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Dr. Fauci: U.S. Needs To Double Diagnostic Testing In Weeks; WHO: No Proof Coronavirus Survivors Can't Be Re-infected; 2,600 New Infections Among Illinois Health Care Workers; Daily Briefings With The President And Coronavirus Task Force To Stop; British PM To Resume Work On Monday After Coronavirus Fight; Interview With Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) On Extending Stay-At-Home Order While Colorado Reopens. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 25, 2020 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:00]

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. Now as of tonight there are now more than 933,000 cases of coronavirus here in the United States and more than 53,000 Americans have died from the disease.

The death toll worldwide is now at more than 200,000 with nearly 3 million infections reported around the globe and probably a whole lot more. Also new this Saturday, Dr. Anthony Fauci now says the nation should double its testing over the next several weeks and he believes it's possible.

That would take the U.S. up to as many as 4 million diagnostic tests per week. The FDA today also gave an emergency green light to 3 new antibody tests on top of the four that already got approved but the World Health Organization is now warning that there is no evidence anyone who contracted the coronavirus once is immune from being infected again.

This morning government said not to issue so called immunity passports, letting those who have recovered, believe they are automatically safe to return to life as normal. In Illinois right now, at least 2,600 healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19.

Illinois by the way has the fourth highest number of overall cases among the 50 states and in New York City the final 10 patients to be treated aboard the USNS Comfort are expected to leave the ship tomorrow.

182 people were brought to the Comfort which arrived late last month. This ship is now expected to leave New York City by the end of this month. Let's go to Georgia right now. That state has yet to see a 14 day decrease in new cases, something the White House task force has recommended before reopening yet the governor there has made the controversial decision to ease some of those stay-at-home restrictions.

Nonessential businesses including hair salons, tattoo parlors, gyms and more are officially allowed to open their doors and accept customers.

CNN's Natasha Chen is live in Douglasville, Georgia for us. Natasha, you spoken with business owners there. What are they saying to you?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this has been about weighing the risk of losing their livelihoods against the risk of losing more lives in this area. I'll give you an example with Jenkins barber shop behind us, they had a line of 15 people out the door yesterday when they opened for the first time in about a month.

The family owns several locations. One of the barbers, Eric Griesen told me you don't want to die making money but if you don't open, you don't get by. So the common theme among these businesses no matter how they feel about the governor and his decision is that they have not received any financial aid or grants that they've applied to so the pressure to make any kind of income despite health risks is really high.

At a bowling alley we went to, one of the owners said that they are very excited to open and he knows that maybe met with criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY HICKS, BOWLING ALLEY OWNER: No, I'm sorry you know. I'm sorry for that. I hope - I hope they don't hold it against us for no reason. We're not trying to hurt anybody. We just want to get out business going. We have 25 employees that whole families are at this bowling center and we're trying to get then back to work also.

DONNA WHITFIELD, SALES REPRESENTATIVE, HAMIL: I'm just kind of I'm tense you know. I don't know you know - I hope we're doing the right thing and now I need to get back to work but I don't want to contract the disease either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And you heard from Donna Whitfield there. Her husband actually has cancer at home. She doesn't want to bring the virus back to him but she also told me she can't afford not to work. Restaurants on Monday will be grappling with similar choices when they will be allowed to reopen dine-in services.

So far we've seen several restaurants post online or when we reached out to them, they've told us they are simply not ready, it's too early but we do know a handful of restaurants as well as one large chain here in Georgia are prepared to do that. Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we'll watch it very closely together with you and Natasha Chen in Georgia for us. Thanks very much. Let's head over to South Carolina. Right now the governor Henry McMaster says his state has to move in his words, as quickly as we can, as safely as we can on reopening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. HENRY MCMASTER (R-SC): The last thing any of us want is to have a relapse as they would call in medical terms where you think you're well and you go back about your business and all of a sudden, whatever the illness or disease was, hits you harder than it did before.

That could happen. It's probably going to happen in some places but we do not want that to happen here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now with more on the how South Carolina's approaching reopening, the Republican senator from South Carolina Tim Scott. He's also by the way the author of a brand new book just out entitled, 'Opportunity knocks: How hard work, community and business can improve lives and end poverty.' Senator Scott, thanks so much for joining us. Congratulations on the new book.

