Coronavirus Cases Worldwide Top Nine Million; Experts Sound The Alarm As Coronavirus Cases Rise In 23 States; Brazil And Mexico COVID- 19 Death Tolls; Germany And South Korea Experience Outbreaks; Trump Criticized for Comments about Fewer COVID-19 Tests
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: The rapidly spreading coronavirus sweeping across the U.S. now like a forest fire, according to one official. And picking up pace globally as well affecting more than nine million people. Ignorance, immaturity, and blatant racism. Flying above the pitch in England. While at NASCAR in Alabama, race organizers, drivers, pit crews and fans rally around its only black driver after racists leave behind a symbol of hate from the past. Also, this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Singing): I'm standing with you.</s>VAUSE: The rallying cry we needed against the COVID-19 blues. A reminder to stand shoulder to shoulder, even as we socially distance. Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm John Vause, great to have you with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. There are now more than 9 million cases of the coronavirus around the world. The major hotspots are in the Americas. Brazil reached more than a million confirmed cases, and 50,000 fatalities over the weekend. Mexico reported nearly 4,600 in a 24- hour period. And alarming numbers in the U.S. where there are about two million cases. More than 120,000 people have died in the U.S., that's according to Johns Hopkins University. Twenty-three states, they say, in the south and west are seeing a rise in confirmed cases. There are concerns Houston, Texas could be the next hotspot in North America. The city's health department reports 177 percent increase in COVID-19 patients since the end of May. More than 35 percent of California's confirmed cases have been recorded in just the past two weeks. Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced residents were required to wear masks in high-risk settings including public transportation or while receiving medical care. Miami followed suit on Monday, making wearing masks in public mandatory. In Phoenix, Arizona another city requiring masks to be worn in public. And President Donald Trump will appear there at a campaign stop in the next few hours. So far the president and many of his supporters have not worn masks in public. CNN's Athena Jones reports that's a major concern for public health officials.</s>DR. AILEEN MARTY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST, MIAMI: People are not practicing social -- physical distancing.</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With coronavirus cases on the rise in 23 states, compared to a week ago and more states moving to the next phase of reopening, experts are sounding the alarm.</s>MARTY: They're not wearing their masks, they're not paying attention. And they're not believing that there's a problem.</s>JONES: New confirmed cases nationwide topped 30,000 for two consecutive days, Friday and Saturday, with 10 states reporting their highest seven-day average of new infections. Including Florida, Texas and California where hospitalizations recently reached their highest levels since the pandemic began. Florida today passing 100,000 cases. Many of those testing positive are in their twenties and thirties.</s>MAYOR DAN GELBER, MIAMI BEACH: We know exactly what's happening. Young people are going out because they do think they're invincible. They're getting the virus and they're spreading it into the community, and it's just harder to protect people when that happens.</s>JONES: And while the White House suggests the jump in cases due to more testing, experts say the high percentage of positive tests in Florida where the rate is past 10 percent, and in Arizona where it is around 20 percent, show the increase is real. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, agrees.</s>GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FLA): Even with testing increasing or being flat, the number of people testing positive is accelerating faster than that. And so that's evidence that there's transmission within those communities.</s>JONES: The startling new figures from around the country leaving some to lament the swift reopening. Like Austin's mayor.</s>MAYOR STEVE ADLER, AUSTIN: We're seeing the numbers really from the first phase, and they're shocking. The numbers are going up so rapidly. So, yes, I wish we had done this more slowly so we could have seen the data along the way.</s>JONES: NFL players are now being advised to stop training together, and major league baseball is shutting down some training facilities in Florida and Arizona where cases have nearly doubled in two weeks. Moving ahead with further reopening today. Georgia, where the Six Flags amusement park opens to all guests, Washington D.C. and New Jersey.</s>GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-N.J.): We're now going inside. Folks are going to have to be careful, obey the rules. And this is a big step for us today.