starting this process. >> just stay positive. >> yeah, just stay positive. that's the only way. and remain hopeful. i mean, we remain hopeful that a vaccine is going to come out soon. >> reporter: that's something the whole world is hoping for. ivan watson, cnn, hong kong. >> incredible. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. >> and good evening from new york. a city which is now the epicenter of the virus in this country with more than 15,000 people here known to be infected. we begin with breaking news at the end of the day that saw the number of coronavirus cases in the country topped 52,000 and the death toll rise by 150. nearly 700 people in this country have died of the virus so far. nearly 700 men, women and now at least one young person have died. that person believed to be a teenager. the case numbers are spiking in states across the country. louisiana, georgia, and florida.

but the epicenter, the new ground zero as i said, is here in new york city. hospital officials and everyone who makes a run will tell everyone who will listen they're approaching the breaking point. doubling up patients on ventilators. in a moment we're going to be joined by a doctor working in one of the busiest e.r.s. the message for the president of the united states seemed at odds with what the doctors and governors are telling us, what they are seeing. today the president of the united states stood a few feet in front of his scientific advisors, but really was miles away from him in his stunningly rosy assessment of what is happening and how his administration is responding to it. the president said and i quote, we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. i just want to repeat that. the president of the united states today said, we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. perhaps if the president had actually served in vietnam instead of getting deferments, he might remember another white house either for the war to end

that talked about lights at the end of the tunnel. that was 1967. half a million americans were fighting in vietnam and the claims made by the generals in the white house about the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be very wrong indeed. turned out to be a very long and deadly tunnel. saigon finally fell in 1975. despite the more somber tone of the scientific advisors, the president again signalling he wants to ease restrictions on the country's sooner rather than later. task force member deb la burkes laid out the breaking news. >> to everyone who has left new york over the last few days because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left new york. and i think like governor desantis has put out today, everybody who was in new york should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesn't spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether it's florida, north carolina, or out to far

reaches of long island. we are starting to see new cases across long island that suggest people have left the city. so this will be very critical that those individuals do self-quarantine in their homes over these next 14 days to make sure they don't pass the virus to others. based on the time that they left new york. >> so now we check with the cdc and the white house website for any signs of what dr. burkes laid out. there weren't any, which only adds to the confusion about whether this is a mandate, part of the president's guidelines which she mentioned a few sentences prior or something else. the president was asked as he was leaving the room by cnn's kaitlan collins when he gave governor cuomo a heads up. he didn't answer the question. he did say he was taking measures to help the state and the city, he said we were near the end of this instead of what experts suggest is early days. >> this tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see

the light at the end of the tunnel. ultimately the goal is to ease the guidelines and open things up to very large sections of our country as we near the end of our historic battle with the invisible enemy. we've been going for a while, but we'll win. we'll win. i said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. i think that would be a great thing for our country, and we're all working very hard to make that a reality. >> as we learned during katrina, hope is not a plan. at the briefing the president did underscore that his decisions would be based on hard facts and data, which is a bit of a softening of what he said just a few hours before. listen to what he said on fox news. >> so, i think easter sunday and you'll have packed churches all over our country. i think it would be a beautiful time. and it's just about the time line that i think is right. it gives us more chance to work on what we're doing and i'm not

sure that's going to be the day, but i would love to aim it right at easter sunday so we're open forechur for church service and services generally. that would be a beautiful thing. >> that also may be the last thing you want to do, even at the tail end of an outbreak if, in fact, it's the tail end of an outbreak, which there is no sign it is. let alone where the experts worry we might actually be come easter. we're going to discuss this, of course, tonight with medical professionals. we start with cnn's jim accosta. jim, how is the white house squaring the president's call for packed churches on easter sunday with the reality of the pandemic? i mean, talking about a light at the end of the tunnel is -- i'm not sure what tunnel he's looking at. >> reporter: anderson, it was kind of a medical mission accomplished moment for the president. he was talking about the country being near the end of an historic battle. for many doctors, nurses, hospitals, governors and mayors,

