The latest round of coronavirus economic relief. Its a 2 trillion deal. They are back at noon. They are expected to vote any time after that. We are also waiting right now for new york governor Andrew Cuomos daily briefing. Were told that briefing should start roughly 15 minutes from now. Cuomo has been heated in his calls on the federal government for more medical supplies, for more relief. The underlying message from governors and experts across the country this morning, its only going to get worse before it gets better. There are almost 55,000 known cases in the United States right now. More than 10,000 cases than this hour yesterday. The death toll right now more than 780 americans so far. We start with the deal for that massive 2 trillion aid passes. If it passes, it would be the largest fiscal stimulus package in modern u. S. History. We could see that senate vote on the bill again just a few hours from now, set to reconvene an hour from now. Lets get right to the hill. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is at his post there. There was a lot of tense fingerpointing during the negotiations, but they were able to hammer out a deal in the Early Morning hours, garrett. Walk us through what made it into it. Reporter craig, they added money to just about every part of the deal, from the Cash Payments going out to individuals to how much money states and localities to get, how much money hospitals will get on the front lines. Democrats are also pleased they were able to add more oversight to the money that will go to big corporations, making sure that money is reported out essentially as it happens and money cant go to things like the president s family businesses, for example. Were in the golden age of Conference Calls on capitol hill. Members are getting briefed on all the details of this bill. Both parties in both houses, quite frankly, as everyone is being brought up to speed quickly on what has been a marathon series of negotiations over the last several days. Here is how Chuck Schumer, the top democratic in the senate described how we got to where we are and where we go from here this morning. I think the odds are high well have to do something again. We have to see in the next few weeks what other problems havent been sold. This bill is a good bill. It doesnt have everything i like and there are a few things i dont like. We need it and we need it fast. Big, bold, quick relief for the American Health care system and the american worker. Craig, in terms of timing, we expect to see the senate vote today. Both leaders suggested as much when they spoke around 1 00 this morning. As for the house, theyre out of their gavelin, gavelout session for the day. We may not see action from the house until tomorrow. Obviously theres a widespread need for this bill across the country. Everybody is trying to move quickly, but with 2 trillion in spending and what will probably be a 1,000page bill when the final text is posted, theres only so fast it can go to make sure it works as intended. It doesnt sound like you think this is a bill that could get to the president s desk before friday . Reporter i think friday is probably realistic. Its possible things could move faster than that. Given every step along this process has lasted a little longer than the optimal, i dont know why things would speed up dramatically now. Garrett haake starting us off on the hill. Thank you. Lets turn to democratic congresswoman Debbie Powell from florida, representing miemd county, which currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the sunshine state. Thank you so much for your time. Will you be voting for the bill as Garrett Haake just laid it out . At this point we havent seen the final language on the bill. We have been having several conversations with house leadership. A lot of my colleagues and i. The most important aspect is making sure we protect American Families and american workers. From what i gather right now, we have agreed to make payments of 1200 per individual up to for people making up to 75,000 a year. I was pushing for a little higher threshold. We have a lot of independent contractors here in south florida that wouldnt meet the threshold, but increasing support for Small Businesses. Nonprofit organizations are critical. Theyre included in this package. This is a much larger bill or stimulus package than has ever been passed in the United States, much larger than the 2008 stimulus package. Until i see the final words and final language written many this bill, i cant answer that. Its not going to be perfect but we need to move swiftly. Im pushing for that. We heard Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer allude to something there, theres going to need to be more, probably going to need to be another stimulus package. Of this, whats left, what more do you think we need to see from a legislative standpoint . The most important thing here in south florida just speaking from my perspective and my district, we have lost tens of millions of jobs because of the cruise industry, the airline industry, tourism. Were going to really need to make sure that individuals that are losing their jobs right now are going to be able to receive high level of unemployment benefits. In florida, thats 275 a week that people can receive. We need to ask the governor to increase that amount. This package hopefully will increase it up to 600 in addition to what each state is providing for Unemployment Insurance. I think we are going to see, if we dont take the actions, the necessary actions right now to contain the spread of the virus i have the largest number of cases in south florida in