cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro reports that this is transforming learning for students across the country. >> reporter: school during a pandemic might even be harder than a moonshot. >> this is our apollo 13 moment. we're mission control. we're houston. and now our moonshot might not be landing them on the moon, it's getting them home safe. >> reporter: anyone who has a student in their house knows how important teachers have been in this crisis. >> we have never been more relevant. we have never been more foundationally essential to the community, to the economy, to a family. >> reporter: their job has evolved. >> i'm still doing the explosions but i'm doing the explosions at home. >> reporter: people like washington, d.c. public high school chemistry teacher haley i can aiken are doing their best. across the country, policymakers are dropping the focus on academic performance. >> students may not be able to take federally mandated standardized tests this spring. >> reporter: education secretary betsy devos dropped testing requirements this year. she says it's wrong to expect students to

. >> evan mcmorris santoro is in new york for us. evan, the governor also said while new hospitalizations are down the death rate is terribly high. what did he have to say about the state's new numbers and his outlook? >> reporter: well, that's right, fred. you know, the holiday doesn't stop this pandemic, and even as we're talking about the possibility of what comes after this pandemic, we're still here in new york very much in it. i just want to read the numbers, latest numbers today. total cases in this state, 181,825. 9,385 total dead from complications of covid-19. as released by the governor today. but the governor wanted to talk about the fact, these tough numbers are part of how this state and this city is going to deal with this crisis, and start to look to the next phase of this whole thing. >> and so with the good news, because we deserve some good news. lord knows. change in total number of hospitalizations is down again. this is the number we have been watching, because the great fear for us was always overwhelming the ho

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is there with "the comfort" docked in new york. how significant is it all have beendischarged? was the number ever very high? >> reporter: hi, fred. at the "unss comfort." fo fo forgive me for not hearing. but what i have, no patients here. stay here dock add fed a few mos as the crew cleaners it up and gets ready for its next occupation. never was up to the full capacity it had. moving on to the next thing. shifting to new york. a story where the new york pause began five weeks ago today. that's the -- that's the stay-at-home order put forward by governor cuomo. there's been a lot of controversy what would may mhap may 15th when it's supposed to come to an end. speculation mostly, but today governor cuomo mentioned in his press conference there actually might be light end of the tunnel when that may 15th date comes. >> the pause is state-wide until may 15th. right? then you have the cdc guide that says hospital, total hospitalization is declining for 14 days. okay? so we get to may 15th. what regions have seen a decline for 14 day

cnn's evan mcmorris santoro is in new york with more on this. the governor did say the curve appears to be flattening but also spoke about when he would possibly reopen new york. >> reporter: that's right, fred. earn knows hows they works. the plan now is to do the social distancing, shut everything down in the hopes of getting the curve to flatten. the governor said today he's looking at signs that show that actually may be having, we may be having the plateau but it brings with it a lot of death and disease that's still happening, but because that conversation is going on now, we're now talking about the possibility of moving towards the next phase of this thing. maybe some kind of reopening. the governor talking today at his press conference about working with the governors of neighboring states, to design some sort of, you know, regional system to do some kind of slight reopening. but, you know, that curve we've been talking about may be leveling off, and that means "maybe " -- "maybe" -- talk of what's comes after that. >> the governor has b

evan mcmorris santoro, cnn, new york. >>> so the worst is apparently yet to come for many countries. dr. peter tdroback is with the business school in the uk. let's talk about these test kits that are such a big issue in the uk. how important is it to get them, get them distributed and to more people. both for health care workers but to track and isolate the asymptomatic, or is it just more mitigation now? >> it's extremely important, and this is i think one of the biggest failures we've seep hn e in the uk, and that's adequate testing. we have no idea the size of the epidemic and where it's spreading right now. even health care workers, only about 1% have been able to get tested. and so what you find now is that when the health system is undergoing tremendous strain with the surge in covid-19 patients, a health worker who gets a cough has to take two weeks off in self-isolation without being able to be tested to why they have coronavirus or not. the only way we're going to get out of lockdown is to have better intelligence about where the oepd epidemic is spreading. >> same problem

