captioning sponsored byne wshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.to on the newshght, a difficult week begins. the death toll in the surges past 10,000, as president trump pushes an unproven treatment, and the nion's top health officials warn of terrible losses in the coming few days. we speak with two governors on the conditions in their steyes, and how re handling the fallout. then, britain's prime er boris johnson is moved to intensive care as his case of coronavirus worsens. and, on the front lines. how hospitals are ensuring the safety of their workers, 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. th >> and witongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs thank you.om viewe like you. he

>> woodruff:ovid-19 in the united stataimingilestone 10,000 lives. and, across the atlantic, there is word that the prime minister of britain is now gravely ill. all of this comes as the peak may have arrived, in pants of europe 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 thu.s. war against the coronavirus, a possible glimmer of ho today: new york state reported a slight decline in deaths and hoitalizations over the weekend. but governor andrew cuomo warned that the 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.

>> yang: and govnors in other states, now developing their own hotspots, say the worst for thet is ycome. >> 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 we continue to be aggressive. >> yang: states like michigan, new jersey, california and louisiana are seeing cases skyrocket. they're among 42 states implementing some sort of stay- at-home orders. the rest are still resisting. dadr. anthoni fauci said s they are putting themselves at risk. the projection of rves, ofook at the kinetics of the curves, we're going to continue to see an escalation. so, we'll just buckle down, continueo mitigate, continue to do the physical separation because we gotta get through this week that's coming up because it is going to be a bad week. >> yang: surgeon geral jerome adams compared the week ahead to other sobering moments in american history. >> this is going to be our pearl harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to beze loca

it's going to be happening all over the country. and i want america to understand that. >> by contrast, last night a tone of optimism.ed to project >> we see light at the end of the tunnel. >> yang: the president used the briefing again to promote an an-malarial drug called hydroxychloroquine, and cut off reporters' attempts to getuc s judgement. >> do you know how many times he's answered that question? 15 times. you don't have to answer thatqu tion. >> he's your medical expert, correct? >> i've answered that question 15 times. >> yang: the drug has 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 of the drug today, on cnn, he defended his position. >> doctors disagree about things all of the time. q lifications in terms of looking at the science is that i'm a social scientist, ph d. i understand how to read

statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics or whateve >> yang: in london, a government spokesman said british prime minister boris johnson's move to intensive care late today came rster "his condition ed over the course of the afternoon." he was hospitalized sunday nht with persistent coronavirus symptoms. in a rartelevised address to the nation, queen elizabeth offered a message of hope. >> we will be with our friends again; we will be with ourga families; we will meet again. s >> yan appealed for britons to show "good-humored resolve" and obey guidelines that have shuttered businesses and cancelled events, including this year's brtoish open golf nament, 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 empty st. peter basilica. elsewhere, priests said palm sunday mass at a safe distance from rooftops. this weekend, france, italy and spain all had a drop inru coronavis deaths. but in japan, amid a surge in new cases, prime minister shinzo abe said today he would declare a state of emergency, shutting down much of the nation's densely populated urban centers for a month. >> woodruff: wall street took hope today from signs that the pandemic may be easing in some places. major inde 7%.umped more than the dow jones industrial average gained more th 1,600 points to close at 22,680. the nasdaq rose 540 points, and the s&p ded 175. now, for more on the news that the british prime minister has been moved to intensive care,

i'm joined by special correspondent ryan chilcote from his london home. so, ryan, what is the latest?>> ell, boris johnson, as we speak, is in intensive care. 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 residence. that went on until saturday, when we learned that he wasv still running ernment affairs and, on sunday, we learned that he had been admitted to the hospital fo-- as a precautionary measure, we were told, for tests. it ws at abut 6:00 p.m. today that we learned that he had been moved from a regular unit inside the hospital into the intensive care unit. , according to sky news, was having trdouble breathing

given oxygen. so there has been quite precipitoudecline in his health over the last 24 hours, judy. woodruff: and we understand, ryan, i guess there is reporting 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, bere he was moved into the intensive care unit, he did have tie to call the foreign secretary dominick roand deputize him. there's no formal process of handing er 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 meetingin his absence and that, he says, is exactly what he going to d until boris johnson gets betterr >> woouff: all right, ryan chilcote reporting from london. we should add president trump,s iefing taking place at the white house now, said that he

offered a u.s. med specialist to be of help to the prime minister, if they could be helpful in any way. ryan, thank you. >> woodruff: we now have the fitt national snapshot of w hoitals are facing around the country as this emergey escalates. a new survey from the inspector general's office at the department ohealth and human services sveyed more than 320 hospitals during the week of it found hospitals needing to train other staff to help patients on ventilators. the survey showed many hospitals waiting seven days or more to get test results.n' and some dhave enough basic cleaning supplies in stock. ann maxwell oversaw this as the assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspe. she joins me now.

