Pres. Trump thank you very much. So. Nice to be with you. America continues to gain ground in the war against the virus. I want to thank the American People for answering the call, following our guidelines and making the sacrifices required to overcome this terrible threat more aggressively. We commit to social distancing, so important. Social distancing, such an important phrase. And we do it right now. The more lives we can save and the sooner we can eventually get people back to work, back to school, and back to normal. There are large sections of our country that can probably go back much sooner than other sections, and we are obviously looking at that also. People are asking, is that an alternative . I say, absolutely, it is an alternative. Disaster declarations for new york, california, washington, iowa, louisiana, texas and florida. That has great significance, as you know, and legal significance. Were in a constant grouping and i can say this, we have a large grouping of people that does nothing but communicate with the various officials, including weve been spending a lot of time with new york officials because that really is by far the hottest spot. Theyve got a number of very tough weeks ahead of them. The governor is doing a good job. I spoke to Governor Cuomo last night and this morning. And he mentioned that, in his remarks, that hes using the that we are using i think he feels, because he understands negotiation, he thinks were using very appropriately the defense production act and we are. Were using it where needed. Its a great point of leverage. Its a great negotiating tool. But ive really i will tell you this, tremendous spirit from people and tremendous spirit with respect to these companies. And i dont have to use it very much at all. They want to do it, as you know, General Motors is involved. Fords involved. 3ms involved. Others are involved. Theyre all working very hard to produce product, all different products. We had very little product when we came. We built it up and we give it away as fast as we can to the different states. Were also, as you know, building numerous hospitals and medical centers throughout certain areas in new york. In new york its at the convention center. Were doing four hospitals and were doing, throughout the state, four medical centers there. Somewhere different. I want you to know that im doing everything in my power to help the city pull through this challenge. Im working very hard in new york. Its really by far our biggest problem, maybe it will be, maybe it wont be. But theres a lot of good, capable people working on it with us and our teams are working very well with the state representatives. Were also doing some very large testings throughout the country. I told you yesterday that and south korea, and this is not a knock in any way. I just spoke with president moon, we had a very good conversation about numerous other things, but theyve done a very good job in testing. But we now are doing more testing than anybody by far. We do more in eight days than they do in eight weeks. We go up on a daily basis exponentially. So its really good. By the way, while im honored, on it, i also spoke with the Prime Minister of japan last night and congratulated him on a wise choice. I think its going to be a fantastic olympics. 2021. I think its going to be a fantastic olympics. It was the absolute right decision to delay it. For a full year. And now have a full beautiful olympics. Its going to be very important because its probably the first time maybe ever or certainly in a long time that it was on an odd year. Its always on an even year, they tell me. But hes going to have a fantastic success and now theyll have even more time. He didnt need any more time. Everything was perfectly ready. What a job theyve done. But i want to congratulate japan, the i. O. C. And Prime Minister abe on a great decision. I think its going to be a fantastic olympics. I told him, ill be there. Ill be there. As we fight to protect american lives, were also protecting american livelihoods. Democrats and republicans in the senate are very close to passing an emergency relief bill for American Workers, families and businesses. This legislation, in addition to the two bills i signed this month, it includes, as you know, sick leave and we have all sorts of things in for the workers, for families. But we have a tremendous paid sick leave provision for workers at no cost at all to the employers. And its a big thing. No cost to the employers. We want to get everybody back working. Together this 2. 2 trillion legislative package is bigger than anything i believe ever passed in Congress Perhaps relatively speaking if you look during the new deal days, it time validity, but this is far and away the biggest ever done and thats a tremendous thing because a lot of this money goes to jobs, jobs, jobs, and families, families, families. The senate bill includes 350 billion in Job Retention loans for Small Businesses with loan forgiveness for businesses that continue paying their workers. We want them to keep their workers and pay their workers. This will help keep workers in the payroll and allow accelerate as soon as we defeat the virus. 300 billion indirect payments for american citizens earning 99,000. 3,000 400 for a typical family of for. Nothing like that has been done. Up to 250 billion in expanded unemployment benefits. The worker will receive 100 of their salary for up to four full months and unlike full benefits, independent contractors and the selfemployed will be eligible. You have independent contractors and selfemployed people will be eligible for this. Over 100 billion to support the heroic work of our doctors, nurses and hospitals have been incredible, 45 billion for Disaster Relief fund and we are setting up a fund of 45 billion for Disaster Relief. More than doubling the amount of available to support my National Emergency and disaster declarations. 27 billion to buildup the Strategic National stockpile with critical supplies including masks, respirators and pharmaceuticals and everything you can imagine because it was very depleted like our military was depleted, its already come for the most part. But we have a lot of things that will soon be coming, planes, missiles, rockets, lots of things. But the stockpile was very depleted, like everything else. This will also include significant funding for the development of vaccines on top of the 8 billion we approved several weeks ago. Over 500 billion in support for the hardest hit industries, with a ban on corporate stock buybacks which is something i insisted on and frankly, i tell you the republicans wanted that and the democrats wanted that. A ban on corporate stock to get over this rough patch. And i dont think its going to be a rough patch. When we open, the sooner the better, its going to open up like a rocketship and go very good and very quickly and tough new limits on executive compensation also. They need the money. They are going to have to make things work because we are interested in the workers, the jobs. And we are interested in the companies