evan mcmorris santoro, thank you so much. we should note there is a hospital here in the state of new york that says they lost seven people overnight to coronavirus in that one hospital alone and 80% of the patients in that hospital are testing positive for coronavirus. meanwhile, let me take you to the state of louisiana, because what could happen there is still major tragedy. right now a convention center in new orleans is quickly being turned into a makeshift hospital as the state faces a massive surge in cases in just 24 hours. here are the numbers there today. more than 12,000 cases total there. more than 400 deaths. 1700 people in the hospital right now. and nearly 600 on those life saving ventilators. cnn's ed lavandera is in new orleans. the city has been hit particularly hard. i understand you were given a tour of this convention center turned makeshift hospital? >> reporter: we did just a short while ago, medical officials and military officials that have been working to set up this complex inside that convention ce

evan mcmorris-santoro. appreciate it. >>> as some states consider reopening businesses, two key white house economic advisers offer conflicting messages. cnn politics and bit correspondent cristina alesci joining me now with more on this. how surprising was it to hear white house official paint such a grim picture? >> reporter: it is a surprising, because the president in his daily press briefings has been selling this idea of what economists call a v-shaped recovery. essentially what that means, you can start the economy back up just as fast as you shut it down, but reality is, it's a lot more complicated to get the economy back up and running. so one of the white house advisers, kevin hassett, is taking a realistic look at what the economic pain is as a result of shutting the economy down, and he's essentially saying that if you look at second quarter economic growth, the gdp figures, they're going to be grim, because that data will capture all of april, which is essentially when we saw, like, the height

evan mcmorris santoro is in new york so, evan, now that the state is on, you know, quote, the down side of the mountain, what's the governor doing to ensure the state will be ready to reopen eventually? >> reporter: well, that's right, fred. the talk now is really about the calendar. that's what was on the agenda at governor cuomo's press conference today. he mentioned hospitalizations here are now down to where they were on april 4th. 21 days ago. it is not a great number but a sign that all the bending of the curve we've been trying to do here in new york for the past five weeks is actually working. and then the other part of that conversation then comes in to do the testing. governor cuomo mentioned today that testing capacity in the city and state are now at a level where he can make the diagnostic tests, one that determined whether or not you have covid, available to all those essential workers who had been out here working during the entire five-week period where we've been on the new york pause. he also mentioned antibody capacity is up and he is ready to roll those out as well.

. >> evan mcmorris santoro is in new york for us. so evan, the governor also said, while new hospitalizations are down, the death rate is still terribly high. what did he have to say about these states' new numbers? >> reporter: let me just read you this staggering numbers that was announced by the governor today. new york, which of course has been the epicenter of this pandemic in the united states, total cases, 181,825. 9,385 dead in total through this pandemic crisis, with 758 of those deaths coming yesterday. and the day before that, a similar number. the day before that, a similar number. what those numbers mean is that a lot of tragedy is going on in this city and in this state, as we're still trying to deal with this pandemic. what they also mean, according to the governor, is that the plateau in cases that we have been looking for here may have finally arrived. which means that we can start thinking about the future, possibly, even as this tragedy is still going on. and that's what the governor still trying to talk about. on t

evan mcmorris santoro, what else did the governor have to say? >> reporter: yes, i am here at javits convention center which is kind of a new landmark if you will of this state's fight against the covid-19 virus. initially the plan was for it to just take patients that were non-covid patients to free up more beds in the hospital system as the beds start to fill and more patients come in. on monday it will turn into a covid hospital where patients with the disease will come here to javits to be cared for, which again, is part of alleviating the hospital system. but a slaight shift for the rol of the javits center that could have a big impact on a state still waiting for equipment, trying to figure out what to do, because the governor says the apex, the high point of infection, is still around the corner. >> by the numbers we're not yet at the apex. we're getting closer depending on whose model you look at. they'll say four, favive, six, seven days. some people go out 14 days. our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven day range

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is live in new york city, and evan, as we look at the numbers in new york, of course, number one, which is not where you want to be when it comes to cases in deaths in new york, although we are seeing hospitalizations go down, which is a good sign. there's also this battle now between the mayor of new york city and the governor of the state about when schools will reopen. what do we know? >> reporter: well, erica, this is all part of a conversation that new york is having now about what comes after coronavirus. as you mentioned, you know, still, many deaths, many hospitalizations, but signs that some of the stuff is plateauing and perhaps going to be towards the back end of the curve on this stuff. and so, you have a situation now where people are talking about what comes next, and a big question has been the schools, because this is the largest school district in the country, a million students, a very big part of life here in new york, the public schools, and what we're going to do about them in the next coming weeks of the school year. so, mayor de blasi