ann maxwell, tnk you very much for talking with us. not even eugh cleaning supplies. is this as bad as it sounds?h >> wrd of a number of challenges across the countries in hospitalse spoke to, and, you're right, we saw challenges in termof a lack of p.p.e., feeding supplies, thermometers, totally pper -- toilet paper, food. >> repter: people are oking 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 that the hospitals would be so orthanded. >> the emergence of covid 19 created unprecedented challenges for hospitals around this country, and we focus on, fo this report, what were the challenges they faced so could make sure their voices and experiences were parof the decision making and support

coming from all levels of state, dole and federal government. >> woodruff: one of the mai findings i see is difficulty with testing, having enough of the tests, getting the results back quickly enough. what did you find in that regard? that's a particularly interesting challenge because it demonstrates one of theec interesting as of this report. by looking at a snapshot in time, they were ablatto loo all the challenges, not only as individual challenges, bute thousand tintersect with each other and exacerbates other challenges of the hospitals. hospitals were telling us it was taking aout seven days to get the test back, and in that tie the patient had to be treated as a positive case, so the patient was taking up a bed in isolation, had p.p.e. andaf ng. so challenge had a dom no effect, creating other challengeshroughout the hospital. >> woodruff: and one of the

tuher findings i think that was so dising, it said one hospital received two shipments from theme federalency management agency is productive gear that had expired ten years ago. another hospital got 1,000 masks from federal and state governnts, and half of the thus, not usable for adults. finally, there were some masks that were dry rotted. again, i mean, how could it be? >> yeah, hospitals expect a lot of challges and uncertainty about restocking the supplies they need so sees praty. as you mention, there were kerns about both the quantity and quality of surprise coming from from both feder and state stockpiles. >> woodruff: and what does this add up to? i mea does this mean that hospitals are literally not able to do the job wesk them to do? >> one of the thin we talked about with the hospitals is not also the solutions they were

putting in place to mitigate these challenges, and it was incredibly amazing to see what th d weing to mitigate these cha the ingenuity and drive they re exhibiting in trying to address the challenges. even though, they felt pressing need for government to help them in time. >> woodruff: whose responsibility, ms. mtwell, is it tthe system has fallen to this level? >> we were looki at this to ear our focus and to get insight and experience from the hospitals for help in decision-making. we understand coalsequen decisions are being made now and we wanted to focused on ways wee coulp. good information from hospitals can lead to good decision makic and that was decisionmaking and that was the focus of ourud s. >> woodruff: does this mean

state and local and federal officials are able to look at this and do something about it? >> that is the whole point of this project, to take a snapshot in time that's nationally representive of hospitals around the country, deliver that information to key decision-makers, local, state and federal levels, so they aree withhe information they need to make good decisions foru all in this trying time. >> woodruff: how confident are you that the people who need to see this are going to see it? >> that's a great question. one to he the reasons we did this is because we realize that at theof offic inspector general has an independent we could take the ormationoal, and give it a platform and deliver it right to the leadership of h.h.s. and other offices in federal government and offer this to help them makc their ions. >> woodruff: maxwell is the

assistant inspector general, department of health & human servick . we with thu very much. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: governor andy beshear of kentucky is one of the many leaders across the country coeting with the federal government and other states to secure critical medical equipment needed by hospitals in his state. govern from frankfort.th now k you so much for talking with us. give us an update. i believe kentucky is a state with a popation of, what, 4.4 million people. give us an overall update on ho you ndling coronavirus at this point. >> well, thank you for haing me. let me start the way i start every time i talk to kentuckians ll ge00 every day, we w through it and get through it

together. battling the croaftion is our patriotic duty as kentuckians and americans. i could not be prouder of ow kentuckians have banned together toddress the coronavirus. we've addressed it in three ways. number oe, using social distancing to make sure we can flatten our curve, and i believe our people have boundght in are actively doing that. we've had to chour way ofthem. life. dredave had to clothe hun thousands of sml businesses. we have people not going to work that otherwise would have, but they understand that sacrifice is going to save lives. send, as we work every day to increase our healthcare capacity, to make sure wh en we have orge hit, that we have a bed for those that need it and we have a ventilator for those that need it, and, third, we work on incteasing ourting at the state. that is a challenge all across the country right now the major ugh swab having en it's not our testing capacity.

