>> maybe this smiling person. someone who loved her friends, loved the beach, and died too young. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. first up on msnbc, moving forward. not business as usual, but in some parts of the country, a big step. >> opening orders to get a citation. >> if you cannot afford to pay us, then you have to let us work. in other places, business owners taking matters into their own hands. heat wave on the west coast. open beaches seeing plenty of

traffic. we'll show you how traffic responded. the president provides some explanation with a new treat. and he's the one actor that doctor anthony fauci wants him to play on "snl." i guess you can see who it is. it is sunday. it's april 26th. i'm kendis gibson. >> and i'm lindsey reiser. it's a quiet, eerie time square. we're supposed to get some rain. and there's a beautiful day outside. >> it was right thing a lot of people in the new york area and the northeast. these areas are still shut down. this week, several states will

begin reopening. movie theaters will be open in georgia and tennessee. and restaurants will open in minnesota and colorado will start lifting the stay-at-home regulations there. >> andrew cuomo says that the state is expanding testing try r c criteria. four of the hardest-hit hospitals will be tested for anti-bodice. let's go to california, newport beach. looks like a normal day over the weekend. 40,000 people packed the beach there, despite a statewide stay at home order. there was a heat wave in california. temperatures reaching 90 degrees-plus, in some start. do they look socially distant

there? >> a lifeguard said they weren't seeing social distancing problems. the small business will start taking applications for the small business program. congress approved another $12 billion to keep the program afloat. there's more than 937,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the country. more than 53,000 people have died. new reporting on the white house's shift in strategy to curtail the president's appearances at coronavirus briefings. let's go to monica alba. the president was supposed to be cut from the briefings before his comments on thursday, that

people could inject disinfectants. >> reporter: for weeks, the president's top aides and alilis have been warning him, if he wonts to go off-script, there's a risk of a political backlash. and it seems to have come to a head on thursday, and the comments you mentioned. the president has worked hard to work those comments back. there was no briefing yesterday. the day before, he didn't take questions in a briefing format. there is no briefing today. i want to read you a question that the president was briefed on last night. he said, what is the purpose of having white house newsers when the lame stream media, in his words, ask asking but hostile questions. they get record ratings and the

american people get nothing but fake news. not worth the time and effort. and theed the has spent the time and effort to appear more than 40 of them. he spent however hours and hour the lectern talking to the american people. he thought that was the press secretary. he wanted to be out in front, on a daily basis. gives people the opportunity to make comments on what they are doing over the uppandemic. anything like this president, the decision is ultimately his. we notice this week, when we come to the briefings, was it dr. anthony fauci was in one of seven. he's been a near constant

presence, offering his medical exper piec exper's the. this week, we saw him not appearing next to the president. that's come as he has contradicted him. he is not aplayed to sfraid to e disagrees. when the president said he was not sure that coronavirus would come back at all in the fall. and dr. fauci came to the podium and said he was certain that it would come back. that might be what allies are happening with the relationship of the two men. dr. fauci's comments have been safe for now. >> alex azar. he is the health and human

services chief. he is supposed to be cunning this in many ways. >> secretary azar was the original head of the coronavirus task force before the president asked mike pence step in and take over as cheer. we haven't seen secretary azar in recent weeks. but the white house says there's no plans to change personnel at this time. there's moments when secretaries have been on the line, that's what the white house told us. there are no changes and the president continues to have confidence in secretary azar. so much reporting looking back at the timeline and potential opportunities ies that were mis on the timeline. secretary azar warning the

president, trying to get ahead of it. and there's many questions in what could have been done sooner. it's questions here, kendis and l lindsey. >> monica alba at the white house. let's go on to new york and there's a new testing. >> pharmacies will give testing. and workers will give priority for antibody testing to help keep the city moving. cori coffin joins us from new york now. >> reporter: we're here at montefiore. and the governor says he wants to concentrate on the

communities that are the hardest hit. that antibody testing will expand to testing of employees, including police, ems, grocery store workers and transit operators. >> elmhurst hospital, which made national news for the number of cases they were handling. suni downstate is running a covid only hospital. everybody in that patient, is a covid patient. you want to talk about god's work, that's where it's happening. people working for the mta, the transit workers union, twu workers, they've kept the city operational. you need the subways and the buses running if you want the hospitals running. >> reporter: the mta announcing that they will expand

