captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.on he newshour tonight, a difficult week begins.at the toll in the u. surges past 10,000, as presidena trump pushunproven treatment, and the nation's top health officials wosn of terribles in the coming few days. we speak with two goveon the conditions in their states, and how they are handling the fallout.br thenain's prime minister boris johnson is moved to intensive care as his case of coronavirus woens. and, on the front lines. how hospitals are ensuring the safety of their worker scouring the country for protective equipment, and making their own when necessary. plus, pregnant during the pandemic. as covid-19 upends our

healthcare system, women expecting to deliver confront an uncertain and dangerous situation. >> my partner and i have dealt with some fertility problems and miscarriages. so what should be just pure joy for us, it just has this added layer. >> 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 supporting 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 for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: the covid-19 pandemic has hit a new milestont united states, claiming 10,000 lives. and, across the atntic, there is word that the prime innister of bris now gravely ill. all of this comes as tk may have arrived, in parts of europe, and, as the worst u.s. hotspot may see a little light on the horizon. we begin with this report from john yang. >> yang: in the main battleground of the u.s. war against the conavirus, a possible glimmer of hope today: new york state reporind a slight dein deaths and hospitalizations over the weekend. but governor andrew cuomo warned thathe crisis is not over. >> it doesn't really matter if we've hit the plateau or not because you have to do the same thing. if we are plateauing we are plateauing at a very high level

and there's tremendous stress on the healthcare system. he yang: and governors in states, now developing their own hotspots, say the worst for them is yet to come. >> we are not close to the apex yet. we haven't hit that yet, and until we do i think it's absolutely essential that webe continue tggressive. >> yang: states like michigan, new jersey, california and louiana are seeing cases skyrocket. they're among 42 states implementing some sort of stay- at-home orders. the rest are still resisting.on dr. anfauci said sunday they are putting themselves at risk. >> unfortunately, e you look at ojection of the curves, of the kinetics of the curves, we're going to conscnue to see anation. te, we'll just buckle down, continue to miticontinue to do the physical separation because we gotta gee through thisthat's cominup because it is going to be a bad week. yang: surgeon general j adams coared the week ahead to other sobering moments in american history.ng >> this is go be our pearl harbor moment, our 9/11 moment,

only it's not going to be localized. it's going to be happening all over the country. and i want america to understand that. >> yang: by contrast, last night president trump tried to project a tone of optimism. >> we see light at the end of the tunnel. >> yang: the president used the briefing again to promote anl anti-malarug called hydroxychloroquine, and cut off reporters' attempts to get fauci's judgement. >> do you know how many times he's answered that question? 15 times. you don't have answer that question. >> he's your medical expert, correct? >> i've swered that question 15 times.g >> yang: the ds sped the recovery of some coronavirus patients, but fauci and other medical experts say the evidence is not conclusive. trump economic adviser peter navarro has also been a booster hof the drug today, on cn defended his position. all of the time.ree about things my qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that i'm a social scientist, ph d.

i understand how to read statistical studies, whetherdi it's in ne, the law, economics or whatever. >> yang: in london, a government spokman said british prime minister boris johnson's move to intensive care late today camehi after "condition worsened over the course of the afternoon." he was hospilized sunday night with persistent coronavirus symptoms. in a rare televised address to the nation, queen elizabeth offered a message of h >> we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again. >> yang: she appealed for britons to show "good-humlved res" and obey guidelines that have shuttered businesses and cancelled eventsincluding this year's british open golf tournament, due to be played in july. meanwhile, in europe's hardest- hit nations, travel restrictions appear to be flattening the curve. french streets were mostly silent, despite sunny skies that

lured parisians outside. and in italy, pope francis opened holy week on sunday in a mostly ety st. peter's basilica. elsewhere, priests said palm sunday ms at a safe distance from rooftops. this weekend, france, italy and all had a drop in coronavirus deaths. t in japan, amid a surge in new cases, prime minister sainzo ab today he would declare a state of emergency, shutting downuch of the nation's densely populated urban centers >> woodruff: wall took hope today from signs that the pandemic may be easing in some places. major indexes jumpedthan 7%. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 1,600 points to close at 22,680. the nasdaq rose 540 points, and, the s&p 500 added 175. now, for more on the news that the british prime minister has

