captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: another dark milestone. the u.s. death toll rises past 4,500, as top health officials warn that the best case scenario will mean hundreds of thousands die. then, the question of masks. as medical experts send mixed signals on whether wearing a mask is needed, what we know so far about facial protection and the pandemic. plus, the pandemic abroad. how taiwan got it right, preparing early and urgently to meet the threat of covid-19. when i first arrived home, there were like three or four text messages. b "welcok to taiwan, this is the c.d.c., we're just checking to see if you're okay." on tonight's pbs nshour.ew

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has more than 200,000 coronavirus infectionss of tonight, with some 4,500 deaths. that comes as the world health organization is warning that the global count will shortly top one million cases within days, with 50,000 deaths. new york remains one of the hotspots, john yang begins our coverage tonight. >> yang: as the coronavirus death toll in new york city nears 2,000 people, officials warned today that fatalities in the pandemic's epicenter will continue to rise. new york governor andrew cuomosa that should be a warning to all of america. >> i say to my fellow governors and elected officials all across this country, look at us today, see yourself tomorrow.ne >> yang: iyork harbor, navy hospital ship, the "comfort," prepared to care for non-covid-19 patients in hopes of easing the strain overwhelmed hospitals.

and in florida, governor ron desantis today issued t- home order, a step he had resisted for several days, even as cases in his state had risen. meanwhile, the navy responded to the request from the commander of the u.s.s. "theodore roosevelt," docked in guam, to evacuate the aircraft carrier's 5,000-person crew to stem an onboard outbreak. >> we cannot and will not remove all thsailors from the ship, and that's not what the commanding officer asked for, nor the medical team. our plan has always been to remove as much of crew as we can while ining for the ships' safety.an >> yg: in detroit, people lined up for a drive-through testing site. the city is facing an uptick in cases, and officials say it's shaping up to be the country's next hotspot. mayor mike duggan: >> somebody brought the virus into this community early on.

spread in this communit before we knew what was happening, and the places in this country that are getting hit are the places that were >> yang: as that grim reality sesles in, president trump begun preparing americans for the worst. at the white house yesterday b he said he hn on top of the issue from the start. >> i knew everything. i knew it coulbe horrible, and knew it could be maybe good. don't forget, at that time, peop about it, even the experts. we were lking out it. didn't know where it was going. >> yang: but, in late january... >> we havet totally under control. it's one person coming in fromha china, and w it under control. it's going to be just fine. >> yang: the white house late yesterday publisd projections that suggest the virus will take at least 100,000 americans lives in the coming months. already in europe, there have been 300,000 deaths. in hard-hit spain, empty streets in madrid, save for a few pigeons. a stoplight turned green, but there we no cars on the road. the country has recorded more

than 100,000 cases, including fernando simon, who is leading the country's response. today, he spoke from his home. >> ( translated ): right now, we are not in the battle to see if we are or are not in the maximum infection point, because it appears that we are there and we are descending. so now the battle is to make sure tt our health systeis able to guarantee the adequate cover for all of our patients in >> yang: elsewhere in europe, police tape surrounded emptyow mosclayground. prague's river banks, disinfected. a london musnas have turned into testing centers.nd also in : this timelapse video of a,000-bed hospital being built in just two weeks. the nightingale hospital opened to the public today to help care for influx of coronavirus patients. anwhile, the wimbledon tennis tournament, four months away, joined the growing ranks of events called off due to the pandemic, the first time it's

been canceled sincworld war ii. but in italy, a glimmer of hope: >> ( translated ): we must not confuse the first positive signals that we are seeing in theshours with an "all clear signal. data and the statistical projections made by expes show that we are on the right path and that the drastic decisions we have adopted so far are starting to bear fruit. >> yang: officials there say they will stay under a national lockdown until at least april 13. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: the rising tide of infections drove financial markets sharply lower today. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 973 points to close at 20,943. the nasdaq fell 339 points, anthe s&p 500 slipped nearly 115 points.an now,o a public official who has personally battled the disease, and is now trying to lead his city during t crisis. i am joined by miami mayoran s suarez, recently out of

a 19-day quarantine. mayor suarez, thank yo much for joining us. we are very glad to see you recovered and come through this, but i want to start by asking you abogovernor desantis' decision or announcement today that he is finally joining, what, 30 other governors around the country in ordering a stat statewide st-at-home in florida. was this the right time, or did he wait too long? >> well, it definitely was timed werdered a stay-at-home order the city of miami dys ago, if not weeks ago, and we're the first ity in dade adopt order a stay-at-home, the first city to order a curfew. so it was important and imperative that the governor do likewise. i think, when it's all said and done, weing to look back and we're going to askve ours did we do everything we could do to prevent this