temperature checks, as they say quarantines are down by 50%. 5,000 testing sites available through pharmacies. as the numbers bend down and opening parks in jersey city. that state has eight antibody testing sites. >> yesterday, andrew cuomo said, it's been 56 days. one of his daughters said, i've had enough of this. and he put up a slide. it was so stark. he said, look at the great depressi depression, and world war ii. but, in aman, that was a tough

perspective that we've seen up there. >> knowing what we've been through for months. knowing that we have months or years to go here. >> cori coffin. thanks, cori. as questions swirl over immunity. >> joining us is dr. reed caldwell, emergency frprofessorf medici medicine. we talked about how new york is wrapping up antibody testing. but there's no evidence that people that have recovered from covid-19 and have anti-bbodies e protected from a second infection. that makes all of this confusing. what do you make of all this? >> antibody presence, means that a person's immune system has been exposed to a virus. and conventional thinking is that anti-bodies protect us from

virus. do we have a level offant bodice and what need to we have? and how long do they last? being conscious about our response is appropriate. >> should states be relying on the antibody tests to determine who can return to work? >> we're not yet relying on them. i think they can create plans on how to be utilized, while the body of knowledge being solidified is being approached to get ahead. >> do we need to get worried about other starains of this virus, if you have immunity? do we need to be worrying about the strains so that it's a mute point? >> we're worried about viruses

and bacteria. we're worried about new strains changes. i think that antibody testing is a good approach. >> we were talking about what a second wave would look like from the cdc. do we have a sense of what we're seeing overseas or how severe the second wave would be? >> i would rely on scientists like dr. fauci. and we need to rely on facts and science. i wish i had the answer to this. obviously, we're connected as a nation globally. a hot spot of infection in the world is concerning, for the second wave. i would defer to experts like dr. fauci on such a topic. >> several states are opening

this weekend. many plan to open this week. a lot of stay-at-home orders are ending this month. is there a safe way to open the economy wouithout preventing a second wave? >> as we emerge out of this out of the coming months, there will be calculated smart ways to have a step-wise approach to come out of this. i think it's possible. i don't know if the ultimate plan exists yet, but it's possible. one thing i want to mention to you both is we, across the country, we've seen emergency department volumes down 50% to 60%. we've seen prehospital arrests are going up. we're concerned that people are delaying treatment for noncovid emergencies. it's important that everybody

understands that hospitals are keeping noncovid patients safe. you need to seek emergency care. >> and crime is down remarkably. you don't get patients around crimes well. there are several businesses that will be opening tomorrow. do you think it's too early? >> i don't know. i would defer to -- i would defer to dr. fauci. i think it's important that we all remain focused on the science and the facts. that could give the distinction in each state and in the nation. science and tafacts are what ne to look. >> dr. reed caldwell, thank you for your time and the work that you do. what do you get when you have a mix of cabin fever and

spring fever and a heat wave? what you can't assume about the virus and the warmer weather.

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the it's 3:19 in the morning in santa monica, california. you can see the lights on at the santa monica pier. it's closed for business, along with beaches because of the epidemic. the mayor of santa monica, says police will issue tickets to people violating the order. >> we saw people on the beach in new port. high temperatures this weekend. it will be another scorcher today. here's images of people hanging out like it's any other beach day. here's the temperatures reaching 100. >> people across the country, are eager to get outdoors.

just how safe is it to be around other people outside. here's nbc's joe fryer. >> reporter: in california, they're countering the heat wave with ocean waves. >> we can't live in a cave the whole time. we have to get out. >> reporter: unlike l.a. county, where the beaches are closed, ventura is open with restrictions. >> i wanted to get my feet in the water. it seems early to me. >> reporter: here, visitors can walk on the sand as long as they keep moving. no sitting or sunbathing allowed. if people don't follow the rules, what happens? >> we could issue citations. we don't want to do that. >> reporter: the mix of cabin fever and spring fever is bringing people out to the parks and beaches. along with new york's governor with plans to go hiking with his