now, number two andee thrthey are limited by personal protective equipment, and i, like every other governor, are out there trying to scratch a 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 difcult 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 to work every single day knowing that their co-workers have contracted the coronavirus and that they don have enough personal protective equipment, and that just makes their sacrifice and the willingness to do it that much more amazing. it's national public health week and we greatly apprethem. >> woodruff: governor bs, you said over the weekend every order for personal protective equipment had been, in yourte words, circumvby the federal government.

so are you getting what you need now? >> we are not getting nearly what we need on personal protective equipment, and that's not just me, and i'm noteling sorry for myself or kentucky, that's everybody. one of twohings will happen -- either an order that we believeo ising in will be diverted by the federal government, by fema, and sent to a place that need 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 goes out to them in new york or new orleans. happen is those you contracted with will call you right at the end and say, well, don't have it or it went to another place. buying persootective equipment right now is one of the most difficult things that any of us have ever had to do through government, and we are reaching out though every possible lead that's what i do in large part of my day every day is trying to chase down theseads.

>> 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 competing againseach other is a bad system, but, again, i try not to place blse becwe didn't know that we would thede this much personal protective equipment 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 cap aacity and ha better way to get this out where it's needed as we moe forward. it's you have to tough to get it as a state and go out on your own then having to compete with the federal goysernment. two e get it, we are working with our local

businesses to try towe manufacture, ae got a company that changed theirak leatheg into a face shield manufacturing, which has been really significant and helpful and we're working with others to try to create masks andns gow and other forms of p.p.e.ir the way we do it is donations, and we've seen everything from veterans who are large manufacturers step up and pride thousands of pices of healthcare providers and itr unifies the state. >> woodruff: governor, quickly, you, obviously, have had a stay-at-home recorder in kentucky. two states, not your neighboring are arkansas and thenose, they south carolina, which is a couple of states away, but still in the region where u are, do not have stay-at-home orders. does that affect the ability of people in kentucky to stay healthy, to stay safe? well, in kentucky, we have

taken aggressive action. anwhat that means is we don't just issue what we call a healthy at home order, it means we've had to shut businesses, we have our houses of worship doing virtual services, tens of thousands of people not going to work. weave made sacrifices. and this coronavirus doesn't know boundaries, state or county boundaries, and when others don't tae aggressive action, what they do is force theif sae of millions of kentuckians and residents of other states that are doing whao it takes 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 aregon'g to work, who shut down a small business that was theamir dreecause they want to protect each other. this is a test of our humanity, whether we will put each other's lives ahead of our own economic self-interests. i know we're passing here in

kentucky. we need to pass it as a country. >> woodruff: governor andy beshear, thank you very much for talking with us, and we wish yof and the people kentucky the very best in all of this. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other the pandemic with former vice president joe biden, his prospective democratic oppent this fall. people familiar with the phone call confirmed it to the newshour.ic the formerpresident has criticized mr.rump for moving too slowly. at the 11th hour, the governor democrat governor tony evers ordered today a vote be delayed till june and cd the pandemic. but republican legislative leaders ape ealed and latday the state supreme court ruled

that the primary must take plce as scheduled. the ousted inspector generalor the u.s. intelligence community 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, "please do not allow recent events to silence your voices." the u.s. state department today designated a russian white supremacist group as a terrorist organization. officials said the russian imperialovement has given paramilitary training to neo- nazis and other white supremacists irussia and elsewhere. >> these designations ar unprecedented, the first time the united states has ever signated white supremaci terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes this threat. >> woodruff: the trump administration has been criticized for not taking the

white supremacisthreat seriously. in ukraine, a forest fire is still burning near the ruined chernobyl nuclear plant.s officiy the fire has released radiation well over 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 the 1986 explosion tha destroyed the plant. some passings in the sports world tonight: baseball legend al kaline died today at his home in michigan. there was no word on the cause. e hall-of-famer played his entire 22-year career with the detroit tigers, and ca to be known as "mr. tiger."s al kaline years old. ayo football hall of famer bobby mitchell died suat 84. the cause of death was not released. mitchell was the first member of the washington redskins. he also played for the cleveland browns.

