georgia will recount the votes yet again and for the 30th time the trump election challenge goes nowhere in court. covid impacting the georgia runoffs. one candidate tested positive 24 hours after standing maskless on a stage with vice president mike pence. 12 million coronavirus cases in the u.s., people getting sick at an alarmingly quick rate. welcome to cnn, i'm robyn curnow.

>> live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom." with robyn curnow. this is cnn breaking news. >> we begin with this breaking news in the u.s. election. the state of georgia will once again recount the presidential ballots as the trump campaign requested. recounts are allowed there when the margin of victory is less than 0.5%, as it was for joe biden. the state already did an audit of the presidential vote, so this will be the third time around at taxpayer expense. the biden campaign says the recount will show yet again that joe biden won the state. it also said there is no reason to believe there are widespread errors or fraud, and the trump campaign has no evidence to back up its baseless claims. i asked cnn election law analyst ranita tolson if the latest georgia recount will make a difference. >> it's a formality.

so when you have a vote as close as it was in georgia, so less than 0.5%, the trump campaign can request a recount. they rescan the ballots. let me emphasize, recounts rarely change the outcome of a election. you may see a shift of a couple hundred votes, maybe. so there's really no concern the outcome will change, this is really just a formality. >> things did not go the trump campaign's way in the state of pennsylvania, in fact, it got a skating brush-back from a federal judge there. white house correspondent jeremy diamond has the details. >> reporter: president trump is suffering his latest defeat in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. this time it came in an opinion from a frol judge in the battleground state of pennsylvania. judge matthew brand throwing out the trump campaign's attempts to prevent the state of pennsylvania from certifying the results of the election and joe biden's victory in that state. the judge, matthew brand, making very clear that the trump

campaign's arguments here are entirely unsupported, especially when they are seeking to essentially throw out the nearly 7 million votes cast in the state of pennsylvania. the judge writes this. one might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption. that has not happened, instead this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unclaimed in the operative complaint and unsupported by the evidence. much of that opinion reads very similarly, a scathing opinion here. notable also because the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, actually went into federal court just a few days ago to make that case himself after five previous attorneys withdrew from the trump campaign's lawsuit here. as the president's legal avenues are slimming, and they really are -- this was the 29th case that the trump campaign has either withdrawn or seen

dismissed in state and federal courts over the last two weeks. as all that is happening, you're seeing the president really uninterested in the business of governing, in the business of being president of the united states. even as he's fighting to remain president of the united states. he's had only a handful of public appearances in the more than two weeks since the presidential election. on saturday, the president briefly appeared at one meeting for the g20 summit of world leaders, appearing virtually, as most world leaders are. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. after the pennsylvania decision came down, the state's republican senator congratulated mr. biden as president-elect. pat toomey said, with today's decision by judge matthew brand, a long-time conservative republican who i know to be a fair and unbiased jurist to dismiss the trump campaign's lawsuit, president trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the results of the presidential race in pennsylvania. these developments, together with the outcomes in the rest of the nation, confirm that joe

biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the united states. the trump white house is still denying president-elect joe biden and his team access to critical resources and briefings but mr. biden is remaining calm and moving forward. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden's team welcomed the decision from a federal judge to dismiss the trump campaign's lawsuit in pennsylvania. as the biden team argues that it backs up their argument that there are no legal challenges that the president can credibly wage in order to change the results of this election. a spokesperson for joe biden, mike guinn, saying yet another court has rejected trump and giuliani's baseless claims of voter fraud and their appalling assault on our democracy. the judge's ruling couldn't be clearer. our people, laws and institutions demand more and our

country will not tolerate trump's attempts to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost. biden's team has long argued that these lawsuits and legal challenges from the president are simply political they'ller and they don't believe anything credible than actually be raised to change the outcome of the election. but they have warned that these type of challenges are threatening to american democracy, but they ultimately believe that this election is over and the results will stand. biden is pushing forward with his transition even as the gsa has yet to ascertain him as the president-elect. biden has been convening his own teams of experts and also holding briefings with people as they are gathering more information about how to proceed heading into january. and biden is also building out not just his white house staff but also looking at his cabinet decisions. and the president-elect has sped up his timeline for announcing his first cabinet picks with the