Miamidade County. If we dont have a strict stay at home order, the economic recovery is going to take much longer. I have been calling on Governor Desantis to put in place a strict stayathome order. If not, well see what we saw in wuhan right here in south florida. You mentioned Governor Desantis there. We should note that Governor Desantis is speaking right now. Were monitoring what he is saying. Congresswoman, first of all, have you spoken to the governor of florida recently . No, i havent. I have asked to speak directly to him. I understand hes dealing with quite a bit with this pandemic. Weve had congressional calls with Florida Department of health and people representing his office. Our concern is we didnt see containment initially when we started seeing some Community Spread. At this point its about mid getting the spread of the virus. We know theres Community Spread here. Monroe county, i represent the florida keys as well, we have put in place strict orders. Were closing down the florida keys for tourists. Theyre expecting miemd to act accordingly. I have asked the governor, the Miamidade County mayor, and i think at this point we need to have a National Executive order for a strict stayathome policy. I know the president is idealistic. I know he has hope we can contain this and be back to normal in a couple of weeks. I worked at the fiu medical school. And i speak every day with the Infectious Disease doctor here who had worked with the cdc, and she has been recommending strict stayathome orders now for a few weeks. Thats what im pushing for so we can start our road to economic recovery once we mitigate the spread of the virus. Congressman Debbie Powell of florida there calling for the white house to issue a national stayathome order. Congresswoman, thank you for your time. Nbcs Peter Alexander is at the white house. With we know they were working late into the night to reach the stimulus deal. Whats the administration saying about it this morning . Reporter we havent heard anything formally from the president yesterday. White house officials tell nbc news theres no day lie between treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin as related to this massive 2 trillion stimulus bill, no daylight between him and the president here, that the president was very much expected to sign this. Obviously they still have some devil in the details. But right now, at least within the last half an hour, it was scheduled that mnuchin would be detailing a lot of this to senat senators. Then it goes to the house. That would likely have to be unanimous consent given that so many lawmakers are around right now to deal with it. The bottom line is that the white house, craig, feels good about this. They want to get this done as evidenced by the president s own comments saying, the economy wasnt built to be shutdown. We need to get things going. The president surprised a lot of folks on tuesday, Health Experts when he said businesses would be reopened by easter, churches filled, would be great to see that. What are you hearing about in response from inside the administration . Reporter for clarity, he said i would love for them to be opened up again by easter and raring to go. From dr. Fauci himself, he said that was sort of aspirational. He said we speak to the president. He knows that may or may not happen. You need to be flexible with that date. Obviously the sort of Public Statement the president made yesterday did go against so much of what weve heard from dr. Fauci in recent days and other Public Health officials who insisted its likely to take much longer than that. Foucher said on friday, this is not something would be done in a matter of a week or several weeks. He thought that was simply too optimistic of a pronouncement here. Privately what i hear in the conversations with white house officials the president , as evidenced by his public comments, wants to get this going quickly though. They dont think this will be a red light green light thing, that by easter the lights will be back on and things will return to normal. They think the president may likely at the end of the 15day guidelines they put out to try to stop the spread create some new guidelines that could be a little more focused geographically and demographically. Among the considerations, perhaps, that young people be allowed to go out and start working some places, that older people need to remain in that quarantine for their own safety and to try to stop the spread to the most vulnerable communities as well. States least hit will be able to rev up while california, new york and Washington State wouldnt be able to. Those shutdown orders likely to stay in place. To be clear, this is not the president s decision to make. At the end of the day its up to the states governors. Peter alexander, thank you. Im joined by Carly Fiorina well, we just lost her, ive been told. Facetime just dropped out. Well try to get her back. Meanwhile, overseas spain just hit a tragic new milestone in its fight against the coronavirus. It has now surprised china in the number of deaths, more than 3,400 people have died in spain from this virus. The death toll rising so rapidly there that officials in madrid have actually converted this ice rink into a morgue. Spains death toll second now only to italy, and that country just got another stark development. Their deaths have started to tick back up. Nbcs matt bradley joins me from rome, italy. Matt, is there a sense there that the efforts in italy just arent working . Reporter good question, craig. I cant really get a sense of whats going on here because of this nationwide lockdown. Theres literally no