captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, march 21: as the coronavirus spreads, hospitals and medical professionals are pushed to capacity; more cities shut down services; and how the music industry is dealing with corona cancellations. next on pbs nshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. s rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of u 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. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporatiofor public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. if the top of our program looks a little different to you, it's because it is.i'm not sitting ih studios tonight because all of us at newshour weekend are practicing social distancing measureto decrease the spread of the coronavirus. i'm here at home with my family. that blank wall.can spruce up r reporters, producers and editors are working from their homeso , as well,r broadcast is coming to you from many remote locations this ekend. when and where it's possible, to gather news safely, we're

trying. so far, our team is healthy and virus-free. but we know at might change. 's a new normal that we're all adjusting to, but there is still newso be shared. there are other things happening in the world. often, they're also affected by peandec. but there are also stories of how we're adapting, so let's get to it. tens of millions ofricans are now under strict stay-at- rders this weekend as th number of coronavirus cases continues to rise. states and cits closed businesses and restricted non- essential travel in an effort to limit interactions and the spread of the virus. as of friday afternoon, the centers for disease control and prevention reported more than 15,000 confirmed cases and 201 deaths in the u.s. hospitals warned they are running low on equipment and supplies. new testing facilities opened, but, in some locations, people were turned away as thousands lined up. in washington, d.c., members of the senate and the administration continued to work on a $1 trillion financial aid

bill. the legislation under consideration includes aito industries, assistance to small businesses and healthare facilities and direct payments to individuals. the senate plans ttho vote o bill monday. president trump and members ofro the virus task force updated the nation from the awhite house thernoon. >> we're working very closely with governor cuomo. this is the first time in our nation's history has used the stafford act to respond to a pc ubalth crisis. never happened before. i'm considering other areas where we may or may not be doing working very closely with gavin newson, governor of california, they're asking for. on what it's been precedented action in new york, and we've had a

tremendous federal response all over the country. i want to thank all the people in the federal government, and, obviously, in the state governments and local govern we are working hard. everybody is working hard. and the people standing alongside of me arworking very hard. that i catell you. we've also reached agreements with canada and mexico on nelew trules at our northern and southern borders. >> sreenivasan: the global coronavirus pandemic is shutting down countries and imposing new containment measures worldwide. coronavirus resource center shows more than 280,000 cases and close to 12,000 deaths as og this mor in italy, where more than 4,000 people have died, police set up roadblocks today, and more public spaces are closed.i todan jordan, sirens signaled a new curfew meant to keep peoe doors. and in ina, people were seen venturing outside in larger numbers. the coury where the coronavirus outbreak began

reported there were no new locally-miaed cases for the third consecutive day. south korea's military said today that north korea fired two ort-barangistic missiles into the sea early this morning. the move came one day after north jokorea's leader, ki , was seen on state tv at an artillery competition. thsouth korean government urged north korea to halt all" very inappropriate" test firings while the world copes with a pandemic. north korea has not publicly confirmed any cases of covid-19, but its state media has said anti-virus measures are a matter of "nation existence." london is not under lockdown, t prime minister boris johnson ordered schools, pubs, and other social venues to close except for livery and take-out, and joining us now, npr's frankstay langfitt. frank, what street do we find you on outside of london? >>i'm on the high street, basically what we call the main street here in england,n a

town called waybridge, it's out 16, 17 miles outside of london. >> sreenivasan: what's it like there? i inee traffic by. i see pedestrians. >> yeah, i'm a little surprised harkey. inside.ht more people would be what's really interesting is there are even some cafes here and maybe restaurant or wo that are not paying attention to what bor t johnso prime minister said, said last night, which is he wants people, he wants cafes and bars and reosaurants to . >> sreenivasan: so how seriously are people taking this? re there runs on stores? >> yeah, there are. in somet placesy have been really stripped bare, and some people have been shocked by that. there was a video recently by a nurse from the national health sinvice who was cg. she just got off a 48-hour shift and coul't buy and fruits and vegetables. but the grocery store right down the street is not too bad. there was a security guard actually guarding the wine and estingwhich is inte