We'll discuss that in a moment but as you just heard your governor has already opened some of the beaches, some nonessential businesses but the model often cited by the right - the White House coronavirus taskforce says South Carolina really can't safely open up until June 8. Could this push to reopen even partially put some of your residents in danger?

[19:05:00]

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): I think the governor is doing his job, he's doing it pretty well. He's been very prudent and fact driven by his decision to allow some of the beaches to open but what you'll notice, some of the municipalities in South Carolina, all upon Sullivan's Island, our beach communities, the mayors have decided not to open those.

So although governor has panoramically said it's time for us to move forward, some of the municipalities are seeing it differently. Here's what I think. I think the fact of the matter is that we have to balance our health care concerns with the economic tsunami that we are currently in the middle of.

When you have residents trying to figure out how to ration medicine, when you have residents working on how to feed their kids, how to have shelter over their heads, this becomes a very critical issue as we wrestle with the issue of poverty and this healthcare crisis.

So I think there is a very strong and powerful approach, the president's approach with the 14 days of dropping in cases, hospital capacity in South Carolina is very strong and frankly one of the businesses that need to be open right now are our hospitals.

I've spoken to the CEOs of our hospitals around the state. What they keep telling me is that they have lots and lots of capacity, more capacity in hospitals in certain parts of South Carolina today than we had pre-Covid-19 so allowing for the elective surgeries to heart stints.

I'm not sure why that's considered elective but allowing for elective surgeries to move forward, that would restore up to 80 percent of hospital income which will also once - once again, provide us with a real opportunity to save lives.

So it's a - it's a quagmire pit and a very difficult balance but one that we have to achieve.

BLITZER: But don't you agree and I'm sure you do that you have to air on the side of caution, given the fact that over the past two months alone, we've gone from 0 deaths from corona virus to more than 50,000 deaths in a very short period of time.

SCOTT: Absolutely. I think one of the things you have to do when you follow the science, look at New York City where 25 percent of those deaths, about 25 percent of the deaths come from nursing homes so we have to make sure that those parts of our population that are vulnerable, that we take care of them first.

So our seniors, those with comorbidities or underlying conditions. If you need to take a pill every day, that means that you're at a higher risk so there is in fact a way that we're going to have to analyze sector by sector, region by region and frankly parts of the population in every state in South Carolina.

We've had 5000 cases and right around 170 deaths so we are in fact trying our best to balance both. I think so far the governor himself says a robust economy in South Carolina should not be anticipated until really the end of June but you're starting to see the first few steps, baby steps in the direction of opening the economy back up.

BLITZER: Is it the case in South Carolina like it is in so much of the rest of the country that minorities, African-Americans especially are being disproportionately impacted by this coronavirus?

SCOTT: Wolf, one of the more disheartening statistics is while 43 percent of the hospitalizations in South Carolina are African- Americans, we're only about 27 percent of the population, 56 percent of the deaths from the coronavirus are African-Americans so we have to also remember, African-Americans, 8 out of 10 cannot work from home.

They can't telework so you're talking about folks who are going into work every day. Their jobs are open and that puts them at increased risk as well as the fact that the underlying conditions that leads to hospitalization and death are more prevalent in the African-American community.

So South Carolina, certainly we're seeing a higher percentage of the cases being African-Americans. I've spoken with our Surgeon General and other folks who are now working on a marketing and advertising specifically in minority communities.

I've spoken to some of the largest denominations around the country, we're also targeting the African-American community from the church, the faith community to make sure that we get that information and the message out. How to save your life and those protocols that we consistently talk about as so important.

And now addition, adding on top of the protocols that we've all known about, the necessity of wearing masks whenever you leave your house. For African-Americans especially with so many generations sometimes under the same roof, it's becoming more important that we as a community focuses on those protocols that are saving lives.

BLITZER: Yes, that's well said. As you know the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, your leader says that instead of providing more federal funding to the various states out there that are in deep financial trouble right now, he's in favor of letting those states go what he calls the bankruptcy route.

Kentucky's governor Andy Beshear among others, they've been strongly disagreeing with that. What do you think Senator? Would you vote against more money to states dealing with this crisis and simply let them file for bankruptcy?

[19:10:00]

SCOTT: Wolf, I think this is a really important issue to get right. I think we have to bifurcate the issue. One half of the issue is bad decisions made in state capitals for decades have left them on the verge of bankruptcy before coronavirus.

