cnewshour produns, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. the newshour tonight, t pace of the pandemic. deaths from covid-19 spike in the u.s., more than doubling in a matter of daysumand president faces the reality of an extended shutdown. then, the ordeal of agnosis. coronavirus testing inhe u.s.: who gets seen, how long it takes, and whaearly mistaknd mean for ourstanding of the disease. plus, the pandemic abroad. to the greek island of lesbos, where fears grow tt a refugee camp is a viral epicenter in waiting. >> god forbid that we actually have an outbreak in the camp because that would be a real disaster. that would be a humanitarianis on another level. we are really, i think, sitting on a time bomb. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and ting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation foro publiccasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a new week has and the pandemic keeps burning through the u.s. population. infections across the nation are at 160,000 andisll sin rg, th some 3,000 deaths. new york state remains the nation's number one hotspot for the virus, and the governor is appealing for outside help. we begin, with this report from amna nawaz.

>> nawaz: at the epicenter of rte u.s. coronavirus outbreak... >> new york undeakes new steps toeare for the continuing t of patients, as state health officials ticipate a peak in two to three weeks. new york governor andrew cuomo: >> you have to prepare before the storm hits and, in this case, the storm is when you hit the apex. how do you know when you're going to get there? you don't. there is no crystal ball, but there is science and there is professionals who have studied this virus and its progress since china. >> nawaz: the death toll here has now exceeded 1,200, and known confirmed covid 19 casesse surp66,000, as new york's health care system overflows, help arrived today on the hudson river. the u.s. navy ship "comfort" with it 1,000 hospeds forging

non-covid-19 patients. part of new york city's central , normally bustling in t springtime, is now crowded with white tents. a makeshift field hohaital to le an influx of patients. lines of convention center is now a clinic in-waiting. new york is not alone in seeing a rapid increase in cases. across the country, surges in cities like new orleans, detroic and san franare straining healthcare systems from coast to coast. michigan health officials say medical centers there are not yet equipped >> we are still in the earad stages of spn michigan and cases have not yet peaked. >> whington dee see, virginia and maryland have been the latest to issue stay-at-home >> no marand resident should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential jobr

an essential reason such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medica attention, or for other necessary purposes. >> nawaz: it was days at president trump set a goal of easter to ease social distancing guidelines. but now, he's changed his message, extending the lockdow a advisories fleast another month. >> we think april 30 is a day where we can see some real progress. and we expect to see that, short of june 1, we think the death,it a terrible thing to say, will be brought to a very low number. d after a grim warnim health >> russiis prohibiting any nonessential outside movement.

in india, the sweeping 1.3 billion person lockdown continues. and in spain, where known case now top 85,000, a sign that social distancing is starting to work. >> from the day that >> ( translated ): from the day that the general social distancing measures began throughout spain, from 15 to 25 march, the increase in average cases was about 20% and since that day it is 12%. >> the world health organization warned, worldwide, the most vulnerable communities will be the hardest hit. >> if we are closingor i we're limiting movement, what is it going to happen to those people who have to work on daily basis and have to earn their bread on a daily basis? >> nawaz: back in the u.s., it'c a n that hits home, too. today, department store powerhouse macy's announced it will furlough most of its roughly 130,000 employees.

for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: wall street rallied again today, led by alth care companies working on potential coronavirus tes and vaccines. the dow jones industrial averag gained 690 poi close at 22,327. the nasdaq rose 271 poand the s&p 500 added 85. despite recent progress, many experts say testing for covid-19 omains far too slow, and low, in the u.s. as of this weekend, there had en more than 900,000 tes done. today, president trump told governors that he d not about testing problem "for weeks." but many people with symptoms and concerns say just the opposite. here is a sample of what viewers like you told us about their experiences. >> my name is kristina katayama d i live in seattle, >> my name is aaron warner.

