidelines as you know, Governor, say states should have a downward trajectory of positive tests before reopening. In Arkansas cases are actually doubling roughly every two weeks. So, why are you taking these initial steps to reopen?</s>HUTCHINSON: Well, I have set the date of May 4th in terms of the date we will look at lifting some of the restrictions if we have the right level of progress. The gating criteria that the White House left, there is some flexibility for the states as the president indicated. And you're looking about three or four criteria that they set, we are in really good shape in terms of our positivity, on our testing, on our hospital capacity, on our personal protective equipment. All of those look good for us. We have plateaued in terms of our cases but we haven't seen 14 days of decline. That's exactly right. And so, we're going to look at it step by step. I have set this week as decision points for restaurants and for hair salons. That doesn't mean we are going to lift the restrictions. It says we're going to make a decision upon those based upon the data. We look at all of the facts. And the people are ready to go to work so there is a lot of pressure point on there. They don't want to be unemployed. They want to work. But we want to have the right safety precautions in. We want to be able to continue to control the spread of this. You did mention the prisons which is a great concern to us. That's not the community spread that we're most concerned about. We're very concerned about it in the prison environment. We're taking steps there. But that's a unique environment there. And we'll not simply make the decision based upon what's happening there but we look at it from a state-wide perspective.</s>BLITZER: Yes. That is a serious problem in the prisons. Not only in Arkansas, but many prisons around the country right now. What about nursing homes in Arkansas?</s>HUTCHINSON: Well, we have had our challenges there as well. Of course, we put in the restriction of no outside visitors into the nursing homes. And we have a great Department of Health that does the contact tracing. It has allowed us to manage the breakouts when we have them in a nursing home environment. But we want to make sure they get the special attention that's needed. We want to have the testing capacity for them as we have. But right now, that's an area of concern although it's not the same extent as it is in a number of other states.</s>BLITZER: Arkansas is one of eight states that didn't issue a formal stay-at-home order during the outbreak. In hindsight, Governor, do you think you should have considered that?</s>HUTCHINSON: No. It was absolutely the right decision to make. I think we see now looking back, that you know we are easy -- better coming out of this, the fact that we had a targeted approach. We closed state parks. We closed restaurants. We closed things that made a difference for us, but we kept other businesses open with social distancing, with wearing a mask, and that has been effective strategy for us. And I think you could see that in other states because they have to figure out how do they come out of and open any businesses and what is the criteria that they use. We are going to come out of this in the same way. We are not going to necessarily come out all at once on one day. But we're going to look at industry by industry. How we measure it? How can come out of those and lift some of the restrictions? Get back to business but do it in a safe way. And that's been our approach from day one.</s>BLITZER: Safety first. Earlier tonight the Kentucky Governor Beshear told CNN, he strongly disagrees with Senator Mitch McConnell, on the Senate majority leader's comments that declaring bankruptcy might actually be best for state governments. You're the governor of a state. Would bankruptcy be an option, God forbid, if the economic situation clearly deteriorate for Arkansas if this pandemic led to that kind of budget crisis? Should you file for bankruptcy or get more federal financial assistance?</s>HUTCHINSON: Well, neither one. Neither one is the option we look at. We balance the budget every year. That's mandated. And so, when we have a budget shortfall, we simply tighten the belt and we continue to balance the budget. That's the way we're going to do it. And more states need to follow that example. But let me - and I'm glad you asked the question. Obviously, I would not use the word bankruptcy and I hope no state has to go through that. We hope that they can come back in their economy. But I believe the Congress has had the right priority thus far in putting money into small businesses and the self-employed and the unemployed, making sure that that is feeding the recovery of our economy. I don't believe that we need to go and use the U.S. Treasury and mortgage our grandchildren's life and say we are going to fund all the states and their budgets. I have great reservations about that. And I think we need to go slow on that. And I think we have to really look at each state and what is their budget situation. It is too early to really determine that and how they come out of that. I think we have to be very cautious about saying we're going to be funding all the states' budget shortfall.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that would be bad. If filing bankruptcy would be bad as well. Both of them pretty awful scenarios. Governor Hutchinson, as usual thanks so much for joining us.</s>HUTCHINSON: Great to be with you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Good luck to all the folks in Arkansas. You got a great state down there. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization today out with a worrying new study that says recovered coronavirus patients could still get re- infected. We're going to talk about what that means for the search for a vaccine. Stay with us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.