Headed by Vice President pence. The Vice President we just completed the Coronavirus Task force. I couldnt be more proud of the men and women of the efforts standing behind me or those standing behind them. President trump said this would be a whole of government approach and today gives evidence of the fact that it is a whole of america approach. We are bringing the whole resources of the federal government and full resources of this great economy and our great business sethor to bear in protecting the American People and american families. A few updates from today. As we continue to expand testing availability across the country. Testing is available at all state labs. There will be four million more tests made available in jurisdictions around the country. One million are already in place thanks to the good work of our top commercial labs that President Trump brought together yesterday. Lab corps and quest are in the process now of distributing and marketing coronavirus tests all across america and we are working with state ap local first to ensure that happens as rapidly as possible. But as the testing is expanding, we wanted to make sure to the American People knew that testing was available to them and that costs would not be a barrier. Today, President Trump assembled the Top Health Insurance executives in america. And as we announced earlier today, all of our major Health Insurance companies have now joined with medicare and medicaid and agreed to waive all copays, cover the costs of all treatment for those who contract the coronavirus. They have committed to nosurprise billing and they have committed to encourage telemedicine. It was a year ago that medicaid expanded to pay for telemedicine. Medicare pays for telemedicine and for seniors who think they are either at risk or contracted the disease, they can get medical device without having to go to the doctor or emergency room. I speak for President Trump when i say how grateful we are to see our Health Industry to step forward to meet this need that no american should be concerned about being able to pay for or afford the cost of a coronavirus test if they deem and their doctor deems it to be appropriate and necessary. The president went to capitol hill today to meet with members of the United StatesSenate Republican caucus. He talked about an economic package and he is calling for payroll tax relief. And i think most importantly, the president we want to make sure that hourly workers and americans who may not have paid family leave today that small and mediumsized businesses would be afforded the resources to be provided paid leave so no one feels they have to go to work if they are exposed to the coronavirus. We had a good reception on capitol hill. Our legislative teams have fanned out and working with republican and democratic leadership. Larry kudlow will be reflecting on that in a few moments. We talked about what are known as n95 masks and working with deb fisher and others have important legislation that would extend temporary Liability Protection so that masks that are made from industrial use could be sold to hospitals to ensure that our Health Care Workers are properly protected and outfitted. We are grateful for growing bipartisan support for that measure and we will be working with republicans and democrats to move a reform that would make more n95 masks available. Im pleased to report we did receive this afternoon a comprehensive proposal from the cruise line industry, a proposal that includes advanced screening, improving medical services on ships, providing for airlift evacuation and landbased care at the expense of the cruise lines for anyone who might not only be infected with the coronavirus but any serious illness. The president s objective is for us to make the cruise lines safer even as we work with the cruise lines to ensure that no one in our particularly vulnerable population is going out on a cruise in the near future. Im going to recognize dr. Fauci to talk about where we are and dr. Birx will give us some research she has done on the scope and will have other updates. Let me say once again. This is a whole of government approach and from early on President Trump has insisted that our government at the federal level, all of our partners at the state level work in concert to protect the American People. As we stand here today, the risks to the average american in contracting the coronavirus remains low, but we are determined to give every american the tools and the information that they need to protect themselves, their families, their workplace, their schools and we are going to Work Together. We are going to Work Together to see our way through this and working with leaders in both parties in congress, working with leaders at the state level. Im confident we will. With that, Drr Tony Fauci on the status. Thank you very much. Just to give you a very brief sketch of what we do every day. The cases continue to increase globally and paying particular attention to the cases in europe, italy and france and at the same time that the relative of new cases come down in china and what we are seeing in europe, europe is in the upslope. Thats the way these outbreaks go. If you look at the history of Infectious Diseases outbreaks. In the United States we cofpblet to have out breaks. As of this morning, 712 with 27 deaths. This evening, it will be up and several more and tomorrow, several more. We realize this is something that we have been saying all along that we are taking very seriously. Now the question is what are we going to do about that . F you look at the curve of outbreaks, big peaks and come down. We need to flatten that down. That