i'm dan ashley. >> and i'm kristen sze.hank you so much for joining us for this special edition of abc7 news. instead of our normal 4:00 p.m. newscast, today we're going spend an hour engaging experts and you, our viewers in a virtual town hall on the issue of race and coronavirus. >> you know, this is a vitally important one-hour virtual town hall erring on television here and on abc7news.com and facebook. over the next hour, we're going have a frank conversation, an important, honest conversation with a panel of experts and questions from you watching us right now. we want to hear from you about how the virus should not lead us to hate, no matter who you are. we will strive to understand where the disconnect, and we'll talk about how we can all do better. >> so let's begin our coverage today with a look at the issue. abc7 news anchor dion lim is live at the social desk in the newsroom with a look at reports of coronavirus-related discrimination toward the chinese and asian american communities. dion? >> yeah, kristen, in

i'm kristen sze. >> i'm larry beil. california now has more than 36,000 confirmed coronavirus cases which includes those who have recovered. more than 1300 people have died. since hospitals have not had a surge in patients, gavin newsom today loosened one shelter in place policy. hospitals can again schedule some essential surgeries. the governor also said he hopes to dramatically increase the number of daily tests by 9,000 for a total of 25,000 a day by the end of the month. a long-term goal is 60,000 tests a day. abc7 news reporter lyanne melendez live in the newsroom with details of the governor's plan. lyanne? >> larry, if you ask me the headline today is clearly that the state will revamp testing. we're going show you some projected numbers in just a few. that will then determine when sectors of our economy will reopen. with that said, a lot of business owners and employees are disappointed but not surprised. california hospitals have not experienced the anticipated surge of covid-19 patients. guided by the number

kristen sze, abc7 news. >>> all right. stuck at home. you would think between our mobile devices and land lines, we would just be flooded, inundated with unwanted sales calls. but thankfully, that hasn't been the case. michael finney is looking into why and joins us now. it's interesting. welcome. >> yeah, it is interesting. we're all getting a small little break from robocalls. so you may ask why. well, actually, it's a side effect of a worldwide pandemic. i asked ingrid koolen in san francisco to show me how she is working from home, something she had never done before the pandemic. she finds it has come with an unexpected benefit. almost no robocall interruptions. >> surprisingly very few since i've been staying at home. >> ingrid can actually quantify the change. >> i went through my caller id on my land line to see how many i had. and it was almost like three a day before shelter in place. and now it's -- i'm down to i think i've had two since i've been home in the last month. >> umail, the robocall blocking app has seen a huge drop

. >> i'm kristen sze. in east bay a group of a activists, civil rights lawyers and public defenders calling for the release of all inmates from alameda's jail to keep from getting or spreading the coronavirus. law enforcement says releasing inmates accused of violent crimes will be unwise and unsafe. abc 7 news anchor aaron thomas is live at the jail. eric? >> reporter: and those activists say a crowded jail is like a petri dish for covid-19. the only way to stop the spread is to release everybody. the sheriff says not so fast. before the coronavirus pandemic the jail was home to well over #,000 inmates. since then 11 have tested positive for covid-19 and many others have been released early, before they could get it. >> we have released over 600 individuals since march 16th. >> reporter: but civil rights activists and attorneys say that's not enough, in a video conference today they called for the remaining 1,979 inmates to be released. >> these men and women have to be released as soon as possible in wha

. >> and i'm kristen sze. six bay area counties today extended the stay at home orders through may.rnia now has a total of 44,861 coronavirus cases. that's according to johns hopkins data. that's the fifth highest number out of all u.s. states. now, president trump told governors during a phone call today that they should seriously consider reopening schools, saying young children have done well during the pandemic. so you want to get ready for another at least another month

i'm kristen sze. >> and i'm larry beil, again working from home.aid out his guidelines for lifting restrictions, but he gave no dates for when this would actually start. this will all depend on when hospitalization numbers flatten out and decline. the governor did say things will

. >> and i'm kristen sze.ast years, 420 has looked like this, a cloud of pot smoke rising up over golden gate park for a celebration of marijuana. now sky 7 is over the park right now. what a different picture that's hippie hill. as you can see, it is deserted. our reporter joins us live from san francisco with more. >> reporter: today is like the super bowl for cannabis enthusiasts. but like any other outdoor celebration, it will not be tolerated during the shelter ie. this was 420 last year. thousands gathered at golden gate park. that's not happening today. >> we made it clear that it is canceled this year. it's canceled today. >> reporter: they are having to pivot to viral

i'm kristen sze. >> and i'm larry beil.vernor stressed that no definitive decisions have been made at this point. but this was part of his presentation today on plans for easing stay-at-home orders. he laid out a vision of how businesses, schools and child care facilities may be allowed to slowly reopen. governor newsom says it must be gradual, guided by health and science and done in stages. abc7 news dan ashley is in newsroom with more on what the public health officer had to say today. >> it was a very detailed

i'm kristen sze. >> i'm larry beil.ia now has more than 36,000 confirmed coronavirus cases which includes those who have recovered. more than 1300 people have died. since hospitals have not had a surge in patients, gavin newsom today loosened one shelter in place policy. hospitals can again schedule some essential surgeries. the governor also said he hopes to dramatically increase t