one on the streets. Theyre void of people. The police going around fining people now. Now theyve raised the fine actually, Something Like 400 euros to 3,000 euros of a fine if youre caught loitering or Walking Around on the streets. If youre caught Walking Around and you already tested positive for the virus, you could get up to five years in jail. So its very, very serious here. A lot of people that we have spoken to, and there arent that many people who we have been able to reach, they are frightened and theyre frustrated. Its been two weeks into this nationwide, unprecedented lockdown that has seen all these businesses close. People are very understanding, but theyre waiting for the numbers to start showing that. Whats really heartbreaking about this, you mentioned, double the death rate of china now. Whats really heartbreaking for a lot of people is in the last couple days, the acceleration rate seemed to be going down, the number of deaths were climbing at a slower rate. The number of transmissions had been climbing at a slower rate for just a couple of days. That was optimistic for a lot of people. Now this crushing blow, just last night, the fresh new numbers that show not the unprecedented record setting high that we saw on saturday where it was 793 deaths in one day, 743 is still really bad. Ive been banging this drum for the last two weeks since i got to rome. Italy is the canary in the coal mine for the United States and the rest of the wester world, not just in terms of how the virus spreads but in terms of the lockdown, the Law Enforcement mechanisms being used that are totally novel, totally new, to restrict the movements. Its been a frustrated service for a lot of people and it will be frustrating for americans when they see how this is done. Craig. Matt bradley in rome, stay safe, buddy. We do have Carly Fiorina now. Her connection has been resto d restored. Carly, of course, a former president ial candidate, served on the boards of kellogg, sysco, merck, also on the Republican National senatorial committee. Good to see you. Thanks for your time. As someone with strong redenls in the corporate sector, lets start with this 2 trillion bailout bill. It includes 350 billion for Small Businesses, 500 billion for big corporations. Is this going to be enough . Well, i certainly hope to. 2 trillion is a lot of money on top of record deficits we already have. I must say i am not a fan of the 500 billion in Corporate Bailouts. I never have been. Im all for the very Creative Work that it looks like was done to support Small Businesses, working families, individuals to extend Unemployment Insurance as well as safety net programs. I think the Corporate Bailout should have been left for another day. I think there is real reason to say to the airlines, for example, go into bankruptcy as you have before. You can continue to fly while youre bankrupt. You can continue to pay your employees while youre bankrupt. But a 50 billion bailout for you when you spent the last eight years buying your stock back to the tune of about 46 billion, doesnt strike me as the right way to use taxpayer money. I think we should focus on individuals, working families and Small Businesses. So im pleased there is a focus on them in this bill. But eventually a bill will come due and i think the Corporate Bailout was too much, too soon. Maybe we didnt need it ever. You mentioned Small Businesses. My guy in town runs a chinese food shop that we frequent. We still get delivery from this place. One of his concerns that he expressed to me, Small Business owner, even if Congress Passes this bill, the president signs it, by the time these Small Businesses actually get the help, it will be too late. They will have already had to close their doors. What do we do in the interim . I think its really an important question. I think actually this is why i hope this is why the Federal Reserve and the treasury and, for example, the sba, will all be working together here. In essence, what the Federal Reserve has said is they will make virtually unlimited amounts of money available to banks to lend. So i think what needs to happen in the interim, what i would encourage that particular Small Business owner to do is contact immediately, if they have not already, their bank as well as the sba and ask for the loans that are necessary to continue to pay their employees during this difficult time so that when better times return, their employees can come back and the business is still there. I do think we have to think about all of these packages of assistance in a holistic way. The Federal Reserve has stepped forward to make limitless amounts of money available to be lent, and thats helpful in this interim period. I want your response to the president s suggested timeline that we heard for the first time yesterday carly, well have to come back to that a little later. