right now on "america this morning," the rush for testing. >> one's a swab, one's a q-tip. president trump now promising to use his executive power to deliver vital supplies to states as the push to re-open moves forward. at least a dozen governors restrictions in the coming days. mounting anger. protests across the country escalate. crowds taking a stand against stay-at-home orders, facing off against this counter-protester wearing scrubs, but this morning the new virus hot spot being reported in america's heartland and the growing concern. bailout backlash, new outrage after big restaurant chains get stimulus money meant for small businesses. how they got it and one company's response to the backlash.

plus, one-on-one with mark zuckerberg, as facebook promises a new weapon to battle the coronavirus. forget toilet paper or canned goods. the new item in short supply at the supermarket. and this morning the girl dad's guide to social distancing. how new york's governor says he's coping with his daughter's boyfriend during these unusual times. unusual times. good monday morning, everyone. thank you for joining us. it was three months ago today when the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the u.s. >> now three months later the focus is on testing. president trump says the government is taking new action to produce more testing supplies like swabs. in a separate development there's growing concern about the accuracy of antibody testing which is seen as crucial for re-opening the economy. >> there is some encouraging news for small businesses. president trump says a deal could be reached as soon as today on billions of dollars in

additional aid. >> across the country protests are escalating with more people demanding they be allowed to return to work, but authorities are still tracking several virus hot spots. iowa just reported its biggest one-day increase in cases after an outbreak at a tyson foods plant. >> abc's alex presha begins our coronavirus coverage. alex, good morning. >> good morning, kenneth and mona. president trump says the federal government is stepping up its efforts to obtain vital supplies for coronavirus testing, and it comes after several governors from both parties have criticized his administration for a lack of testing. >> reporter: this morning, president trump invoking the defense production act, directing a company to increase production of swabs, a key component for coronavirus testing. >> this is what it's about, right? >> reporter: health officials and governors say widespread testing has been hampered by a lack of supplies. >> does it remind you of something? reminds you of this, right? one's a swab, one's a q-tip. it's actually different. it's very sophisticated

actually. >> reporter: the president claims testing nationwide has now reached the level needed for partial re-opening, tweeting, just like i was right on ventilators, our country is now the king of ventilators. i'm right on testing. governors must be able to step up and get the job done. we will be with you all the way. officials in 12 states tell abc news they're confident they can begin re-opening in some form by may 1. the rest say that's either too soon or they wouldn't give a target date, and many governors are pushing back against the president's claims about testing capacity. >> that's just delusional to be making statements like that. we have been fighting every day for ppe, and we've got some supplies now coming in. but for the national level to say that we have what we need and really to have no guidance to the state levels is just irresponsible. >> to try to push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren't doing our job, is just absolutely

false. >> reporter: on march 9 vice president pence declared there would be more than 4 million more tests available across the country by the end of that week. but just yesterday pence announced the country had conducted a total of 4 million tests so far with about 150,000 more each day. a new report this morning from harvard says 20 million daily tests will be needed to re-open the economy. >> this is the worst it's ever been. >> reporter: the mayor of los angeles now says the economic impact from the virus is already worse than the 2008 recession. he's announcing furloughs for some city workers and he got emotional when describing how the pandemic has reshaped life in his city. >> our city is under attack. our daily life is unrecognizable. we are bowed and we are worn down. we are grieving our dead. but we are not broken, nor will we ever be. >> in new york the governor

there striking a cautiously optimistic tone in fighting this virus, saying we have controlled the beast. but he warned the beast is still alive. kenneth? >> governor cuomo extending the shutdown to may 15, telling residents we can't lose the progress we've made. alex, thank you. president trump is defending protestors railing against stay-at-home orders saying some governors got carried away with restrictions. demonstrators eager to get back to work vented their frustrations in florida, texas and california. in denver a counter-protester wearing hospital scrubs faced off with crowds that were openly but the means that we are implementing are not justifying the ends. we're going to hurt millions more people than the tens of thousands that may die from cona >> according to a new poll nearly 60% of americans say

they're worried that restrictions will be lifted too early. the debate over government restrictions is also raging overseas. police in australia shut down this family birthday party. officers reportedly handed out $26,000 in fines at the party for social distancing violations. the trump administration is taking new steps to protect nursing homes which it calls ground zero in this crisis. the facilities are now being required to alert the cdc about new cases. they must also inform residents' families. >> meanwhile in florida, the national guard will be testing every worker at long-term care facilities. in western massachusetts at least 60 residents of a veterans home have died in recent weeks. 50 of them tested positive for the coronavirus along with dozens of employees. we turn now to breaking news. parts of the south are on storm watch as flash flooding and possible tornados create life-threatening conditions in alabama and mississippi. >> reporter: overnight dangerous storms sweeping the south. in mississippi, emergency crews