virus from spreading in our has to be our guidepost right now. the other concern i have is our airport, which brings in 20 million people and whe mre lion people come through our city. governor during this time since your city issued stay-at-home from today, have you been urging the governor to do this? >> i have been in constant communication with the governor, and i let himknow when we issued our stay-at-home order that we would wecome a statewide stay-at-home order as well. i think, at the time, you know, there we 20 counties that did not have any cases, and five counties that have five cases or that we, again, have to do everything we can do, which is why we are the first citto cancel large events, to issue ae stay-at-rder, to issue a curfew, because we have to do everything we can to prevent the spad of this virus, including myself, who was the second person in day de couhat

tested positive. >> woodruff: for sure. well, tell us about the situation in miami city, what is it looking like there with regard to the number of cases and how people are being handled, their medical situation? >> we are sort of fe epicenter rida, we have the most cases in the entire state. we are ramping up our ability to test. we just opened a testing site yesterday, we're zesting several most likely that our cases aren going to continue to go up, and we don't believe we are anywhere near the apex.ha i find it to believe i was only the second person positive in the entire county,o there's probably hundreds if not thousands of people that are going undiagnosed ort we don't know are positive. so we need to get control of exactly how many people are positive. we have to doinontact trto make sure that we can do, like we said, everything that we can to get -- to flatten this curve.

>> woodruff: do you have the, peope personnel, the supplies, the equipment that you need to deal with what's ging on in your city? >> ware very important, our fire chief identified this threat very early on during the time it was in wuhan right around the time of the sup bowl.we hosted the super bowl ts year in early february, and he started purchasing personal protective equipmentack the spent millions of dollars, even without getting authorization, and, so, were well stocked. i have been in constant communication with the hospital system. our public hospital system, which is the fourth largest in the country. i have been told or am being told, so far, has suf, ficient bet as we've seen with italy, as we've seen with spain, as we've seen with new york, this run on hospital services can happen very, very quickly, and, so, we are trying to add capacity to our hospital system ed some of the opening clips, by

having portable s available off-site in some of our parru. >> wo: and at this point, tell us what effect it's having on the broader community. clearly, people staying at home, people in every occution, job you can imagine, there's no income. how are you dealing with that? >> that's an enormous concern, especially since it's april 1, the beginning to have the month. so i'm of thi opnion, i've written the governor, and i will ask the president here in this show, we need to have mortgage and rent relief middle east. there needs to be a suspension, whether it's 60 days, 90 days, of mortgage and rent payments, peoplevneed to be able to hae enough money to eat, and that's got to be the most imp aortand essential thing that people use their money for. we in the city allocated ee million to feed our elderly and 1 million tothose below the poverty level. ps we don't take dramatic ste to make sure that we alleviate some of the more significant

nancial burdens in peple's lives, my fear is it could get apocalyptic. >> woodrf: apocalyptic? you really mean that?>> eah, i mean, you have to understand that, in a city like miami, after nine days, you know, without power, whenri there's a hune, it gets -- it can get pretty apocalyptic. people can get pretty desperate when they don't have some of the basic, to me, what's imperative is residents get mortgage and rent relief middle east so theya use the money they have in conjunction with the unemployment benefits they wille get from the snd federal government to pay for the most basic necessities. bthat is what people wi focusing on. i hope we don't ever get to an obviously, and we doingario, of everything in the city to prevent that from happening, and pore the ecoimpact this ises having on people's lives.

>> woodruff: mayor fraiis suarez ofi city, we wish you the best with all ofhat and we're glad to see you better after going through the thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: as you've been hearing, this is a tough time for many hospitals, in large and in smaller ones, and there are growing concerns for rural areas as well. the next few weeks are expected to be especially difficult, as workers are pressed, and there serious concern over protective equipment. william brangham has the latest in our series conversations with healthcare workers and officials on the front lines. >> brangham: we get two perspectives on this now, from leaders at medical cente around the country. dr. phillip coule is the guief medical officer for

a university health system in augusta, georgia. and michael dowling is thec. president ano. of northwell health in new york. gentlemen, thank you both very much for being here. i know you're busy trying to ca for all the people coming through your doors and we appreciate you being here. michael dowling, to you first, all of us who are not in new york are following what has been going on thereand weee how difficult it seems to be. you run the biggs healthcare system in that statcoe. d you just give us a sense, how are things there, what are your i.c.u.s like, are they full now?>> es. obviously, we're in the it is he can tick, extremelyork. busy. the numbers are pretty extraordinary. in our health system alone right positive patients,ut 2500 covid-positive patients in our that grows eay by out