the battle has just begun. the president also said during the briefing it was a lot shorter than the ones we've seen in recent days, he's going to be listening to the expertise of dr. debra burkes, and anthony fauci, the doctors on his task force. dr. fauci told reporters earlier the president and the administration need to be very flexible, as he put it, in terms of this easter time line. anderson, we have not gotten any sense as to what the battle plan is, which parts of the country are going to be opened up first, which states is he leaning towards in terms of opening up those states to being back to normal once again. and one other thing, anderson, i think we need to reflect on and that is something i heard from a source close to the coronavirus task force earlier today. and that is we could be in a situation, anderson, where we open things back up and find cases spiking and then have to shut things back down. in the words of this source close to the coronavirus task force, that would certainly complicate things. anderson? >> even the few scientists who are talking about, you know, a more surgical way to do this and maybe letting younger people

going back to work. even those people are saying we don't have enough data right now to even know when something like that might be possible. so the idea that the president has, you know, just picked randomly this easter date is kind of astounding. the president said as he did today the state governors need to treat his administration as well, need to treat the administration well because it's a, quote, two-way street. does he grasp what the federal government's role is supposed to be? because i mean, it sounded like he basically was saying the governors need to be nice to the white house given that they control the sending of some supplies from the stockpile. >> reporter: yeah, anderson, that's exactly what the president seems to be saying. he's been sort of putting together a naughty and nice list for these governors fanned out across the country. the problem is he has to work with these governors or else the outbreak, the pandemic is going

to get worse. i will tell you, anderson, one thing the president needs to be aware of is that he may need these governors when it comes to reopening this economy. obviously the president could issue new guidelines next week saying people can go back to work, they can go back to school or they can start loosening up on these social distancing guidelines, but he needs the governors to implement that. i'm not so sure governor cuomo or governor newsome out in california, they're going to be in the mood to follow the president's lead on this if they think he's leading them off the edge of a cliff. so at this point, anderson, the president's rhetoric is just not in line with the reality at this point. and the white house, my sense of it is having a tough time reeling them in. anderson? >> jim accosta joining us. thanks. joining us sanjay gupta and gloria borger. sanjay, the guideline or the statement that, you know, we heard from the white house today from burkes that anyone who is in new york needs to self-quarantine for 14 days if

they've left the city. does that make sense to you? because i mean, the cdc, they're not even saying people need to 14-day quarantine any more, right? >> yeah, i mean, that's not part of the guidelines any more. so that did surprise me, anderson, saying anybody who is leaving new york city going somewhere else has to quarantine themselves for 14 days. look, i think the general recommendation for the country is that as much as possible, that you stay home, you know. that's for everybody in the country. it is true that new york has more cases. in part, that probably, in part, reflects more testing. you know, obviously a densely populated city like that with public transportation, you're going to have more cases, but you have a lot of cases in washington. you have a lot of cases in california. i just thought it was interesting that new york was sort of singled out like this. i think the general recommendation in some ways, there are sort of stay at home recommendations for the whole country and people shouldn't be getting on planes for

nonessential travel anyways. i don't know where this specific 14-day quarantine like this came from. >> and, sanjay, the cdc guidelines keep changing. on the other hand, i guess it's a fluid situation. >> right. i mean, you know, this is considered a hot spot, new york city, and that was the case i think ambassador burkes was making. you're more likely to be diagnosed with coronavirus after a test there than in other places, even in the state of new york. but still, right now the guidance is this. stay home as much as possible. everyone should do that. if you have symptoms, you should definitely be doing that. but even if you don't, if you can be at home, that's the guidance. the idea to layer on top of that for people who are in new york, if they go somewhere else, to also quarantine. maybe that's obvious. i don't know. it was a little curious as to why new york specifically was being singled out here. i mean, there's other states where this virus is circulating.

as you know, anderson, we've been under testing, so that's why it's more widespread than people realize. >> i don't think the scientists are political, but does politics have anything to do with it? clearly the president, he's reading from a paper, he says things are great with him and governor cuomo. but clearly governor cuomo has been very on top of this and very vocal in the needs of the city and clearly the president earlier today had a jibe against cuomo during a televised town hall. >> well, there was no answer to kaitlan collins' question whether cuomo got a heads up, anderson. we'll have to wait and hear about that. we'll certainly hear from the governor tomorrow on this. but all of this today was a surprise, all of it. the sort of let's all get this done by easter and go to church together. that was a surprise. and i, you know, tony fauci