possibility of the first nominees coming at the start of the week. arlette saenz, cnn, wilmington, delaware. david signer joins me from washington, a cnn political analyst, national security correspondent for "the new york times." david, wonderful to see you. you wrote in the new york times in the last few days that the language and the legal challenges that we've seen to these election results are unparalleled in american history. are we seeing a very audacious use of political force here? or is this just a fruitless last gasp by the outgoing president? >> well, it is an audacious use of political force that is looking increasingly like it will be a fruitless last gasp. we shouldn't forget here, robyn, how unusual this is for the american system. and in that same article, i compared it to the most recent time that a presidential

election was thrown to the house of representatives, to congress. that was 1876. even in that case, there was real dispute that everybody agreed was a real dispute about the outcome of the vote in three states. what's remarkable here is there is no real dispute about the outcome. they've done audits and recounts, and they've all come out within a few votes of where the original was. it's very clear that joe biden won this by about 6 million popular votes. and the way things are breaking out right now, he has 306 electoral votes, which if it sounds like a familiar number is exactly the number that donald trump had when he beat hillary clinton four years ago. and that, the president told us, was one of the great landslides of american history. but this one, we're told, was

supposed to be so close that it actually was stolen from him. >> so when you look at the language in the tweets and the legal challenges, you say in your piece that the president's attempts of succeeding to overturn the results are somewhere between remote and possible. yet is there still a lot of widespread alarm? could he still pull some electoral switch here? >> if he's got, at least so far, a two-part strategy. part one was go to the courts and see if you could invalidate the ballots state by state. that has failed. i think today he lost his 32nd or 33rd court challenge of some kind. he's won about two of them on small numbers of ballots. part two was to go see if they could go strong-arm the legislators in michigan, perhaps, places like arizona or georgia, maybe pennsylvania, to go come up with an alternative

slate of electors. in other words, to ignore what the voters said and turn out another slate. that also looks to be failing. so then the question is, does he have some plan "c" after that? we just don't know the answer. >> it's kind of incredible that we're having this conversation, though, that the u.s. president seems to have actively tried to take away, strip the votes of mr. biden, who won, by pressuring lawmakers or the courts. i covered many elections in africa, for example. it doesn't seem to be any concern about the underlying threat that this possibly poses to the very foundation of democracy. and i don't think i'm overstating this, am i? >> no, i don't think you are. something we have in common, we're both correspondents on different sides of the globe. i was in asia for many years. and you in africa. and we both covered our fair

share of cases where it looked like somebody was coming in to try to go fix the vote. what's remarkable here is that we've had a lot of people surrounding president trump, many of his own party, saying, well, let's just humor him, let him exhaust his legal rights. and he certainly did have legal rights to go challenge the ballots. but now that those challenges have fallen apart, we don't see them standing up and saying, okay, so it's time now to just everyone acknowledge that joe biden is going to get inaugurated on january 20th and move toward a serious transition and a moment of great peril, largely because of coronavirus, but not only because of coronavirus. and that's what we're not hearing. that's what's really remarkable about this. >> david sanger, always good to speak to you and get your perspective, thankses so much. >> always great to be with you. more breaking news.

yet another prominent republican has tested positive for coronavirus. senator kelly leffler of georgia is in the midst of a heated runoff election that could determine the balance of power in the u.s. senate. she tested positive friday. another test saturday came back as inconclusive. she was with vice president mike pence at campaign events on friday, along with the other republican senator from georgia, david purdue. loeffler's office says she does not have symptoms and is quarantining until tests are conclusive one way or the other. no word if mr. pence or mr. purdue will do the same. fresh signs of a worsening pandemic in the u.s. we'll take you to pennsylvania as it sees long, long lines for testing and smashes past records. also, it's exactly what many u.s. health officials warned people not to do. why some travelers say they're okay to fly home for the holiday. ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh)