300. so life changes. i mean, evything about a hospital, everything about the way you work a month and a half ago is all different. the hospitals are worngco together, we'rlaborating, but we're managing and trying, obviously, to stay ahead of it because we're in o the mid a major, major battle here with a very resilient competitor, the virus. but my view is we will per zithe and, at the end of the day, we will make sure that we win in this battle against this virus, and that the the opimism you've got to have in a situation like this. >> reporter: and dr. coule, i understand, be,ng in georg you might be a little bit behind where new york is right now.er i unand that you have been doing an enormous amount of testing of patients and of people in the general

gipulation. du us a sense of what the testing allows you to do? >> sure.e we have advant being later in this wave of patient that we expect from covid 19. we have a distinct adv,anta being an academic medical center at augusta versity where we were able to get ahead of the curve o on testing, and we have been testing quite some time a very efficient telemedicine screening program as well as a driveup testg program that has allowed us to identify those at risk and identify positivelpcass to s stay ahead of this. other areas within georgia, as you kno w,even rural areas have been hit hard, particularly. albany, orgia, some of those patients are being transferred to us and then uherral areas where this appears to be hitting harder, those patients are coming the our facility. but as of right now, we have a team that hase helped us kep ahead of this thing. >> reporter: i'm curious, dr. coule, staying with you for

a mont, we know that lots of patients have had to wrestlesick with these very wrenching decisionthat in an era of limited capacity, limited supply of things likeventilators, that people have to wrestle with how do we decide who gets a scarce ventilator and who doesn't. how do you think about those things? how do you as a system debate those things? >> sure. so one of the principles of a disaster is triage, and you hae to triage and make very difficult decisions about who is the greatest benefit for a ventilator. cafor example, if you project that a very elderly patit is not going to survive, then perhaps, if you do have scarce resources, then you need to reallocate that resource. now, we're not to that point, d we have the advantage of being able to have those discussions in the setting of

the calm before the storm. thrown into making those very difficult decisions very early. as it stands now, our medical center, we are counting the surplus of ventilators. we are worried about it, but, right iw, we'ren good shape. >> reporter: michael dowling, obviously as the head of a much bigger system, i'm curious, you have an enormous number of employees who are worwith people on the front lines. how is your staff -- how are those frontline workers holding up? understand some of your ff have already themselves become infe'ved. >> yes, had quite a number of staff infected both on the front lines as well in as in the management sbeff, but i have out on the floors, and i have been out in the i.c.u.san out meeting with staff, and i can tell you that, when you're out there and uatch the dedication and the commitment of theses staff, itpretty extraordinary. a key part of it, of course, is making sure that you have the

supplies. all of the debate in the national media about mas and gowns and gloves and ventilators gets people concerned, not only the providers but also thebu public. t when you're able to assure your employees that you have the masks,hat you have theso p.p.e.s, pl protective equipment, that they don't have to worry about that, that one of your mainly foresight is to make sure the staff is safd secure, that helps enormously. >> reporter: indeed. dr. coule, we have been seeing governors, mayors, pubalth officials all across the country saying we need everyone to sta inside. if you're not app essential worker, please stay home and keep your distance from others. i understand that has been a particularly challenge in rural areas around you where people are simply notistening the warnings. >> it has, in fact. we were particularly concerned about our churches and houses of worship and actually actively our pastoral staff actively reached out to them to encourage

them to not hold in-person services. unfortunately, we do have some churches to the south of us that we either did not reach or they didn't g the message, but they held in-person services despite that, and we're now seei the impact of that with outbreaks that are tied to those churches. >> reporter: all right, you both are obviously doing incredibly important work, and we thank you both very mh ucr ding here. -- being here. dr. finish finish and michael dowling. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. for having me. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, there is word from u.s. intelligence that china vastly under-stated its own death toll in the pandemic. two senior u.s. officials tell the newshour that the true number of dead in wuhan, provinere the outbreak began, could exceed 25,000.