alluded to a meeting in the oval office where he, seems to me, laid down the law to the president and said, look, you need to be flexible because we have to see where we are depending on where the facts lead us and where the science leads us. and that's why the president kind of said, okay, well, he wants to be guided by professionals and maybe we do sections of the country. but i think all of this is kind of stunning and you can just see the scientists twisting themselves into pretzels to not overtly contradict the president, but put it out there that this just may not happen. and as for the governors, governor hogan of maryland called it -- i'm looking at my notes here -- called it an imaginary time line. >> sanjay, it's just incredibly -- i'm sorry. it is incredibly irresponsible and, you know, even if some

people are able to go back to work, even if they figure out a way to, you know -- and the president himself talked about you can social distance at work. even come april, it is somehow magically dissipated. the idea that it would be a good idea for people to gather en masse -- in masses in churches and all across the country in three weeks' time is just ludicrous. >> yeah, i mean, look, the real concern is all these efforts, all the sacrifice that people are making right now, you don't want it to be wasted. if you take your foot off the pedal and suddenly there is a dramatic increase in the number of cases and the pace at which they're increasing goes up, that's obviously -- that's a terrible sort of outcome because you've sacrificed a great deal and then sort of took your eye off the ball and things got worse again. nobody wants that.

and, look, easter would be about 3 1/2 weeks, little more than 3 1/2 weeks from when the 15-day pause started. there are examples around the world now. you look at south korea and china and their sort of trajectory of curves was 8 to 10 weeks. that's a better time frame. we don't know how this is going to behave. that is at least some data to go by. >> gloria, sanjay, thanks. west africa, we fought and contracted ebola. now in new york director of medicine columbia global medicine. one of the best in the world is under siege. he tweeted about it. his thoughts at the end of a shift. quote, you reflect on the fact it's hard to understand how bad this is and how bad it's going to be if all you see are empty streets. hospitals are nearing capacity. we're running out of ventilators. ambulance sirens don't stop. the numbers will undoubtedly skyrocket overnight. more will come to the e.r., more

will be stat notifications, more will be put on a ventilator. dr. spencer joins us now. thank you, dr. spencer. do you in the hospital halls see light at the end of the tunnel as the president seems to? >> you know, i'm not here to talk politics. i'm here to talk about patients and the reality is what we're seeing right now in our emergency rooms is dire. last week when i went to work we talked about the one or two patients amongst the dozens of others that might have been a covid or coronavirus patient. this week in my shift nearly every single patient i took care of was coronavirus and many of them extremely severe. many were put on breathing tubes. many decompensated quickly. our first new york city case was on march 1st. that's just over three weeks ago. to think that will be in anyplace to lift these restrictionery measures by easter in two or three weeks, for me seems completely magical

thinking. what we know is that this math and modelling map can tell us is the number of case sz going to continue to rise. we're really at the beginning of this outbreak. you can feel that. you can sense it. it's palpable on the front lines in the emergency department. >> in terms of supplies, do you have all the supplies you need? i can't tell you how many messages i'm getting from nurses and doctors in hospitals all over new york with specific examples of what they do not have. >> yeah, the supply chain is extremely tight. one thing i tell people when i worked in west africa for ebola, the one thing i never worried about was having enough ppe, personal protective equipment. it's something my colleagues all over new york city are worried about now. the number of masks people are given, we're given -- some people are given one n-95 respirator mask, the thicker one that helps prevent the virus from being inhaled by a provider. given one of those a week. and the cdc doesn't want you using those.

people are given one surgical mask a shift. and everything -- everyone is doing everything they can to conserve supplies because we know we're just at the beginning of this. and after new york will be new jersey, will be new mexico. this is going to be a marathon. we are not even at the beginning of this. >> governor cuomo talked about experimental procedures, splitting one ventilator for two patients. is that something that can work? >> there's been a lot of really creative and thoughtful engineering solutions for how we're going to manage the lack of ventilators. you may have heard from governor cuomo we need 15, 20,000 ventilators. the reality is quite frankly the only thing that helps many of these patients is taking over their breathing. we have to do a lot -- than we normally do. putting on masks, cpap masks people might know, those generate too many aerosols. it make it too dangerous for providers. we're intubating, putting tubes

