gorilla mask with pink hair throwing an egg at him. it narrowly missed him but that campaign stop was only minutes long when it was planned to be much longer. >> scary. thank you very much. reporting as we said live from oakland. thanks so much for joining us. ac 360 starts now. good evening. tomorrow president biden will address the nation about his plans to reverse the staggering rise in covid cases and deaths that's worse now than one year ago. in fact, today the cdc said the rise in deaths may continue over the next four weeks even as hospitalizations possibly, we caution possibly stabilize. this is despite the fact more than 75% of adults are vaccinated. as the cdc noted today, the pace of vaccinations is down 26% from a month ago. we should caution these vaccination numbers come after a holiday weekend. the president is going to lay out a six point plan with political, economic and public

health repercussions. right now we want to focus on what officials say will be one element of that plan which is safeguarding kids in schools. it comes as new data that the american academy of pediatrics says one in four cases is in a child. there's been a 250% increase in infections in children from five weeks ago. vaccines are unavailable for those under 12. one thing that unites a lot of people is that kids should be in school which leaves masks as one of the next best lines of protection. most notably in florida, mask mandates have become deeply polarizi polarizing. governor ron desantis ordered an option to opt out. we want to remind you of the

vitriol these fights have caused. >> the doctors sitting up here sneering at us looking at us like we are scum bags, they need to go back to [ bleep ] medical school. >> right here. look, right here. >> as you can see, fists are now flying. >> bully him into wearing a mask? >> that's what we do. we love our state. >> well, i don't believe that. i don't believe that. >> i want my child to go to school free and unmasked. >> sit there civilly and behave yourself. i suggest those of you who have your masks under your noses. >> this board is working on forced mask mandates. >> we're the bad guys standing up for our children like mine who's at home saying i don't want to wear a mask. >> i've got an official. >> that's right. >> florida flash point, what is

a national battle. today 13 local school districts won a battle against governor ron desantis. a judge said the school's bans may continue while the case is under appeal. prior to the decision this morning governor desantis offered this prediction. >> but what we found is in the trial courts in tallahassee, state and federal, we typically lose but then in the appeals court we almost always win. >> the school superintendents front and center joins me now. carly simon. appreciate you joining us. how big a deal is this ruling? do you expect the governor and his allies to escalate the legal battle? >> i certainly expect the governor to escalate the legal battle. it is a good point, a positive moment for us and we are pleased by the decision. we're pleased by many of the points that judge cooper

presented because they align with many of our concerns and i think this is a step in the right direction but we're managing our expectations and we know we have a long process, a long legal battle and we're ready for the challenge. >> the governor was standing behind a podium that read early treatment saves lives. i tonight know if the irony is lost in him and he's trying to make it more difficult for schools to prevent covid cases in the first place. >> well, i think there's many ironic moments that have been occurring this entire time. we are focusing very much on having face-to-face classes and making sure our students are receiving direct instruction. increasing this is counter intuitive and it works against our efforts. every one of us who runs school districts want to have school for our school districts and we know we need to have the masking.

it's disappointing when we aren't getting that level of support and we have some ironic times that occur and statements that just don't quite jibe with the realities that we're trying to navigate. >> you and i have spoken before. tonight there's the american academy of pediatrics saying children account for more than one in four covid cases now. can you just explain what happens when a child tests positive in a classroom, the ripple effects of that or a teacher tests positive, how that essentially kind of breaks down the entire system. >> so i'll speak on this on two levels. when a child is exposed and they test positive, then all of our staff have to contact trace and make 1450ur that we take all students who have been exposed and have them guaranteed. this takes considerable amount of time and logistics and organization. then those students need to go home and they are going to be

guaranteed and trying to get instruction in a distanced method. we have a digital platform with canvass that we're trying to provide this instruction. it's very different than a face-to-face classroom. then we would have them come back and do five-day testing to see if we can shorten the quarantine period. that's, of course, if they don't have symptoms. when we have a staff member, many times i want to respect the fact that our staff members, you know, my body, my choice, but many of our staff members when they test positive, it impacts a lot of other staff members because that work still needs to be done. we are an education system. everyone has a role. everyone has a lot of work that needs to be acted out in order to have a school day and so when that person is not in, many other colleagues are having to pick up that load and it really just -- it puts a burden on the district. when we have so many people who have to have these types of quarantines, it really impacts how we function on the day to

