a capitol hill show down is looming over stimulus checks. the house approves larger payments for struggling americans, but will the measure pass the republican-led senate. plus. the truth is, many of the agencies that are critical to our security have incurred enormous damage. >> president-elect joe biden slams a trump administration saying his team is facing roadblocks from some of the president's appointees. >> and there's just one week to go until a crucial senate runoff in georgia. we'll show you how churches could be key to getting out the vote. hello and a warm welcome to our

viewers in the united states and right around the world. i'm' isa soares. "cnn newsroom" begins right now. a very good morning to you. now, the u.s. house of representatives voted monday to increase covid stimulus checks to $2,000 for millions of americans. the democrat controlled house sei seized on president donald trump's demand for larger direct payments and that pushed republicans to decide between their loyalty to the president or their concern over the bill's cost. stimulus checks are expected to begin going out later this week. the house also voted to override the president's veto of a sweeping defense spending bill. both the stimulus and defense bills head to the republican led senate. that's putting the party in a tough spot with the president.

phil mattingly explains from capitol hill. >> reporter: it was just two votes on the house floor but also two specific demonstrations of where donald trump sits right now in the republican party. you don't want to read too much into a vote to override his veto or a vote to sustain his request to increase direct payments in the covid relief package from $600 to $2,000. it was hard not to pay attention to where republicans came down. on the stimulus checks, 130 people voted against what the president sent. a bill that has been signed into law 59 years, passed by congress with widespread bipartisan support, the majority of republicans sticking with their original vote in favor of the bill against president trump. what does it all mean? it's not an easy question to necessarily understand. when it came to the defense policy bill, take a listen to what the top republican on the house armed services committee

said. >> i would ask that as members vote, they put the best interests of the country first. there is no consideration that should matter. >> there's no question that president trump still demands loyalty, and house republicans in particular are willing to give it to him in spades. however, with some issues, whether it's defense policy, in this case, economic policy as well, they appear more willing to split from the president than they have been in the past. how is that going to play out in the weeks ahead. both measures will ahead over to the united states senate. the senate is expected to vote to override the president's veto as well. republicans on board with democrats. what happens with the $2,000 stimulus checks. mcconnell hasn't said what he's going to do. that will be the next interesting test from where the president sits on a daily basis.

the speaker of the house is criticizing president trump for vetoing the crucial defense spending bill. the top democrat is calling the veto reckless, adding quote i'm going to read it for you, the president must end his 11th hour of chaos, and stop using his final moments in congress to -- independent senator bernie sanders said he hopes to force republican colleagues to vote on the increased payouts. sanders says he will delay a vote on the defense spending bill, something republicans want, unless senate majority leader mitch mcconnell brings the vote on the $2,000 checks. meanwhile, u.s. president-elect joe biden says the trump administration is blocking his transition team from getting information from key agencies, including the defense department. after the election, president trump fired his defense

secretary and purged other leaders, leaving loyalists in political control of the pentagon. mg lee reports on biden's blocked response. >> it's nothing short in my view of irresponsibility. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden slamming the trump administration for what he says has been far short of full cooperation during the transition process. >> we have krounencountered roa blocks with the political leadership of the department of defense. >> reporter: after getting briefed by members of his national security and foreign policy agents. >> for some agencies, our teams we see cooperation, from career staff and agencies, from others, most notably, the department of defense, we encountered obstruction from the political leadership of that department. >> reporter: biden laying out some of the most urgent foreign policy challenges his administration will confront

come january saying major federal agencies have been handicapped under president trump. >> many have been hollowed out in personnel, capacity is in morale. in the policy process, either atrophy or have been sidelined. in the despair of our alliances and disrepair of those alliances. >> reporter: this as the country braces for post christmas spikes in covid-19 cases across the country. dr. anthony fauci saying he agrees with biden's earlier prediction. >> reporter: our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. >> reporter: that the worst of the pandemic is still to come. >> we very well might see a post seasonal in the sense of christmas, new year's surge. i share the concern of president-elect biden that as we get into the next few beeweeks, might actually get worse. >> reporter: a little over three weeks out from inauguration day,