because thats what fuels the workers in those great jobs. We have 16 billion in funding for the purchase of personal protective equipment. Such as masks and respirators through the Strategic National stockpile. I encourage the house to pass this vital legislation and send a bill to my desk for signature without delay. I will sign it immediately. We will have a signing and great signing and great day for the American Worker and for American Families and for American Companies which were having the best years they ever had, the last few years and then a little bit less than a month ago, they went into a position they havent seen because of the hidden enemy, the virus. Earlier today, i spoke to leaders of many americas amazing nonprofit organizations. I thank them for their unwavering diversion to American People, to American Families, to our nation and they have been fantastic and collecting supplies, distributing food and supporting Health Care Workers, caring for vulnerable workers and families. I encourage them to continue to do it. The nonprofits have been fantastic and great. They are great. I know a lot of them. I want to provide an update on the critical supplies. Fema is shipping 9. 4 million respirators, think of that, 9. 4 million. 20 million surgical masks and we have others that we think are going to be delivered quickly. The whole world, not just us or the states, the whole world is trying to get these things in competition with many, many countries. I believe today you broke the 150 mark for the virus. We have 150 countries, over 150 countries that have this virus and nobody will believe a thing like that is possible. Nobody could have seen Something Like this coming. We know it could happen again. And if it does, somebody is going to be well prepared because of what we learned. How incredible what we have done. There are more tests by anybody by far. And the news, the reporters, the media, they called me and amazing your testing procedures are amazing and we have a highlevel test and its a test that is accurate. 3. 1 million face shields. 14. 6 million gloves and 6,000 ventilators, which go to the areas of greatest needs. We sent over the last day 4,000 ventilators to new york. And i spoke with the governor about that. He was happy. I spoke with the mayor also about that. Mayor de blasio who is very happy. Hard not to be happy with the job we are doing. Throughout this National Emergency, every day heroes continue to step forward and demonstrate the character of our nation including the people behind me, by the way. These people are amazing. They are amazing people and maybe i should speak for myself, to me they have become friends. Maybe they dont like me, maybe they do. They work very hard. In maryland, a sevenyearold boy used his birthday money to buy meals for senior. In nevada, a College Student helped deliver groceries and supplies. This is happening. Thousands and thousands. In minnesota, hundreds of medical students have volunteered to provide child care for hospital workers helping to keep our doctors and nurses on the front line fighting to save lives. These americans remind us we have a role to play in winning this Great National battle and it is a worldwide battle. We are dealing with other nations. Take calls. A lot of countries are in big trouble. So now we will hear from our great secretary of the treasury. He has been working rather hard, i will tell you. Steve mnuchin is a fantastic guy and dealing with both sides, democrats and republicans. Steve, very well and have a little update it would be nice to hear what we are doing and what it is looking. I would like to thank Mitch Mcconnell for his leadership and i would like to thank Chuck Schumer for the enormous bipartisan support we had on this bill and the democrats and republicans who worked tirelessly. The president said, i got to live in the l. B. J. Room the last five days and couldnt be more pleased with the unprecedented response from the senate to protect American Workers and American Business in this situation. The president has outlined many of these but let me go through these quickly. Small Business Retention loans, this will cover roughly 50 of the private payroll in Small Businesses where we will immediately make loans that will supply eight weeks of salaries as long as they keep workers employed and overhead. And those loans will be forgiven at the end of the period as long as they keep workers employed. These are s. B. A. Loans but the treasury will authorize every single fdic insured bank to make these. I expect by the end of next week, we will have a simple process where these can be made and disbursed in the same day. This will be a very simple system to get money into Small Business hands. For companies that dont qualify that, we have an Economic Program of tax incentives to retain workers and as the president said, we have enhanced Unemployment Insurance for people who dont fit into these two programs that will be administered through the states. We will have Economic Impact payments. These will be within the next three weeks. Direct payments into most peoples deposit accounts. And for those who dont have it, we will be having the check in the mail. Our treasury will have additional authorities, we have 500 billion to work with the Federal Reserve to work for emergency programs and create 4 trillion if needed to support American Business and American Workers in an unprecedented way. And the president mentioned 100 billion to hospitals and 150 billion to states that have specific coronavirus expenses. Mr. President , i want to thank you and the Vice President. You are constantly available to us. We spoke constantly throughout the day and you gave us guidance and quick decisions on many issues. And again, thank everybody for this bipartisan work. This is going to be enormous help for the American Workers and the American Economy. The president was determined that congress would move swiftly to protect americans in this unprecedented situation. Pres. Trump day and night. A lot of work and see how it all goes and we need the votes. Do you have a question . Do you think this bill will keep the economy afloat . Pres. Trump we are going to take care of the American Workers and make the country great. Its not their fault. Not their fault. But we think you anticipate it in three months and wont need this for three months. This war will be won quicker. This is a significant amount of money, if needed, to recover the economy. Pres. Trump this is to keep economies. Companies, aaarated companies to keep them going and going to be in the form of loans. So the money is coming back. Let me ask you something, you said we shouldnt rely on a Foreign Company for the means of our own survival, what do you mean . Pres. Trump ive been saying that for a long time. We rely on many countries. We give up our supply chains and give up our production facilities and buy it someplace else for a lower price but we lose jobs and everything and lose our independence and cant let that happen. We will be making some changes. We have been making those