. >> and i'm kristen sze. hours ago the senate unanimously passed a $484 billion relief package that includes new funding for small businesses, money for hospitals, and expansions to covid-19 testing. during his daily briefing this afternoon, governor gavin newsom continued to say california is flattening the curve. but while some counties plan to relax stay-at-home orders a little, the governor says we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves because of an increase yesterday in deaths, hospitals and icu patients. >> i caution those, including local elected officials that practicing physical distancing has worked to keep those numbers relatively modest in terms of growth. but if we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through

i'm kristen sze. >> i'm larry beil working from home. president announcing the federal guidelines to reopen the economy. this is an 18-page plan first unveiled to governors earlier in the day. it would ease restrictions in areas with low coronavirus while keeping in place those harder hit. >> restoring our economic life. some states will be able to open up sooner than others now that we have passed

. >> and i'm kristen sze. here is a look at what we'll be aloud, beginning on monday.projects can resume, but must comply with new protocols. outdoor businesses can reopen like landscaping and are required to follow social distancing requirements. child care can expand beyond families of essential workers to include children whose parents work in outdoor businesses. >> so here is what is not allowed at this point. playgrounds remain closed to the public.

>>> good afternoon, i'm kristen sze. welcome again to our daily special called "getting answers." we're asking experts your question every day at 3:00 here to get answers in realtime. today we have a two for one. we have an infectious disease specialist and an employment attorney for the entire half hour here, so you can ask questions to either one of them. your health and your employment and money situation. so post your questions now on our facebook live stream, g forresident trump's out ourst, nation, the guidelines. he is expected to lay that out, so when that happens, we will take you there live. >>> first joining us to help you get answers today is attorney angela reddick wright of the reddick law group coming back to us. and dr. peter fong, a professor of medicine at usc south. thank you both for coming on today. >> my pleasure, kristen. >> thank you. >> very nice to have you. peter, i think i'm going to start with you. president trump is expected to say governments can start opening may 1st, if they want, and governor newsom here in california has said he won't unless six

." >> i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily special called getting answers. we're asking experts your question every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in realtime with regard to coronavirus. but we want to start a little differently today, because i want to begin by showing you where we stand in the bay area in terms of cases. so my colleague built this graph we're going to show you. it's really great that it tracks coronavirus spread over the past month, county by county. each county in a different color line there. you can see it all started around the beginning of march, and then march 16th there is when we had the shelter in place. you see all the lines going up from there. purple is santa clara county. san francisco in that light aqua. and then you have other counties, as well. san mateo in orange, and you have alameda county in the da darker blue. but they're still on the upper trajectory in all the counties. but i want to point to the last couple of days. let's take santa clara. let's go to the purple one in santa clara. they haven't reported the numb

. >> and i'm kristen sze. you know, in past years, 420 has looked like this, a cloud of pot smoke rising up over golden gate park for a celebration of marijuana. now sky 7 is over the park right now. what a different picture that's hippie hill. as you can see, it is deserted. our reporter joins us live from san francisco with more. >> reporter: today is like the super bowl for cannabis enthusiasts. but like any other outdoor celebration, it will not be tolerated during the shelter ie. this was 420 last year. thousands gathered at golden gate park. that's not happening today. >> we made it clear that it is canceled this year. it's canceled today. >> reporter: they are having to pivot to virtual celebrations. >> we have a host of deejays, live entertainers, comedians, cannabis chefs. >> it's not the kind of thing in-person party kind of mentality. i think a lot of when we say it's a party, it's mostly a celebration that this plant has been recognized that something, everyone can celebrate. >> reporter: a new way