i live in south burlington, vermont. >> my name is alyson hinkie. i'm from magnolia, texas >> i had a shortness of breath, coughing of my fever, got up to abt 101.5. >> i started to get a lot of essure on my chest. kind of reminded me as if i was at the gym carrying like a heavy ball across the gym. except it was all the ime. ad hard core fatigue like deep. f deigue, deep into my bones, all the way out to my hair follicles.ef >> ia message with the doctor's nurse. they called me back, asked me a few questions, and they said i did not qualify for testingi becauss under the age of 65 and my fever wasn't high enough. os they took a long what a looks like a q-tip. they told me to look up and they put the swab down intose. it was actually really painful. it burned quite a bit. >> i wasn't able to actually get

tested uil three weeks after symptom onset. so once i did acally get the test, it took five days to get the results. and, you kw, clearly i showed negative. >> i went get tested at the litary hospital in san antonio. they had it coned off in a parking lot that's part of the and they were conducti they were using the nasals swabs. but before that, when i was actually sick and we were actuly really ncerned. that process, i guess because it was so early on initially, we didn't get any traction with anybody. >> i have, you know, confirmed positive covid test from my i was told that i 't do with. testing because i didn't have the right insurance. was able to get ahold of one of the clinics. i was told the same thing agryn, which is syou don't have the right insurance. go home. testing.esto say, i didn't get i put in a lot of effort to get testing.om and mys now sick.ge

>> i couldn'tested. the person on the phone who was quite nice was saying, i'm notou saying't have this. it's just that we don't have enough tests. we have a service area of 87,000 people and we can do 50 tests a day. >> there was a lot of out there just and a lot of just lack of information of what this and not being able tested really put a lot of scare into me. >> i did not tnk it was going to be so difficult to get testing. you could have no symptoms at all and still be carrying and still be transmitting to other people who are very vulnerable and will getick and may die. so if it when you know, that information has an impact and when you don't know that lack of information has an impact. >> i don't think i would be tested now if it hadn't been for the military facility being set up, because being a veteran, being retired i can show my id

d get on it. >> the way that it has been communicated here is on the local news and from the doctor's offices is basically that if you are my age and symptomatic, as long as you can breathe, that you are being selfish for getting a test because you're basically taking a test awayt from someone tally needs it. >> we have family in korea. we waring from them how aggressive korea had been. the country had fullyia finay sponsored the testing, the drive through intesting facilities just super, insanely aggressive. when i think about myself and caose seven days before i symptomatic, i was on four plane rides and i think i counted like 500-plus people that i was exposed to. >> woodruff: there was some important news othis front. abbott laboratories just got federal approval in the la few days for a rapid test that can deliver results right away, somewhere between 5 and 13 minutes.

eventually it hopes to ramp up so that medical clinics can 50,000 of those tests a day. but we're not there yet. let's look at this issue with dr. jennifer nuzzo, a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health security. she joins me now from baltimore, maryland. jennifer nuzzo, we're getting a conflicting picture. president trump just moments ago told the country lion tests have been done, 100,000 a day, other optimistic words from his administration, but then you hear from ordinary amerikens hese who describe the difficulties they had getting tests, getting rests. where's the truth? >> yeah, i mean, it's still severely constrained, and it's been quite a hobbling of our response to this pandemic that we are unable to differentiate who has this virus and who doesn't. >> woodruff: why is it so important right now that there be a lot of tests?

>> well, right now, what we need to do is to figure out how to test smartly. strategy for testing, given the fact that our testing is still so vconstrained. right now, the bottlenecks aren't so much the initial things that wee heard about before, difficulty getting tests out of the labs. there are new tests that ar coming online, but there are still bottlecks upstream. one bottleneck is just doctors and nurses are really busy an possibly too busy to administer tests to people who aren't sicku to require hospitalization. they also don't have personal protective equipment in enough quantities to wear so that they n safely perform the tests. now there are also shortages of the chemicals anhe tools they use to collect the specimens for testing that they wldueed in order to perform the tests. so, right now, the kind of overarching telehealth message is that we don't have the resources to tst widely. that is the reality that we have right now. w but are ever to get ahead

of this, we are going to have to test more widely and, in particular, there are certain categories of people who may not be severely ill bu very much need to be tested. edy are doctors and nurses potentially expo patients during the course d weeedo kw ifr eithfhrkwoey're infected or not. >> woodruff: you said be priority, healthcare workers, number one. who after that? people who start to feel bad or what? and also it's hashed to find place to get to the place where you need to test. >> absolutthy. there are categories of people who i through are important in. paedicular, i'm very wor about long-term care facilities because an outbreak in one of these facilities could easily overwhelm a local health system. there are metimes thousands of very vulnerable elderly residents living in these facilities, and an outbreak in one can tipan the ba of what is demanded of the health system. so possibly more frequent

