Coronavirus hits 46,000 in the United States, Hubei province opens up
Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss the latest news about the coronavirus outbreak.
Video Transcript
BRIAN SOZZI: Let's get right to our very own Anjalee Khemlani with the latest on the coronavirus. Anjalee.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Brian. Yeah, unfortunately, the news is not good. We still see those numbers continue to really spike around the world. We're nearing almost 400,000 cases, easily will be reached pretty shortly. Meanwhile, in the US, we're well past 45,000 cases, on our way to 50,000. And we know that, unfortunately, New York state is really bearing the brunt of it, especially New York City. Looking at what that spread looks like, a lot of experts are saying it's very possible this virus was around a lot longer than when we were detecting. But detection is the key right now. We know that testing has been ramping up. Yesterday, at the coronavirus White House Task Force, meeting-- briefing, sorry-- Dr. Deborah Brooks was saying, you know, with this testing that's coming online, we are seeing more and more cases and we're waiting to see just where those hotspots are. We won't get that clear picture until the end of the week. Yesterday--
- This is [INAUDIBLE] joining the call.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: --the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did say that they are ramping up targeted efforts to look at nursing homes and what they're doing to help avoid spreading the infection. Because as we know, nursing homes have been disproportionately hit and the elderly are also disproportionately affected as well. So still waiting to hear a little bit more about that and what those efforts will entail. But they are suspending our regular inspections of the more than 15,000 nursing homes in the country right now, Brian.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Anjalee, Alexis here. What are you hearing regarding President Trump wanting to reopen the economy, sort of relax or lift the stay at home order as early as next week? I know there were some in the medical field who say that it's way too early, that he is putting American lives at risk. But President Trump is saying the American economy was built to be open and so he wants to get it reopened as quickly as possible.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely, you did hear that yesterday, and you also heard many of the health experts say that it is not possible. Even on health experts, people who are in the political sphere, are saying that they are concerned about that and you can not, in fact, do two things at once. As President Trump was saying, he was indicating that it is, in fact, possible to reopen the economy as well as curb the outbreak. As we know, hashtag #FlattenTheCurve is the trend right now and we need to be paying attention to that. But health experts are saying that it is going to be impossible to achieve that if we do, in fact, reopen the economy.
Related to that, actually, Wuhan, as we know, is going to be reopening on April 8. So it seems really interesting that that's happening and look at how long that took to get to where it is. And we know that with their quote, unquote, "draconian measures" is how they even got to the point where they can reopen the economy right now.
Meanwhile, we still have a little bit of freedom with people moving around, so that may not achieve the optimal curving that we are looking for-- flattening the curve that we're looking for. So it just remains to be seen really how this all pans out and what a decision The president ultimately takes. He did indicate that he was looking at weeks, not months, in terms of a shutdown if need be. So again, we're waiting to hear what the final decision is.
BRIAN SOZZI: Angelique Khemlani, thanks so much.
