Vice president pence we just completed another meeting of the White House Coronavirus task force. It has been a very busy and productive day here at the white house. President trump has no hire priority than the safety and health of the American People. And president has directed our task force employing a full resource of the federal government in full partnership with state and local Health Authorities to make that priority a reality. As i stand before you today, we have more than 100 coronavirus case is in the United States, that is counting domestic cases and cases of coronavirus of americans that were returned from china or the diamond princess. Im pleased to report that most of those who contracted coronavirus within our care are continuing to recover. But sadly, we received word today another american has passed away and their family has our deepest condolences. That being said, thanks to the president s strong leadership and the professionalism of all of our federal agencies, health and human services, c. D. C. And state and local health first all across this country, the risk to the American Public of contracting the coronavirus remains low. To be clear, if you are a healthy american, the risk of contracting the coronavirus remains low. T it is still a good idea to engage in commonsense practices that are always recommended this time of year. So as someone who has a mother who is 87 years of age and married kids living around the country, a brief tu torial of prevention for yourself, family and loved ones. Stay home when youre sick. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Cover your cough or sneeze with tissue. Throw it in the trash. Clean and wash your hands with ther diss infect ant or soap and water for 20 sengedfer seconds. There is no need for americans to buy masks and the commonsense practices are all available at cdc. Gov. We had a series of meetings here on on capitol hill. We met with the executives of labs and the republican and democrat caucuses in the house of representatives and pleased to learn that the house of representatives passed a federal funding bill by virtually unanimous margin and will move to the senate and the legislation implements the president s vision that not only that our federal agencies need the support and resources that haveneed but our state and support. Governors are grateful for the bipartisan that is characterized this funding bill and we will work through that process. As President Trump said, we are all in this together. He deployed a whole of government approach, but thanks to the president s leadership, it has developed into a whole of america approach and in meetings today with Industry Leaders is a reflection of that. As drr birx will indicate in just a few moments with some of the data we are evaluating from around the world, the elderly are the most vulnerable especially those with Serious Health issues. At the president s direction, the center for medicaid and Medicare Services has issued new guidelines for Nursing Homes nationwide. We have raised the bar regarding Infectious Disease control at Nursing Homes and how we are going to focus all of our resources for the foreseeable future with compliance control standards. Generally, we monitor our Nursing Homes for abuse and neglect but at the president s direction we will ensure that those who are in Nursing Homes, like many of the c. E. O. s are complying with the new standards to keep our elderly safe. The president met with Airline Executives and i will reiterate our gratitude to our partners in the Airline Industry. They have worked with us and as we say, flowing americans through particular airports, the screening. We are working closely with the airlines on contact information. If a person is tested as positive for the coronavirus, we are working with the airlines to get information not just about that person but who they sat next to but who else was on the flight. As we announced yesterday, im pleased to report in addition to the travel ban from china, we suspended all travel coming in from china and from iran and even foreign nationals that visited those countries are barred from coming into this country for 14 days. Also established a travel advisory for portions of italy and portions of south korea over the weekend. As importantly as of yesterday morning we umh fer implemented a screening process all direct flights from south korea and italy are subject to multiple screens before passengers board to come to the United States of america. The state department worked very vigorously to bring that about and we are grateful to the cooperation of the governments of italy and south korea and our airline partners. With regard to testing, we had a meeting today that gave us great hope for great progress in the near future on expanding testing across the country. We have a ways to go yet. And im pleased to report as we have been able to convey to state governors, governors around the country, thanks to the good work of dr. Steve hahn, ll state labttoirs can conduct coronavirus tests. Without any additional assets or resources from the federal government, they have the f. D. A. Approved test and they can conduct the test. Beyond that as we announced through the efforts of h. H. S. , 50 test kits are going out including tests, roughlyly 1. 