testing in those facilities would be important. then, also, people who live at home with medically frail know if they're simplematic soto they could better protect their relatives. >> woodruff: the rapid test was described from abbott labs. atw long will it take from th test or any other to make a difference to be rolled out and be availabes in communi around the country where it's usable? encouraging the nuofry companies that are step to develop morue rapid tesppinto we ately need that. the fact that the yabtd -- abbott test can be done outside a laboratory and to be able to provide results in a relatively short ti period, minutes as oppose to now we're hearing somm people go ten re days before they get their test results. so that's clearka not wore. having new tools like the abbott test is important. that said, we still are upstream

bottlenecks we have to address like the fact tht doctors and nurses or whoever will perform the test will need personal protective equipment too it safely, we need the swabs for specimens for the tests, s we need to work on all the issues and not just focus on onear particest or device. we need an overarching strategy. the larger problem is they're terms of who they test and how many tests they're doing. we have novisibility into that which makes it hard from a national per to understand how and whether the condition istry getting better or worse. >>oodruff: a lot of people want to know why the united states isn't in a better position. i know it's a complicated question, but some fingerspo ted at the federal government. >> well, you know, i think there were some unitnticipated ges that, you know, weren't foreseen. that said, asoon as sme technical problems arose, i

likely think there was a lack of urgency to expand the testingf and nkly don't understand why that was, but you can't argue that we lost a lot ofou and time that we cou have used to, you know, control cases to the point where we have now excnaeeded ch >> woodruff: it's all a lot to try to understand. jennifer nuzzo, we thank you m vech for joining us. >> woodruff: the spread of uns try,ro including the midwest where it is putting a big strain on doctors, nurses, first responders and hospitals. william brangham gets a view from the front lines of heth care there. >> brangham: illinois is now another state dealing with a skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases.

this chart shows the sudden surge of diagnoses in the stat and with it, the rising number of people dying from the virus. most of those cases right nowco are in cooty, the region in and around chicago. dr. claudia fegan is the chief medical officer for cook couy health. dr. fagan, thank you very much for beg here. i wonder if you could just-- we've been seeing this dramaticm spike in ther of cases in your region. w are things there right now? >> well, i think right now we're holding our own. we're looking at and we've been following the models, projecting that we're going in this direction and. have been trying to prepare on a regular basis. e talking about the numb of beds we have. msw many staff we have and trying to get ou around. what we see happening in tew york and tprepare and hope of avoiding some of the difficules that they're encountering >> brangham: i take it you're talking about just theack of i.c.u. beds, the shortage of

equipment, shortage of ventilators. you mean things like that? >> exactly. so what we see is that across around the world that this virus is overwhelming health care systems, and to the extent that we have time to prepare, wsee the surge ming. it's allowed us to rally our hospitals are talking to each other. we're not competing. we're collaborating and looking at if one hospital in the are and we all try to benefit from going on and taking care of these patients. >> brangham: and do you have a good sense that you do feel u're well supplied with medical supplies, masks, face shields, ventilators, those kinds of things? >> it's a daily challenge. we keep a running log of our and see where things are.ment we're ordering although there's a worldwide shortage currently.e we'v able to maintain enough equipment for all of our staff, but we are bet.g frugal with we are instructing staff on ways

in which they uin reuse the ent and when they need to discard it and when it's ok to continue to use it. so currently we are adequately supplied, but we know that that's dependent upon receiving regular shipments. and when we're not able to continue to get those shipments, it will be very probc. >>rangham: we've certainly been seeing in new york and elsewhere, in other nations as well, an enoous anxiety ondi behalf of the l staff who have to go into these cases where they're concned not only with providing the best possible care for people who are very, very sick in many cases, but also protecting themselves. what is the sense you're getting from staff? how are they handling this anxiety? >> no, rightfully so. everyone is afraid. no one wants to have the virus. and so we see a lot of anxiety, and it manifests itself in all kinds of behavior, maybe excessive use of p.p.e., putting on multiple gowns or multiple masks. we try to provide staff with

reassurance with the information, or when us, a state member becomes positive, is diagnosed as being positive, then everyone in that workspace becomes concerned about whether they are also going to get it. have reached a point in terms of community prevalence andad sprehat we're telling the staff that if you walk into the hospital, you should also assume that you've been exposed. you leav car to walk into yo the hospital, we're asking everyone to mask and everyone to use gloves in all contac and that when you t home, you neremove the items that you were wearing at work so that you'd try to avoid contamination in the home spacas well. so would you can't not be afraid. i think fear is natural response, but it's trying to cope with it and trying to reasre people that there are ways, there are things they can do to protect themselves and