that is roughly ten times what beijing says about 3,300 people died from across all of china.es ent trump said this evening, those numbers seem to be "a little bit on the light side in iran, president hassanse rouhani acthe united states today of missing a historic opportunity to ease he said washington havedemic. eased sanctions on iran, where covid-19 has infected some 48,000 people and killed 3,000. >> ( translated ): this was a good time-- this was an opportunitfor americans to apologize for their wrong actions. this was a human issue, and no one would have reproached them for backing off. this was the best historic opportunity for the americans to come back from the wrong path they have chosen and to tellhe iranian nation, for just once, that "we are not against the anian people." >> woodruff: u.s. secretary of

state mike pompeo denied on tuesday that sanctions affect humanitarian aid to iran. but, he did not rule out easing the financial penalties. back in this country, west virginia became the latest state to delay its presidential primary because of the coronavirus pandemic. today to june 9.was pushed back meanwhile, democratic sanders urged wisconsin tonie postpone its primary, which is set for baxt tuesday. in this country, a new report finds widespread sexual harassment in the federal government's work force. the u.s. commission on civil rights estimates that nearly one in seven federal employees experienced sexual harassment fitween 2016 and 2018. the rate of womeng claims shot up over those years, with black women particularlyt risk. the food and drug administration

today told drugmllers to stop g zantac and similar heart-burn medications. they are all versions of a drug known as ranitide, and the f.d.a. says they may be tainted with a cancer-causing chemical. many companies have alady removed the products from u.s. stores. and, this is officially the date that determines a person's residence for the once-in-a- decade u.s. census. so far, the covid-19 pandemic has forced the census bureau to suspend door-to-door counting. officials say they still expect to finish by year's en still to come on the newshour: the shifting messages on masks from top health officials in the u.s. u y symptom-- racism against asian americans in the wake of the pandemic. to taiwan, where healthd officials movequickly and may have prevented disaster. plus, how americans are adapting to a new and uncertain way of >> woodruff: a majority of the

>> woodruff: a majority of the heuntry is being told to stay at home and to keep distance from others to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus. now, some in the public health community are wondering if the geral public should also b wearing face masks. william brgham is back with a port on the growing debate. >> brangham: face masks are a critical protective shield for the medical workers who are caring for the sickestovid-19 patients. this virus enters the body via tiny droplets through the eyes, nose, and mout so putting a barrier over the face can help stop infection. in these wards, masks are meant to be worn every moment workers are exposed to the virus. but, what about the rest of us outside hospitals?

what about those of us who still have to work around other people wear masks? what about when people need to leave home to get food or go to the doctor-- should they be wearing masks as well? and if eveyone did, would it change the course of this pandemic? may be changing. advice on thi until just recently, the centers for disease controand prevention said only health personnel and people confirmed to be sick with covid-19 should wear masks. and similarly, that's what dr. anthony fauci argued just a few weeks ago, on "60 minutes:" >> right now, people should not be walk-- there's no reason to be walking around with a mask.ve week, the u.s. sur general jerome adams said masks on the general population not only wouldn't help, but might hurt: >> wearing a mask improperly can actually increase your risk of gettindisease. it could also give you a false sense of security. >> brangham: dr. leana wen, an emergency phician at george washington university, and baltimore's formerublic health

director, agrees. >> there just isn't evidce that everyone wearing masks will prevent the transmission of coronavirus in our communities. the recommendation is that people who are ill should be wearing masks, and certainly health care workers should be aring masks. but everay people-- the recommendation is not that s everyould be going around wearing masks. recommendation may be changing. the head of the c.d.c. said ifw evidence indicates that a siant percentage of people without symptoms may be un-knowingly spreading the virus. if they wore masks, perhaps even homemade, fabric ones, it's believed that transmission could be reduced. dr. harlan krumholz is a cardiologist and health care researcher at yale university. >> there are plenty of people in society who are going to work ery day, placing themselves at risk, in order to keep society going. in order to deliver packages, to provide groceries, to enable those vital services, policemen and firemen and fire-women andll

policewomen,oing out and doing their jobs by placing themselves in positions where they're around others. it's incumbent upon us to protect them! they themselves need ts be wearing mad protective gear. but we also need to be wearing masks to protectm:hem. >> brang95 masks are considered the best. then, surgal masks like these. right now, there aren't many rigorous studies comparing the effectiveness of surgical masks to handmade, cloth os. but one thing we do know: right now, medical grade mas are in short supply nationwide. here's just one example: jenniferadovich is a registered nur at st virginia university medicine's ruby memorial hospital, a hospital with a growing numb of coronavirus cases. because her wing has no n95 masks left, radovich turned to facebook, appealing for help. f >>ured that would be the best way to reach the public, and just said, "this is what we need."