5 million tests that will be vale this week. Perhaps most significantly thanks to dr. Birx leadership, we brought together at the white house, the leaders of all of the largest commercial laboratories that s country, companies have vast capabilities and testing capabilities and pleased to report they have created a consortium to share information and resources and literally told us as they go through the validation process on testing that by next week, individual companies will be able to do as they said to me, thousands of tests of coronavirus if they are needed and required. And many, many multiples more of that in the near future. As dr. Birx raised with the task force. We have hospital in affected areas. We have universities and state labs that now can perform the test on a requested basis. Our objective and as quickly as possible is to have tests made through these commercial laboratories and commercial providers that your local doctor medcheck has a coronavirus test. That isnt there yet. We are making that to make a reality. Its a whole of america approach and whether it be our Nursing Home Industry or Airline Industry or commercial laboratories. I can speak on behalf of President Trump when i say we profoundly ing dr grateful. Grateful for the leadership at the state level and the American People that the spirit of partnership is going to drive this at every level as we work our way through dealing with the coronavirus in the United States. I recognize dr. Birx for her comments. Good evening. Over the last 12 hours, we have been able to receive information both in south korea and italy. And as we thought, the elderly and preexisting conditions have re serious [indiscernible] no one has died under 30. This is reassuring and italy was 81. Of those who suck omed. Those who, we find this data and caused us to focus on the americans who might be most vulnerable and focused on attention and our capacity to ensure that those who have preexisting conditions have the best prevention and treatment options. It flows right through all of us to ensure that we have good protective hygiene to our clients around the globe. Thank you. As you heard, because of the risks for our nations seniors and doubling down on our efforts. We put out three memos, one with hospitals for patients with suspected or coronavirus and put out information to Nursing Homes about limiting visitors and monitoring staff and put out information to our state surveyors who are going to be surveying our Nursing Homes and hospitals. All that will information went ut this morning. C. D. C. Thank you, mr. Vice president. What i would like to highlight is echo what the Vice President started with when he was giving the American People the advice that he did as he went through that we have listed out on our c. D. C. Website. It really is very important and pragmatic about washing your hands, 20 second of soap and water or using the others. Obviously training yourself to cover your sneeze or cough either in your elbow or kleenex that you will dispose of. These are very important things. Working hard not to touch your face. I think the most important thing for many of those individuals that might be a little, if you get sick, stay home and you are not helping your colleagues by going to work sick. We have listed them. They are no different than what doask the American Public to for flu. Get those messages out. The one that is the most important that the Vice President also talked about is the role of masks. We need these n95 masks for the health care workers. We do not recommend them to be used by the general public. As you tell the stories are able to be great communicators of that so the general public gets good guidance from your experts that you will reach out for your stories. I will reiterate what the Vice President said. Although we are seeing new Community Cases in this nation, the overall risk to the public still remains low. Thank you. Just to reiterate what we said by several of our colleagues, we make policy recommendations and analysis of what we are going to recommend based on accumulation of data. What dr. Birx just told you is data of some of the things we have been telling you. Risk is something that is vague to people and we said if you talk about risk and infection it is a low risk. If you talk about someone who is infected and we have infected people. You understand the situation we have in seattle. If you do get infected and taking seattle as the microcosm of that, it is what dr. Birx says, the risk of getting into diss is weighted with people with underlying conditions and there will be an exception the same way we see with the flu but the risk to a young person of getting into trouble is low based on a lot of data coming out of Foreign Countries particularly out of china. I want to thank the Vice President and president for care careful leadership. I was involved with complex cases and dealt with a lot of renowned physicians but the people on this task force are extremely impressive and have been considering all the various different possibilities outlining scenarios for all the possibilities that can occur. And its very comforting and recognize that the risk to a healthy adult still remains quite low largely because of the aggressive actions that have been taken and continue to be taken every day. One last point, the pharmaceuticals who are normally rivals, having worked together voluntarily. Wouldnt that be a great lesson for the politicians . Vice president pence i will be traveling with many members of the task force to minnesota and siting 3m which is poised to vr millions more masks and traveling on to Washington State and meeting with governor inslee to ensure that the full resources of the federal government are being brought to bear of their efforts to protect the health of the people of the seattle area. Let me start right here. Reporter two questions, one about washington and one about florida. Can you tell us about how that meeting came to be. Will the secretary be with you and the meeting that the governor asked you to come there . Vice president pence iville spoken to governor inslee, who i know well from our time in congress together several times since being