that if we're mindful of that, we can we can all be safe. that way, you can stay safe and use the appropriate equipment. >> brangham: that's got to be incredibly anxiety inducing. i mean, on some level, you want people to be conscious of it. and maybe that fear helps drives better precaut but that fear has also got to be incredibly taxing for people, day in and day out. >> it is very stressful and we have an aging workforce at the county. and so folks are very concerned about their own personal well- being. and sometimes that can be a tremendous distraction fromin what they normally would do in terms of taking care of patients. we also have a extremely large correctional health facility.w and right at's a huge and you can't practice social distancing in a correctional healso facility. ant is a tremendous stress for the staff who work there, as well as the detainees who we're trying to provide the best of care.

ansi think that the advanta that the staff is working as a team and they're very suotortive of eacr and we are trying to make sure our detainees are kept safe. >> brangham: all right, dr. claudia fagan, cook county health. thank you ve much and good luck out there. >> thank you. >> woodruff: human rights tivists and medical non- profits are calling on the greek government to evacuate overcrowded refugee camps on islands in the aegean sea to prevent vid-19 causing a humanitarian disaster. they're particularly concerned about moria camp on the island of lesbos, which special correspondent malcolm brabant has visited many times over the past fars; and he is in touch with people there. malcolm? >> reporter: judy, tonight'm reporting from home again. i'm in the english countryside, where i have space to breathe

and want for nothing. lesbos, in possibly the toughest location in europe, living conditions could not be worse. they have fled wars, persecution or economic hardship. m but ia they are stranded with no place to run, and no place to hide from covid 19. >> ( translat): nobody care about us. nobody. body care about us. we are wting how to die, sorry to tell you about that, but this is the truth. >> reporter: raid alabd is the unofficial leader of t arabic speaking refees in moria. the camp was originally intended as a transit camp for 3,000 people, when the refugee crisis began in 2015. but the influx has never stopped and the population in tents and hovels sprawling beyond the razor wire is about 20,000. the whole of greece is on lockdown and the authorities are

making sure the people of moria stay within what critics label an open prison. raid lives outside the official camp. there is no running water forse essentia protection, as he told me via whatsapp. >> i should walk from this area around 500 meters to go to the bath and bring emptyottle fill it with water and bring it ain from there to here.he inine may be one hour to fill one bottle, two bottles so >> reporr: in febre went inside moria where afghans eke out a living making flat bread and met 13 year old mahtab moradi who was scared about violence in the camp. >> ( translated ): we need peace.ep >>ter: now, she told me , via whatsapp, a different type of tension is rising. >> the people are scared because when the virus come here nobody can save their life.

>> reporter: lesbos has just registered its first virus related death, an elderly eek woman who was apparently infected by her daughter, a health worker. as a result, two medical centres have been closed. so far covid 19 has not reached moria, but volunteer doctors there fear it's just a matter of time. >> god forbid that we actually have an outbreak in the camp because that would be a real disaster. that would be a humanitarian crisis on another level. we are really sitting on a time bomb. >> reporter: dr jamilah sherally works inside moria with the boat refugee foundation, a dutch non profit. >> on the ground we are doing all we can but i am convinced that despite o best efforts this is a war we are going to lose if covid-19 actually breaks out in moira. i you are trying to create a human petri dish for virus and

bacteria moira would.e a good choi >> reporter: bill frelick, of human rights watch, was in itsbos earlier this month, monitoring condns aboard a greek navy ship where several hundred people from mo placed before being transported to a camp on the mainland. the greek authoritposition for >> the main thing really is to decongest the camp and one you have a tourist industry int greece that is suffering because yohave empty hotels throughout the country so as an emergency measure put some of these people in to those places. >> reporter: today in lesbos municipal workers have been disinfecting streets, asow trepidation gramongst the 86 thousand greeks on the island.de local councispina gabriel doesn't believe the hotels should open. >> we have actually closed our hotels. we are not allowing anybody in the island or off the island. gabriel in februar she anda

