♪ hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. and coming up here on "cnn newsroom" as the world struggles with the coronavirus, some hope in california. the u.s. government approving a test that promises results in under an hour. plus, thousands of americans trying to return to the states because of the virus, in limbo, stuck because of travel restrictions. we'll talk to a journalist trying to return from peru. and we'll take you inside one of italy's intensive care units to see how doctors and nurses are dealing with the overwhelming number of patients.

thanks for your company, everyone. the coronavirus pandemic spreading so quickly around the world that health experts are having a tough time keeping track of all the new cases. right now johns hopkins university reporting more than 307,000 covid-19 infections worldwide. more than 13,000 people have died. in europe, italy, and spain have been getting hit the hardest. on saturday health officials in madrid reporting a dramatic spike of 5,000 cases across the country in just 24 hours. and the prime minister warned the crisis is only beginning. >> translator: unfortunately the worst is yet to come. there are still hard days ahead. we will still have to receive the impact of the hardest most

damaging wave which will put all of our material and moral capacities to the limit. >> but there are some encouraging signs. the u.s. government has approved a covid-19 test that could speed up the verification of new infections. that kit promises to deliver test results in less than one hour instead of days. they could begin shipping as early as this week. but as cases soar in the u.s., health officials are offering new guidelines on testing. >> reporter: the number of coronavirus cases climbing as tens of thousands of people have been tested, and now some doctors are signaling a shift in their testing strategy. >> not every single person in the united states needs to get tested. >> reporter: health officials in new york city and los angeles are recommending doctors avoid testing patients, except in cases where the result would significantly change treatment. >> when you go in and get tested, you are consuming personal protective equipment,

masks and gowns. >> reporter: this comes as healthcare workers are sounding the alarm saying medical supplies like masks and gloves are starting to run out. >> we absolutely feel like we are in this alone as doctors, nurses, paramedics and even hospitals. >> reporter: the white house coronavirus task force says those much needed supplies are on the way. >> hhs just placed an order for hundreds of millions of n95 masks that will be made available to health care providers across the country. >> reporter: meanwhile president trump urging americans to heed warnings from federal health officials to slow the spread of coronavirus. >> every american has a role to play in defending our nation from this invisible, horrible enemy. >> reporter: on saturday more than one-fifth of americans were under orders to stay home. that's about 75 million people in connecticut, illinois, new york, and california where authorities say only essential workers are allowed to wait from home. >> stay at home and save lives. there's a time of shared

national sacrifice. >> italy has so far more covid-19 cases than any other country in europe. on saturday reporting another staggering number of fatalities. nearly 800 deaths in 24 hours in hard-hit northern italy hospitals are at breaking point, by some count, one death every two minutes. cnn's melissa bell has that report. >> reporter: the front line of europe's battle against the coronavirus. with its soldiers in a race against time that is so far being lost. northern italian hospitals like this one already creaking under the strain. dr. angelo shows us around its operating rooms now transformed into makeshift intensive care units, the icus themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of covid-19 patients. >> there is not enough room in the icu.

and in if milan will be badly strike by the outbreak, it's going to be a big problem for everybody. >> reporter: beyond the shortage of beds and ventilators, the doctors getting sick themselves. dr. pan has had one day off in the last six weeks. he says total confinement is the world's only hope. >> we can win the battle. if the people keep on having contacts with each other outside in the restaurants in the bars, in the super markets, and so the infection will spread, will keep on spreading, and it's going to be very tough. >> reporter: and his message from the front line to the outside world. >> stay home and think about lives. this is a good opportunity. >> reporter: melissa bell, cnn.