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12 million confirmed cases on saturday. that's according to johns hopkins university. now remember, we hit 11 million cases just last sunday. no other country has anywhere near that many cases. now the increases are rapid with many states shattering daily records. the nation as a whole has seen more than 100,000 new cases a day for 19 straight days. the numbers are staggering but some health experts say they're probably even worse than we know. >> we are still undertesting. so many states have test positivity rates of above 20%, which means that we are vastly lagging behind in our confirmed cases. so 12.5 million may sound really high, but it's multitudes more than that, actually. and we're starting to think in terms not just of the speed of the rise in cases, not just the acceleration, but how fast acceleration is increasing. >> california is among states seeing this dramatic, dramatic

surge. it's tightened restrictions in an effort to curb the spread but that really hasn't stopped it from smashing past daily case records. >> reporter: just a dramatic u-turn in california, which seemed to be doing so well with its covid-19 numbers just a few weeks ago. now 15,000 cases and counting in one day in the state, an all-time record. so they are battling this on a couple of different fronts. first off, contact tracing and testing here at dodger stadium. 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 people tested per day. they're also being very aggressive in some new roll-backs, if you will, new restrictions. a curfew has been invoked in most of california that forbids people from gathering in large clusters from 10:00 at night to 5:00 in the morning. this is very much aimed at young people. what they don't want is people

getting together at their local watering hole or restaurant or in a park and being out in those early hours. you can, however, go out and walk your dog or drive to a friend's house, go to the grocery store. but this is very much aimed at reducing the number of large groups that seem to be going out at times in california against the wishes of public health officials. reporting from los angeles, i'm paul vercammen, now back to you. >> thanks, paul. california isn't the only u.s. state that's had to roll out new coronavirus restrictions. iowa has also implemented a mask mandate after initially resisting to do so. in just the last month, hospitalizations there have doubled more than across the state. cnn's miguel marquez reports health care workers are being pushed past their limits. >> reporter: butch hansen, 84 years old, diagnosed with covid-19 last week. >> we're going to get a cat scan

of your chest. you've got some junk in your chest, so you've probably got a little pneumonia. i want to make sure you don't have blood in your lung. >> reporter: today he's back in the emergency room. >> why did you come in today? >> i had a rough time with that phlegm last night. that's all i did, cough up that phlegm. i kind of thought, well, it's either the covid or something else, find out what it is. >> reporter: hansen, a retired farmer, says he's been careful. >> open your mouth, say ahh. >> reporter: but may have picked it up from a family member. >> there's going to be a sharp poke here, okay? >> reporter: regional health services of howard county. the hospital, ambulance service, public health department, and hospice care for the entire county. the 19-bed facility moves most, its sickest patients, to larger hospitals. with iowa, the midwest, and the country all seeing a sharp increase in cases and patients, finding an available bed in a

larger facility, not so easy these days. >> the biggest concern in the last week when is we call and ask for them to help take care of our patients who are maybe sicker than we're used to taking care of, they don't have beds for us. and so that's where the strain really comes on. >> reporter: over the last month, hospitalizations across iowa have skyrocketed. under 500 covid patients hospitalized in mid-october. now nearly 1,400 iowans hospitalized with covid-19. and if there's a surge with nowhere to send critically ill patients -- >> this is the in case of emergency, open this? >> pretty much. >> how many more people could you surge this with everything here? >> the capability of adding up to 50 beds. my hope is to never have to open this trailer. >> reporter: today the entire health care system here pushed to its limits. >> what is covid doing to places

like howard county and cresco right now? >> it's starting to stress us out. we have limited resources. >> reporter: in the first month of the pandemic here, howard county saw 13 coronavirus cases. over the last month, there were 411. holidays around the corner. the fear, it's going to get a lot worse. >> with thanksgiving coming up, how concerned are you with what you're going to see around christmas? >> i have a feeling it's going to be out of control. i really worry about health care in general around christmas. because if everybody gets together at thanksgiving, has all their big gatherings, within two weeks we'll start to see the outbreaks start. >> reporter: this is the problem at towns, big and small, across iowa, the midwest, the country are facing. the system is filling up. there are fewer and fewer places that hospitals in cresco, iowa,

