captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, march 14: cities prepare as the coronavirus pandemic grows. drive-through testing rolls out es a new york community. and, more businehut down to contain the spread. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cherylnd philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we t to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contract plans give you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want. and our u.s.-based customer service team is on-hand to help. to learn more, go to www.consercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your you.station from viewers lik thank you. from the tischnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us.f the spreade novel coronavirus caused the united states to restrict travel from thunited kingdom and irela beginning monday at midnight, and the presiden hsaid today thhas been tested for the virus but does not have results yet.

>> also took the test last night, and i decided i should, last night.e press conference people were asking that i take the test. it takes, i don't know, one or two ys. they send it to a lab.mr >> sreenivasantrump also said he had his temperature taken today before the briefing, as did all who were there, and that it was "totally normal." >> theentle woman yields back. >> sreenivasan: early this morning, the house of representatives passed a bill with bipartisan support that includes access to paid leave, medicaid, unemployment insurance and food assistance programs for people and families quarantined or diagnosed with the virus. the legislation also guarantees free testing for the virus. the bill still has to pass the senate. president trump tweeted last nit he "fully supports" th bill. confirmed cases in the u.s. continued to rise today, with more than 2,200 now reported,

many in the hot spots in the states of washington state, california, and new york. n the city of rochelle, just north of new york city, indatory restrictions are place and new testing began yesterday. newshour weekend's christopher booker has the latest. >> reporter: in a commandeered county park, new york state's first drive-thru testing site for novel ronavirus is fully operational. governor andrew cuomo says the site can process up to 200 tests a day. >> there a six lanes that are you drive in in yo and the medical staff comes to you, does the test, takes the swabs and then you pull out. the swabs get sent to a laboratory, they do the stg, we get the results back to the person. >> reporter: the mobile testing center will serve all residents of westchester county. but officials are prioritizing people in new rochelle, the town where it located. it's one of america's hotspots for covid-19. most of the city's cases originated from young israel synagogue of new rochelle. earlier this week, it was made

the center of a "containment area" by the state of new york. for two weeks, for one mile in every direction, large gatherings would be banned. that meant closing schools, local colleges, and community institutions.ell as religiou the state's national guard would also be deployed. >> it's a sensibleeans of controlling the spread of the virus in an area where it has a high concentration.t 's not an exclusion zone. it's not a quarantine zone. no one is prevented from entering or aving. >> reporter: noam bramson is the mayor of new rochelle.he says tl guard's role in the containmenti area is lited. >> t guard is here in new rochelle to provide logistical and operational support, principally delivering meals to students who cannot receive them at the public schools, providing supplies, providing cleaning services to large facilities. these are things that be entirely beyond the capacity of a municipality e size of new rochelle. so we're grateful to have their support, but they're not here in a military or policing functn.

and i think it's very important to draw that distinction. >> reporter: but while there are no prohibitions on coming and goa,g from the containment a it's designation has already had a significant impact on local businesses. >> i mean, this is like a ghost town. this is really slow. peoplere scared. >> reporter: daniel mottoa is the co-owner of chicken joe's. it's about a mile from the synagogue, and right on the edge of the containme area. he says his takeout spot is usually filled with customers, most of them from the nearby high school and iona college, which is located right across the street. the college's administration cancelled all in-person classes until april 10. mottoa says he's already cut back on his workforce. >> i sent two peopleut to their home. i mean, there's no business. you know, we're really slow. just pedro and i right now.ju two people. but what else can i do? i mean, i'm trying to keep the business open as long as i can. >> reporter: like many around the country, people here are stocking up on fsed and other ials or staying home.

