hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. this is cnn's continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. the global case count quickly closing in on 3.3 million this hour. russia records its biggest surge in cases, 8,000, skpiand its pr minister says he is now affected. malaysia says it will start reopening businesses on monday, australia also set to reopen sooner than anticipated. here in the united states, social distancing guidelines are no more. the decisions when and how to reopen are now with states and they are taking different approaches. michigan extending the stay-at-home order there through may 28th. the president takes issue.

his morning tweet at the michigan governor prods her to, quote, give a little. people want their lives back again, he says. more than two dozen states lightening restrictions. this from the governor does sound more like politics than science in georgia. >> i'm trusting people, i think would be the way i've been saying it. government policies are only good as long as they're reasonable and people will follow them. i can tell you, after people being sheltered at home for a long time, on the verge of losing everything they've got, not being able to work, you know, not being able to get their kids out of the house, people are at wit's end. you can't cause people to revolt. >> take a look, this is the five-day rolling average of

cases in the past two weeks. that is not a steady, much less consecutive, decline. as we begin the month of may, this scale of deaths is telling and chilling. 1 in february, 3,434 in march and nearly 60,000 in april. the governor says he does have a choice here, but he recommends caution. >> discretion is given to the governors. they know their states, the mayors know their cities, so you want to give them a little wiggle room. but my recommendation is don't wiggle too much. >> here to share his expertise and his insights, our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, you heard dr. fauci there. again, this is all up to the governors now and he's trying to warn them to take a cautious approach. dr. fauci says, yes, as people get back to work, you're going to see spikes. the question is how big. let's listen. >> what i think you'll see is

these spikes like in certain areas, nursing homes, plants where workers congregate, prisons and places like that. the thing you'll really get into trouble is if it spills over into the general community the way it did in new york city. because if you can't stop that from happening, then i think you're really going to see the sharp peak. >> i was struck. his tone is we have no choice here, i guess, states are going to reopen, but he sounds so cautious. >> yeah, i mean, that is forceful for dr. anthony fauci. he's basically saying we made these guidelines as easy to understand and follow as possible. the gating criteria for 14 days of downward trend. it's clear we're going to see these spikes. i think to be fair, john, no matter when we reopen, there is

going to be an increase in infections but it's a question of how big these spikes are and there are places that will just be more vulnerable. the key thing, john, i think people fundamentally understand this, is people can decide to take a risk for themselves. on a personal level you can say, i'm going to eat healthy, exercise and not engage in bad behaviors, whatever it may be. this is not what this is about right now. it's about personal risk, but it's the idea that people can harbor the infection in their bodies. they may not be sick at all but harbor it for others. a few cases that may start up as a result of these reopenings three to four weeks from now could result in exponential growth, as you just showed in that chart from march to april. >> i think as we go through the next couple weeks and we test this experiment as to what happens with the case count, what happens with the hospitalizations, we shall see.

the company called gilead, the company that makes remdesivir, they think it has some impact on people who have covid. it's not a cure, but it has some positive impact. listen to the ceo who says we're using it to treat patients with harsh symptoms. let's see if we can do it on others. listen. >> this is a medicine that's really for the most severe patients. our scientists are hard at work to see, now that we know this medicine has an impact on patients if we can bring it earlier into the disease. >> explain, a, how that would work, and b, the significance. >> yeah, so, you know, in these early trials and any of these medications, john, typically they're going to be used on the most severe patients because those are patients at the highest risk for getting even more critically ill and even dying. i think what has been known sort of all along is that an antiviral medication like this, ultimately the best use scenario would be earlier in the disease. if it stops entry of the virus

into the cells or slows down republic replication of the virus, you would like to use that as early as possible. the idea that now possibly this medication is used within a defined population of people who are earlier in their disease but are at high risk, so people who have underlying medical conditions who have recently been diagnosed with the covid infection, could this now prevent them from becoming more severely or critically ill. that's going to be the big question, and as he said, and as dr. fauci has said, there is some inclination of that. the other thing dr. fauci said is it reminded him of the early days of hiv/aids, and when i talked to him about that, he said in the beginning there was nothing, then azt came along. azt was not the cure-all, but it was the first thing that worked, so you built on that. you added other medications to the mix. might remdesivir be a larger cocktail of medications, using it early and then using