. >> and i'm kristen sze. six bay area counties today extended the stay at home orders through may. california now has a total of 44,861 coronavirus cases. that's according to johns hopkins data. that's the fifth highest number out of all u.s. states. now, president trump told governors during a phone call today that they should seriously consider reopening schools, saying young children have done well during the pandemic. so you want to get ready for another at least another month at home. dan ashley has more on today's announcement from san francisco mayor london breed. >> as we said, it was not a big surprise to anyone that this was coming. she has been the face of the stay at home order for the bay area and we expected this announcement was coming. on friday, she said it was likely the order was going to be extended through may. and today she made it official. >> this has been pretty much the most difficult thing i've had to do is to ask the people of this city to basically stay at home and only leave your house for essential services or if you're an essential worker or to get f

and two, as lauren cook with the college admission counseling told a kristen sze, it's not certain yetoosing a university means you'll be living at that university. >> it is an unknown about opening in the fall. i think that colleges are starting to be transparent about the fact that we're talking about it, whether it might be online learning, whether they might actually not have a fall semester. >> i just hope that we will be able to have that experience and that i can explore, become more independent and focus on myself and focus on my career and future. >> foy be a little cloudy, as universities try to figure out whether there will be campus life this fall in the year of covid-19. in pittsburg, eric thomas, abc 7 news. >>> happening tonight, a virtual prom for high school students. tiktok is hosting the event to celebrate life's special moments. tiktok live stream videos to prepare for tonight's party, diy outfits, accessories, beauty tutorials and tips to taking photos from professional photographers. diplo, dillon francis and other surprise guests will be performing. you'll be abl

ceremony here at pittsburg high and two, as lauren cook with the college admission counseling told a kristen szeet that choosing a university means you'll be living at that university. >> colleges are starting to be transparent about the fact that they're talking about it, whether it might be online learning, whether they might actually not have a fall semester. >> i just hope that we will be able to have that experience and that i can explore, become more independent and focus on myself and focus on my career and future. >> reporter: right now, that focus may be a little cloudy, as universities try to figure out whether there will be campus life this fall in the year of covid-19. in pittsburg, eric thomas, abc 7 news. >>> happening tonight, a virtual prom, though, for high school students. tiktok is hosting the event to celebrate life's special moments. tiktok live stream videos to prepare for tonight's party, diy outfit outfits, accessories, beauty tutorials and tips to taking photos from professional photographers. diplo and other guests will be performing tonight. you'll be able to request s

i'm kristen sze. >> i'm larry beil working from home. let's start with the president announcing the federal guidelines to reopen the economy. this is an 18-page plan first unveiled to governors earlier in the day. it would ease restrictions in areas with low coronavirus while keeping in place those harder hit. >> restoring our economic life. some states will be able to open up sooner than others now that we have passed the peak in new cases, we're starting our life again. >> the administration's guidelines are broken up into three phases lasting at least 14 days. so we'll give you the quick breakdown here. the fist phase calls on employers to have their employees returning to work in phases and minimize nonessential travel. phase two allows schools to reopen as well as churches, bars, gyms, and large venue, as long as proper social distancing measures remain in place. under the third phase, those venues just reopened with limited social dancing and proper sanitation. the governors, not the president will say when stateress open. the pres

. >>> today on midday live, oakland mayor libby schaaf told our kristen sze that helping the homeless during the pandemic could have long-term benefits. >> our hope is to find hotels that would actually be willing to sell us that asset so that once this health emergency is finished, we might be able to continue using that building for our homeless or as permanent affordable housing. >> mayor schaaf says the city has acquired some 60 trailers from fema. they're being set up near the coliseum and officials hope to have them available by may 1st. >>> in san jose, a homeless man was arrested and taken to jail on monday where he told staff he might have coronavirus. a test came back positive, and he is now being quarantined. there are a total of 11 confirmed cases at the santa rita jail in dublin. that's eight more than before. one of the inmates in that jail, ghost ship defendant dirk al er almena. a judge will consider friday. it's part of an overall effort to reduce the inmate population. almena is awaiting retrial on 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the warehouse fire. >>> lik

yuan even speaking directly to abc7's kristen sze last week, stressing the importance of properly using privacy settings. >> you have to set up a meeting password and protect your meeting id. don't let other people know that. >> on friday, zoom announced changes to the app to fix the issue, encouraging users to update to the latest version of ios. but the person filing the suit is still claiming damages for anyone using the app prior to the update. as tipkin explains, after all, it's likely user data was shared without permission. >> it's going to tell facebook what sort of phone you're using, where you're logging on, kind of those sort of specifics about how you're using this app, how you're using the device. >> so the bottom line here is prior to this update, information like your name or very specific details revealing your identity were not released. plooif the newsroom, stephanie sierra, abc7 news. >> thank you. >>> there is extreme anxiety among those who don't have income flowing in right now. they don't know how they'll meet basic needs, including the rent that is due tomorrow.

