Coronavirus latest: Monday, May 11

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that he was crafting plans to reopen New York State. This comes as new cases of coronavirus have reappeared across South Korea, China and Germany, leaving many wondering if re-opening businesses and public areas is the right step to take. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins The Final Round panel to break down the latest news about the coronavirus.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: And Anjalee, you know, we were just talking about some comments that we got here in New York today about a potential timeline on the reopening. But we also got some troubling headlines, you could argue, over the weekend of some of these countries that we thought had pretty much, you know, sort of cleared the hurdle talking about new cases resurfacing, which I guess points to just how challenging managing this health crisis really is.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely, Akiko, and not just challenging, but kind of falls in line with what health experts have been saying. If you've been paying attention to the conversation, many health experts have said, as soon as you start reopening, expect to see more cases. And that's sort of the decision that state governors and local municipalities have to take is whether or not they're prepared to handle what those cases will be like.

I just spoke to a doctor earlier from Boston who is saying that, you know, they just about reached the brink of capacity for their hospital. And thankfully, it's coming down. But they-- had it gotten any worse, they wouldn't have been able to. So that-- those are the kinds of stories you have to hear for on, you know, what these decisions are-- what these factors are that some of the governments have to weigh, including testing capacity.

So as we're waiting to hear, you know, from the White House what President Donald Trump's announcement is going to be about, from what we understand, it's going to be some portion of testing funding being distributed to these states who have complained that there isn't any really, you know, federal-level coordination on testing, as well as contact tracing. It remains a concern, whether or not states can, in fact, ramp up the capacity for contact tracing, as we're waiting to see, you know, how these many different strategies can be put into effect. We know that, you know, some of the major tech companies even offered to sort of roll out apps or certain things that could be used, but those have been denied on privacy concerns.

So going back to what we heard, you know, in South Korea, in Germany, even in China, back in Wuhan, the epicenter of all of this, we've seen a resurgence of cases. And so that has been really troubling, especially because these are, as you mentioned, the countries that we were sort of looking to, you know? The way that they had rolled out and reopened seemed pretty structured and seemed like they had the capacity that they needed to do so safely. And so the fact that they are still seeing cases is really a sign for us to be watching as we look to the states reopening, Akiko.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Anjalee, I mean, to your point, a place like South Korea, I mean, they just started baseball, even without fans. So there was certainly a sense that things were starting to go back to normal. But to the point you just raised there about testing, I mean, you know, in some ways, we look at other countries like a South Korea, even a China, they took much more draconian measures in terms of the stay-at-home restrictions, and then they have a lot more going in terms of the contact tracing because they haven't had to deal with the kind of privacy issues that have popped up here.

What are you hearing on the ground from some of these other states, in terms of how the testing situation has improved? You know, we, of course, are waiting for this announcement coming from the White House. But the reality is, the federal government alone simply isn't going to be able to help scale up the kind of testing these states need in order to resume life as we used to know it before COVID.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely. Well, you're hearing a lot of different things, and this goes back to the idea that it's really fragmented, the way that the US has responded to this. Because you're hearing about businesses independently searching for testing capacity and finding it, as well as labor unions as well. I talked to a nursing union that said that they were able to fly in some supplies.

And then you have the state and local governments. Even local, at the county level, are making those phone calls and trying to find supplies themselves. So it seems like, you know, people have been able to figure out at least some way of getting that capacity that's necessary. But whether or not that can be sustained still remains to be seen. But it definitely seems like it's everyone for themselves at this point.