changes. Do you have a ban to export the medical equipment . Pres. Trump it is happening by itself. A lot of things are happening. Some people, we make the best medical equipment in the world and you have some people like the european union, they dont take it because they have specifications that dont allow our equipment in because its designed in a different way, even though its a better way. They are all playing games against us. They have been playing games against us and no president has ever done anything about it. But the european union, you look at the medical equipment, we make the best but we cant sell it because we are not appropriately. And we take their medical equipment in our country. We are changing things. All of this is changing. But they have specifications so that our equipment designed specifically so our equipment cant come into their countries. Its a very terrible thing that has happened. Some of the people that took the biggest advantage of us are our allies. They took advantage of us in many ways, financially and militarily. When you look at look, i got if you look at nato, the abuse that was given to our country on nato where they wouldnt pay. And we were paying for everybody. Now, because of me, they are paying a lot. Now they paid 125 million more and then ultimately secretary bergal so berg sultan who i think would say is my biggest fan we got them to pay an additional 400 billion. And then theres the trade. They make it almost impossible for us to have a fair deal. They know this. I am just waiting. We have all the advantages. Its going to be easy when i decide to do it. This is not the right time to do it. We have been treated unfairly by the european union. Mr. President , four republican senators have indicated that will extra 600 for Unemployment Insurance may encourage employees to lose their jobs. What do you think . Pres. Trump i know the issue very well. Steve, maybe you can discuss that. We spoke to several senators today. Let me just explain the issue, which is we want to have enhanced Unemployment Insurance. Most of these state systems have technology that is 30 years old or older. If we had the ability to customize this with much more specifics, we would have. This was the only way that states could get money out quickly in a fair way and used 600 across the board. I dont think it will create incentives. Most americans, what they want, they want to keep their jobs. For 50 of these businesses, they will have the businesses keep those jobs. So this was our number one issue is how do we make sure that American Workers who needed to keep getting paid, this is no fault of their own, that businesses have been shut down, the president and Vice President wanted to make sure the hardworking americans got money and this was the most efficient way. Are they in agreement now . Im not going to comment on the specifics of where they are. I would say our expectation this bill passes tonight and gets to the house tomorrow and pass it. We need to get this money into the American Economy and American Workers. Thats the importance of this. Pres. Trump when you think about that, people would actually get more money but dont want to get a disincentive. They have been talking about that. Good question, actually. Family of retired f. B. I. Agent robert leffen son that u. S. Officials concluded he died in iranian custody, are you aware of that . Pres. Trump i have been very much involved in that and he was a great gentleman and great family. I have to say this and they have been making the statement to the family i believe, but its not looking good. He wasnt well for years in iran. Its not looking promising. We have gotten so many people back. We got two people back this week. But robert leffenson, he has been sick for a long time and rough problems prior to his detainment or capture. And we feel terribly for the family. I dont accept it that hes dead. Its not looking great. But i wont accept that hes dead. They havent told us he is dead. But a lot of people are thinking that is the case. I feel badly about it. When you tweeted earlier linking the closing the country to your election. Is this easter time line related to your political interests . You said the media want to wants the country to remain closed. Pres. Trump the media would like to see me do poorly. Reopening the country is not a good idea. What is the plan based on . Pres. Trump just so you understand. Some people would like it not to open so quickly and some people would like it to do financially poorly because that would be good at defeating me at the polls. And i dont know if thats so but there are people in your profession that would like that to happen. I think its very clear that there are people in your profession that write fake news. You do. She does. There are people in your profession that write fake news. They would love to see me for whatever reason, nobody has done the job we have done, and lucky that you have this group now right here or you wouldnt have a country left. Ok. Once you sign this package, how rapidly do you expect pres. Trump who are you with . Cbs. [inaudible] our expectation is within three weeks, we will have direct payments out where we have depository information and looking to get a lot more information than we have procedures to do that. Three weeks for that and end of next week we want all the banks to originate loans same day. I have two questions for you. Tomorrow, you speak with g20 leaders. I want to know if you will lead the effort to craft a worldwide ,an on wild animal markets covid19 that was transferred tom humans. Pres. Trump i dont know if that subject is going to come up. It came out of china and say thats how it happened in china. Its something we will talk about. But its not the top of my list. The head of Harvard School of Health Institute says the key to getting this economy open as soon as possible is to test everybody who needs testing so we can quarantine all infected individuals and allow everyone to go back to work immediately. Would you subscribe to that strategy . Pres. Trump we have tested more than anybody. How many deaths are acceptable . How many deaths are acceptable to me . None. None. If thats your question. Look, i saw his statement. We have tested by far more than anybody. We are testing more than anybody right now. Theres nobody even close. And our tests are the best tests and most accurate tests. If you are saying we are going to test 350 Million People . I watched the statement. I disagree with it. We can go to certain states. I could name them now but im not going to do that but certain states have virtually no problem or a very small problem. We dont have to test the entire state in the midwest. Wherever they may be. We dont have to test the entire state. I think its ridiculous. We dont have to do it. A lot of those states could go back right now. They probably will. Because at some point in the not they willt future, come off of it. Maybe new york and california cant. Maybe the state of washington cant. But if you look at them, their biggest problem was in one nursing home. Go