>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. good afternoon. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." with dr. alok patel in just a little bit and then forecaster spencer christian on conditions including the smoke and the air quality all around the bay with the major wildfires but first, a quick look at the fires. sc scu, burned 65,000 acres, 25% contained. a 10% jump in containment with yesterday. right now, take you to a press conference getting under way to give you the latest on the scu

complex fire. >> we'll conduct this in spanish. so everyone remain seated please. to give the perspective, but we're going to give you a quick reminder. this incident is a very complex incident that includes seven different counties. the counties are santa clara, alameda, san joaquin, rased, and san benito. right now, the scu lightning complex is the second largest fire in california history. second largest. quick update. the incident stands at over 365,000 acres in size and 25% containment. we have over 1600 firefighters fighting this fight and up to date, 37 structures that have been destroyed and 20,000 that remain threatened. two civilian injuries. take you back to 2019 before

2020, and in and today in 2020. we have the incident here with chief tim ernst. >> my name is team ernst. the several sim bogg symbology. and extremely happy with the

amount of black light. we've contained the fire on the map. 24 to 4 hou8 hours. this entire east side, show under containment. we do not expect any future growth of the fire in those to side of the fire though, we still do have a lot of areas shown in red. to stop possible future movement of the fire. and a lot of these checkered line which are dozer lines. we put in line from dozers contingencies, actually get out of the current perimeter. and the top

the damage in potential for damage to any of the populated on the west, as well as the infrastructure concerns. really happy to see a lot more black light on the map today than you saw the last time we briefed. strengthening these contingency lines. the dozer lines around the side and should firefighters be overwhelmed by conditions in this area of the fire here, we do have a secondary plan in place to contain the fire at different levels of contingency. rapidly to the south and the movement, slowly moving and trying to cut out any of these

deep areas. the vast area, even though we have containment on the outside, we have a potential for danger of people who want to travel in the perimeter. the entire fire perimeter closed to any entrance in the public access because we cannot guarantee the safety of the public in that area. that concludes my summary. thank you very much. >> i'm jake hess. i'm the unit chief here assigned to the santa clara unit and also the agency administrator for the complex. as you can see -- >> this is a live update from the officials involved with battling the scu lightning complex fire burning in the santa clara alameda contra costa counties. they're making a lot of progress. they're talking about still really carefully watching the northwestern end which is

closest to san jose and fremont, making sure that the fire doesn't jump containment lines but with favorable weather, they believe they are doing much better. so with that, we want to bring in spencer christian who's been tracking the weather conditions to talk about the latest ahead for both firefighters, spencer, and of course, we also want to discuss the air quality. >> absolutely, kristen. let me show you first. the weather conditions at the locations of these fires. we start with the lmu lightning complex up in the north bay where we see temperatures ranging from 76 to about 89 degrees. relative humidity, not too bad. 49% near the wallbridge fire, a little bit lower near the hennssy fire and gusting 12 miles per hour in both locations. so the wind gust, not helpful, but the other weather conditions are encouraging. the wind gusts up to 15 miles per hour, making it more difficult to contain the fire.

the czu lightning complex, a temperature of 64 degrees. relative humidity is at a comfortable level. 71%. encouraging level. wind gusts up to 14 miles per hour. here's a look at air quality. we have the red dot in san jose indicating unhealthy air quality. the redwood dots. indicating moderate air quality. this is good air quality, and now to the north bay, air quality at ft. bragg,

air quality conditions near the coast. away from the coast, mainly poor air quality and the tomorrow and friday, we hope for and expect some improvement over the weekend and during the hours, show you this animation very quickly. we can see the marine layer bringing moisture that could be spotty showers. much like today, a little bit warmer. kristen? >> firefighters must be looking forward to that drizzle that you're talking about, spencer. i'm happy to see a lot more yellow and green dots representing better air quality. questions from viewers for you. here's one that wants to know, has the heat wave passed? any expected rain in the coming months? >> yeah, it's a little bit hard to say in the coming months because we can't really accurately forecast in we can give you a general outlook and the outlook right now is dry.

for next several weeks ahead. and we expect warmer than average temperatures over the next several weeks as well. not a heat wave but extended period of warmer than average weather, it's helpfult su terms the air a bit. the onshore flow with the better air quality, marine layer is not deep enough or the wind flow is not forceful enough to mix up at the air, we can breathe breathee the air at the surface. >> we'll take temporary relief. thank you so much, appreciate that. >> we'll take a short break. dr. alok patel will talk about

we are back. lots of new developments today in the battle against the coronavirus. so joining us now is abc7 news special correspondent dr. alok patel. no, that's spencer christian. just checking to see if you were paying attention. dr. patel joins us now. i know you've had a busy day following the headlines and being a doctor, but governor newsom today announced a new partnership to more than double our testing capacity for covid. so adding about 150,000 tests a day and promising results in under 48 hours. how significant is that? >> it's huge. the availability of testing is important. not only with surveillance testing but a population might be exposed but get back to work and result back in order to protect the families at home but

also having this much testing available is a really good sign when it comes to talking about reopening businesses and bringing kids back to school. you cannot do it without adequate testing. >> even more important with the twin dem nick. >> we can have both pandemic and epidemic happening at the same time. the twindemitwindemics. we already have a lot of hospitals out there at major capacity with flu season alone. we're not even talking about covid-19. you can see adult and children hospital icus packed with people who have influenza and goes without saying, everybody should be getting flu shot but that happening on top of covid-19 and you know, when we talk about testing, anyone who has flu symptoms out there,

capacity for coronavirus as well. >> i want to bring in the viewer question. i realize there may not be a firm answer or crystal for that matter, but wants to know latest assessment. >> good results will be an effective vaccine early of next year and doesn't necessarily mean there will be widespread distribution. most likely essential front line providers first and the general population a little bit later. people need to remember, this is not a silver bullet.