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo starting his daily briefing. Lets listen in. We have not turned the trajectory nor have we hit the apex. Remember that line is going to reach a high point, tip and go back down. Were still on the way up the mountain. Number of infections that have been coming in, 80 still selfresolve. About 15 of the people who test positive require hospitalization, and then there are degrees of hospitalization, right . But the total universe that requires hospitalization is 15 . We use projection models. We have cornell while, a great medical institution that does projection models, we use mckenzie, department of health doing projection models. The projection models are important because they are projecting the possible trajectory and projecting the possible need. So were planning for a need, the projection models do that. The projection models are just that. They are models of projections. Theyre not necessarily definitive. But its the only device that we have to plan. Follow the data, follow the data, follow the data. The actual hospitalizations have moved at a higher rate than all the projected models. That was obviously concerning because that higher infection rate means faster, higher capacity on the hospitals, and thats the critical point for us, is the number of people going to hospitals. Right now what were looking at is about 140,000 cases coming into the hospitals. The Hospital Capacity is 53,000 beds. Thats a problem. Were looking at about 40,000 icu cases coming into the hospitals. We have about 3,000 icu beds. Thats a challenge. What is an icu bed for these purposes . Basically a bed with the ventilator. The ventilator is the most critical piece of equipment for an intensive care unit bed because this is a respiratory illness and people need more ventilation than usual. What do we want to do . Reduce the number of cases coming into the hospitals, slow the number of cases coming into the hospitals. Thats what dr. Fauci is talking about on tv every day. Flatten the curve, flatten the curve. Slow the number of people coming into the hospitals so we can deal with them in the hospitals. We are working on that. At the same time increase your Hospital Capacity. So try to slow the number of cases coming into the hospital. Meanwhile, raise your Hospital Capacity. We are working on both simultaneously, we have been from day one. Reduce the number of cases coming in. Flatten the curve, slow the spread of the infection. We are doing everything we can on that. Thats banning nonessential workers. Thats social distancing. Thats closing restaurants, closing gyms, just flatten the curve, slow the infection rate. One issue we had was in new york city where we had a higher level of density than we wanted, especially in the new York City Parks, especially with young people, ive been as direct as i can and as blunt as i can on young people and the misinformation that they have. You can catch the coronavirus. You may think you are a superhero. Youre really not. You can catch it and you can transfer it which makes you dangerous to the people who you love. But the new York City Parks have been a problem. I saw the problem myself firsthand. I spoke to mayor de blasio, i spoke to speaker johnson. We said come up with a plan in 24 hours that everybody agreed with. They came up with a plan. Were now implementing that plan. I signed off on that plan. The plan is going to pilot closing streets in new york city because we have much less traffic in new york city. We have many fewer vehicles in new york city. Open streets. People want to walk, go out and get some air, you want a less dense area, so pilot closing streets to cars, opening streets to pedestrians. Theyll enact mandatory playground social density. Probably a new concept. No close Contact Sports in a playground. No basketball, for example. You cannot do it. Were asking people to do that on a voluntary basis. If theres noncompliance with that, we will then make it mandatory and we will actually close the playgrounds. We dont want to do that because playgrounds a place to go out and get open air, but you have to exercise social density even in a playground. Again, its voluntary. The mayor is going to make it clear that this is important to the people of the city. If it doesnt happen, we will actually close down the play grounds. I dont want to do that. But we do need to reduce the spread of the infection. That is what is most important. This is very interesting. Because the evidence suggests that the density control measures may be working. Again, were doing its interesting. This past sunday the projection was that hospitalizations were doubling every two days. On monday, the numbers suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling every 3. 4 days. On tuesday, the projections suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling every 4. 7 days. Now, that is almost too good to be true. But the theory is, given the density that were dealing with, it spreads very quickly, but if you reduce the density, you can reduce the spread very quickly. So these projections, ive watched them bounce all over the place and i dont place a great deal of stock in any one projection. All due respect to all the great academics and statisticians who are doing it. But this is a very good sign and a positive sign. Again, im not 100 sure it holds or its accurate. But the arrows are headed in the right direction and that is always better than the arrows headed in the wrong direction. To the extent people say these are burdensome requirements, social distancing, no restaurants, no nonessential workers, yes, they are burdensome. By the way, they are effective and theyre necessary. The evidence suggests at this point that they have slowed the hospitalizations, and this is everythi everything. Slowing the hospitalization rates coming into the hospitals are everything so the hospitals can deal with the rate of people coming in. At the same time, increased hospit Hospital Capacity. What were studying is what is the high point of that line, what is the apex of that line. That is the point of the greatest number of people coming into the Hospital System. So thats our greatest load, is the apex. And when is that going to happen . Again, that is a projection. Again, that moves around. But the current projection is that could be in 21 days. So ramp up the Hospital Capacity to make to be able to handle that apex volume. How do you ramp up Hospital Capacity. You ramp up beds, ramp up staff and ramp up equipment and the ventilators are the problem in equipment as weve discussed many times. Where are we on that . Beds, we may need 140,000, we have 53,000. Thats the existing capacity of hospitals. We told all hospitaltions they have to increase capacity by 50 . I told them that myself on a Conference Call yesterday. This is a burden for the hospitals to now say you have to increase capacity 50 . But i have to tell you, they were very generous about it and they understood what we were dealing with. And they were eager to step up to the plate. If you increase Hospital Capacity by 50 , that gets you to 27,000 beds on top of the existing. It takes you to 80. Some hospitals, i asked as a goal, try to increase by 100 your capacity. 