supersonic wifi only from us... xfinity. hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes in lviv, ukraine. >> and i'm rosemary church live at the cnn center in atlanta. just ahead on "cnn newsroom." >> we may be moving xs and os around the field militarily. but it seems like he's using the same old playbook. >> russia general has a good idea what we're going to do. we don't want to layout specifics in advance.

>> now for russia to say april fool, we're not going to do it, i think we're past that. >> u.s. president biden agrees to a conditional summit with russia's vladimir putin, but the kremlin says there are no concrete plans and intelligence sources offer a dire warning about russia's intentions. plus britain's queen elizabeth tests positive for covid-19. we are live outside windsor castle with the latest. and a winter storm will plunge much of the u.s. into arctic-like conditions, bringing freezing air and snow across the country. what you can expect as you begin this workweek. ♪ ♪ welcome, everyone. we begin with a flurry of last-mindy point loma city for a

peaceful resolution in ukraine. on sunday u.s. president joe biden agreed in principle to a summit with the russian president vladimir putin. but the white house says that will only go forward if russia, of course, does not further invade ukraine in the interim. and the kremlin has just weighed in saying there are, quote, no concrete plans for a meeting. now, this was all proposed by the french president emanuel macron, and officials say further details will be hashed out when the u.s. secretary of state meets with his russian counterpart on thursday. mr. biden also held a meeting with his national security council sunday to discuss the crisis. the white house says diplomacy is still on the table, but the u.s. is ready to respond with sanctions if russia, quote, chooses war. take a listen. >> he has not conducted another invasion in ukraine yet, and we want to get -- we still think there is' time to prevent that.

if you punish somebody something for what they haven't done they may do it. we're hold that will affect the calculus. mr. putin. >> while we believe mr. putin has made the decision, the dye is cast, until the tanks are actually moving, the planes are flying, the bombs are dropping, we're going to do everything we can with diplomacy and deterrence and dissituation to get mr. putin to reverse the decision he's made, and part of that is making very clear what he risks in terms of sanctions. >> meanwhile, new satellite images show increased activity among russian forces massed near ukraine's northeastern border. and the belarusian defense ministry says joint military drills between russia and belarus that were supposed to end on sunday, they've now been extended. and we are also learning that the u.s. has intelligence indicating russian commanders have received ordered to proceed

with an attack on ukraine, but it's unclear when. that is according to several officials who spoke with cnn. here's how the u.s. secretary of defense says an invasion might play out. >> you could see a significant amount of combat power move very quickly to take kyiv. so, in terms of the types of things that could happen, one only need to look at what's on the other side of the ukrainian border. if he employs that kind of combat power, it will certainly create enormous casualties within a civilian population. >> also ukraine says this video shows russian-backed separatists launching fire against their own territory in an attempt to falsely accuse ukraine's armed forces of carrying out such an attack. cnn has reporters fanned out

across the globe. nick payton walsh will join me later in lviv with ukraine separatists. fred pleitgen is in brussels. and eu foreign ministers are gathering to cuss the crisis. and sam kiley is in ukraine. let's go to fred pleitgen in moscow first. and, fred, so we've heard a little bit from the kremlin about this proposed summit. what's your interpretation? >> reporter: well, certainly it doesn't seem as though dmitry peskov we got off the phone with, with reporters, he wasn't pouring cold water on the summit. he said it is something in in concrete planning. he said vladimir putin and macron on the call yesterday decided negotiations were supposed to continue on the ministers level. we're talking about french foreign minister and the foreign minister speaking.