biden building out the rest of his administration. the most prominent cabinet positions still outstanding, attorney general, the top two contenders for the role remain judge merrick garland and senator doug jones. other major appointments to come, cia director, secretary of commerce, secretary of labor, and sba administrator. now, as biden was leaving his speech here in wilmington, he was asked whether he supports the $2,000 in direct payments for covid-19 relief, and he said, yes, that he does. as for tuesday, he is going to be giving a speech about covid-19 as experts are worried that cases are going to spike across the country after the holidays. mj lee, cnn, wilmington, delaware. joining me now with a perspective is judy norman, lecturer at university of college london. it was great to get you on the show.

let's start with a multibillion dollar highly bipartisan bill. the house of representatives made themselves heard. now it goes to the senate. here the republicans must be forced to choose between the loyalty of the president, and the legislation that sets the defense policy for the country. how do you see it playing out? >> well, isa, this is a bill that has passed annually for the last 60 years. it's a very important bill for raising the salary for service members, for funding overseas operations. it really is a very key bill for the military. so it's one that does put republicans in a difficult position in terms of being forced to override trump's veto, but at the same time, this is just such a crucial issue, not only for the republican party but really for the country and the military more broadly, and most republicans will not want to be seen as voting against that measure. >> i think you're right because i remember hearing house minority leader kevin mccarthy indicating that many republicans will not vote against, actually

vote against the president, although they supported the bill the first time around, but with, you know, three weeks left or so, the president's time in office, what pressures is he pushing on his own party. >> well, we obviously see the president sowing a lot of chaos right now, putting a lot of different kinds of pressure on his own party within congress, partly in a way to keep himself relevant so that he's still pulling some of the strings, still very much in the headlines. again, the fact that trump is only in office for three more weeks, it's true that he will continue to have a very large sway over the party. he will not be president after three weeks, and house republicans are starting to acknowledge that, and again, a bill like the military bill in particular is one that there's kind of a cost benefit analysis, yes, there might be some pushback for trump for supporting it, but probably stronger pushback in terms of rejecting a bill like that. there's also strength in numbers on this bill as well.

there's a critical mass of republicans who have shown support, it would be hard for trump to undercut individuals, even if he can point fingers at congress more broadly. >> remind our viewers around the world, why is the president so posed to this bill? >> well, there's different reasons that trump has given over the past few weeks in terms of his rejection of the bill. first it was in regards to the fact that the bill includes a provision for renaming some of the u.s. military bases that were named after confederate generals and leaders with new names, and trump opposed that provision, and that's one that will appeal to some of his base, his opposition to that. he also opposed some of the other measures that were really more directed to him in terms of restrictions on fast troop wrau withdrawals from places ranging from germany to afghanistan, as well as restrictions on the amount of funding that could be diverted to his border wall. finally, trump was hoping to insert a repeal of section 230,

the legislation that gives protection to social media companies, completely irrelevant to the military bill but one that trump was hoping congress would shoe horn in there for him before the end of his term. >> let's talk about the other bill, the stimulus relief bill, financial help desperately on the way for millions of americans, as they battle, but there's still a battle, i believe, between the president and congressional leaders and that doesn't seem to be dying down as we head from our phil mattingly, very much at odds over the amount of stimulus. why is that? >> well, we obviously heard from trump over the christmas holiday that he wanted to push the bill back to congress to increase the stimulus check amount from $600 for each recipient to $2,000 to each recipient. this was passed last night by the house on a floor vote that included 44 republicans voting for this increase, and it will

now go to the senate where it will be up to mitch mcconnell to decide how to move this forward. again, putting republicans in a very difficult position, this would increase the spending on the bill by about $460 billion. so this was a bill that republicans were trying for months to keep under a $1 trillion threshold, would really increase the spending. it's not a direction that mcconnell and many republicans want to go. >> thanks to julie norman, a lecturer. the united states breaks another covid-19 record and to make matters worse, vaccines may take longer to reach the masses than previously thought. and police are learning more about the nashville, tennessee, bomber, but they're still struggling to find a motive. the latest, just ahead.

