u.s president-elect joe biden has warned
of fatal consequences to americans over
delays in the presidential transition
process
biden has urged the trump administration
to allow his team to coordinate on
pandemic response plans
president trump has so far declined to
begin a formal handover process
focusing instead on disputing his
election loss
here's what biden had to say during a
speech in delaware
more people may die if we don't
coordinate a vaccine is important
it's of little use until you're
vaccinated
so how do we get the vaccine how do we
get over 300 million americans
vaccinated
what's the game plan it's a huge huge
huge undertaking to get it done
prioritize those greatest in need
and work on our way through it and also
cooperate with the world health
organization and the rest of the world
in dealing with this
if we have to wait until january 20th to
start that planning
it puts us behind over a month month and
a half
and so it's important that it be done
that there be coordination
now now or as rapidly as we can get that
done
us president-elect joe biden speaking
there and his scientific advisers are
planning
to meet with drug makers to map out a
nationwide vaccination plan
without assistance from the trump
administration
because the situation is getting
increasingly serious
the u.s is seeing its biggest spike in
coronavirus infections
and deaths since the start of the
pandemic
new cases have more than doubled in the
past month the latest hot spots are
central states such as north and south
dakota iowa
wyoming and wisconsin they are all
reporting record numbers of
hospitalizations in terms of new cases
the highest numbers are in the popular
states those include
illinois california georgia and
michigan with more than a million total
cases and over 20
000 deaths texas continues to be one of
the worst hit
dw's carolina chimoy went to el paso
where hospital managers say their
facilities are close
to being overwhelmed
el paso is on the border with mexico but
no one is talking about the wall anymore
the pandemic is raging here numbers
are soaring right now we have about 241
inpatient covet 19 cases now to contrast
that with about 45 days ago we only had
30 but a lot of those people that you
see going into these tents behind me
they will wind up in inside our hospital
health authorities are already arranging
to move patients to other cities
if the hospitals become overwhelmed
planning for months of strain
there's going to be a long period yet
before a
vaccine is here so we have to make sure
that we are
ready for this winter not only here in
el paso
but also around the country resources
are finite
there is already a backlog in dealing
with the dead
refrigerated morgues outside the
hospitals
serve as makeshift mortuaries funeral
homes in el paso
are so overwhelmed that families
sometimes have to wait a week
to bury a loved one funeral directors
themselves
are struggling to cope
the level of stress is very high because
it is not comparable to how it used to
be
some months ago we had around 30
services per month
right now we're having around 18.
the second wave of the pandemic is not
only hitting record numbers of people
many of whom could die local lockdowns
in el paso to try and curb the spread
are wreaking havoc on businesses here in
el paso there's a 10 pm
curfew but even during the day many
people
stay at home this is where the economic
effects of the pandemic can most clearly
be seen
downtown el paso seems abandoned
also this restaurant wasn't able to keep
most of its stuff
now the owner has to attend the few
clients himself
the current situation had a clear impact
on his political decision
he voted for joe biden
i knew he could do better than donald
trump and i think
we all hope the same we hope for a
different government that supports us
works just around the corner for him the
presidential race
is not over yet titan is not going to be
the president
it's going to be donald trump he feared
his business might be hit by the
pandemic
but now he has orders until july next
year republicans he says are good for
the construction sector
despite his support for trump he has his
own opinion on kovitt 19
especially after he tested positive
everyone is going to get the virus and
we're going to fill up the hospitals
testing is one of the crucial
instruments to avoid to this problem
miguel coordinates 10 testing centers in
el paso
he works for a private company that is
being paid by the state of texas
but his main concern in the pandemic is
not political
i don't have fully knowledge of what joe
biden is planning to do in his
administration
but until now we haven't had any kind of
difficulties with the current
administration
i don't think it's a matter of resources
the main concern
is how to communicate to the people what
to do or not
trump supporters biden supporters two
different sides
that seem to come together in el paso in
fear of the coronavirus
and here's a quick look at some of the
other developments in the pandemic
south korea has announced it will
tighten social distancing rules from
thursday in the greater
seoul area and parts of gangwon province
amid a resurgence of
infections sweden is limiting public
gatherings to
eight people following a surge in new
cases unlike most countries
sweden has avoided lockdowns relying on
voluntary measures
and from thursday new zealanders will
have to wear masks on public transport
in auckland
and on planes nationwide this follows
several small outbreaks
in auckland well no one in the uf's can
say that they were not
warned public health experts predicted
back in march and april that without a
well-designed strategy
the virus would emerge again with a
vengeance
take a listen to what the governor of
michigan told her state today
we are in the worst moment of this