beenoved to intensive care, i'm joined by special correspondent ryan chilcote from his london home. so, ryan, what is the latest? >> well, boris johnson, as we speak, is in intensive care. we learned just a couple of hours ago that he had been moved into intensive care. on march 27th, he announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. he was then self-isolating at the prime minister's resence. that went onntil satday, when we learned that he was still running government affairs and, on sunday, we learned that he had been admitted to the hospital for -- as aa precautionary sure, we were told, for tests. it was at about 6:00 p.m. toay that we learned that he had been moved from a regular unit inside the hospital into the intensive care unit. he, according to y news, was

having trouble breathing and given oxygen. so te has been quite precipitous decline in his health over the last 24 hours, judy. >> woodruff: and we understand, ryan, i guess theres eporting that he is not on a ventilator. is that your understaning? >> that's correct, he's not on a ventilator, at least that's the last we heard, and he is conscious, and, before he was moved into the intensive care unit, he did have time to call the forereign secry dominick rob and deputize him. rthere's no fomal process of handing over of power in this country, but the foreign secretary is effectively now the number two. boris johnson has asked him to run the government's affairs, run the government's meetings in his absence and that, he says, until boris johnts better.o do >> woodruff: all right, ryan chilcote reporting from london. we should add president trump,

his briefing taking place at the ite house now, said tht he offered a u.s. medical prime minister, if they could be helpful in any way. ryan, thank you. f: >> woodre now have the first national snapshot of what hospitals arfacing around the country as this emergency escalates. a rw survey from the inspec general's office at the department of health and human 32rvices surveyed more tha0 hospitals during the week of marc23. it found hospitals needing to train othestaff to help patients on ventilators. the survey showed many hospitals waiting seven days or more to get test results. and some didn't have enough basic cleaning suppls in stock.ma anell oversaw this as the assistant inspector general fori eval and inspections.

she joins me now. ann maxwell, thank you vy much for talking with us. not even enough cleaning supplies. >> we heard of a number of challenges across the countries in hospitals we spoke to, and, you're right, wsaw challenges feeding supplies, thermometers, totally paper -- toilet paper, e od. >> reporter: peoe looking at this and thinking, yes, coronavirus has come pop us quickly, but how surprising was it to you as somebody who works for the dew point of health and human services tha the hospitals would be so shorthanded. >> the emergence ofvid 19 created unprecedented challenges for hospitals around this country, and we focus on, for this report, what were the challenges they faced sowe could make sure their voices and

expeences were part of the decision making and support coming from all levels of state, dole and federal government. >> woodruff: one of the main findings i see is difficultys with tting, having enough of the tests, getting the resultsba quickly enough. what did you find in thatga ? >> that's a particularly interesting challenge because it demonstrates one of thein resting aspects of this report. by looking at a snapshot in timethey were able to look at all the challenges, not only as individual challenges, but thousand they intersect with each other and exacerbates other allenges of the hospitals. for the testing, we found hospitals were telling us it was taking about seven days to get the test back, and in that time the patient had to be treated as a positive case, so iee pat was taking up a bed in olation, had p.p.e. and staffing. so challenge had a dom no challenges througheher

hospital. >> woodruff: and one of the other findings i think that waso disturbing, it said one hospital received two shipments from theed feral emergency management agency is productive gear that had expired ten years ago. another hospital got 1,000 masks from federal and state governments, and half of thee masks wefor children and, thus, not usable for adults. finally, there were some masks that were dry rotted. again, i mean, how could it be? of challenges and uncertaintyot about restocking the supplies they need so sees aty. as you mentioned, there were kerns about both the quantity and quity of surprise coming from from both federal and state stockpiles. >> woodruff: and what does this add up to? d i mean,oes this mean that hospitals are literally noable to do the w jobe ask them to do? one of the things we talked about with the hospita is not

only challenges they face but also the solutions they were putting in place to mitigate these challenges, and it was incredibly amazing to see what they were doing to mitigate these challenges. the ingenuity and drivehey were exhibiting in trying to address the challenges. even though, ey fe pressing need for governnt to help them in time. >> woodruf whose responsibility, ms. maxwell, is it that the system has fallen to this level? >> we were looking at this to clear our focus and to get insight and experience from the hospitals for help in decision-making. we understand consequential decisions are being made now and s weanted to focused on way could help. good information from hospitals can lead to good decision makic and that was -- decisionmakingh and that wasfocus of our

