L.A. County Extends Order; Interview With Mayor Libby Schaaf (D-CA)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: 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. The U.S. hitting somber milestones today with the death toll surpassing 20,000 people. That puts the United States at more reported deaths from this virus than any country in the world. One death in this country to 20,000 death in just 42 days. Also today, for the first time in American history, every state in U.S. territory is under a federal disaster declaration at the same time. The number of people reportedly now sick with the Coronavirus, more than 520,000 nationwide. And this grim view from an island just off New York City this week. City workers digging large trenches and burying coffins. Many of those people dead of the Coronavirus and either without families or unclaimed by next of kin. The city says normally 25 people a week are buried this way. But these days, it's around 25 people every day. Overseas this weekend, airline flight attendants in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom grounded for the time being. They're volunteering in large numbers to work in over-burdened hospitals. They say it's a perfect transition. Most flight attendants do have some medical training and security clearances. And Pope Francis, on this night before Easter, speaking inside what would normally be a crowded St. Peters' Basilica. He urged the Catholic faithful to not be afraid and he prayed for the dozens of priests who have died in the Coronavirus pandemic. Back here in the United States, this just in to CNN, the state of New Mexico has now banned mass gatherings at houses of worship, that includes for Easter Sunday church services. New Mexico's governor tweeting just now, quote, "The risk is simply too great. Please, you must stay home." That's begin our coverage this hour in California, where the state has extended its stay-at-home order through May 15th. The (ph) people comply. The state's health secretary now says the peak of cases may not be as high as previously expected. As of this hour, California has more than 21,000 confirmed cases and just over 600 deaths. But a Los Angeles county health officials, they are warning Californians must abide by social distancing to beat the threat from the virus. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles for us. He's joining us now live. The L.A. mayor, Paul, is putting additional measures in place to help flatten the so-called curve. What more can you tell us?</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Mayor Garcetti is keeping on the pressure. First off, he has said that people who go to essential businesses, such as grocery stores, must wear a face covering. And, in turn, the workers at those stores must wear some sort of face covering or mask. And then, tomorrow, Easter Sunday, normally in Los Angeles, you would see these gatherings in parks and you would see people holding picnics, Easter egg hunts and the like. He has banned those gatherings in L.A. parks. T That also extends to churches. There will be no grand celebration of in the downtown cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Normally, 10,000 people would be spread out over three services. But, tomorrow, all you'll see in that church is a pianist, a canter and the archbishop, himself, Jose Gomez.</s>ISAAC CUEVAS, DIRECTOR, IMMIGRANTS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS FOR THE L.A. ARCHDIOCESE: Well, the archbishop has made it a point to continue being our spiritual leader here in the -- in the city. And he hasn't missed a beat and people really appreciate him for that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we should note that anybody around the country can tune in on Sunday if you feel like you want to join (ph) us.</s>CUEVAS: Anybody around the world who's ever come by Los Angeles or is dreaming about the day that they want to visit Los Angeles can start by checking out mass with archbishop Gomez online.</s>VERCAMMEN: And also here in California or here in Los Angeles County, they are extending that deadline to May 15th for the social distancing. Back to you now, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, thanks very much. Paul Vercammen in L.A. for us. The California Governor Gavin Newsom says the state has seen a drop in the number of ICU patients, but warned against reading too much into one data point. Health officials there are heeding that advice, still bracing for the worst-case scenario. They must be cautious right now. CNN's Stephanie Elam takes us inside one hospital that's taking unprecedented measures.</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm standing in what is now known as the Los Angeles Surge Hospital.</s>ELAM: This critical care unit here, in the heart of Los Angeles, is going to start taking on patients that are Coronavirus positive. This is not going to be a normal hospital, in that it won't have an E.R. These will be patients transferred from other hospitals, and then brought here to treat them solely for Coronavirus. You can see they've got their ventilator set up and they have these rooms. Some of them are private. Some of them are not. Because these are people who are all fighting the same battle. This is one of the 11 hospitals opening throughout the state of California before the expected peek. What we've seen in a lot of the hospitals is setting up of negative pressure rooms. This is a place where we know the virus cannot get out. And this could be a place where they would put patients who really are in the biggest fight for their lives. One of the things they're able to do is treat those patients together. And that means setting up beds to cohort them, because they're all suffering from the same illness. All the supplies they need will be right here in this one area. At full capacity, this Surge Hospital will have 266 beds available. It's been a public-private partnership. So, that means the state of California, the county of Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health working to open up this hospital. PPE, ventilators, all of the equipment that is necessary that we've heard has been hard for these hospitals to get, it'll be up to the state of California to make sure that they have what they need. And looking at which hospitals in the area need to transfer patients out because they may be at capacity. L.A. County will step in and figure out where patients need to be transferred out to make sure that there's more beds freed up in those areas.