ahead. State and ast one person moves over to the other state pres. Trump look at that. If you look at the states and many states im talking about, they dont have a problem. We have some big problems but confined to certain high density areas. Why would we test the entire nation, 350 Million People . We tested far more than anybody else. We have the ability to test, we have come a long way from a broken system i inherited. We have tested far more than anybody else. When i say anybody else, other countries. No country is even close. They came out with a statistic i guess yesterday that i heard from dr. Birx where its for eight days here, more than eight weeks in south korea and south korea has done a great job. But we did in eight days what south korea did in eight weeks. Thats a big number. And i said we are getting better. Every day is going up. We have an incredible apparatus. I dont want to test 350 Million People. I think its ridiculous. Two questions. [inaudible] pres. Trump with respect to what . [inaudible] pres. Trump we have strong borders. [inaudible] before i came here, we werent into borders. People could come in and had a whole different deal and up to 164 miles, think of that. 164 miles of wall, big, beautiful wall. And in those areas its very, very tough to come in. We have been very tough on the borders. I mean where we have the wall built, nobody is getting through. They are going around, but thats a long trip. Thats the way they get through. But im very strong on borders and dont want people coming in here. If they are going to come in, they have to come in through legally and merit. We are not having the people you are talking about coming to our country. [inaudible] republicans and democrats to pass the stimulus included funding for the Kennedy Arts Center here in washington, d c. Shouldnt that money be going to masks and reportors . Pres. Trump it was 35 million and took off 10. Im a fan of that. I have not spent time there. Im too busy. I would love to go there evenings but im too busy doing things because thats more important. But the Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there. It is closed and do need some funding and i said that was a democrat request, not my request. But you have to give them something. It is something they wanted. It works that way. Democrats have treated us fairly. I believe we have had a good back and forth and i say that with respect to Chuck Schumer. Spoke to him a number of times and they had requests ool. It came down to 25. Got it down to 25. I said thats a lousy soundbite. But thats the way life works. The Kennedy Center, they do an incredible job. David rubenstein does an incredible job and puts up a lot of money and does things that a lot of people wouldnt be able to do or do. They have closed. They have tremendous deficits. This thing has been devastating to it. I didnt have a big problem. This was a request from the democrats because they have a facility that is essentially closed up. If i wanted to go there to look at romeo and juliet, i would love to look at it. [inaudible] senator rubio said the World Health Organization shows favorism to china and representative mccaul on the House Foreign Relations Committee questioned the integrity of the World Health Organization director and said there were several red flags with respect to his relationship with china. Do you think the World Health Organization showed favoritism . Do you think the United States should reexplore its relationship with the World Health Organization . Pres. Trump there is talk that has been very unfair. A lot of people feel it has been very unfair and onesided with china and a lot of people are not happy with that. Dr. Fauci and myself and other people, there are people that we like and know. I think there are friends, a lot of good professionals. It would be interesting if you would like to talk about the w. H. O. But i have heard for years that that is very much biased toward china. I dont know. Do you want to get into this political mess . No. I dont want to do that. Gross is an outstanding person and i have known him since he was the minister of health in ethiopia. Someone who said who doesnt problems has not been watching it. But under his leadership, they have done very well. He has been all over this. I was on the phone with him few hours ago leading a w. H. O. Call. [inaudible] im not talking about china. World Health Organization is praising china on its response to the pandemic. I cant comment on that. I dont have any viewpoint into it. I dont know what your question is. [inaudible] pres. Trump i have heard that for years and i spoke to him yesterday. Seems fine to me. I dont know. We are the ones that gave the great response and kept china out of here. And if we didnt do that, thousands and thousands of people would have died that are now living and happy. If i didnt do that early, nobody wanted that to happen. Everybody thought it was just unnecessary to do it. And if we didnt do it, thousands and thousands of people would have died. More than whats happened. Maybe one more. When you have this g20 meeting, what sort of coordinated response are you expecting . Pres. Trump the ruby a meeting with 20 nations total, including us. There will be a Conference Call tomorrow morning. I look forward to talking to people i know and like. I like every one of them. It will be an interesting call and you will be the first to know. Next week when the 15 days ends, what should we expect . Are you going to extend it . Pres. Trump i will be speaking with tony and deborah and they are going to bring along with them. And speaking to Vice President mike pence and steve and we will be speaking to everybody. Im not going to do anything hastily. I dont do that. But the country wants to get back to work. Our country was built to get back to work. We dont have a country where they say lets close it down for two years. We cant do it. Its not our country. We are going to be talking. There could be big sections of our country that are little affected by whats taking place and other sections that are heavily affected. Theres a big difference. I would say by easter, we will have a recommendation and maybe before easter and at the end of the 15th day or during the 15th day, we will have some kind of recommendation but our country wants to get back to work. I have had so many people and they want to practice social distancing and they want to practice no handshaking and no hugging and kissing, even though they may feel like it. They are going to wash their hands and do all the things you are supposed to do. But steve, its time, people want to get back to work. I get it from both sides in all fairness and maybe its a combination of both. Tony said before, combination of both is sometimes very good. But there are areas that possibly wont qualify and there are other areas that may qualify now. We will have to see what happens. But it will be an interesting period of time. I would like to get our country back. I have tremendous numbers of people wanting to go back. You have store owners with the stores