now, the number of covid-19 patients in u.s. hospitals hit another record high on monday. last week, more americans were admitted to hospitals than any week of the pandemic so far. and for 27 straight days, the u.s. has had more than 100,000 people in the hospital for coronavirus. simply staggering.

well, california's governor says a stay-at-home order will likely stay in place because of low icu capacity as well as rising cases. cnn's nick watt looks at the state of covid-19 in the united states. >> reporter: sunday was the busiest air travel day of this pandemic. >> we have gone to utah in the past to ski, so it was a good idea to try to get out of the house. >> reporter: the search for normalcy will be fatal for some. >> we're very concerned and we always see a little bit of a bump after holidays, and sometimes a large bump. >> reporter: december is already the deadliest month of the pandemic. more than 65,000 lives lost. and. >> reporter: as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse. >> reporter: more than one in a thousand americans are already dead, killed by covid-19. up in canada, by the way, that number is around 1 in 2 1/2

thousand. six states now with record numbers of covid patients in the hospital. >> we have a limited number of ventilators. we have a limited number of icu beds. >> reporter: and california is now suffering the highest rate of new cases per capita in the country. now, remember that seattle area nursing home. >> why don't you guys cover his legs up. >> reporter: the nation's first hot spot, today residents and staff are getting vaccinated. >> that feels good. >> reporter: just over 2 million americans have now had their first dose. >> the 2 million number is probably an under estimate. >> reporter: the goal was to vaccinate 20 million people by year's end. >> the pace is slower than what was stated. that's probably unrealistic at this point. >> reporter: novavax is now starting phrase 3 trials of its vaccine in the u.s., and mexico, oxford astrazeneca could receive approval for its vaccine in the

u.k. within days, but the current rocky vaccine rollout proves a painful point. these elixirs will take time. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> well, you heard nick watt saying that it will take time. but how much time will it take for the majority of americans to get a covid vaccine. cnn's medical analyst, dr. l dr. lee -- at that rate for a two dose vaccine, for us to reach 80% herd immunity in the u.s. for vaccination, it will take us ten years. this is a scarce resource right now in vaccines, and vaccine production is certainly a limiting factor, and so i'm glad that novavax is starting their phrase 3 trials in the u.s. johnson & johnson and astrazeneca are two other companies that have progressed

quite far in their phrase 3 trials as well. so the more vaccines we have come online, the better, that means the sooner we can reach herd immunity in this country and around the world. >> important perspective from dr. leana wen. kamala harris will receive her first covid-19 vaccine today in washington, d.c. her husband doug emhoff is expected to receive separately from his wife. it's been one week since u.s. president-elect joe biden received his first dose in thhi hometown of wilmington, delaware. some residents and business owners affected by the christmas day bombing will be allowed to inspect their property in the coming hours. some of the buildings are damaged beyond repair. we'll get more on the investigation from cnn's shimon prokupecz. >> reporter: days after the explosion that rocked downtown nashville, investigators are still trying to determine the motive of 63-year-old anthony quinn warner. this dramatic video showing the

rv exploding shattering windows, damaging more than 40 store fronts and injuring at least eight people. none of them seriously. new cnn video from the scene shows the destruction. fbi agents and atf agents sifting through mountains of debris in the street, fire alarms still sounding within buildings. >> he was not on our radar. he was not someone that was identified as a person of interest for the bureau. and so we were not familiar with this individual. >> reporter: warner was killed in the blast. investigators identified him by matching dna collected at the scene with gloves and a hat found in a vehicle warner owned. according to authorities, the rv's vehicle identification number recovered from the scene was a key piece of evidence that led them to identify warner. authorities searched warner's

home over the weekend. warner was a computer consultant and said he planned to retire this month one of his clients told cnn. a neighbor described him as a hermit who sort of kept to himself. the tennessee bureau of investigation confirmed that warner's mother has been cooperating with investigators. garner's father was once employed by at&t, and the agency is looking into whether that may be relevant to the motive. at and at&t is the parent company of cnn. the rv had been parked outside of an at&t building in the early morning hours of christmas morning. when it began to play the song downtown by petula clark, broadcasting a message that a bomb would be detonating in a couple of minutes. police responded to the scene because of reports of gunfire, and quickly evacuated residents after hearing the rv's message. >> i see orange and hear a loud