on earlier. people decompensate quickly. some are reporting one to two patients an hour. if you think about what that's going to add up to in the next couple days and the next couple weeks, we're talking about tens of thousands of patients. >> dr. spencer, thank you for what you and so many nurses and x-ray technicians and lab technicians and folks are doing to keep us all alive. thank you. coming up next what it's like around the world, both the better and the very dire. we'll get a live report from spain where an ice rink is a makeshift morgue. and mark cuban, what he makes of the president's light at the end of the tunnel outlook. i opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized i could be earning interest back on my money. i just discovered sofi, and i'm an investor with a diversified portfolio. who am i?! i refinanced with sofi and i was able to cut my interest rate by forty percent.

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as we continue to talk about the contrast between the president's desire or claimed desire to see churches packed with people by easter and the outbreak that still has not peaked in this country, it's worth looking at countries that sadly are further along the time line of this. spain has already seen nearly

40,000 cases of coronavirus, nearly 2700 people have died. the government there today formally requested nato assistance to fight the virus. in madrid, an ice rink has been converted into a makeshift morgue. cnn's scott mclean joins us now. you have a skating rink being used as a morgue because of the ice there. >> reporter: yeah, anderson, it is not good here. the death toll jumped up by more than 500 in just a single day. that is the most that it has risen in a single day since the beginning of this. this ice rink has been turned into a temporary morgue because the local state-run funeral service is no longer picking up the bodies of coronavirus patients who have died because they say they don't have the protective equipment to do the job. so instead, the spanish military has stepped in. but as you mentioned, even the military is having a difficult time protecting themselves. they asked nato for assistance

just tonight in getting that protective equipment and other medical supplies right off the bat. they are looking for half a million tests, 1.5 million masks and some 500 mechanical ventilators. >> i should say in the video we're showing, we're showing people who are working in that makeshift morgue. they were clapping because i believe it's 8:00 at night in spain. everybody comes onto balconies or outside the doors of their homes, but mostly in balconies or windows and applauds in salute to the medical professionals and all those who are working to stop this virus. how are the hospitals and health care workers there? are they overwhelmed? do they have equipment? >> reporter: i think overwhelmed is an understatement here, anderson. of all the coronavirus cases confirmed in this country, more than one in eight of them are health care workers. more than 5400 in total. hospitals are overcrowded. they are under resourced. in fact, the nursing union is circulating a video amongst its membership.

it's a how-to video how to make a medical gown out of garbage bags because they don't have enough. they are using one-time use masks. we spoke to a doctor who said there aren't enough ventilators. he's having to tell family members their loved ones will have to die because a younger person with a longer life expectancy needs that same ventilator. these are people who would likely otherwise survive in a proper icu with a proper ventilator. that same doctor also told me that he has himself mild coronavirus symptoms, but he's still showing up to work. and that's because the regional health guidelines say that health care providers should only be tested if they have more moderate symptoms. and even then, they still have to keep working until that test returns results. >> i want to just highlight something you just said because two weeks ago or three weeks ago here, we reported on doctors in italy who had written a guidelines for doctors in italy about who should get a ventilator and who shouldn't

based on, you know, are they old and lived a long life and don't have much to live even if they weren't sick, and therefore, they don't get a ventilator, but a younger person would because they could potentially pull through. you're saying there's a doctor has publicly said that is happening now in spain. he's had to make decisions about or she's had to make decisions of taking somebody off a ventilator just because they're too old and there is somebody else who has a better chance to survive? >> reporter: correct, yeah. this doctor spoke with us on the condition of anonymity, but certainly this problem is not restricted to one hospital in one place. these are decisions that are being made across the madrid region, deciding who is going to live and who is going to die. that's exactly the type of criteria we're talking about here, anderson, who has a longer life expectancy, who, as you say, is older, maybe has a lesser chance of surviving in the first place. but again, a lot of these people