studies. >> woodruff: does this mean state and local and federal officials are le to look at this and do something about it? >> that is the whole point of this projectto take a snapshot ho time that's nationally representative opitals around the country, deliver that information to key decision-makers, local, state and federal levels, so they are armed with the information they need to mke good decisions for all of us in this trying time. >> woodruff: how confident are you that the people who need to see this are going to see it? as that's a great question. one to have the s we did this is because we realize that at the office of inspector general has an independent oversight bodywe ha a goal, we could take the information and give it a platfor deliver it right to the leadership of h.h.s. and other offices in federal government their decisions.o help them make >> woodruff: maxwell is the

assistant inspector general, department of health & human services. we with thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> woodrf: governor andy beshear of kentucky is one of the many leaders across the country competing wi federal government and other states to secure critical medical equipment needed by oispitals in his state. governor beshear us now from frankfort. thank you so much for talking with us. give us an upkeate. i believucky is a state 4.4 million people.f, wht, give us an overall update on how you are handling coronavirus at this point. >> well, thank you for having me. let me start the way i start every time i talk to kentuckians at 5:00 every day, we will get

through it and get through it together. battling the croaftion is our patriotic duty as kentuckians and americans. i could not beo pruder of ow rentuckians have banned together to add the coronavirus. we've addressed it in three uys. number onesing social distancing to make sure we can flatten our curve, and i believe our people h bought in and are actively doing that. i couldn't be prouder of them. we've had to change our way of life. we have had to clothe hundreds, thousands of small businesses. that otherwise would have, butrk they understand that sacrifice is going to save lives. second, as we work every day toh increase oualthcare capacity, to make sure when we have our surge hit, that we have a beefor those thated it and we have a ventilator for those that need it, and, third, we work on incrreasing testing at the state. that is a challenge all across the country right now the major

issue is having enough swabs, it's not our testing capacity. now, number two andhree, they are limited by personal protective equipment, and i, like every otr governor, are out there trying to scratch and claw to buy as much a we can. i don't place blame in any of that and none of us knew about this specific virus four months ago, but it is a dificult system where our people on the front lines don't have what they need. if i can really quickly, it just makes what they are doing more heroic. doctors, nurses and others in my state go toer work evy single co-workers have contracted the coronavirus and that they don't have enoughersonal protective equipment, and that just makes their sacrifice and the willingness to do it that much more amazing. it's national public health weeg and eatly appreciate them. >> woodruff: governor bs, you said over the weekend every order fo personal protective equipment had been, in your

words, circumvented by the federal government. so are you getting what you need now? >> we are not getting nearly what we nd on personal protective equipment, and that's not just me, and i'mot feeling sorry for myself or kentucky, that's eveofbody. onwo things will happen -- either an order that we believe is coming in will be diverted by the federal government, by fema, and sent to a place that needs it. i know we need it, and there are other places that need it, many of which have a speak in cases right now, and my heart gos out to them in new york or new orleans. but the other thing that willpp is those you contracted with will call you right at the end y, well, we don't have it or it went to another place buying personal protective equipment right now is one of the most difficult things that through government, and we are reaching out through every possible lead. that's what i do in large part

of my day every day is trying to ase down these leads. >> woodruff: so my question is the current system that requires governors to compete best? should it have been allocated in one central place? >> a system where governors are cor eting against each ots a bad system, but, again, i try not to plce blame because we didn't know that we would thede this much personal prottive uipment around this world, not just as a country, you know, until the coronavirus truly hit. i hope that we don't just learn our lessons, but so that we can increase our cay pacd have a better way to get this out where it's needed as we movforward. it's you have to tough to get it as a state and go out on your own then having to compete with two ways we get it, we are

working with our local businesses to try toma facture, an we've got a company that changed their leathermaking into a face shield manufacturing, which has been really significa and helpful, and we're working with others to try to create masks and gowns and other forms of p.p.e. the third way we do it is a donation we've seen everything from veterans who are large manufacturers step up andn provide tho of pieces of p.p.e. going directly to our healthcare providers and it unifs the state. >> woodruff: governor,o quickly,, obviously, have had a stay-at-home recorder in kentucky. two states, no youreighboring states but they're close, they south carolina, wh an couple of states away, but still in theegion where you are, do not have stay-at-home orders. does that affect the ability of people in kentucky to stay healthy, to stayaf