boom, and i'm stumbling, it rocked me that hard. i'm telling myself, stay on your feet, stay alive. >> reporter: fbi agents and atf agents spent the day monday sifting through the debris at the blast site looking for evidence of the bomb. they were literally on their hands and needs going through dirt and different debris throughout the blast site. so much devastation, we can see at the blast site, buildings collapsed, cars all burned out. the fbi says they're still working on that motive, and they're also trying to figure out how warner got his hands on the chemicals and some of the bomb making materials used in this explosion. shimon prokupecz, cnn, nashville, tennessee. to russia now, where prison authorities are threatening to jail opposition leader alexey navalny. he fled russia after he was poisoned in august.

fled polite beg fred pleitgen has more. >> reporter: he needs to return to russia by the morning of tuesday or being face being put in jail. this stems from a case in 2014 which alexey navalny said was politically motivated. essentially what the russian authorities are saying if he doesn't show up to the hearing on tuesday morning that he will have violated his probation, and could then be arrested anytime if and when he returns to russia. now, interesting aspect in this is that after alexey navalny was poisoned using novichok and was on the mend after being treated in germany, the lancet, published details and that is being used by russian authorities. they say quote based on the lancet publication, navalny was

discharged from the hospital in berlin where he was treated on september 20th, 2020, and by october 12th, all of the symptoms of his illness have passed. essentially they're saying he's well enough to come back here to russia and face this hearing. now, the hearing is on tuesday morning, and it's physically impossible for alexey navalny to get to russia in that time frame. there's no direct flights in that time frame, and he would need a coronavirus test to board a blame. he's saying he believes this is politically motivated. he thinks russian authorities are embarrassed after a cnn and bellingcat investigation found out large parts of that alleged plot to kill alexey navalny, and of course he was able to contact one of the agents that was allegedly part of the plots and dupe that agent into admitting large parts of it. like i said, somewhere there is vladimir putin in his bunker stomping and yelling why didn't

he d die. if he didn't die, he is twice guilty and we will jail him. russian authorities say they were not behind the poisoning of alexey navalny. navalny has continuously said he wants to return to russia. fred pleitgen, cnn, moscow. public health officials are raising the alarm over the high level of covid-19 infection in england, bringing the latest from london in a live report up next. and the democrats in georgia are gaining on republican ad spending. will they need more help as they try to win two key senate seats next week. we'll bring you both of those stories after a short break. you are watching cnn. technology, sh q quantu cleansns without pre-rinsing. switch to finish and skip the rinse to o save water. they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

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lan in the united states and around the world. i'm isa soares. i want to take you to the u.k., marking a grim milestone, on monday reporting more than 41,000 new coronavirus cases. you can see on your graphic, the highest daily rise of cases since the pandemic began. this comes as the u.k. could soon approve the oxford astrazeneca vaccine. meanwhile, logistical issues are delaying the delivery of the pfizer biontech vaccine to countries in the european union. those hundreds of thousands of doses are now being dispatched. let's get more on both of those stories. our correspondents are covering all developments across europe. salma abdelaziz in london, cyril vanier in paris. we're seeing a tragic milestone for the u.k. as the country fights off this new variant. talk to us about the challenges the country is facing this time around, and how it compares to

that peak we saw in april. >> reporter: by a lot of measures, this is worse than the first wave. we are looking at an unprecedented infection rate on monday, more than 41,300 new coronavirus cases recorded in this rcountry, breaking the daiy record since the pandemic began. there are more patients in hospital with coronavirus than ever before. the national health service says that they are teetering. they are struggling. they are on the edge. we heard from the london ambulance service just yesterday saying the day after christmas was nearly as busy as the busiest day in march. 800 emergency calls, and a lot of this is due to a variant of coronavirus that the government here says is more transmissible, spreads more easily, and london and the affected areas are where this is prevalent, and they're certainly under a localized lock down right now. we're expecting more restrictions to be rolled out tomorrow when all of these regional rules are reviewed by parliament, so more rules, more