at the shoprite in new rochelle, carolina morales says r e's nervous r grandchildren-- three of whom live with her-- n whose schools rby mamaroneck are closed for at least two weeks. >> i buy all the frozes because we can keep it for longer. we buy rice, breadand other stuff, cleaning stuff, you know? we're scared, you know, for the e kids, and we keep them hw. we have to prepare the food. >> reporter: mayor noam bramson says the city is getting the support that it needs from the county and state government. and, while he acknowledges that new rochelle is still in the midst of the crisis, he hopes other cities can learn from the approach that new rochelle has taken. >> i think we're earlier than other cities, but many, many others will face circumstances similar to ours, and if we can serve as a positive example for how a community can come gether and confront this challenge in an intelligent and calm and measured way, then we will have done a service. >> sreenivasan: chris, i know the mobile testing center has only been open since yesterday,

but how many tests have they been able to ada >> reporter: we were told the mobile center, but we don'th know how many testes were performed. earlier today, the governor didi say they pate performing up to 200 tests today and up to 500 tests a dayn coming days. >> sreenivasan: how does it work? i mean, does anybody from theti county-- do they just drive up there? >> no, it's not like a fast food drive-through. you have to have an appointment. the way this happens isou call the new york health department criteriaia-- you have showing symptoms, have been in contact with someone with a confirmed case, or you rcently traveled to one of the hot spots, then you might be able t get an appointment. hari. >> sreenivasan: this is one facility it's in new rochelle. what about the rest of the states? the state is one of the big epicenters of a lot of the cases in the country. >> reportet yesterday, the state did receive f.d.a. approval to have 28 labs perfo manual tests. the governor says they anticipate this will increase the number of tesamts

ically, going up to 6,000 tests a day. so far, they've only performed 3,000 tests in total. >> sreenivasan: chris, do we have any idea how the virus is spreading in new york? >> reporter: right now what we know-- and this ll certainly change-- is there are over 500 confirmed cases in new york state, the majority of which are in new york city. and , st this morniw york state reported its first death, city who had been suffering from emphysema did, indeed, dierom ronavirus. >> sreenivasan: chris booker joining us from new rochelle tonight. thanks so much. reporter: thank you. information on coronavirus, go to www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: italy remains on lockdown as officials andrs healthcare wortruggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic. speciachcorrespondent stopher livesay joins us now via skype from rome.ed what's cha >> well, the lockdown that was previously limited to northern italy, the ho spot here in i

country, it expanded to cover the entire country. so that means as far south as sicily and includinghe capital in rome where i am, and then in the past couple of days, thy've actually heightened those restrictions. and so you're only supposed to go out if's absolutely necessary-if you need to go to food spp and tht means theto get types of services you'll find once you do go outre also limited. means that cafes and clothing stores, they're all closed now as part of this ban in pla. armacies, you wi find open. grocery stores, you will find open.but if you want to actualle outside of your home, you have to have proof that it's a good reason. this self-minted affidavit inou which you explain your ifusines. anyou don't have this on you and the police stop you, you can be fined or even arresd. and by last count b5,000

italians had already been charged for breaking these rules that are in place. >> sreenivasan: in a way, you are kind of speaking from the future of something that the united states might face, at least in termssf how thi disease or this virus progress progresses. i what we know about s disease is that even if you're healthy, you can be a carrier for this disease. o even if yu don't feel any of the symptoms it doesn't mean.u n't pass it on t your parents or your grandparents. and i'm sure that if lot of people could go back in time and take greater pecautions, they would. i mean, we're talking about a very serio situation-- especially northern italy, where hospitals are failing, where they're tavi triage patients because there are limited resources. when people come into the hospital and thfey're ering spiratory failure, that have to be put on ventilators and these are limits resources a ventilator can cost tens of

thousands of euros and you have to be on the devices for six to eight days fay time. if you're in yur 80s, your chance of recovery is very low so in a lot ofo hspitals it's become a war-time situation where doctors have to decide whether to give it to the gi-year-old or whether te it to the 50-year-old or 30-year-old. there e reports now of the dead not being able to be collected from their homes because the health services are overwhelmed, and you can't get a fortunately ome that's willing to risk going inside a hiews whe there's coronavirus because they don't want to get infect. i mean, it conjurs up imagees from the middle ages when you had the black death sweeping through, the exact same place from where i'm taling to you from. >> sreenivasan: you know, one of the things i have seen online this week is alo some of that pent-up frustration of the italians standing at their balconies trying to startsi ing and saying, "this is not is this happening in different