>> well, in kentucky, we have taken aggressive action. and what that means is we don't just issue wh we call a healthy at home order, itmea we've had to shut businesses, we have our houses of worship doing virtual services, tens of thousands of people not going to work we have mad sacrifices. ndd this coronavirus doesn't know boies, state or county don't take aggressive action, what they do is force the sacrifice of millions ofan kentucand residents of other states that are doing what it takes to defeat this virus. so i wouldn't ask another governor to look at me and explain it. i would ask them to look at my people who aren't going to work, who shut down a small business that was te dream because they want to protect each other. this is a test of ou humanity, whether we will put each other's lives ahead of our own economic

lf-interests. i know we're passing here in kentucky. need to pass it as country. >> woodruff: governor andy beshear, thank you very much for talking with us, and we wish you and the people of kentucky the very best in allof this. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the y's other news, president trump discussed the pandemic with former vice president joe biden, his prospective democratic opponent this fall.le peamiliar with the phone call confirmed it to the newshour. the former vice president has criticizedr. trump for moving too slowly.e at tth hour, the governor rsdemocrat governor tony e ordered today a vote be delayed pandemic. and cited the but republican legislative leaders appealed and late today

thur state supreme ruled that the primary must take place as scheduled. the ousted inspector general for the u.s. intelligencunity is urging other watchdogs not to be muzzled. president trump fired michael atkinson friday night, for passing on a whistleblower's complaint that led to his impeachment. in a statement overnight, atkinson appealed to other inspectors general, saying, events to silence your voices." the u.s. state department todayd design russian white supremacist group as a terrorist organization. officials said the russian imperial movement has given paramilitary traing to neo- nazis and other white supremacists in russia and elsewher >> these designations are unprecedented, the first time the united states has ever designated white supremacist terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes this threat.dr >> wf: the trump

administration has been criticized for not taking the white supremacist threat seriously. in ukraine, a forest fire is still burning near the ruined chernobyl nuclear plant. officials say the fire has normal levels, but in kiev, 60 miles south, radiation is within norms. the fire erupted over the weekend in the contamination zone. the area was sealed off after e the 19losion that destroyed the plant. some passings in the sports world tonigh baseball legend al kaline died today at his home in michigan. there was no word on the cause. the hall-of-famer played his entire 22-year career with the detroitigers, and came to be known as "mr. tiger." al kaline was 85 years old. pro football hall of famer bobby mitchell died sunday, at 84.us the of death was not released. mitchell was the first black member of the washington redskins.

he also played for the cleveland browns. of complications from covid-19. in 1970, with the new orleans saints, he kicked a record field goal, 63 yards, despite having no toes on his kicking foot. tom dempsey was 73 years old. still to come on the newshour: childbirth and covid9-- the unfamiliar challenges faced by pregnant women. how the countries of the middle east are weathering the threat of coronavirus. plus, amy walter and tamara keith on politics at a moment of crisis. >> woodruff: now, we look at how the coronarus outbreak

is affecting soon-to-be-mothers. nearly a million women in the u.s. are expected to give birth in the next three months. with health resources stretched thin and changing guidelines, many pregnant women around the country arfinding themselves increasingly on edge. amna nawaz has this report. >> nawaz: deborah barak is due tomorrow. she and her partner live in new york, now the u.s. epicenter of s e coronavirus outbreak. after several ye trying to conceive, this will be their first child. >> it's been a struggle just to get to this point. my partn some fertility problems and miscarages. so what should be just pure joy for us, it just has this aed layer. >> nawaz: across the country,an expectt mothers and those who've recently given birth are grappling with this new normal.

>> the pandemic has changed my pregnancy. it made everything a little bit more complicated. it's just gonna be us.be. >> nawaz: health care providers havead to rethink how best t deliver prenatal care in the middle of a global pandemic. for routine visits? many doctors are limiting in- person appointments, insteadel relying onedicine. during delivery? several hospitals have g stricted or eliminated any visitors, includrtners in some cases. >> it's completely empty. >> nawaz: outside chicago, hannah beltre recently gave birth to her daughter, paola. this delivery, she says, was a world away from her first. >> this time around, going into bor with just like three nurses at the nurses station and nobody walking the hallways. like you didn't see any other moms, you couldn't see any other dads.ea and it wasy just a very surreal, sad, like creepy situation. >> nawaz: even harder, she says, is celebrating a new life, while