family. >> go out of the house. hike until they are fatigued and exhausted. >> reporter: people worry about repeating the spring break images in florida, a state that's reopened some of its beaches. >> you have more chance of catching coronavirus in a supermarket than walking your dog outside. >> getting fresh air is a good thing. we have to do it the right way. >> reporter: some wonder if warm temps will slowle the virus. scientists say it's too early to know. >> ke can't assume that warmer weather will make this go away. >> reporter: in ventura, the beec beaches could be closed for 24 hours. strike two, for 48 hours strike

three, would be the beaches stay closed. >> the virus is spreading in africa and parts of south america. last checked, temperatures are hot. for the first time since easter, there was no white house task force briefing on saturday. the president asked, what is the purpose of having a white house press conference if the lame stream media asks nothing true and accurately. >> joining us is nicholas wu. this comes after a wave of reports, that the president's advisers have been urging him to scale back his tv briefings, saying it's not helping him. does the president's tweet give you the sense that he doesn't

think that the information he gives at the briefings are helping or an issue at all? >> what the president's tweets look like to me, are concerns over the kind of coverage he thinks he is getting in the media. the president would prefer positive headlines. but the narrative over the past couple days was the entire debacle over his comments over disinfectant and sunlight. some of his allies in congress have voted, things have occasionally gone off the rails on these pressers. the president is unhappy with what he's gotten here. >> the president is pushing back against that narrative. was just perfoinformed that the news had me asking questions about dr. deborah birx.

wrong. let's look at that tape first. deborah, have you heard of the heat and the light to this virus? >> not as a treatment. >> what do you make of that? >> the president says he did one thing. but the tape and the official white house transcript of that press conference, show that he was asking dr. birx about that. it was interesting to see that the transcript had dr. birx saying it was a treatment, before the white house gave a correction. >> the first word out of his mouth was deborah, who he was directing the question to. speaking of dr. birx. politico says that the white house is weighing one plan, replacing alex azar, who we

haven't seen in a while. and several people familiar with the discussions say that dr dr. birx is among the names to replace him. you follow washington and this white house. is that surprising that is what ultimately takes shape? >> as we've seen from the trump administration, personnel changes can come quickly and after denials. just a tweet from the president, can change a career in an instant. we'll see what happens with secretary azar over the next week. we noted his absence after these briefings, which is striking, given that he's the president of health and human services. we've seen some polling tip over

the past few weeks. it could be possible he could be on his way out as a result of all this. >> nicholas wu, our thanks to you. a new coronavirus hot spot to tell you about. what's behind the surge? plus, the toy company that's shifting production to help health care workers. ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body,

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just spent about 45 minutes in a room with a patient that is suspected covid. it's not so bad being in the room when you have ppe on. it's nicer when you have co-workers helping you, getting you supplies, coming in and helping you. it's all about teamwork.

if you have the right team, it doesn't matter what day it is or what pandemic it is. it will be tough. >> that nurse, sharing how his co-workers are getting through the pandemic. >> he is wearing one of the surgical masks over the n95 masks. let's get to the latest numbers. 930,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the u.s. 30,000 have passed away. >> general motors is reportedly set to bring workers back to factories back tomorrow, to resume. all u.s. assembly plants have been idle since mid-march. and there's no indication of when production will get under way. in the u.k., boris johnson gets back to work tomorrow. he will be at 10 downing street two weeks after being in the

hospital. he spent ten days in the icu. in the u.s., hundreds of nevada residents gathered in las vegas over the weekend, to ask officials to reopen the state. protesters waving the american flag and holding signs saying, they just want to get back to work. >> i believe the quarantine should apply to the sick and the elderly. and leave money for those people to take care of those people. it's been weeks, with thousands of calls, cannot get through to unemployment. they don't don't know what they will do. >> in massachusetts, the governor will go to a toy facility where they make masks for the workers. you think, these are the times we are in. baker says the health care workers nood the protection more than ever, as cases in the state surge. >> hasbro has provided families

with entertainment and joy. now, they are providing 50,000 face shields every week to local hospitals in massachusetts and rhode island. this generous donation will save lives and will protect our health care workers. turning to the middle east, where turkey has overtaken china and iran, as the country with the most covid infections outside of the u.s. or europe. >> joining us live from london, is nbc news correspondent, amman. that number could be higher than the 55,000 cases in turkey. why? >> reporter: we talked to doctors who said the official numbers may not be telling the full story and that turkey's death rate may be higher than government data suggests.