>> and a mother's day warning from the british day prime minister boris johnson do not visit loved ones. the national health service could be, quote, overwhelmed if people don't act now to slow the spread of covid-19. the latest new plans for the uk after a change of tactic by the government. >> you rarely hear the message don't go see your mother but that's exactly what prime minister boris johnson told the nation yesterday warning that despite the fact that today is mother's day in the united kingdom, he urged everyone to practice social distancing and to avoid seeing people saying the best present to give their mother is to not expose them potentially to coronavirus. now the lockdown in the united kingdom really got started on friday evening when the government shutdown pretty much any place that people would congregate, pubs, restaurants,

gyms, leisure centers, schools finally closed down. this comes after some criticism the united kingdom did not do this sooner. and boris johnson was warning yesterday that the uk is not far behind italy. he says italy has a very good health system. and if they're being overwhelmed that the nhs will be overwhelmed unless people take these social distancing guidelines very seriously. in some good news though the health secretary did announce that after they put out a call calling for retired health workers to come back within 48 hours he said they had about 5,000 nurses and 500 doctors react to that call and volunteer to sign back up and come back into the health service. there has also been a deal reached with private hospitals in the united kingdom to provide beds and material and doctors to the national health care service as part of this nationalized fight either trying to give this sort of more time to the drey saying everybody, even if you're not connected to anybody who might be vulnerable, everybody

here must do their part. michael? >> yeah, take care. well, for those fighting this pandemic, the demand for life-saving ventilators far exceeds supply. we are taken inside one company to get the equipment to those who so desperately need it. >> reporter: washington state is still home to the highest number of deaths related to coronavirus. and what we're learning is that there is a deepening fear here that if a situation in italy is mirrored here in the united states, that people could die here because there simply aren't enough ventilators. the vast majority of us will survive novel coronavirus, but for many of those who become critically ill, their lives will depend on whether there are enough ventilator systems to save them. >> we simply are not going to have enough ventilators or enough capacity if we allow this virus to take the national

course that it will. we are at war. >> reporter: the virus has now hit every state. and if the u.s. outbreak tracks similarly to what happened in italy, experts say hospitals will be overwhelmed. >> we are so incredibly underprepared for a major onslaught to the hospitals which is basically now inevitable. >> reporter: the desperation for ventilators made clear by governors around the country. >> we have about 5 or 6,000 secured. we need 30,000. i mean, this is a bad situation. >> we do not want to be in a position that the poor people of italy are where, you know, they're deciding who's going to live and who's going to die because they don't have enough respirators they don't have enough equipment. >> reporter: and that's exactly where we could find ourselves, experts warn. there are only about 12 large-scale global companies that produce ventilators. but there are also start-ups trying to help fill the gaps. one of them is smack in the middle of where the deadliest outbreak of coronavirus has

happened yet in the entire united states. >> all of our different assembly lines here. >> have this company is located just outside seattle, washington. it's racing to produce ventilator systems trying to go from making hundreds of units a month to thousands. >> it's not just a matter of having enough ventilators. there are many other things that work in conjunction with the ventilator to keep patients alive. we're talking about oxygen, cough assist, also a suction unit and a neb lieser. all of these things have to work properly to keep someone breathing. and this company has been able to put all of these things into one device that can work in the hospital but it can also work at home. who is reaching out to you asking about your product? >> we are literally having conversations with state, federal, and local authorities on a regular basis. we're trying to do as much as we can to increase our production capacity to meet the demand and help save lives. >> reporter: he said government officials from 65 other countries are in talks with them

as well as hospitals. the society of critical of medicine says there are about 60,000 functional machines in the u.s. nearly 100,000 that were obsolete but could be used. and even with all those, it would not meet america's need if the italy scenario happens here. >> the only way you save lives right now without a vaccine is having access to a ventilator. >> reporter: those in america's stockpile are only supposed to bridge the gap until industry can camp up. that's why this operation is now going 24/7. his employees can't work from home, so there's a serious effort to ensure they don't contract the virus. they are greeted as we were with a thermometer, hand sanitizer, and gloves for those who can maneuver testing and assembling parts with them on. the product is tested here and shipped here. >> show he how the machine works. >> everything can be accessed literally at the touch of a button. so let's say i want to activate a patient's cough.