thousands around the wre mourning. >> you want to look back on thesmoments in your life and be happy about it and excited because you just brought this new human into t world. and they're beautiful, you know. and all i'm gonna think about is the fact that all these people were dying. >> nawaz: for alexandria jordan, a physician's assistant in cleveland, ohio, the stress lies in the uncertainty. ontinuese on july 4th, to work in a hospital, and is worried, for her own health, and the baby's. >> i had this moment of severe anxiety where i just was so scared that i was going to get this disease from work. >> nawaz: a phone call with her o.b. calmed her for the moment. but a call with him the ner day, made en more anxious. >> he goes, just so you know, i'm actually in the emergency room being tested for coronavirus right now. i said what? and then there's my stress level

going up. >> isays "i am enough." >> nawaz: in alpharetta, georgia, north of atlanta, tnice jackson and husband john will be caring fee children when their baby arrives in june. as with their older ch, they'd planned to rely on family, traveling in from out o. state, to he now, they don't know how they'll manage. >> who do you turn to when y have no one, you know? is there a possibility that i'm going to have to give irth by myself because my husband's gomyg to have to be home wit two older children? and that's a scary thought. just thinking about it, because you need a lot of support after you give birth >> nawaz: another unknown? the effects of covid-19 on pregnant women and their babies, including if the virus can passm frher to child. dr. kjersti aagard is professor of maternal fetal medicine, d obstetrics and gynecology at baylor college of medicine and texas children's hospital. >> what we don't yet know is what is the disproportionate risk for women of either

requiring intensive care unit? is it going to occur while they're pregnant just after they deliver? i whthe risk of death among pregnant women? we don't know that. we don't yet know. >> nawaz: the centers for disease control and prevention, or c.d.c., says pregnant women might be more susceptible to viral respiratory infections, including covid-19. a world health organization udy of nearly 150 pregna woman in china found they "do not appear to be at higher riskr of sdisease." but dr. aagard says, caution is key. >> i think that women understand that those decisions are never made lightly.h they're made we acknowledgement, again, that we just don't know yet some of the key aspe have to err on the side of how mcan we be most safe with and her baby. >> nawaz: but for some women, blk women in particular, a safe childbirth was a concern

even pre-panmic. >> what we know about maternal mortality in particular th african-american women, it crosses all socioeconomic strata. >> naz: dr. tollie elliott i an o.b.g.y.n. and chief medical officer of mary's center, a community health organization in washington, d.c. he worries a health system, alfady biased against women color, could fail them even worse under the strain of a pandemic. >> when the health resources ar stressedmaximum, it really does become a problem, because now you have a lot of people trying to get to a finite number of resources.th the rest oworld does not stop. clinical things still happen. heart attacks still occur. babies are still being born. and women ill need our help. >> nawaz: for some of those women, there is solace in thet fact tey're not alone. >> they're just so... so many people going through this exact me experience right now. are strong.nk... mothers and this moment will be ovme at

oint.: >> nawr the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: a little over ten weeks ago,llinois governor j.b. pritzker announced a woman in chicago was, the second known case in the country. today, kwn cases surpass 12,000, and over 300 people have died. joining me now is governorpr zker, who joins us from chicago. governor, thank you very much illinois' 12-plus million people, how are you doing in tbrapling with -- in grappling with covid?el >> thank you for asking. unfortunately, we have about

11,000ses that have been detected in ouro state. we've had just over 300 deaths, so far. we are tracking very closely the hoitalizations and the i.c.u. beds and vents that are being used. they are not being overutilized at the moment, and we have beend working o expand our capacity so that we would be peaking in the next couple ofe weeks, which i think ewe all expe a. >> woodruf i wanted to ask you about that. chicago's been described, of course, the big city of chicagoh as one ohot spots in the country. what do you expect in terms of the trajectory of when this is going to get, you know, as bad as it can get? >> well, the are a number of models that we look at becse none of them is exact in any way, but it does look likeer somebetween the middle of april and the end of april we'll see peak. we have built out 500 beds, alady, in our mccormack place

convention center, county chicago, so that we can have covid patients in there. we're ading 2500 new beds on top of the 500 atmark conk hplace, and we're going ve most of that done by thursday. so thanks to the army corps of engineers and fema, we have been able to get that done in almost no time. they're really amazing. >> woodruff: you have been very direct in terms of talking to the people of illinois aboe t pplies that you need, the personnel that you need. where does thaigstand now? >> well, unfortunately, the federal governnt really has delivered less than 10% of what we've asked for in terms o p.p.e. and other equipment. we need much more than they've delivered to us. so we've gone out on to the global market. i have an entire team of people within my emergency management department, my department of health and governor's office who have become pply chain