>> so, this total cases ratio, being 2.6%, there's no other country, before the 45th day, having this much steady fixed rates continuing. people are questioning, if there is some data engineering behind it, trying to show if there is trying to fix this at a certain level, so that it may bring different outcomes. i'm not proving it will be an inflation. but we cannot claim there is nothing unusual here. >> reporter: now, a lot of governments around the world have been criticized how they record the coronavirus numbers. turkey is not alone there.

the minister of health stands by the figures. and the minister of health says reporting the data is anti-turkey bias. turkey's response has been different as they try to save the flattening economy. there are lockdowns but these have been over the weekends and only in 31 of the 80 provinces. one city in lockdown, is istanb istanbul. we talked to a representative living in instan bull wistanbul is like there. >> people are calm and kind. in this outbreak, i see the same. after the evening prayer, every night for quite a few weeks, the mosques have had an additional

pra irprayer in the evening, s y saying, don't touch anything and god will prevail. i lived in is stan pull for five years. and i miss the city. banging their drums through the streets at night. and the city is teeming with life. istanbul has 16 million people. that's double the population of new york. this is the first time in its long history that it's ever been so quiet. >> indeed. it would be interesting to see the market in istanbul. >> thank you, amman. here is what is trending right now. legendary singer tony bennett, info performing "i left my heart in

san francisco" for the city front line workers. >> he stood next to the statue and sang to the socially distant audience there. residents in san francisco joined him. did you catch it? "saturday night live" was back for its second at-home episode, starring brad pitt who played dr. anthony fauci. >> and the president has taken some liberties with our guidelines. tonight, i want to explain what the president was trying to say. let's keep an open mind. >> we had a great meeting with a lot of the companies. they will have a vaccine relatively soon. regul relatively soon is an interesting phrase. if you were to tell a friend,

i'll be over relatively soon, and then showed up a year and a half later, your friend may be relatively pissed off. that would be great. >> dr. fauci jokingly said, if any actor would portray him on "snl," he would want it to be brad pitt. we saw some "b" roll, which was playing grocery stores and talking about what they had in stock and one was cauliflower pizza. >> they have upped the game with the at-home "snls." the outbreak is spreading through meat processing plants, raising questions about workers' safety. plus, what it could mean for the nation's meat supply. it's just that it's... lavender. yes it is, it's for men but i like the smell of it

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welcome back. there's growing concern over nursing homes that have become deadly hot spots across the country. >> in pennsylvania, there's been nearly 1,000 coronavirus fatalities in 100 care facilities. maura barrett is live for us in philadelphia, what we're learning about this. there's supposed to be new transparency measures in place. but are states following them?

>> good morning, guys. that's the big question here. the new policies say that nursing homes need to report the positive cases and the fatality to the cdc for tracking in those facilities. the ones in pennsylvania are the ones that we know. but an nbc news review found that 36 states are reporting numbers at all. that's 11,000 deaths here around the country. and the question is, besides the transparency, is what's going on inside these facilities. i spoke with julie moore who is a nursing assistant, in a facility that has about 400 people. that's about four-times the size of the average care facility in pennsylvania. she told me about the lack of protection she has in place. and i asked her what she wants the federal government to do.

>> they need to get the ppe out. and they need to give it to us. it's not going to go away. the coronavirus is here. the more we're not protected properly, we're sharing gowns. we're going into residents' rooms that don't have it and they're going to get it. >> talking with julie there was heartbreaking. 60% of her co-workers are out sick and 40 residents have died. they haven't gotten back to me, but that's the trend we're seeing when it comes to lack of data. >> when we hear from the health care workers, they're not only concerned with themselves and the other patients that don't have covid-19, as they have to rewear all of the equipment. now, to all america's meat supply. it's getting a closer look after

covid-19 outbreaks. >> now, a whistle-blower reveals how bad the conditions were in those factories. >> reporter: a key player in the food supply, taking new action in the fight against covid-19. tyson testing hundreds of workers and suspending operations at their plant in blackhawk county, iowa. as they tie the 800 cases to the single plant. one employee, with retribution, coming to work with little or no protection. they didn't have enough material. and they are giving us different rags and stuff that they have, that they have wiped clean. >> reporter: the worker tells us, plant manager was asked why fewer employees were showing up. >> people within our plant started to getting sick.