day. >> you must be spending a lot of your time or schools must be spending a lot of time just trying to do contact tracing and figure out, okay, now this student has tested positive so this means x, y, z has to move around. >> yes. i would say if you asked any principal in any school that they would say now a full-time job is mapping covid and then there's the job of an education leader. so most of our principals are doing two jobs at the same time. our school nurses are in very similar situations where they're having to test, contact trace. there was a job of being a school nurse that occurred many years prior to covid was existing where you had to help with students with normal fevers, diabetes or things like that. many of us are having to take on new responsibilities that never existed prior to covid. >> i mean, that's what i don't understand about the parents who are screaming at teachers and

others about, you know, their child shouldn't wear a mask. i understand the whole personal freedom thing. i understand no one wants to wear a mask, all of that, but just on a logistics basis, if you want your child to stay in school in a classroom, it seems like masks just are the most obvious way to just -- it doesn't hurt -- it doesn't hurt -- it doesn't give kids covid. it is one thing that can prevent kids and prevent the logistical nightmare of having things shut down. >> well, so i would certainly agree with you with that. we also have the additional layer of we just had a phone call today with a parent who has a child who's old enough to be vaccinated and the parent is very upset that their child is going to have to quarantine. the solution for their child to not have to quarantine is to be vaccinated and then if the child has no symptoms, their day continues on. my son was exposed last week.

he's vaccinated. he hasn't shoni symptoms so we have not had to adjust our lives around this. we've been able to go on through and he's enjoying his classes. so that's the issue is that there are very small things to do that would help us to be able to continue to have school and not have your lives interrupted and when you have young children and you need to arrange child care, that really puts a damper on how you can function. >> carly simon, i appreciate your work and talking to us. >> thank you. >> i believe i made a mistake in the intro. 75% of adults are vaccinated. 75% of eligible adults have received one shot. i want to get a word in with sanjay gupta. so, sanjay, as more students across the country go back to school, are you concerned the infection rates now among kids are just going to go up? >> i think the absolute numbers are going to go up. i mean, this is just a sort of

math issue at this point because as you're increasing the number of children who are infected, even if the ratio stays the same, the absolute number will go up. right now about 100,000 people in the hospital, 2% of them are children. as more and more are infected, even if a likelihood of your child getting sick, severely ill enough to go to the hospital is low, the statistics start to catch up with people. let me show you a graphic that came out of this free print from north carolina state university looking at the next three months. what do the next three months look like? what they say is in schools if there are none of these mitigation measures, no masking, no testing, you'll have 75%. 75% of k-12 students become infected. there's close to 50 million students. add on masking, as low as 24%. masking and regular testing is

as low as 13%. not perfect, anderson, this is a very contagious virus, but you can get an idea of what can be done to bring down the numbers. >> that's incredible. 75% will get infected but with masks going down to 25. >> that's right. so far in this country 5 million children roughly have been infected. again, if you look at the hospitalization rate, about 2%, maybe less than 2% even of all of those in the hospital are children, but if these numbers continue to go up, and i hope they don't, if they continue to go up, obviously it affects all of the numbers just in terms of the absolute values. >> last year when school started there was a lot of concern about safety in schools and then it seemed like it turned out that there wasn't a lot of transmission in schools. was there? or was it just because the delta variant -- is it all the delta variant? is that the difference? >> i think that's a big part of

it, but i will tell you what is interesting, anderson, this labor day compared to a year ago, we have 3 1/2 times more viral spread, 3 1/2 more viral cases this year than last year. >> that's crazy. >> we have a vaccine. that's crazy. if you had asked me last year, this time next year we're going to have 3 1/2 times more cases than next year, i would have guessed i guess we never got an authorized vaccine. truth is we have annual authorized vaccine, three of them. 2 1/2 times the hospitalizations compared to last year and nearly 2 times the number of deaths as this point last year despite the vaccine. so you have viral showers that are going on. we are being bathed in virus in so many places across the country. high transmission. that's what's going on. so you add into that that the delta variant is very contagious, less for giving and all of a sudden you get into a