cities around the country? is it something that was anal an >> it's sort of like a flash mob myself just yesterday.ipated in my wife and i we went out on oue ace at six collaboration in 6:0g and sang the national anthem. there were some people with instruments playing guitar, some people banging on a drum, some just hitting teir pots and pans in this show of unity. i mean it's-- people are looking for reasons to show solidarity, and there are some bright spots here in the north in certain towns that were on lockdown r earlier than tt of the country. they are starting to show signs of bouncing back, where the rate of contagion has been slowed. so there's hope that by taking such drastic measures throughout the entire country, that it won't get as bad, specifically because so far,aise mentioned,

the worst cases have been in northern italy that changes the further south you go, and if this disease spreads south of rome or they just don't have the same resources, then we're going to look at an ugly situation getting a lot worse. >> sreenivasan: all right, chris livesay joining us viaom skyp rome tonight thanks so much. >> thank you, hari. >> sreenivasan: the response to the coronavirus outbreak is changing on an almost hourly basis.is testinncreasing, health care workers are facing new guidelines for all to are consider in our interactions. caroline chen, who reports on health care and public health issues for propublica, joins us now for more. one of the concerns that so many people have had now-- last weekend, the administrationgo said, there'g to be a million more tests out there--

the test kits out there. they're going to be getting out to the private labs. they're going to be having access to it. and just this afternoon, we heard both the vice president and the president sort of modify that, because it seems like when you talk to doctors andal hosp they don't necessarily have all those kits. >> so, things are literally changing hour by hour. i think, even as of this week, americans say "we o beear tested, we can't get tested." and to hear doctors saying, "we wanted to get these patients tested and we can't." and that's tremendously frustrating and anxiety-g. provok and i think it's important, not just on the individual level,ha because ofanxiety of, you know, i want to know. it's important for the country to know where the diis. and i keep thinking about an interview i did with a scientist who said "the disease ad of the data." anethat's so important beca if you don't know where the disease has spread, it's so hard for public health officials plan and to know how to respond at macro scale. and i think the probm there,

as we know, has not only been just production of the materials, but i think another thing that a lot of people just don't thinabout is, you know, it actually takes manpower at individual labs to run the tests. and so, that's why i've continually been encouraging people to think about the idea of, what is the capacity at your now, as we just saings are changing. so now we have these bigpa commercial ces coming on board. so, quest and labcorp came on board this week, and then on the horizon, which is great, roche, wh a big swiss diagnostics company, just got f.d.a. approval and thermo fisher, which is another huge company. so that's going to be big volume. and, that's great. i just wish those had been ready to go a month ago. >> sreenivasanright, that's one of the concerns that people have, is, okay, that's fine, three weeks if we have these millions of tests. >> oh, the virus is not waiting.

>> sreenivasan: right. so, is it-- in these three or of default to that notion that, presenting with thtoms, call your doctor, don't show up at a waiting room right away." so, i think the recommendation has very clearly been to ll, and don't rush into a waiting room or to an e.r., beuse really, the hospitals need to be able to triage. so i would say, like, listen to what is being told to you your area, but the advice is, really pick up the phone first. >> sreenivasan: if our health is the first priority, then we want to make sure that the health care system haten weeks, three months, six months, to be able to deal with all the people whoi t get sick. but that also means ten weeks, we are going to be taking these significant precautions and life changes. >> yeah, absolutely. and i think the thing that... i feel like it's a big take-home from that notion of flattening the curve is that we all have a part to play here, right? that it's not the sort ofin itable thing that, you know, individuals have nothing that

they can contribute. so, every action that you take-- you know, staying home when you are sick, you know, making the distancing, to, you know, not be in someone's face-- you ow, contributes to flattening the curve. and i think that we all can play a part there for. >> sreenivasan: you know, for--h e's sort of these conversations that happen among white collar workers aboutfr workin home, but there's a lot of people in the country their job includes inice. front of other people and servicing them. weaere talking offline abou phone call that you were getting from somebody who-- tell us about that. >> yeah, so i got a phone call that has really stuck with me, grocery store in tttle in a area. and this pern told me that they're fairly elder, and they rely on this job, so they need this job to work, and they're now surrounded by people who are, you know, crowding inhe store, panic shopping.

