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CNN NEWSROOM

Stimulus Package Deal; Spain Overtakes China in Deaths; Russia Claims to have Control over Coronavirus; Starbucks Reopens in China; Deaths in Washington State Jump. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired March 25, 2020 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[09:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: When you look at this relief plan, what's in it for your company and for the people who work for your company? When you look at that, is it going to make a difference?

GINNI ROMETTY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, IBM: Well, look, it's going to make a difference to the whole economy and then it makes a difference to IBM. So it isn't about any relief particularly to IBM.

But I'm a member of the business roundtable and one of the most important things we've been advocating for is not only that it be big and bold, but this is really about what you just covered in your prior story and conversation there, which was about getting money to the individuals who need it, all the small, medium businesses, because they form lots of our supply chains for how all the big companies operate out there and then the critical industries.

So if that remains healthy, the economy remains healthy and then IBM does. So we're not a recipient of anything in there, but it is absolutely to our benefit for this to be a healthy economy.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about how soon a company like yours and the people who work for your company want all these restrictions to be lifted. I know there is an enormous economic impact, but you're a CEO of a company. You care about your workers' health as well. As you know, the president's talked about lifting things perhaps as soon as Easter. But for someone like you who has a vision, a unique vision of this in terms of its effect on your workers but also your business, is that too soon?

ROMETTY: Well, look, I think, like all of my colleagues, having our people and our clients and our families around us all be safe is number one. And when you think of what IBM does, Jim, because we do all this mission critical work, which I often say is everything that's invisible that becomes visible during these times, our teams have been working remote, so we have hundreds of thousands of people. And I've got almost 300,000 working remote.

And it's a bit of what you have to do when you do mission critical work. So our folks are working through this. They are working differently. They are working safely. But because we've had to go through crisis after crisis, whether it's mother nature, whether it's a financial crisis.

So, to me, this is a way we've been built to work. Now that said, I think maybe it's really under your question, I do think we're going emerge differently and things will change. People will work differently after this.

SCIUTTO: Interesting.

To that point, how? Do you think -- so telework has become normal for -- listen, and IBM's a technology company. It's probably easier for many of your employees to do their job given the technology they have and the roles that they have. But do you believe that this is going to be a lasting change for how -- not everyone, if your -- if you work in a restaurant, you've got to go to the restaurant, right? But for -- but for other people, do you think this will be a lasting change?

ROMETTY: Look, I think it won't be as binary as that. I do believe it will have a permanent impact on parts of how we do our work, but there's many things we still need to be together for. But it will change how work gets done generally.

I think some of the more interesting things I already see us working on with clients has to do with things like, it will change your supply chain. You will at least want the flexibility to be more local after you've seen what the issues of distance have been.

I've seen, and we've started a lot of work with people who want to automate things that maybe they hadn't before because they want that flexibility. It's almost extreme automation, or extreme digitization is what I think is what you're going to see come out of here.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, that's a great point about supply chains going forward.

I want to ask about IBM's new program, this is through The Weather Channel app, that allows people to track cases near them. And this is really interesting because I know China very early on rolled out something like this, where you can even take your temperature to help track.

But tell us how soon this will be out and how it works.

ROMETTY: Yes, we've actually got four big groupings of things we've been doing to help and in many ways it's to reduce the duration or find the cure.

And what you're speaking about is what we've got a set of applications for consumers. Now, many people probably don't know IBM does own The Weather Channel. And as part of that, you'll find us on 300 million phones in your hands. And what we saw was part of the issue, you go there every day for weather, but the data for Covid is very complex out there. There's many different sources. Some of them are conflicting.

And so we said, could we help if we had a trusted source for the consumer, from the CDC, that was hyperlocal, so that you could go, you could take a look -- think friends and family. I -- the first thing I did was look at my mother's zip code.

I know she has to go to the doctor because of some things. How did I feel about her going outside? The next thing my husband did was look at the zip code where I was and he said, stay back when he looked at mine versus his right now. And so that idea that you can look and then monitor the trending, I think is really about helping everyone change their behavior to do what's the right thing right now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMETTY: So you can hit Covid-19. You will get it at a county level updated. You will see the cases and then soon to come will be the recoveries as well. And you'll see the trending that's out there. And then next to come is in Spanish and then as we work around the rest of the world.

SCIUTTO: OK.

ROMETTY: The U.S. does have better data at a very local level than other parts of the world right now.

[09:35:03]

SCIUTTO: Interesting. Just very quickly, for folks who are watching now to get this, they just go to the app store and find it on weather.com, it's as simple as that?