ambulances started coming to our plant. people were being carried out of there. we were asking our supervisors what is going on here? >> reporter: tyson telling nbc news, we are protecting our team members. we allowed workers to bring their own masks until we could secure coverings. we aren't aware of ambulances to the plant because of covid-19 reasons. nbc news cannot confirm ambulances at the tyson plant. the waterloo plant shut down by beef, pork and poultry companies trying to contain outbreaks. the contain on pork, media. the processing rate, down 25%. >> what does it mean for the consumer? >> what it means for con summers, there may be stockouts at the grocery store. you may not find your favorite cut of pork or beef at the

grocery store. but this is temporary. the supply chains will adjust. >> reporter: back in waterloo, the mayor stressing protecting its workers. >> there's a human factor. if you don't protect the workers, you can't put the food on people's tables. >> reporter: the fight to feed america, on top of a deadly virus. disinformation campaign. china playing tough about accusations it is spreading falsehoods about the coronavirus. did you know diarrhea is often caused by bad bacteria in food?

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11 new cases and no new deaths for the 11th day in a row. but this comes as questions loom over the communist country and the disinformation that it's accused of spreading in the wake of the outbreak. >> here's nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. >> u.s. intelligence officials say it's showing no letup in spreading something else worldwide, disinformation. some of it comes directly from chinese government leaders or state-run media. claims that the virus might have been a u.s. bioweapon or a disease spread by americans soldiers or one that actually showed up first somewhere else, as in this from chinese tv. >> the coronavirus may have circulated in italy before the outbreak in china. >> joining us now is matt apuzo of "the new york times." thanks for joining us. what other kind of disinformation has china spread? >> what china wants to do is they basically want people to forget the first chapter of the coronavirus story. the one where the government

silenced doctors, downplayed the seriousness of the disease, and took a month, basically, that was really important, that could have galvanized international reaction and tried to tamp it down. they want everybody to forget that and focus instead on chinese scientists really important contributions to research about the virus, and they want people to focus on all of the masks that they're giving and they're pushing out things like stories like the ones you just heard from pete williams about, well, maybe this isn't a virus that started in china. maybe it did start in an american lab. it's all about trying to change public opinion about china and this virus. >> matt, you wrote this story, and here's a headline right there, pressured by china, eu softens report on covid-19 disinformation. what happened there? >> so the european union has really interesting program in which government analysts look

around the web, they talk to researchers, and they put together reports about disinformation that's coming mostly from russia, but in some cases russia and china and other countries. and in this case, they were producing the regular update to their report about state sponsored disinformation around the coronavirus. and initial draft initially singled out russia and china in a big way. but the chinese government got wind of that and put very intense pressure on european diplomats to not release that report. we were able to obtain some internal emails that shows a lot of hand wringing and consternation inside the european union about whether or not to release the report as it was written or to make changes because of the pressure. ultimately, the report was released but the chinese language was kind of towned down and they got rid of the language saying the chinese government was running a global disinformation campaign. it goes to show you the pressure

that the chinese government is playing behind the scenes to tamp down what is otherwise going to be a pretty routine update of the government report. >> all right, matt, thank you for that update from brussels. >> appreciate it, matt. matt, by the way, is in brussels, belgium. we should keep an eye on what happens there over in the next couple weeks because it has the highest death rate percap paw in the world. and they're planning on reopening in the coming week. thanks for watching msnbc live. >> we'll be back next weekend at 6:00 a.m. eastern, but up next, how universities are getting crushed financially by the outbreak. and what it could mean for students. t pro/active defense. you're doing more to keep your body healthy for the future. shouldn't your toothpaste do the same for your mouth? now with crest pro/active defense, future proof your whole mouth. its active defense technology neutralizes bacteria to shield against potential issues. crest.

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first up, america divided, reopen, stay closed. the debate gets heated as some areas see a dip in the curve while others get a spike. >> into the hot zone. are things really getting better here in new york city? we're going check with an emergency room doctor for his take. >> trump under fire for his coronavirus response. whether it's having an impact on his re-election outlook in three very important states. >> new cash up for grabs for small businesses hurt by the outbreak, but it could be gone in an instant. we'll explain. >> a very good morning to all of you. sunday, april 26th. i'm alex witt. this morning, there are more