captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on tr s edition fosaturday, december 5: covid cases continue ts surge, as citigh new stay-at-home orders. campaigns raise millions ahead of the georgia senate . and, a look at the conflict in hiopia and the threat of instability in the region. next, pbs newshour weekend. ho >> pbs news weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family nd. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and plip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum.

we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today.mu al of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular goal has been towi providless service that helps people communicate and connect. a offer a variety of no-contract plannd our u.s.-based cus can help find one that fits youm to learne, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for b publadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. the surge in coronavirus infections predicted to follow the thanksgiving holiday is happening in many states thisd. week yesterday, there were more than 228,000 new confirmed cases, a

daily record, and 2,637 deaths across the country, cording to the "new york times." there are more than 101,000 people hospitalized with t disease, a 28% increase from two weeks ag in california, hospitalizations reached nearly 1000 people yesterday, an increase of 84% over the average number two weeks ago. governor gavin newsom announced t-thursday that a new stayme order would take effect if any of the five designated rions had fewer than 15% of their intensive care unit beds available. yesterday, two regions-- san joaquin valleynd southern california-- reached that 15% threshold. fearing hospitals will soon be overwhelmed, six counties in the san francisco bay area are not waiting for the threshold number. health officia there announced a month-long shutdown will begin tomorrow.s the order shdown certain non-essential businesses, from hair and nail salons to museums and zoos.

restaurants can only offer takeout or delivery.ha >> we knowif we wait, we are just delaying the inevitable. if we wait one or two more weeks to have these restrictions mplaced on us, it will jun our numbers will be higho , and hardering down. >> sreenivasan: globally, there are now mo than 66 million confirmed cases, and the race nderway.ccine is in moscow, thousands of essential workers and people receiving covid-19 vaccinations at 70 clinics across the city. president vladimir pin announced that the immunization campaign will make two millionse of the "sputnik v " vaccine available within its first week. clinical trials last month showed the vaccine was 91.4% effective in protecting people from covid-19. s enivasan: for more on the coronavirus outbreak, and the response, i spoke with calin rivers, senior schol at the johns hopkins center for health security, and an assistant professoin the department of environmental

health and engineering at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. dr. rivers, it seems like it's winter holidays will intensify transmission. we saw after both labor day and memorial day that there were big surges about a month after those holidayswhich is about what we would expect in terms of the epidemiology of the virus.un rtunately, we are also already at a very high level of transmission, and ra any acceon of the outbreak inuld be a really grave situation to band so that's why we're encouraging people to stay home for the holidays, celebrate zoom, find other ways to get together. because we want to kee other and our families safe. >> sreenivasan: especially considering the load strains that so many of our hospitals around the country are under right now. >> that's rit. we now have over 100,000 people hospitalized with covid-19 around the country. previous highs, even in the bad, were 60,000, and so we're well over that high-water mark. and it's putting a lot of

hospital systems under strain.ey e having to really stretch to meet the demand. and so we really don't want to make that any worse. >> sreenivasan: is there a false sense of confidence that might be inspired by the news? the positive news that we're because they're no right now for anybody to take. i mean, it's still going to be thpossibly in the summer b time most of us have access to >> i think it is important to recognize that although a horizon and that's very on the exciting, we still do have a ways ahead of us, and right now we're in a particurly dangerous moment. people to look ahead to that vaccine, maybe it's motivation to stay committed to theti miti measures that we're all observing to just slow the virus. it's not here yet, and so we don need to co to be cautious. >> sreenivasan: the c.d.c. revised some of their guidelines last week, and that left somece people ced. "well, should i be quarantining for seven or 10 days, or...?" how should people be thinking about things now? should we just kind of assume