can send patients to. they're facing the real possibility people may be dying in their homes, in the parking lots, waiting for health care. one good note, the gentleman in the story, mr. hensen, he went home. they they'll he'll be a-okay. they make them tough in iowa. >> thanks, miguel. u.s. airlines are actually saying they're bracing for their busiest week since the start of the pandemic. that's despite cdc officials begging americans not to travel right now. so still some airports are packed. the transportation and security administration screened more than 1 million travelers on friday alone. this man, pete, has more from reagan international airport. >> reporter: the cdc says people should not travel for thanksgiving. but what's so interesting is it has not stopped people at reagan national airport, who tell me that they feel safe enough to fly. aaa estimates about 50 million people will travel for the holiday.

but that's only a 10% drop compared to last year. airlines are still adding flights to their schedules and insist flying right now is safe. but they underscore it's a very personal decision, one that passengers here tell me they did not take lightly. >> i feel like i have taken enough measures to protect myself and my family. >> i understand the ricks that i'm taking, but i want to see my family. >> reporter: airlines say they're not encouraging people to fly right now but not discouraging them either. united airlines says it's seen bookings drop off as coronavirus continues to surge. still the head of the tsa thinks we could break a record of the pandemic set on october 18th when about 1 million people passed through security at america's airports. he says the busiest days will be the wednesday before thanksgiving and the sunday after. pete munthen, cnn, reg than

national airport. the coronavirus is dominating conversation at the virtual g20 meeting. donald trump participated in part of the event then went golfing. just ahead, a full report on the global event from saudi arabia. as covid cases surge across the country, governors are imposing new restrictions. we look at what they are after the break. it's the kay friends & family event! with 25 to 50% off everything! find hundreds of meaningful gifts in-store, online or by virtual consultation. shop your way and save. only at kay jewelers.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome back to cnn. i'm robyn curnow. recapping our top story, the state of georgia will once again recount the presidential ballots as the trump campaign has requested. now recounts are allowed when the margin of victory is less

than 0.5%, as it was for joe biden here. now the state already did an audit of the presidential vote, so this will be the third time around at taxpayer expense. the biden campaign says the recount will show yet again that joe biden won the state. it also said there's no reason to believe there are widespread errors or fraud and the trump campaign has no evidence to back up its baseless claims. yet another prominent republican has tested positive for coronavirus. senator kelly loeffler of georgia is in the midst of a heated runoff election that could determine the balance of power in the senate. she tested positive on friday. another test on saturday came back as inconclusive. she was with vice president mike pence as you can see at campaign events on friday, along with the other republican senator from georgia, david purdue. loeffler's office says she does not have symptoms and is quarantining until retesting is conclusive one way or the other.

no word yet if mr. pence or mr. purdue will do the same. the virtual g2 summit kicked off on saturday. not surprisingly the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide, is dominating that meeting. after participating in part of the virtual event on saturday morning, president trump went golfing. remember that no country in the world has been losing the battle with this virus as badly as the united states. nearly every state is now reporting a rapid surge in new cases. nationwide, more than 80,000 people are in hospital. nic robertson is in saudi arabia with this report on the summit, nic? >> reporter: you get the feeling that this virtual summit, there's a submessage from everyone towards president trump. and that is, good-bye, but don't let the door hit you on the way out. we heard from the saudi investment minister saying when the covid-19 pandemic started, the world looked for leadership and couldn't see it.

he said some leaders had turned inward that they'd become nationalistis tism ic. when king salman of saudi arabia gave the opening speech, one of the points he picked up on was the importance of the world trade organization to combat future pandemics that sort of stiffened and strengthened the economy so poorer economies wouldn't be hurt in the future. this also seemed to an dig at president trump. president trump doesn't like and doesn't value the world trade organization, has tried to rundown its importance, so a counter narrative there. we also heard that from president erdogan of turkey as well, talking about the importance of the world trade organization. some of the key things that have come out of the summit is economic support, sort of medically and for combating covid-19 as a pandemic. economic support as well. debt relief for poorer nations that can potentially be hit by