something to decrease the cytocon storm or the load on people's bodies which seems to cause so much illness? perhaps. you might have a cocktail of medications. but this is the first thing that's shown any efficacy at all towards this virus, and that's, i think, why people are so enthusiastic about it. it's not a knockout punch or a home run or whatever sports metaphor you want to insert, but it is something, and it's an important start. >> an important start. we'll take it after the last several weeks of tough news. an important start is something to build on. san sanjay, as always, appreciate your thoughts and insights. texas begins phase 1 of its reopening plan. businesses like restaurants, malls and theaters can operate with a 25% occupancy limit. you can now go to libraries and museums. in mid-may they may reopen

barber shops, salons, gyms. as this experiment starts to play out in texas, ed lavandera, what are you seeing? >> reporter: we're at an outdoor shopping area known as the shops at park lane here in dallas. this is a popular area, a wide array of sorts, 50-some types of stores here. it's still early so we haven't seen a whole lot of people come out, but it is going to be very limited. john, quite frankly, there are a number of people who simply just won't -- or a number of businesses that simply just won't reopen yet. they feel either it's not worth the financial cost or it's not worth the risk, and that's really what we're seeing across the state in talking to all sorts of different types of business owners here, is that trepidation and the uncertainty of reopening in the midst of this pandemic. what is interesting to point out here, john, here in texas, here in dallas county, there is the largest spike of this pandemic

in the number of new coronavirus cases, and that is raising real concerns here. but here on the ground, we spoke with the general manager of this shopping center who said this is -- he talked to us about the kinds of things that businesses are doing to protect themselves and their customers. >> we want to make sure that we can protect everyone in those guidelines, including offering face masks to guests on request, as well as hand sanitizer. we've also put up a collateral in signage just as a reminder to walk six feet apart and practice social distancing. additionally there are other directives inside the retail stores which includes offering hand sanitizer at the door and protective masks for all the employees. >> reporter: so, john, as i mentioned, the numbers here in texas kind of a mixed bag, and because of that there are a great number of people here who are saying texas is just reopening too soon, especially because the effects of reopening will take several weeks to

really fully grasp and get a full sense of what this has done to the spread of this virus. john? >> it will be the middle of the month before we see the numbers where we can say, hey, it worked, or hey, the case count is going way up. ed lavandera, i appreciate your reporting on the ground there in texas. thanks, ed. joining me now, dr. hilary fairbrother. she is a health expert in houston. doctor, thank you for being with us. about 1% of the state of texas, if i have the numbers right, have been tested so far, which i think leads you to believe this is a gamble. >> we're reopening today, and it does feel like a bit of a gamble. in texas we never saw the number of cases that they anticipated. our curve was really quite flat. we saw a small increase of cases until about april, early april, april 10th, and our cases have been somewhat constant since then. so we never saw the rapid rate of climb, and we're not seeing

the rapid rate of descent that everyone recommends before reopening. with all of that in mind, it's not -- it's understandable why people are talking about reopening, the fact we've seen a decline we don't appear to be on a similar curve as the rest of the country. and maybe that's because we flattened it, but i honestly don't think we have enough information and data points to know. >> right, and it's a great point. testing is the way you get the data to understand. sometimes i use the term, it's not a medical term, but flying blind. you don't know how many people are out there who are asymptomatic or have covid because they haven't been tested. just to get your insights, first we have harris county where you are. houston is in harris county, a sprawling county, very diverse, it's spread out. you see the numbers, it's up, it's down, it's down from what it was days ago, but the spike,

i think, is what concerns you, it's not completely under control. ed lavandera was also talking about which he was talking about this. if you look at the 14-day trend in texas, it starts to go down on the left side of your screen there but then it seems to be coming up a bit. again, it's not a giant spike, but you look at this, and i keep using the term stubborn, that the coronavirus, covid-19, is stubborn. you think that the social distancing flattened it, but you're not pushing it down. is that fair? >> i'd love to think that all of this social distancing really flattened our curve, but the reality is all of our testing has a delay to it, right? patients get sick but they don't have symptoms right away, and even when they have symptoms, they don't get very, very sick right away and present to the hospital for care. so the numbers we do know are the numbers of people who are hospitalized with covid, and that's a very delayed data point

when you're trying to collect realtime data about what's happening with the virus on the ground. i think we just -- it's so hard to make broad, sweeping conclusions from the data that we do have, and we haven't seen cases going down. in fact, where i work in the medical center in houston, cases are about -- our caseload is about 1.2 times what it was last week, which essentially it's the same as it was last week. certainly right now in texas, we have the medical resources to take care of all the sick people, and we have enough ventilators, and we have protective equipment. so, again, it's difficult to say, you know, don't reopen. i feel torn but i do think that we are -- it is a bit of a gamble. we don't really know, and unfortunately, we won't know the effects of reopening until a little bit after the fact.