so, i just kept sending messages out, saying, like, "please help, we need these." and i have had a great response. >> brangham: donated masks, from individuals, local construction crews, even auto body shops, started coming in. t i've gsay, it just seems a little bit crazy that you, as a nurse, have to be calling construction crews and auto mechanics, trying to get masks to protect y in a hospital! >> rht. amazon has been sold out of them for weeks.- and they'vve even seen of 24 as high as $699, with 24 bids on it. >> brangham: wow. >> yeah. it's a real problem. >> bngham: dr. leana wen argues, if plic health officials stt recommending that the general population starts wearing masks, these shortages will get much worse. >> the last thing at we would masks, horde masks, and really make it even more challengingca for our heal workers who are going to be infected

themselves and then infect other people as a result. there may come a time en widespread mask usage in the u.s. makes sense, but at time is not now, because that time also requires for our country to be at the point where we can begin to loosen restrictions on social distancing, and when we have plenty of supply of masks and other equipment for health care workers. we are not there for either of these two milestones. >> so w i'm asking also for your help. if you can sew, we need your time and talent to producefa ic facemasks to protect iowa's frontline workers. me brangham: but in the time, public officials and private citizens alike, from fashion designers to boat sailmakers, have been producing masks of all kinds to try and address the national shortage.ho even w rock-solid evidence eq their effectiveness, many argue a pandemicres as many protections as possible. >> so there are a lot of questions about what you

need in what situation and how mu. protection do they conf the idea is that some barrier is better than nothing. do you need evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's effecte before people start wearing them? or do we say that in this moment of time, it's udent to do so. and i favor the id that we should >> brangham: and just in the last two day the c.d.c. director, robert redfid, the u.s. surgeon general, jerome adams, and anthony fauci, all signaled a possible change in federal guidance about masks. >> when we get in a situation where we have enough masks, i believe there will be some very serious consideration about more broadening this recommendation. >> we're making millions and millions of masks, but we want them to go to the hospitals. >> brangham: president trump has said mask manufacturers are working overtime, but so far, h not invoked his authority to order other companies to start making masks. for the pbs newsho, i'm william brangham.

>> woodruff: as reports of coronavirus havee pread across s., so have incidents of anti-asian violence. amna nawaz has more on that. origin in china haed arus's backlash against asian americans in the first two months since the first positive diagnosis here from school yards to trips to the grocery store, some asian americans have reported verbal and physical attacks and the tib.i. has warned of a pot surge in hate crimes still to come. beverly liang told the newshour abt her trip on the new yo city subway. >> he yelled at me on the train and said, "you people brought this virus here," before going to another part of the train car, and i found that really unsettling. my parents, me, my friends, are all really on edge right now and

kind of seeing how people react to us in public. >> nawaz: stories like that led to the creation of "stop aapi hate," an online hate crime reporting tool that has registered more than one thousand incidents in less than two weeks. cynthia choi is the co-executive director of inese for affirmative action, and she helped launch the reportingnd website,he joins me now. cynthia, welcome to the "newshour", and thanks for being he. what specifically are people telling u that are included in always like to mention when we talk about race in america, we have to remember asian-american are the most diverse ra group. you're talking about dozens and dozens of different kinds o identities and ethnicities under this umbrella group. one of the mostfascinating things about your report is 69% of all reports were fromch noese peopl did that surprise you?

>> yes and no. obviously,he target has bee chinese, and the assumption that those who are being victimized are of chinese dissent, but our report shows that it's affecting and impacting all asian-americans and for the simple fact that there might not be a recognition of, you know, the distinctions, but the fact that it'the asian face, it's the perception that were foreigners and that, again, we're all hosts of this infectious disease, and that's what's so troling about it. >> reporter: cynthia, i talked to leaders earlier in the month the chinese-american community in san francisco, and i remember them telling me that they didn't want to report any of these kinds oydiscriminat or racist attacks because they didn't want to rock the boat.u i wonder if ye worried these numbers ar you're seeing now are lower than what' happening on the ground? >> absolutely. this is just the tip oerthe icin terms of what's