and, tom dempsey died saturdayat of complns 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 covid-19-- thefa unliar challenges faced by pregnant women. how the countries of the middle reeast are weathering the of coronavirus. plus, amy walter and tamara keith on politics at a moment of crisis. >> woodruff: now, we look at how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting soon-to-be-mothers. nearly a million women in the

s. are expected to give birth in the next three months. withealth resources stretche thin and changing guidelines,an many prewomen around the country are finding 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 the coronavirus outbreak. after veral years of trying to conceive, this will be their first child. >> it's been a struggle just to get to this point. my partner and i have detit with some fty problems and miscarriages. so what should be just pure joy for us, it just has th added layer. expectant mothers osecountry, who've recently given birth are grappling withhis new rmal. >> the pandemic has changed my pregnancy.ry

>> it made eveing a little bit more complicated. >> it's ju going to be. it's just gonna be us. >> nawaz: health care providers have had to rethink w best to deliver prenatal care in the middle of a global pandemic.in for rovisits? many doctors are limiting in- person appointments, instead during delivery?edicine. several hospitals have restricted or eliminated any visitors, including partners in >> it's completely empty. >> nawaz: outside chicago, nnah beltre recently gav birth to her daughter, paola. this delivery, she sayay was a world rom her first. >> this time around, going jnto labor wit like three nobody walking theays.tation and like you didn't see any other moms, you couldn't see any other dads. surreal, sad, likeyust a very situation. >> nawaz: even harder, she says, is celebrating a new life, while thousands around the world are mourning.

>> you want to look back on these moments in your life and be happy about it and excited because you just brought this new human into the 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, cleveland, ohio, the stress lies in the uncertainty. she's due on july 4th, continues to work in a hospital, and iser worried, for hwn health, and the baby's. >> i had this moment of severe anxiety where i just was so this disease from going to get >> nawaz: a phone call with her o.b. calmed her for the moment. but a call with him the next day, made her even more anxious. he goes, just so you know, i'm actually in the emergency room being tested fogh coronavirus now. i said what? and then there's my stress levep goin >> it says "i am enough."lp

>> nawaz: inretta, georgia, north of atlanta, janice jackson and husband john will be caring for three children when their baby arrives in june. as with their older children, they'd planned to rely on, famiaveling in from out of state, to help. now, they don't know how they'll manage. >> who do you turn to when you have no one,ou know? is there a possibility that i'm going to have to give childbirty yself because my husband's going to have to be home with my two older children? and that's a scary thought. just thinking about it, because you need a lotf support after you give birth. >> nawaz: another unknown? the effects of covid-19 on pregnant women and their babies, from mother to chiirus can pass dr. kjersti aagard is professor of maternal fetal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology at baylor college of medicine and texas children's hospital. >> what we don't yet know isat s the disproportionate risk for women of either requiring intensive care unit?

is it going to occur while they're pregnant just after they deliver? what is the risk of death among pregnant women? we don't know that. we don't yet know. >> nawaz: the centers for disease control and prevention,c or.c., says pregnant women might be more susceptible to viral respiratory infections, including covid-19. a world health organization study of nearly 15pregnant woman in china found they "do not appear to be at higher risk of severe disease." but dr. aagard says, caution is key. ns i think that women understand that those decisre never made lightly. they'racmade with the owledgement, again, that we just don't know yet some of the key aspects of this virus r d we have to the side of how can we be most se with a mom and her baby. >> nawaz: but for some women, black women in particular, a safe cldbirth was a concern even pre-pandemic. >> what we know about maternal

mortality in particular with african-american women, it crosses all socioeconomic strata. lliott is dr. tollie 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, already biased agacost women of r, could fail them even worse under the strain of a pandemic. >> when the health resources are stressed at a maximum, it really now you have a lotople because trying to get to a finite number of resources. the rest of the world does not stop. clinic things still happen.ck heart atstill occur. babies are still being born. and women still need our help. >> nawaz: for some of those women, tre is solace in the fact that they're not alone. >> they're just so... op many going through this exact same experience right now. it sucks, but i think... mothers are strong. and this moment will be over at some point.