kept to lead the white house effort on the coronavirus a week ago. And he has been providing strong leadership for the state of washington. They have an Outstanding Health department. After meeting with members of the senate and the house, particularly those from the Washington State delegation, we thought it would be important to bring our team out to meet with their team on the ground and make sure they have the full support. Our hearts go out to those who have been infected with the disease in the seattle area but we understand the angstity this is creating in the full community and we are going out to sit down with the governor to make sure they have everything they need and the support they need. Reporter in florida, you will have a meeting with the crews liners. What companies are going to that . Would you like to see them do differently . Vice president pence obviously, the diamond princess issue, they are unique challenges. Our experts tell us in a closed environment of a crews liner and talk about best practices and thought it was time to spend some time with people in those industries with other industries around the country. [indiscernible] i have been looking online. Here is some sites where these have skyrocketed. Just since soap and water or cant find it . Vice president pence i ask c. D. C. Toll respond to that. Thank you, mr. Vice president. I want to make it clear, i dont think will soap and water, vigorously washing your hands for 20 seconds. If they want to use the hand sanitizers. But i dont want people to think it is inferior to what we have recommended is vigorous washing your hands for 20 seconds. Indiscernible] Vice President pence im going to ask dr. Birx to address that. There are three levels to address it. We have 1. 5 million test kits going out as we speak to hospitals, particularly hospitals until areas that have seen coronavirus cases. In addition to that, thanks to the good work of the f. D. A. And he change that the president authorized, every University Lab can conduct a kice test and that expands the capacity. Our objective is in addition to those tests being available. We want to get to a place where any american who has a concern is able to go to their doctor, is able to go to a Medical Clinic and know there is a coronavirus available. We think we can get there in a malter of weeks in partnership with the commercial labs. We are challenging them to do just that. I think you were interested in cost and i think what we heard from c. M. S. And h. H. S. , this will be an essential lab st and hopefully reimburseable. And we asked them and their invalidation and some of them thought they would have tests available on friday and then on monday. I asked them to prioritize so people can be reassured in those areas where we have identified buyers have been circulating. In those cases, they will have available at doctors offices and pediatric offices and will transport it through a although gist particular network so it can be run. Vice president pence h. H. S. Has designated the coronavirus test as an essential Health Benefit and it is covered in the private Health Insurance of every american as well as covered by medicare and medicaid. But we are working with members of congress and will be monitoring the costs very carefully. [indiscernible] are you considering more restrictions on travel . I will ask dr. Fauci to speak to that. At this time they are not realming that the president impose additional travel advisories or restrictions but as dr. Fauci can explain, we will follow the data and follow the cases. This is something that is evaluated in realtime. You cant make a decision right now. It is based on the data and became clire that the situation in northern italy and south korea was unique. Thats why that was done. We need to avlt this every single day. Vice president pence we did. We did. Right here. Right here. Reporter what sort of progress has been made with you meeting with the airline c. E. O. s about coording the passenger data and there have been reports that the c. D. C. Is investigating a potential cruise ship in california. Can you confirm that and how many cases are being investigated . Vice president pence on the first question, i know the president was also very moved by the level of commitment from our airlines for Customers Health and safety as well as their crews health and safety. They described to us their activities in cleaning the aircraft and sanitizing the aircraft and the president said its safe to fly in america and internationally, apart from the travel advisories that are available to the public. With that being said, its a work in progress about having contact information, but we were assured by the airlines they will work closely with us to provide manifests, passengers on an individual flight in the event of a Coronavirus Infection and just what the American People would expect from our airlines. But let me have c. D. C. Speak to the other issue. We are working in support of the California Health department thats in the process of evaluating another crews ship where they have confirmed cases. We are at the very beginning of that, looking at the manifests to make sure who has gotten off the cruise and we are involved in that followup. Last question, guys. Regarding it being safe toll fly, you explained a lot of grandparents coming to watch over kids, older adults is at stake. Travel. Ecessary should they hop on a plane and travel . You have preexisting medical conditions or elderly or frail and they need to take it into context. We really want everyone to know what we know, we received this new data and gone through it carefully and looks like there is significant greater risk of serious illness as you become older and have other medical cond