We have folks in states around this nation that have unfunded retirement liabilities into the hundreds of billions of dollars. It is not the federal government frankly, America's taxpayers around the nation's responsibility to bail those states out. At the same time, that targeted and temporary assistance is necessary for states.

We provided $139 billion to states in the first round. I'm sure there's going to be a robust debate and I'm not going to suggest that I wouldn't approve any money for the states. I think we should have more resources targeted to the coronavirus relief and this should be a team sport in defending and then defeating the coronavirus.

If we do it as a team, the states will have some responsibility, the federal government has some responsibility but it is not our responsibility as a nation to bail states out of really bad policies for two and three decades.

BLITZER: So I know we got to run but you would let these states file for bankruptcy? New York State? California? Other major states around the country that have major or serious financial problems as a result of coronavirus?

SCOTT: Well, as I said Wolf, that bifurcation's really important right there. Perhaps you missed that part. The fact of the matter is we should provide that temporary targeted relief to resolve the issue around the coronavirus, absolve them of the underlying expenses but their bad decisions for decades, that's on them. That is not on the American taxpayer.

BLITZER: All right senator, it's always good to speak with you. Thanks so much for joining us Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. Appreciate it. Good luck to you. Good luck to everyone in South Carolina.

SCOTT: Thank you very much Wolf. BLITZER: It's going to be a rough period ahead, I'm sure for the entire country. Thank you. The virus continues to ravage communities across the United States right now where critical protective equipment is still very much in short supply.

When we come back, a partnership between the private sector and the federal government to address those shortages is garnering both praise and criticism. We'll update you when we come back.

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BLITZER: As personal protective equipment including masks, gloves, gowns, they remain relatively scarce still, the federal stockpile continues to dwindle, we're told. The government is now forming partnerships with private companies in order to try to fill the void and it is critical.

CNN's Leyla Santiago is joining us. She's here in Washington. Leyla, what exactly do these partnerships look like? Tell us what's going on.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, this arrangement isn't typically what we see from the federal government when it responds to crisis or a disaster and that in itself, is creating confusion and frustration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: You're looking at the federal government's answer to solve part of the national crisis. Inside these boxes, protective medical gear, face masks, millions of them from China. The essential products that state hospitals and businesses are fiercely competing to get their hands on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need tests. We need personal protection equipment. We need resources.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been fighting every day for PPE.

SANTIAGO: With the federal stockpile depleted and demand outstripping supply, Trump administration set up a partnership with private U.S. companies to bring in supplies from the global market.

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: FEMA is working with these companies to launch project Airbridge to expedite the movement of critical supplies.

SANTIAGO: According to FEMA, Project Airbridge has brought in millions of masks, gowns and gloves to the U.S. It's coming from countries like China and Honduras. FEMA says it's going to prioritize hot spots. Despite our repeated requests for specifics on the final destination of these overseas supplies, FEMA has not released those details.

FEMA is paying $750,000 on average to charter a flight of the supplies secured by U.S. companies into the U.S. and then -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our agreement with the federal government stipulates that half of the supplies, at least half of supplies that are brought in through Project Airbridge need to go to FEMA designated hot spots.

SANTIAGO: But it's the six companies including Medline working with the government to decide which of their client's health systems get the other half of the desperately needed supplies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever a customer typically orders, they'll get a percentage of that based on the inventory that we have available and so by doing that, it ensures that you know one of our larger customers is able to get product but also some of our smaller customers as well.

SANTIAGO: Medline says that Project Airbridge has accelerated deliveries to areas in Illinois, New York, Michigan, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Florida, all on the list of prioritized hotspots established by FEMA and HHS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the dynamic list, it's growing, it's changing.

SANTIAGO: Senate Democrats are now raising concerns demanding to ensure that the companies are not sending supplies according to the highest bidder instead of greatest need.

Are you profiting because of this partnership?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think one of the misconceptions out there is that a company like ours is somehow going gang busters at the expense of this virus and that couldn't be further from the truth. Prices have gone up. We're not passing any of those costs on to our customers.

[19:20:00]

SANTIAGO: But states, governors in crisis aren't necessarily applauding the federal government or Project Airbridge across the board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what they are taking credit for, the White House is that the distributors have customers in Illinois, that they're sending goods to because those customers ordered those items of PPE. So that's a far cry from delivering to the state so that we can distribute.