sitting there. They have to get back. There are businesses that are going to be closed. The longer we stay out, we want to go quickly, the harder it is to bring this we are having the most successful years that we ever had in the history of our country. You saw what happened with the stocks and today they are up. If steve gets the deal done, the incredible incentive deal, its going to take care of people and workers and companies that employ our workers, small and big. We spend more time on the Small Companies than we did on the big companies. There are people ask about that. We spent more time thinking about the Small Businesses than the big. And that really fuels our country. We want to get back and people want to get back. We want to get our country going again and want to be able to do that. The Vice President is going to stay with you and take a few more questions specifically and i will see you tomorrow. [inaudible] thank you all. Well report on todays action by the White House Coronavirus task force. The president and our entire team continue to be inspired by the way people all across this country are putting into practice 15 days to slow the spread. We are 10 days into the 15 days and let me say if you are in an area that has been impacted by the coronavirus, it is absolutely essential that you listen to state and local authorities for guidance. But for every american, what you can do is implement the practices outlined in the president s coronavirus guidelines today because we truly do believe as millions of americans have done and will continue to do, that we can significantly impact the rate of growth in this epidemic in our country and spare americans from exposure to the coronavirus and we can save lives. On behalf of the president , i want to say thank you to the American People and thank you for your cooperation and embracing the principles in the 15 days to slow the spread. We heard about that cooperation today in a series of Conference Calls. We spoke with equipment manufacturers who are stepping forward as never before to assist us in developing the medical equipment that is essential whether it be masks or other medical supplies or ventilators. Fema reported to our task force today that hundreds of companies have stepped forward to be involved in the supply chain and we are vetting nearly 70 of those companies for specifically repurposing of their manufacturing to produce masks, gloves and gowns and to ventilators. We had a productive call with secretary devos with education leaders. And thank you to all of our teachers. Many of whom are now home teaching children from afar even in many cases while they have their own kids from school. You are truly heroes. And the department of education as well as your state of department of education are grateful who find yourselves educating out of home and the department of education has a helpful website on coronavirus recommendations, ed. Gov coronavirus. Secretary devos and secretary perdue will be joining us on friday to speak about Distance Learning recommendations that have been made not just for secondary and College Education but for k12 education. We are opening up avenues and creating new flexibility so College Students can continue to be involved in learning from afar but children k12 can do the same. Secretary perdue will be here to talk about the Food Lunch Program and free and reduced lunches. The president and i spoke to 150 c. E. O. s of top nonprofit organizations. We thank them for their ongoing work supplying the needs of people not only impacted by the coronavirus but the most vulnerable among us in our communities, like red cross, the salvation army, feeding america are still working every day. And we promise and urge every american if you have the means and have the ability, continue to beer generous to nonprofit organizations that are helping those most in need in your community. The president marshaled a whole of government aapproach and the president and i were in contact with governors today. Show less text work on capacity and i want people to know on work on capacity and i want people to know on states that Technical Assistance to the state of new york. The team will be arriving on the ground very soon along with all of the other resources that the president recently announced would be flowing to new york and to Washington State and to california. In my conversation with governor gavin newsom of california, i was pleased to speak with him and hear that our fema team is at the table with the state of californias team, working to meet their supply needs, working to work on capacity. I want people to know in the states that are most impacted by the coronavirus, we are with you and we are going to stay with you. We will work around the clock to make sure that your courageous Health Care Workers and state governments have the resources to support your response. On the subject of testing, dr. Birx will reflect on what the data is showing in just a moment and not including local labs and hospitals. We are at 432,000 tests come completed and we are pleased to see there are literally drivethrough and Community Sites around the country and assisting states in standing those up each and every day. We remind the hospitals and labs around the country and the moment the president signs the bill that it is essential that they provide the results of the tests to us and gives us visibility of what is happening on the ground. Because of the Publicprivate PartnershipPresident Trump initiated with these labs across the country, we are adding tens of thousands of tests every single day. On the subject of supplies, before the end of the week, we will talk about a bit more about the supply chain. I was at fema last night and literally saw a roomful of people with lap tops and cell phones and leaving no stone unturned as i told governors to find medical supplies whether it be masks or gowns or gloves or ventilators and the team is working around the clock to meet those needs. A few smaller items. First and foremost, the c. D. C. Is developing guidance which we will be publishing tomorrow about the best way to utilize our Natural Resources at our parks. It was several weeks ago that our park service waived all entrance fees and we directed the cbc cdc to produce guidance to practice social distancing and be out of doors and enjoy our National Parks and we will be sharing that with the vast state park systems across the county and encouraging their support. Let me last say again, there is nothing more important for the American People to do to slow the spread than to head your state and local guidance and areas impacted by the coronavirus and for everyone else to put into practice the 15 days to slow the spread. Dr. Fauci will reflect on the importance of mitigation and the impact that we believe it is having around the country. But the people asked me from time to time what can i do. And i say from my heart to every american. This is what you can do, not just to protect your own health and your family, but no american wants to inadvertently spread the coronavirus