50 was the minimum. The goal was do that. And i encouraged them to try to do that, as impossible as it sounds. But now is the time to be aggressive and do things youve never done before. If some of them do that, and i believe some of them will, that will be an additional 5,000 beds. We get to 85,000 beds. Fema, army corps of engineers, what were doing at javits center, the westchester convention center, westbury, stony brook, thats another 4,000, takes us to 89,000. The u. S. Navy ship comfort the president dispatched, that would be 1,000 beds to backfill from hotels. That takes you to 90,000. If we take all the state dormitories in downstate new york, that could get us an additional 29,000 beds, wed be at 119,000 beds. Youre still not at the 140 that you need, but then were looking at hotels, looking at former nursing homes, converting other facilities to make up the differential. So a lot, creative, aggressive, but in life, you do what you have to do. And thats what were doing on the bed capacity. Protective equipment, we have been shopping around the world. We have a whole team thats doing it. Right now we have enough protective equipment, gloves, masks, gowns, for all the hospitals statewide that are dealing with it. I brought down a shipment to new york city yesterday. Today no hospital, no nurse, no doctor can say legitimately i dont have protective equipment. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We do not yet have secured a supply from three, four, five weeks from now. But we are still shopping. And taking care of this immediate need was also good news and a good job by the team. Again, were still shopping for more equipment. Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. We need 30,000. We have in the existing Hospital System 4,000 ventilators. This is just in the normal operation of hospitals, et cetera. We have purchased 7,000, and we are still shopping. Federal government has sent 4,000. Were exploring splitting, where one ventilator could do two patients. Italy has had to do this because they were forced to do it. I want to see if we can study and do it a little smarter and have a little more time experimenting with it. But were looking at splitting the ventilators. Were still working with the federal government to try to find more ventilators. But that is our single greatest challenge, are the ventilators. Again, the icu beds, that really means a ventilated bed. Again, there is the number one piece of equipment that we need. You have beds, you have equipment, you need staff, and you need staff understanding that some staff is going to get sick and theyre going to be out. So we have been working on putting together a surge health care force. Go back to the retirees, go back to nurses and doctors who may not be in the hospital, direct medical care occupation and ask them to sign up for possible reserve duty. God bless them. 40,000 people have signed up as a surge health care force. 2,000 physicians, anesthesiologi anesthesiologists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, rns, lpns. 40,000 people have signed up. Thats a big, big deal. You can create beds. You can find the equipment. You have to have the staff. And you have to have the staff for those additional beds which are not now in the Hospital System and you have to have staff when the existing staff gets ill or, by the way, just cant work the hours that were going to need people to be working. So thats very good. This is also very exciting. I dont know that anyone else has done this. We talked about the emotional stress that this brings on people and the Mental Health stress and the Mental Health challenges. No one is really talking about this. Were all concerned about the immediate critical need, the life and death of the immediate situation which is right. But dont underestimate the Emotional Trauma that people are feeling and the Emotional Health issues. We ask for Mental Health professionals to voluntarily sign up to provide online Mental Health services. 