actually happening on a daily basis, and that we need to do wetter, i think, to reach those impacted populations, especially those that are less likely to report incidents to various agencies and are hitant to report to law enforcement because of negative experiences or the feeling that nothing can be done about these incidents of hate. s reporter: cynthia i've got to ask you aboe of the rhetoric coming from the highest office in the land, president trump himself has publicly referred to the virus, linking it to china, despite the rossth experts here and ac the world said that kind of rhetoric is dangerous. i want to play s remks from a recent breeching on march 26. virus and-- and, iit.hinese that's where it came from. you know, if you look at ebola, if you look at all-- lyme. right? lyme, connecticut. you look at all these different, horrible diseases, they seem to come with a name with the

location. and this was a chinese virus. but i don't have to say it, ifee theyso strongly about it. we'll see. >> reporter: cynthia, when you see the reports people are submitting to your online reporting tool, is there a way to link that kind of rhetoric to at people are experiencing? >> well, we thinkhat his insistence in the past in using or referencing the chinese virus or other administration officials referring to it as the wuhan virus certainly exacerbates the situation, and wenow from our firndst accounts on this tracker that wv have iual who are mimicking the president's words, parroting them, i should say, and that they're also individuals who've recorded their interactions of defending the poesident'sds.

>> reporter: cynthia, i should mention just this afternoon former presidential candidate andrew yang pulished an op-ed taking about despite the fact 70% of america's doctors are of aches defense and fighting this on the front lines, people are scared and need someone to blame. that fear is not going away soon. we know we'll deal two pandemic for a while. i'm wondering if yabu're worried t the long-term effect of this, how do you think this kin of fear and the the blame people feel they need to say sign will play out in the months and years ahead. >> that's a really great question. one thing i do want to po ontut is that, throughout u.s. history, whenever there is a public health crisis or, in wartime, difanferent groups be beapegoated and blamed and, certainly, that'n the experience of asian-americans, muslims, afmeicancan americans, the lat x community

have been subjected, and we believe long after we can resume normalcy and we beat the virus, we are very concerned in then- aserican community that this will have a lasting impact. we have yet to understand the full e went ofhat it will mean to come out on the other side. we don't think that the anti-asian sentiment that we'noe seeingis going to go away, and we're going to need to address that as a society. >> cynthia choi, executive director of the chinese for affirmative action. thank. >> woodruff: we look now at a covid-19 success story. taiwan is just off the of mainland china. millions travel between taiwan and the chinese mainland,

johns hopkins predicted taiwan would have the second most covid-19 cases in the world. but today, there are 80 taiwan's 329 cases.tories before nick schifrin follows ata anese woman going home, to o gu how they did it.y >> i am curren the gatwick airport in london. bochifrin: when 28-year-old anna lee left heriend to fly home to taiwan last week, she took no chances. >> why are you wearing the mask and gloves and goggles? i'm trying to avoidny >> schifrin: leeidn't feel safe in britain, where the airports are empty and the prime ministeras criticized for a slow initial response. >> if he is not evenelping his own citizens, why would he help a foreigner like me? i thought, all right, i would go back to taiwan for now.ve everyone is careful. >> schifrin: so careful, lee

found fellow taiwanese jason yang waiting for his flight to taipei in a body suit bought off >> (.translated i believe that in england, it's already lost control. and if i go back to taiwan, i will be taken care of. >> schifrin: taiwan is only 80 miles off the coast of mainland china. taiwan has succeeded at containing covid-19, starting at arrival. >> ( translated ): we arett ing off the plane. >> schifrin: lee skyped with us during her hour-long journey through the taipei airport.th e first step taiwan took was identifying possible cases.>> they gave me this form to fill out my temperature in the next 14 days. authorities she'd had a cough in the last two weeks, so security escorteder to secondary reening. she had hetemperature taken, like this woman, and she filled out forms consenting to new regulations and providing recent medical history. >>juy temperature that they

took, and it was asking what symptoms i had, anif i went to doctor >> schifri and she got a covid-19 test at the airport. taiwan uploads these results n intoational health care database, to create a kind of coronavirus database that eryone has to enroll in. >> ( translated we have to register first online, and then will send me a text message, i have to show them the text t'ssage before we can pass here. >> schifrin: thawhere government tracking begins. after her bags are disinfected, her de home is in a government-provided taxi, by herself. the three-hour drive costs 80 bucks. >> now i cannot take any public transportation, so i had to use this contract taxi. >> schifrin: lee headed home, knowing the government would stay in touch during a mandatory two-week quarantine. >> welcome to my humble house. >> schifrin: the government has also stayed in touch with micky du, who arrived from australia on march 22. >> well, the first day they immediately phoned me, almost within the hour that i go home, okay?