>> nawaz: for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: a little overen weeks ago, illinois governor j.b. pritzker announced a woman in chicago was, the second known case in the country. today, known cases surpa 12,000, and over 300 people have died. joining me now is governorin pritzker, who us from chicago. governor, thank you very much for being with us. illinois' 12-plus milliho peopleare you doing in rapling with -- in grappling >> well, thank you asking. unfortunately, we have about 11,000 cases that have been

detected in ouro state. we've d just er 300 eaths, so far. we are tracking very closely th beds and vents that are beingu. used. they are not being overutilized at the moment, and we have been uworking hard to expand capacity so that we would be ready in the event that we are peaking the next couple of weeks, which i think ewe all expect. woodruff: and i wanted ask you about that. chicago's been described, of course, the big city of chicago as one of the hot spots in the country. what do you expect in terms of the trajectory of when this is going to get, you know,as bd as it can get? >> well, there are a number of models that we look at because none of them is exact in any way, but it does look like somewhere between tdle of april and the end of april we'll see a pea we have built out 500 beds, already, in or mccormack place convention center, countyag

ch so that we can have covid patients in there. we're adding 2500 new beds on top of the 500 atmark conk place, and wee going to have most of that done by thursday. so thanks tthe 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 about personnel that you need.ed, t where does that stand right now? >> well, unfortunately, the federal government really s delivered less than 10% of what we've asked for in terms of p.p.e. and other equipment. we need muchore than they've delivered to us. so we've gone o 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 supply chain experts, buying p.p.e. we ev cr

find them, ventilators which are so hard to come by and very expensive, we're bidding on all these items oequipment against the federal government and against the other states ani other cou because what the white house has done is created, you know they call this the air bridge, where they're bringing stuff back from china to the tunited states, and they're delivering it to private companies in the united states, not to the states. bid against each other for those goods that are owned by the e company. so we've just gone around all that and gone directly tofa urers wherever we could so that we can fulfill our needs. we have healthcare workers and front ine first responders who 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 lo beyond ten days or to have enough supply beyond ten days, so we worry every sing daily

that we're going to have eno wu. druff: that's what i wanted to ask because you talked about not getting everything yom need f the federal government. today president trump said of you he's a very happy man, but this is one day after what he said yesterday which is that you're somebody who, in his words, is complaining all the time, hasn't performed well. he said theou governor ld don't his job in illinois, so we had toelp him.w e you -- how have you reonded to that? w l, we governors have done far more than the president of the united states has to fight coronavirus, and here in illinois, look, he's calling me a happy man today, the fact is, look, i'm happy when i get thee things that required to save the lives of the people ofil nois, and i'm upset with the federal government when they don't deliveon their promises. they promised that they were going to bring tests toto the state of illinois. they've done very little of that. when they stooup in front of a

podium, they said, oh, we've delivered millions of tests across the united states, they ve not. they've also promised p.p.e. and said they're delivering it toy. everyb a small fraction of what's been promised. i dot like people whomake promises and don't deliver. so i'm delivering to th people what we need.o make sure we have i hate the idea i'm competiai t others in the united states, other governors even, to try to get what we need, but this is what president trump has done to the country. >> woodruff: do you think your dispute with the president has abilityay hindered yo to get what you need from the federal government? >> no, and i want to credit the president and the mlitary. he has assigned the military to help us out, the army corps of engineers which has gone toyo ne, california and cme here to chicago. ey helped us build out mccormack. it was the army corps of

i am grateful to them andfort. ateful to those who helped stand up some ofr drive-through testing fabllities. my p is not with them, but with the leadership at the top, the people making the decerisio. remethis all came very late. the president knew in january that the pademic was on it way and did nothing an even as late as early mach was saying this is a hoax of some sort or like the through, it wil pass over. he knew better, or at least the people around him knetw beter and, yet, here we, are late start, only about a week or so ago invoking the defense production act just for one mpany, that was for dpm. he's now invoked it two companies, and he's not actually telling them what to do wit, he's just saying we need you to produce these thingt you do with them is up to you. this is theroblem. i'm a businessman, i'm governor, i understand a competitive market but not in aa

onal emergency. >> woodruff: in a few seconds, neighboring state a has not asked people to staat home. does that affect illois? >> yes, but the blame falls squarely on the white house for this. had they said early on that it's time fr everybody to put a stay-at-home order in place, the governor of iowa, the governo of missouri, all the republican governors that were late in t putting inheir stay-at-home would have done it. but, look, that's where we ar. i know that the governor of iowa is trying very hard without sue ago stay-at-home to, invertheless, have a number of nonessential buses close and have the schools closed and so on. fo, look, everybody has approached this rently. it does make it more difficult for states like mine.we ere one of the first, in fact, to put in each of the measures, including the stay-at-home. >> woodruff: governor j.b. pritzker of illinois. we wish you the very best. thank you. >> thank you very much, judy.

