hello, and welcome to you, our viewers joining us here in the united states, canada, and all around the world. i'm kim brunhuber, and you're watching cnn newsroom. just ahead, five days left to vote in the u.s. as both presidential candidates crisscross the country with their closing arguments, focused almost exclusively on the worsening covid-19 pandemic. and that crisis getting so bad in europe that france and germany are going back under coronavirus lock downs. then, severe weather striking this hour. tropical storm zeta rips across the u.s. southeast category 2 hurricane. we'll have the latest forecast and bring you the destruction.

the u.s. presidential election is coming down to the wire. just five days remain before millions upon millions of votes must be counted, including mountains of mail-in ballots. joe biden is spending the final week of the campaign at low key events with mask wearing and social distancing audiences. his message, the need to unify the country and halt the spread of the coronavirus. now, contrast that with donald trump. he continues to down play the pandemic, holding large, crowded rallies that health experts warn are potential super spreaders. biden has two events on thursday in the battleground state of florida. president trump and vice president pence will hold rallies in florida, north carolina, iowa and nevada. a large number of americans have

obviously already made up their minds since early voting began, well over 75 million ballots have been cast. the electoral map currently doesn't favor president trump so he's campaigning hard in places he admits he wouldn't otherwise go. cnn's jim acosta has the latest. >> reporter: down in the polls and fighting to hanging on to arizona, a traditional gop stronghold he won four years ago, president trump is sounding more desperate, escalating his attacks on wearing masks. >> and in california, you have a special mask. you cannot under any circumstances take it off. you have to eat through the mask. right? right, charlie? it's a very complex mechanism, and they don't realize those germs, they go through it like nothing. >> reporter: he's found a new conspiracy theory to ride to

election day that the media are going to stop covering the coronavirus after november 3rd. >> on november 4th, you won't be hearing as much about this. part of an ugly closing message that mr. trump has adopted on the trail that includes raising doubts about the plot to kidnap michigan governor whitmer. >> we'll have to see if it's a problem. people are entitled to say maybe it's a problem. >> reporter: but the distractions aren't working, include this press release from the white house office of science and technology that cited ending the covid-19 pandemic as one of mr. trump's achievements. >> no, absolutely not. i think that was poorly worded. the intent was to say that it is our goal to end the virus. >> reporter: the administration's top health experts are contradicting the president like his false claim that new cases are soaring because of an increase in testing. mr. trump's testing czar said that's not true. >> we believe and the data show that the cases are going up. it's not just a function of testing. yes, we're getting more cases

identified, but the cases are actually going up, and we know that, too, because hospitalizations are going up. >> reporter: and dr. anthony fauci is knocking down the president's bogus claim that the u.s. is turning the corner in the pandemic. >> i think it will be easily, by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality. >> reporter: besides the potential for a super spreader at his rallies, mr. trump had one other major health concern to deal with, when hundreds of supporters were stranded in the cold after a rally in nebraska, with some needing medical attention. joe biden seized on that. >> hundreds of people were stranded in sub freezing temperatures for hours. >> reporter: the president is complaining about being rained on at his rallies. >> i probably wouldn't be standing in the freezing rain with you, i would be home in the white house doing whatever the hell i was doing. i wouldn't be out here. >> reporter: there are october surprises shaking up the race.

the latest bomb shell, miles taylor has revealed himself as anonymous. the same who penned an op-ed two years ago states he was among a fwr group of aides, intending to act. the president continues to act in a manner detrimental with our public. he claimed he already knew the identity of anonymous. >> i know who it is. i can't tell you that. >> reporter: and as this pandemic grows worse by the day, investors are getting nervous on wall street. the dow jones dropped 193 points, investors are fearful of more lock downs across the country. jim acosta, cnn, traveling with the president in good year, arizona. now, jim mentioned yesterday's market selloff.