situation people are going to be affected unless they take protective measures. >> does that also mean that just way fewer people are wearing masks now than were wearing them a year ago this time? >> that's a good question. you know, i don't know what the mask wearing is like here. it's clearly different in different parts of the country. i think what happened, there's a lot of folks for a period of time because of the vaccines rolling out were also not wearing masks even though there was significant viral spread. people who are not vaccinated took that as an option not to wear a mask as well. the number of hospitalizations in particular is what i pay closest attention to. cases are hard to track because we're still not doing adequate testing in this country which is frustrating that people cannot wake up and simply know are they contagious or not. technology exists but we're not doing that.

what we do know is hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients in some parts of the country. regular elective cases are getting canceled. other non-covid-related diseases are getting substandard care because of that. masks we know make a huge difference for sure. the numbers sort of tell the story. what you're looking at on the screen there, anderson, regarding the vaccinations. >> that's incredible. >> unvaccinated people, 17 times more likely to be hospitalized. do you see the line for vaccinated people in the hospital. that's the flat line at the bottom. >> you can barely see it. >> it's an incredible story of what's going on. i think, frankly, more proof of just howe well the vaccines wor. >> another possible threat to the capitol at the right wing rally planned there in the coming days. we'll have details on the concerns about the threats as well as new video of a suspect from the capitol riot in january, the person planting pipe bombs.

there's new video authorities want you to see. later, the former president who encouraged rally goers to go to the capitol join us, his niece tells us what it says about his own political future. discover card i just got my cashback match is this for real? yup! we match all the cash back new card members earn at the end of their first year

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the fbi has released new video of the suspect accused of planting the pipe bombs the night before the january 6th capitol attack. the footage shows the suspect sitting on a bench near the dnc. all of this as there's breaking news about another possible threat to the capitol, a planned rally in ten days. there is a new recommendation tonight about fencing around the capitol. cnn's jessica schneider has details now. what are we learning? >> reporter: anderson, we just learned that that temporary fencing that actually surrounded the capitol people will remember for months after january 6th, well, it might go back up. sources telling ryan nobles that capitol has asked for the fence board put in place ahead of september 18th. the board will make the final call here. sources are telling our team it is likely they will approve the request for the fencing.

we are told it would be a smaller fence, likely up only for 48 to 72 hours surrounding the rally but this latest development, it comes as the police departments around d.c., they're amping up security preps in advance of this so-called justice for january 6th rally happening next saturday, september 18th. capitol police are warning about the potential for violent clashes and unrest at an upcoming rally in support of those charged in the u.s. capitol insurrection. this latest rally is planned at the capitol september 18th. the intelligence report references amped up online chatter after the officer who shot ashley boweden went public defending his actions after the justice department and the capitol police cleared him of any wrongdoing. >> i know that day i saved countless lives. i did my job. and there was imminent threats

and danger to the members of congress. >> reporter: the capitol police memo notes a recent uptick centered on babbitt's shooting and the document warns many might view september 18th as a justice for ashley babbitt rally. the former trump campaign staffer matt brainerd acknowledges this will address babbitt's death. it addresses the hundreds involved who are now facing federal charges. >> we're calling for charges to be dropped against all non-violent offenders who in many cases were walking through capitol doors into a public building held open by capitol police officers. this was a peaceful protest for people's civil rights that have been denied. >> the internal memo says 500 people plan to attend and counter protests are expected. the memo notes the prior events

have bhad much less. the danger is diminished since congress is on recess. one proud boy leader has encouraged followers to show up while others from the far right group are discouraging attendance online. capitol police note nine republican members have been invited and all but three have declined the invitation, marjorie taylor greene, matt gaetz and matt kawthorne. all of the chatter should be taken seriously. >> if they're seeing and hearing the same things they heard before january 6th, they should be taking better preparations and taking those -- those conversations more seriously. >> jessica, i understand congressional leaders are expected to get security briefings in the coming days about it. >> reporter: yeah. we learned there was one today, anderson. there was a briefing attended by at least one member of the january 6th select committee.