on thursday secretary of state blinken speaking to russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. that level is definitely continuing and is going to go on. he said right now there is no concrete plans yet for a summit between president biden and russian president vladimir putin, but he also said that something like that could be initiated very quickly. he said whether or not it's in-person or whether or not it's over the phone or some sort of video conference, that is something that the heads of state would obviously decide as well. but he did say something like that could be initiated very quickly. the kremlin also saying, michael, by the way, that vladimir putin is about to chair a meeting of the russian security council, a large meeting of the russian security council, and he did say that that was a meeting that was not scheduled. so we're looking to hear from that what vladimir putin could be saying in that meeting. certainly something that is very, very important to hear in russia as the situation in donbas continues to escalate, and obviously the united states says that it is seeing increased activity by those russian forces

that are amassed around ukraine, michael. >> all right, fred pleitgen there in moscow, appreciate it. sam kiley speaking of donbas in that region, there's been a lot of activity, ukrainians say the separatists are firing on themselves to try to provoke things. give us a lay of the land where you are. >> reporter: well, here about 25 miles from the russian border, a few miles beyond that, we are seeing a continued increase in the russian presence. not that that's causing any significant conniptions here. the second biggest city in ukraine. very much the center of its intellectual life. yesterday, michael, i was down close to the front line where there was sporadic shelling. there were eight significant detonations in the time. we were in a little village called new york, believe it or not, right on the front line on a street, the end of which gives way to the rebel-held area, and

the chemical plants of holivka. locals were saying while there had been an uptick in the amount of shelling, it wasn't as bad as they had seen in the days of 2014, 2015. and i think the real story here about all of these briefings coming out of the united states is the ukrainians will say, well, western intelligence was mendatious over afghanistan. why should we believe the doomsday scenarios coming out of the united states and the united kingdom when it's already having a deleterious effect on the economy? here people are going about their daily business as if almost nothing were happening, michael. >> yeah, very similar here in lviv as well. sam kiley, appreciate that there in kakiv. let's go to scott mclean in brussels. e.u. foreign ministers meeting there. what's on the agenda, what might we expect to see?

>> reporter: michael, yeah. so, those european foreign mi ministers are as we speak meeting with the ukrainian ministers and what ukraine actually needs. what issue that has been determined according to eu's top diplomat joseph burrell, the package of sanctions already been determined by the states. you heard from ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskiy saying, look, if the west is so, so certain russia is going to invade ukraine, there should be no need to wait to put those sanctions in place. the your peen or joseph burrell was asked about that, why sanctions are being put in place sooner this morning and here's what he said. >> i would call for restored meeting of the council, and they would present the sanctions at the right moment. they take the decision under my

proposal. we are ready to do that when the moment comes. and i hope, and we are working for the moment will not come. >> reporter: so just to clarify, that package of sanctions would still need to be approved by all 27 e.u. member nations, though burrell says he is confident it would pass. ukrainian president's other points is the west should be making public the content of the sanctions so russia knows exactly what is coming. so far they've been quite vague. last night the european vice president said on german television russia would, in principle, be cut off from the international financial markets. now, the e.u. today is, of course, keane to show solidarity amongst its ranks in the face of what it describes as russian aggression, but, of course, there are cracks. the one big area where those cracks are most noticeable is on energy policy, and that is not surprising because europe depends heavily on gas and

energy coming from russia even on friday, the italian prime minister said sanction should not target russia's energy sector for that exact reason. europe, though, is trying to correct the situation as quickly as possible. today on the agenda for this afternoon, there will be a meeting with european foreign ministers and also with the saudi foreign minister and other gulf officials to try to ramp up energy production in the gulf and get it to europe as quickly as possible. >> yeah, i appreciate it. scott, thanks. scott mclean, sam kiley, fred pleitgen. appreciate it. thanks to you all. and joining me now from geneva is neil melvin, international director of security studies at the royal united institute. great to have you with us. there is an interesting aspect to all of this i wanted to talk to you about. that announcement, the russian troops would continue to stay at least for now in belarus. how big of a deal would it be if

those russian troops stayed full stop effectively in definite forward operating on ukraine's northern border? >> it's on notice what's happened under the guise of this russian military into russia's security space. so now we're looking at 30,000 russian troops which are on the belarusian territory. from there they would be able to threaten not just ukraine, but also central europe and the baltic states, nato member states. they may see russian military infrastructure, airports and fixed facilities being established there in the future. >> which is pretty worrying. it's interesting, too. the belarusian leader alexander lukashenko, he's kind of played off east and west for his own political gain, and he really