and there was acally several text messages, when i first arrived home, therrewere like or four text messages. "welcome back to taiwan. this is the c.d.c. we're just checking to see if you're okay." >> schifrin: micky's girlfriend recorded him in his apartment. a everyone wives in taiwan today is tracked by cell phone to make sure they stay at home. taiwan's center for disease control tries to make 14-day quarantines easy. >> she asked me whether or not i lived at this address. i said, sure, that is my address. and i said, when are you going to be here? she said, i'm going to be there in five nutes. i'm like, oh, okay. and no ( bleep ), they showed up in four minutes. ( laughs ) they were like, outse. so she just gave me a packet of masks, and there were 14 masks in the packet exactly. >> schifrin: taiwan was able to take all of these steps, because it learned lessons the hard way. >> ( translated ): the sars outbreak is a wake up call for taiwan. outbreak.arn a lot from the sars

>> schifrin: dr. steve kuo is the former head of taiwan's c.d.c., and led the sars task force in 2003, when the sars epidemic made hundreds of taiwanese sick and killed more in the world.third-highest tally the very next year, authorities prepared for the next crisis. that preparation allowed taiwan's c.d.c. to detect the covid-19 threat before the chinese government announced it. >> we pick up the signal that there is some strange outbreak the wuhan areas, at the end of the last year, from socialne mediorks. we decided, and we did send two etdical doctors to wuhan from taiwan c.d.c. to better there, okay, and then five days later, on january 20, the government decided immediately to set up and activate the central command centers.

>> schifrin:hat centralized command center launched border restrictions before almost anyone else, set local quarantine rules, and turned to technology. one phone app allows taiwan redents to find stores wit masks in stock. on all of those covid-19ormation positive, where they've been, and their case history. and, the government made sure it had enough medical equipment. >> ( translated ): after the sars outbreak, we have the law to require hospitals to have a stockpile for all medical supplies for 30 days for the hospitals. >> schifrin: another r taiwan acted so early: they didn't trust either the chinese government, or the head of the world healthga zation, who in january praised china's response, says bill stanton, the former top u.s. diplomat in taipei. >> he was just defending thesi chinese on and echoing what they had to say.ad and itthe taiwanese more

suspicious to what the chinese were doing. china doesn't allow taiwan into the w.h.o., at's really the main countriese world one of that has expertise onhe international alth issues. ha schifrin: for anna lee,t expertise trslates into trust in her government. >> i feel like, even if there is something wrong with my body, i will be taken care of, which is quite promising,nd i'm quite happy with how the government is taking this very seriously. that's why we keep the cases very low. >> schifrin: which means, for anna lee and many taiwanese quarantined today, there's no place like home. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schrin. >> woodruff: today, taiwan announced that it would donate ten million masks to medical workers around the world-- two million to the u.s.

>> woodruff: president trump has been in the white house briefing room again this evening, along with other administration officials, for what has becomea gular discussion of his administration's covid-19 response. our own yamibee alcindor has following the white house side of this story, as always, and she joins me now. yamiche, hello. we know so much of the focus today has been on those grim projections fromhe president, om the white house yesterday about the number of deaths, the number of cases, what are you learning about how that is affecting the white house' thinking overall >> reporter: -- white house continues to be the fact that more than 100,000 americansd coe from the coronavirus nario,n the best case sce so president trump today was talking about those numbers, and tce president pence made very clear the white house was studying models and on last friday, they decided to finalize those numbers, present them to

the president. on satuhrday, whene president actually learned of these numbers, that's what the white house is saying, he was moved by this, and that's why he wentfr saying that the country could be possibly easing up saying, no, we'll have to keep the guidelines in place till april gth. this is aph that the white house was using yesterday that they continue to go back to today. if you look at the dark bluehi , what you see is 1.5 to 2.2 million americans could die if there was no intervention, if there was nsoo cial distancing, that's the worst case scenario. the smaer bump says 100,000 to 240,000 americans could die. those are the numberst we should be focused on today. that's the graph at the hearof the white house's numbers. the president also made it cleat that a these deaths are going to be happening within thn next, and the important thing to note here is that the