here's a quick look at how u.s. futures are doing this morning, all in the green. we'll have more on the state of the economy and the volatility we're seeing this week in about a half hour. joe biden is projecting a very different image in these final days before the election. his public focus has been on fighting the virus and reminding voters who's to blame for the rising number of infections. we get the details from cnn's mj lee. >> reporter: joe biden is sticking to a consistent strategy in this final stretch of the 2020 election, and that is to go all in on the coronavirus pandemic. on wednesday we saw the former vice president spend the day in his home state of delaware where he met again with public health officials in wilmington. these experts telling biden that they are worried about the spread of the virus, and what they see as a wave in cases across the country and biden, again, seizing on this moment to go after president trump and criticize him for his handling

of this pandemic. he has mentioned recently, white house chief of staff, mark meadows saying that the u.s. cannot control this virus. biden has always gone after president trump for continuing to hold crowded campaign rallies and yesterday he also took issue with the white house science office saying that ending the pandemic is one of its top accomplishments. biden coming out and saying this is an offensive thing for the trump white house to say given how many deaths we have seen across the country. here he is. >> at the very moment when infection rates are going up. almost every state in our union, refusal of the trump administration to recognize the reality we're living through. at a time when almost a thousand americans a day are dying every single day. it's an insult to every single person suffering from covid-19 and every family who's lost a loved one. >> reporter: biden also saying that if he does win next week,

it is going to be very very difficult for him to turn things around that this is not the kind of thing that's going to happen overnight, a very different tone from what we have been hearing from president trump. mj lee, cnn, wilmington, delaware. the u.s. supreme court just handed the democratic party big legal victories in north carolina and pennsylvania that could impact election results. in north carolina, the court says the state can count ballots received up to nine days after the election, as long as the ballots are postmarked on november 3rd or earlier. the court rejected a bid by donald trump's campaign and the republican party to narrow that window of time. and in pennsylvania, the high court declined for now to take another look at state supreme court decision that republicans t to change, leaving in tact a ruling allowing the counting of ballots received up to three days after the election, even if there's no legible postmark. the newly sworn in justice amy coney barrett took no part in the decisions because she had no time to study the briefs.

cnn's election law expert is offering advice as you consider your voting options. take a listen. >> the advice is don't mail your ballot if if you're in pennsylvania or north carolina. your best bet is drop box, official place to bring it back, or vote in person on election day. >> so that's your advice? what do you say if you live in pennsylvania, do what? >> i say this about everywhere in the country right now, if you have an absentee ballot, you should either put it in an official government drop box if you're allowed, return it to an official government office if you're allowed or vote early or in person or on election day in person. i would not trust the u.s. mail at this point, and that's probably the most important thing i can tell everyone watching right now. >> very good advice, and with just five days until the election, we are tracking the path to 270 electoral college vo votes. cnn's polling suggests joe biden will capture, 290 electoral

votes, and a new poll shows biden leading trump 54% to 42% among likely voters. cnn's john king takes a closer look. >> five days out, normally the time to say stop paying attention to the polls. hillary clinton won the popular vote. we pick president state by state, so why pay attention to the national polls. normally that's a good guy. look at the choice for president right now, hillary clinton was up about 4 points at this point in 2016. she did win but it narrowed on election day. joe biden is up 12 points. a 12 point national lead sets the table for a potential blue wave. a 12 point national lead that has been relatively study. a couple of dips, but 12 points. a 12 point national lead. that's a national poll worth paying attention to. can donald trump get momentum. yes, time is running short. you look into the bones of the poll, what is happening here.

one is on personal characteristics. donald trump, hunter biden, career politician, won't have big rallies and events. he has tried to attack joe biden. 55% of voters have a favorable opinion of the nominee. 41% have the same favorable opinions of the president of the united states, on questions of honesty, integrity, trust worthiness, joe biden is winning the race, and that matters. if you're the president and you can't beat joe biden on character, personal characteristics, you better beat him on policy. the president has an edge on the economy but just a slight edge, and look, coronavirus, the biggest issue facing the country, crime and justice. health care, race relations, supreme court picks. joe biden beats the president on every one of these issues and is essentially in a tie, a slight deficit on the economy. when voters say what do i want in the next president, clearly when it comes to these issues, they want joe biden. we look every day for momentum.