experts, buying p.p.e. we ever we can find them, ventilators which are so hard to come by and very expensive, we're bidding on althese items of equment against the federal government and against the other states and other countries because what the white house has done is created, you know they call this the air bridge, where they're bringingf stck from china to the united states, and then they're delivering it to private companies in the united states, not to the states. and they're letting all ous bid against each other for those goods that are owned by the private compan so we've just gone around all thatnd gone directly to manufacturers wherever we could so that we can fulfill our needs. we have healthcare workers and desperately need the p.p.e., the masks and gowns and everything else that we're ordering, and we're doing a pretty good job, i think, so far, of supplying that. but, you know, it's hard to look beyond ten days or to have enough supply beyonten days,

so we worry every sing daily that we're going to havenough. >> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask because you talked about not getting everything you need from the frneral gont. today president trump said of you he's a very happy man, but this is one y after what he said yesterday which is that you're somebody who, in his words, is complaining all the time, hasn't performed wel he saod the gvernor could don't his job in illinois, so we had to hp him. how are you -- how have you responded to that? >> well, we governors have done far more than the president of coronavirus, and here in fight illinois, look, he's calling me a happy man today, the fact is, look, i'm happy when i get theth gs that are required to save the lives of the people of illinois, and i'm upset with th federal government when they don't deliver on the promises. they promised that they were going to bring tests toto the state of illinois. they've do very little of

that. when they stood up in front of i podium, they sd, oh, we've delivered millions of tests across the united states, they have not they've also promised p.p.e. and said they're delivering it to everybody. a small fraction of what's been promised.pl i don't like pwho make promises and don't deliver. so i'm deng to the people of illinois to make sure we have what weeed. i hate the idea i'm competing against others in the united states, other grnors even, to try to get what we need, but this is what president trump hah done to e country. >> woodruff: do you think your dispute with the president has in any wty hindered your abi to get what you need from the federal government? >> no, and i want to cedit the president and the military. he has assigned the military to help us out, the army corps of engineers which has gone to new york, california anod cme here to chicago. they helped us buildt

mccormack. it was the army corps of engineers that led theor eff i am grateful to them and grateful to those who helped stand up some o our drive-through testin facilities.my problem is not wit with the leadership at the top, the people making the decisions. remember, this all came very late. the president knew in january that the panmic wa its way and did nothing and even as late as early march was saying this is a hoax of some sort or liker the gh, itill pass over. he knew better, or at least the people aund him knew better and, yet, here we, are late start, only about a week or so ago invoking the defense production act just for one company, that was for dpm. he's now invoked it two companies, and he's not actually telling them wt to do wit, he's just saying we need you to prodese things, what you do with them is up to you. this is the problem. i'm a buinessman, i'm a governor, i understand a

competitive market but not in a national emergency. >> woodruff: in a few seconds, governor pritzker, the neighboring state of iowa has not asked peple to stay at home. does that affect illinois? >> yes, but the bame falls squarely on the white house for this. odd they said early on that it's time for everto put a stay-at-home order in place, the governor ofhe iowa,overnor of missouri, all the republican governors that were late inpu ing in their stay-at-home would have done it. but, look, that's where we are. i know that the governor of iowa is trying very hard without issue ago stay-at-home to, nevertheless, have a number of nonessential businesses close and have the schools cdosed an so on. so, look, everybody haspr ched this differently. it does make it more difficult for states like mine. we were one of the first, in fact, to put in each of the measures, includinthe stay-at-home. >> woodruff: governor j.b. pritzker of illinois. we wish you the very best. thank you. >> thank you very mudy.

conavirus cases in the middle east has risen to nearly 60,000, double the amount only one week ago. ferguson reports firut one how already fragile health care systems are bracing themselves against the pandemic. >> reporter: another victim of the coronavirus limps out of his apartment building. lebanese red cross volunteers have dressed him in protective clothing to keep the disease from spreading. his elderly mother is not allowed go with him." that's my son, my son," she tells us."hi they took m to the hospital before and let him go again. maybe, maybe they know something i don't know!" it ingvery likely she's carryi the virus. we cannot stay and hear her story, or offer any comfort. she is left behind in the