governor of new ys,k, who i at this point, the hardest hit state, he says that, in his models, about 16,000 people will die in new york, that means could be dying in other states. but we see this is obviously ai biues in new york, but he's saying the deaths might be nationwide, so we should really be looking at this as we go forward. >> woodruff: so grim, stillo hard to comprehend those numbers. so, yamiche, you have been inbr thefing. what more can you tell us about what the us who is saying today? different white house briefing than you've seen in the past. today the president began with talking about national security, and he said specifically that he wanted to talk abut anti-drug operations, and he said that the navy is going to be beefing up opations isthe pacific sea a well as the pacific owns, i should say, rather, than the caribbean sea, and they will be focusing on cartels, they say. they artrying to use t coronavirus outbreak to smuggle

here's what the president said about that. >> well, for a long time, we've had a lot of drugs coming into our country.it not that it's increased, we've probably got it down a little bit. but it's still a tremendous number. b families ang ruined, lives are being ruined. it's an incredible thing. especially, as you're at this position. you would never believe it. i see things that nobody would believe.at i see reports obody would believe. so i met with the group behind me, all of them, and we said, what do you think we can do? and they think they can interdict. they think that we can stop it before it gets to the shores. >> reporter: so, today, the president brought out national security offici he brought out national security advisor, he brought out attoneey l william barr, he brought out people like the joint chiefs of staff. these are people we usually do not see t the coronavirus task force briefing. but he waited ti

half of the briefing to have the scientists speak and he wanted to underscore these neecrotic operations he's having, that though we're looking at grimen numbers when it comes to the coronavirus oubrea that was the important point president trump was trying to make. this comes with th context that there was a naval ship that a commander was asking that sailors be evacuated from that ship. it was docked in gaum. john yang has it in the script and was talking about it a atthe beginning of the show. the president is saying there needs to benti-drug activity. adam schiff, prominent member of the use says that, after the coronavirus bell and more relief wis given, heants a commission toook at the white house's handling of the coronavirus oooutbreak. >>uff: yamiche alcindor, monitoring it all at the white house. thank you, yamiche.

>> woodruff: and now, a look at how the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to change how they interact with each otherand seek out new ways to connect and to celebrate. lisa desjardins has the story. >> desjardins: when berklee sousa turned 12 last month, a birthday party was out of the question. her state, california, was under a shelter-in-place order. >> she's a kid, she does not there was a lot of, yoknow, "i hate everything, why did this have to be in march," and crying. o d she was just bummed. so we wantedrprise her with something. ( honking ) >> desjardins: so instead of a party, her mom holly organized a birthday parade. >> happy birthday! ( honking ) >> desjardins: one car after another, filled with friends and family, drove by her bakersfield one even had a special delivery

for her: a cake. >> thanks, chelsea! >> just to wake up and thenut comend see all the people come by, was really cool, like a reallyool experience. they made me feel a lot better crout my birthday. >> desjardins: aoss the country, parades have also become tools for teachers trying to stay in touch with students while school is closed. they ride in a caravan and wave to families lining the streets. famili are finding new ways to connect with each other as well. grandfather dave schnieders of indianapolis vited his one-year-old grandson, david drew, through a living room window. nursing homes are off-limits for most outsiders, so in new middletown, ohio, charley adams used a bucket truck to visit his 80-year-old mother on the third floor. >> make sure you wash your hands. >> desjardins: people are reinventing partying, too. d.j. d-nice has been spinning records live for people to dance at home. just him, great music and the

occasional hat change. sometimes nine hours straight. one virtual party of his drew over 100,000 people, including celebrities. >> o.m.g., michelle obama is in here! let's go, we are partying right now! ( violin ) >> desjardins: on a smaller scale, people are taking their talents to their front porches. here, a recent classical violin performance for passs by in agt washon neighborhood. in saratoga springs, utah, heather doney taught a zumba class for her neighbors from her >> here we go. there's something about that endorphin rush you get when you everybody can relate to that. even if you feel like you can't dance, there's just somethinha about movingsends those happy endorphins out. and so it's been such a blessing to be able to move again. >> desjardins: when we'll all be able to moveround freely again remains an open question, but for newly-turned2-year-old

berklee sousa, she's already learned a powerful lesson. >> even though there's a lot of things going on right now in thy worl can still do something to make it better. not everything can be negative about everything that's going on, and to just stay positive through this time. >> desjardins: for the pbs newshour in washington, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: and happy birthday to you, and great ideas. and, a correction before we go. in our lead story, we misstated the number of deaths frompe covid-19 in eu it is now more than 30,000 people killed. regret the error. and that is the newshour for tonit. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the s newshour, thank you, stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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