worked into the morning rescuing drivers trapped in windshield deep floodwaters. while in alabama -- >> the road is completely washed out. >> reporter: torrential rains made some streets completely impassable. >> that's pavement down there. >> reporter: this comes after a day of treacherous weather in the area. >> i darted in the house to grab everybody and make sure we are safe. >> reporter: heavy winds bringing down trees, smashing trucks, even ripped the roof right off this firehouse. >> we are in the middle of trying to secure the building as much as we can. >> reporter: those powerful storms seen from above on sunday afternoon rolling out of louisiana straight into mississippi where the high winds created chaos on the highways. >> the man who was driving this truck lost control of the 18-wheeler. he was traveling on interstate 55 and the entire truck fell 25 feet oo >> reporter: luckily, that driver escaped unharmed. >> and these storms come one week after a tornado outbreak killed at least 36 people in

that region. let's take a closer look now at your monday morning forecast. on the radar right now, the line of severe storms that spawned tornados earlier is approaching the southeast coast. damaging winds are possible from texas to georgia, and an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out. parts of florida could see one to three inches of rain before the storms move out later today. looking at today's high temperatures, 72 degrees in atlanta, 50s in the northeast today, 60s from chicago to seattle, 77 in dallas, 80s in new orleans and phoenix, 71 in albuquerque. coming up, the famous department store now expected to file for bankruptcy. also ahead, the growing push for more grocery stores to ban customers from entering as more shoppers violate social distancing rules. up next, the breaking news overnight about a mass shooting in nova scotia.

-hi, america. -hey, there, america. -hi, america. -hi, america. during this crisis... over 37 million people... don't have access... to nutritious foods. but there is a way we can all help. with feeding america. their network of 200 food banks are up and running. distributing food to people and communities they serve. across the country. please visit feedingamerica.org... to locate a food bank in your community. -together... -together... -together... -let's feed the love. ♪

back now with the breaking news overnight from nova scotia. police now say at least 16 people have been killed in the worst shooting rampage in canada's history. the victims were shot at several locations starting in a rural town and ending near the halifax airport after a manhunt and a chase. a police constable is among the victims. police say the 51-year-old shooter also died. they have not revealed a possible motive for the attack. back in this country, congress is working on a new relief plan for small businesses but companiesignd smallrus. are being forced to make changes. at least one famous department . some supermarkets are banning customers from walking into the store.

abc's andrea fujii has more on these changing times. >> i'm worried about my people. >> reporter: america's businesses are taking a big hit. many about to close for good. >> the money's out and i've got to shutter my business. >> reporter: the government's rescue loan fund, the paycheck protection program, maxed out days ago, but help could be coming. the trump administration asking congress to approve an additional $250 billion for a second round of relief. >> think we're getting close to a deal. could happen. >> reporter: this bipartisan deal would include funding for small business loans, plus billions more for hospitals, disaster loans and covid-19 testing. the latest report shows 5.2 million americans filed for unemployment for the first time just last week. that brings the total to more than 20 million people who have applied for unemployment amid the pandemic. >> in one month we have lost essentially the job creation that we had in the past decade

since the last recession. i think that's a staggering statistic. some economists that i've been speaking with say that our national unemployment could go as high as 13% by july. >> reporter: and the downturn has hit all sectors of the economy. high-end retailer neiman marcus preparing to file for bankruptcy while macy's, jcpenny and nordstrom are scrambling to avoid the same fate. but other retailers are seeing more business. walmart looking to hire 50,000 more employees on top of the 150,000 they just hired. and other stores are adapting to the crisis. some whole foods in new york city and baltimore are nowpe for only online orders to speed up grocery deliveries and to prevent shoppers from packing into the aisles. one industry group claims 85% of grocery store customers are not practicing social distancing in the stores, but at least one small businessman says he plans to reopen his wisconsin

restaurant, despite orders not to. >> for the people that are tired of it and want to come out and have a meal by me, please do. you have that right. >> reporter: andrea fujii, abc news, new york. >> andrea, thank you. there is growing backlash this morning after several large restaurant chains were able to get money from the government's small business relief program. they include a major steakhouse chain. critics say the larger companies were able to lobby for loopholes. w says it will return the money. a broadway actor has lost his leg because of the coronavirus. coming up, our medical expert talks about the range of virus complications that are being reported. also ahead, one-on-one with mark zuckerberg. what facebook is doing to fight the coronavirus. and there's more to me than hiv. there's my career,... my cause,... my choir. i'm a work in progress. so much goes... into who i am. hiv medicine is one part of it. prescription dovato is for adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment

and who aren't resistant to either of the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine. dovato has 2... medicines in... 1 pill to help you reach and then stay undetectable. so your hiv can be controlled with fewer medicines... while taking dovato. you can take dovato anytime of day,... with food... or without. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its... ingredients or if you take dofetilide. if you have hepatitis b, it can change during treatment with dovato and become harder to treat. your hepatitis b may get worse or become life-threatening... if you stop taking dovato. so do not stop dovato... without talking to your doctor. serious side effects can occur, including allergic reactions,... liver problems, and liver failure. life-threatening side effects include lactic acid buildup and severe liver problems. if you have a rash mptomsoficeaio llouctoru have kidney or liver problems,... including hepatitis b or c. one of the ingredients in dovato may harm your... unborn baby. your doctor may prescribe a different medicine... than dovato. your doctor should do a pregnancy test... before starting... dovato. use effective birth control...

while taking dovato. the most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, nausea, trouble sleeping, and tiredness. so much goes into who i am... and hope to be. ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato fred would do anything for his daughter! even being the back half of a unicorn. fortunately, the front half washed his shirt with gain. ahhhhhhh. the irresistible scent of gain. and 24-hour relief of from symptoms caused by over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens. like those from buddy. for one week only, save up to $44 on select claritin products. check this sunday's newspaper for details. back now with a fiery scene next to this gas station in the dallas area. more than 100 people had to be evacuated. the flames blamed on a natural gas leak. fortunately no one was hurt.

now to our one-on-one interview with mark zuckerberg, revealing facebook's new weapon against the coronavirus. the company's teaming up with carnegie mellon university to gather data about people with symptoms. zuckerberg says the goal is to produce maps which officials can use to predict hot spots. during an exclusive interview with george stephanopoulos airing on "good morning america" this morning, zuckerberg admitted one challenge is that the data is based on the self-reporting of symptoms by facebook users. >> that's a lot of the work that the health researchers at carnegie mellon have been doing, to make sure that the data that's coming from the survey is high quality and that it correlates with what hospitals are seeing on the ground. and the -- the initial indication that they have -- you survey for, you know, almost ten days now to make sure that -- that we can get good, consistent data. the initial read is that this is high-quality data that does correlate with the case load that people are seeing in ho

>>more of geor'sieter ongm" including the ivy conc and we turn now to the extreme side effects that coronavirus patients are seeing. a broadway star even had to get his leg amputated. earlier i asked dr. imran ali about that and about kidney failure. >> the virus is not only affecting the lungs and the heart like i've talked about before, but now we're also noticing the kidneys are severely affected. we're getting studies out of wuhan, china, where it shows that the tubular cells of the kidney that help regulate kidney function and potassium levels are disrupted. this requires hemodialysis in many patients. you mentioned the leg amputation. we're seeing a lot of blood clotting with this virus and it affects the platelets in some way with the inflammatory cascade. are we're still learning a lot

more about why this is. the actor that we had here had, you know, less blood flow to his leg because of a blood clot and that's why they needed to amputate his leg. >> definitely some alarming developments we're hearing. we also learned over the weekend that contamination at the cdc reportedly delayed the testing process for covid back at the start of this crisis. what's the takeaway here regarding how we are moving forward? >> well, we really lost a lot of time because the first tests that were rolled out by the cdc were, you know, assembled in a lab where they were actually studying a synthetic model of the coronavirus. so the tests got contaminated with that model. so if the tests were given, they would light up positive when the patient actually did not have the coronavirus. meaning they would be useless and actually dangerous because it would not tell us what's going on. >> and as we move forward, with 13% of the workforce now applying for unemployment benefits, a lot of people are losing their health insurance. how worried are you about this, especially if there is a possible resurgence of the

virus? >> well, not only the virus. we still have strokes, heart attacks, cancer. other diseases don't take a vacation, mona. so we're still seeing people who really need health insurance, who need to have their diseases followed up on. we will see in the future months what kind of effect this has, but i predict we're really going to see a surge not only in, you know, chronic diseases that are not being taken care of, but also, you know, maybe new problems that aren't being addressed because people don't have insurance to go see a doctor. >> and another 7 million americans are expected to lose their health insurance by the end of june. >> staggering numbers. coming up, the new food item in short supply at the supermarket. plus one governor's parenting advice about daughters and their boyfriends. that's next.

i heard there guwere fleas out here.r? and t-t-t-t-t-icks! and mosquitoooooooooooes! listen up, scaredy cats. we all have k9 advantix ii to protect us. it kills and repels fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, too. but when allergies and congestion strike, take allegra-d... a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d.