i can preset a small cough, a big cough and all i have to do is hit start. >> reporter: the question still not answered, how many units will be needed to ensure no one dies simply because there weren't enough ventilator systems to breathe life into them. and that is the big question. just how many of these ventilators may be needed once the novel coronavirus hits its peak here in the united states? cnn, seattle. when we come back, desperate to get home. what the u.s. government is doing to help americans get home from abroad. 5g will change business in america. t-mobile has the first and only, nationwide 5g network. and with it, you can shape the future. we've invested 30 billion dollars and built our new 5g network for businesses like yours. while some 5g signals only go a few blocks, t-mobile 5g goes for miles. no other 5g signal goes farther

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get it! get it! crowd chanting: get it! get it! get it! (crowd groaning) (crowd cheering) narrator: give your town a reason to celebrate because every goodwill item you bring home, brings job training and more to your community. goodwill. bring good home. welcome back. spain's prime minister urging his country to stay strong because he says the worst is yet to come. predicting what he calls hard days ahead. spain on lockdown and the death toll from the coronavirus now more than 1,300. even though that number is expected to climb, an american family living in madrid is not getting to leave. ♪

>> reporter: while there's trumpet practice upstairs, there is homework to do downstairs. this is what spain's mandatory quarantine looks like for this family. >> i didn't think it was going to get this bad. i thought maybe just be cautious and stay away, you know, distance and all that. but to stay home and not be able to go out, that was a little harsh. but we're dealing with it. rvlti >> reporter: this couple is originally from chicago. we didn't want to risk bringing the virus into their home so we stayed in the backyard and spoke with them from a distance. veronica also sent us these videos of her 13 and 14-year-old boys' new routine. school is now online. soccer training is in the backyard. and there are plenty of chores. >> quarantine has been family time. >> lots of family time. >> we can't be together 20 hours a day. so we all have to find our place to go be alone for a little

while too. >> reporter: in spain the number of coronavirus deaths has been rising dramatically. the vast majority are in madrid. spaniards are only allowed to walk the dog or go to the grocery store or go to work. their phones haven't stopped ringing since the crisis began. >> we are kind of like the guinea pigs for anybody at home. my point has been prudence. i haven't told people to panic, but be prudent. >> reporter: prudent and patient if america's future looks anything like spain's. >> it is a very different story for thousands of other americans who are stranded abroad by the pandemic. they are desperate to get back home, especially after the u.s. state department issued its highest level travel alert saying not to travel abroad at all, getting them home is the issue now.

>> reporter: there are thousands of americans who want to get home due to the global impact that coronavirus is having. and that is essential true for americans who are in places that have closed off their borders or has closed off their international air space. it's also especially true because just this week the state department put out its highest level travel warning telling americans do not travel abroad anywhere. now this is generally a level four that's reserved for places like afghanistan or syria where americans could face seriously deadly situations. but there are still americans who are stuck abroad like chris in montarose. she is an emergency nurse. she is someone who wants to get back to the united states and is worried about how long she is going to be stuck in peru. >> my biggest fear is being here for a long time. i need to get back to work. the hospital needs me. and i'm terrified as to how long

we're going to be here without state department intervention. >> these first efforts are combine commercial/private flights that will fly in and bring them back to a destination here in the united states. so we'll do that. there are some that will travel back other ways as well. >> there was a u.s. charter out of morocco for americans who were stranded there on friday. that was arranged by the state department. the state department also worked with the pentagon on friday to arrange an air mission for a women's football team who was stuck in honduras. we are waiting to hear more specifics about what else the state department will do to help americans who want to get home. kylie atwood. and joining me now is a u.s. journalist who is stuck in peru due to the coronavirus pandemic. dylan, appreciate you taking the

time. how did you, and, let's face it, so many others end up stranded like this? >> i left colombia on march 10th to go do some travels around the continent before i left. moved back to texas. and on monday night we came in from the countryside into this town and got the abrupt order that all ground transportation, all land transportation had been shut down, and the next day police would be enforcing a quarantine. so until now, there is no intercity transport running, whether buses or planes. and we are in this city until this order is lifted, which now presumably will be march 31st. >> i'm curious what you're doing, what you're eating, all of that made more difficult as a foreigner, i imagine. >> it hasn't been that bad. the first day we took emergency shelter in a pretty small dingy