>> i want to go straight to cnn's evan mcmorris santoro, who is in new york city outside the javits center. evan, what's the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: well, as you mentioned from in your interview with governor cuomo, so much of what goes on when it comes to this pandemic is about projections and modeling. and one of the things that, you know, is going on behind me is the javits center, the massive convention center is on monday being reopened as a specific covid hospital, staffed by federal personnel. and, you know, that's part of the efforts here to ramp up the number of hospital beds and availability of medical care for that apex that the governor suggested to you may be here, but we don't know yet. in his press conference earlier today, the governor spoke about using those projections to ramp up these hospital beds and how we may have actually reached the level of hospital beds that we need, but it doesn't actually mean that we're done with the -- with the adding of medical capacity. >> 140,000 beds was the worst case. 110,000 was more of the moderate case. i don't -- lo

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is live in new york. so, where does this stand and who gets to make that call? >> reporter: well, that's the open question. as you mentioned at the top of the piece, this is still a very much ongoing crisis here in new york city, and to that end, you know, schools have been closed for quite a while, and to that end, this morning, the governor came on and did a press conference where he said, unequivocally, the schools will remain closed in new york city through the end of the school year, through june, which is a big deal. i mean, there's a lot of stu students that go to school here. there's a lot of teach efrz and administrators and everything else. it's a massive system that does a lot more than just teach kids and keeping it closed is a big deal. but the mayor is pretty unekwef cal about why it needed to stay closed and how he was going to go about trying to do that. but shortly after that, the governor, andrew cuomo, came on and did his daily press conference and said something very different. >> you

evan mcmorris santoro, cnn, new york. >> reporter: this is the city of greely in weld county, kroed, where many businesses will be open on monday. the governor has called for a reopening of retail businesses that were considered nonessential but that have filed safety protocols and will deliver goods to curbside. on friday barber shops, beauty shops, manicurists, tattoo parlors will be allowed to open. what's different about the measure is the 64 counties have some say in how this works out. denver city and denver county don't want things to open tomorrow. others like weld county want more businesses to reopen. they are supposed to ask for a waiver. that waiver has been asked for, but county leaders have told business leaders they can open up their stores. this place here, this is a barber shop, it's called the barber shop, they have a full book of appointments between 9 and 6. there was a cleaning crew that came in here april 26th to sanitize it, they specialize in covid cleaning. the plan is to open this business, this barber shop, even though the governor doesn't want barber shops

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is joining us now. evan, that school issue is a huge deal. this is the largest school district new york city in the country. keeping them closed for the rest of the school year but the governor, andrew cuomo, saying, not so fast, wait a minute. isn't he the one who eventually has to make that call? >> reporter: well, in a word, yes, he thinks that is the case. look, it's been a -- a day for new york city residents that are expecting their government to operate as one during this pandemic, finding it operating in any other way but that. the day began with governor -- with mayor bill de blasio of new york city holding a formal press conference, issuing a formal release saying that the schools will remain closed in this city until, you know, through the end of the academic year on june 26th which was, you know, a change. people didn't know that was going to happen for sure. they've been closed for a while. they'll be closed for a while longer no matter what. but then shortly after that formal announcement was made, parents were alerted, teachers

cnn's evan mcmorris santoro is in new york city outside the javits center. evan, tell us what elsewhere we are hearing from governor cuomo today. >> reporter: well, ana, as you mentioned, the governor is still looking for supplies and for personnel. the past couple of weeks here in new york have been about ramping up a massive hospital system, as quickly as possible. to put it in perspective, when this thing started out, new york had around 50,000 hospital beds across the entire state. now there's about 80,000. there was a time that it was thought there might have to be more, which is why we see things like the javits center that's going to become a covid center next week. but today in his press conference, the governor said that the focus shifting away from hospital beds and to that equipment that he mentioned. >> 140,000 beds was the worst case. 110,000 was more the moderate case. i don't -- look, i hope -- i hope we're somewhere near the apex, right? or we're somewhere near the plateau. so i would hope that we don't need anywhere near that number of beds.