every evidence at all for trump momentum. new polls out of georgia today, the state has not gone democrat for president since bill clinton in 1992. joe biden still has an edge in georgia. you look at new polls in michigan and wisconsin today. they were red in 2016. we have them right now leaning blue in 2020, why? >> because joe biden has a lead in the polls and donald trump has issues on the biggest issue facing the country, the coronavirus. underwater, only 42% of likely voters in michigan approve of the president's handling of the biggest issue in the country. only 39% of voters say that in wisconsin. he's running against joe biden but with the spike of coronavirus cases around the country, donald trump's opponent is the virus as well, and at this moment, he's losing. >> let's bring in cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein who's in los angeles. thanks for coming on. i want to start with jared kushner's comments to bob woodward in april that trump is

now back in charge and that he was getting the country back from the doctors, so if donald trump loses the election, was that the fatal mistake? >> i think that confirmed the result. you know, it's striking that if you go back to the polling averages last october, they were basically the same. donald trump was losing to joe biden by about 8 points in october, november and december, even before this happened. he had alienated so many of the white collar voters who were doing well in the economy with his behavior, and the way he's conducted himself as president that he kind of put himself in this deep hole. but certainly the coronavirus confirmed that and it added a new problem that wasn't really present until the virus, which is an erosion among seniors who had voted republican in every presidential race since 2000 in the u.s., so obviously the president's decision to ignore this, to basically say that he wanted to assert normalcy at all times regardless of what was actually happening, regardless of what it meant for public

health, i think that created a huge head wind for him. i don't think it set the basic parameters of the race. >> you mentioned the polls, looking at our poll of polls, they consistently show biden up in michigan, wisconsin, to a lesser extent pennsylvania, do you think biden has a chance of rebuilding that blue wall as far as the great lakes states are concerned? you know, what are we seeing there. is it just as simple as trump hasn't delivered on jobs and the economy as he kind of promised. is it the democrats putting up a candidate in biden who resonates more with the voters there because of his, you know, blue collar backgrounding and maybe his gender. >> i think it's more the latter. by the way, i posted today on twitter my original story from 2009 that coined the phrase the blue wall. >> i saw that, yeah. >> although, the blue wall, talking about the blue wall in the three states, the 18 states that voted democratic in every presidential race in 92 to 2012.

trump dislodged, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin by 77,000 votes. i think it's much more the way he has behaved as president and also the effort, interestingly to repeal the affordable care act. i mean, if you look at those three states, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin, and for that matter, iowa, ohio, minnesota, there's extraordinary yun n unanimity in the polls. biden is winning in all, 50% or more of college educated white voters, which would be the best performance for a democratic candidate ever. in the states, pennsylvania, michigan, and ohio with a large african-american population, he's winning about 80 to 85% of them, and most critically of all, and consistently across those states, he's winning about 40% of those whites without a college degree. now, that doesn't sound like a lot, but hillary clinton was stuck at 35% or below among them in all of those states and biden is improving just enough among those voters to put him in the

driver's seat in those critical states skp states and i do think it is what you say, he is culturally more compatible him. some of the seniors are moving away, older blue collar whites are moving away from trump. and the blue collar white women who don't want to have to explain to their kids why they can't tell a classmate to go back where they came from or some of the other things that trump said. joe biden is doing the job he was hired to do which is win back just enough blue collar whites in the rust belt to give the democrats a chance to recapture those states and putting them back on the blue wall. >> stay with cnn for special coverage of election night in america, starting tuesday at 4:00 in the afternoon. 9:00 p.m. in london, and 1:00 a.m. wednesday in abu dhabi. still to come. president trump is repeatedly telling voters that all is fine and that the u.s. is rounding the corner on the pandemic but the data is telling the exact opposite story.

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of coronavirus hangs over the race. the u.s. president is continuing to hold potential super spreader campaign events. he's telling voters that the united states is rounding the corner on coronavirus, but the data shows a completely different story. the vast majority of states are seeing a surge in covid-19 cases. cnn's nick watt has the details. we're rounding the curve. we're rounding the corner. it's happening. >> what actually happened in wisconsin where the president said those words, more people were killed by covid-19 in a single day than ever before and record numbers in the hospital. >> if the trajectory continues the way it is now, it's almost certain that we will find ourselves in a place where we will have to decide who gets the care. >> reporter: staff shortages forecast and fear. >> there's no way to sugar coat it, we are facing an urgent crisis, and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members.