they're pulling off these ventilators or not giving the ventilators in the first place would likely survive if they had the proper medical resources given to them. >> scott mclean, it's unbelievable. scott, thank you. joining us now is a doctor long studied written about ways of doing medicine bet efrm. his recent piece in the new yorker, keeping the coronavirus from infecting health care workers. what singapore and hong kong success is teaching us about the pandemic. doctor, i read your article. i urge people to read it in "the new yorker." what works better? scientists know what works, so what is it that works that we should be doing? >> yeah, what we've seen in singapore and hong kong is there is a play book, and the play book has steps for all of us in the community. that means being able to lockdown, keep a distance, all the things you know about physical distancing. in the hospitals it's that they instituted checking -- doing a check of your health before you come in to work. so make sure that you as a

health care worker don't have any symptoms like a fever, cough, shortness of breath, even new loss of taste. those should be indications you don't come into work. and second of all, that we have a surgical mask in singapore and hong kong that everybody is wearing while they're on premises. in american hospitals as of last week started implementing that much more widely. not all of the hospitals have gone over, and that's really critical. we have to separate, we have to be sure that we're checking people's temperatures, or their health symptoms before they come into work so that we're not spreading infection. and then the masks not only protect ourselves, they keep us, if we turnout to have infection, from spreading it to others. those steps are part of a play book that works. >> how important in singapore and hong kong, which is probably the best examples of being able to combat this, was people getting tested and then tracing the contacts of those people?

>> really crucial, but also very interesting, right. what they were looking for are people who have had more than 30 minutes, less than 6 feet from someone who has coronavirus, without a mask. and that's important because what it tells us is that it's not about momentary passing by someone who is infected. this is about sustained exposure to people. and so health care workers could keep on working, and they had zero transmissions of infection in singapore. so the fact that there is some hope here, there is a known pathway. we can do things that work. it depends on some basic supplies and working our way through making it happen here. and we just have to gear up and do it. we have to lockdown as a country. we can't have the situation where it's, you know, just because you come from new york, you are going to have -- you are going to have to stay at home, but everybody else goes. there is infection moving around

the country. it is the insidious part of this disease that you don't know it for a week. you have a week of incubation before it becomes symptomatic. so this is about four to five times worse already for next week, and so we have to have people stay home so that they are not passing the infection along. >> doctor, i appreciate it. and i thank you for writing it and would love to talk to you in the future. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> reaction from the business community, mark cuban, owner of the dallas mavericks, his opinion ahead.

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as we've reported tonight, president trump says he's eager to get america back to work by easter, a much different or earlier time line than recommended by health officials. dr. anthony fauci, said the time line would need to be flexible. for more on what's best for the health of the average american and business community, i want bring in nba owner of the dallas mavericks, he helped donate $500,000 to support child care for health care workers. he's also publicly called out democrat chuck schumer and republican john cornyn in the senate saying there can be no perfect bill and they need to get the relief bill done. mark, just in terms of the financials, the economics, what are you most concerned about in the economy? >> first, it's unconscionable that they haven't got a deal done. every single day there is delay, more businesses close, more people get fired or laid off and they're not coming back. so we need to get that deal done first. second, we have to worry about the process of getting money into the hands of individuals

and to small and medium-size businesses. whenever we get that deal done, we still have to get the checks into people's hands or direct deposit into their accounts. who knows how long that will take. the smaller business association, i've been helping them -- administration, they've been working hard at this, but it's still going to take some time. so every delay you have to add three, four, five or more days to it. so we need something done now, immediately. >> you also have all these small business owners, i've talked to a number in new york, who -- bar owners, restaurants had to pay sales tax the other day. they didn't know whether -- should they go ahead and pay it if they could? a lot of them couldn't. there is not a lot of information for these small business owners. >> yeah, that's part of the problem. that's why i've been working with sba. the good news is if we can get this passed the way it was written this morning, there's money for payroll loans for a small or medium size business under 500 employees. if you commit to retain all your employees, they'll loan you money for your payroll for three months for all employees who

make less than $100,000. plus they'll allow you to also borrow money for overhead, utilities and rent. and if you retain all those employees to the end of the period, which looks like it will be three months, they'll forgive all of that. the point is if small businesses can hang on, the money will be there to help them and to get them through this transition period. but if we don't get the legislation passed, it doesn't matter and it's crazy that they're over negotiating knowing every single minute businesses close. >> what do you make of the talk of reopening parts of the country, having younger people go to work? obviously there's health concerns, you know, human lives are at stake and there's economic factors. >> you know, i'm not the expert there. there are epidemiologists and statisticians and analysts that can do a probability distribution of the options. i really don't know. all i know is that the business of the united states is business