that we or other people might have it, versus trying to play o ths game? >> i think that it's a good development that c.d.c. offered different options for shortening quarantine it will make it easier for people to observe. and they offed supporting data that suggests that the alternate approaches are really quite safe. if you do need to quarantine, i recommend following the instructions of your localhe th department. but in general, i think it's a good development that we now have more flexibility for hoto implement quarantine. >> sreenivasan: are there any tests on the horizon that could make this problem a little easier to solve? meaning, any at-home tests, or, you know, i've heard of tests that might be similar to a ldpregnancy test that we ce taking at home and have results thin 15 minute because testing, testing, testing seems to still be one oe the bocks here. even though we're doing a lot more testing, we don't have it as widespread, wre people can make informed choices on how to travel or how to go to the

office or how to interact with others. >> yeah, that's a great question.of onhe more recent developments that started this fall is that there are tests that are more-- they're cheaper, they're easier to use, they don't require a central laboratory, and they return results quite quickly. they're not yet widely they're primarily hands of the state governments. but i think that will change in the coming months.do and ope that will give people more flexibility to use testing to determine whether or not they're infected before making choices about w activities to undertake. whether or not that will be avt,lable like a pregnancy t where you can buy it at the grocery store, buy it at the pharmacy and keep itclt home, is nor. that's actually more of a regulatory issue than a technology iss. but if the f.d.a. were to go that direction, i think it would be a good development. >> sreenivasan: right now, there's also a gap in urgency. i mean, in the spring, when new york was the epicenter of all of this, the nation seemedpa to bng attention because it was new. and heree are now. we've got more people in the

hospital, more people dying per day, and somehow, i don't know if it's fatigue, i don't knowwe what it is, buon't seem to care as much. >> this has been a challenge. it has been such a persistent crisis that i think people have become really worn down, and it's just difficult to live in that-- that heightened state for so long. but we have now had over 27000 deaths, which is a really shocking number. if we have looked back in 2019 and learned that the year ahead held that kind of mass casualty, it would be absolutely stunning. and so i think it's important that we take a moment regularly to reflect on what a tragedy this has been, and to redouble our efforts to slow transmission and prevent ose future deaths. >> sreenivasan: dr. caitlin rivers, epidemiologist at johns hopkchs. thanks so or joining us. >> thanks for having m >> sreenivasan: president-elect joe biden officially has the marity of electoral colleg fotes needed to win the white house after caliia certified its vote yesterday.

the stats formal approval of biden's win gave him 55 more electors, bringing his total to 279, just over the 270 threshold for victory. three more states biden won: colorado, hawaii and n jersey, have not yet certified their results. when they do, biden will have 306 electoral college votes, to president trump's 232. normally, the certifications are often overlooked as formalities. but this year they areng more attention, as mr. trump continues makeofnproven claims raud and has not conceded. the electoral college meets december 14 to formally elect thsnext president and congr votes on tt decision on january 6. >> senate runoff election next month that will determine whichu party controls ts. senate. president-elect biden has said he also plans to visit georgia

on. both parties are poring millions of dollarinto georgia's dueling runoff races set for january 5. pn savannah yesterday, vice president pence red at a rally for republican senators kelly loeffler and david perdue. the two incumbents face john osov an avielle warnock is the january vote. >> sreenivasan: rickey bevington, senior correspondent for georgia public broadcasting, s been reporting on the georgia senate runoff race and more. she joined me from atlanta, georgia. >> har when i last spoke to you, i warned you that georgia was going to become the center of the political universe. i have a crystal ball. todaalone, donald trump will be here, with his wife, melania trump, in south georgia, not s metro atlantth georgia, which is deep-red georgia. yesterday, vice presidke pence was here. if just one of these seats goes to one of the republican control of the u.ste.ssmaintains needo say, we anticipate

about a half bil dollars in ad spending just for this election. it's a big deal for republicans. >> sreenivasan: and what about the democrats? what are they doing to try counter this? >> we have seen a lot of celebrity endorsements, shall we say. everybody from justin timberlake to pearl jam to kerry washington having onlinfundraisers. and, of course, we already have the homegrown georgia star power of stacey abrams, a former gubernatorial candidate who came very close to winning, as aat demofor governor two years ago.ev and we hav seen, hari, a celebrity poker tournament to raise money foicon the democride. so, both sides are raising huge amounts of money.an >> sreenivthis also comes at a time when the president is still railing against the results in georgia, talking about fraud at has not been substantiated. the secretary of state inhe georgia and that are