>> reporter: right now, 40 states are seeing their average daily case counts rise. nationwide, we just added more than a half million new cases in a week. the president still says it's just more testing. his own testing czar, once again, says he's wrong. >> we do assess that the cases are actually going up. they're real, because hospitalizations and deaths are starting to go up. >> reporter: the average daily death toll just topped 800 for the first time in more than a month. >> if we continue our current behavior, you know, by the time we start to go down the other side of the curve, a half million people will be dead. >> reporter: reintroducing restrictions now, a very real possibility many places. >> now it's pretty much up and down the state. i continue to think it's more like likely scalp community focus, but we have to leave all options on the table.

>> reporter: record covid-19 hospitalizations now in 13 states, ohio, among them. >> the current increase in utilization is noticeably sharper, steeper than the increase we saw during the summer peak. >> reporter: this is life, but not as we knew it. >> i think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality. >> reporter: this baseball season was very far from normality. for the dodgers, a 32 year wait for a world series is over, but covid tinged. theirs, 3rd baseman, justin turner celebrating post game. in the 7th inning, the team learned he's tested positive. >> obviously incredibly unfortunate, but, you know, kind of speaks to, you know, what all of us are going through in 2020. >> reporter: one of the big open questions is how long might

immunity last after infection. some potentially worrying news out of south dakota where officials say they have identified 28 people as possible reinfections, so they tested positive and then they tested positive again within a 90-day period. they are still investigating. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. cnn medical analyst, dr. esther chu joins me from seattle, at the oregon health and science community, thanks for being with us today. the u.s., an average of 70 new cases, the death rate going up. some hospitals nearing capacity. walmart's ceo among others, we're starting to see people stockpiling. are we here in the u.s. well on our way back to the battle days? >> i think we are. this is all starting to feel grimly familiar. unfortunately familiar and even

worse. as you know, we are starting to surpass our former highest peak rates in july. and yet we're not seeing people curb their behaviors at all. so we're kind of back where we were, and yet people are tired of being asked to, you know, to stay home and to not socialize in big groups, so i'm just seeing a lot of fatigue around behavior change. and it just feels like headed into the winter months where we're all forced inside at close quarters, it's going to be very tough to make our way through this peak. >> yeah, that's what i wanted to ask, you know, here some top health officials have openly contemplated a national mask mandate. when you see countries like french which had a national mandate, even fines now dealing with a hundred thousand cases daily, going back into lock down because the president says other measures haven't worked. seeing that, is it effectively

too late for the u.s. it's never too late to act. but have we already gone too far where masks and social distancing alone, and we need more drastic measures. >> drastic measures are on the table. at the same time, there are simple things we haven't done. we haven't had an administration that's had a consistent steady and strong message around masks. so something simple like that coming from the very top still is, you know, gives us importantly potential to move. and i also think on a state by state level, communities can really decide that this is going to be something that they all socially enforce. i hate to say that it's too late. i think there's a lot of potential for change. hopefully the numbers as they translate from cases to hospitalizations to deaths will make people really stop and think, and recommit themselves to this effort. >> as if things weren't dire enough, the fbi and two federal agencies warned they have credible information that cyber

criminals are planning a wave of extortion attempts which could cripple hospital information systems, a couple of hospitals already have been hit. if it were more widespread, obviously, you know, it would be disastrous given the spike in coronavirus cases, how worried should we be about this? >> hopefully that will not become a widespread thing, but you know, our information systems are so critical to our response in states like oregon. the way that we coordinate statewide is through, you know, is through our i.t. infrastructure, so it could really put a dent in how well we're able to respond quickly to the needs related to the pandemic. at the same time, i will say, hospitals have a lot of contingency plans for things like, you know, shut downs. we do routine maintenance shut downs. we have back up systems in place. that go to good old pen and paper. so we wouldn't be completely debilitated. >> thank you so much for being with us. dr. esther choo in seattle.

appreciate it. >> thank you. jared kushner brags about president trump taking the u.s. back from the doctors, and we'll hear from journalist bob woodward about kushner's comments on trump's political scheme to take credit for stopping the virus. stay with us for that. a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. okay, you're all set up. thanks! that was my business gi, this one's casual. get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. unlike ordinary memory want supplements-ter? neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.