>> woodruff: the number of coronavirus cases in the middle st has risen to nearly 60,000, double the amount only one week ago. special corresponden ferguson reports from beirut on systems are bracing themselvese 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,"he tells us." they took him to the hospital before and let him go again. maybe, maybe they know something i don't know!" its very likely she's carrying he virus. we cannot stay ar her story, or offer any comfort. she left behind in the street, watching, helpless. the lebanese red cross is the

only option for people here when they need an ambulance the country's healthcare system doesn't provide the service. these firsresponders are mor >> most of our vols are recruited because they genuinely believe in this mission and they believe in the principles that are part of the international red cross and red crescent, these being humanity,pa iality, independence, neutrality and voluntary service. above beirut, soldiers in skies lebanese army helicopters warn indoors.y loudspeaker to stay lebanon reacted to the pdemic quickly, beginning a phased now there is a nightly curfew during the day people ar only really allowed out to buy food or medicine. the country's strict, earlyre lockdown was ition to the certainty that lebanre's health ca system would not cope with a pandemic. decades of corruption crd a financiais that just bankrupted the government have

left the authorities here with little choice but to t preventing the spread of the disease as much as possible. >> maybe it will have an impact on the flow and the curve of the epidemic in lebanon. it will help us certainly to flatten a ttle bit the curve. we don't know exactly now in e is present situation how much we will flatten rve but it helped us. >> reporter: dr. georges ghanem the head doctor at the lebanese american university hospital. his colleagues are racing to prepare for an expectespike of cases this week, according to medical forecasts. home and cancelled electivets surgeries. the hope here is that e lockdown will help save lives where hospals can't. across the middle east hospitals are bracing for an onslaught of covid-19 patients. they know their healthcarell systems ot be able to cope are trying to scramble as quickly as they can. strictest seen in the region.he

all cars have been banned from the roads, with military checkpoints to reiorce the new rules. for the first few days, they blocked anyone froholeaving theis, even for food. threatening up to a year in jail for anne caught in the streets. now people are allowed out, only on foot, to buy groceries. but not every countrin the middle east is capable othis. for the 27 million people living in war-ravaged yemen, the chaos humanitarian disaster, survival has been a daily struggle for years. with no testing, there is no realistic way of knowing if the country has any coronavirus cases, or how widespread it is. raria is another country with a healthcare systeged by war, and millions displaced from their homes. bashar al assad's government says there has been just onede h 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 province of idlib for months, where millions fleeing the assad army's advance are crammed into camps. it's not known if the virus has a presence there, but refugees in the camps know the living conditions mean it would surely spread quickly.tr >> ( slated ): if all these big countries have failed in confronting th disease what can we do against it? what can we do whereowerful countries have failed?or >> rr: egypt's ancient pyramids lit up with social- distancing messages on tuesday night. cairo is a city of 20 million peopleand known for its nightlife; but it's been under night time curfew for over a week. >> ( a translated ): this disease. it's no joke. people must stay at home and noi leave homes after curfew hours. >> reporter: egypt's dictatorship expelled a british journalist for reportit the number of cases in the country is likely much higher than the officiafigures. in iraq, the religious site at karbala, one of the most sacred in shia islam, has been closed

and disinfected, but it may be too late to prevent the spread. the country's struggling healthcare system is ill- equipped to deal with the pandemic. israel's health minister yaakov litzman has tested positive for covdi-19. he has been in close contact in recent weeks with embattled prime minister benjamin ntanyahu. both are now in quarantine. the country has over 6,000nown cases so far, and the military has been brought in to help police enforce a strict mickdown. y 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 atn any one givetime. >> reporter: ancient religious sites in jerusalem like thest n wall and church of the holy sepulcre have been disinfected. whiltesting 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 because normally here in this city wewa

are together and we like community and beuse of these >> reporter: for the most partmi people in thle east are taking the threat posed by covid-19 seriously and complying with social distanci watching the virus ravage advanced and well-equipped healthcare systems in the west, peny here know their only is the prevention of the spread rather than relying on ovstretched, or underfunde hospitals. >> we in the middle east are used to live in crisis mode. this is not thcasef the western countries where they are in a more comfort zone. where everything is assured and everything is here by the government. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson in beirut, lebanon.