there will always be a slight delay to whatever we do and the reaction to it. >> it might be ten days, two weeks, i think, before we start to see if the numbers stay flat, start to go up at what rate. dr. hillaary fairbrother, i wil bring you back then to talk about it. thank you for all the work you're doing. appreciate it. the race to find an effective covid-19 vaccine, but first some sobering words from a new jersey paramedic. >> the amount of people we're pronouncing dead at home is astronomical. anyone who says they're not scared during this is lying to you. this is what we signed up for, so ultimately you have to do your job when it comes down to it. we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ in these challenging times, we need each other more than ever. we may be apart, but we're not alone. use aarp community connections to find or create a mutual aid group near you. stay connected and help those in need. confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org.

for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs

or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. remission can start with stelara®.

operation warp speed is what the trump administration is calling its accelerated push to find and then manufacture a covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year, he hopes. the president says he's in charge. officials say more than half a dozen vaccine programs are now in the clinical trial phase with at least 80 more in preliminary phases. the world health organization says there are at least 102 potential covid-19 vaccines in the works worldwide. joining me now, chief medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, the president sounds confident, a vaccine ready by early next year, january. do the experts agree? >> reporter: you know, it's interesting, john, because the people who run these vaccine companies, they all sound quite confident, but i think we should take that with a grain of salt. they are supposed to sound confident. but let's take a listen to what dr. anthony fauci has to say on this issue because he has been doing vaccine trials for decades. >> not every vaccine that we

went after worked. so that's an assumption, that it's going to be safe, that it's going to be effective, and that we're going to be able to do it quickly. i think each of those are not only feasible but maybe likely. that's what i mean when i say by january we'll do it. but i can't guarantee it. >> reporter: maybe likely, i can't guarantee it. i think when dr. fauci speaks, we need to listen to him and take him at his word. he knows there are all sorts of things that can go wrong in vaccine trials. if you remember, john, decades ago we thought an hiv vaccine was on its way. we still don't have one. all sorts of strange things can happen. he then went on to say at last night's cnn coronavirus town hall that you can have these safety signals. what he means by that is that all of a sudden, instead of a vaccine helping people, it actually causes problems. that could also happen. >> we'll have to follow it as it plays out. one wrinkle in this, two

companies, moderna being one, are in competition. >> reporter: they're teams. it's not just more than one company joining forces, and it's happening very, very quickly. let's take a look at some world health organization numbers. on april 26th on their website, they had 89 teams around the world pursuing a vaccine for covid-19. april 30th, yesterday, four days later, 102 teams. so that's a lot more teams in just four days. in addition, eight -- not in addition, but of these eight have permission to do human trials. you can see there are a lot of people still in the lab. eight have permission to do human trials. but even eight is quite a few, and many of these are teams of, for example, pfizer, with a smaller german biotech company. that's classically what we're seeing. >> i certainly wish them the best, but i think your words of

caution are something to live by until we get more positive data. elizabeth cohen, really appreciate it. thanks so much. shifting now to new concerns over antigen testing. dr. deborah birx calls this the breakthrough to confirm testing. the head of antibody testing at the university of california. antigen testing, dr. birx says a breakthrough. do you believe that, or not reliable enough? >> hi, john, thanks for having me on. antigen testing has been part of the diagnostic landscape for a number of years, and it has a number of appeals. it can be done relatively quickly, it's inexpensive, can be deployed in a number of clinical settings outside of the laboratory near the patient. but the chief concern with it has been the sensitivity. we have a lot of experience with

antigen detection tests for the diagnosis of influenza, and we know, pretty competently, that the sensitivity, the best sensitivity compared to nuclear antibody tests for influenza is in the neighborhood of 80%. >> 80%. so that's 15 to 20% you could be off. >> false negatives, yes, sir. >> false negatives. i want to show you the coronavirus testing total. the administration keeps talking about maybe we were slow in the beginning but we've ramped up to a point. 2.2 million is the cumulative amount of testing in the united states. do you focus on ccumulative, or is it more what you have available tomorrow, today and next week. do we test everybody? do we test certain people once you have more and more people back to work?

