chris lifesay, cbs news, venice. >> and that's the overnight news for this wednesday. for some ofyou, the news continues. for others, check back later for "cbs this morning" and follow us online any time at cbsnews.com. reporting from the nation's capital, i'm chip reid. captioning sponsored by cbs ♪ >> o'donnell: tonight, the mystery children's illness. the alarming disease possibly linked to covid-19, impacting kids, putting 15 in intensive care, a health alert sent out to all doctors in new york city to be vigilant, one dad's heartbreak. >> it was the scariest point in my life. there was nothing anyone could do. they prepared me for the worst. >> o'donnell: what parents need to know tonight and what it could mean for schools in the fall. vaccine whistleblower: a top scientist says he was ousted for raising the alarm with the white house about unsafe drugs and the lack of masks and other protective equipment. the president unmasked: traveling across the country for the first time in months, the

chris lifesay is there. >> reporter: venice, perhaps more than any other city under lock down, has gonee extreme to the other. the rialto bridge, the grand canal, even saint mark's square deserted. streets and canals usually awash with tourists now so still nature is filling the void. says ecologist michael. there it is under the ropes. >> they're babies. >> reporter: nearby, an octopus beneath a dock. schools of fish and under water life. and jellyfish like the one we spotted. hardly any boats to scare them away or to churn up cloudy sediment. the transformation so dramatic, the european space agency snapped these satellite images taken one year apart. conspicuously absent? cruise ships. last year more than 600 passed through. their titanic size crashing on these fragile foundations says environmental scientist. what are going on with these steps? they look like they're about to fall in the water. >> they probably are about to fall in the water. >> reporter: once last year the damage was not so gradual. four people were injured when this cruise liner slammed into a venician dock. but t

chris lifesay has the story from rome. >> reporter: for two months virtually all italians had to stay home. today life is returning to something nearing normal. in rome's iconic flower market, the florists have returned. >>> it's been hard economically and personally, he says. i'm part of this piaza and it's part of me. cafe is like the oldest in rome, can once again serve coffee. in 260 years has this cafe ever been closed? >> never, never closed. >> reporter: not even during world war ii? grazi, grazi. not exactly an italian tradition. they are in the middle of a pandemic stressing the loosening of restrictions must not be seen as a signal we're all free. churches, schools and museums remain shut. elsewhere in europe masks remain mandatory in spain. rules against outdoor exercise were also lifted. in germany, widely praised for containing the outbreak, churches resume service. and thisord's european quar but things aren't getting better everywhere. the outbreak is worsening in russia which recorded its worst day in new cases sunday with more than 10,000. but there is cause for celeb

chris lifesay has the latest from rome. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: it's been 70 days and 70 nights. today churches in italy can reopen to the general public. and so can st. peter's where pope francis celebrated mass. but not before being sanitized inside and out. and in some cases, with the help of the military, like the church of st. peter and paul in rome. priests must wear gloves and masks to give union. parishioners must receive it in their hands, not directly in their mouths. even with added safety measures there's risk. there is more opportunity for the disease to spread. people are still getting sick and dying every day. >>> is now really a good time to reopen the country? >> i mean, the number decreasing every day. i mean, we have more people that are coming out from this disease and -- >> reporter: including pierre, the deputy health minister and a coronavirus survivor. now that italians are recovering from the disease faster than they're contracting it, he says italy should leave its sick bed. >>> it's like you're discharging the country. >> it's like we are discharging it