did at one point resist the idea of hosting a permanent russian military presence. why the change of calculus, do you think? >> well, you're right. president lukashenko has been widely fox of european power. he's been in power since 1994. he's managed to shift between east and west, balancing and playing off u.s. and europe against moscow. what happened was finally the opposition challenged him in 2020, and he sort of imposed his power only effectively back on top of belarusian society with the help of russia. so now he's really traded b belarusian sovereignty for russian political support. he has to look to moscow and president putin to stay in power. the cost of that, of course, is russia is now looking to station troops permanently on belarusian territory. >> how much of a wild card is lukashenko in general in the

region in terms of european security? or is he effectively now, because there's been a quid pro quo, is he effectively just a putin puppet now? >> well, i think it's increasingly the latter. as i say, he was able to effectively maneuver for decades between russia and the west, even though he had this thing called the union state with russia. but that never really had much substance. now what we're seeing is russia step-by-step exerting its influence across belarus, even though lukashenko would like to stay in power for many years. there is a constitutional reform vote anyway that might lead to the reform, take place later this month to keep him in power into the 2030s. increasing, i think, is a proxy now for russia and has very little room to maneuver. >> yeah, you raise an interesting point the sort of constitutional referendum or

looking at that the 27th. now, the proposed amendments are interesting. they would remove language about the country's military neutrality and its obligation to remain free of nuclear weapons. that's pretty serious change. could that set the stage for russia to station nuclear missiles on nato's doorstep? >> they absolutely -- belarus has effectively operated as a buffer between nato and russia, and that has been a stabilizing factor. now we see -- first of all, the presence of russian forces, already russia has dual use of military forces in belarus. these are weapon systems that could be used with nuclear war heads. last week lukashenko said he was prepared to siebel a ruse stationing it on his territory. this would be a ramping up between russia and nato. it would siebelee belarus like

useds to see between the wausau pact between nato in the cold war era. >> it is a fascinating aspect of all this. neil melvin, great to get your expertise on all this. we'll see how that one unfolds. appreciate it. >> thanks a lot. all right. fearing an imminent attack from russia, four airlines have canceled flights out of kyiv through the end of february. klm was the first to announce that measure, and that happened earlier this month. but now lufthansa, austrian and swiss airlines have adjusted their schedules as well. swiss airline said the safety of their passengers and crew is their top priority. the airlines will monitor the situation and make decisions or adjustments to scheduled flights at the end of the month. all right. let's take it back now to atlanta and rosemary church. i'll see you a bit later, rosie.

>> we'll see you then. thanks so much, michael. arctic-like temperatures will hit parts of the u.s. this week. we will get the latest details from the cnn weather center. that's ahead. but first, an update on the british monarch after buckingham palace announces the queen tested positive for covid-19. we're live in windsor next. adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria detetergent alone, can't.

britain's queen elizabeth is said to be experiencing mild symptoms after testing positive or covid-19, and buckingham palace says the 95-year-old monarch plans to continue light duties this week, according to uk media, she is fully vaccinated. cnn's anna stewart joins us now from windsor with the very latest. good morning to you, anna. so, what more are you learning about how the queen is coping with her mild symptoms? of course, what are doctors saying about her recovery? >> reporter: so, we've had no update this morning, rosemary, on the queen's health. yesterday as you said, we had the news that she had covid. it was mild and cold-like symptoms she was experiencing.

we also got a statement from the palace saying that she was receiving or will continue to receive medical attention. now, she has a whole team of physicians who work within the royal household. the idea this medical attention may suggest she is receiving antiviral drugs. i don't expect or hear very much at all unless her condition significantly worsens. that's because we're really not getting what the palace has called a running commentary on the queen's health. a few months ago in october she did fall rather unwell. she was in the hospital undergoing testing. we're not quite sure what for. and she did take quite a lot of time off various events. she had to cancel a few in order to have some rest. so her health hasn't been great. unsurprising given she is 95 years old, she'll turn 96 in a couple of months. as you said, she is still going to work. she is planning to take on light duties over the coming days and weeks. it is hoped this will be the case, her condition won't worsen and she is going to be very