the economic outfall. and as well, investment of all nations in their own economies. $11 trillion, according to the saudi king, invested by the g20 countries in their own economies, and that, he said, was helping strengthen the global economy in the face of this pandemic. nic robertson, cnn, riyadh, saudi arabia. news of the coronavirus vaccine could not come soon enough. 42 states are seeing rising cases as we've been saying, with several facing the highest daily totals we've ever seen. that's leading to this wave of new restrictions announced by governors trying to get a handle on the spread of covid ahead of the holidays. tom foreman has all the details on that. >> reporter: from coast to coast, the exploding pandemic is driving states to take action. >> we are in a war right now. and the virus is winning.

>> reporter: in iowa, the governor once called mask mandates feel-good measures. now she is ordering one and sharply curtailing social meetings. >> this includes wedding and funeral receptions, family gatherings, and conventions. >> reporter: north dakota has a mask mandate now too, after covid has willed 1 out of every 1,000 people there. but not south dakota, one of the hottest hot spots in the world, where john bjorkman spent 30 days in the hospital. >> no energy, no -- no drive. >> reporter: then died, leaving his wife, chris, to plead. >> i want people to -- care enough about their neighbors, their family, that they wear a mask. >> reporter: idaho is tightening restrictions. so are utah and california. oregon has ordered a two-week social freeze. restaurants and bars cut down to takeout and delivery. grocery stores and pharmacies at

75% capacity. >> i put on aggressive and immediate restrictions because we still have an opportunity to curb the virus and ensure that we have adequate hospital bed capacity. >> reporter: and on it goes. while some states are still pushing forward with reopenings despite the fearsome toll in human life, more and more states are cracking down, heeding the cries of health officials. >> we're not asking americans to do this forever. we're talking about three months and then get them vaccinated. so we have this very time-limited request in order to save lives. >> reporter: the surge in state restrictions just underscores how, from the start of this pandemic, there has never been a comprehensive national plan to deal with it. and there still isn't. tom foreman, cnn, bethesda, maryland. and a vaccine certainly

couldn't come soon enough in some parts of europe. germany was seen as a model for other countries during the first wave, but friday it broke its all-time record. fred pleitgen takes us inside one of germany's intensive care hospitals. >> reporter: working round the clock to save lives. this doctor is performing a tracheostomy, making a surgical airway on a patient with severe covid-19. we're in the covid ic uchu at a hospital in potsdam outside berlin. where the number of covid patients requiring intensive care has dramatically risen in recent weeks, and they expect things to get worse. >> fif it goes on with the spee we are experiencing right now, i would imagine even our hospital, with over 1,000 beds, is at a point -- will come to a point

where we can't -- where we have to send patients home, or not home, to other hospitals, to get them treated. >> reporter: when we visited, only 2 of the 16 icu beds were vacant. the staff was already canceling other nonurgent operations to free up capacity, and making plans to convert more of its general intensive care facility into covid icus. germany has one of the best health care systems in the world, but it's continuing to see high numbers of coronavirus infections and more and more people requiring treatment in icus. one of the things that the government has said, if the current trajectory continues the way it is right now, even germany's health care system could be overwhelmed in a matter of weeks. and that could be bad news for all of europe. germany has been taking in covid patients from neighboring countries whose health care systems are overwhelmed. for now, they can continue to do that, but it's not clear for how much longer. official data shows the amount

of covid-19 patients in german icus jumped from about 260 to almost 3,600 in just two months. even many younger patients with severe symptoms, a senior physician says. >> we have patients of 30, 40 years here who are on a ventilator, and i'm not sure if they'll survive. >> reporter: germany has recently seen a strain of demonstrations against the country's anti-pandemic measures, many protesters denying the severity of the virus, considered a slap in the face by frontline medical workers working hard to keep people alive. "i also hear people say, it's like regular flu. we can't not understand people who talk that way." germany is still far away from such scenarios. there are thousands of icu beds available in the country, but the head of potsdam's intensive care division says, beware of

the outbreak's dynamic. >> nationwide, the numbers are climbing and they're still climbing. they're not coming down at the moment. >> reporter: and while the staff here can provide top-notch care, they urge people to protect themselves from the virus to minimize the risk of ever winding up in the covid icu ward. fred pleitgen, cnn, potsdam, germany. coming up on cnn, the nigerian army is changing its story about using live rounds in a deadly protest last month. at least 12 people were reportedly killed. what the army is now saying. that is just ahead as well. ensun to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health.