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for a briefing on the worsening pandemic, by contrast, president trump continues to down play the virus as he blitzes battleground states such as arizona. health experts fear his ill advised rallies are potential super spreaders. a whopping 75 million americans have already voted in person or by mail. that means one-third of all u.s. voters have made their choice well ahead of tuesday's election. new eyebrow raising comments have emerging from president trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner. he spoke back in april with the prominent journalist bob woodward. kushner said the president was quote getting the country back from the doctors, and he described how the president wanted to play the virus politically. >> so with testing now, what he has been saying is don't fall into the same trap that we fell into the first time. the states have to own the

testing. the federal government should not own the testing, and the federal government should not own kind of the rules. it's got to be up to the governors because that's the way the federalist system works. but the president also is very smart politically with the way he did that fight with the governors, to basically say, no, no, no, i own the opening, the opening is going to be very popular. people want this country open. but if it opens in the wrong way, the question will be, did the governors follow the guidelines we set out or not? >> it's a really remarkable thing. first of all, the idea that they fell into a trap the first time on testing is remarkable. the idea that it's a trap for the federal government to actually be responsible in helping get tests to labs and get americans tested, it is so cynical the way they're look agent it, clearly through a lens of politics from the get go. >> well, it's not just cynical, it's manipulative to the tenth

degree. i mean, here what kushner is saying, look, let's give the hard stuff, the testing to the governors and let's require them to deal with these arrangements which we've made for opening, and then when there's opening, trump will embrace that, and that will be his. and what struck me it's said with not any hesitation. it's said like, okay, this is where we're going. we're going to do what governors, oh, well, they're here to be used in manipulated by the president. >> so many people are voting early in the u.s. that the number of ballots already cast has surpassed the level reached in the 2016 election. arizona has one state where voters have been sending in their ballots in droves.

cnn shows us how democrats are thoe hoping to flip their state from the party of republican control. >> reporter: an election for the ages. >> can you put stickers on these? >> reporter: all ages for this phoenix, arizona, family. volunteering to flip the state fw blue. >> there's going to be people that are pissed off. it used to be a red state. >> reporter: change has arrived, like many new arizonians, they're younger, college educated and voting democratic, helping to turn their state into a battleground. >> there's definitely been a shift, a very noticeable shift. a arizona is growing very rapidly. it's no longer a place for retirees, it's going to change because there's more families like us. >> reporter: families like theirs are part of maricopa county's population boom, about 200 new residents relocate to phoenix's most populous and

political powerful county every single day. >> it used to look like that. >> reporter: yes, it used to be cowboys out here. now? >> it's up middle income, professionals, highly educated. it is having a political effect. there's no doubt about it. >> reporter: kirk adams should know. a decade ago he was one of the top elected officials in the state. arizona has voted for republican presidential candidates since 1952 with the exception of bill clinton in 1996. and this year. >> reporter: it's advantage joe biden. >> is that shocking for you to say still? >> it is still shocking to get those words out of my mouth. president trump was gasoline on the fire. he is the accelerant that has produced sort of the position, the political position that we find the state in today. >> joe biden knows this moment is not about him. >> reporter: the biden campaign and his allies are spending 6.7 million on tv ads in arizona the week before the election.

about 3 million more than the trump campaign, and republican groups, according to data from the ad tracking firm cantor media. both president trump and joe biden have made arizona a top priority, increasing their presence, and ground game as election day approaches. adding to the changing demographics about one-third of maricopa county is latino. maggie acosta believes new latino voters and residents could help democrats take the state. >> do you feel it's different this year. >> yes, it is. as more latinos are getting out there to vote. >> reporter: a once reliable red state now home to opposing views. >> if arizona stays red, will it discourage you? >> yes. i mean, she'll say no. but -- >> we'll keep working. >> but, yeah, we'll keep working. >> reporter: early voting is underway here in arizona.