well. she is triple vaccinated. the first vaccine she had with prince philip last year, we didn't hear about the second or third jab. we are getting a tight lipped response in terms of her health, really everyone hoping she remains well. rosemary? >> of course. a lot of concern on the streets there. anna stewart joining us live from london. many thanks for that. well, millions of americans are under a winter weather alert across the u.s., and it could plunge them into arctic-like conditions. meteorologist karen mcguinness joins me live. good morning to you. what's behind this polar plunge? >> we are looking at an arctic deep freeze, unlike what we have seen in recent months, anyway. this arctic air is going to fall behind a frontal system that is dipping towards the south. some of these temperatures for

the daytime along the u.s./canada border are going to remain below zero for several days. wind chill factors, minus 30 degrees. you see that cold air goes all the way down towards oklahoma. with the exception of the extremely cold temperatures in the deep south, i'll explain the reason why coming up in just one second. here comes one frontal system. then we've got a blast of arctic air on the backside of this. even in southern california, they're saying that this may be some of the coldest air that they have seen all season. and the snow levels in los angeles county for the mountains, they're going to be dropping down to around 2,000 feet. they're sitting at about 4,000 feet right now. just want to point out, kansas city, 71 degrees expected on monday. but that temperature slides down very quickly. and by wednesday, the high is only going to be 27. now, neither one of those temperatures is normal. it shouldn't be 71 degrees, and it shouldn't be 27. it should be around 46. but all of these cities all around the central u.s., those

temperatures really going to be dropping. the wind is going to be picking up, so that makes it feel a whole lot colder than it would typically feel. all right. oklahoma city, 74, the expected high on monday. chicago 50 degrees. but they are already seeing the arctic air move in. it's minus 7 forecast. i told you about the rare exception across the deep south. this is where we're looking out ahead of the frontal system, the warm air. we get the return moisture from the gulf of mexico. as a result, could see some thunderstorms. 21 million people all the way from dallas to little rock to memphis to springfield, missouri, this is where we could see the potential for tornadoes, some high winds, potential for some hail. then this shifts a little bit towards the east. so this is going to be kind of a long duration event. not just as far as the wind and the cold air is concerned, but also as far as the rainfall is concerned. we could see the potential for flash flooding as well.

all right. got to mention new york city. mild, mild, mild next couple of days. here comes the rainfall. and then those temperatures plunge into the 30s. so you just can't predict it this time of year. topsy-turvy. >> unbelievable those temperatures. karen mcguinness, many thanks for bridgnging us up to date on what we can expect. appreciate it. ongoing in brazil, the death toll is rising after the deadly landslides north of rio de janeiro last tuesday. the number of fatalities rose slightly on sunday to 157. more than 150 people are still missing and hundreds have lost their homes or been displaced. the rainfall total in the area tuesday afternoon alone was higher than the historic average for the entire month of february. northern argentina is being devastated by ongoing wildfires. officials say over a million acres or nearly 405 hectares

have been scorched already. experts blame an historic drought and two years of high temperatures. local authorities have declared a state of emergency and have dispatched hydrant planes to combat the fires. canadian authorities have frozen the assets of individuals and companies believed to be involved with the protests in ottowa. police say they have frozen hundreds of bank accounts, big coin addresses, and a payment processing account valued at nearly $4 million. two incidents involving police and protesters are also under investigation following this weekend's events. ontario's special investigation unit is looking into a serious injury reported by a woman who interacted with a police officer on a horse. the group is also investigating the use of anti-riot weapons during the protests. no injuries have been reported so far, but the special investigation unit is asking

anyone who may have been hit by a projectile to contact them. and coming up, tensions are escalating in parts of eastern ukraine where separatist leaders are urging people to evacuate. the latest in a live report just ahead. plus, how ukraine's economy has already been damaged by the impact of this prolonged crisis. we'll have the details for you after this short break. stay with us. mucinex lasts 12 hours, so i'm good. now move! kim, no! mucinex lasts 3x longer for 12 hours.