do you have routine and regular testing? where are we in that regard, do you think? >> our efforts have been -- we've been ramped up with local testing since the 23rd of march serving much of the state of south carolina. we've tested somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 patients since march 23rd, identified about seven to eight hundred patients during that time. we're moving towards more testing of asymptomatic patients, primarily to -- prior to operative procedures, so we can be assured that those patients are not asymptomatically infected with coronavirus. so, yeah, it's a combination of asymptomatic, presymptomatic and symptomatic testing we're doing now. >> people say things at the white house, governors, sometimes people in your position in the states say not

quite, or we need more supplies. i want you to listen to dr. fauci's take last night on where he thinks we are at the moment. >> you don't have to do every single person that comes in there and test every single person. it depends on the level of the risk. if you have enough tests in a perfect world, then you would be testing more people. but when you're in a situation where you want to be realistic, you don't have to test every single person. >> i think a lot of people ask. i get the realism, and dr. fauci is a realist, but i think a lot of people ask, you know, why months into this are we still not in the perfect world? why can't there be a moon launch in the united states of america to get enough testing so that you can do anything you want, not have to be realistic? >> well, that's a good question, and it's a tough answer. it's not only about, as you heard over and over again, it's not just about the availability

of the reagents or the test kits. it's about getting those tests to the patients. patients with limited access to health care, we're setting up mobile test sites around the state to increase that access. you've heard time and time again about the shortage of the collection kits, the swabs and the transport media. we've been lucky -- >> i think we lost rick nolte's shot there in south carolina. thank you, we'll get back to you another time. bills due today, first of the month.

state farm is announcing the good neighbor relief program we're returning $2 billion dollars to our auto policyholders through may 31st. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. being a good neighbor means everything. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are -

even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. i'm max, i was diagnosed with aplastic anemia and if i didn't find a donor, i probably wouldn't be here right now. be the match uses the power of the cisco network to match donors with patients faster than ever, saving lives like max's. me and dylan are dna twins. ♪ ♪ dylan's like my brother. ♪ ♪ cisco. the bridge to possible. when youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one.

for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com

daddy, i found you! good job. now i'm gonna stay here and you go hide. watch your favorites from anywhere in the house with the xfinity stream app. free with your xfinity service. now any room can be a tv room. stream live tv, on demand shows and movies, even your dvr recordings. download the xfinity stream app today to stream the entertainment you love. it is may 1st, a new month. also the time, though, when for many the bills come due, especially rent. that's a particular hardship for the more than 30 million americans who have applied for first-time unemployment benefits in a number of weeks.

julia chatterley joins us. julia, first of the month. you have to pay your rent. other factors you're watching as well. >> i'm so pleased you're pointing this out because spending is what drives the u.s. economy. it's payday today. for the second month in this crisis, millions of people are having to make many tough decisions over what payment to make, mortgage, rent, utilities, and then essentials like food. let me explain to you what happened this time last month, because i do think it's key. 31% of renters didn't make their rent or payments. that's according to the national multifamily housing association, and that actually doesn't include subcities to rental payments, so it probably underestimates how bad it was. since then as you and i discussed, another 20 million people-plus have applied for first-time benefits. so it's tough to compare march and april, but even just based on those numbers, today i think

probably is going to be a lot worse. the saving grace here, of course, is the stimulus checks that people have got in their deposits but we still know millions more are waiting for the pay provision, and the bump on unemployment benefits. the hope today, john, is that today will be the most painful day for americans making decisions, because this time next month we'll have a sense of what back to work looks like. but today is a tough day and we shouldn't underestimate that for the millions of people making these choices. >> we hope, we hope next month is a better position. we shall see as we go through these weeks. another big controversy is who is getting this stimulus money, the ppp loans and other attempts. what are you hearing? >> i heard the secretary isn't too pleased because he tweeted in the last couple hours. he said it's come to his attention that some private schools with significant

endowments have taken ppp loans. they should return them. let's be clear, john, this school did nothing wrong in terms of the conditions. they said they're keeping the money, they're going to pay their workers, but the principle remains. this school is going to have to prove they couldn't have gotten the money elsewhere. i looked at their website. a year of pre-kindergarten is just under $33,000, john. just an observation. they're going to have to prove they couldn't have gotten the money somewhere else. >> right, and somebody out there who couldn't get the money who runs a small mom and pop business somewhere is not going to look favorably on the optics of that. julia chatterley, very much appreciate the updates there. tyson foods shut down yet another plant in nebraska, one of its largest beef processing facilities. this as several businesses across iowa reopen today.