others barricaded access roads to theite of a new refugee camp to stop building work. she believes the government' current lock down strategy is protecting all 100,000 on the island, greeks and refugees alike. >> as far as moira is concerned, camp site they are okay.their they are not having any interaction on the street, they are not having interaction wh us, we are not having with them. >> reporter: but doctor jamilah sherally made this appeal to the european union. >> i think the only possible way in which this outbreak would nni lead to a hurian disaster is if we get an evacuaf the people from moira and a re- location of the refugees in other e.u. states. >> reporter: but most of europe isocked down and it has ignored the plight of lesbos for years. so moria's residents have toho the fortitude that enabled llem to escape conflict and other troubles, ontinue throughout the corona crisis. for the pbs newshour, i'm

malcolm brabant. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, rioting broke out at a prison in southern idding to a series of violent outbursts at prisons in the country. officials say no one escaped in the latest incident. iran has already furloughed some 100,000 inmates to curb the19 spread of covi also today, afghanistan began eleasingome 10,000 prisoners. inmates lined up to have their temperature checked by men in protective suits. then, they were reunited with their relatives outside. taliban members were not released. afghan officials blamed the militants for attacks today that killed 27 soldiers and police. police in the netherlands are searching for a vinct van gogh p painting, "tsonage garden investigators say s stole.

the artwork from the singer laren museum east of amsterdamft early today, smashing a glass door and breaking in. >> ( translated ): who does such a thing? that is a parallel world of crime and money at we do not belong to. we are of the world of culture, we areere to share art and culture, much needed for society, with e people. >> woodruff: there is no word on the painting's value, but van gh's can fetch millions at auction. back in this country, a federalg today blocked texas from banning most abortions during the state's republican attorney general had included abortions in an order to postpone procedures deemed not medically necessary. the judge ruled the state is ghviolating a fundamental and, the coronavirus has claimed two lives in the music world. alan merrill died sunday in new

york he co-wrote "i love rock and roll," a hit for joan jett in 1982. he was 69 years old. and, country singer joe diffie has died in nashville. his hits in the 1990's, included "home" and "ck-up man". joe diffie was 61 years ol still to come on the newshour: the pandemic and the gig economy. the virus's toll on americans who don't work 9:00 to 5:00. plus, amy walter and tamara keith on how covid9 upending the political lascape. >> woodruff: more than 250 million americans in 30 states, plushe district of columbia d puerto rico, have been asked

or ordered to stay at home. while many people still go to stores in person for essentials, many people have relied on deliveries. and those workers have become a crucial part of how the economy is working at the moment. but a growing number of those workers are concerned the risks they may be taking. paul solman has that story. >> this is a billion dollar company, you guys ne provide us with masks, you need to provide us with gloves. island new york fulfillment out today over safety concerns about the spread of coronavirus, demanding the facility be closed r at least two weeks and sanitized. ths're also asking for work to be paid during this time, including back pay for thosein already sthome out of fears for their health. >> we don't know who's diagnosed it's too late. it's too late. what they should have did is quarantine the building two weeks ago but they didn't do it.

>> reporter: meanwhile, a strike was called at another delivery giant: instacart, the grocery where orders have rged fromce, customers unwilling or unable to leave their homes. >> i had gone to the grocery store after the outbreak started and it was a madhouse and it was crowds of people and everybody coughing. and, you know, me probably being a little paranoid. >> reporter: i skyped with strike organizer vanessa bain last night. >> we called for an emergency walk-off of all shoppers to not report to work on monday, to not accept any orders, not fulfill any orders and not deliver any orders. we have a list of demands. and until those demands are met, we feel like we can't shop safely and can't perform our job safely. >> reporter: so what's theng now? >> grocery stores are a hotbed for this virus spreading. our work requires that we are in the grocery store a majority of the day. and we're touching common surfaces like grocery carts and

n pads at the grocery store, you know, which again, areac su that many, many people touch and cannot be properly disinfected in between each use. >> reporter: so what are you asking for? >> our demands are that we are prided with protective equipment like hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, things thatc we can spray os down with, things that we can spray our phones down with. we're also demanding $5 per order hazard pay, plus a universal 10% tip default ltbecause right now it defto 5%, which is falling far short of what it should be, especially in a time like this. >> reporter: are peoplsaying thank you so much for coming to the house and giving you a 20 or something like that? mindful, very appreciative. and some customers are conditioned to tipping the absolute least. it's certainly not adequate in times like these because, you erow, to shop an order takes substantially lohan it used to. >> reporter: according to an

