Interview With New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Coronavirus Test Kit Shortage
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. And we're following breaking news. Stocks plunging again, on growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, with the Dow down almost 1,000 points today, as the number of known cases jumps to more than 200 people in 17 states here in the United States. Twelve people have already died. Tonight, questions about the government's ability to keep up with the outbreak, after Vice President Pence said, bluntly, that, in the short term, there are simply not enough tests to meet the anticipated demand going forward. We will talk about all of this with the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, who's confirming right now new coronavirus cases in his city tonight, and our correspondents of analysts are also standing by. First, let's go straight to the White House. Our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, is joining us. Jim, the demand for coronavirus testing is clearly increasing all over the country, but the administration is having trouble keeping up.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. The White House point man on the coronavirus outbreak, Vice President Mike Pence, acknowledged to reporters earlier today the administration is still working to meet the demand for testing kits across the country. That acknowledgement comes as President Trump is coming under some stinging criticism for his comments about the outbreak. The president appeared to suggest that people can go to work after being infected with the coronavirus, even though the CDC is warning people not to do that.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): In the race against the coronavirus, the Trump administration is still playing catchup to meet the demand for testing kits for people who suspect they have been infected. Vice President Mike Pence conceded to reporters that the administration is still working to make enough tests available.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.</s>ACOSTA: White House officials insist the administration will meet its goal of distributing more than one million tests by the end the week, but those officials can see the government is still well behind the anticipated growing demand for tests over the coming months. Earlier this week, Pence said the administration wants to have the ability to test any American.</s>PENCE: Any American that wants to be tested for the coronavirus, on their doctor's indications, can be tested.</s>ACOSTA: The administration is also trying to contain an outbreak of sketchy information coming from the president, who told FOX News it was his hunch that the mortality rate for the coronavirus is much lower than what's been cited by the World Health Organization.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch, and -- but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number -- personally, I would say that number is way under 1 percent.</s>ACOSTA: Contrast that with what some administration experts have said.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you look at the cases that have come to the attention of the medical authorities in China, and you just do the math, the math is about 2 percent.</s>ACOSTA: Even Mr. Trump's top allies are advising Americans to listen to the scientists.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I listen to the scientists when it comes to the numbers.</s>ACOSTA: The president also suggested people infected with the coronavirus could go to work.</s>TRUMP: So, if we have thousands or hundred thousands of people that get better just by sitting around and even going to work -- some of them go to work, but they get better.</s>ACOSTA: But the CDC Web site says, don't do that, adding, "You should restrict activities outside your home except for getting medical care. Do not go to work, school or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing or taxis." All week, the president has been playing fast and loose with the facts, claiming a coronavirus vaccine could be ready in months.</s>TRUMP: I don't think they know what the time will be. I have heard very quick numbers, a matter of months. And I have heard pretty much a year would be an outside number.</s>ACOSTA: Only to be contradicted by the experts.</s>FAUCI: So he's asking the question, when is it going to be deployable? And that is going to be, at the earliest, a year to year-and-a-half ago, no matter how fast we go.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats say the president should be more careful.</s>REP. DONNA SHALALA (D-FL): My chief concern is that we not politicize this. Fear is a virus as well. And it's very important that we stick to the facts.</s>ACOSTA: Now, the White House is also advising federal workers to stay home if they are suffering from flu-like symptoms, saying in an e-mail that they should not come into the office out of an abundance of caution. Now, we should also note, in the meantime, the financial markets don't appear to be encouraged by the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak. You can see the numbers on screen right now. The Dow dropped just under 1,000 points today, another wild swing in a very volatile week, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Has been. All right, Jim Acosta, thank you very much. Let's get some more on that cruise ship being held off the coast of San Francisco right now, as some passengers show symptoms of the coronavirus. CNN's Nick Watt is joining us right now. Nick, we're told passengers, what, they are now being tested?</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right, Wolf. We're told by the cruise line that somewhere near to 100 people on board that ship have been identified as needing to be tested. We will get those results, they say, sometime tomorrow. As this virus spreads, Wolf, officials are wrestling more and more with the idea of what to do with people who have tested positive or might test positive. As the governor of Washington said this morning, we need to care for them. We can't just ship them off to Mars.</s>WATT (voice-over): Helicopters delivering test kits to that cruise ship now held off the California coast, nearly 3,500 on board, some showing symptoms.</s>SHARON LANE, PASSENGER: Spirits on board are starting to get quite low.</s>WATT: All this after a California man died yesterday. He took a cruise aboard the Grand Princess last month.</s>LANE: The majority of people on board are like over 70. So there's a lot of concern there, because a lot of them, they suffer with ill health anyway</s>DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: So this is like the Angel of Death for older individuals.</s>WATT: Meanwhile, in Washington state, the death toll now 11, seven tied to this nursing home. A quarantine center is being prepped to contain the spread, this motel and a Department of Corrections site.</s>GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): I'm very confident that that is a safe facility. It is geographically remote.</s>WATT: Now blanket advice for everyone.</s>INSLEE: We think people should give serious consideration about whether they go to nonessential congregations of people.</s>WATT: Amazon now telling Seattle area employees to work from home through the end of this month. In New York state, the case count doubled overnight from 11 to 22.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Eight of the new cases are connected to the attorney from Westchester, the New Rochelle area. Two are in New York City and one is on Long Island.