</s>JONES: While New York, once the epicenter of the crisis in America, is taking the next step in what has been a slow, cautious approach.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D-N.Y.): We had less than a one-percent transmission rate yesterday. We went from the highest transmission rate in the United States to the lowest transmission rate. If we see any tick in those numbers, we will respond.</s>JONES: Now phase two here in New York City means offices can operate at 50 percent capacity, and you can now get a haircut or visit a playground. Outdoor dining is now allowed at restaurants and bars but they risk losing their license if they don't enforce proper social distancing protocols. Athena Jones, CNN, New York.</s>VAUSE: Dr. Joe Gerald is associate professor and program director of public health policy and management at the University of Arizona. And he is with us this hour from Tucson. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Doctor.</s>DR. JOE GERALD, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR & DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY AND MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: Yes. Thank you.</s>VAUSE: OK. So right now we have the President of the United States, he'll soon be heading into the epicenter of the epicenter of the pandemic, if you like. Here's how the U.S. compares to the E.U. over a seven-day average -- this is the new cases. The green line at the top there plateauing quite nicely, not going anywhere, in the U.S. The dramatically falling white line is the European Union. And the reason why the national numbers in the U.S. are not coming down is because of states like Arizona. Over seven days there has been this big surge in the number of new cases. You can see it there. So politics to one side, forget about the question of should he do the rally or not. Assuming there will 3,000-something people yelling and screaming and packed indoors at a venue, can you quantify how many cases of COVID-19 will be a result of this or is that just too difficult? Or can you say with confidence that there will be an increase in the number of cases once the president leaves town?</s>GERALD: We can't say with any confidence how many cases are going to result from the rally. However, as public health officials, when you put a bunch of people together in an indoor space, close them up tight and keep them together for a prolonged period, those are the perfect conditions to have a super spreader event. Where one individual would infect many individuals who then, basically, throw fuel onto the fire.</s>VAUSE: Is that a situation which the hospital facilities and health care facilities in Arizona can deal with at this point, with an increase in COVID-19? Like could be the result of this rally tomorrow night?</s>GERALD: Yes, we do, currently. We have the capacity to handle critically ill patients. We are looking at a smaller safety margin than we've had in quite some time, and so we're projecting somewhere in mid-July we're going to bump up against our capacity to care for critically ill patients. And so anything that adds to that is a problem.</s>VAUSE: In response to the surging numbers across the state, the mayor of Phoenix has said it's now required for everyone in the city to wear a face mask when in public. But not everyone will be treated the same. Listen to this.</s>MAYOR KATE GALLEGO, PHOENIX: Look, we're not going to cite the president of the United States, but we would ask all our elected officials and every other type of leader to lead by example, and to say we need to take this seriously. One of the reasons we have this growth in Arizona is complacency. We've had elected officials say that the worst is over a month ago. That was not the case, and we are seeing records of the type we don't want to break.</s>VAUSE: It's all very well that some officials are being called on to lead by example but yet the leader of the country firstly, is expected to brazenly break the rules, and secondly, there'll be no attempt to hold him accountable.</s>GERALD: Well, I understand the challenge with doing that. But I would agree with the overall assessment that the communication or the appearance message is running counter to the public health messaging we're trying to get out. For mask wearing to work, we have to have a high degree of adherence with that, upwards of 80 percent. And so every bit matters. And if our elected officials are not indicating through their behaviors that this is an important issue, it does weaken the message.</s>VAUSE: And again, the president was asked directly on Monday to explain that remark he made over the weekend in Oklahoma, that he told his people to slow down the rate of testing. This is what he said.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to clear up. There wasn't a direct order, if you will, to staff to stop the testing.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. But I think it's --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I just want to --</s>TRUMP: I think we put ourselves at a disadvantage. I told my people --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got you.