>> okay, evan mcmorris-santoro, we know you will stay on top of all things new york. thank you. louisiana's another state that continues to be hard hit. and new orleans is right now bearing the brunt of it. right now, the city is turning a convention center into a makeshift hospital as the louisiana governor warns that hospitals could soon be over capacity. here are the numbers in louisiana at this hour. more than 12,000 cases total, more than 400 deaths. 1,700 people in the hospital right now and nearly 600 of them on those life-saving ventilators. cnn's ed lavandera is live for us in new orleans. ed, you were given a tour of this convention center turned makeshift hospital today. what did you see? what did you learn? >> reporter: well, it was an interesting sight. this is a makeshift hospital that will begin accepting patients on monday. inside of those kind of elaborate tents, individual spaces for each of the patients. most of the rooms have cots with sheets on them and the nurse's stations within each of those areas. so that they can be attended to properly. who you will se

evan mcmorris-santoro, thank you so much. >>> dr. elizabeth claiborne is an emergency physician and adjunct professor emergency medicine university of maryland's pris georges hospital center. good to so you, doctor. >> thank you for having me. >> what's the status of cases in the state of maryland and the surrounding d.c. area? >> so maryland is definitely seeing an increased number of covid-positive patients. some models say we're in the middle of our peek but there is discrepancy on that. we have eseen increased number f acutely ill. continuing to see increased number in the coming days. >> you wrote a piece for "usa today" talking how you never worked in such a heartbreaking and traumatic environment as the coronavirus pandemic. tell us about what you and your colleagues are experiencing, and we certainly have been doing as mup repo much reporting particularly on the disparities of health care. prince georges county is predominantly black. so a good number of the people you're treating are black americans, disproportionately affec

evan mcmorris-santoro, cnn, new york. >> we're going to take a short break. when we come back, 16 people dead after a shooting rampage in canada. we'll get the latest in the investigation in a live report coming up. >>> also the u.s. president has kind words for protesters demanding governors reopen for business. why experts say they're asking for something dangerous. only tr an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. align, press and unzip. tide pods. keep them up. keep them closed. keep them safe. it means being there for each other. that's why state farm is announcing the good neighbor relief program we know our customers are driving less, which means fewer accidents. so state farm is returning $2 billion dollars to auto policyholders for the period ending may 31st. and we'll continue making real time decisions to best serve you - our customers. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. being a good

cnn's evan mcmorris santoro is there for us. what are both leaders saying? >> reporter: fred, it's been a saturday of kind of sad, is hopeful, and strange news. the sad news, 783 deaths. another horrible, tough number for new york. following that the hopeful news the governor is saying that is actually part of maybe a plateau that shows that maybe this is the peak we've all been waiting for may be upon us and then the strange news, which is that if you're sitting in new york today you had two back-to-back press conferences the first from the mayor of new york being very adamant that schools are going to close or i'm sorry were going to remain closed to the end of the year followed by a conference with the governor that said something very different. >> everything we're doing is to protect our children, our families, to help end the pain and trauma. we've all been through so much but we have to work constantly to make sure this ends. >> the mayor has an opinion in new york city. the county executive of nassau will have an opinion on nassau. steve will have an

cnn's evan mcmorris santoro is in new york.what does the governor say has to happen before things can re-open again? >> reporter: the governor opened his conference today talking about the hospitalizations that are down and the focus on the future everybody is having now. he mentioned he talked to his own daughter and found she was a little confused about this testing thing, sort of the big question now is testing. we have to do a lot of it in new york to re-open new york. the governor said look, we've done 500,000 in a month here which is a good number but the number has to go up dramatically for the state to re-open. the challenges are, for example, the chemicals required called reagents. they are hard to get at the moment. also, in order to have testing work you have to have both testing and tracking where you test people and track who they talk to and who are around and you need an

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is in new york city. the governor says new york is on the downside of the mountain but emphasized the last few weeks have not been easy. what more will yare you learnin? >> well ana, he said the last few weeks have been hell. which is true. its been a really tough time for new york. suffered so much during this pandemic. what the governor was talking about was that hospitalization numbers for covid are now down to where they were on april 4th. which is 21 days ago. but that is still very high. they are very high numbers. they are going the right direction. and so the governor is saying to everybody who is paying attention to him, every day that he does the press conferences, look, this is really hard. everybody knows it is hard. you know just a story out of georgia, people reopen their businesses because of financial struggles. that is happening here too. jobs are being lost. people are stuck at home. stressed out. but the governor is saying listen, we are seeing some results from this lockdown and need t

cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro is joining us live from new york right now. an, this update comes as the governor and the mayor of new york, they're locked in sort of a battle over whether the schools in new york city should be closed for the rest of the academic year and not reopen until september. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. today, once again, governor andrew cuomo in his daily press conference said that it's his call when schools in this state and this city reopen, that just a day after the mayor of the city, bill de blasio, was very strong and firm in a formal announcement that schools would remain closed here in the city for the rest of the academic year. so, look, if you're in new york, it's an open question as to whether or not the schools will reopen before they are officially set to end in june, but that's not true across a lot of the country. many states have already decided to keep their classrooms shut for the academic year, which means that there's been a shift to online learning. and it's been going on for a couple weeks now, which gives us