marquez talked to people. >> reporter: just across the border of iowa, massive, one of the country's largest tyson plant. 4400 employees. the person i am speaking to is one of them. when you hear the number of people getting sick every day, they say, you just wait your turn. out of fear for losing their job, we are not identifying this person who says it was clear something was wrong at the plant for weeks. how many have gone missing in the last several weeks? three, four, or five hundred, they say. tyson has now tested everyone at the plant, but this person says the company could have done more earlier. they only started giving you masks a couple weeks ago, only masks, yes? no other protective gear? no gloves, no face shields, no gowns, they say. so well into the crisis of

covid-19, this was the only protection offered to employees at the plant in dakota city. it is something that we also heard from officials at another tyson plant in waterloo. >> we walked out of that plant knowing that we had an enormous problem. >> reporter: blackhawk county sheriff tony thompson and other health officials inspected waterloo's plant on april 10th. >> the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, in albany. >> today is day 62. it feels like just yesterday. before we look at the numbers, i just want people to recall the context for these numbers and remember what we have accomplished. we were faced with a situation where the infection rate, those numbers were going straight up. that was only 30 days ago that we saw the number of cases, the number of people coming into

hospitals, the infection rate, everything was going straight up. that number would have just continued to go straight up. and that's why all the projections, national projections, state projections, local projections turned out to be incorrect. because they were all believing that that line was going to continue to keep going up. what happened is new yorkers, americans, changed reality, literally changed reality. they literally changed the path of the virus spread. and reversed the spread, and that's what the close-down procedures did, that's what the masks have done, that's what the socially distancing has done. and new yorkers and all across this country, you saw that

number change from that up trajectory to the downward trajectory. that shift in the trajectory reduced by about 100,000 the number of new yorkers who would have been hospitalized. 100,000 hospitalized. to be hospitalized, you have to be seriously ill. a portion of those 100,000 would have passed away. so all this inconvenience, all this turmoil for what? to keep 100,000 people out of hospitals, that's for what. and the 100,000 people into hospitals would have overwhelmed the hospital system, would have been chaotic. that's where italy was. and a number of those 100,000 would have died. so remember that context. and not just for the retrospective but for the p

prospective. our past actions changed the trajectory. our present actions will determine the future trajectory. it is that clear. it is cause and effect. you tell me what we do today, i will tell you the number of people sick tomorrow. so every day we get up, every day everyone says, oh, my gosh, i have to do this again. yes. but what you do today is going to determine the number of sick tomorrow. and new yorkers have continued to do what they have to do, and you see that number of hospitalizations dropping. and that is all good news. and that is a credit to the community and the social conscience and the responsibility of new yorkers. the question now is, as we're on

the decline, how fast is the decline and how far is the decline? how low will the number actually wind up? right now we're at about 1,000 new cases per day. okay? in the 900s. 954, 933, 970, 973. that's four days. day before that it was 1,076. that looks like the number is flattening, is plateauing at about 900, 1,000 cases. three, four days, five days if you want to say between 900 and 1100. that is still too high a number of new cases to have every day. it's not where we were. it's a lot better than where we were for sure, but 1,000 new cases every day is still a very

high infection rate. it's still a burden on the hospital system. so we now want to take it to the next level. let's drill down on those 1,000 new cases. where are they coming from, why is the infection rate continuing, who is getting infected and let's get more targeted in our response, right? we're fighting this statewide, but you have to wage the battle, wage the war on many fronts. it's a statewide battle. now that we have it basically stabilized and on the decline, the enemy is on the run, the virus is reducing, let's get more refined, more targeted. and i'm going to be speaking with the hospitals this afternoon and say that we want to get more specific information on those new cases that are coming in the door.