restrictions, up ahead, and again, a health service that's absolutely overwhelmed, and warning that they just might be overcapacity next year. isa. >> and cyril, vaccination campaigns, we're starting to see them picking up steam in europe, and not without logistical challenges. talk me throw those, cyril. >> absolutely. we always knew that fanning out what is currently europe's only authorized coronavirus vaccine was going to be a major logistical challenge, and now we have seen that hundreds of thousands of doses of this pfizer biontech vaccine have been delayed. i should say the delivery of those doses has been delayed. they are all made in belgium, and pfizer has acknowledged that minor logistical issues described by the health sprain industry, have issued to do with ha handling and loading, that is what has delayed delivery of some of the doses of vaccine. spain, which was supposed to get

its resupply yesterday is now getting it today. this is still, on this scale, fairly minor and fairly short of a delay, but it shows how dependent europe is on this vaccine. it also underscores why europe made contracts with five other vaccine makers, and it is so 2020, isa, that the only vaccine currently authorized in europe is the hardest to ship everywhere. as we know, this pfizer vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 degrees celsius. that's minus 96 fahrenheit, and keeping that cold chain going from belgium, through to the confines of iceland or the czech republic or poland or france or spain is a major challenge. >> but there is potentially good news, news that we're expecting sometime this weerk, the oxford

astrazeneca vaccine expected to be approved in the u.k., how is that different from the pfizer vaccine that cyril has been talking about. >> reporter: you heard my colleague talking about the refrigeration capacity, with the oxford astrazeneca vaccine, that is not needed. only costs about 3 pounds, $4, the same as your morning latté. of course it's made right here in the u.k. a lot of national pride around it. there's some debate about its efficacy. but researchers say they have a magical formula to make that better. a lot of excitement here. that could be rolled out as early as january 4th. >> we all need a magical formula. thank you very much, salma abdelaziz, and cyril vanier, good to see you guys. joining me now is sean griffith, amer tus professor.

let's start with the sharp increase from salma abdelaziz in the new cases we're seeing here, a record 41,000 plus testing positive. do we know the percentage of these infections, of the new variant. >> the figure being quoted for southeast england and london is around 70%. that's where we have seen the sudden increase of the new variant. as you'll remember, you identified through genomic sequencing. and genomic sequencing was put into play the beginning of december because we were seeing large increases in cases despite having had a lock down, and people were saying was it just behavior or something else. now the new variant does appear to have taken grip in the southeast. and so what we're seeing is large increases in cases within

london, sometimes over a thousand, hundred thousand, that's really high. in my own patch in the countryside, it's still 100% increase in cases during the last week. so we're seeing a rapid rise in cases, which then knocks on to hospital admissions and pressure on our nhs. >> that's exactly going to be my next question. you know, we're starting to see hospitals under extreme pressure. care beds being limited. health care workers in the eye of the storm, many of them actually infected themselves. give me a sense of what you're hearing from medical community and how different it is to the height of the pandemic back in april. >> i think the difference from the height of the pandemic back in april is that as you were reporting, there is a sense of hope because the vaccine is around. although hospitals themselves are under huge pressure, some of them are having to cancel elective surgery to reorganize the way they work because it's not just the covid cases.

it's also the respiratory infections which always rise during winter, so it's not just covid. our hospitals are under huge pressure, the beds are under huge pressure, the ambulance service is under huge pressure but i think it feels different because we can see that, a, we have learned a lot from the treatment, so the scientists have been refining treatment. we now can use dexamethasone, for example, methods in icu are refined, but that puts pressure on everybody in the hospitals, but at the same time, we can see the vaccine, but particularly hopeful about the oxford astrazeneca vaccine, as you were saying. once that comes on stream, easier to give in, easier to get the numbers up. >> that was professor sean griffiths joining me from oxford england. i want to take you to cuba where the government will restrict from countries. that's after covid cases on the island, most have been linked to