SANTIAGO: And Wolf, we should mention that the federal government, President Trump and Vice President Pence have said that they have sent a notification to each state with county by county listing of what Project Airbridge has delivered. We asked for a copy of that notification. Have not received it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: If you get it, let us know. Leyla Santiago reporting for us. Good report. Thank you very much. As states and local governments grapple with the critical shortage of supplies, they're also facing a daunting task. When and how do they relax those stay-at-home orders.

Medical experts warn that easing the rules too soon could be very, very counterproductive. At worst it could be disastrous and result in a lot more deaths. Joining us now two guests Jennifer Nuzzo, she's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Daniela Lamas, a Critical Care Physician at Brigham and Women's hospital.

Dr. Lamas, Boston's Mayor Marty Walsh said this week that the city is still seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. Are you seeing that in your hospital as well?

DR. DANIELA LAMAS, PULMONARY AND CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM & WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: Yes, we are still seeing a surge. In our state overall we now have more than 50,000 patients diagnosed with coronavirus and more than 2500 deaths and we're still seeing the numbers increase in our ICUs.

BLITZER: Do you have the necessary PPE, the equipment that you need to protect everyone?

LAMAS: We still do have a PPE. There was a period of time maybe a week or so back, when we were reusing N95s from day to day. After some donations we now and the news of decontamination process, we now do have N95s that we get to change each day. We have enough gowns for now. Enough eye protection as this sort of wears on clearly those questions will recur again, whether we'll have enough. We do right now.

BLITZER: Well, that's encouraging to hear that. Jennifer, how concerned are you to see some governors around the country start to ease up restrictions, even as their cases continue to surge?

JENNIFER NUZZO, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: Yes, I'm very concerned about this. The case numbers are one thing that we should be looking at but also many states haven't done the kind of testing they need to do in order to know how many cases are really out there.

If they don't test, they don't show up as a case and if they're only testing a small portion of their population, then it's likely that they're missing a lot of cases so if they're not counting those cases and they don't have a full picture of how much illness is out there, how many infections are out there, they could very well find themselves in a situation where those infections continue to spread silently until suddenly they see a rapid increase in cases again.

And I think for everyone who has a stay at home for as long as they have, the idea of having to go back into home possibly because of those rising cases is probably not something they want to have to do.

BLITZER: As you know Jennifer, a lot of talk about testing in this entire crisis. I want to play for you something that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top expert on infectious diseases just said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: We don't want to get fixated.

Right now you know we doing about 1.5 to 2 million per week. We probably should get up to twice that as we get into the next several weeks and I think we will.

Testing is an important part of what we're doing but it's not the only part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what's your reaction to that?

NUZZO: Well, I agree. Testing very important but it is not the only part that we need to do but we do the tests so that we know where the infection is so that we can take action and the action is people who are infected need to stay home so that they don't transmit their illness to others.

We need to be able to find the people they may have exposed and monitor those contacts and then if those contacts become cases because we've tested them then those folks have to stay home and isolate themselves as well.

All of that is - those are incredibly resource intensive actions that we just don't have in most of the states, the capacity to be able to do that.

BLITZER: Daniela, someone who is on the front lines of all of this, how do you think states can reopen without potentially overwhelming the hospitals there?

LAMAS: I mean, it's a hard question and worrisome. We see people coming in our ICUs whose loved ones were diagnosed with coronavirus, try to isolate in one apartment and then ended up giving it to the rest of their family members who end up in our ICUs.

[19:25:00]

And so to echo the point made earlier, I think with our testing, tracing and isolating and good mechanisms for each of these, it's going to be hard. I think ramping up testing and ramping up tracing is going to be key.

BLITZER: Massachusetts, that's where you live extended its stay-at- home order until May 4. You think it needs to be pushed further back?

LAMAS: You know, I think we are trying to ramp up the capacities we have for testing and tracing. We have a big group from partners in health that's trying to trace contact with patients with coronavirus. At the same time we're trying to isolate some people in hotels but that's hard to have people leave their families.

I think with the numbers that we have right now, the fact that we still walk into ICUs and see intubated patient after intubated patient, it's hard to imagine May 4 coming and people leaving their homes and feeling OK. One can be hopeful but I would expect that it'll be longer.