where are they coming from? who are they? to see if we can come up with a more specific target. if you look at the past few days where the cases have been coming from, this is a three-day what they call rolling average. but you see 17% from manhattan. much of it correlates to population, but much of it also correlates with downstate new york. 17% manhattan, 17% kings, 12% bronx, 11% queens but then 10% nassau, 7% westchester, sussex. so it's downward, and then upstate it's erie county. so it gives you a snapshot of where the cases are coming from, but we need more specific information to have a specific battle plan.

literally, where do the new cases come from? are they essential workers? are they people who are staying home and getting infected by a family member? or are they essential workers who are still traveling and possibly getting infected at work? where do they work, how do they commute? is this a question of getting infected on public transportation? we just announced new subway buses, long island railroad, metro north protocols. where in the state are these people who are being transferred from a nursing home? what's their sex? what's their age? what's their previous health status? what are the demographics? let's get more specific information from the hospitals to see if we come up with a strategy that is more tailored to the reduction of these 1,000 cases per day. the number of deaths, 289, lower than it has been, but still

tragic and terrible, and all the good numbers, all the good news for me every day, this number just wipes that all away. we announced a statewide policy for our schools. we did it last march 18th. we said we were going to close schools all across the state k to 12 and higher education schools. we waived what was called the 180-day requirement which was the state requirement that schools had to have 180 days of teaching. schools then transferred to distance learning programs, meal delivery services, child care options for essential workers. that has actually worked out well, not perfectly. we had to do it in a rush, but there are lessons we can learn here. that could change, teaching

going forward and teaching in these types of situations going forward, but it did work. it basically functioned well and teachers did a phenomenal job stepping up to do this. it was a hardship on everyone, but we made the best of the situation. colleges and universities were also moved to distance learning. campuses were closed unless a student really needed housing on the campus. schools, obviously, by definition have higher density, they have transportation issues, kids who were getting on a bus. we didn't have the protective measures to put in place. you have 700 public school districts, 4800 schools in this state. then you have 1800 private schools, 89 suny and cuny campuses, private colleges, in total 4.2 million students.

we must protect our children. every parent, every citizen feels that. we must protect our students. we have to protect our educators, and given the circumstances that we're in and the precautions that would have to be put in place to come up with a plan to reopen schools with all those new protocols. how do you operate a school that's socially distanced with masks, without gatherings, with a public transportation system that has a lower number of students on it? how would you get that plan up and running? we don't think it's possible to do that in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe, so we're going to have the schools remain closed for the rest of the year. we're going to continue the distance learning programs. schools have asked about summer

school and whether we'll have attendance in schools for summer school. that decision will be made by the end of this month. again, nobody can predict what the situation is going to be three, four weeks from now. so we're trying to stage decisions at intervals that give us the information but also enough time for people to make the preparations they need to make. so any decisions on summer schools will be made by the end of this month. but in the meantime, programs will continue, the child care services for essential workers will continue. then we want schools to start now developing a plan to reopen, and the plan has to have protocols in place that incorporate everything that we are now doing in society and everything that we learned. we're going to be asking businesses to come up with plans that safeguard workers when they

reopen. we need schools to come up with plans also that bring those precautions into the school room. and that's for schools, that's also for colleges and the state will approve those plans. related issue that we need to discuss and we need to pay attention to. this covid crisis has caused significant disruption and many unintended consequences and ancillary issues that have developed, and one of them is when you have people who are put in this situation immediately with no notice, it has caused serious mental health issues. you have anxiety, depression, insomnia, loneliness, that feeling of isolation.

we're seeing the use of drugs go up, we're seeing the use of alcohol consumption go up. this is a chronic problem. if you're feeling these issues, you're not alone. as a matter of fact, half of all americans have said that their mental health has been negatively impacted. don't underestimate the stress of this situation, and it happens on a lot of levels. three out of four say their sleep has been affected. you don't know where your next paycheck is coming from, you don't know if your job is going to exist. you're at work one day, the next day they say everything is closed, stay in the house. you're in the house in a confined situation, or you're in an apartment in a confined situation. you can't get out. it's difficult.