right now and people are scared, right. the beauty of the $1200 check is people degree it will give people a sense of control over their lives. at least one glimmering hope they can pay some bills, look their kids in the eyes knowing there's going to be groceries. but if they don't get this passed, it doesn't happen and it's really inconceivable that both sides of the aisle, particularly on the senate side, didn't see this coming. we're talking about this now when it's no shock that we could have been talking about this two, three, four weeks ago and no one stood up. they need -- look, the enemy of progress is perfection. we don't need a perfect deal, we need a done deal, anderson. >> you have your hands in a lot of different pies. not just big businesses. through shark tank, you're an investor in a lot of small businesses. what are you hearing from those businesses? >> terror, terror. i'm asking the ones that are really struggling to hold on for this sba loan program. i think that will get them through. but they're really worried. they don't want to layoff any employees, so they're nervous

because there hasn't been any real information coming to them. and what they have heard, they were promised that we were on the 5 yard line, the 2 yard line. we've been in the red zone for two months and we haven't scored. something's got to happen because those small businesses and their employees are terrified. >> with businesses, for you, businesses that you own, in terms of reopening, getting people back in the office, would you base it on the government? would you base it on science? >> no. >> scientists? >> i base it on safety of my employees. look, right now we're working with imperfect information. nobody knows what the absolute facts are because we can't find them. i mean, this is the first time we've been through this. sk and i'm going to err on the side of caution and the health and safety of my employees every single time. i'm fortunate. i can give up the money. i'm not going to risk their health. i think a lot of other companies can do the same thing. we're adjusting to working from home, doing business from home. there are going to be a lot of

ways we can get things done. but i'm certainly not going to just say, you know what, just adhere to social distancing and everything's okay. i'm going to do what i think is right. >> mark cuban, it's good to talk to you. thank you. be careful. >> always, anderson, thank you. >> breaking news to report next on just how serious the administration is on ending the coronavirus shutdown and the steps that they are taking to do it ahead. instead of using aloe, or baby wipes, or powders, try the cooling, soothing relief or preparation h, because your derriere deserves expert care. preparation h. get comfortable with it. more than ever, your home is your sanctuary. that's why lincoln offers complimentary pickup and delivery servicing. we'll pick up your vehicle and leave you with a lincoln loaner and the peace of mind that helps you focus on what matters most. that's the power of sanctuary. and for a little extra help,

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breaking news on some concrete steps that are now being taken to fulfill the president's wishes on the, basically ending the coronavirus outbreak response. that's the -- that the experts, you heard tonight, say is not based in reality. cnn's nick valencia has the latest reporting by phone. what are you hearing, nick? >> reporter: anderson, we're hearing this is happening amid increasing pressure from trump to get the country, as you said, opened up in just a few weeks. this is coming to us from a senior federal health official who is directly involved in coronavirus response, telling us that they are now drafting options of public health professionals, now taking the concrete steps of drafting options to, quote, be able to allow people to take a step back into society in certain areas. this official went on to say that this is going to be a rolling-type response characterizing that by saying recommendations are going to ease for different parts of the country at different times.

this, of course, begs the question of just how risky is this going to be. do people want to go back in now that they are more knowledgeable about what this virus is and just how fast it spreads. this is something that we tried to pin the source down on, and they said, look, this is not without risk. it could mean sending people back to work or school. and just to go on, anderson, to wrap up here, this source, quote, said the response to the outbreak is going to be rolling with increased mitigation and then we'll see it back off followed by another increase as the virus increases. so we're in this for a long-term type thing, you know. i think one of the things this official wanted to stress is that many americans see this as 15-day pause, and that type of mentality really, you know, hopefully more americans begin to see that this is more of a long-term thing, you know. we've heard anything from this

being a type of normalcy for us for the next 12 to 18 months, anderson. >> it certainly seems, though, that the idea of rolling back feeds into the notion of this being a 15-day pause. >> reporter: well, as this official describes, you know, we're going to be dealing with this response for more than 15 days. perhaps after 15 days, for months from now. this official described the scenario in this country where this virus spreads in pockets and clusters like we've seen in new rochelle and santa clara. you know, of course there in manhattan. these areas certainly are of concern to public health professionals right now advising the president, but it's not a one-size-fits all approach. this has to take into account according to the official the variations of this virus, the variation to communities. and, you know, we should mention, anderson, this is not the first time we're hearing kinds of guidelines like this.