would have less people that are infected. You do that by trying to interfere with the natural flow of the outbreak. What we are seeing today that although we keep coming in and saying appropriately that as a nation, the risk is relatively low, there are parts of the country right now that are having Community Spread in which the risk there is clearly a bit more than that and you know the places, washington state, california, new york city and florida. What i want to talk to you about today is we would like the country to realize, as a nation, we cant be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago. Doesnt matter if you are in a state that has snow case or one case. What you can do now that if and when the infections will come and they will come, sorry to say, sad to say, they will, when you are dealing with an infectious disease, wayne gretzky, you have to go where the puck is or going where the puck is, we want where the infection is going to be. What we have here, if you go to coronavirus. Gov and remember dr. Birx mentioned some of the things we put together. Keeping the workplace safe and homes and schools safe and keeping establishments safe. This should be universal. Everyone should be doing that, whether you live in a zone that has Community Spread or not. When you have Community Spread, you are going to ratchet up the kinds of mitigations that you have. But this is the minimum we should be doing. Everybody should say all hands on deck, this is what we need to do. And after, i will be happy to answer questions. Thank you, mr. Vice president and dr. Fauci. We continue to monitor the situation across the country and across the globe and we are fortunate that we have longterm contacts out there in these countries that are experiencing outbreaks and look for insights to determine who is at the greatest risk and we have talked o you with people with immuneo deficiencies and the elderly and how important it is to take these precautions in the households because we have circulating flu and other respiratory diseases at this time. We have to act like all of those diseases can be transmitted to others. As we said yesterday, we are hoping this decreases. We got new reports out of china. Nine pregnant women enduring a cow individual infection and all nine were infected and delivered and all nine babies were healthy. We continue to look for data to be reassuring to the American People and ensuring that everyone is responding and taking those present caugs that we should be taking every day. If we do this every day, we will be ready next year for any respiratory diseases and show that these simple household, simple work, simple schools, simple business approach can change it. We thank you for getting the message out and participating and ensuring in your households all around america you are protecting those who need our support right now. The Vice President and this information is available at coronavirus. Gov. The risks of contracting the coronavirus remains low, but for Senior Citizens with serious underlying Chronic Health conditions, the potential for serious consequences is very real. By practicing these habits in your home, your school and business, not only protecting your health but protecting those that are most vulnerable. With that for an update on the progress that President Trump made with our Health Insurance companies, i recognize our next speaker. Meeting a terrific real example of the publicprivate and waive copays for testing and not do surprise billing and cover the costs of the cow individual costs. They asked the president for more flexibility in Medicare Advantage plans and the president agreed to do that and today we issued guidance to our Medicare Advantage plan. They can waive the costs for the tests and remove prior authorization requirements and waive prescription and waive mail delivery and expand more access to telehealth. We continue to work with health care priors around inif he can shon. And we made with hospitals and ssued guidance to dyalisis around Infection Control. The Vice President great deal of tanges about the grand princess and h. H. S. Working with the coast guard and department of defense is currently working hrough disembarking american passengers and foreign nationals to their country and i ask our secretaries to update us on the progress. With regard to the grand princess, i wanted to express our appreciation to the governor of california and people of oakland in clearing the dock area so we can do our operations. We have admiral here who has been leading the coast guard efforts and state who has done work with our foreign who are on board the ship. As of our data. As of noon pacific time, this will have increased substantially, but as of noon pacific, 548 individuals who have been offloaded from the ship. 228 canadians are back in canada. 