you can see there's a small line gathered here at this early voting site in scottsdale, arizona. as far as what the numbers look like, in maricopa county, the recorder says 1.26 ballots have been cast, signature verified ballots. it is a record as far as early ballots as compared to 2016. more than all of the early votes cast in 2016. a similar story in pima county, that includes tucson, arizona. so when it comes to records on early ballots, those are being smashed in arizona. kyung lah, cnn, scottsdale, arizona. on wall street, worries over covid-19 infections, more restrictions and election uncertainty led to another selloff on wednesday. by the time it was over, the dow plunged 943 points and the s&p 500 was down 3 1/2%, the worst performance since june. now, u.s. futures are gaining some ground in overnight trading

that major asian markets have pushed lower in thursday's training. jo things have become much riskier in the marketplace. >> almost double trouble with the covid-19 spikes we're seeing in europe, and still lingering doubts about the u.s. election despite the poll results we're seeing now. more about the ballots and the question marks around it, and there's real concern in europe because of covid-19 because it's at the core of major economies which will slow down growth, require more stimulus, and even the potential for social unrest. i think it's important to say this is not a global phenomenon. if you look at the asian markets, three of the four were down lower in the major indices, but not sharply lower, so this is a good indication, then if we look at europe, after that dropping of 3 1/2 to 4% on wednesday, the major markets are just above the line, but they

have been bouncing here, there and everywhere. everyone is going to be looking at the two reports of the united states, the latest jobless claims and the last one before the election. still very high, 700,000, with 7.7 million americans still on the roll of the government who can't find work, and then we have the gdp report for the third quarter. this is an eye popping number, 36%, if that comes true, but it just makes it equal for 2020 because we lost 36% of gdp. unbelievably in the first half of the year. so investors are not looking through the rear view mirror in the third quarter, looking forward to the fourth quarter in the next year of the second wave of covid-19, kim. >> a lot more pain ahead. thank you so much, john de defterios, appreciate it. zeta has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but not before pommelling the u.s. gulf coast. we'll show you where it's headed in a live forecast. stay with us. robinhood believes the time to do money.

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tropical storm zeta is sweeping through alabama and pushing wind and rain into tennessee and georgia, just hours after making landfall in louisiana as a category 2 hurricane. this video shows the storm breaking a barge loose, effectively making it a threat to other shift as it passed through mississippi and alabama, but has cut off power to more than 1 million homes and businesses in three states. one person was killed by the storm in mississippi, and another in louisiana. electrocuted by a downed power line. let's bring in meteorologist d pedram javaheri who has been following this. what can you tell us? >> kim, you know, it's been a wild night across portions of the gulf coast, and about to be much the same here into areas of the state of georgia and eventually throughout the carolinas and even into the northeastern united states before this system quickly moves

out of here, but we're talking about a storm with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour. at this hour, gusting to over 70 miles per hour, beginning to now enter and move through the metro atlanta area. so when you look the at what we're dealing with with the storm of this magnitude, very rarely do we have tropical storm warnings into areas in the metro atlanta region. that is precisely what is happening at this hour, as the system moves across the area. even tornado watches down along the gulf coast, and portions of say southern georgia as the system moves in the area. winds could easily exceed 40 to 50 miles per hour, gusts up to 60 to 70 miles per hour. that includes areas around atlanta, and notice areas indicated here in blue are all tropical storm warnings, which will eventually end up into the appalachians, and a lot of these areas certainly could see power outages as well. if there's any piece of good news with this storm system, kim, it's the speeding moving at 40 to 50 miles per hour. that's fast enough to get the

system out of here and back over the atlantic within about a 12-hour span or so. how about some of these wind gusts. up to 100 plus miles per hour on the immediate coast where it made landfall where upwards of a million customers without power along the gulf coast. when you get wind gusts up to 71 miles per hour in the atlanta metro, we're talking just shy of a category 1 hurricane, which is why we think power outages could be extensive this this region, and again, very quickly, this system does end up off the eastern sea board, as early as right around sunset this evening. this is something we'll follow carefully, and hopefully out of here before long because we know the power outages could last a for a few days across the southern united states. >> moving quickly away, good riddance. thank you so much, meteorologist pedram javaheri. appreciate it. at least 53 people are buried and feared dead after two landslides in vietnam, triggered by typhoon molave. authorities say some 700

communities right now have no electricity, and the red cross says at least 150,000 people face food shortages because the typhoon destroyed throws of acres of crops and killed livestock. european leaders say existing restrictions aren't enough anymore as they face a massive surge in coronavirus cases. details of the new lock downs in france and germany next. stay with us. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements- neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.