extensive survey last year, says ms. bain, instacar"shoppers" like her average les $8 an hour after expenses. but income isn't their only concern. we are asking for, or demanding the expansion of their covid-19 pay replacement policy. it requires a positive diagnosis of coronavirus, which, you know, if you can access a doctor, you can't access a test. and if you can access a test, your results are in for, you know, anywhere betwer to eleven days. and in the meantime, shoppers have no access to income ifrk they're not g. >> reporter: moreover, professional shopping has become much more difficul >> if a customer wants let's say ggreen beans and there's en beans that are available that are fresh, i can't replace them withans. i can't replace with frozen. it's just the stock is depleted. so a lot of a lot of what's been happening has en stressful. and because our tips are

contingent upon the ceipt total, the less of the order that we can, the less we can fulfill the order, the less our tip is as well. we're doing actually increases. >> reporter: last night, instacart responded, saying it is having hand sanitizer manufactured, which will ship next week, and that it will allow customers to set their own, higher default tip rates. but vanessa bain's group calls that response "simply not enough," in that it clearly doesn't address their paid sick leave or hazard pay demands. i had one last question. put yourself in the position of the c.e.o. of instacart for a moment, if you would. i mean, what would you do differently or wouldn't you feel >> if i were the c.e.o. of instacart, i would bwivery concerne my company's reputation right now. we're touching everything that enters a customer's home. f in ord, you know, a customer to get milk or eggs or, or cereal, our hands are goingt on tckaging. and so if we're not, if we'rean

not healthif we're not able to take proper safety secautions, then our customers risk are, are, a high. right. because we're in the grocery stores all day long. >> reporter: this is pausolman reporting from my house outside boston. >> woodruff: now, we take our ns >> woodruff:cart said it found no major impact because to have the strike. workers increased by more than 40% month over month and are seeing on average a 30% increase in customer's tips. >> woodruff: now, we take our latest look at president trump's response to the pandemic, with white houscorrespondent yamiche alcindor.

who minutes ago left today's briefing. yache, hello. we know that the president just yesterday announcedshat he' extending this period of social distancing. he said he would try to end it in the nefew weeks. now he's saying it goes through the end ofwhpril. do we know about the thinking that went in to that? >> well, the president really got this information and at that time -- data from heth officials who advised him it was not wise to ease up guidelines on easter sunday, why is when e predent originally wanted to ease up guidelines. so we hear a president who is eevolving on how seriously he's been thinking of the coronavirus. just a month ago, he's saying a miracle would wipe away some 15 cases and the cases would go now he goes saying this is a very serious virus. he's also reiterating that u to 100,000 americans could die from

the virus and said tat's a good scenario. so we're hearing from a president who has don0e a 18 on this. rose garden moments ago.in the he said he didn't want to panic people and that's why he was saying the virus would go away and be dealt with very soon. the president is also talking about testing today. heaid that the testing has wrapped up. he was in the rose garden with a utest kit that is spposed to now have a result for coronavirus for up to five minutes. so the president is stressing the united states is doi c as much as n at this moment. >> woodruff: yamiche, we know this morning in ntan iview he gave the president was questioning the state's request for some merge maerial. what do we know about the federal government providing tow the statt they are asking for? relationship betwehe president trump and the governors have gotten better over time, but the president is still in a real contentious what states need. it comes to first, i want to play sound for

people. this was president trump on thursday last week talkg to sean hannity and questioning opening whether or not gthernors needed equipment they were requesting. >> i have a feeling tha of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they're going to be. i don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. >> that was president trump juse lastk. sunday, i pressed him about -- about that and said how is thato goin impact your thinking? here's what he said. you said repeatedly th you think some of the equipment the governors are requesting they don't actually need. u said new york may not need 30,000. >> i didn't say that. you said it on sean hannity's news. >> why don't you act in a littl more positive? it's always trying to -- >> my question to yous. r -- -- get ya, get ya and that's why nobody trusts the mia. that's why you used to work for the times and now you work for

somebody else. let me tell you something, be nice. don't be threatening. >> so that was president trump, he was angry and lashic out a bit there. but the question of whethir or no thinking about whether or not governors actually need the equipment they ae asking for is still something that's unclear. we're not sure the president is going to send new yk the 30,000, 40,000 venulators andrewm a says he needs or whether they will have a lower nuer because that's wheyt what he thinks governors need. >> woodruff: the "newshour" absolutely stands behind your questiong and work as a solid journalist. we're very proud of you. finally, yamiche, you juscam from today's briefing on coronavirus. wh new is the white hou saying today? >> well, first of all, thank you so much, judy, for saithat. second of all, the president now in the rose garden was talking about ramping up testi again. we again got into a little bit of an excnge where i put the request to the president why is