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a passenger ferry with more than 400 people on board has run aground in finland, stranding them overnight. the coast guard there says the ferry got stuck near aland island. this video shows strong wind and

waves beating the ship against the shore land. the coast guard tells us the hull isn't taking on water or leaking fuel for now and there will soon be evacuations using tugboats. a cnn investigation has shed new light on deadly anti-police brutality protests in nigeria one month ago. soldiers and police allegedly moved on unarmed protesters in lagos and fired shots into the crowd. the miken army denied the accusation, but as cnn reports they're admitting to having used live rounds at the protest. >> reporter: the nigerian army admitted at a panel of inquiry that soldiers were given both live and blank bullets on october 20th. the admission seems to confirm a key finding of our cnn investigation into the shooting. >> the shoot eers will be given

both live and blank bullets. in this particular case, we saw that these protests had been infiltrated by some hoodlums. peaceful protesters, no doubt. but also the hoodlums who sought to take advantage. that is why they were armed with blank bullets in addition to the live military. >> this is the first time the nigerian army has admitted having live rounds. the army's statement also contradicts previous statements about the incident, including from bringing near taiwo himself, who told the judicial panel previously that the soldiers were firing in the air and firing blank ammunition.

the cnn investigation included evidence that bullet casings from the scene matched those used by the nigerian army when shooting live rounds, according to current and former nigerian military officials. in addition, two ballistics experts confirmed to cnn the shape of the bullet casings indicate they used live rounds, which contradicts the army's previous claim they fired blanks. cnn's report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses and photos and video obtained and geolocated by cnn. the nigerian army did not respond to numerous requests for comment prior to the broadcast and publication of cnn's story. this admission by nigeria that live rounds were deployed is yet another in a series of constantly changing narratives as to what happened on october 20th where protesters had

gathered to demonstrate against police brutality. thursday, minister for information and culture hah med said the military fired blank ammunition in the area. he dismissed the cnn investigation as fake news and misinformation. cnn stands by our reporting. nima balden, cnn. a three-week lockdown as cases surge. what the leaders have to say. a special story about the spirit of thanksgiving during a pandemic. a kindergarten teacher is making a real difference for her students this holiday season. a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. okay, you're all set up. thanks!

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♪ welcome back. it's 49 minutes pennsylvania the hour. i'm robyn curnow live in atlanta. the navajo nation in the southwest reported its highest jump in new coronavirus cases in one day. martin savidge now looks at this dire situation, martin? >> reporter: winter cold has returned to the navajo nation.

so has coronavirus. last spring, covid-19 devastated the sprawling 27,000 square mile navajo reservation that stretches across arizona, new mexico, and utah. in may, per capita navajo infection rates surpassed new york and new jersey. dee dixon's younger sister among those infected. >> she went in to get tested. and she said she tested positive. >> reporter: just two weeks later, dixon listened helplessly over the phone as her sister's covid battle ended in a distant hospital room. >> i was talking to her, and i was telling her, sisteher, you you have to come home to us. by 5:45, you just hear that -- that tone of her heart-stopping and the doctor came on the phone, and she said she was gone. >> reporter: now covid's back. navajo health officials warn of the virus' uncontrolled spread in 34 communities and fear an outbreak as bad as spring or worse. >> the cases just have been

increasing. there's no plateau, there's no flattening. >> how many icu beds do you have here? >> we have 14 in navajo area. here at this site, we have six. >> reporter: last time the navajo sent many cases off reservation to larger hospitals in new mexico and arizona. health volunteers brought in. that's not likely this time. hospitals nationwide are struggling to find beds for their own critical cases. so the navajo are preparing to fight alone, locking down the entire navajo nation for three weeks. ♪ voice of the navajo nation >> reporter: announcing the news on navajo radio. >> good morning, i hope everybody woke up feeling good, feeling that they want to stay home and take care of themselves. >> reporter: under the order, people can only leave their homes for emergencies or essentials. government offices and businesses must close. learning is online. gas stations and grocery stores can open, but under limited