it was congresswoman zoe loughner. there was a briefing from capitol police as well as the architect of the capitol, the house sargeant at arms and the house speaker, nancy pelosi our team has learned, has invited chuck schumer and the top republicans, kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell to her office monday morning. that's when we're hearing there will be a briefing from tom mini manger. they are taking this seriously. >> stay with us. i want to bring in josh campbell, former fbi special agent. what does this tell you, the capitol police has requested a smaller fence be put-back up around the capitol. is that in an abundance of caution? no one wants to be the person who said, oh, no, you don't need a fence? >> i interviewed the new capitol police after he took the job. he wasn't there on the day of the attack, but one thing he

said is he will learn lessons and be a threat-based agency. they are going to re-erect this fencing, that tells us that they are concerned enough with about some of this as the demonstrators show up on september 18th. will it be overkill? maybe. you have to put yourself in the shoes of the officers. they can't buy a repeat of january 6th. they want to not necessarily provide a fortress but we are going to see some kind of standoff that puts the demonstrators away from the building that the officers are sworn to protect. >> just to get an idea that they are being portrayed by this group and others as political prisoners or victims in some way is insane. >> well, i actually talked with the organizer of this rally,

matt brainerd. he said these are in fact political prisoners despite the fact most people being held in the jails are accused of violent offenses. a lot of the people have taken plea deals who were nonviolent, just charged with trespassing. the premise a little bit of this rally is off base. they are taking a lot of their talking points and parenting what donald trump has said and is saying. >> it's interesting because when the former president finally did make a video, there was -- or it was actually after he made the video, they were trying to distance themselves. there were an awful lot of republicans initially trying to distance themselves from the attackers. those are probably antifa people in costumes. i heard it was a false flag operation. i guess they've abandoned that line of argument. now they're fully embracing them as trump supporters who somehow

are being persecuted. you know what, anderson, they're getting ready to bring out the lines of this. he said, hey, if there's any trouble on september 18th, it's because of the leftist ip filtrating our group. they're preparing false potentially talking points that they floated after january 6th. >> jessica schneider, josh campbell, appreciate it. new reporting about president biden and his administration's message to democrats on another pivotal moment for his presidency.

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as we noted, president biden will speak tomorrow on covid and the administration's plan to halt the surge. listening to public health officials was a key campaign promise but covid is one of many challenges facing the administration. it could be a critical moment

for biden's presidency. phil mattingly joins us with more. what are you learning about the new messaging push inside the white house? >> reporter: they make clear this is the critical moment for the legislative agenda. they want to sharpen their message. more than anything else, anderson, they want to simplify it. we've seen it more in the public comments and we've obtained polling memos, messaging memos sent to democrats on capitol hill. implicit in that memo, don't miss the forest for the trees. they're getting caught up on the various components on the sweeping $3.5 trillion proposal and that has caused problems with moderates, yes, in the senate with joe manchin and they have become increasingly skittish with the size, scale and financing components of the package. they're trying to walk people back, stay focused on the things that matter most. the binary choice whether you're

with him or against him. one of the top advisers said in a memo, president biden believes this comes down to a simple proposition, scranton pa versus park avenue. >> which is a theme that he had hit on during the campaign? >> yeah, no question about it. they think that's where president biden is at and that's one of the primary reasons he won re-election. yes, the components of it or the types of policies democrats have dreamed of for years. now it's the real opportunity to do something. when you talk to front line democrats, the house is weary of the size and scale and they need reassurance. this is a tax cut. this will drop prices. the wealthy will pay more to finance it. it's simple. don't get caught up in the complex details. the president's polls have been sliding. people are very cognizant of that on capitol hill making clear the elements are popular and that they play well even in

those swing districts. that more than anything else is a message they want to get across. >> phil mattingly, wmattingly, it. evan, president biden ran on the promise he would end the pandemic. it hasn't happened. obviously afghanistan did not go the way he wanted or anticipated perhaps. how critical a moment is this for him? >> this is the essential moment. this is sort of the point at which it's the proving ground. all of the things he's been talking about as a candidate and in the early months of his presidency are coming to a head. they are working, after all, on this speech that he's going to give tomorrow about covid. they are working on this even late tonight because the details matter. the subtleties matter. somebody familiar with the speech tell me you're likely to