. >> evan mcmorris santoro thank you so much for that in new york. >> right now vice president mike pence is attending the graduation ceremony for the u.s. air force academy in colorado. cnn's sarah westwood is following that for us. >> reporter: that's right. we saw vice president pence land in colorado a few moments ago, greeted by the colorado governor who was wearing a mask, a sign of the times. vice president pence was not wearing one. this is the first time really the vice president has traveled anywhere since the coronavirus outbreak lockdown has sort of kept the president and vice president more or less grounded in washington for weeks now. it is significant that we are seeing the vice president travel to this commencement ceremony. the vice president's office tells me that initially this is going to be a video speech. the vice president was going to give a message via video to these cadets graduating today but when the vice president's office learned the air force academy was going to forge ahead with an in-person ceremony they decided the vice president would be going in person

cnn's evan mcmorris santoro is live in new york for us this afternoon. there is also a battle brewing in the city between new york city and albany frankly about whether schools will actually remain closed in new york city through the remainder of the school year. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, erica, you know, we're the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the united states in new york and we are a little ahead of other people. other hot spots are coming up behind us in terms of the rise of cases and the curve. you know, the news that governor cuomo mentioned today was that we are at the plateau. a very sort of dark and scary time of the plateau, which is many people dying but it also means talking about the future and reopening. and the news from new york is that reopening when it comes to us as a country is going to be messy. the school issue is the first example of that. this morning mayor bill de blasio comes on television with a big announcement, saying that the new york public schools, new york city public schools have been closed for

evan mcmorris santoro, cnn, new york. >> now, on the front lines of the pandemic, the healthcare workers course, even though they deal with life-and-death situations every day, this crisis is unprecedented. and they have had to push fears for their own safety aside. cnn's ryan young talked with some of those workers in chicago. >> it's just amazing to me how quickly people turn. they come in and, suddenly, they looked okay and then they don't. >> as chicago's rush university medical center, doctors and nurses come to work to fight covid-19. >> i'm seeing all the beds lined up in the hallway. waiting to be used. that's not anxiety provoking at all. >> their work starts right as they walk in the door. >> patient was hypoxic. so they are trying to get her oxygen saturation improved, and get her stabilized quickly. so this is kind of what happens when a patient comes in. you try to minimize the number of people that are in the room right now. so you can see there's probably only three or four people in there. only the key people. and they will try to get her stabilized so that she doesn't ne

evan mcmorris-santoro. thank you very much. joining us a former u.s. surgeon general. dr. murphy, thanks so much for joining us. we heard a stunning statement. a warning today from dr. deborah birx of the coronavirus task force. i'd like you to watch and listen. >> this is the moment to not be going to the grocery store or the pharmacy but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe. that means everybody doing the six feet distancing, washing your hands. >> was a pretty stunning statement. people have to go to the grocery store. they have to get food. they have to go to the pharmacy. so what do we do with that advice from her? >> i think what dr. birx is under scoring is something that public health experts have been saying, frankly, for weeks, wolf. we've got to be absolutely doing everything we can to minimize our contact with other people outside our home. if that means that you make fewer trips to the grocery store, we send just one person, we try to order food to be delivered to us or picked up on curbside, these are the things we have to do. th

>> evan mcmorris santoro in new york city for us. thanks. up next, he was a doctor in queens, and then he got the coronavirus. one night after gasping for air, he was admitted to the very icu where he often treated patients. we'll bring you his story of survival, next. here's the thing about managing multiple clouds for your business. when you've got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up. you know when your dog is itching for an outing... or itching for some cuddle time. but you may not know when he's itching for help... licking for help... or rubbing for help. if your dog does these frequently. they may be signs of an allergic skin condition that needs treatment. don't wait. talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp.com. to have constipation with belly pain, straining, and bloating, again and again. no way.