pandemic to date
the situation has never been more dire
we are at the precipice and we need to
take some action
because as the weather gets colder and
people spend more time indoors
this virus will spread more people will
get sick
and there will be more fatalities
well unfortunately michigan governor
whitmer's dark
forecast it applies to the entire
country it's expected that 150
000 more people could die by mid-january
if radical steps are not
taken let's go down to our correspondent
carolina chamoy she is in washington dc
tonight good evening to you carolina
there are two promising vaccines in the
pipeline now but
thousands and thousands could die before
we ever see that first injection
is all of america ready to return to a
lockdown
well most of the people don't want it
because
it's they have economic reasons for that
there are
restaurants they are small businesses
they could not
cope without help of the government and
again a lockdown
so uh most part of the population don't
want a lockdown
but this would be the fastest way um
to fight against the virus and it's
going to be really a long time until
the vaccine um arrives and this is able
to so
it's not that all of a sudden it's it
can be sold
um also who is going to be the first
group of people who gets that vaccine
that is a very important question
probably the health workers
physicians nurses um so we can't count
yet on that vaccine
uh people don't want and probably
economically they can't handle a
lockdown and
this is a big problem that not only the
united states but several countries
around the world are having right now
um and this is also what i became really
aware of uh
being right now in having been in texas
i arrived yesterday
i um filmed a report there about kovit
19
and talking to the physicians the nurses
and also to people who have their own
restaurants of their own
small businesses and that maybe made me
be very aware of this problem we're in
carolina were you struck by the people
that you spoke to
in el paso who say that the trump
administration has done
a good job in dealing with the pandemic
well yes brent because it's pretty clear
that donald trump didn't uh
take this pandemic seriously from the
beginning on
and then you can see the immediate
effects you can see this refrigerated
morgues
you can see people who are dying and
and and patients and and the family
members of the people who died and
um who are not uh receiving the the well
the
way they would like to say goodbye in a
funeral home because
um their loved ones who have died i have
to be in this refrigerated morgue so
these are really really tragic stories
and then hearing force from someone who
also was infected himself
and this man he even took chlorine
because donald trump said to do so
and he's completely convinced that uh
donald trump uh is
not only right in the political things
he said but also
in in in his speech about about a
healthcare and
and and kovit19 especially since uh
donald trump himself uh
was infected um so of course uh we were
all the whole team we were quite shocked
uh
to to hear that that was uh yeah it was
it was
shocking and at the same time we noticed
that one of his main reasons to support
donald trump
uh were the economic reasons his
business is doing very well the
construction sector is doing well right
now because people are renovating their
homes
they're a lot at home so he has work and
orders until next year as you heard
we know that el paso is on the u.s
mexico border
what's the situation like on the mexican
side for people
who contract the virus
well officially there are also certain
measures on the mexican side and they're
supposed to
wear a mask always and stay at home
but you also have to consider that we're
talking about a very poor side of mexico
and a lot of people they prefer to
work and go out and have something to
eat by the end of the day
and so um the virus is not their main
concern
surviving is their main concern um on
the mexican side
also a lot of these people um across the
border the ones who have a visa
usually they they would cross the border
and they would work
um for example in restaurants as uh
cooks or waiters in a restaurant
and then they would go back and live in
the cheaper
side the mexican side and now they are
not able to do that anymore because they
can't cross the border even though they
have a visa the only ones who are
allowed to cross the border
are the ones who are u.s citizens and
for example the owner of the restaurant
i talked to
he lives in the mexican side but he is a
u.s citizen himself
that is why he was allowed to vote uh
but he ran out
of of waitress because they were all
mexicans who had a visa and who are not
able to go to the u.s side now
yeah that's right that shows you the
power of a passport there we know we've
got two months to go before the biden
administration can take any action i
mean where do you see the u.s
at the end of this year do you see it in
a big lockdown or do you see even more
death and misery on the horizon
well we have to see what um this special
task force of
uh joe biden plans to do what they i
mean this is a really
seems to be a very um high-level uh
group of professionals and physicians
and
experts in this field um and we
know not only from the united states but
also from germany and from europe
that the most effective thing the most
effective measure
is a lockdown but we also know how our
economies worldwide
um can be really hit by a lot
and um we'll have to wait i can't tell
you where i see the united states
but i definitely can tell you and that
this virus
is um well it's killing a lot of people
in this country
right now yeah unfortunately that is the
the sad truth in the u.s tonight dw's
carolina chamoy on the story for us in
washington d.c
carolina thank you thank you
you