most of the vegetable and fruit was gone, but there was mea m. y theory is one thing is the sprms here are now saying they're going to he more than 30,000 temporary workers to try to deal with the congressman demand. >> sreenivasan: what's going re with the overall economy? school clo they have to figure out who is going to stay home with the kids. what are the ripple effects there? >> the ripple effects are really osg. of course,pubs and restaurants will shut down, i think, across the country, which will, technically, throw i would imagine hundreds of thousands of people, millions of peopleout of work. what the government has said yesterday is they're g make an unprecedented effort. they're going to give employers who e willing tourlough their workers, they will give them enough money to pay up to 80% of workers' salaries for the eaxt few months soap what they're really,ly concernedded about here is the economy was not super before this happened. the don't want to tons and tons of people out of work. >> sreenivasan: this comes at

a time wh, en, werexit is still part of the qaegz. >> absolutely. year-- and it clear, there xtensionnother brexit because this is an extraordinary situation. but at the end of this year, the united kingdom was going to stop ve its normal relationship with the e.u. and there was no doubt if that happened, it would hurt is economy. i think now, given whe we are, it's hard to imagine. >> sreenivasan: tell me, just briefly, the importance of pubse , people here might say, "well, so what? bars are closed?" but pubs perform kind of a different function there. >> they do. i'm a great fan of pubs. and they are a place where lts of people gaght nert neighborhood, and so much a part of the culturtre, ularly after work. on the week day, and certainly on a friday night. so to shut down pub says huge deal h very different than just shuttingbars in america. they're very much a part of the social fabric, and also, hari, part of the group's identy. >> sreenivasan: all right,

nps frank langfitt joining us. thanks so much. >> happy to do it. >> sreenivasan: for more on what's happening in the u.s. and around the world, visit w.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: a recent model was developed to helitals forecast what they can expecas the cases of covid-19 rise. i recently spo with annie waldman, a reporter at propublica, about those findings. it's been a bit of an abstract idea that we don't have enough hospital beds so how did you and your about calculating?ublica go >> yeah, so this was a question really wanted to answer know,: when coronavirus starts spreading across the united states, how will ourta hospi capacity actually be impacted? so we decided to collaborate wi harvard's global health institute, who had data looking at hospitals and regns across the united states and what would happen under three different scenarios of infectio% n. the population getting the disease, 40%, 60 pover three different time periods. and this ebled us to see which

hospital regions would be the most stressed once coronavirus hits the country. >> sreenivasan: so on your site here you've got kind of nine different lefts. so upper left is the best-case scenario where we only get 20 exprs it's over an 18-month period, right. so the map looks kind of green there. thingsook pretty good. and really in the opposite, lower right corner, we see theca wors scenario, which is we get 60% infection, and that's in six mons. so even if we picked somewhere in the middle, we are still looking at lots of deep shades of red. that is above 100% pacity. >> right, and that's most frightening thing about these projections is that even if you look at the best-case scenario, where the beds are-- or where e infection rateis 20% over 18 months, our bed capacity will still be onaverage 95% full. that means in some regions, they'll need to double tevir beds oren triple their beds. in the best-case scenario, where 40% of the population gets sick over 1w2 monthshich would

probably happen with the types of social distancing we're seeing today, 're still looking at having to double our capacity in hospital beds across the united states. >> sreenivasan: you've also got kind of a dialogue box right beneath there where people can just type in where they live and then is giving you kind of a bar graph of, again, with these refferent scenarios, and that's specific to theon that you're living in. >> what we want to do was give the puic an portunity to look at their hospital system and see what the capacity would bethike undee different scenarios. and what you find is that in some regions, they are incredibly well resowrsd, like eastyon long island. will find that they will need to increase their capacity ina modeate scenario by eight times, which means they will eave to either build beds, field hospitals, or decrease the capacity that they currently have in the spital. >> sreenivasan: because it's not just about whether you live in a b city because big cities come with big popations.

ur best bet might be in rural nortdacoapta if you canet to that hospital. >> there are caveats with that. north dakota might also have the beds, but they don't necessarily have the expertise to handle the complex cases. so if you ask yourself where would you rather being, north dakota or brookl, during the coronavirus crisis, that's a good question. it kind of depends f you would rather have a bed that you can be in for sure, or staff that has the expertise to actually >> sreenivasan: g the information that we have been seeing come o o especially italy, where you see ese doctors really just atheir wit's end, saying, "i'm doing the best i can, and our hospital is drowning," how aremerican hospitals preparing? >> you know, we're seeing the y,ws coming from china and itnd hospitals are trying so hard to create these plans to triage patients. there's going to be an influx of patients in the i've already been hearing from doctors i've been speaking with