hours and capacity, using strict sanitizing procedures. checkpoints like this one are designed to limit off-nation travel. nonresidents and tourists can pass through, they just can't stop. face masks, already mandated, now are encouraged to be worn indoors with family. >> we're like an island, navajo nation. of course if you have record-breaking numbers all around us, it will come into that nation or that area. that's what's happening today. >> reporter: aggressive screening continues. officials say more than 50% of nation's residents already have been tested and more than 250 contact tracers work to isolate transmission. health officials have identified sites to quarantine thousands and to place hundreds of hospital beds. native utility crews race to bring electricity to some of the roughly 30% of navajo who live without it, saving them searching for firewood or fuel. and running water to the 40% who have none, to make hand washing

and hygiene easier. >> with this little help, it will greatly improve their lives. >> reporter: so far, this lockdown has received little pushback, perhaps because even those who have already endured agonizing loss realize, there is still so much more the navajo could lose. >> to keep us safe. to keep us alive. that's what the lockdown is for. >> reporter: martin savidge, cnn, window rock, navajo nation. >> thank you to martin for that. thanksgiving, as you know, is just four days away. some families won't be able to get together for the traditional turkey meal because of the coronavirus. others are struggling to put food on the table at all. food insecurity has been on the rise since the pandemic broke out, and more and more people are now depending on food give-aways like this one in arlington, texas. the scene was also similar just outside of atlanta on saturday. some families here needed help

for the first time ever. lines for a food bank in los angeles were so long, some families had been there since friday. i want to end this hour with a story that really shows what thanksgiving and thanksgiving spirit is all about. we follow a kindergarten teacher in suburban maryland. many of her students' parents have lost their jobs because of the virus. this teacher has taken it upon herself to make sure that the families of high pressure stude -- her students are not hungry, take a look. >> how are you today? good morning. today is the 81st day of school. you ready? >> they love it. they don't know this is not normal. to them it's just school. >> hi, guys. >> i'm margaret norris. i teach kindergarten in silver spring, maryland. >> in my hair? >> the majority of our students get free and reduced meals. i don't want any 5-year-old that i know to learn about hunger. it's a full-time job.

i do something related to this every single day. today i was at the grocery store at 6:00 in the morning buying the things i need to deliver for next week's bags. friends and family provide the money. then we do a lot of shopping. >> good morning, how are you? >> thank you so much. we appreciate you. >> when this began, we knew right away that our parents' jobs would be lost first. the entire family would be food insecure. so the food effort began as just a reaction to the crisis. people have to eat. let's buy food. i do a lot of home deliveries. there's one family i take bags to. and there's a little one, a 3-year-old. in one week i had bananas in the bag. she opened up the bag, looked at her mom. her mother nodded. she picked up the bananas and hug them, she burst into tears. that, to me, is the definition of food insecurity. we're providing food for the

families to cook for themselves. >> margaret, it's been a team and a conduit to get people involved. it's been saying to everyone, she's not trying to save the world, but you can do all you can. help somewhere. help someone. >> food is about providing for your children. food is about sleeping at night, knowing you're going to be okay in the morning. food is culture and love and community. it's more than just energy. i'm not feeding anyone's children for them. all i'm doing is the grocery shopping. i don't want anyone in my community to put a hungry child to bed. >> what did we learn about? >> we're helping others. it makes me happy to know there's a child right now who's having lunch. they're having lunch because of our efforts. i do love all these children. >> thanks for joining me. i'm robyn curnow.

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welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. thank you for joining me. i'm robyn curnow. this is cnn. coming up, all eyes on georgia again. the state will once again recount their votes. and the virus is impacting the state's senate runoffs. plus the u.s. is passing 12 million coronavirus cases. 25% of those cases have been reported just this month alone. and after the cdc warned people should stay home for the holidays, many are ignoring the