street, watching, lpless. the lebanese red cross is the only option for people here whe they n ambulance. the country's healthcare system doesn't provide the service. these first responders are more vital now than ever. >> most of our volunteers are recruited because they genuinely believe in this mission and they believe in the principles that arpart of the internationald red cross d crescent, these being humanity, impartiality, independence, neutrality and voluntary service. >> reporter: circling the skies above beirut, soldiers in lebanese army helicopters warn people by loudspeaker to stay indoors. lebanon reacted to the pandemic quickly, beginning a phasediv shutdown fweeks ago. now there is a nightly curfew and during the day people are only really allowed out to buy food or medicine. the country's strict, early lockdown was in reaction to the hrtainty that lebanon's h care system would not cope with a pandemic. financial crisis that just

bankrupted the government have left the authorities here with c littice but to try preventing the spread of the disease as much as possible. >> maybe it will have an impact on the flow and the curve the epidemic in lebanon. it will help us certainly to flatten a little bit the curve. we don'tnow exactly now in this present situation how much we will flatten the curve but it helped us. >> reporter: dr. georges gd nem is the hctor at the lebanese american university hospital. his colleagues are racing to prepare for an expected spike of cases this week, according to medical forecasts. they have sent other patients home and cancelled elective surgeries.e pe here is that the lockdown will help save lives where hospitals can' across the middle east hospitals are bracing for an onslaught of covid-19 patients. systems will not be able to cope are trying to scramble as

quickly as they can. in jordan, the lockdown was the strictest seen in the region. all cars have been banned from the roads, with military checkpoints to reinforce the new rules. for the first few days, they blocked anyone from leaving their homes, even for food. threatening up to a year in jail for anyone caught in the now people are allut, only on foot, to buy groceries.no but every country in the middle east is capable of this.m for the lion people living in war-ravaged yemen, the chaos hulnitarian disaster, survi has been a daily struggle for years. with ntesting, there is no realistic way of knowing if the country has any coronavirus cases, or how widespt is. syria is another country with a healthcare system ravaged by war, and millions displaced from their homes. bashar al assad's government says there has been just one death so far linked to covid-19. the country's years long diplomatic isolation may be helping it right now.

but aid agencies have been struggling to deal with a humanitarian disaster in the northeast ovince of idlib for months, where millions fleeing the assad army's advance are crammed intoamps. it's not known if the virus has a presence there, but refugees in the camps know the living conditions mean it would surely >> (atranslated ): if all these big countries have failed in confronting this diseat can we do against it? what can we do where powerful countries have failed? >> reporter: egypt's ancientp pyramids litth social- distancing messages on tuesday night. cairo is a city of 20 million people, and known for its nightlife; but it's been underw night time curr over a week. >> ( translated ): this is a disease. it's no joke. people must stay at home and not leave their homes after curfew hours. >> reporter: egypt's dictatorship expelled a britisht journaor reporting that the number of cases in the country is likely much higher an the official figures. karbala, one of th sacredte at

in shia islam, has been closed y and disinfected, but it too late to prevent the spread. the country's struggling healthcare system isedll- equio deal with the pandemic. israel's health minister yaakov litzman has tested positive for covdi-19. he has been in close contact in cent weeks with embattled prime minister benjamin ntanyahu. both are now in quarantine. the country has over 6,000 known cases so far, and the military has been brought in to help police enforce a strict lockdown. micky rosenfeld is the spokesman for israel's police >> our units are making sure that people are at home, are only at a maximum radius of 100 meters from any given area at any one given time. >> reporter: ancient religious sites in jerusalem like the western wall and church ofhe holy sepulcre have beendi sinfected. whe testing has been ramped up, with drive through tests now available. yet the virus is ravaging ultra- orthodox jewish communities.

>> it's very hard for us becausn normally here this city we are always together and we like community and because hese >> reporter: for the most part, people in the middle east are taking the threat posed by covid-19 seriously and complyinc withl distancing. watching the virus ravage advanced and well-equipped healthcare systems in the west, many here know their only hope is the prevention ofhe spread rather than relying on overstretched, or underfunded, hospital >> we in the middle east are used to live in crisis mode. thiss not the case of the western countries where they are in a more comfort zone. where everything is assured and everything is here by the government. >> reporter: for thebs inwshour, i'm jane ferguso beirut, lebanon.