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

so many states, 15 other states have postponed themair pries. what's different about wisconsin is it's not just a presidential primary, it's alo a municipal and statewide election day.t i's ually in the law that wisconsin has elections on thi tuesday in april. so in order to change the law, it needs to go through the legislative process. guess what? there's a docratic governor and a republican legislature and, as you probably know, wisconsin has had long history of fights between thsl leure and the governor, and, in this case, they could not agree on how to hld the moections safely and the governor thirning said, well, fine, we'gore just nog to have an election, i'm closing down all in-person voting. the legislature said we don't think so, we're going to appeal this, and the courts came out last few minutes, to say, no, the election will go on. so there will be pllices open, though very few, lisna,

a city -- in the city of milwaukee, there a only five polling places that are open to handle this. now, thhey'v a lot of vote by mail, there are a lot of out, but's still a tremendouse amount of confusion for voters in wisconn. quickly, i think we need to understand what this is going to tell us, if anything, for what this could mean for november. the first is wisconsin is toing e potentially a preview of what oer states, especially statesth divided legislatures or a democratic governor of one party and the legislature of another might be dealing with when having to try to change voting laws very quickly. democrats want to see more voting by maiel,publicans say that's ripe with fraud. the second is, in a state lik wisconsin where vote by mail is already very 5%frequent, onl of voters turned in their ballots by mail i 2016, trying to get to a 100% vote by mail.

it's going to be structurally very challenging for the clerks and all the folks who are elections together.ting the >> -- the man who hopes to be the democratic nominee. looking at pictures quickly. via skype, he's done some campaigning thre, but also trying to bring -- this isot the stuff of electrifying -- but also tonight, tam, he didave a o you make of that phone call and what the former vice president is trying to do right now? >> theormer vice president is attempting to continue to stay in the pcture, to stay relevant. he is doing a lot of work on coronavirus-related issues, and, in this call with the, preside it's one of those things that sort of grew out of a back and

forth on cable between aides to the president and then aides to the vice president -- to forme vice president biden and ultimately ended up with thisox apately 15-minute call. apparently, according to the president, they agreed not to discuss the substance of their public, but prestrump saidder it was very leasant. the biden campaign said thatso biden offeree suggestions. president trump is very happy with the phone call. i mean, it's kind of this odd thing, but, you know, this isa noormal campaign, and this is not a normal tie at all. one thing that i would say morel br about the state of play right now is both biden and trump are acting like the the nominees, obviously, because president trump is the presumptive nominee and running for reelection, but the trump campaign has aimed all of its fire now at former

vice president biden biden is entirely focused on trump and coronavirus. >> reporter: just one minute left. quickly, tam, what do you make to have thpresident firing the inspector general -- inlligence community michael atkinson -- aim, what do you make of how the president is operating now. tam, quickly. a> yeah, this is the latest in long line of people who have been connected with the impeachment o have been pushed out by president trump or otherwise fired. this happened very late at night, the news broke late at night fra iday, didn't makt of front pages saturday and upin some cases rightly so because the coronavirus is so dinant and people were dying over the weekend, but this is a patternid of prt trump taking it out on peoe who he thinks have wronged him. >> amy. bsolutely. when the president's style has not changed at all, whetherwe e in the middle of the crisis or in the middle of just what was before covid 19 a

normal day, this is what the election is going to be about in november. you can see the den campaign already setting up this contrast with te president. one is heill say of the president, too chaotic, it's too much focus on goading back at his enemies. joe biden is going to say i'm ai st hand, and there we go. >> i think you are bothstead hands regardless. >> you're welcome.>> woruff: lid tam. >> wf: and tonight online a special episode of our podcast, where we hear about hol people ikinds of situations are handling the overwhelming feeling of olation this coronavirus crisis has brought on. you can find that episode on pbs.org/newshour or on apple podcasts or wherever you pet yocasts. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here

tomorrow evening. for alof us at the pbs newshour, thank you, stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for thebs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan fosudation. orting science, technology, and improved economic perfornce and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the . and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world.re nformation at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these instutions

>> this program wamade possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbe station from v like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," bridget makes julia a sh-stopping crusted boneless leg of lamb, adam reviews traditional 12-inch skillets, and erin makes bridget the perfect lemon, olive oil tart.