ROMETTY: Yes. Weather.com, go to the app store, just upgrade -- update your -- no upgrade, update your app and look at the very bottom of the screen, hit Covid.

SCIUTTO: All right.

ROMETTY: You'll get the maps. You can expand them. You can look. Anything you need to do. And, like I said, I think it's going to be a hit for friends and family to really help you with all of your relatives' behavior.

SCIUTTO: Yes. All right, I'm going to do that during the break.

Ginni Rometty, thanks very much for your help. We wish you and the people who work for IBM the best of luck through this.

ROMETTY: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin, he's canceled a trip in order to address his own efforts to contain the coronavirus in Russia. Why critics are calling him to come clean, as the Kremlin reports its biggest one-day jump in cases there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:10]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. And this disturbing news from Europe. Spain has now recorded more

deaths from coronavirus than China. And 3,434 people have now died of the virus in Spain. That compared to just over 3,200 in China, where the outbreak, of course, originated.

CNN's Al Goodman joins me now from Madrid.

And, Al, there's a lot of talk about Italy early on that Italy, of course, which has been suffering through this, has an older population, one of the reasons you had more deaths there. Why such a big spike in Spain?

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, an older population as well, Jim, but also the medical doctors and nurses, the whole medical community have been clamoring for more supplies, respirators for the patients, there's a lack of those, masks, gloves, gowns for the doctors.

So as these numbers go up, the senior Spain (ph) officials had been saying that Spain could be near the peak of the infection cases in the coming days. Now with these latest figures including this death rate that you just mentioned, they're saying -- one senior official saying it could come probably soon.

Spain's scrambling to get the supplies the Spanish government has asked NATO -- it's a NATO member -- has asked NATO for these kinds of medical supplies. Just announced a $450 million deal with China to bring in millions of masks, almost -- and all these kinds of supplies, about a thousand respirators so badly needed at the hospitals, especially in the Madrid area, one of the hardest hit.

But just -- they're just trying to catch up and so people analyzing this now within Spain are saying, they got on to it a little late and they don't have the right equipment. They don't have enough of the right equipment just yet.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, one of the key lessons around the world is get on it early.

Al Goodman there in Spain, thanks very much.

Nearly 2 million people are under mandatory self-isolation in Moscow after Russia reports its biggest one day jump in coronavirus cases. Russia is now reporting 658 infections, a number critics say is actually much higher.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Russia's efforts to contain the pandemic just moments ago after visiting a hospital in Moscow yesterday.

CNN's Matthew Chance has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Does Russia have this coronavirus under control? Well, its Orthodox Church are still open, worshippers still kissing icons, which are then disinfected. It's not ideal, but the church says it's trying to keep Russians calm.

If you close the churches, orthodox people could stop panicking because they want to pray, says this priest.

We would rather they abstain from kissing the icons, he adds.

It doesn't seem to be much to ask amid a viral pandemic.

But Russians have good reason to be uncertain of the threat. In a country of more than 140 million, in a vast border with China, where the virus originated, fewer than 700 people have so far been confirmed as infected. Officials say timely action to seal borders, quarantine infections, and monitor with face recognition technology people who could spread the virus has spared Russia the catastrophe now befalling other states.

Just like the church, it's a message of calm, not caution, that Russia's political leaders most want to spread.

Even President Putin, 67 years old, so at higher risk, has been declaring the outbreak under control and better than any other countries. While pictured on state media, meeting crowds and shaking hands. It's certainly not social distancing.

But even the Russian leader admits the country's low official tally may obscure a much deeper crisis.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Here's the thing, the authorities may not possess the full information because people, a, sometimes don't report it, and, b, they do not themselves know that they are sick.

CHANCE: And this is not the action of a government relaxed about coronavirus. A new hospital being thrown up rapidly outside Moscow, which would significantly increase Russian capacity to cope with a surge of infections. Kremlin critics, including one doctor close to a leading Russian opposition figure, suggests what's been happening in Russia up until now is a cover-up.

DR. ANASTESIA VASILIEVA, DOCTORS ALLIANCE (through translator): Doctors from hospitals are practically being turned into centers for treating patients with coronavirus are reaching out to us. Instead of honestly talking about this, the authorities are masking the assignment of beds and calling them beds for patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory viral infects.

[09:45:00]

CHANCE: Russian officials deny there's been any misleading information. And in recent days, Putin has finally been shown in full protective gear visiting a hospital, engaging with this crisis. And while the number of confirmed infections in Russia remains suspiciously low, it seems to be bracing itself for much worse to come. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Matthew Chance there from Russia.