particularly to those who may be vulnerable. The risk of serious illness to the average american remains low. The majority of americans will have mild symptoms and will recover. But for seniors with serious underlying conditions, Everyone Needs to practice the principles of 15 days to slow the spread. The president announced this week that we are looking forward to the day we can open up the country and this team will be bringing him recommendations about how to safely and responsibly do just that. But for every american who wants to see america back in business, you can hasten the day by putting into practice the 15 days to flow slow the spread. Go to coronavirus. Gov and we will do what we can do. We will slow the spread and heal our land. With that, let me recognize dr. Tony fauci dr. Birx first and then dr. Fauci. Thank you all for listening to us talking to the American People. We have been watching the testing results and it is critical to be looking at that very carefully. Let me tell you two things that are going on in parallel. Our system to look at flulike illnesses is still up in running. And why is that important . For those of you been following the flu epidemic, we had flu a and then flu b and those systems that are in every single state and local government is the platform where we can see whether there is increase in flulike illnesses. If you have very few cases in your state and counties, maintain your flu Surveillance System and work closely with the c. D. C. And look for changes in your slope of new flulike illnesses and there are new test kits and there are enough test kits that runs on your flu surveillance platform to be constantly surveilling what those flulike illnesses are in our states and counties that have very low number of cases. We have counties still with 01 cases. They can participate in the surveillance that we need to have out there now. They can use their flulike Surveillance System. We thank all the state to have that up and running. If you go to cdc. Gov come you can see statebystate and you can look at those curves with us. It is what we are looking at day by day in addition to the testing results coming in. For the testing results, there are four counties that constitute the majority of both the current cases and new cases. I think you know those are new york city, westchester, new york, suffolk and nassau county. Those are the four counties associated with new york and new York Metro Area. There are a few counties in new jersey but this is still where 56 of the cases are its very important that people look at the number of new cases per day. Remember we told you it will take a while to work through the testing backlog. I think we are close so you can interpret the number of cases per day and you will see in new york city that the number of cases per day has been relatively constant over the last three days. Those are the number of new cases per day. This is a real call to every person in new york city and new York Metro Area to continue every one of these 15 days to slow the spread and to do that part of that at the same time they are following the mayors and governors. Yesterday, we talked about people that may have left the metro area that were residents that may have gone to secondary homes or other places to reside and we asked them to monitor their temperatures and selfisolate themselves just to ensure their own health and the health of their communities while people move around the country. Why this is so important, its very important to me personally, because my grandmother for 88 years lived with the fact that she was the one at age 11 who brought home flu to her mother when her mother had just delivered and her mother succumbed to the great 1918 flu. She never forgot that she was a child in school that innocently brought that flu home. This is why we keep saying to every american, you have a role to protect each and every person that you interact with. We have a role to protect one another. That is why we are social distancing and you are social distancing. To every american, when you are protecting yourself, you are protecting others. If you inadvertently brought this virus home with someone to a preexisting condition, my grandmother lived with that for 88 years. This is what we are trying that is an a message that is important. This is not a theoretic. This is a reality. You can see the number of deaths that are occurring. We all have a role in preventing them. Thank you for the work you do to get our message to others to make sure every american understands how important their role is as we move through the next five days to not let up. Next five days to not let up. I hear reports that there are new cases are increasing or the hospitalizations are increasing. The number of new cases over the last three days have been consistent but not rising. You will see hospital cases continue to increase because they are a reflection of what happened one to two weeks ago before the full mitigation efforts were put into place. So each person, in every place, no matter what community, county or state can work with us to ensure that we prevent the spread of this virus to others. So thank you. Dr. Fauci i want to spend a couple of minutes telling you about the information we got on the weekly call we have at least once a week by w. H. O. To give us information. In that regard, i want to apologize to my current response to you when you asked me about the china deal. I should have responded to you, but thats not my style. My job is im a scientist and a physician and i dont get , involved in that stuff. Getting back to the w. H. O. We ran into some new interesting information, china and others have been hit prior than we did. One of the things that was striking to me and i throw it out because it is something we will face, but not facing it now, our chinese colleagues are very concerned because they went through the entire cycle of the curve to come down. They have very few cases. But what they are starting to see as they are relaxing the restraints on travel is that they are getting imported cases, and they wanted to warn us to make sure that we carefully examine how were going to release the constraints on input. I know we are going to be successful on putting this under control. But we are going to have to remember that we do not went to import cases in. Thats the first thing. The second thing that was important, it was something that dr. Birx mentioned. And that is when you look at the inflection of the curve, we now have multiple Different Countries that have gone through various stages of their individual outbreaks and you could learn something from them about where you are in your own outbreak. For example, when china went up, what happened is they just did not turn around. They went from going through, ill take an arbitrary number, 500 new cases a day. The next day, it was 1,000 and then 1,500 and then 2,000. Once the number of new cases out,day starts to flatten you get to the point where the inflection goes down. The thing that dr. Birx mentioned, you dont declare victory but