171 californians were taken by the government of california and are now at travis air base. And 26 individuals were sick and they are being treated could be from the Novel Coronavirus and some frail individuals who were sick and needed treatment. Our goal is to get the citizens of california off today to be in the care of the california State Government as well as to get the u. K. Citizens off today so they the e repatrioted into united kingdom. We will have noncalifornia residents who will be in ransport to the bases at dobbins. Everything is progressing and seems to be progressing well and using the medical screenings possible to ensure the safety of not just the passengers but also of the local communities and all of the Health Care Workers and emergency responders. Thanks to all of our partners for their help in this complex operation. He the Vice President let me echo the secretarys appreciation to governor of california, city of oakland. It has literally be a seamless partnership. Everyone on that ship will be tested, isolated and quarantined as appropriate and provided with treatment. The crew on the ship, other than those who were ill, will be quarantined on the ship offshore. But on it represented the kind of partnership and cooperation from every level of government that every american i know is grateful to see. Front,at on the economic larry kudlow. Yesterday in the meeting in the oval, the president acknowledged there will be challenges on the health and economic side. He mentioned that he intended to bring the full power of the federal government to deal with these challenges. And accordingly as the Vice President has said up at the Republican Senate luncheon today and he mentioned in this room yesterday, President Trump has unveiled his strong proposals or a temporary payroll tax cut think he would think he would on prefer to last through the end of the year. Also administratively as secretary treasury mnuchin and others have mentioned we use assistance to pay unpaid sick leave people, also small and medium businesses, another important point and also possibly to some Distressed Industries or sectors in the economy maybe tax deferral might be a useful tool and other means. This is a strong across the board package. We are consulting with leaders in the house and senate with respect to this package, particularly the payroll tax holiday. Let me just say, coming into this difficult period, the economy is in good shape. We saw a blockbuster jobs report last friday. Today, for example, the Small Business confidence index, the nfib Business Confidence index registered a very strong number, keeping its near record high. The unemployment remains low at 3. 5 . Other indicaters look pretty good. We have a lot of momentum in the first quarter, good thing. I recognize the challenges and that is why we are proposing these fiscal measures to combine with monetary measures that have already taken, and again i repeat the president s words, it struck me as his demmings. He intends to bring full power of the federal government to deal with these health and economic challenges. And a word from Surgeon General jerome adams. Good evening, everyone. Surgeon general, whether its opioids or cigarettes or the coronavirus, my job is to help the American People understand how to live a healthy life. And im asking all of you, im imploring all of you, to help share my prescription for america to overcome this coronavirus situation that were. In there are three parts to it. Number one, know your risk. As you heard many times, but its still important to impress upon america if you are immue immunocompromised furk if you have a chronic condition, if you are over the age of 60 you are at higher risk. If youre a child or young adult youre less likely to be affected by the coronavirus. Number two, know your circumstances. Are you in a environment where you can telework . Are you planning to go to large gatherings like church . Do you live in a community that is being particularly impacted by the coronavirus. You can find out this your state or local health department. Does your state have a hotline to call into to help you address assess symptoms. And number three, this is the most important part, know what you can codo to stay safe. We have leaned into coronavirus. Gov, send people to that website. We put tools on there for individual groups, specific audiences, so that people can understand how to stay safe. We follow this prescription, we will overcome the coronavirus, as dr. Faw chee said, well see more as dr. Fauci said well see more cases. We have not hit the peak of this epidemic quite yet but we can decrease the number of people who are impacted, decrease the number of people who will die and more quickly get to the end of this situation. Thank you. Reporter mr. Vice president crowds, r said avoid so will the trumppence campaign suspend Campaign Rallies and other activities . Vice president pence thats a decision that will be made on a daytoday basis. Im very confident that the campaign will take the very best information and make the very best decision Going Forward but these proposals are things that every american can do all across the country that will reduce the risk of either contracting or being exposed to the coronavirus. Reporter on the economic package, the word unveiled was just use bud so far the public hasnt seen it. How big is the package this how big will the payroll tax cut going to be . When will the general public see what you all have put together . We are working out details right now. I dont want to quote numbers ahead of time. You make a proposal, were checking with the leaders of both parties in both houses and see what is doable and where the, you know, tough nuts will be. I dont want to get into think detail. I think the outline of the thing is very important. The payroll tax holiday is probably the most important, powerful piece of this. On the other hand, i want to draw attention, we can use administration and executive thority again to help unpaid sick leave people which is very important, we can use it for the medium and smaller businesses which is very important. Other distressed sectors. We have some leverage on tax deferral. We know, i mean, look. I will say again as we have for quite some time, the economy is strong. We also know there are going to be problems ahead. We know therell be challenges ahead, dont deny it. Well see. I want to take that a day at a time and a fact at a time, a statistical release at a time. Th