responsible for the election have been very vocal this past week, saying, there's noing wrong with our numbers. >> and there is no evidence that there's anything wrong with georgia's numbers. after three counts of fivees million ential ballots, joe biden maintains his lead and his victory over donald trump by about 12,000 votes. and so far, not a single lawsuit s held up in court. rudy giuliani, the president's attorney, was here on thursdayou having a sevenlong hearing with republican state lawmakers, trying to prove this case. the fact othe matter is, hari, there's no evidence. >> sreenivasan: and this is the same system that repub who have held power in georgia for quite some time have been ing. >> we have an entirely republican slate ofal constitufficeholders, from the governor to the insurance commissioner, and, ho course, republican majorities in both the state and state senate.

and these are the lawmakers who have spent the last two years looking into new elections technology, they selected the elections technology, had hearings, and spent $110 million of georgia taxpayer money on a brand-new election system. and to this day, they remain extremely confident in their decision on how they decided to run georgia's elections this year. expecting from these campaigns? i mean, you've already-- you're likely alady inundated with advertisements on television. how much worser better can it get? >> yesterday, i got a postcard in the mail from some voter in california encouraging me to vote. georgians are going to be encouraged to vote in all the ways that we know that peopl are encouraged to vote, including-- you cannot turn onsi the tele without every ad being a political ad. there's even discussion of local stations creating entirely new shows simply so

they can sell air time for ad-- for politicalds. right, so we may be seeing new-- new newscasts pop up-- don't know, the 2:30 p.m local newscast-- simply to sell airtime. of course, i'm being silly, hari, but it does give you a sense, they've got to spend that half billion dollars somewhere. >>reenivasan: in this next month, are we expected to see candidates debate each other, for ample? >> hari, the atlanta press club and georgia public broadcasting are hosting all four senatorial candidates on sunday at 5:00 p.m. this will be nationally broadcast. this will be reverend warnock and kelly loeffler debating on stage-- of course, all socially distanced-- and we'll have democrat jon ossoff debating an empty podium. republican senator david perdue has declined to appear, so the panel will spend 30 minutes asking ossoff questions. and again, that is 5:00 p.m. eastern on sunday oneorgia public broadcasting, also hosted >> sreenivasan: rickeylub. bevington, georgia public broadcasting. thanks so much for joining us.

thank you.pleasure, hari. >> sreenivasan: for more on the georgia senate runoff, and the latest national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. announced late yesterday that u.s. troops will leave somalia on orders of president trump. arthe draw-down will begin next year. the approximately 700 service members there are currently involved in counter-terrorism operations against the al-qaeda affiliated group al-shabaab. in the announcement, the department of defense said some maof the u.s. troops will in neighboring countries,"pr to maintaisure against violent extremist organizations operating somalia." large multi-national military force remains in somalia, and thousands of its troops come from ethiopia, which is now in the midst of a military conflict in its northern tigray region. >> sreenivasan: for more on the continuing conflict inthiopia, and the imct it's having on the regii spoke withro cahudson, a senior fellow with the atlantic council's

africa center, and former director for african affairs at the national security council during the george w. bush administration. cameron, wve been reporting on the momentary kind of n rife that's bppeninon a weekend-by-weekend basis, but if you could explain for us, put this in perspect what is the conflict about? ll well, the conflict is r about kind of ethnic federalism. you know, ethiopia is madep of ten different ethnic regions,ut and a lot ofomy has been devoed down to that regional ndvel, and as part of prime minister abiy's f overall democratic reform process, he really sought to erase a lot of those ethnic differences in the country and promoted a kind of pan-ethiopian nationalism, almost. and i think what you're seeing re, certainly in the tigray region, which is traditionally where the power centeras been in the country, is a feeling