</s>TRUMP: I said we've gotten so good at testing -- number one, we have the best tests, number two, we have the most tests. We test much more than any other nation. So you hear about all these cases. So instead of 25 million tests, let's say we did 10 million tests, we'd look like we're doing much better because we'd have far fewer cases. You understand that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>VAUSE: Clearly, the president does not understand what he's talking about. Correct me if I'm wrong, but his position seems to be a bit like he's arguing that there would be -- fewer pregnancy tests would result in a lower birth rates. Tests just reveal reality, the reality will be there regardless of testing.</s>GERALD: That's correct. And so there might be some small effects from doing an additional number of tests but it's certainly not enough to account for the changes that we're seeing here. And not testing doesn't make the problem magically go away. And so testing is an incredibly important component in the overall strategy against COVID-19.</s>VAUSE: Dr. Joe Gerald, thank you so much. Appreciate you being with us.</s>GERALD: Absolutely.</s>VAUSE: About half of all infections in Latin America are in just one country, Brazil. With a million confirmed cases and counting, the outbreak there is yet to peak. Health officials say almost 20 percent of all confirmed cases were recorded in the past week alone. CNN's Shasta Darlington has details.</s>SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brazil reported more than 21,000 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, with the total now well over one million and rising. The health ministry also reported 654 additional deaths. For the week ending on Sunday, Brazil averaged more than 1,000 deaths a day and over the weekend, the total death toll surpassed 50,000. Nonetheless, several Brazilian cities have continued to relax quarantine measures. Rio de Janeiro is allowing residents to frequent beaches for physical activity, workers are back in offices, and shopping malls across the country have opened their doors. Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has repeatedly insisted Brazilians should go back to work or he says hunger and unemployment will kill more people than the virus itself. On Monday, he warned that the government was running out of money and wouldn't be able to afford emergency unemployment benefits worth a little over $100 a month much longer. Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paulo.</s>VAUSE: For the second straight day, Mexico's death toll has exceeded Brazil's with more than 750 dead on Monday, and close to 5,000 infections. With at least 185,000 cases, Mexico has the fourth highest infection rate in Latin America. And amid that surging outbreak, Mexico has continued with restarting its economy. Workers concede the move is risky, but the alternative, they say, would see families going without food and basic necessities. CNN's Matt Rivers has the story.</s>MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once he gears up, Juan Carlos Cruz Gonzalez (ph) doesn't take off his equipment. At the crematorium where he works, housed in a public cemetery, there's no downtime between bodies. "Honestly this epidemic hasn't ended," he says. "It's still going on every day." The ovens didn't stop firing in the hours that we were there but they couldn't keep up. Some families who had brought loved ones had to wait for hours for them to be cremated. It's a morbid illustration that Mexico's epidemic is far from over. And the numbers back it up. This chart shows the daily trend of new cases of the coronavirus in Mexico. It's not hard to see that things are only getting worse. "So is reopening the economy dangerous?" we ask. "Yes," Juan Carlos says. "It is still too early to go back to normal." But Mexico's president disagrees. He says we have to go back out, little by little, carefully to exercise our freedom. Mexico's economy is in dire straits, and Lopez Obrador knows it. So he has backed a phased reopening plan that for most of the country started June 1st, sending hundreds of thousands back to work across different industries. And he has plenty of support. At Mexico City's massive Central De Abasto's wholesale market, vendor Rodolfo Machoro's (ph) sales have dropped 70 percent since the outbreak began. "We want everyone to go back to normal," he says. "Months of quarantine, it's too much." It's a very common sentiment here and amongst the millions of Mexicans who've lost their jobs recently.</s>MACHORO (through translator): If I don't go out to work, who will feed my family? That's why we have to come here.</s>RIVERS: But the market itself reinforces the high cost of reopening. Officials say more than 600 people that work here have tested positive for the coronavirus since April. "Thirty percent of me wants to reopen and 70 percent doesn't," says this vendor. "It's necessary, but people aren't being safe enough."