BLITZER: Jennifer, you are co-authored a very important article about what needs to happen to balance easing these restrictions with public health and safety. Give us the major take away.

NUZZO: Well, the major take away is that these social distancing measures that we're doing right now are not a cure, they're a pause button and as soon as people begin to mix again, there's always the possibility that the case numbers are going to rise again.

So even if restrictions are released, it's not going to be returned to normal. It's going to have to look differently than it looked before so that's probably going to mean increased physical distance even as maybe people are able to come out of their houses, it's probably going to mean more action by businesses and thinking about how to protect their customers and their staff.

And it's going to mean possibly more flexible approaches to education, even in places where they may think about reconvening schools, there are still going to be some people who might be quite vulnerable as teachers who have - you know have older who have underlying health conditions.

And so we need to think about how we continue to protect people, particularly the most vulnerable among us because the virus has not gone away. We have not stopped the spread of it through these measures. We have just tried to slow its spread.

BLITZER: All right Jennifer Nuzzo and Daniela Lamas, thanks to both of you for what you're doing. Thanks to both of you for joining us tonight. We'll certainly stay in touch with both of you. Thank you so much.

And they've become a stalwart of the coronavirus pandemic, filled with personal attacks and grievances, conspiracy theories but now there are some signs that those briefings over at the White House potentially could be coming to an end. We'll update you on that plus after fighting the coronavirus and recovering, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is headed back to work on Monday. We're going live to London when we come back.

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[19:32:32]

BLITZER: Since the pandemic hit the nation, news conferences over the White House have become a nearly everyday occurrence, almost always with an appearance by the President of the United States. But that could be coming to an end we're told.

The President tweeting by the way just in the past hour or so that he doesn't see the purpose of those news conferences because of what he calls hostile questions and that it's not necessarily worth the time and effort to him. But this tweet comes with CNN has learned that the President's aides,

at least some of them, and some of his allies have been pushing him to put a stop to the briefings.

Our White House correspondent, Jeremy Diamond is joining us right now. Jeremy, so what's the latest on where the President stands on these Coronavirus Taskforce briefings?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Well, the President is suggesting that these news conferences now are no longer worth his time and effort, suggesting that it's because of the questions that he is facing, calling them nothing but hostile questions that the President faces in these briefings.

Of course, Wolf, these briefings have become a staple of the President's response to this coronavirus pandemic, and he has often used these briefings as a way to kind of let out pent up steam and he has really relished them in many ways.

But we know, Wolf that while the President is suggesting that it is because of the questions that he's facing, certainly, he is finding a way to justify potentially scaling back these briefings.

But make no mistake, Wolf, we have been hearing from aides to the President, allies to the President, both inside and outside the White House, who have really tried to convince the President to scale back these briefings, not because of the questions that he is facing, but because of the answers that he is giving and some of the statements that he is making from the podium in the White House Briefing Room, Wolf.

Those concerns were only just exacerbated on Thursday when the President came out and suggested that Americans might be able to use UV rays inside their bodies or ingest cleaning products, detergents in order to wipe out the virus inside of their bodies.

Of course, Wolf, those statements are not only not true, but they are potentially dangerous and ingesting any cleaning products is certainly something that could potentially be lethal.

So, that only exacerbated the concerns among many of the President's aides and allies that these briefings could be not only self- defeating, but some form of self-sabotage, and indeed, the President has watched some of his numbers in those key battleground states have been going down as he has held these controversial briefings.

But Wolf, of course, beyond the briefings, there is a bigger question here about when the President makes those kinds of claims.

The C.D.C. had already been reporting an increase in the number of calls related to cleaning products and detergents in the last couple of months, and now the Illinois Public Health Director is saying that in the last two days since the President made those statements, there has been an increase to Poison Control Centers in Illinois as it relates to cleaning products and detergents -- Wolf. BLITZER: Yes, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have

to issue a statement yesterday, "household cleaners and disinfectants can cause health problems when not used properly. Follow the instructions on the product label to ensure a safe and effective use."

And if you take any of the cleaners including this one, it always says the same thing, "For external use only." There's some important reporting in "The Washington Post" that just moved a few minutes ago suggesting that the President and his aides are actually now working to also undermine the World Health Organization. What can you tell us about that?