hotel. we had to get in off the street quickly. luckily i got out of there and i'm in an airbnb. there is a market down the street which is open some days. i got some like lamb ribs and a half chicken and beef ribs and lots of good stuff. so actually i've been cooking quite extravagantly in here because we're not supposed to leave. other than that i have passed the time taking notes on the president's coronavirus talks, both the peruvian president and the american president, following the news, um, yeah, reading books. >> i've seen several americans stuck overseas in other places as well. complaining that they couldn't get through to consular services. i didn't get the support basically of embassies and the like. what's happened? >> i'll say tonight the response has picked up just in the last few hours. before that it was very

disappointing. many americans, myself included, called the embassy to have no answer, only automated email responses. and this we saw as they were flying people out, colombia, mexico, israel, france were able to get their people out of the country, and we had dead phone lines at our embassy. automated email response did for a while refer us to the airlines which they said we're trying to organize special flights out. and now this evening we have got word from the embassy that they are working on flights to get more than 1,600 americans out of here. they have registered themselves on a google doc. so we know there's at least that many of us stuck here. >> 1,600 americans and it's taken till now to get some results. i wish you well. i hope you're out of here and we can talk when you're back home.

dylan, extraordinary stuff. i've heard a lot of this going on around the world. hopefully everyone's going to get back home pretty soon. thank you so much. well, an uncertain future looms for many businesses, obviously, during this ongoing coronavirus crisis. and the smaller the shop, the more precarious the outlook, it seems. we spoke to a british florist who should be doing a booming business right now because it is mother's day in the uk. instead, he is putting on a brave face and adapting for what could be the new normal. >> reporter: dennis has been supplying the london suburb since 2007. up until recently his business was blooming. but that was before the coronavirus. >> it's beginning to get difficult. we're a bit like the swan syndrome all along the top,

looks very serene and calm, but underneath we are paddling away like nothing else. >> reporter: like many resalers he's seen a sharp drop as more and more people avoid going out. that's a problem if, like, dennis, your most important day of the calendar is just around the corner. >> mother's day for us is the big one. we've got three what we call big peaks within the industry. the first one is christmas, and the second one is valentine's day, and the third one is mother's day. >> reporter: millions of britains celebrate this sunday with floral gifts making up a hefty chunk of the $2 billion worth of flowers and plants sold here each year. but the industry is one of small players, vulnerable to swings in demand. the uk is home to 7,500 florists. and as a result they can't afford to let stock like this go to waste. >> we can't close at the end of mothering sunday with half a shop full of flowers.

>> reporter: with many of dennis's customs over 70 and self-isolating he's having to adapt taking more orders over the phone and streamlining his range. deliveries, these days the personal touch comes with gloves on and from a safe distance. with the summer wedding season looking precarious, there is no end in sight. so to cushion the blow, dennis will apply for newly announced government help. >> good afternoon. hello. >> reporter: for now the support dennis can count upon comes from his regulars like john turner who, despite his age, has ventured out to place his order for the weekend. >> it's mother's day on sunday and i came to get some flowers for my wife, also some nice flowers to make her a bit happier on mother's day. >> reporter: dennis is trying to stay upbeat as well. but for certain sectors like his, the future looks far from

rosy. cnn. italy being ravaged by covid-19. there are now so many dead, it takes the military to transport all the bodies. we'll have the latest on the pandemic when we come back. how bout no? no. uh uh, no way. ♪ come on. no.