international travelers. patrick ottoman reports now from the cuban capital, havana. >> reporter: cuban health officials on monday said starting in january they will begin to reduce the number of flights coming from countries that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic like the united states, mexico, panama, and the bahamas. cuba recently has seen a surge in new cases and officials say that most of those new cases, 70% are people coming into the country, already infected, bringing the coronavirus illness with them, and so that by reducing the number of flights, and reducing the number of travelers coming this on those flights, that should help cuba begin to get the spread of this pandemic once again under control. cuba for most of 2020 was under lock down, which kept the number of new cases here very very low compared to much of the rest of the region, but had a major impact on the economy as there was no tourism, as cuba has

begun to reopen out of necessity to help the economy once again grow, they have seen here the number of cases slowly start to rise and as we have gotten into the holiday season when many cuban americans from florida have returned to the island. that is when officials say they have seen a surge on monday. they said they had a record number of cases, 229 new cases, and that has led them to first announce that travelers will be required to show a negative pcr test within 72 hours of their travel and then on monday, officials say they will actually begin to reduce flights from a list of countries that have particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. this is a turn around for cuba, which officials here had said that they felt they had the virus under control, they felt they could manage it, but what they have seen as has been the case in so many other countries, by opening up too quickly once again, that has led to a reset, and cuba will not go back to a

full lock down will begin to reduce the number of travelers that can come to this island. patrick ottoman, cnn, havana. well, as republicans fight to hold on to their senate seats in georgia, they're going to be getting some special help from washington. we'll explain when we come back. cnn goes back to one of the original covid-19 epicenters, the u.s. facility that made headlines as an early hot spot for the virus. we'll bring you that story after a very short break. more than just vitamin c. it's a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. take on your day with airborne.

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we are just a week away from georgia elections that will decide the future of the u.s. senate. all four candidates are making a final campaign push and for the republicans, an extra bit of help is coming from the white house. president trump is planning on holding a rally on the eve of the runoff elections. meanwhile, the democratic candidates are asking for donations, a warning that they're being out spent. take a listen. >> we are making unprecedented

investments in turnout, mobilization, voter protection. there is movement energy right now in georgia. democrats are excited, but look, here's what people really need to understand. first of all, republican combined spending is vastly more than democratic spending but more to the point, republicans are filing lawsuit after lawsuit to disenfranchise black voters in georgia. >> as you can imagine, there has been plenty of national interest this these runoffs, but as kyung lah reports, georgia churches could be a deciding factor. ♪ let's put our hands together ♪ >> at the antioch ame church, the georgia senate runoff is front and center. progressive and conservative christian groups determined to move the faithful from the pews to the polls. >> so we want to be ready, church, because the whole world is counting on us to make the

senate blue. >> reporter: at stake, control of the u.s. senate. >> how important is the role of the church in these runoffs? >> oh, i think it is critically important. i think we saw in november there was a huge turnout among blacks, a surprising turnout for some, and i think the church played a major role. >> reporter: it's important to note that we are in the south. >> the black church is extremely strong in the south, and historically, the black church has led the effort for justice. >> reporter: a passion the bishop believes will bring out voters for the two democratic challengers. >> your standard bearers are the young jewish son of an immigrant mentored by john lewis and a black preacher who holds dr. king's pulpit at ebenezer baptist church. >> reporter: but this is the bible belt. >> right now, we're challenging our so called evangelical brothers and sisters.

we're challenging them to be better. we're challenging them not to hide behind something called pro life. >> reporter: there is another major force of faith in georgia's runoffs. this is flat creek baptist church, part of the conservative baptist network. >> we got a little election coming up. vote christian. >> reporter: pastor, reverend josh sefco. >> we need a vote with the context of scripture in our minds. >> reporter: there's little doubt what that means for evangelicals. >> i always vote for the candidate that most aligns with my christian faith. in this runoff, i'm voting for the candidates that are pro life. >> reporter: reverend warknock's pro life stance, have been the target of the fiercest republican attacks. >> hello, georgia. >> reporter: vice president mike pence has campaigned multiple times for georgia's republican

senators, underscoring abortion. >> david perdue and kelly loeffler stand for the right to life. >> reporter: a potent get out the vote source for evangelicals says its pastor. >> it's advantageous to represent our world view. >> you would like to see more engagement. >> we have become more engaged as a church family, we can make an educated decision in voting, and being framed through the scripture. >> reporter: the president is scheduled to be in the state next week. it is the day before the election. and he's heading to dolltton, georgia, it's in a county he won by 70%. it is a reminder that these runoffs are about turning out the base for the republicans. that includes evangelicals. kyung lah, cnn, atlanta. fines, threats, and legal