DIAMOND: That's right, Wolf, well more than 10 days ago, the President halted funding to the World Health Organization saying that it was because the organization had mishandled the pandemic and really given too much credence to China's explanations and sometimes misinformation about the spread of this virus.

Earlier this week, Wolf, top State Department officials said that they were going to begin to redirect some of that funding for the World Health Organization to other nonprofit organizations that deal with public health issues directly.

And now "The Washington Post" is also reporting that officials are stripping references to the W.H.O. in internal fact sheets, and then at the United Nations, the United States is opposing a resolution addressing this global pandemic, not because of anything substantive it seems, beyond the fact that the World Health Organization is mentioned in it and that it talks about expressing support for the World Health Organization.

That is something that this White House and this administration is currently objecting to, but Wolf, even as the President and the White House suggest that it's because the World Health Organization took China's explanations for this pandemic at face value.

The President has also faced similar criticism, Wolf and that's because in January and in February, the President was repeatedly praising Chinese President Xi Jinping's response to this coronavirus pandemic and touting in fact, his transparency -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy, thanks very much. Jeremy Diamond reporting from the White House for us. Important news unfolding there as well.

Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly headed back to work on Monday after recovering from his fight against the coronavirus. The Prime Minister left the hospital on Easter Sunday and has spent the past few days recovering.

CNN's Bianca Nobilo is joining us from London right now. Bianca, his government is under fire for not responding to the crisis quickly enough. Any idea if his approach will change when he comes back?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Prime Minister said in his statement that it could have gone either way for him, meaning that when he was in the Intensive Care Unit, he might have lived or he might have died. So, he's not going to be a man unchanged by what he had just gone through.

In fact, it's just about a month since he first tested positive for coronavirus. So, it's been a really tumultuous time for him, and an even more tumultuous time, obviously for the country.

Now, at the moment, Britain looks on track to have one of the worst mortality rates and death tolls in the world. So, there are so many questions to be answered here. The government of the United Kingdom has been criticized from the outset for having confused messages, not communicating clearly.

Even now, some DIY shops are open while everybody is being told to stay at home and that only absolute essential workers can go out.

But it will probably be helpful for the country to have the Prime Minister return because there has, without doubt been a vacuum of leadership.

Now, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary was the man who stepped in to Boris Johnson's shoes when he needed to step down and recover from coronavirus, but he still wasn't acting as Prime Minister. He was delivering on what Boris Johnson had asked him to do.

So now that Boris Johnson is back, he will be leading. There will be tensions in the Cabinet that need to be reconciled between those who think the economic imperative that has to be followed, and those who just want to preserve life.

So Wolf, it's going to be interesting to see how the Prime Minister's brush with death is going to affect when he wants to lift this lockdown and how.

BLITZER: We'll watch it together with you and we wish him of course a very, very speedy recovery. We're encouraged that he is coming back to work. It could have gone, as he said, either way.

Bianca Nobilo in London, thank you very much.

Here in the United States, Colorado is one of several states slowly easing restrictions this weekend, but the Mayor of Denver is extending his city's stay-at-home order. He is standing by to join us live. He'll explain why.

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[19:43:53]

BLITZER: The death toll here in the United States is clearly climbing. Today, surpassing 53,000. Five weeks ago, 149 people in the United States were confirmed to have died from coronavirus.

The cases here in the United States down nearing one million, but some states are starting to reopen. Colorado, for example, plans to move from a stay-at-home order to, quote, "a safer-at-home order," meaning it will allow some businesses to reopen, but Denver will not.

The Mayor of Denver is extending the city's stay-at-home order for another two weeks, at least. The mayor, Michael Hancock is joining us now.

Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. Who are the residents of Denver supposed to listen to? Would it be you or the governor? Because clearly, you don't necessarily agree on this.

MAYOR MICHAEL HANCOCK (D), DENVER, CO: Thanks for having me, Wolf. Glad to be with you.

Hey, listen, we're trying to do everything we can to communicate appropriately. The governor and the state gave us a good baseline in which to respond to and the governor also encouraged cities to adapt the restrictions particularly if you're going to be more restrictive, you know, to go ahead and implement your rules.

And so we were ahead of the state when we implemented our stay-at-home orders. People complied. I trust the people of Denver to comply and to know that in Denver, we're going to continue to keep our order in place until we believe that it's safer and we have some controls in place. And at this point in time, it is May the 8th.