welcome back to "cnn newsroom," everyone. i'm michael holmes in lviv, ukraine. you're looking at a live picture there of the capital kyiv. bring you more now on our

top story. world leaders are in a race against time to stave off war in ukraine. new satellite images show russian forces intensifying their movements near ukraine's northeastern border. meanwhile, on sunday, u.s. president joe biden agreed in principle to a summit with the russian president, vladimir putin. but a kremlin spokesman said there are currently, quote, no concrete plans for such a meeting, but he didn't rule it out entirely either. cnn's arlette saenz with more from washington. >> reporter: the white house says president biden has agreed in principle to a summit with russian president vladimir putin. but it comes with one major caveat. it will only be held if russia does not invade ukraine. now, this proposed summit was brokered by french president emanuel macron who spoke with president biden earlier on sunday for 15 minutes. it was later confirmed by white house press secretary jen psaki who said secretary of state antony blinken and his

counterpart russian foreign minister sergei lavrov would discuss the parameters of such a summit when they meet on february 24th. psaki added in a statement, president putin will follow in that engagement if an invasion hasn't happened. we are always ready for diplomacy. we are ready to have swift and severe consequences if they choose war. russia continues preparations for a full-scale assault on ukraine very soon. the white house has long said they are open to president biden engaging with president putin when it would be useful and if it could help avoid a war between russia and ukraine. but the administration has also been clear-eyed about russia's intentions. in recent days, stepping up their warnings about russia's ability to attack ukraine, including president biden himself saying that he is convinced putin has made that decision to launch an invasion. so while this proposal of a

possible summit could mark a major breakthrough in those diplomatic talks, the administration is still being very clear-eyed and weary of russian's intentions as they have seen military buildups around the border of ukraine, but they have long insisted that they think that there is a diplomatic path available to avert such a crisis even if russia is making some of these moves that suggest an attack could be imminent. arlette saenz, cnn, the white house. ukraine's defense ministry says it has recorded dozens of cease-fire violations by those russian-backed separatists in eastern ukraine. a total of 74 just on sunday night. the ministry said 68 of those were weapons prohibited under the minske agreements. ukraine said this video showed russian-backed separatists launching fire against their own territory in an attempt to falsely accuse ukraine's armed

forces of an attack. now, leaders in separatist controlled eastern ukraine are urging civilians to evacuate russia, claiming ukrainian forces are claiming an attack, something ukraine has consistently denied and there is no evidence of. joining me now is cnn's national security editor nick payton walsh again. let's talk a little about putin's options here as he's got everybody poised around the borders. what might -- what are his options? >> it is important he doesn't have to do anything. the notion inevitably some awful thing must occur, he could just pull everyone back and show the world that he's had the power to bring eastern europe to the brink and get everyone's attention again. but they are saying you wouldn't put that much military force in position if you didn't intend to do something. could he decide to formally recognize the separatist republics and call in peace keeping troops in? you own that problem entirely and you possibly get sanctioned

and you have russian troops close up to ukrainian troops and that could be a risk. i don't know if we can pull up the map we were seeing earlier on of ukraine. do you try and form some kind of land bridge between the eastern part of the separatist areas in that map and crimea down at the bottom? you could potentially make that very useful by allowing it to ferry goods from the mother land to the peninsula. that has a strategic benefit. >> and stop ukraine from doing that. >> and you have this thin strip of land at risk. the argument goes you would need to take more of ukraine. then the counter argument goes, you're putting yourself into a decade-plus-long occupation of huge swath of land that really probably doesn't want you to be there at all. so all the options really to some degree are bad. and it comes down to what sort of decision making is being made and what that is informed by. >> exactly. no good ones. you think about putin, you've covered him. you've lived in russia.

he craves attention and he craves respect and he craves wanting to be seen as a major global player. he wants that sort of deference and he feels he hasn't been getting it. how much do you think that plays into it? ego? >> look, here we are discussing what does he want. his character, his decision making who is telling him what. that certainly does feed into some of the calculations here. and this is also a man who wants to restore russia to its soviet-era glory. he called it the catastrophe of the 20th century. this moment as it plays out, he's getting attention he wants. it is all about him. he's being asked to mr. president joe biden by the french president. they're doing the no concrete plans yet response. they're using that meeting as a potential moment for barrgainin. it does feed into russia as a key global player again. that's not reflected in its gdp