6,000 Mental Health professionals agreed to volunteer to provide Mental Health services for people who need it. How beautiful is that . And the hotline 18448639314, you can call that hotline. You can schedule an appointment with a Mental Health professional totally free, to talk to them about what youre feeling and what stress youre feeling. Again, god bless the 6,000 Mental Health professionals who are doing this 100 free, on top of whatever they have to do in their normal practice. Im sure in their normal practice, theyre busy. So this is really an extraordinary step by them. Federal government, i spoke with President Trump several times. I spoke with him last night, ive spoken with him this morning. Ive spoken to people in the white house who are handling these operations. Ive spoken with the vice president. Ive spoken with Jared Kushner who is a new yorker, he knows new york and hes working in the white house, and hes been extraordinarily helpful on all of these situations. What were working on is a common challenge. No one has these ventilators and no one anticipated a situation where you would need this number of ventilators to deal with a Public Health emergency. So we have purchased everything that can be purchased. Were now in a situation that were trying to accelerate production of these ventilators, and a ventilator is a complicated piece of equipment. The president and his team i think are using the dpa well because its basically a its a leverage tool when youre dealing with private companies. We need your help. We can demand your help or you could agree to help and we need you to step up and increase production. Even with that, theres a ramp up time for a company to put together the supply chain, put together the workforce and get these things up and running. So ford you hear is going to help, General Motors is going to help. The problem is our timeline is so short, were looking at an apex 21 days, in that range. To get ventilators and these business consortiums put together, supply chain, design team, ramped up and delivered 30,000 ventilators is an extraordinarily difficult task. Its something our team is working on with the white house team, and i want to thank the president for his cooperation and his team for their cooperation. Were getting very creative. Were talking to countries around the world as well as new companies that could do production. Were also talking to the white house about another concept. New york has the greatest need in terms of numbers. New york also has the most critical need in terms of timing, right . We talk about our apex. We talk about that curve. Different localities, different regions around the country are going to have different curves. We are in some ways first. Our case numbers went up first, our trajectory is first, by a long shot. Different regions will have their curve at different times. What i said to the president and his team was, look, rather than saying we have to provide equipment for the entire country at one time, lets talk about addressing the critical need in that hot spot. Once that hot spot turns because you have an apex and then you have a curve, and the curve is relatively short, once you address that shot spot with that intensity, intense equipment, intense personnel, then shift to the next hot spot and have more of a rolling deployment across the country than a static deployment. I was in the federal government hud. I worked on dozens of disasters. You deal with the disaster in front of you at that time and then you move on to the next disaster. I think that rolling deployment could work here, and on behalf of new york, i said we will be 100 helpful. We need help from the entire country right now. We need resources from the entire country right now. And because our apex is first and our numbers are highest, but the apex high point will be sequential across the country. So so i said to the white house, send us the equipment that we need, send us the personnel. As soon as we get past our critical moment, we will redeploy that equipment and personnel to the next hot spot, and i will personally guarantee it and personally manage it. So if you send us 15,000 ventilators and then after our curve los angeles needs 15,000 ventilators, we can take the equipment from here, we can take the personnel from here, we can take the lessons from here. We go first. Were going to learn things that nobody else has learned because were going to be the first one through the chute. I personally guarantee that we will bring that equipment, we will bring that personnel, bring that Technical Assistance to the next hot spot. I said to the president , ill be part of going to the next hot spot with our team. Were asking the country to help us. We will return the favor. And we are all in this together. Were asking for their help and their consideration and we will repay it with dividends. The senate is also considering a 2 trillion bill which is, quote, unquote, relief for businesses, individuals and governments. It would really be terrible for the state of new york. The 2 trillion bill, what does it mean for new york state government, that means 3. 8 billion. 3. 8 billion sounds like a lot of money. The budget director can talk you through the numbers. Were looking at a revenue shortfall of 9, 10, 15 billion. This response to this virus has probably already cost us 1 billion. It will probably cost us several billion dollars when were done. New york city only gets 1. 3 billion from this package. That is a drop in the bucket as to need. I spoke to our house delegation, congressional delegation this morning. I said to them, this doesnt do it. I understand the senate theory and the republican theory, but we need the house to make adjustments. In the house bill that went over, new york state got 17 billion. In the senate bill we get 3. 