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and welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm michael holmes. you're watching "cnn newsroom." it is time to check the headlines for you this hour. the u.s. government has approved a new coronavirus test kit that promises to deliver results in

under an hour instead of days. those could begin shipping as early as this week. italy reporting a staggering number of coronavirus deaths, nearly 800 in just 24 hours. military trucks are being used to transport the bodies. johns hopkins university says italy has more than 53,000 cases of the infection. that is the highest number in europe and twice any other country outside of china. the british prime minister boris johnson urging britains to avoid personal visits with loved ones on sunday, the country's mother's day holiday. the spread of covid-19 is ac accelerating and says without widespread social distancing the national health service could be overwhelmed. in the united states, states and local governments are getting increasingly implementing new restrictions. and in the face of a dire shortage of medical supplies in

the world's richest country, president donald trump giving himself high marks once again. now jeremy diamond reports from the white house. >> reporter: while president trump on saturday was touting the increased production of those masks and respirators that he said we'll begin shipping out millions of those supplies over the coming weeks. but we are already seeing across the united states doctors, nurses, hospitals already beginning to face shortages of that personal protective equipment that is so crucial in this fight against coronavirus. that's why i asked the president today specifically about some of those concerns from doctors and perhaps what may have been done in the weeks prior. i know you're talking now about increasing production at so many of these facilities on how to get the masks out. but given that this is the powerful, wealthiest country in the world shouldn't this have been resolved weeks ago? >> many administrations preceded me. for the most part they did very

little in terms of what you're talking about. this is inprecedented. you can speak to tony, you can speak to anybody. this is unprecedented. as time goes by it's at a level that nobody would've thought possible. the fact is that we are doing a tremendous amount. we started with very few masks. we had some but nothing for an event like this. and now we're making tens of millions of masks and other things. and i think it's unprecedented what we've done and what we're doing. and many doctors, and i've read many, many doctors, they can't believe the great job that we've done. >> the president once again touting what his administration is doing right now. but the crucial question really is what could have been done perhaps in weeks and months prior. again, the united states began to learn about this coronavirus in early january. we are now nearly three months later. and the administration is now facing a crisis of much larger proportions. now, the president was also

pressed specifically on his remarks about china. we saw the president today actually get a lot more critical of china for the fact that it was secretive in many respects as far as providing information about this coronavirus epidemic that it was dealing with. that is a concern that i have heard from several advisers close to the president for weeks, even months, in some cases. but for the president this was really a newton. and that's why i asked the president what has changed. >> i have great respect for china. i like china. i think the people of china are incredible. i have a tremendous relationship with president xi. i wish they could have told us earlier about what was going on and said we didn't know about it until it started coming out publicly. but i wish they could have told us earlier because we could have come up with a solution. >> reporter: you can hear the president there saying he wished china had been transparent earlier. the president's tweet about that praising china's transparency at the time came in late january, about a month after china

notified the world health organization about this coronavirus. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. when we come back, medical supplies needed to treat the coronavirus are dwindling and concerns about patient care growing. when we come back, how the lessons learned in world war ii could help combat the pandemic. we'll be right back.

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welcome back. u.s. medical workers say supplies vital to treat the coronavirus are dwindling and they're afraid that could compromise care. that has many experts saying the country should be on a wartime footing. so perhaps lessons from the past can show us a way forward. cnn's tom foreman explains. >> reporter: for iron will, patriotism and unified effort, the second word war stands alone. >> to this day nobody's seen anything like it what they were able to do world war ii.

and now it's our time. ♪ >> reporter: the 1940s under the war powers act, the president could effectively order industry to produce military supplies and prioritize delivery of military goods. >> all work is war work. >> reporter: he could impose censorship, manipulate the economy, even suspend common rights such as when japanese-americans were locked up. and, importantly, roosevelt commanded a vast expansion of the nation's medical capabilities. historian douglas brinkley. >> it was during world war ii that fdr unleashed our scientists and medical experts to produce penicillin for the first time. different types of medicines to fight malaria. new ways of doing skin graphs to help people that were burned. we've been living off of it ever since. >> reporter: the public widely supported the war effort with roughly one out of ten americans serving, the demand for labor brought women out in droves to take up tools on factory floors. >> how do you like it?