hear him express a kind of war time spirit which is an interesting phrase. it's regaining the urgency he had six months ago at the beginning of this when he put the country on what he called a war time footing. he's trying to remind people, this is not done obviously. the numbers are difficult and what they want to show people is some of the things they have done have borne fruit. in july they got 10 million people vaccinated. once there was more concern about delta, once they ratcheted up the awareness, if not the fear of delta making people aware of the risks, they got 14 million people vaccinated in august. this is hitting the right balance. there is a way to solve this problem but it's not going to be done by being flat footed. >> gloria, what do you expect to hear? >> we need to hear some clarity here. just as phil was talking about with the economic plan and convincing democrats to go

along, the american public needs to hear a clear message from the president on what he intents to do and what he can do about the delta variant. he's going to urge vaccinations. he'll tell you how he will keep kids safe in school, more testing in the country and on and on but there has been a lot of disagreement between the cdc, the centers for disease control, and folks who work around the president about, for example, when you should get a booster shot or when you can get a booster shot. and this is a president who in july on july 4th said we gained the upper hand against this virus. we now know that the virus mutated and that the delta variant is something we all talked about. we didn't talk about it back then so the president has to be clear about next steps and he has to tell the american public what happened and how the public

needs to get vaccinated in the future if you're going to kind of save the country. he's going to say business, you be good. you need to be better. there are limits on what i can do as president. he's going to talk about mandates, for example. i think he needs to tell the public clearly, here's the way forward and out of this because the public is sick and tired. >> there's not much new he can say about covid. i mean, it's -- yes, people know you should be vaccinated. those that aren't vaccinated disagree with that, don't care about it, don't buy what he's saying. i'm not sure, you know, yelling more about it or phrasing it in a different way is going to do anything, is it? >> part of the thing exactly as gloria mentioned, appealing to the private sector is part of this. to say, look, there are states in the country, governors not

participating, not cooperating with the idea of vaccines, masks, in many cases standing in the way of it. private businesses that want to see the economy get back into good shape, they are in the position to start mandating it to their employees and getting a clear equivalent. there was that glimmer when people began to feel as if things were getting back to normal. there was backsliding. this is about giving people a sense they can't do that. it can't be done from the top. >> gloria, to the point that you just made. new gallup polling found 40% of americans think president biden has communicated a clear message. they said his handling of the pandemic has slipped 10 points since june. for democrats, if you are looking at this through a political lens, that is clearly an issue.

>> this was his calling cashrd. he said, we've got this under control. it was his calling card to being a competent president and now you see the numbers drop because people who were vaccinated, you don't have to wear your mask anymore, now you have to wear your mask again. the public is confused by what's going on with the virus and he really needs to explain that. i mean, presidents need to explain things to the american public. in this case we're not scientists. i do believe what he needs to do to say to the public is i have been competent. once you start losing fights, then the public believes you're not a success and he's got big fights ahead of him in the congress and he's got to deal with this right away. >> gloria and evan, thank you very much. coming up next. is the former president making all of the moves to enter the presidential race in 2024?

we'll talk to his niece, mary trump, when we continue. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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the former president's continuing his campaign of retribution trying to oust the republican house members who voted for his impeachment. his highest target is liz cheney. as he does that, he continues to tease another run for the white house. top adviser jason miller says the chances of him actually entering the race and i'm quoting here are between 99 and 100 percent. the ex-president is lining up rallies in key states scheduling one in georgia and one in iowa at the end of october. one person who knows him quite well is mary trump, author of "the reckoning, our nation's trauma and finding a way to heal." she joins us now. good to have you on. you see the moves by your uncle.