>> woodruff: lotngof late breaolitical news tonight including questions over tomorrow.'s planned elections lisa desjardins has the latest. >> reporter: that's right, these are uncertain times in so many ways. to help us understand the effect on politics and elections politics, it's time for "politics monday," joined by "cook political report" amy walter and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." i see you with bookshelves and type writers and you see my own. the first question has to be about wisconsin, the on-again, f-again election. what can we take from this about the f this election year? >> that's right. lisa, wat makes wisconsin very unique is that it is one of the very few states to still be holding a primary here in the

middle of the pandemic. many states, 15 other states have postponed their primaries. what's different about wisconsin is i's not just a presidential and statewide election day.p i's actually in the law that wisconsin has elections on this tuesday in april. so in order to change thlaw, it needs to go through the legislative process. guess what? there's a democratic governor and a republican leglature and, as you probably know, wisconsin has had long history of fights between the legislature and the governor,d, n this case, they could not agree on how to hold the elections safely and the governor this morning said, ll, fine, we're just not going to have anelection, i'm closing down all in-person voting. the legislate said we don't think so, we're going to appeal this, and the curts came out just very recently, within the the election will go on. no, so there will be polling places open, ough very few, lisa, in

a city -- in the city of milwaukee, there are only five polling places that are open to handle this. now, they've had a lot of vote by mail, there are a lot ofba ots that have already gone out, but's still a tremendousnt amf confusion for voters in wisconsin. quickly, i think we need to understaat this is going to tell us, if anything, for whatea this couldfor november. the first is wisconsin is going to be potentially a preview o what other states, especially states with diveidedgislatures or a democratic governor of one party and the legislature of another might be dealing with when having to try to change ckly.g laws very qui democrats want to see more voting by mail, republicans say that's ripe with fra. the second is, in a state like wisconsin where vote by mail is already very infrequent, only 5% of voters turned inheir ballots by mail in 2016, trying

to get to a 100% vote by mail.it going to be structurally very challenging for the clerks and all the ks who are responsible for putting these elections together. >> -- the man who hopes to be the democratic nominee. looking at pictures ickly via skype, he's done some campaigning there, but also trying to bring -- this is not the stuff of electrifying -- but also tonight, tam, he did have o you make of that phne call and what the former vice president is trying to do right w? >> the former vice president is attempting to continue to stay in the picture, to stay releva. he is dong a lot of work on coronavirus-related issues, and, in this call with the president, it's one of those things that

sort of grew out of a back and foh on cable between aides to the president and then aides to the vice president -- to former vice president biden andma ully ended up with this approximately 15-minute call. apparently, accopring to the ident, they agreed not to discuss the substance of the conversation with the broader public, but president trump said it was very pleasant. the biden campaign said that biden offered some suggestions.n prestrump is very happy with the phone call. i mean, it's kind of this odd thing, but, you know, this is not a normal campaign, and this is nt a normal time at all.a one thing t i would say more broadly about the state of playi t now is both biden and trump are acting like they are the nominees, obviously, because president trump is the presumptive nominee and running for reelection, but the trumpim campaign has all of its fire nowo at frmer

vice president biden and biden is entirelyocused on trump and coronavirus. >> reporter: just one minute left. quickly, tam, what do you make to have the president firing the inspector general -- intelligence community michael atkinson -- aim, what do you make of how th president is operating now. tam, quickly. >> yeah, this is the latest in a long line of people who have been connected with the impeachment who have been pushed out by president trump or otherwise fired. this happened very late at night, the news broke late at night aydidn't make a lot of front pages saturday and upin some cases rightly so because the coronavirus is so dominant and people were dying over the weekend, but this is a pattern of president trump taking it out on people who he thinks have onged him. >> amy. bsolutely. when the president's style has not changed at all, whether we're in the middle of the cris or in the middle of just

what was befe covid 19 a normal day, this is what the election is going to be about in november. you can see the biden campaign with the president.this contrast one is he will say othe president, too chaotic, it's too much focused on goading back at his enemies. joe biden is going ay i'm a steadier hand, and there we go. hands regardless.bothstead thank you. >> you're welcome. >>oodruff: lisa, amy, and ta >> woodruff: and tonight online a special episode of our podcast, where we hear about how people in all kinds of situations are handling the overwhelming feeling of isolation this coronavirus crisis has brought on. you can find that epis pbs.org/newshour or on apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

join us online and again her tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sln foundation supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.to committeuilding a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support

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hello, everyone. welcome to amanpour & co. here's what's coming up. as the battle to contain corohevirus struggles with t short an of protective gear, simple effective steps still count. the acclaimed american surgeon atul gawan who pioneered hand washing in hospitals joins me. then i ask the facebook communications chief nick clegg faster than the virus.prea >> presidents of the united states who get in trouble the ones who don't level with us. leadership at the time of crisis. jon meacham puts it into perspective. plus, i speak to the head ofd world f program, david