>> i love it. >> reporter: challenges were met time and again strictly enforced lights-out air raid drills were conducted, rubber, gasoline, sugar and more were rationed. many families planted vegetable gardens and bought war bonds. even hollywood had a mission. in movie after movie raising spirits and tieing the home front to the battlefront. >> where are you from, joe? >> louisiana. >> reporter: it was not perfect but it all worked well enough that more than a half century later another president and other americans are echoing the message of those difficult times. >> everybody's to learn from world war ii. we can get through it. we can win. >> reporter: to be sure, president trump is not president roosevelt, and many of his critics are hesitant to see him get any more power. but medical experts seem to largely agree no matter who is leading the charge, the nation will have to pull together or

one by one more of us will fold. tom foreman, cnn, washington. now that was world war ii. but the last time the world dealt with a virus this contagious, this deadly, it was 1918. that's when a respiratory virus, influenza, invaded the human population and killed between 50 and 100 million people. so, what lessons might we learn from that outbreak? fortunately, we have with us john barry, the author of "rising tide and the great influenza." it is great to have your expertise on this. 15 years ago when bird flu was rampant, you as a historian were called on to help to share the lessons of 1918. what were the main ones that resonate even now in this situation? >> well, you know, i was part of this group for the federal government that was preparing a

pandemic preparedness plan. and unfortunately now we have a pandemic. the main lessons from 1918 were, two. number one, social distancing measures, and this is probably more important, is to tell the truth. because you can't get people to comply with the social distancing measures unless they know why they are doing it, unless they believe in what they're doing, and they won't do that unless they are told the truth. that's sort of the key to getting any widescale public compliance on anything. >> yeah. and we're in a situation of course where often from certain politicians, we are getting less than the truth and having to be corrected by the scientists. i mean, you also point out how even firm measures that were taken in 1918, things like isolation, closures, and so on, became lax and ultimately less

effective. so how then to keep these measures in place, avoid that complacency? >> that's why the messaging is so important. that has to be driven home. in 1918, as you just pointed out, even in army bases, it's one thing for a few days or even a week. but as you stretch out beyond that to maintain the discipline to do the right thing every time to be careful every time. that really requires intense effort. even in sars a lot of healthcare workers died, and it's hypothesized that at least some of them infected themselves when they were taken off their protective equipment. and they knew how to do it, but they got a little bit lax and made some error in that process, and it ended up infecting them

and killing them. >> getting on to it early too, i think you'd agree, you mentioned scenarios and you were involved in this, several tests as recently as last year, and they all seem to predict pretty much what's happening, the shortages, and so on. and in some ways it feels like lessons were not learned, heeding warns were not heeded, a complacency of sorts. does that worry you that even when this is over we slip back and we're not ready again next time? >> well, i mean, that happens. we have a national stockpile that includes ventilators and other things. it was designed for influenza, but this is another respiratory virus. it's very similar. the virus itself is quite different, but the disease, the way the virus infects the body, and so forth is similar. we knew that we didn't have

enough ventilators in the stockpile. the issue is will congress and whoever is president invest in maintaining a lot more ventilators in the stockpile? it's expensive and they wonder if it's worth the money, and we have the answer today that it would've been worth the money, but they didn't make the investment. >> yeah. it does seem stunning that these models that were done, these theoretical scenarios that were acted out, and really predicted exactly what we're seeing. when you're talking about 1918, more than a century later, we have obvious medical advances. we got technology communications. how does that help, and does rapid spread of both, you know, good and bad information hinder the fight? >> well, obviously bad information undermines compliance, particularly when it

came from fox news. you had sean hannity, rush limbaugh, you had hannity calling it a hoax as recently as ten days ago. the president called it a hoax. that didn't help. it left a lot of people convinced that it wasn't a big deal. and when they need to comply, when they need to stay put, not mix, not go to parties, or host parties, they need to believe as the president now says, he is taking it seriously now. but that two months of minimizing the risk makes it harder to get the public to listen. we will see what happens. we don't know. it's a very -- there is a

possibility that we can make great progress with the measures that we're taking now if people comply with the recommendations. if they don't, we are in for it. i hope that's not the case. >> it is depressing, looking back at your book and what happened in 1918 and, you know, parallels of complacency and late action is all very depressing. john barry, out of time. i appreciate it. well, it turns out something you drink comes in pretty handy in the fight against covid-19. next, one distiller's efforts to fight the outbreak. we'll be right back. 5g will change business in america. t-mobile has the first and only, nationwide 5g network. and with it, you can shape the future. we've invested 30 billion dollars