the united states not on par rith other cou like south korea when it comes to per capita testing, meaning you'rete ing as many reidents as your country has. the president said that was threally not an importantng to be focused on when, in fact, there are at least some governors and some people with symptoms of the coronavirus who as it could be. not as but as i noted, the f.d.a. did approve a new tes that's going getting people results within five minutes. so the president is saying, in the future, we will have more tests and more people will able to have that. so that's what the president was saying today at the rose garden mostly. >> woodruff: but bottom line they are saying more tests arela ave, as we discussed earlier in the program, but there are a lot of complications around that. >> that's right, and little back andorth. the president had a number of c.e.o.s come up and talking about the fact ey working on all sorts of equipment and inventory and resources to fight the coronavirus. a parade of c.e.o.s from

procter & gamble and other places, but president was undersring he was doing wha he could do to get testing the testing is saying testing is ert as widely available as oth countries, including south korea. >> woodruff: yamiche at the white house for us today. thank you, yamhe >> thank you very much. i haven't we we want to look now at how ters responding to his leadership with our politics monday team, joining us via skype. that's amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr." politics podca you're with us. we're so glad let's talk about first the president's approval rating. amy, there have been a number of polls out, a few polls out showing president trump's support among the american people is up over what it was just a month ago. there's these numbers from the

latest "wsashington t"/abc poll conducted last week has his approval rating up to 48%, 5-point bump from the month before. why do you see as somebo looks at polls all the time as behind this? >>, eah. well, ju is getting something of a bump in the last we or so. i spent last week looking at polls a pnd callillsters on both sides and they saw the same thing in their own private polling. there is what they call a rally around the president. at time ofcrisis, this isn't that unusual.ob ously, really at dramatic times like right after the attacks on 9/11, we saw president bush's approval tings jump up 35 points. what we're seeing for this president is a bump. it's not quite as dramatic as we've seenor previous presidents at a time of crisis. we also see the majority ofwh americans ane from 50% to 60% think he's doing a good job

on handling the coronavirus. the issue, though, judy, for him is whe we have been, i feel like we've had this conversation probably a thousand times on "politics monday," is he rmains within thinarrow wand on his approval rating. still in most of his polls, most of thpresident disapprove of the president overall than approve of him. he's narrower and at the hiring end of his training range, hisjo approval rating has not broken above 49%. when you look and compare him to ere governors are, one poll sked how dining the president is doing, 50%id we think he's doing a good job, what about governors, 72% said their governor was doing a good job. >> woodruff: tam, let me ask you that question. we know there has been controversy out the way the white house has handled coronavirus, the testing controversy is jst one part of it. how do you see the president's

approval rating going up? what's behind it? >> aeah, you know, this is amy says, sort of a rally around the flag, rally around the president phenomenon. what i've also heard is there's not a sense that this is necessarily going to be durable. the president -- the ground has shifted under him repeatedly. he has gone from, as yamiche said, saying, well, maybe the cases will be down to zero, to now saying that 100,000 american dehs would be a good job. that's a rerkable shift, and o is story has been moving so quickly, it is ard to know what the polling is picking up from any given moment. are the polls we're looking at now reflecting his annofncement the 15 days to slow the spread, are they reflecting his wavering on it that came after that, or are they -- and willhe theyn reflect his new 30

more days to slow the spread? >> woodruff: and, of course, one of the reasons we're asking about all this, amy, is we are l election year. it is something we were paying a lot of attention to before the coronavirus pandemic, but, now, of course, it's righ rightfullye an back seat, bu it'going to happen, there still will be ansu election, prebly, in november. so, amy, does the election, the contest with joe biden, bernie sanders, is that just frozen for months? what do you think? >> yeah, in many ways, it is, wjudy. i thinn you look at these -- they'realled ballot tests where you put the president up against one of the democrats, what you're saying is this is a reflexion on how people feel about president trump, not so ch how they feel about joe biden. good and bad news if you're joe biden, y're not getting a lot of attention because we're not holding any primaries. we would be in the middle. you and would be probabl