you are on the way where you want to go. And i think that is very important. The third and final thing that i think gets back to the question that many of you in the audience asked of us, would this be a seasonal cycle thing . I have always indicated to you that i think it very well might, and the reason i say that is what we are starting to see now in the Southern Hemisphere, in southern africa, and in the Southern Hemisphere countries is that we are having cases that are appearing as they go into their winter season, and if, in fact, they have a substantial outbreak, it will be inevitable that we need to be prepared that we will get a cycle around a second time. What does that mean for us and what we are doing . It totally emphasizes the need to do what we are doing in developing a vaccine, testing it quickly, and trying to get it ready so that we will have the vaccine available for the next cycle, in addition to doing the trials of drugs, so we will have a menu of drugs that we have shown to be effective and safe. I know to be successful in putting this down now, but we need to be prepared for another cycle, and what we are doing now will prepare us well. We will take a few questions. Please. Reporter on ventilators, there is reporting that there is only 16,000 in the National Stockpile. Can you just give us some clarity . How many ventilators do you have in the National Stockpile . Who else is making them and how long will it be to make them. Make them for Critical Mass . There isnt enough . Pence it is a singular focus and good portion of our supply chain supply task force at fema since the president stood up femas National Response center and we are making progress in a variety of ways. First, there is the National Stockpile which you refer and depending what has been distributed, we just delivered 4,000 ventilators to new york , including ventilators we sent to new york city. But there is that number of some 20,000 less than 20,000. I wont dispute your number. Beyond that there are literally , by most estimates more than 150,000 ventilators in the broad Health Care System all across the country. We also, working with anesthesiologists, and there was a very important Conference Call today, we have determined several weeks ago that the anesthesiologists use for outpatient surgery can be converted with a change of a single vent to a very useful ventilator. I actually spoke to Governor Cuomo about that today. He is in the process of serving , as our governors around the country. We believe there are tens of thousands of ventilators that can be converted now that the f. D. A. Has given guidance. Dr. Birx can actually speak to that in a moment. We have produced a helpful video to explain how those devices can be converted. But we are working with General Motors and other companies to immediately spin up production as contracts are being reviewed , and we are vetting their capability. But one of the other ideas as we look at areas of the country that are most impacted, and now, more than half of the cases for coronavirus are in new york state and in the region around there, will focus our resources including ventilators on where communities are struggling the most with coronavirus. And so, one of the ways we are working through that at fema now is by spinning up production and at the same time working with the National Supply maybe in from areas that do not have a particular burden yet with the coronavirus and making sure we are manufacturing and backfilling and meeting that need. But what i can tell you is we have an extraordinary team. We have a two star admiral, who is doing an incredible job. We are identifying resources and arranging contracts around the world, but maybe, dr. Birx, maybe you can speak to the ventilators. Dr. Birx i thank dr. Mary peterson and the whole team of the American Association of anesthesiologists, because they, immediately, when we asked them, if these could be modified they , went to work on it and have question and answers for every doctor, and every anesthesiologist has been working on how to change this, and i think its not only the ventilators they have been supplying. They have the people running those ventilators, that are no longer doing elective surgery, so changing that elective surgery piece over a week ago has freed up a lot of additional resources. When i talked to you about we have done some things that are horizontal across the country , but we are collecting data now in a county by county, granular way, so it is like every epidemic. Its not equal everywhere. There are places that are very spared and places where there is more. We have a very vast country that has a lot of capacity and a lot of infrastructure. And so, looking specifically where the virus has been and where is it going and who has freed up resources from where it has been, because it has not been everywhere. It hit Washington State before it hit new york and looking at those pieces to ensure how we can innovatively move equipment around based on the need, and so i know it has become a place where people are looking at numbers rather than what is needed, because if you do these projections, when you got to those projections that said, like in germany and others, that implied that 60 or 50 of the population would get infected, i want to be very clear, the only way that happens, because this virus remains continuously moving through populations in this cycle, in the fall cycle and another cycle. Thats though through three cycles with nothing being done. And so we are dealing with cycle , a right now, not one that could come in the fall of 2020 or that we are getting prepared for by the innovations that are being worked on and not the 2021. We are really dealing with the here and now while we are planning for the future, and i think the numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people. But i can tell you if you go back and look at wuhan and all of these provinces and talk and they talk about these 60,000 people being infected, if you say they are asymptomatic, and all of that, so you get 60,000 people out of 80 million, that is nowhere close to the numbers you see people putting out there. I think it has frightened the American People. I think ought a model that you just run full out, you can get to those numbers if you have zero controls and you do nothing, and we know that every american is doing something. And so i think what our job right now is is to carefully detail on a hospital by hospital, statebystate, county by county, to outline what the infrastructure needs are and make sure we are meeting them both from the stockpile and andom the Generosity Movement of the American People and hospitals. Reporter well intentioned are selling cloth masks. Donating them. Can you weigh in, because they have great intentions, and mixed feedback on whether that is a good idea . Clothing manufacturers. Dropping them off at hospitals is that helpful and something , you recommend . Thatauci you recommend under desperate situations when we do not have any masks, but what were seeing is a rather significant inflow