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surging coronavirus cases across europe have forced to of the biggest economies into lock down. the leaders of germany and france made that announcement just hours apart. the first lock down will begin friday in france for nonessentially businesses, restaurants and bars will close for four weeks. president emmanuel macron says this won't be as severe as the last lock down. >> translator: wherever possible, working from home should again be the norm, but, and this is a second difference from the spring, economic activity will continue with more intensity. this means the public services will stay open, factories, agricultural operations, building and public construction work will continue to function.

the economy should not stop nor crash. >> in germany, restaurants, bars and clubs will close for a four-week partial lock down begins monday. the german chancellor says this action must be taken to avoid a national health emergency. we have cnn correspondents tracking developments all across europe. standing by in paris, and scott mcclain is live for us in bruno in the hard hit czech republic. scott, let's start with you. we have just learned that the czech republic leads the european union with the highest rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, so kim, first, let me tell you about the situation in germany. two weeks ago, chancellor angela merkel imposed new restrictions aimed at virus hot spots but two weeks later it's abundantly clear it has not worked. germany recorded a record high new case count so starting on monday, schools will stay open, but as you said, bars, restaurants, theaters, gyms, they will all have to shut down.

people are being told to stay home to avoid travel. in fact, you will not be able to check into a hotel room if you're there for merely tourism. the chancellor says that the health care system right now is equipped to handle the influx of hospitalized patients. merkel says that if the situation continues on the trend it's on right now, the system will be completely overwhelmed in a matter of weeks. germany only has to look to its neighbor in the czech republic to see what happens when a country waits too long to act. the czech republic was able to tamp down the first wave of the virus with relative ease in the spring, but it resisted bringing in new measures until relatively recent recently, and now it has the highest infection rate of any major country on earth. as you mentioned there, kim. yesterday we went inside some hospitals, two of them in this part of the country where we saw they are jam packed with patients. doctors are exhausted and they are desperately appealed for

volunteers as well. they have had months to stockpile protective equipment, make more bed space. the one thing you cannot easily buy in bulk is doctors and nurses. both have had to shut down departments to divert doctors to deal exclusive with covid-19 patients. one of the hospitals, in fact, kim, says if things continue, they'll have to start turning patients away by monday or tuesday. >> wow, a dire warning indeed. thanks, scott. french president emmanuel macron wasn't mincing words talking about how dire the situation was and how dire it could become if these measures aren't taken. >> absolutely, kim. what he told the country is that within two weeks, the critical care capacity in french hospitals is going to reach capacity. he expects and he forecasts that about 9,000 people will be requiring critical care by mid november. and the french capacity,

emergency capacity, that is, is 10,000 beds, so if he does nothing now, that was his argument to the nation last night. if he does nothing now, then the french health system will soon be overwhelmed and french doctors could find themselves having to choose between patients who are priority patients that they should treat. and that is why the president now imposed the strictest measures we have seen since the peak of the pandemic in this country in march, april, may. so starting tomorrow, people will need an authorization to step outside their homes. nonessential businesses will be closed. that means bars, pubs, restaurants, museums, retail. so parts of cities like paris are once again going to start looking like ghost towns. however, and you played that clip earlier, the government has learned its lesson from the first wave and they are now trying to protect a larger chunk of the economy, which is why factories, some public services, construction, those are going to continue working. the guideline is, if you can't do your job from home, if you

can't do it from a computer, then you will be allowed in most cases to go to work, so they're trying to tow this line, kim, but right now, they have to err on the side of caution and health because as the president reminded us, the health system is close to being overwhelmed here. >> thank you so much. appreciate your reporting, guys. and a final word this hour on the world's fight against covid-19. taiwan now has gone 200 days without any local virus transmission. the taiwanese center for disease control says the country has seen over 554 cases during pandemic. the self-governing island jumped into action at the first rumors of the virus, screening travelers from wuhan before china admitted the gravity of the situation. you have been watching cnn. thank you very much. i'm kim brunhuber, stay with us. "early start" is up next. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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president trump and joe biden push contrasting strategies to battle this pandemic. what dr. fauci says now that he has never said before. >> and big wins for democrats at the supreme court. two battleground states will be able to count absentee ballots even if they arrive after election day. welcome to our viewers around the united states and around the world. this is "early start," i'm laura jarrett. >> good morning, and i'm christine romans. 5:00 a.m. exactly in new york. today is the deadline to request an absentee ballot in alabama, illinois, maine, oregon and wisconsin, and elyot