</s>BLITZER: All right, Stephanie Elam reporting for us. Thanks for that report. The Los Angeles County in that area. But I want to move further north right now to the Bay area. I want to check in with the mayor of Oakland, California, Libby Schaaf. Mayor Schaaf, thanks so much for joining us. So, what's the situation in Oakland like right now?</s>MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF (D), OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Well, you know, we are cautiously optimistic that our early actions to employ social distancing and shelter in place is flattening the curve. Now, we are not letting up on our vigilance. We are continuing to move our most vulnerable into isolation hospitals. We're working with the governor to move folks into FEMA-secured trailers. And then, we are calling on the generosity of our residents who have really shown up with incredible food delivery, donations to our relief fund. Everything from $5.00 from little kids to Steph and Iesha Curry that have helped keep the World Kitchen here to deliver 600,000 meals to kids that normally rely on school for their meals as well as our homeless service providers.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that's so important. Without school, a lot of these kids are not going it get the food, the meals, the nutritious meals that they deserve and that's so important that that is happening right now. I know the schools are closed. We've seen, Mayor, a sharp disparity among the rate of infections for minorities. They've been much higher in many cities across the country. Are you seeing that same pattern emerge in Oakland?</s>SCHAAF: Well, honestly, racial disparities in COVID deaths did not surprise us here in Oakland, California. We have long had a department of race inequity that is really trying to close those types of disparities. And while we are still waiting for better data that is disaggregated by race, we know that all of the risk factors for COVID, like asthma and diabetes and heart and lung disease, are in far higher rates in our African-American communities. So, this is not a surprise for us, but we're encouraged that it is getting national attention.</s>BLITZER: Yes, it should be getting a lot more national attention, indeed. Because lessons have to be learned. We've got to fix this problem in this country. You announced, Mayor, that you're closing, what, 74 miles of streets in Oakland to cars to give walkers, runners, cyclists more room to exercise, for example. That program launches today. What are you hoping to achieve with it and are there concerns that people will congregate?</s>SCHAAF: Well, this is to actually relieve some of the congregating that we have been seeing in our parks. We have beautiful weather here and then people do have to go on necessary errands. They have to walk their dogs. And we were seeing people actually walking out into streets to avoid passing each other on sidewalks. We were seeing overcrowding in our parks. And so, by closing just to through traffic, not emergency vehicles or local traffic, but to through traffic, closing off these roads that are already our bicycle routes.</s>SCHAAF: We are actually giving people room to social distance. It's also a reminder to people, we're calling it the slow streets movement, that people need to drive slowly. We cannot afford car accidents. Our healthcare system cannot receive any further stresses than what it has right now.</s>BLITZER: One quick question before I let you go, Mayor. What about schools in Oakland? How long are they going to be closed for?</s>SCHAAF: You know, they will be closed for the rest of the school year. I'm very aware of that, because I have two school kids at home myself. But I really want to commend folks like the Curries, Chef Andres who came here when we had the Grand Princess disembark in Oakland. One of the wonderful aftermaths of that story is the World Central Kitchen is now helping feed our school children, while they are trying to engage in distance learning. But we are not going to have kids back in school until the fall.</s>BLITZER: Yes, let's thank Chef Andres and Steph Curry for all the important and good work that they are doing. We're grateful to them. Mayor Schaaf, thanks so much. Good luck to everyone out in Oakland and in California.</s>SCHAAF: Great. Thank you. It's an incredible time. We all have to come together.</s>BLITZER: Yes, we certainly do. Let's hope we do. Meanwhile, there's a new report in "The New York Times," and it paints a damming picture of how the Trump administration stalled in its initial response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Warnings from experts and government officials simply ignored. Two of the reporters behind this report, they're standing by live. They'll join me next. Plus, the Coronavirus has stuttered, has shuttered I should say, businesses across the country. Small business owners are finding themselves hit especially hard. So, why aren't they getting the help they so desperately need?