that they've beanding their capacity, trying to cancel elective sueries, open other wings of the hospitals. some hospitals are thinking about h they can create hospital beds in untraditional places like cafeterias. i think they're trying to prephe for tinflux of patients that will come in, but they're alruso gling with a lack of resources right now. gloves are in shortage performsk - we've heard about this-- are in shortage. the c.d.c. giving relatively softer standards for how doctors can prepare themselves. so we're seeig, you know, essentially, hospitals trying to prepare, but not necessarily being able toven what they have on hand right now. >>reenivasan: what about the notion of having these comfort ships come offshore in different need all the resources that we can take at this point. you juow, it's notst about sailing those cruise ships into san francisco.oklyn or it's also about thinking about what kind ofto d around the world can we tap into. can we rely on our canadian

friends, our friends in mexico to help send doctors and nurses over to help increase our own capacity as we really take on this surge. >> sreenivasan: nie, when you looked at the data and you nally visualize all of twhat surprised you the most? >> i think the thing that surprised me the most is just we have been talking about hospital capacity fair long tie, you know, hospitals have been closing down. in rural areas the have been mergers whi have deeased hospital beds, and we really haven't been thinking about what would happen if a pan affected this country, what would happen if the 1918 flu were to strike now. and, unfortunately, thalack of preparation has led to us where we are now. we are seeing something very similar to the early stages of the 1918 spanish flu. and so we have to really think, you know, should we have been better prepared prooepped? and that's been the mt surprising thing for me. >> sreenivasan: all right, annie waldman from popublica joining us from new orleans tonight. thanks so much.

>> tha you so ch. >> sreenivasan: under immense pressure, healthcare workers are brac fing themselv an expected deluge of coronavirus cases. newshour weekend special correspondent karla murthy spoke with dr. alexis lgsfeld, who works in an emergency room at a new york city hospital, aboutpe her personal ence, not on behalf of the hospital. >> reporter: obviously, things are changing day by day, hour by ur. we're also seeing a lot of reports that there's just not enough protective equipment and safety equipment for health care workers. >> there's absolutely not enough protective gear. there's-- we're-- we're-- they're ramping up supplies as fast as they possibly can. even by the end of every shift, we're out of gowns or we're out of-- we're out of bach wipes. we're out of all the eeings that we in order to maintain a clean and sterile workplace. a lot of the emergency room does not have doors. you know, a lot oflas that's open spaces with curtains in between.

and those aren't place where's it's safe to have people cohorted. so we're trying as fast apos ible to actually divide the e.r. into multiple sections so we can keep nonrespiratory patients safe. >> repter: what are your biggest concerns in terms of keeping yourself safe and your family safe? >> my biggest cnocerns are that we're beginning to see that young people are getting sick, too. the scariest thing here is that initially we thought that this was a disease of older people and people with preexisting conditions.bl and as horas it sounds, i can-- i can handle that. but now that we're finding 30- and 40-year-olds that are coming down with it juststs severely, s quickly, just as fiercely, it's much scarier to i'm afraid of-- of not coming home to my kids and my husband, and i'm afraid of them getting it and me not beingith them and not being able to protect them. i'm in a situation now where i've decided that i'm going to dropping my family off outside

of the city, and i'm going back to the city to pick up more shifts and work. when we made these decisions, it seemed like i still personally wouldn't be at much risk, but now we just don't know. so, with the lack of personal protective equipment and with the worst of the disease still to come, knowi tt everything is, you know-- we're just at the begi iing of that steline, it's very it's very scary. i just don't kw. i can tell them that i'm going to do the very best to protect what has to be done because people need my help. but i can't really promise them it's all going to be okay >> reporter: and when you drop them off, do you know when you're going to see i them agai? s-- it's not really clear. depending on how things go, if they close off the roads, if they change thimongs,f i' needed, then it's really an

indefinite stay. i will stay and work as long as i'm needed and can work. so, if the population of needy patients picks up enough that i amneeded 'round the clock i the hospital, i will stay. >> sreenivasan: the world of live performance is mostly shut down like everything else right now, depriving audiences of pleasure and artists-- and those who work with them-- a way to newshour weekend's christopher booker spoke with a number of petormers and executives ab how the music industry is responding to the coronavirus pandemic. ny okay. >> reporter: as f you have seen, some of the world's music superstars have been broadcasting performances from their homes. it started with coldplay's chris martin on monday, followed by l