this little piggy did not go to the marke busy leaving stamford, connecticut police on a -minute chase. they trapped the pig under a garbage can but it got away. the pig was finally corralled and taken to animal control. >> lord. well, check out this kangaroo all alone on a street in australia. it hopped through the city as residents stayed inside because of the coronavirus. police say the kangaroo was last seen on foot heading to the park. >> on foot. not in a car. well, for weeks we've been hearing about a run on toilet paper, but something else has been quietly flying off the shelves. >> frozen pizza, everybody. sales are up 90% from last year and nearly 200% increase for some brands. stores reportedly had to bring in police to keep the peace. >> glad i can contribute. >> cleanup on aisle frozen pizza. new york governor andrew cuomo gave some unsolicited advice to all the girl dads out there. >> while talking about his kids staying at home, cuomo revealed

why dads should always tell their daughters that they like their boyfriend. >> it's not documented, but it is a phycological condition where if you say as a father, i don't like him, natural defiance syndrome kicks in and then they like the boyfriend more because he is opposed by the father. >> a little reverse psychology. governor cuomo insists he does like his daughter's current boyfriend. >> i can hear john mayer now. ♪ fathers be good to your daughters ♪ a russian olympic swimmer is staying in shape despite the quarantine. she demonstrated her fitness routine at home, and her core strength is pretty impressive. someone is holding her feet but the rest is her. this man used his quarantine time to build a pyramid of red solo cups. this video has been circulating on social media. he reportedly spent two days building the pyramid before losing it all. >> you know what, after that time to flip them over and put some drink in them.

over and put some drink in them. because heart and kidney disease shouldn't prevent you from pushing your limits. because every baby deserves the very best start in life. because a changing environment should mean caring for the land that takes care of us all. at bayer, everything we do, from advances in health to innovations in agriculture, is to help every life we touch. at bayer, this is why we science. how do you think they make starbursstarburst? juicy? juicedratic equation. super top-secret mathematical formula they keep stored inside a safe, inside a vault, inside a volcano. ahhh. juicedratics. starburst. unexplainably juicy.

now your health, your safety. this is abc7 news. at 4:27. forget this year's 4/20 in san francisco. cannabis leaders are going all out to support the shelter in home by declaring a cannabis black friday. and more relief is close for homeowners and renters in one east bay community. it's a step away from suspending rent and mortgae payments. and lawmakers in washington are close to a deal on the next round of economic aid and the balance hundreds of billions of dollars for struggling small businesses. good morning, everyone. it is monday, april 20th. we'll get to all those stories in just a minute. first, checking in with mike nicco for a look at the day ahead. >> good morning, kumasi. how are you today? >> i'm well, friend. how are you doing? >> i'm well, thanks.

not a bad weekend outside. the sun came out yesterday. felt pretty warm. what i'm tracking for today just a slight chance of some showers out there. most of them are right off the coast right now and trying to board the coast. live doppler 7 up here to show you what you're going to see not very impressive. in fact, very cloudy out there right now. and then in the last couple of frames you could see a little bit of wet weather developing. the problem is, it's very dry from about 5,000 feet to 10,000 feet and that's really going to undercut this chance of wet weather. so, we have a chance of light showers this morning, another chance this afternoon and for the most part, partly sunny and peeks of sunshine and temperatures below average. everybody else in the 60s. kumasi? >> thank you, mike. happening this morning, the town in marin county among the first in the u.s. to start offering coronavirus tests for every one of its residents. a small group of tech are

funding the tests and this is in partnership with ucsf. half of the town's 1,600 residents are over the age of 60 which puts them, as we know, at higher risk. organizers are arriving early this morning. a live report coming up in the next half hour. president trump has ordered a company to increase the production of swabs so more people can get tested. jobina is at the live desk with more on this. good morning, jobina. >> president trump is hopeful that by increasing covid-19 testing, it will allow states to reopen their economies much dense odti act to fast track all of this work. health officials and governors have asked, have said rather that the lack of supplies have delayed testing but testing nationwide have reached the level of partial reopening.

the governors of maryland pushing back. >> delusional to make statements li avy o testingis say the aren't doing our job is just absolutely false. >> officials in 12 states tell abc news they are confident they can begin opening by may 1st. the rest say it's too soon to tell or wouldn't give a target date. mike pence says we're conducting about 150,000 coronavirus tests in the united states daily. kumasi, back over to you. >> thank you, jobina. happening this morn, a california state lawmaker is leading a charge to make sure state funding is being used appropriately. represents part of san francisco and san mateo counties and looking like the california's rainy day emergency fund may need to act like a