</s>RIVERS: Mexico's death toll has more than doubled in just the last three weeks. A model from MIT predicts it could pass 50,000 by early August. And back inside the crematorium that death toll becomes real. Of the five bodies we saw brought in, four were likely COVID-19 related deaths. "Those that work here see it," he says. "We know this is not over."</s>RIVERS: In the end, the government's decision is both straightforward and painful. Reopen the economy and allow people to go out and earn a living, with the knowledge that, by doing so, there is every chance that cemeteries like this one will become more full. Matt Rivers, CNN. Outside Mexico City.</s>VAUSE: Great expectations in England, as Boris Johnson looks set to further ease coronavirus restrictions. In the coming hours, the prime minister expected to announce a review of the two-meter distancing rule. After three months in lockdown, pubs, museums and galleries will be able to reopen in England from July 4th. There will, however, be strict safety guidelines. And there is a spike of coronavirus cases in Germany linked to an explosion of cases, apparently, at a meat-processing plant in the country's west where more than 1,300 workers have tested positive. Authorities are already struggling to impose local lockdowns. The increase in virus numbers could see new restrictions. According to Johns Hopkins University, Germany has had more than 190,000 cases, nearly 9,000 fatalities. South Korea seeing a second wave of the coronavirus. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, there was a lull between the two outbreaks at the beginning of last month, adding that more regional outbreaks are also expected. According to Johns Hopkins University, again, close to twelve and-a- half thousand people have been infected with the virus in South Korea. Let's go live now to CNN's Paula Hancocks in Seoul this hour. So how do they know this is a second wave and not just sort of a second peak in the first wave? And does it make any difference anyway?</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a good question, John. In some ways, it's really a technicality, what you label it but the fact is there has been a resurgence of cases here in South Korea. So what the Korea CDC is saying they believe that the first wave was from February to April and then we saw the cases decrease significantly. They were on a daily basis less than 10 or thereabouts for many days. And then during the May holiday, they believe, at the beginning of May, that's when the cases started to spike again. So what the KCDC is labeling this as is the second wave from that particular point. And they say it's not a large-scale infection that we saw, for example, the first time around, there are lots of different regional infections. There have been a number of clusters here in South Korea. The vast majority of them in Seoul itself; in churches, in warehouses, in call centers, in nightclubs. So this is really what the KCDC's worried about at this point. So they said they were preparing for the second wave in autumn or in winter of this year which most countries appear to be doing. But they that they're still preparing for that, what they believe will be a large-scale infection at that point, and making sure there are enough hospital beds. But it really is a technicality, the way that they label it. The fact is that cases are starting to rise and have been since May.</s>VAUSE: This must be very dispiriting for the South Koreans and for the health officials there who really looked as if they had a handle on this. As you say they got the cases way down. And now, suddenly, it's back?</s>HANCOCKS: Well, that's right. And it's a cautionary tale for countries around the world. We're seeing something similar in Beijing. When I spoke to the Seoul mayor he said it can happen any time, any place. It takes one person to have this kind of cluster. Now they were having an increased number of cases, of imported cases, coming in from different countries around the world. One particular reason the numbers are so high today is that they have counted a Russian-flagged ship which has docked on the southeastern port of Busan on June 21st. Apparently, there's 16 out of 21 Russian crew coming from Vladivostok have tested positive. So now that's another cluster they're concerned about. Although the crew haven't left that ship, there were at least 60 port workers who had gone onto the ship to take off cargo, et cetera. So now they are being quarantined and tested. And they're trying to contact trace to stop that cluster from spreading any further -- John.</s>VAUSE: Yes. It did seem they had this great system work out with the contact tracing and the mobile phones and tracking everybody down. But I guess it works to a point. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks, live from Seoul. Still to come here. Tributes for three victims of a terror attack in an English park. We'll take you to the City of Reading, trying to cope with the shock and loss. Also, ahead. Removing something offensive or erasing history or is just hate history? We take you inside the fight over controversial monuments in the United States.