Hotspots Emerge As Country Heads Into Holiday Weekend.
HARLOW: Well, states reopening in one way or another but hot spots still emerging in Alabama, concerning uptick in cases. Officials in the state capital now warning that they are basically out of ICU beds.</s>SCIUTTO: Dr. Karen Landers joins us. She is the Assistant State Health Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health. And, Dr. Landers, great to have you. I asked Dr. Fauci about these small outbreaks, if you can call them that, as reopening happens. He said, listen, they're inevitable. It's all how you respond to them and do you keep them under control. Is Alabama able to keep these new hotspots under control so they don't spread further?</s>DR. KAREN LANDERS, ASSISTANT STATE HEALTH OFFICER, ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, In Alabama it's very important to remember that throughout our state, we require our hospitals to report in to our Alabama Incident Management System twice daily so we can coordinate with our hospitals and ensure what our bed capacity is. Now, specifically, when we look at hospitals, again, hospitals have their surge plans, so they exercise these surge plans. And in situation such as what Montgomery is experiencing right now, hospitals are able to look within their hospital to where they can expand but also look to other hospitals where there is the ability for an MOU or mutual aid to be exercised in order for these patients to be taken care of.</s>HARLOW: So, one of the big concerns with this that Jim and I have been talking about now for months on this show, Doctor, is that when you do have areas that are not a big city like New York City, for example, like the more rural areas of your state, how concerned are you that what's happening in Montgomery with not enough ICU beds is going to be even worse if there are hotspots that emerge in the rural parts of the state?</s>LANDERS: Well, absolutely. It's extremely important as we are looking at our cases of COVID-19 to have robust testing opportunities in our rural counties as well as our urban counties so we can rapidly pick up cases of COVID-19, do our contact tracing, do our investigation to be able to reduce those numbers of cases and, additionally, have our hospitals in our areas that are actually have hospitals located reporting into our aimed systems so that when people need a hospital bed or when they need to be referred to a hospital bed, we can know where the capacity is in the State of Alabama. There are a number of counties in Alabama that do not have hospitals, so we rely on our counties who have hospitals open, as well as our urban centers to provide more advanced level of care for patients who need ICU care, for example.</s>SCIUTTO: Understood. Dr. Landers, thank you so much for joining the program. We wish you and the people of Alabama the best of luck.</s>HARLOW: Yes, we certainly do.</s>LANDERS: Absolutely. Thank you.</s>HARLOW: Thank you, Doctor. As we prepare to mark the unofficial start to summer this holiday weekend, safe travel, if you're going to travel. Obviously, it's top of mind for you.</s>SCIUTTO: CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now. Dr. Gupta, it's a question I think all of us have. Can we fly safely? If we choose to do so, how best to make it safer? What's the answer?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's the second way you put it right, Jim, I mean, safely versus safer. I mean, those things that you can do that may be surprising and well within your control to try and mitigate or lower your risk. I think for the most part, it's got to be essential travel, like most things in life, a risk/reward relationship. I decided to sort of navigate my way through and learn as best I could. Here is what I learned.</s>GUPTA: Things are going feel a lot different the next time you go to the airport. First of all, it will be less crowded, that's for sure. Certain precautions are in place, like plexiglass at the counters, telling people to keep their distance when they're in line. Let's go see what security is like. Traveling in the age of coronavirus is all about averting risk. For airports, like here at Hartsfield Jackson and Atlanta, which is the world's busiest, it's about focusing and keeping things clean and distanced.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, once again, thank you for the spacing.</s>GUPTA: For travelers, it's about masks and touching as few things as possible, whether at check-in -- don't forget to put your boarding pass on your phone ahead of time, less surfaces to touch. We're going through security.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. Put that into the machine, sir.</s>GUPTA: One thing to keep in mind, try and count how many surfaces you touch throughout the whole process.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need everything out of your pockets, please.</s>GUPTA: One study found that the biggest germ hotspots for respiratory viruses in the entire airport, these security bins. One thing I do want to show you is how I pack nowadays. I've got my hand sanitizer. So this is when I do a little hand sanitizer, put that back in, make sure everything is back in the bag and I could be on my way. Constantly washed the hands. Also, look, they're cleaning the bins back there. That's a good idea. One of the big concerns is always going to be those sorts of train rides. Right now, things aren't that crowded. But as airports start to pick up, you may want to allow extra time so that you can walk to the concourse instead of ride. Bill Leintsch is one of the few people who has kept flying. How do you quantify that for somebody who says, look, I don't know if I should fly or not right now, I'm not sure if the risk and the reward balance makes sense?</s>BILL LEINTSCH, CHIEF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OFFICER, DELTA: It might feel a little awkward the first time you get on board an airplane to see only 60 percent load factors, all the middle seats blocked, everyone wearing a mask. But after a while, that becomes very comfortable.</s>GUPTA: Delta is not the only one. Other major carriers are doing similar. Road Warrior Brian Kelly, you may know him better as The Points Guy, doesn't think social distancing in the sky is going to be permanent.</s>BRIAN KELLY, FOUNDER, THE POINTS GUY: Financially, it's just not possible. And I don't believe it's good for consumers to do that because we're going to pay for the cost of all of those empty seats.</s>GUPTA: In a statement, the International Air Transport Association said that while they support the use of masks by passengers and crew, they don't support mandating social distancing measures that would leave middle seats empty. To reduce risk, many airlines like Delta are wiping down more frequently and misting the entire planes with disinfectant. Everyone is going to decide whether or not it makes sense to fly. It's the sort of risk/reward proposition. One thing I'll tell you is that separating yourselves out, obviously important. That's the distance. But think about the duration. Shorter flights are obviously going to be better as well. One thing you'll see here at Delta is that they are boarding from the back of a plane first, ten people at a time, we hear. Now, when you get to your row, a couple things to keep in mind. Try and touch as few surfaces as possible. When I sit down, I'm actually going to try and choose a window seat. And the reason being, that I'll just have less contact with people who are walking by the aisle. Here is another tip. You open this, which is called the air gasper, and you turn it up as high as you can and feel the air there right in front of you. That's going to cause some turbulent air flow in front of you and possibly break up any clouds of virus. It's a small tip. It might make a difference, easy to do, could be worth it.</s>GUPTA: Now, one thing I will point out, most airlines, including Delta, will mandate masks when you're actually flying on the plane. A lot of times they'll even hand out those masks at some point in the boarding area or on the plane itself. Also keep in mind, you have to think about where you're traveling. If you go to Norway, for example, right now, once you land, you've to go into a mandatory 14-day quarantine. There are actually two states now in the United States, Hawaii and Massachusetts, that's the same issue there as well. So if you're flying to these places, think about where you're going, how the virus is circulating in those areas as well, and what you might be mandated to do when you land.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes, a lot of promises from those airlines to keep those middle seats empty have not borne out as we've seen air travel go. That's key. Dr. Gupta, thanks so much for showing us how it works. Well, more than 1,200 pastors are set to defy California's order on holding church services in person. I'm going to speak with one of those pastors, next.