[19:45:21]

BLITZER: As you know, residents can simply drive out of the Denver area to places that are loosening restrictions. So, do you think the measures you're putting in place will really be effective if people, you know, they have that freedom of movement?

HANCOCK: Well, you know what, we encourage people, you know, if you have a job in a neighboring jurisdiction, and by the way, four of our immediately surrounding jurisdictions are also extending their stay- at-home orders until the 8th of May.

But if your job is in another jurisdiction, we encourage you to drive safely as you go to work every day. When you come back home, we ask you to stay at home unless you need to leave for essential you know, services or needs such as going to a pharmacy or to the grocery store.

So, nothing really changes in the City of Denver next week, except for allowing our medical and dental electives to go forward. But we are trying to do everything we can to continue to communicate to our residents so that they know that one, we're keeping orders in place and two, it is all in under the guise of keeping everyone safe and healthy to continue to deal with the coronavirus.

BLITZER: Has your Governor, Jared Polis been supportive of your decision to extend your order?

HANCOCK: Yes, he has. Actually, you know, the governor and I speak almost on a daily basis. And, you know, I kept him apprised of the fact that we may have to do things a little differently in Denver.

You know, we are the most populated part of the state. Our metro area is very dense, very populated. And so we have to look at things differently under our prism.

We know our cities and we have to make decisions accordingly. And as you see, not only Denver, but cities within our metropolitan region are also deciding to extend to May 8th.

And so, I communicated that to the governor. I explained why. He certainly understood. He says, you know what, that's fine. I get it. But let's make sure that we are messaging appropriately so that the people of the metropolitan region understand why we're doing what we're doing.

And I again, believe most people understand and they want us to put in place Wolf, you know, more testing. They want us to make sure we have our contact tracing in place.

They want to make sure that we give proper guidance to the businesses in Denver, so that when we do ease out of this, in phases, that everyone is clear and aligned with what we need to do and we simply, with our demographics, and our population density need more time to make sure we could do those things.

BLITZER: All right, Mayor Hancock, you've got a great city in Denver. Thanks so much for joining us. Good luck to all the folks where you are. I appreciate it very much.

Coronavirus, certainly presents a critical national security risk as well. How to keep over one million men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces safe? That's coming up next right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: Another U.S. Navy ship reporting an outbreak of the coronavirus this weekend. Military official say 33 sailors aboard the USS Kidd have tested positive with two needing to be medically evacuated to a hospital in the United States.

The Kidd is a destroyer. The crew was performing counter narcotics operations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The ship is now returning to port.

It is yet another example of the critical importance and national security implications of keeping members of the U.S. military safe. Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

Barbara, the Pentagon has faced some criticism about its initial response to this crisis. What's the latest that you're hearing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, as it all unfolded several weeks ago, there were a lot of questions. How soon did the Pentagon to really know that this was a pandemic and what was going on? How it was spreading? How soon did they move to get hospital equipment and gear out there?

The Pentagon will tell you that they really did scramble in the initial weeks. The Army Corps of Engineers building hospitals, sending masks, gowns, personal protective equipment, trying to get U.S. medical personnel out there in key cities to try and help, sending the hospital ships.

That has been a scramble, and now, the real question that is emerging is how does the U.S. military settle in like the rest of the country for the long haul, but they have some really difficult problems ahead of them.

Right now, the major issue is testing, just like for the rest of us in the country. How do you send military units out there? Ships, infantry units, Army, Air Force, Marines? These are people that live and work very close together, social distancing may be very, very difficult.

They want to be able to test 60,000 military personnel a month, pardon me, a day actually, and that may be weeks off before they can do that.

BLITZER: The Navy is now recommending that the Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Barbara, in a related development -- they're recommending that Captain Brett Crozier be restored to command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier.

Esper has said, he had to review recommendations. What are you hearing? Will the Captain -- will his command be restored?

STARR: The Navy leadership has recommended that Captain Brett Crozier be restored to command of the aircraft carrier, one of the most high level commands at sea that you can have.

He is obviously very respected by his crew and we will just have to see. Right now, it's still all on hold by the Defense Secretary.

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BLITZER: Well, let's see what he decides to do. All right, Barbara. Thanks very much.

Meanwhile, there's important new information emerging right now from the World Health Organization, and what it may mean for the chances of securing a vaccine. That's coming up live. New developments right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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