my colleagues dion lim, kristen sze and i shared how misconceptions about the disease are hurting asiancan neighbors and friends. >> let's turn now to jackfroot. you're an influencer on instagram. how are you using instagram to change perspectives. it's such a powerful tool. are you highlighting people who spread love or people who do harm? what's your approach? >> we're now sharing a lot of stories. and i'm getting messages like every 10, 15 minutes of stories that are happening around the world. so we're treating a lot of stories that are hate and evil and at the same time we're also seeing a lot of good things that people are stepping up or standing up to give back and help others out there that are in need right now. but a lot of it is really just a lot of negative stories and really bad racism and that is happening right now. >> well, you are raising awareness with your posts. i want to address this next question to dr. chin hong. you heard in daniel dea kim's testimonial, that he caught it in new york where he was filming. so it was a community spread case, and that being asian do

i'm kristen sze. >> and i'm larry beil. the governor stressed that no definitive decisions have been made at this point. but this was part of his presentation today on plans for easing stay-at-home orders. he laid out a vision of how businesses, schools and child care facilities may be allowed to slowly reopen. governor newsom says it must be gradual, guided by health and science and done in stages. abc7 news dan ashley is in newsroom with more on what the public health officer had to say today. >> it was a very detailed plan. there are four stages to the plan to slowly reopen businesses. and it can only progress when hospitalization rates begin to stabilize. >> phase one we're currently in, which is planning. work flow, focusing again on supply chains, physical and environmental considerations. planning to do what we needed to do on ppe, the planning we need to do to make sure the conditions are set so that we can move forward with modifications of the stay at home for businesses as one example. as we move into phase two,

kristen sze, dion lim and i will host that for you. that's this edition.news app. we appreciate your time. >> for the entire abc7 news team, good night. ♪ this is "jeopardy!" introducing today's contestants-- an educational advocate from st. louis, missouri... a blogger from naperville, illinois... and our returning champion-- a legal secretary from new york, new york... whose 1-day cash winnings total... and now here is the host of "jeopardy!"--alex trebek! [ cheers and applause ] thank you, johnny. of that low-scoring jinx we were experiencing on "jeopardy!" small wins for "jeopardy!" champions. picked up a lot of bucks yesterday. hemant and kami, welcome aboard. here we go into the "jeopardy!" round. and here come the categories, starting off with... all right. next... uh-oh. you name the country for us, followed by... and then... we'll give you the ship. you give us the literary work it appears in. and finally, a whole category devoted to that very talented... leanne, start. nations in the native tongue, $400. leanne. - what is china? - correct. nation

. >> and i'm kristen sze. two hours ago the senate unanimously passed a $484 billion relief package that includes new funding for small businesses, money for hospitals, and expansions to covid-19 testing. during his daily briefing this afternoon, governor gavin newsom continued to say california is flattening the curve. but while some counties plan to relax stay-at-home orders a little, the governor says we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves because of an increase yesterday in deaths, hospitals and icu patients. >> i caution those, including local elected officials that practicing physical distancing has worked to keep those numbers relatively modest in terms of growth. but if we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through the roof. and i don't think any of the people in their good will and the spirit which they are wanting to loosen things up want to see those numbers increase and spike because of those decisions. >> the california department of public health says 33,261 people in the state have tested

. >> and i'm kristen sze. here is a look at what we'll be aloud, beginning on monday. all construction projects can resume, but must comply with new protocols. outdoor businesses can reopen like landscaping and are required to follow social distancing requirements. child care can expand beyond families of essential workers to include children whose parents work in outdoor businesses. >> so here is what is not allowed at this point. playgrounds remain closed to the public. picnics aren't allowed either. real estate transactions can fully resume, but there are still restrictions on in person views and appointments. anything allowed is subject to social distancing protocols. abc7 news reporter chris nguyen live in the south bay with more. >> hi, larry. yeah, today's announcement came as a relief to many, especially those in the construction industry who are desperate to go back to work. as we continue to shelter in place, new details are emerging about the gradual reopening of our local economy. >> i want to just pause and recognize just how far we have come, and to expre

i'm kristen sze. >> and i'm larry beil, again working from home. today the governor laid out his guidelines for lifting restrictions, but he gave no dates for when this would actually start. this will all depend on when hospitalization numbers flatten out and decline. the governor did say things will not look the same down the road. he said waiters at restaurants will likely be wearing masks and gloves, and customers could have their temperatures taken before they go inside. also, public schools could stagger the times when students arrive to maintain social distancing. now the governor also said things won't be back to normal for quite a while, but says it's basically all up to you, us. and that's the curve that's got to flatten out. abc7 news reporter liz kreutz joins us live from her home with a closer look at what the governor outlined today. liz? >> larry, that's right. governor newsom laid out six key indicators that the state will need to meet in order to begin the process of getting back to normal. but even when we meet those indicators, we