8 billion. Well, youre just big spending were not a big spending state. I cut taxes every year. I have the lowest growth rate of the state budget in modern political history. So we are frugal and we are efficient. Im telling you these numbers dont work, and i told the house members that we really need their help. In terms of numbers, total tested, up to 103,000 people. New tests up to 12,000. As of yesterday about 28 of all testing nationwide has been performed by the state of new york. The state of new york is doing more testing than any state in the United States of america, and im very proud of the team on how weve mobilized and gotten this testing up and running. People ask how does the testing work. Any hospital in the state can perform testing. You can walk into a hospital in buffalo, new york, if you show the symptoms and meet the protocol, you can be tested. Strategically we deploy testing in the most dense areas, where we set up the drivethroughs, et cetera. Why . Because were hunting positives. Were hunting positives so we can isolate them and reduce the spread. Youre more likely to get positives in a high positive area. Set up a drivethrough in the bronx versus set up a drivethrough in shah tack wah county, youll get more positives in the bronx. Thats what we want. Anywhere in the state, you have symptoms, youre concerned, you can walk into any hospital, that hospital can get a test performed. Number of positive cases, were up to 30,000. Number of new cases, 5,000. Again, you see the numbers, 13,000 im sorry, 17,000 in new york city, 4,000 in westchester, 3,000 in nassau county. Relatively, westchester, we have dramatically slowed what was an exponential increase. Again, on the good news side, can you slow the rate of infection . Yes. How do you know . Look what we did in westchester. That was the hottest cluster in the United States of america. We closed the schools, we closed gatherings, we brought in testing and we have dramatically slowed the increase. Nassau county is 3,000, relatively right behind westchester. They were at, like, zero when westchester started. So we can slow it and we have slowed it. Again, you see it spreading across the state which we said it would. Current numbers, 30,000 test ed positive. 12 of those who test positive are hospitalized. 3 of the positives are in icu. Okay . This is deep breath time again. Im anxious. Im nervous. What does it mean . 30,000 tested positive, 12 are in the hospital, 3 are in icu. If you look at those 3 , theyre going to be predominantly senior citizens, people with underlying illnesses, people with emphysema, people with a compromised immune system. Thats what this effort is all about. All the noise, all the energy, its about that 3 . Take a deep breath. Now, that 3 , thats my mother, thats your mother, thats your sister. These are people we love. These are our grandparents, and were going to do everything we can to protect every one of them. I give the people of the state of new york my word that were doing it. But were talking about 3 of the people who tested positive that were worrying about. Most impacted states, were 30,000. Next closest is new jersey at three, california at two. This is a really dramatic differential. This is what i argue to anyone who will listen. We have ten times the problem that the next state has which is new jersey. You compare us to california which is larger in terms of population, we have 15 times the problem. You have to ask yourself why . Why does new york have such a high number . Again, in the totality, we understand what it means, but why does new york have such a high number . And this is my personal opinion. I like to make sure i separate facts from personal opinion. The facts i give you are the best facts i have. Again, the data changes day to day. I give you exactly what i have on a daytoday basis. Personal opinion, why does new york have so many more cases than any other state . How can it be . Youre 15 times the number of californ california. It really is breathtaking when you think about it. State of massachusetts, were 30 times the number of cases. So why is the question that people ask me. Two answers. Answer one is because we welcome people from across the globe. We have people coming here we have people who came here from china, who came here from italy, who came here from countries all around the globe. We have International Travelers who were in china and who were in italy and who were in korea and who came here. I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know. And i have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state because those people come here first. Thats the first answer. The second answer is because we are close, because we are close, we talk about the virus and how it transfers in a dense area. Its literally because we are close. Because we live close to one another. Because were close to one another on the street. To one another on the street, because we live in close communities. Because were close to one another on the bus. Were close to one another in the restaurant. Were close to one another in the movie theater. And we have one of the most dense, close environments in the country. And thats why the virus communicated the way it did. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. That spacial closeness makes us vulnerable. But its true that your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength. And our closeness makes us who we are. That is what new york is. Our closeness is what makes us special. Our acceptance, our openness, is what makes us special. Its what makes us feel so connected one to another. Its what makes us so connecting of one another. It is the closeness that makes us the human beings that we are. The closeness is that new york humanity that i think exists nowhere else. The closeness is what makes our sense of community. And theres a gentleman who i still look to for guidance and for leadership and for inspiration. Hes not here anymore for you. Hes still here for me. But he said things more profound and more beautifully than most other people ever have. One of the things he said that is so appropriate for tomorrow, we believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech that i could write what a proper government should be the idea of family, mew