or the condition necessarily the country itself is in, but still putin has always managed to geopolitically punch massively above the economic weight. so, yeah, it's down to him, it seems. frankly whether he takes russia in this extraordinarily perilous direction, invading a neighbor so full of people who have deep familial relationships to russia, or decides a way forward. >> it's hard to look at ukraine and say the people feel this or the people feel that. there are different people and different viewpoint. there seems to be an overriding theme the ukrainians don't want this. does he think he can come in and take ukraine and all of a sudden everybody is proud to be a russian? that doesn't work that way. everybody i've spoken to certainly -- that's just not -- >> change so much. it's been eight years, important to remember this is not just something that started because we turned up here or because the u.s. administration decided to

pay excess attention to it. it's been tw2004 i attended the first protests in central kyiv. they were wrestling with does russia continue to have excess weight over our political system and run the government by proxy or do we have a new pro eu leaning leader. the pro eu won. it swung back and forth. the force separating the eastern areas, essentially the people who voted pro-russia parties are gone into separatist areas. that cast ukraine's body politic pretty much permanently. this is not going to be an easy situation at all for any russian-invading force. that may be the miscalculation in the making. it may be crimea, having been in russian control, soviet control. to russia that was a different situation. you were there, you know. so i think it will be awful, frankly, and that hopefully is something that is getting

through to decision maker -- the decision maker in the kremlin. >> it's been great to have you here. you're going to be heading off again. in from poland yesterday, off elsewhere today. great to have you for analysis. nick payton walsh, our international security editor. the ukrainian economy is taking a hit on its border. the size of the impact and what might happen if russia invades. that's after the break. two loads of snot covered laundry. only one will be sanitized. wait, what? adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria detergent alone, canan't.

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to do something already to stop all this. >> all right. you're looking now at a scene from sunday in washington, d.c., where several pro-ukrainian groups gathered to show solidarity solidarity for ukraine. earlier i spoke to timothy, a former minister of economic development and trade-in ukraine. and i asked him about the damage done to ukraine's economy so far and what might be to come. here's what he told me. >> even if there is none, there is already a lot of damage. access to capital markets, capitalization of companies, logistical problems, insurance costs going up. forecast a couple weeks ago was revised down 1%, and there are estimates produced by our analysts and others that let's say there is a blockade of the ports, that could hurt us

between healthy percent to 3%. that is without kinetic action. if there is kinetic action, it is hard to assess the specific scenarios. >> now, meanwhile, the biden administration has repeatedly vowed that russia will face swift and severe sanctions if russia invades ukraine. on capitol hill, u.s. lawmakers still debating how far sanctions should go. here's one point of view. >> there's no secret here that we're talking about sanctions on the military, all of their issues of exported military supplies, imports, things they need for the military. heavy sanctions on putin and the oligarchs and the military leaders. those are personal sanctions, tying up their money wherever it may be around the world. also looking at the issue of russian energy exports, oil and gas, all of that.

>> meanwhile, u.s. president joe biden has a pretty busy week ahead unsurprisingly. he's going to be discussing the ukraine crisis with g 7 leaders during a virtual meeting on thursday. sanctions on russia, of course, could be one talking about, as germany's foreign minister said his country is ready to implement them. mr. biden also hosting an event to discuss the state of the american economy, that includes securing supply chains and creating better-paying jobs. all right. u.s. stocks slid again on friday as investors worry about developments in eastern europe and the threat of russian invasion of ukraine. this followed a steep sell-off on thursday leading to the dow's worst day of the year. this is how futures are looking at the moment. global markets were mostly stable in spite of the volatility on wall street. the u.s. stock market will be closed today, monday, for the presidents day holiday. president biden is under

criticism from some republican senators for his handling of the ru russia/ukraine crisis. ron brownstein said the u.s. president has been a reliable partner for western allies. >> for the most part, this has been the biden that he promised the voters. steady, firm, and very capable at holding together the western alliance. i think that has been the biggest surprise of this entire, you know, unfortunate and dangerous episode, which is that despite the reliance of western europe on russian energy supplies, biden and the western european leaders had been really shoulder to shoulder in sending an unmistakable signal to putin about the consequences if he invades ukraine. you contrast this obviously with all of the conflict between the previous president, donald trump and nato, his efforts to shake