it was just last week that the cdc released their own recommendations saying this should be a phased approach, you know. this is going to be something that we have to deal with a long time. >> all right. nick valencia, appreciate the reporting. dr. sanjay gupta joins us once again. sanjay, what do you make of this? >> well, you know, on one hand it's not surprising that people, public health officials would start to create plans for how they're going to ease back this guidance, how they're going to ease back these recommendations. that makes sense. and as nick mentioned at the end of his report there, the centers for disease control, they did this last week, but gave to indication, really, as to when it might be implemented. that guidance started off by saying, we fully recognize that this 15-day pause may be much longer than 15 days. so i don't know, anderson. it's tough to know what to make of it. by drafting these guidelines, are they, in essence, sending a

signal that they are going to loosen up these restrictions, you know, soon? within the next few weeks as we heard from around easter, for example. don't know, but that could be sort of the telegraphing of that signal. just don't know. it does make sense that they would actually work on these plans. i don't know for when these plans would be implemented, though. >> just from a public health standpoint, though, we had the guidelines we have now. doesn't -- if you want people to actually follow those guidelines, then that's a battle to do that. >> yeah. >> it certainly doesn't seem to help from a public health standpoint to have the president already talking about loosening them up. it just sends the message that, you know, these things are kind of amorphous and he doesn't believe in them. why not loosen them up now? if you're trying to get people to stay at home as much as possible, is this really the best way? >> yeah, i think people get

really confused by that because they get the sense that, okay, it's about to be over anyway, so was it really a big deal in the first place. and i agree. and again, from nick valencia's reporting, his source sort of telling him, look, we're willing to bring the -- loosen the guidelines up a little bit, see the virus sort of surge, strengthen the guidelines, the virus comes down and see the guidelines back up. this game of catch-up between guidelines and trying to catch up with the virus. if that's a strategy, you know, that's not one that's based on public health. everything that we've learned, not only from this particular outbreak around the world, is that you've got to do this to d and honestly. the fact that you would go back and forth doesn't make any sense. >> the victims who survived combat has fallen to coronavirus. feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin.

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chris what are you working on? >> we're dealing with this confounding situation where the numbers are accelerating in new york, in new jersey you're seeing popping growth rate. california, washington. you're seeing it spread. at the same time, the president is saying easter is the time to reopen. we're going to look at what that's about. it's not a complex situation. the president is tire of this. he believes that he listened toe the experts to his own detriment. he wants to go back to his own gut. that means, the economy comes first. is it the right call? we'll thes it. >> i'll see you in about five minutes from now. up next, remembering two u.s. army veterans and others who died of the virus. ill make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. once weekly trulicity is for type 2 diabetes.

it's not insulin. it starts acting from the first dose. and it lowers risk of heart attack, stroke, or death in people with known heart disease or multiple risk factors. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. i have it within me to lower my a1c. ask your doctor about trulicity. all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen.

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this man worked at the hospital in new york. he was the father of two. he loves his family. he loved his country. he was the kind of man who could make you laugh when you're down, friends say. george was a u.s. army veteran, sons of greek immigrants when lied about his age to fight in world war ii. he served in the south pacific before setting down. he was married for 64 years to his wife. bouleva his daughter denise said he was a role model. she called him everybody's papoo, which is greek. george died alone in the hospital. his relatives were many hospital

and were unable to be by his side to say good-bye. he was 93. the news continues. i want to hand it to chris. >> thank you so much for us to remember what's being lost in this. it's hard to hear but those are members of the great estrogen race. thanks for telling their stories. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to prime-time. the president says he wants to reopen the economy two weeks from now. that's when experts show the worst rush of extreme cases hitting the financial capital of the country. does that make sense to you? let's test it on all rel vantd base's. we'll bring in the governor of the state with the second most cases. we have a doctor on the front lines on the opposite coast fighting in the state thirds most cases. then the message behinds the movement to reopen, which is literally shameful. a republican lawmaker getting a