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(crowd groaning) (crowd cheering) narrator: give your town a reason to celebrate because every goodwill item you bring home, brings job training and more to your community. goodwill. bring good home. welcome back. as coronavirus spreads communities are pulling together in inventive ways. our migualma gel marquez put uph a distiller making a much needed

product in his community, hand sanitizer. >> reporter: eight oaks distillers in eastern pennsylvania like anywhere was about to shutdown and wait out the pandemic. but its owner husband to a cancer survivor saw another need to the main ingredient in hand sanitizer, alcohol. >> we're very good at making alcohol, that's our business. so what we can do is we can take that alcohol and add some inactive ingredients and create the hand sanitizer people are in need of. >> reporter: the local support cancer group needed, so did hospitals, nearby towns and businesses that had to keep working. >> this is an unprecedented time we're in. i don't think it's a time for panic or chaos, but it is a time for a sense of urgency and purpose. >> reporter: so appalled at reports of hoarding and price gouging eight oaks stopped making gin and bourbon and cranked up the hand sanitizer.

>> what we're doing right now is literally taking what was going to be a bourbon run and making that a high proof alcohol instead. we'll add things like glycerin to make it more viscus on your hands and a bit of peroxide. it's very, very simple. the thing is just the alcohol is the hard part. we already know how to do that. >> reporter: just hours after hatching the plan the first batch only a few hundred bottles, the requests way more than they can fill. they were in desperate need for even more bottles. >> this is bottle stock that we have leftover. we had a soap and lotion business where we employed adults with disabilities. >> reporter:line lynn shut tha business down due to personal reasons she heard about the business and had just what they needed in storage all for free. >> it says the last time i checked we're not in this alone, that we all have to come

together to keep moving everything forward. >> reporter: who retired from the army in 2015 is now scaling up. the army chief officer turned entrepreneur expects to turn out 10,000 bottles per week. if it turns outright he'll be hiring. i'm sure you didn't think you'd be busier given what's happened? >> no, but we are 100% committed to providing this product out to the people that need it in the community. it's perfect. >> reporter: one business, one community in rural pennsylvania coming together in a time of need. skrau scrawled on a white board in their makeshift workspace, their simple mission, get hand sanitizer to those in need. if you think the story can't get any sweeter, it does. how much are they selling this stuff for? they're actually giving it a away asking for donations only. but if they can't afford it, you can also get it for free.

this also becoming a bit of a friend for distillers in the u.s. and around the world. >> well, the coronavirus outbreak couldn't stop true love. amanda wheeler and riley jennings got married on friday, and they did it on the streets of manhattan. they were supposed to be wed in seven months, but they tied the knot now because of the outbreak. and their friend officiated practicing social distancing by calling the vows from his fourth floor window. >> we have gathered here today to witness the exchanging of marriage vows of amanda wheeler and riley jennings who promise to love, honor and cherish for as long as you both shall live. if you do say i do. >> i do!

>> by the state of new york i pronounce you married! >> the couple had intended to get married at the city's marriage bureau but it's closed of course due to the crisis. something to make you smile. we all need it, don't we? thanks for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm michael holmes. i'll be back, though, with more news in just a moment. last one.

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hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes, and coming up here on "cnn newsroom," unprecedented times. that's what president trump is calling the novel coronavirus pandemic. but he assures the american public more supplies are on the way. are they? meanwhile in italy -- a warning from a doctor in cremona as italy marks nearly 800 deaths in one day. also we'll take a look at just how this pandemic unfolded from the beginning. as the world wrestles with an unprecedented pandemic a california biotech company might help. the u.s. government has