</s>WATT: Meanwhile, Nevada and Tennessee reporting there first cases.</s>DR. LISA PIERCEY, COMMISSIONER, TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: The patient is an adult male in Middle Tennessee with a recent history of out-of-state travel.</s>WATT: Monday morning, there were 89 known cases across 10 states. Now we're well over 200 in 17 states. Is that number even close to accurate?</s>DR. JEANNE MARRAZZO, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM: I think we're seeing the tip of the iceberg with the people who are sick and coming forward. And until we define the bottom of that iceberg, we really can't say.</s>WATT: And the more people are tested, unquestionably, the number of confirmed cases will rise. And, Wolf, today, in Washington state, health insurers were ordered to waive any co-pays or deductibles for anybody who needs to be tested for this spreading virus -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: That's good, indeed. All right, Nick Watt joining us, thank you very much. Let's get some more on all of this. Joining us now, Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mayor de Blasio, thank you so much for joining us. I know you're very busy. You got a lot going on. How many confirmed cases of coronavirus are in New York City right now, based on the latest information you're getting? And how serious are the conditions of these patients?</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY): Wolf, we have got four confirmed cases right now, two of whom are doing well, thank God. They're the earlier cases. Two new cases today. But, Wolf, I also want to tell you, we have been doing testing. And the testing has gotten us 26 cases that were negative. So the testing is helping a lot. We want to do as much testing as possible. We're getting a good result from it.</s>BLITZER: Do you have any information, Mayor, about how many New Yorkers are voluntarily quarantined at this point?</s>DE BLASIO: Wolf, I'm sorry. Say that again.</s>BLITZER: How many people in New York are voluntarily quarantined at this point?</s>DE BLASIO: Yes, Wolf, we have hundreds of people who are voluntarily quarantined. And we're monitoring them on a regular basis through our Department of Health. And the fact is, we're seeing that people take that serious -- very seriously, that they are following the rules of the quarantine. And they're staying in touch with the folks we have monitoring. What I have been struck by, Wolf -- and you know New York City, 8.6 million people. We actually have a lot of people following the instructions we're giving them. Folks are getting to the doctors, like we're telling them to. They're being ready to get tested. And we're getting testing done quickly. But what I'm seeing is, folks are really -- who are in quarantine are honoring it. And that's very good news.</s>BLITZER: Because we have seen some reports. The Department of Health in New York City says, what, about 2,700 New Yorkers are engaged in what's called home isolation right now. Are you in contact with these people?</s>DE BLASIO: Yes, the protocol is our Department of Health checks in with them on a regular basis. And we have a hot line that they can call if they have any questions. The message we give them is, the second they have symptoms, if they get symptoms, we want to make sure that we get them to health care immediately. We want to get them tested immediately. Obviously, a lot of people in quarantine have come in from other countries. Our hope for them is that they spend those two weeks and never have any symptoms. But for those who do, we get them the health care quickly. We get them tested quickly.</s>BLITZER: Vice President Pence said rather bluntly today the U.S. does not currently have enough test kits to meet the anticipated demand. You have already asked the CDC for more kits. What's your response to this rather troubling development?</s>DE BLASIO: Wolf, troubling only begins to describe it. This is becoming an embarrassment for the United States of America. Look, this crisis, I remember having -- I'm here at our emergency management facility for New York City, a very busy place. On January 24, we held a press conference right here. And I said, it's not a matter of if, but when we would see coronavirus came in New York City. Now, we're talking about six weeks ago. We have been pleading since then for the CDC to get us testing capacity. It took until Monday of this week for us to finally have independent testing capacity. But we do not have enough. So, Wolf, there's something wrong here that the federal government is missing, and they must fix. If they could get testing capacity out to cities and towns around America in really substantial numbers, we could actually get ahead of this crisis and manage it properly, because at least we would know who has it and who doesn't, and we would know what to do as a result.</s>BLITZER: As you know, Mayor...</s>DE BLASIO: But the fact that the federal government cannot even get tests out there is extraordinarily problematic. It's underlying why this crisis could get a lot worse, because we can't even get our arms around what's happening if we don't have testing capacity.</s>BLITZER: And it clearly could get a lot worse. As you know, other places around the country, and certainly around the world, they're closing schools right now. They're avoiding people gathering for sporting events, baseball games, soccer games. You have got Madison Square Garden. You have got a lot of schools in New York City. Are you looking at various contingency plans right now?</s>DE BLASIO: Yes, Wolf, literally, I'm here for a meeting where we're playing out different scenarios, taking really tough scenarios and figuring out what we do. But here's a fascinating statistic. We have 1.1 million schoolkids in New York City. As of this moment, first of all, attendance hasn't changed one bit, which is very impressive. New Yorkers are sticking to their routine, and they're not panicking. But, second, we don't have a single school child at this point who's identified as having the symptoms of this disease. And anyone who was, of course, we would test. But, so far, we are not at the point where we're thinking about major closures. But, Wolf, you have seen how quickly it can change in a lot of countries. We're going to determine that day by day. Again, if we have the testing, it allows us to actually know what's going on, and then that allows us to make those decisions.</s>BLITZER: Yes, millions of kids in Japan right now, the entire month of March, all the schools in Japan are shut down, out of an abundance of caution right now. Let's certainly hope that doesn't happen in New York, certainly doesn't happen here in the United States. Mayor de Blasio, good luck to you. Good luck to all the folks in New York City. Thanks so much for joining us.</s>DE BLASIO: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. And stay with CNN later tonight for a live global town hall on coronavirus. Join Anderson Cooper and our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta later tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern. And just ahead, we're standing by for coronavirus test results from a cruise ship off San Francisco right now, where some passengers and crew are showing symptoms. Plus, another major shakeup in the Democratic presidential race. Elizabeth Warren drops out. So, what's going on? We will be right back.