As travel restrictions in China begin to lift, Starbucks has reopened about 95 percent of its stores it closed in January in that country. CEO Kevin Johnson says they opened four to five stores specifically in Wuhan. Of course, the city where the outbreak is believed to have started. He says he's confident the U.S. can recover in a similar way.

CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich joins me now with more details.

So this was really months of shutdowns in China. When the Starbucks CEO talks about reopening on a similar scale in the U.S., is he talking about soon or many weeks from now?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It's looking like many weeks from now, Jim. He's trying to use the same timeline that they established in China here in the United States.

Kevin Johnson said that one of the reasons they were able to open their stores again was because China -- most of China was on a lockdown for two months and it allowed the company to understand how fast the virus was spreading, how fast it was being contained, and then it gave them the signal about when they could start to open their stores very slowly in certain areas.

So Kevin Johnson has said that he's looking to use that similar playbook for his business, but other -- also for other businesses here in the United States. He spoke just yesterday about this on CNBC. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN JOHNSON, CEO, STARBUCKS: We have been dealing with Covid-19 now for nine weeks in China. And throughout that entire nine week journey, we have sort of learned the playbook and we've learned the curve. Now what we're doing is we're just mapping exactly what's happening in the U.S. week by week. So if it's -- if it's -- it's now like week three here in the U.S. We look back in kind of week three at what happened in China. And we sort of know what to expect. And it's following a similar pattern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: One of the most difficult things for businesses right now is planning. Starbucks has reported that they will lose about $400 million in the second quarter because of what happened in China. But right now here in the United States their stores are still closed. They're only doing drive through and delivery.

But, Jim, one of the most notable things about the company right now is they are still continuing to pay their employees for 30 days, no matter if they're working or not during this time.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: That's an enormous relief to those folks.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks very much.

Now to the nation's largest grocery stores and a new protective protocol that you may see -- soon see in those stores. Stores such as Walmart and Kroger are now installing sneeze guards, just like the ones you see here. The Plexiglas barrier part of an effort to prevent spreading germs and protect both shoppers but also crucially store employees. They're still coming into work and they're at risk here. Many stores have already reduced hours to make time for deep cleanings in between shifts.

Coming up, we're going to go live to Washington state. That is the first coronavirus hot spot here in the U.S. What lessons have they learned in the past few weeks that could help the rest of the country?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:59]

SCIUTTO: Some sobering news from out west. The death toll is still rising in Washington state, the early epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak here in the U.S. Latest numbers show 123 deaths, total more than 2,400 confirmed cases of the virus, but is the rate of increase there appearing to stabilize? Authorities are looking closely at the numbers this morning.

CNN's Sara Sidner is in Seattle.

Sara, this is the key thing that we've seen in many countries around the world. There is a pattern, a jump and then eventually that tails off or peaks.

What do the facts say from Washington state right now?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's very hard to say. I think everyone should remember that Washington state was the first to have a major Covid-19 outbreak that was extremely deadly, especially linked to that one nursing home.

We just heard on Tuesday from the State Department of Health that the death rate has actually gone up, 123 people dead. But their numbers are about 2,400 confirmed cases.

And, as you mentioned, there is an interesting and hopeful number that has been put out here, that basically the number of coronavirus cases are still rising here, but the rate at which the number of cases are rising has actually dropped by more than half. It's about 12 percent compared to 30 percent. Now, that's just the rate at which the numbers are rising.

Now, that seems very promising, of course. But the question is, what does that mean? And is that a real harbinger of what's actually going on? And here is the problem. The problem is, the change in the policy as to who to test. We don't know if more people or the same number of people are being tested because the guidelines for testing actually changed.

We also know that it was just Monday that the governor here ordered a stay at home for all of the people in the -- in the state. And so, in this instance, he actually was after Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York.

[09:55:02]

But, on March 16th, a couple of weeks after about a dozen people were confirmed dead from that nursing home, the governor closed restaurants, bars, places where people socialize. The only thing you could do is get take-out and go to the store and go to the pharmacy. And so that really may have had an impact, the social distancing.

But, again, we want to warn that these numbers, we don't know exactly why the rate has slowed as far as the number of cases that people are positive.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SIDNER: So, at this point, we're just waiting to see if this is going to spike again or if this is really good news.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. We know you'll stay on top of it.

Sara Sidner in Washington state. Thanks very much.

The first vote on the $2 trillion stimulus package could happen as early as today. What does it mean for you? What does it mean for your employers?

Stay with us. We'll let you know.

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