you hear what his allies are saying. do you actually believe he's going to try for another bid for the white house? >> i think the chances are a lot better now than they were immediately after the election. he got so humiliated i did not think he would put himself in a position to lose again but the machinations of the republican party, voter suppression bills that they're trying to pass in every state plus they're willing to push that and says we're great patriots. it leads me to believe he may decide that if he runs he won't lose. he also has a lot of incentive to get back into the oval office because it would protect him from the criminal charges and the civil charges being levied

against him. >> he's raised -- you know, based on the election lie, he put out all of these feelers for money and a lot of people sent in a lot of money to him that he can use as he wants to -- as he sees fit. >> yeah. listen, anderson, the question will he run is unfortunately a relevant one and one we need to grapple with but what is an even more question is why is he being allowed to make that choice? this is somebody who incited an insurrection and he is responsible for the current position is because governors like desantis and abbott who seem to have absolutely no concern about their constituents, place no value on

human life took their cues from donald. so why is he even being allowed to run if, indeed, he does? >> based on your knowledge of him and you're a trained psychologist, i'm wondering what you make just of the hold he continues to have over a vast majority of republicans in this country and how much of that relates -- ya. does it surprise you, the hold that has remained? even though he's been not really in the public eye? yes, obviously he shows up on fox and he's started doing rallies, but he's been relatively silent. >> yeah, it doesn't surprise me because the reason he's continuing to be relevant is because elected officials allow him to be relevant. if on november 7th they had ignored him and conceded that president biden won the

election, we wouldn't be having this conversation because he like every other one-term president would have faded into the background but they're keeping him relevant. they're continuing to empower him. they're continuing to ask for his endorsements, et cetera, et cetera. so it doesn't surprise me when, again, you see republican governors following donald's playbook and asking for his position and conceding everything to him, why shouldn't millions of republicans who follow him this far continue to put stock in him. >> according to espn the former president have announced he and donnie jr. will be providing commentary. they will have to pay for the match. i don't know what experience they have. i don't think they've ever been in a fight. does it surprise you even by his

low standards? if another former president decided to spend 9/11 commenting on a boxing match on pay per view, people would -- the heads would explode. >> that is, indeed, the problem. that's been the problem all along for reasons that are very difficult to understand. there is a completely different standard -- in fact, he's held to no standard. it's disgraceful. if there is no blow gun on the right for this -- disgraceful isn't a strong enough word to describe what you just mentioned, then that tells us everything we need to know about the current state of the republican party and it tells us that the democrats start -- really need to start wrapping their heads around the fact that this is not a party that can be worked with, this is not a party that should be conceded to.

>> in your new book you talk a lot about trauma. the name is in the title of the book, that's how important it is, do you think that that's a word that describes -- it's an important word in describing american history, more important your uncle's rise in 2016? >> yeah. as i say, this country was born in trauma. in the genocide by white settlers of the native american population and genocide and enslavement of the african population. we've never dealt with that. it's been passed down generation to generation and in the last four years we have dealt with an onslaught of attacks against immi immigrants, against people of color, women and one of the most dyiabolical things donald did ws divide this country at a time

when we most needed to be united. that's when covid started. it's going to take a very, very long time to recover from that, as we see, because people who follow him are making it almost impossible to get ahold of covid, to get a handle on it, to overcome it. and the violence and the rhetoric vis-a-vis mask mandates and vaccination is getting so out of control it's dividing us even further. >> mary trump, i appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. coming up, an up close look at covid in kentucky. 130% capacity. they've asked the national guard now to help. with e-commerce thas at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting.

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. earlier sanjay said hospitals are becoming overwhelmed due to covid surge, and that's definitely possible in the state of kentucky. the deep red and dark oranges on this map show you counties with high numbers of covid cases in the state. the reason less than half of kentucky's population is fully vaccinated according to the cdc, and many counties you see the light shade of teal only 30% to 38% of population partially vaccinated. cnn's miguel marquez takes us to one hospital in the state where the national guard is helping out as more and more covid patients seek help.