of masks coming in that are going to be available. Obviously, if you dont have a mask and you need a mask and its appropriate for you to wear it, do what you can. But i dont see that now as a necessity given whats going on right now. Vice president pence well take a couple more. Thanks. Reporter thank you, mr. Vice president. We keep hearing reports of Competition Among states, trying to buy equipment on the market, and the governor of kentucky said yesterday that his state was in line to buy some equipment but fema came in and bought it, purchased it from under them. He said this is creating a problem for states because on the one hand theyre being told to get the equipment themselveses if they can and on the other hand the federal government is buying up the supply chain. Is this a problem youre hearing about and what is your advice to states like kentucky having this issue . Vice president pence i spoke to the governor of michigan today, governor whitmer, about just that. We put our fema Regional Representative right on the case. We want to make sure that we are were acquiring every bit as much as we can through fema. But as we work with the supply chain, we want to have full coordination with the states and the requests that they are making in the hospitals are making, and we are looking into those matters, but make no mistake about it. This fema team at the president s direction is lining into this effort, leave nothing stone unturned. Literally searching not just the nation but the world for all these critical supplies and as the president just reported to you, were in the process of of shipping 9. 4 million n95s reprators, millions of surgical misks, 3. 1 million face shields, the list goes on. Well be shipping those every single day. But as i told whitmer, we want to partner with her and every governor and make sure the left left hand knows what the right hand is doing in terms of acquiring resources. Reporter on the mask question, people, Health Care Work thornse ground still report there are mask shortages. What timeline is there for making sure everyone who needs masks gets those . Vice president pence ill let dr. Birx address that as well. Let me say again i just receive read port, well be detailing it before the end of the week, where weve literally identified significant resources not just around the country but around the world of the masks that can be used by Health Care Workers. And but as dr. Birx said, we are focusing those resources on the areas where Health Care Workers are most exposed to the prospect of contracting the coronavirus. The president has made it clear from early on, right after seeing to the needs of americans who are struggling with the coronavirus, making sure they have the support that they need on the same level of priority, we want our Health Care Workers to have personal protective equipment to be able to do their job safely and were working on that. I will tell you, i spoke about this today to several governors, not only the governor of michigan but the governor of indiana and President Trump and i couldnt be more grateful. The way governors around the country are joining us in calling on businesses to go back to their warehouses and identify industrial masks, n95 masks that because of the change that President Trump insisted on in the law can now be used by hospital workers. And theyre perfectly accept to believe protect Health Care Worker from the possibility of a respiratory disease. But we are calling on, and our governors are joining us in calling on every business across , america during this great challenge, when many businesses are idled, go back to injure storehouses, identify n95 industrial masks, and as i told the governors today, they can call fema, the state Health Care Services or just load them up on a flatbed and drive them to their local hospital. And, literally we hear story , nervous state in the union of people doing that. And so, its happening all at the same time. Well be detailing the progress were making on masks. Anything further, deb . Birx thank you, mr. Vice president. I want to add one piece. That is a call over the state out there and every county that has been doing communitybased testing. The f. D. A. Put out new guidance, we talked about it several days ago, that people can do selftesting in the drive through where you give them the materials to do it in their car and you pick it up in a biohazard bag. This would free up all of that p. P. E. That you see being utilized in those drive throughs back to the hospitals and back to the clinics that need it the most. We have to move to the new technology. Fda worked tirelessly to get that out there, so it could be sparing of gowns and gloves and full respiratory n95s. This is the moment to move to that selftesting front of nose with the new applicators that can be utilized so that every single bit of the n95s can be put into the hospitals that need it. Vice president pence let me just say we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Well be back here with further progress and news. But if i could just say to every american, well get through this. Well get through this. Well get through this together. Every american needs to understand that whether youre in an area thats impacted by the coronavirus or an area where there is very few cases, if you do your part to put into practice 15 days to slow the spread, you will do just that. Youll impact the spread of this coronavirus epidemic in our country. These experts tell me we can significantly reduce the number of americans that will be exposed to the coronavirus as every american continues to put these guidelines into practice. And we just know that with all the extraordinary effort thats being done at the federal level by this tremendous team and all of our agencies, all the great leadership by governors in both parties across the country, with all the incredible and courageous work by Health Care Workers, with the cooperation and the prayers of the American People, we will get this done. We will not only we will not only slow the spread, well protect the vulnerable and heal our land. Thank you all. We will see you tomorrow. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] today, the White House Coronavirus task force provides an update on the outbreak and the federal governments response. Watch live on cspan. On wednesday, the Senate Passed a 2 trillion coronavirus economic to me was bill, stimulus bill, the largest in u. S. History. The vote passed by a the bill passed by a vote of 960. It includes direct Cash Payments to individuals, the real relief for Small Businesses, targeted lending to industries impacted by the pandemic and funding for hospitals and health centers. The house is expected to take up the bill when they return friday at 9 00 eastern. Watch live gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House when they return here on cspan. Night, after the Senate Passed the third coronavirus package, Senate LeadersMitch Mcconnell and Chuck Schumer spoke with the press about the bill. Large businesses and to provide considerable