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u.s. troops based in south korea are being vaccinated as the country records some of its worst covid-19 yet. front line health care workers in the military are receiving the first doses, there are reports of vaccinations are voluntary, and will be given to other troops as supplies are ready. south korea's reporting 40 covid related deaths on monday. that is the highest jump in coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began. when the coronavirus was first detected in the u.s., the seattle area was the epicenter of the outbreak. cnn's sara sidner returned to the nursing home that first confronted the virus to speak with staffers who just received their covid-19 vaccines. >> that feels good. >> reporter: these were some of the very first people in the united states to go to war with a new virus. without weapons to fight it. ten months into the pandemic, they are finally getting the most powerful weapon available, a vaccine. >> what is this day like for

you? >> what i feel right now is a new life, a new beginning. but a better life. >> reporter: this was the first epicenter of america's deadly coronavirus outbreak. . what was your most difficult day? >> march 4th. >> reporter: registered nurse chelsea earnest cannot get the memory of what happened that day out of her head. >> that is the night there were like five ambulances in the parking lot. >> reporter: patients were dying or needed to be hospitalized, ultimately 39 patients died. ten died at the facility. >> whose job was it to call the family members? >> there were many that i had to call to either say they were going out to the hospital or that they didn't make it. >> reporter: the trauma of those days in march, and the family members cries haunts them all. that same month, several members of the staff spoke to cnn. life care center said in the first few days, they begged government agencies for help and received little. >> do you get what you need when you needed it?

>> no. no. >> reporter: testing took days to get the results then. now, they have a rapid test that takes minutes. initially, the staff was blamed for not controlling the covid outbreak by just about everyone. >> we got threats. >> reporter: what kind of threats? >> all kinds of death threats. we ended up getting security. >> reporter: and soon, threats of a loss in funding and a fine of $611,000 unless the facility resolved problems found by inspectors, federal inspectors said life care failed to rapidly identify and manage residents putting them in immediate jeopardy. state inspectors reported similar findings. life care center appealed. >> we knew what we had done was the best we could have done. >> reporter: in september a state administrative judge agreed. the state provided little evidence that the facility actually failed to meet any expected standard of care or failed to follow public health

guidelines. the federal case is still pending. ten months after the initial chaos of the outbreak, the closest we could get was a look from the outside in. in-person visits are still forbidden. the chairs outside patients' windows used by families to communicate in march are now a semipermanent picture here. this facility is covid free. several of the nursing homes nancy butner oversees are not. >> there is not a day that goes by that i don't get a phone call or a message that we have a new positive patient or staff. >> reporter: coronavirus is still killing patients. >> absolutely. >> reporter: still sickening staff. >> yes. >> reporter: which is why this day is one of the most hopeful days they have had. for this physician's assistant, the day was bittersweet. >> i have one resident who last week asked me if she can get the vaccination, i said sure you can. and unfortunately she has passed

away. so i did promise her that she would get it, so it's sad that she didn't get to see this today. >> our thanks to sara sidner reporting in washington. we'll continue to follow this story and the covid-19 pandemic here on cnn. for live updates be sure to visit our web site at cnn.com. and that wraps up this hour of "cnn newsroom," i'm isa soares live from london studio. "early start" with christine romans and ryan nobles is next. do stay right here with cnn. i'll be back tomorrow, so tune in. bye bye. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "early start." we have reports this morning from capitol hill, tokyo, wilmington, istanbul, and moscow. i'm christine romans. >> good morning, i'm ryan nobles in today for laura jarrett, it is tuesday, december 29th, 2020, and it's 5:00 a.m. in new york. we begin this morning with a nightmare after christmas for senate republicans staring down two votes they would not like to talk. the house of representatives voted to over ride president trump's veto of the sweeping defense bill. now the gop led senate may hand mr. trump the firs