down ukraine over pressuring them to create and manufacture a narrative about biden. and so we don't know how this is going to end. it may still end in a very unfortunate way, but so far i think from a pretty broad range of commentators left to right, biden has received high marks for the way he has held together the western alliance in the face of this threat. >> senior political analyst ron brownstein. he noted there is still a small window for diplomacy even as the u.s. considers that variety of sanctions. all right. i'm michael holmes in lviv ukraine. we'll have more on the crisis in early start. meanwhile, rosemary church is back with more on "cnn newsroom." stay with cnn.

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plus, 0% interest for 36 months and free premium delivery when you add a base. ends monday. - i think we should explore a few solutions? - [narrator] grammarly's suggest catch when your tone might undermine your message, and it offers suggestions to make you sound more confident. - let's explore a few solutions. - [narrator] try grammarly today at grammarly.com. are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! fireworks lit up beijing sunday as the olympic host city said farewell to the 2022 winter games. spectators danced, sang and

cheered in the birds nest stadium for the closing ceremony. after 16 days of competition, norway finished atop the medal table with a record number of gold. the country's 16 gold medals are the most ever won at a single winter games. germany came in second with 12. and china with nine gold edged out the u.s., sweden and the netherlands all with eight. well, england is making plans to throw out all isolation requirements for those testing positive for the virus. the prime minister's office says an announcement is expected this week, rolling back all restrictions. australia has fully reopened its borders to vaccinated travelers, making for some emotional reunions for families who had been apart since the pandemic began. and hong kong is ramping up testing, trying to contain the spread of the region's fifth wave of the virus. hospitals are stretched to the limit with reports of people

stuck outside in the rain due to a lack of hospital beds. so, let's turn to kristie lu stout. she joins us now live from hong kong with more on all of this. good to see you, kristie. police are mobilized. what are they doing? >> reporter: the situation is getting desperate, rosemary, hong kong is mobilizing the police force to help with the yua outbreak of covid-19. they are helping to work with the anticipated mass testing of the population here. right now hong kong government authorities are considering mandatory mass testing of 7.4 million residents of hong kong. now, this development comes shortly after the chinese president xi jinping made that very direct message pointed at the hong kong government urging hong kong authorities to take the main responsibility to control and stabilize the growing outbreak here. and the numbers keep rising.

we just heard from the health authorities within the last hour, and hong kong today has reported 7,500 new daily cases of covid-19 and 13 new deaths from the virus. mainland chinese authorities have been pledging help. help has arrived in the form of expertise in testing, in treatment, as well as building more quarantine capacity. in fact, right now mainland chinese teams on the ground here in hong kong are constructing two new isolation and treatment centers, one in pen east bay, the corner of hong kong near hong kong disneyland and the other at the cruise terminal. these isolation centers together will be able to provide 10,000 new isolation beds. but when you talk to public health experts here in the territory, they say it's not enough, and they point to numbers that suggest that the daily number of cases here in hong kong will jump from today's number of over 7,000 to over 28,000 daily new cases by march. so those beds that they're building, those isolation centers that you're looking at

your screen right now, they're being built right now, are simply not enough, rosemary. >> unbelievable. kristie lu stout joining us from hong kong. many thanks. a 23-year-old won a bumpy and crashed in daytona. he edged out bubba wallace to claim his first-ever nascar cup series victory. the race was filled with red flags and multiple crashes, but sin drake was able to steer his way through and earn the checkered flag. well done. thank you so much for your company. i'm rosemary church. be sure to connect with me on twitter@rosemary cnn. "early start" is coming up next. have a great day.

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good morning, everyone. it is monday, february 21st. it's presidents day here in the u.s. it's 5:00 a.m. here in new york. thanks so much for getting an early start with me. i'm laura jarrett. christine has the day off. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. we begin this week with growing certainty that russia's vladimir putin has decided to invade ukraine and expanding efforts at diplomacy to deter such an invasion. president biden has now agreed in principle to sit down with putin so long as russia does not