joend on tuesd. and then came death cab for cutie's ben gibbard. >> ♪ i wanted to walk through the empty reets ♪ and feel somethi constant under my feet. ♪ >> reporter: for fans of these stars, v closest they will come to a live music performance in the foreseeable future.li everything else, the music industry has ground to a near halt witivh fes and tours cancelled across the world. and that has only increased the anxieties for the thousands whok n an industry that has only recently srted to recover from a digital revolution that devalued rorded music and made live performance the only way most musicians can make a living. >> i think, at thipoint, we're not expecting any live shows to be happening across the states until maybe late june. >> reporter: zena white is a naging director of partisan records, a small independent label with offices in brooklyn and london. one of their acts, the british year on newshour weekend.last idles were scheduled to tour uth america this spring before heading to california's

coachella festival in april. both the tour and coachella ha en postponed. obviously, it's not just the band that this impacts. >> yeah. i mean, i think idles have-- they actually have been, as of eathis y touring with a crew that i think is up to ten people in the b siggews. so-- and you have to think about those are usually freelances,at ltimately they've got wives,s families, husbad people back home to take care of. so, there is definitely a kthck on effect . >> reporter: since the beginning of the corona virus outbreak, "billboard" magazine has been keeping a runni list of all the dramatic downturn in live performances. evyone from the rolling stones to alanis morrisette have either cancelled or postponed their performances. ♪ for some artists, it stard even before the corona virus arrived in the united states. >> we were supposed to go to chinerin april and then o parts-- korea and japan, asll

s other parts. southeast asia. and then that-- yeah, that got canceled quite a while ago though, so. demarco says the chineseer mac cancellation was just the beginning. >> we've had to cancel a couple other things, too. i had a loof friends cancel shows. ♪ reporter: demarco worries about the impact on less well- known acts especially after the cancellation of more festivals, including stin's south by southwest. scheduled to perform this year, and the festival has already laid off a third of its work force. >> luckily, foetus, mily, but it's-- it's crazy to watch, you know, other musicians and bands especially with, like, thin like south by. 's, like, people scrape the money together to, like, fly out there from all over the world. d.a lot of people are bum i had a friend that had to come home from europe a couple of days ago. couple, you know, a couple friends went home to australia. ey were just starting a

gigantic tour. it's like there was a guy doing a music vid here. he's leaving today. yeah, it's like it sucks. itteucks. >> rep and then, what about actually recording? >> it's kindf what i do all the time anyway and never really leave my garage. i'm always just in their recording. so, you know, hate to sa it kind of works for m >> ♪ hard to dream in the light of day ♪ better hide from what they say. ♪ >> reporter: for country star and grammhey winnery lynne, this period is as confusing as it is for the rest of us. >> i guess we're gonna have to wait. we're gonna have to wait, see. e don't think anybody knows what the hell weing to do right now. >> rerter: her new album, titled simply "shelby lynne," is slated for release on april 17, but she's not sure when she will be able to hit the road and from an economics rspective, when you're managing and thinking of your year, how much of a disruption is this for you? >> i mean, i can't sit around

and worry about things i can't control. and now, i think it's just a time for us to be reflective and-- ands maybe look at thi little differently instead of having so way trun around and be all crazy all the time. maybe we're not supposedo. maybe we're supposed to just chill. ♪ >> reporter: but e are worried about what happens in the short-term believe music will play a necessaryusole in gettinll through this. >> ultimately, we do see this as finite. and whilst we don't think that the world will quite be the same again or as we knew it, we do think that people are going to want music. and already 're having people hit us up all the time. "what are your playlists?" "what are you listening to?" "i need something to keep me positive." and i think musiis a great unifier, and-- and this virus is the great equalizer. you know, we're all in the same boat, so hoping that artists can nnd some sense of purpose being able to inspire and keep

people's day-to-day upbeat ♪ >> reporter: for now, fans looking for inspiratio wfrom live musl be looking almost exclusively online. >> ♪ stop it, please before it's gone tooar. ♪ >>t,reenivasan: finally toni actosinger kenny rogers, the grammy award-winning artist, died yesterd.

rogers had jazz, folk, untry and pop hits but was best known for "the gambler," with its refrain: "you gotta kno¡hen to hold em, know when to fold 'em." kenny rogers was 81. that's allor this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioningponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >possible by:ur weekend is made bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try 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. erica 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 our u.s.-based customer service team is on-hand to help. to learn more,nsgo to www.ercellular.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 pbs station from viewers like you. thanyou. you're watching pbs. -this s program is brought to u in partl

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