>> we don't have the same amount of studies virus about the oral testing

of the longer term. >> all tests are not created equal at least at this point. test twisted the arm of the cdc to artificially keep the case number down. i think referring to the headlines i wanted to post to you. and the testing guidelines, no longer recommending testing for people who have been exposed to someone with covid but who are not showing symptoms. governor newsom does not agree. what's your thoughts as a medical professional? >> not just a professional but echoing sentiments, i don't know anyone who agrees with this. vast majority of people are confused where this came from. dr. fauci said there's talk there may have been pressure in putting forward these guidelines and they don't have to get tested. creates this assumption if you

don't have symptoms, you're good and you're not contagious when we know that's not true. if people don't have black and white guidelines, they tend to kind of bend and make their own rules. if i were to say, if you're around somebody for 15 minutes and you don't have symptoms, you're good. someone might say, maybe that's 30 minutes or i don't know if this is a symptom or not. my back kind of hurts but i might be fine. i think there needs to be more clear cut guidelines and dangerous to say we don't have symptoms, then you're not contagious. it's simply not true. >> what about the cdc also reverses course on the guidance that people quarantine for 14 days after >> quarantining or staying shelter in place for a small period of time is a good thing because you just have to be careful. you have to absolutely make sure

that if there's any risk to developing symptoms, making change in the guidelines. the con sen tus of medical professionals, no? >> that's what we would assume. i don't want to make any speculation here on live television but the cdc has, there is talk with politics, something to be said about how many people at the board of directors at the cdc, but one thing i'll agree with you on. when the cdc says something, people generally believe that to be the scientific truth. the cdc all the time. if there's miscommunication for something not necessarily on the same type of guidance as every health official. people want to know where the science stands. >> we'll continue this conversation on facebook live.

be back on air in just a couple of minutes with a game, yes. we're in the hot seat

we are back with abc7 news special correspondent dr. alok patel. i am ready. i am pumped. ready for this quiz game. >> are you pumped? >> two truths and a lie. last time we did this, posted a few questions. had to pick out the one that was the lie. see if i could do it again. very first line. very first one. 40% of people infected are symptomatic. symptomatic. second one. asymptomatic people are 90% less

likely than symptomatic people to infect someone else. and last but not least, 50% of transmissions occur before the onset of symptoms. let me know if you need to repeat any of those. probably not that, 90% is kind of extreme but totally right. reported on a lot. you are astute and part of the issue is that number can depend on their age, proximity and

back. even if you don't have symptoms, two truths, one lie. first one, covid cases in six states are being linked to that motorcycle rally university of alabama has more than 500 cases since school started last week and three, more than 23 million people have been infected with covid-19 worldwide. you made this one really good. and almost want to stay true to all of them.

and more than six states linked to the sturgis bike rally. >> why do you know all this? >> we have robert who's a viewer, he's here all the time and he says "b" is the lie. that alabama has more than 500 cases of covid. >> that is true. it goes to show you how many cases can happen when the schools are happening. the lie is "a." number one. >> not happy about that, but -- >> it's not six states, it's actually eight states. eight cases linked to the motorcycle rally. >> i wish it was something like two states or one state and, you know, i still wanted to get it right but not the result we wanted, of course. okay, well that's important to know when you have a mass gathering and then people travel, right?

that's kind of the double whammy. >> absolutely. and this is when people try to compare this pandemic to previous pandemics, even people talking about 1918, you have to think about the fact that life today is way more connected. people are going to concerts, rallies, dropping kids off at school and jumping all over the country. it's really easy to hop on the plane and cause an outbreak in the community. it's not that difficult, unfortunately. >> that's what in part drove the political conventions to really adjust the democrats went mostly completely virtual. look at this picture from the republican national convention. dozens of people watching the first lady speech. what do you think about this? >> i think, listen, i'm going to be, a non-partisan

gathered around. there's no disclosure how often these people are tested, if they've sheltered in place, quarantined, symptoms or not and it's telling people, hey, relax, we're okay. and i don't like that because you hear the same rhetoric from other people such as people who went to the motorcycle rally who say it's not a big deal. we can get into a crowded place, we'll be outside. we'll be slightly spread apart and that's okay. and i think it just causes the sowball effect. i do think it would have sent a more powerful message had they been more cognizant, especially as the first lady was actually get making a great sentiment around the pandemic. people are sitting close to each other. mixed messaging there. >> i see. it does that it would be more powerfully received. that could be one of the points. real quickly, because we have

had the smoke, i want to turn to that one more time. if you experience anything, what should you do? you don't know if it's covid or the smoke. >> last week, particulate smoke. if you have the slow riding symptoms that are like covid-19, think about your exposure. that's how you can separate the

thank you for joinings us on this interactive "getting answers" show.

what makes the show different, we have room in time for in-depth conversations about tonight, several breaking headlines as we come on the air. the category 4 hurricane bearing down on the u.s. at this hour. winds up to 145 miles per hour. this is an extremely dangerous cat 4 storm, only a few hours from landfall. authorities tonight warning of, quote, unsurvivable storm surge. blinding rain and winds already, mass evacuations under way as time now runs out. families trying to find shelter in the middle of a pandemic. authorities concerned about too many families staying put, trying to ride this out. louisiana's governor tonightnte. meteorologists ginger zee and rob marciano, both live in the storm zone tonight with the latest track and timing. also developing as we come on, chifling images on the streets of kenosha, wisconsin. a 17-year-old from a neighboring state now accused o