challty, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one anothers pain, sharing one anothers blessings reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race, or sex, or geography or political affiliation. That is new york. It is that closeness, that concept of family, of community. Thats what makes new york new york. And thats what made us vulnerable here. But it is also that closeness and that connection and that humanity and that sharing that is our greatest strength. And that is what is going to overcome at the end of the day. I promise you that. I can see how new yorkers are responding. Of i can see how new yorkers are treating one another. I can see the 6,000 Mental Health volunteers. I see the 40,000 Health Care Workers stepping up. I see the vendors calling me saying, i can help. Thats new york. Thats new york. And that, my friends, is undefeatable. And i am glad in some ways were first with this situation because we will overcome. And we will show the other communities across this country how to do it. We will be there for them. We want them to be there for us. And we will be there for each other, as we always have been. Any questions . How does the state decide who is the priority when it comes to ventilators . We have no anticipation of having to prioritize ventilator usage. Our goal is to have a ventilator for anyone who needs one. You showed numbers youre optimistically at 18,000 and you say youre going to need 40,000. So some nittygritty questions, where are those ventilators going to come in from fema going . Did you get any commitment from the white house that theyre going to send more than the 4,000 they committed already . And what is the plan to increase that number, the same way you plan to increase hospital beds . Thats a good question, jimmy. First, the ventilators were putting in we are putting in the stockpile. We will deploy from the stockpile as we need them. Literally deploy on a need basis. If one hospital calls up and said were overwhelmed, this is what we need, we will be in position to deploy. The increase of beds is within our control, right . There are beds in this state. Theyre not hospital beds and you have to figure out how to convert them to hospital beds and you have to figure out how to get access to them, but we have beds. That is a logistical, operational challenge, how do you turn a dorm room into a hospital bed . How do we build a hospital in javit center. The ventilators are different. We dont have them. The federal government does not have them either. No one has a stockpile of these. The federal government has to acquire them the same way we have to acquire them. Im working with the white house in creative ways to acquire them, getting companies to ramp up, getting companies to retrofit other machines. This rolling deployment methodology, but nobody has them. There is no medical stockpile in washington that magically can make them appear. There was a report in 2015 where the state suggested or task force suggested maybe new york should increase its stockpile. Any reason that wasnt done . Jimmy, thats not the fact and you know it. Read the Fact Checkers on it. There was a Advisory Commission called life and the law that had a chart in 2015 that said, if you had the 1918 spanish flu pandemic, you may need x number of ventilators. There was no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 spanish flu pandemic. [ inaudible question ] the short answer is yes. Do you know dr. Zucker, the number of people resolved . Does anyone have that here, besides hopkins number . We have hundreds and hundreds of people who left the hospital and those individuals resolved and there are many other individuals who never even came into the hospital. We can try to get you an exact number on that. Before that you did you change your criteria . The rules have changed at this point, right . Yes. Can you talk a little bit about that, what was behind it . We were following the cdc guidelines and recommendations if after seven days you were positive and after seven days of being positive, as long as youre more than 72 hours without symptoms, then you can go back to work. This suggests this is the best data. This is john hopkins. Its every case since china, 445,000. 19,000 deaths. Again, i bet you dollars to doughnuts, lieu at them senior citizens, compromised immune system, et cetera, et cetera. Recovery is 100,000, right, roughly and pending 300,000. But recoveries are recoveries. You get it. People that i know, they stay home for two weeks and they then test negative. You can test negative in two weeks, three weeks, one week after you have it. That is going to be the vast overwhelming number of people. The biggest number when this is done and we can actually go back and test, the biggest number is going to be people who had it who resolved and we never knew they had it. Thats going to be the biggest number. The reason we want to get to that test is because when you talk about restarting the economy, you have a test that says you, andrew, were exposed to it in february. By the way, youre recovered and you have the antibodies. Go back to work. Im sorry, i cut off jesse. When i cut off jesse, he gets annoyed at me and i pay for the next week. Im kidding. Today a third of the icu beds that are currently available in the state, do we still not have a figure on just how much the availability of those beds currently is . So its 3,000 minus 80 used . The icu beds for our purposes are beds with ventilators. We can create today more icu beds with ventilators we already have in house, right . So we have 14,000 ventilators. If we had to today, we could create 14,000