and they can't afford to just not work the job, you know. they don't have a lot of paid time off. and the person who called me said, you know, "i would love to just go home and quarantine myself and be safe, but i have to... to be at work. i need this job." and they just fe like they were waiting to be infected. and my heart just really wentpe out to thion who called me because they had no chce. >> sreenivasan: right. caroline chen from propublica.ch thanks so or joining us. >> thank you f having me. >> sreenivasan: for my full conversation with caroline chen, visit facebook.com/newshour. >> sreenivasan: the economic t fallout fr new coronavirus outbreak is worldwide and may continue for months.g join now via skype is the u.s. business editor for "theja economist," vaitheeswaran. our first priority is to think about the health stories and what's happening on the whound. buen we see the impacts, when the businesses start to close, when e airplanes are

flying less,here's a ripple effect here. how are we going to feel this? >> this is an unprecedented crisis because it's a double whammy. we have th supply and demand hit at the same time, which was not, for example, the case with the globafinancial crisis. and at the same time as the health cris is unfolding, we also have had an oil sock, a global oil shock. this is posing unusual challenges for governmas we respond. in terms of likely implications, i have bad news and good news. the bad news is the markets are, obp ously, in deestress. we can see from the financial maets and stocks at this is going to affect the real economy in terms of companies, especially small and mdium businesses, we're headed for a cash crunch. jpmorgan is learned calling for a recession two quarters of declines. that's the ba news. brief, maybe two ers a itle impact on employment, and maybe

a bounce-bark a sharp bounce-back when demand rebounds if the government responds >>gressively. reenivasan: just this last week, the fed-- which the president criticized today-- sa we're going to inject $1.5 trillion into this and make it easier for the banks to lend to each other, decrease these rates, didn't seem to to wall street. >> again, this is an unusual crisis, cause we hav't had is kind of a health crise which it is primarily. remember the great tragedy, the human victims and the great rate of tnsmission. that's really where the source of this crisis comes om, and that we mustn't lose perspective. response is help rst right first spenders, meaning the people on the front lines of health care. in america, we unfortunately, have given inadequate resources our first responders. that's being remedied quickly. that's being rectified. mobilization resources to

to them, that's rihing tosources do. but the second kind of response, government do, the fed cutting interest rates isn't going to map your suply chain deliver your parts to a widget maker in ohio any qcker, right? and rates are almost at zero anyway. rope they are zero and below in japan as well. the tools available to central banks are not adequate to the task when it comes to thkind of stimulus we might have expected. nevertheless, there are a couple nof things government nd should do. one is we talked about companies running out of cash. thhe number one concern in the next six months. we cn encourage banks, for example, not to call in loans. it's not like in cherna whthe government controls the banks. they've already told the ban'tk, "dall in loans." but we have done this before when government can extend thedit and encourage-- and fed has done this in the last couple of days-- encourage bankers not to call in loans, to show forbearance, and i think that's a sort of talking up of

good corporate citizenship isim rtant as well as providing credit. we saw this after hurricane katrina nd we sawt as well after the global financial crisis. there is something else. we need people to come forward when they're sice that is tmber one thing we can do when helping deal with the spread. if you're uninsured, as nearly 30 million americans are, if you have unreliable or little sick y, are you likely to come forward? probably not. we need to be forthright and say government has to step in and provide payments to individuals and families doing the rght thing. >> sreenivasan: all right vuay vaitheeswaran joining us via skype tonight, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: today, spainbe joined italyming the second european country to declare a national shutdown.ra and ine, the government asked cafés, restaurants and non-essential services to closel

have the latest on coronavirus, and more pert analysis, on tomorrow's broadcast. that's all for this edition pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching.t. have a good ni ncaptioning spoed by wnet captioned by aaccess.wgbh.orgwgbh npossible by:end is made bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the chyl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. waer. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, ito not miss what's right front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additionalupport has been provided by: and by the corporation for

public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your you.station from viewers like thank you.

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