talking about primaries coming up and what theelegate account looks like, joe biden and bernie sanders would be all er television. they're not. good news for joe biden, he would also be under a lot of scrutiny and attack from the -- trump campaign. that is pu at off flittle bit. what you're also seeing is a lot more attention on joe biden able about and when he talks about it as opposed to being on the defensive. >> woodruff: so pick up on that, tam. what do you say as what does the campaign look like under theserc stances? >> yoyou know, i have been lookg into what the trump campaign and the republican party has been up to and it has been fascinating. they had a bunch of in-personng traior volunteers that were supposed to happen, they flipped a scritch, they made them all virtual training. they've also been doingtual events, like a women's trump

but in terms of the messaging, what's really interesting is when they have been making calts oters and the trump campaign lsd the rnc have made something like 3 million cto voters over one weekend, the calls say, hey, how areou doing? let me direct you to coronavirus.gov. the message.they have changed ey are essentially just working on making contacts, practicing making those contacts, and then, later, when opeople can knock on drs again, eyey will get back out knocking on doors, but re communicating with people and, in some ways, tryi to compete with the media narratives about what the president's performance has been like ony coronavirus, going directly to their voters and telling them about what he's done and also, then, directi them to te resources. >> woodruff: in a phi seconds, amy, thiis one of the tngs that's almost impossible to predict, isn't it? >> it absolutely is. we'vmnever been in soething like such a slow-moving

disaster. we talked about rally around the flag, that's usually when a disaster has already happened. this, as it continues to roll out, it's going totinue to change the calculus. >> woodruff: well, we are so glad the th of you are staying safe. amy walter, tamera keith, thank you. >> you're welcome. woodruff: the quarantine orders we live with now are having impacts on all parts of our lives. restrictions on travel, group gatherings and hospital visitors mean families are often unableie to gather and as they normally would, even if coronovirus is not the specific cause of death. it is just one of the many difficult consequences of ourrm new . gail grzybowski works at member station milwaukee pbs and made this short piece on her family's recent experience.

>> this is a story i never thought i would have ttell or to actually have occur in my life covid 19. so many of us are affected without ever being inflicted with this virus. i'm normally behind the scenes in the camera doing audio from lwaukee, pbs. now, uncomfortably, i'm in front of the camera telling my family's story. i live in sconsin. my sisters live in florida. and my parents live in colorado spngs. i was notified that my father of 89 years old in colorado had fallen in the house and broke his hip. a couple days into rehab, he got pneumonia. they then immediately sent him to the e.r.. they gave him a test for the coronavirus. my mom was not allowed to see

him in the hospital while he wa tests back to confirm whether or not he had the coronavirus. he wasll alone with traveling. none of us felt safe to even go to be with mom because flying through any of the airports, the high likelihood of contact with somebody, u're in crowdedn planesose quarters with people you don't know who are maybe carriers. he stayed in the i.c.u. for another four days. they did allow my m to actually come into the room as long as she had all the protective gear on. .t that point, my dad actually started perking it took seven days for the results to come back fe coronavirus test. they did come back negative early, early sunday morning, the 22nd.

we got a call fr the hospital. they were trying to get ahold of my mom in colorado.my ather was not breathing well. antibiotics weren't working. nothing was working. he was maybe down to 113 poundst dad wauch a frail point, not breathing well. they had moved my dad to i.c.u.r we wable to do a video chat between my two sisters in florida, me and milwaukee and my mom at the hospital with the hard decision of talking to my mom, knowing that this was not going to impe ve. it was t say goodbye. and my mom w there all by herself. y meanin know, the family really wasn't there, nobody was there to hold her hand. she shared with us the priest praying over dad just as jus

had to love. then we were all there with my mom by technology, witnessing his last breath. we all. thanked my d for being a human being that he was and telling him how much we lod him to not be able to physically behere has been very, very hard. in fact, we still can't be with my mom. there is now a statewide home quarantine until the end of april. we are all affected even if we aren't inflicted with this rus. my father's name is dongas boesky. loved and adored by many.

>> woodruff: and our hearts go out to you, gail grzybowski, and your entire family and to all the families going through anything like this now. we're with you. that's the "newshou and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all us at the pbs newsho, thank you, stay safe, and see you soon. f >> majding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation.

losupporting science, tech, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by e john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more ulst, verdant and peac worl more information at macfound.org n >> and with thing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. station from viewee you.your pbs thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," becky cooks julia the ultimate roasted chicken with harsa-mint carrots, jack challenges bridget to a taste test of sriracha, lisa reviews healthy gadgets all under $20, and dan makes bridget a picture-worthy brown rice bowl