>> reporter: middleton was so sick doctors considered putting her on a ventilator. she refused opting instead to pray. >> i praise him from now. >> reporter: she says she and her husband talked about getting vaccinated but decided against it. do you have any idea where you got covid? >> yes. my granddaughter had gotten sick and just went through everybody. >> reporter: kentucky seeing its biggest covid-19 surge yet. cases and hospitalizations spiking sharply to levels never seen before. deaths, too, on the rise. hospitals everywhere just trying to keep up. >> it's defeating to put another person on the ventilator. it's defeating to watch a health

care provider that i care about or myself stand at the bed side when someone dies alone. it's also defeating to watch someone else get put in a body bag. >> reporter: the biggest facility providing health care to 11 counties in rural north eastern kentucky. it can't expand capacity fast enough. >> it's like we're at a war with this virus. and i think what we have to understand is we're not at a war with each other. whether your beliefs and those things, it's truly a war with this virus. >> reporter: the national guard is helping here. a federal disaster medical assistance team is also on hand, and still they need more. >> we right now based upon our number of staff beds we're running about 130% above capacity. >> 130% above capacity. and that's icu beds, regular covid units, regular patients, emergency department, everything

across the board? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the hospital has created yet another covid icu but doesn't have the staff to open it. so if this opened today how quickly would these beds be filled? >> within the hour. we could fill it within the hour. >> reporter: st. clair is trying to keep those with covid out of the hospital by providing monoclonal antibody treatments at home. madison owens was fully vaccinated and still picked up the virus. >> it spreads like wildfire pretty -- it's easy to get, and it doesn't matter who's vaccinated or not. everybody's getting it. >> reporter: a nursing student, a 21-year-old believes she picked it up at a funeral. >> nigh great grandmother passed away and we all went to the funeral and one by one we all started going down. >> reporter: the treatment takes about two hours. in a perfect world how many would you do in a day? >> we could start with one and keep going to be honest.

>> reporter: 24 hours. >> yeah, we have that many orders. >> i just worry we're not going to have the staffing capacity to meet demand. >> reporter: hospitals across the bluegrass state so full with covid-19 patients almost the entire system stretched to the limit. >> so i get really fearful when we need beds for folks who their diabetes is out of control and they need an insulin drip or they have regular or acute cardio pneumonia. we might not have a bed for them. if you come with a heart attack and you need an icu bed we probably won't have a bed for you. >> reporter: they probably have about three weeks left in case increases and hospitalizations before they decline. that woman we met, middleton she is getting better, going to go home soon. she's encouraging her family to

get vaccinated and maybe a few friends in her hometown in kentucky. anderson? >> let's hope so. higel marquez, thanks so much. if you can believe it there are flash flood watches in areas of the northeast. live weather reporting next. red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort.

a new tropical threat to the u.s. gulf coast tonight but accomplish flash flood watches are in effect for parts of the northeast already devastated by ida. so how bad are tonight's storms expected to be? >> well, i guess, you know, you could imagine you went through this with millions of others. anxiety is high. nerves are still rattled after the catastrophe we had with ida and you you toss in a pretty potent cold front. a severe thunderstorm watch went into effect and will be in place until midnight. it's a thin band, a narrow band but it is potent and has thunderstorms that have been producing some hail, downing

some trees. but more importantly some of these storms have beena dropping an inch of rainen a hour. that's concerning. we're not going to see the 10 to 15 inches of orainfall, but the ground is so saturated and so much debris in all the streams and rivers that that normal flow of water is going to be impeded. so we could see not just some ponding in some of these creeks but spill over in some communities. so it is a severe weather threat as well. we could have a few spin up tornados with this. so just the anxiety of this storm moving into the region after the national weather service put out this flash flood watch and for good reason. if you want to stay safe stay in and avoid those flood prone areas. >> there's also tropical storm mindy today that developed off florida emphasis gulf coast. >> about 5:00 p.m. the national hurricane center, we've got not only a center but we've got ourselves a tropical storm. mindy was the next name on the

list and it's about ready to make landfall. maybe in the next hour. across the big bend, we're not looking at a massive storm surge but this is going to mess up the beaches. already some wind gusts over 45 miles per hour. could knock out some power, already some flash flooding but this could be on georgia's coast by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. >> let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo primetime." i'm chris cuomo and welcome to the prime time covid command center. and here's why we're doing it. this is the fact. there's never been a more dangerous time for children in this pandemic than right now. the days of saying, well, at least the kids aren't getting this, those days are over. kids make up more than 1 in 4 new weekly cases in america, 1 in 4. and now the whole country is heading back to school. i got kids just starting in middle school, high school and college and i live