for emotional support, we have a hotline that is set up. people shouldn't be shy in any way or have any second thoughts about calling for help. it is a pervasive problem, and people should make the call and get the help if they need the help. we also see, in line with what we're talking about, a dramatic increase in the incidence of domestic violation. there was a 15% increase in march, a 30% increase in april. that's -- march is when this started. 15%. april, 30%. that is a frightening rate.

you can call, you can discuss the issue, you don't have to give your identity, you don't have to say where you live, but people who need help should reach out. there is no shame in reaching out and saying i need help. this is a national epidemic, it's a statewide epidemic. ask for help, and we're here to help. we're also thinking of situations for the front line workers. and bringing the infection home. this is a terribly, difficult time for the front line workers. we want them to know that we are there to support them.

saying thank you is nice. acting in gratitude is nicer. we'll direct all insurers to wave any copays or deductibles for service and front line workers. mental health services will be free forefront line workers at no cost. too many people have said to me i will go through services but i don't want to pay the cost. i can't afford it. i don't want to take that money from my parents. that's gone. there is no cost to get mental health services.

wipe that reason away and get the help that need. it is in the best interest of your family. last point, personal opinion who said "when life knocks you on your rear, you learn, grow, and get backup." it was me. when life knocks you on your rear. learn, grow and get backup. this has been a difficult situation for everyone. when life knocks you on your rear, learn and grow. we'll learn many difficult lessons from this situation. we'll learn about public health threats that we never saw before and heard of and really anticipated and we never

actualized and everyone talking about global pandemics in that possibility and until it happens people don't get it. our hospital system and how it works in an members of the juem telemedicine works. how you communicate to people of the danger of a situation without panicking people because you still need essential workers coming out to do their job. you don't want to panic people. you need to communicate with facts so people act responsibly. how do you do that in short period of time? there will be a lot to learn from this which we'll learn and

we'll be better for it. i believe that. that's part of life and in the meantime we have to go day-to-day and we try to make the best of a bad situation. you try to find that silver lining and we all start to do in our own way and everybody is struggling with this in their own way. it is the great equalizer, it does not matter where you are or who you are, this impacts your life. maybe if you work at it, maybe you can find a little silver lining. i'm siting there with my daughter michaela, she's my baby, she's 22. she says to me, you know dad, think about it i spent more time

with you now than i will spend with you in the rest of my adult life. i said wow. what does that mean? well, think about it. i have been with you for over a month and i won't be with you over my adult life for the rest of my life which is kind of jarring because i still think of her as my baby. she's 22 and she's going to do whatever she does. she reminded me of the song "cat and the cradle." with all the bizarreness, i have not been able to see my mother in two months but i have my daughter for a longer period of time than i will probably have for the rest of her life.

that's probably true. you try to find the silver lining and social distance and we stay spiritually connected. new yorkers have been so supportive of each other. there is a spirit of community and mutuality and people are there to help one another. people understand everybody is going through this and in stress. you look at the way people have complied with these rules as annoying as they are, masks, six feet this. that's out of respect for one and another. i love the metaphor of the masks. the mask does not protect me. i wear it to protect you. what a beautiful sign. i wear a mask to protect you.

that's the spirit and even in this terrible time of difficulty. yes, you can be socially distanced but you can be spiritually connected and closer in ways you have never been before. s i believe that's where we are. we are new york stuff which means tough is smart and united and disciplined and loving. questions? >> have schools start to reopen as early as fall or sooner and learning possibly in the fa fall -- i am wondering of the timeline of this. >> there will be no opening of any schools in any states for the remainder of the academic calendar year. we have to decide on summer school.

that'll be made by the end of may. there is no decisions for fall because the fall is a long time away. >> schools have to submit their plans by? >> it depends when they open but they should start preparing their plans now. we are talking about how manufacturing socially distance and construction companies socially distance. how does a school socially distance, you know? this bizarre set up here, right? look at this room, how do you run a school like this? how many more rooms would you need to do this or how many more buses to socially distance on a bus? there is a whole -- how about a cafeteria? how about a dorm room? there is a whole set of questions. they should start working on those plans now.

>> do you think teachers can realistically do this? kids are kids and they're going to run around and be together. >> that's a good question. that's what we are talking to people across the state and educators across the state. you can come up with a plan which is very hard and talking about spaces. there is the other question of k k-12 and how do i get students not to socially distance. how can you tell them that? we'll air on the side of caution now for the rest of the school year. summer school, you would need to see a drop or stab