The toll rising in so many cities and health care and emergency workers on the front lines, fearing for their own health and safety as they work to keep so many Americans safe with coming weeks likely to test the American health care system in a way unlike any time before, it was his chief national correspondent, Matt Gutman.

Now with the latest on the growing wave tonight, as cities across the country turned convention centers into hospitals, beaches into isolation parks, new anecdotes of the virus spreading explosively like quote a bomb in Washington state, a choir practice on March 10th would turn deadly.

The 60 people they're saying they practice social distancing and used hand sanitizer.

I heard from 20 people, probably within a day or two, that they, in fact, 45 members are now either cove it positive or have symptoms.

Three have been hospitalized.

Two are now dead.

Health authorities tracing an outbreak of two dozen family members in rural Georgia to a funeral that occurred before social distancing warnings went out.

Have you seen people who you can't fix very much, so it breaks my heart.

It really does.

Mom, my cousin is a hospice, Nurse says.

She's used to this, but I'm not used to this amount of death.

And where's you down?

Nurse Carly Rice has been treating Ola Mae Franklin in the I C U for over a week now.

But with their family members prohibited from entering the I see You for fear of contamination, she did the next best thing.

She put them on face.

Time to say goodbye, and I gowned up and I went in there and I prepared them for the worst that they'll ever see their family member.

It's so hard to sit there and hold your patient's hand.

Well, they're family members were sitting there telling them they love them and it's not good byes.

See you later.

On the other end of the line, Franklin's granddaughter, Venetia Toby.

He was just amazing connection, you know, although it was just facetime, there's Carly grabbed grandma hand and Grandma started to squeeze her hand.

I started to say, I love you.

Issue.

Nurse Carly is amazing.

The world.

In times of Nurse Carly's tonight, hospitals are nearing peak capacity and health care workers are falling sick in increasing numbers.

12.

Testing positive at one hospital in Oregon, Nurse Irene Hunt works nearby.

And I just really need this to be over, and I need pee pees so that I can protect my family, respiratory therapist Casey Part told colleagues in a group chat.

He's facing his own mortality.

I'm 35 years old and for the first time in my life, as considered whether or not I need to write a will in New Jersey.

I see you nurse Michael Cora.

Doc is telling us about a son face timing with his father moments after he died.

It was hard.

He just did just pop you.

Bobby, please don't leave me alone In this world, Core Doc is offering a chilling warning.

Once your doctors and nurses die, you don't stand a chance.

If we die, you die.

That is the truth.

In New York, Staten Island paramedic Jack Chapman is fielding the surge of 911 calls for covert cases.

In recent days, the cold volume has surpassed the highest numbers that have never been.

The call.

Volume now is higher than it was after 9 11 a.

B.

C's Eva Pilgrim spent the day with an E.

M s crew in hard hit Queens, responding to those calls, many afraid of infecting their own families At home, we have dozens and dozens of members for sitting in the car because they don't want to bring it to the but also in New York, some much needed relief for emergency workers on the front lines.

Ambulances from around the country began arriving to provide additional support.

Mayor Bill de Blasio saying 250 of them in 500 E.

M.

T s are heading to the city, courtesy of FEMA.

When I heard about it, really think that people would come around way tonight that mass quarantine ramping up in Los Angeles?

People moving into these RVs?

Los Angeles, of course, will be the new New York in the way that New York is the new Italy.

Last week we had one day with a 52% increase, so you just can't count them yet.

So we're looking at probably sometime 34 weeks from now of hitting a place where, if the calculations proved we will have fewer beds than we have patients for L.

A.

Mayor Eric Garcetti fighting to boost testing and limit the virus.

This is very personal.

One of his own daughters is a nurse.

Hold it.

So as a father of a nurse and is the mayor of this city, I mean, how concerned are you about your own daughter at this point?

But, you know, this is a personal disease for all of us.

We're gonna know people who get afflicted, you know, people that are on the front line and we're gonna know people who die.

We have to ready ourselves For what this means.

This could double the number of people that die in a city like Los Angeles in a given year.

Um, this will be very personal to us.

It's not just statistics.

There's soon gonna be stories, and they're all gonna hit home.

And Matt Gutman joins us now live from Los Angeles at a hospital there, Matt.

More than 8000 cases now in California, which was one of the first states to go into lock down.

We heard your conversation there with the mayor.

What's his biggest concern right now, Lindsay, we are in an era of scarcity.

He is concerned that the number of patients will outstrip the number of hospital beds he's concerned about.

Shortages in peopIe shortages in doctors and nurses and time off course is running out.

Obviously, this is personal to him because his daughter is on the front lines.

He wants her and the rest of the medical personnel to be protected.

One of the things he's also talking about is the fact that the competition to get P P E, he says, is uncoordinated and essentially crazy that everybody is scrapping for the same pie.

He would like to see greater federal coordination to make sure that everybody can get what they need.

Lindsay, because essentially, right now, it seems like there's a bidding war between states.

But Matt, it's not just the health care and emergency workers on the front lines.

Others, like grocery store workers in package delivery people, are also questioning as they go to work.

How do I protect myself from this virus?

And they're starting to strike Lindsey.

I mean, we're seeing walkouts at Whole Foods insta card, other places they are concerned.

You're seeing flexi glass people honking those plexiglass dividers at many supermarkets trying to protect workers, but they're concerned is that enough, And that's one of the reasons here in L.

A.

Just about an hour ago, they designated grocery workers, truckers, et cetera, to be critical.

Essential personnel.

Lindsay Matt Gutman Thank you again for your reporting tonight.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos Here.

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