that they have been sort of capsid in the political procs in the country. and you're seeing now a kind of more formalized agitation for a return to, kind of ethnic deralism, and the promotion of ethnic rights. i and is really part of a democratic reform process thatee abiy hasundertaking, but tich probably hasn't had enough buy-in from all se ethnic minorities across the y. >> sreenivasan: i meanonthis is a peho won a nobel peace prize. yet here he is, part of a conflict that has displacedf hundredsousandof people. >> the nobel pze was obviously for an international effort to heal wounds of the war with eritrea, which took place in the late 1990s. you know, what we're seeing now, though, is, errea, as the partner in peace, may have now become the partner in war. wewe have seen cooperation ethiopia and eritrea, and even the active involvement of the eritrean forces in this conflict

in tigray. and so i think that, with respect to the nobel, people are asking whethert was premature. i think it was a kind of a hoped-for movement in a direction of peace. but what we're seeing is his effort to ke peace with eritrea is not a reflection on his tactics domestically. >> sreenivasan: what are the surrounding this r ascountries displaced people start to head for those borders? >> well, it's huge. i mean, you cannot underestimate the-- frankly, the beneficial role that ethiopia has played ie thon. it is the largest provider of peacekeeping forces on the continent of africa, and it has played an essential role in conflicts in somalia and sudan it is the largest er of peacekeepers in the soli nflict, which we as a u. government have spent billions being a part of and trying to abilize that country. we're on the precipice of seeing

ethiopian trps completely withdrawn from that theater in obviously, they've alsbeen aere. major peacemaker and miator in conflicts in both sudan, the revolution, the democrat revolution that's been going on there, and in the civil conflict that took place in south sudan so if we see ethiopia move from the traditional role of peacemaker and mediator, to a net exporter of instability, then you could see an entire region really, really destabilized going forward. >> sreenivasan: tell me a little bit about the humanitarian crisis that happens when all these people leave their homes. >> well, right now, it's really hard to assess the degree of the humanitarian crisis because the region has been so cut off to outside humanitarian assistance and even communications. so even though this week the u.n. reached an agreement with the abiy government to allow humanitarian access into the region, we've seen thatti

fi, up until today, up and through today, has really prevented those nssessment miss from even getting eyes on the situation. but we do know that even before this conflict started, this was an incredibly insecure region. as much as 20% of the population was food-insecure.ve there were100,000 internally displaced. there are estimates now that there are a milln internally displaced people. we really only have access to about the 50,000 or so that have crossed the border in the last few weeks into sudan. but when we know that there are pockets of-- of inteally displaced that we are not le access, and the fears are growing, that those are poputions that were surviving on international assistance. that international assistance has been cut off for the last month of fighting, and so really don't kw what we're going to find when we're finally able to access those areas. >> sreenivasan: if the fighting officially comes to , doesat that mean he forces that

are in opposition just literally head for the hills and fight from there? >> well, that seems to be what's happening right no i mean, last weekend there was v thy tense standoff around the regional tigrayan capital of edmicheli, which was encir essentially by federal government troops. the siege of micheli never happened, because the tigran leaders kind of fled into the mountains surrounding the region. i think we have to recall ethiopia's recent history. it fought a very long war against a communist derg where the t.p.l.f., the tigrayan party, essentially led a counter-insurgency campaign froo the hillverthrow this communist regime. and so i think there's a great fear that they're going to kind of turn to their roots and not fight a conventional fight against federal government forces, buinstead go to the mountains and try for a sort of asymmetral warfare. and in that case, it might not

be limited to the tigray region. it could-- you could s conflict spilling over into other parts of the country, i trying to drthese other ethnic groups into the fight that they have started. >> sreenivas: cameron hudson, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: president trump ischeduled to have his fir post-election rally this evening at a georgia airport. we will ve more on the presidential transition and the georgia senate races, tomorrow. that's all for ts edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching.an stay healthy, d have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access gup at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour wkend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard d norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right ins. front of at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your

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