Their legislation. You can follow the senate live now on cspan2. Trump leads adent briefing by the Coronavirus Task force updating the governments response to the pandemic. He was joined by Vice President pence as well as medical and health officials. Thank you very much and i see we have fewer people because of the virus problem. We appreciate you being here. More andetting to be more social distancing and that is fine. It is the way it should be. It is too bad. We extend our best wishes to the people affect the. He or she willat be better very soon. Thank you for being here. America continues to mobilize every segment of our society to turn the tide in the battle against the virus. I want to americans to know that we will get through this challenge. The hardship will end and will end soon. Normal life will return and our economy will rebound strongly. In the midst of this Great National trial, americans must remain united in purpose and focus toward victory. Every american should know that the sacrifice you are making at this time is saving lives. It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States and around the world. They are amazing people and the spreading of the virus is not their fault in any way, shape, and form. They are working with us to get rid of this. We will prevail together. From the beginning, we have been working with our nations best medical professionals and we will continue to do so until we have defeated the virus. Our Public Health experts who are terrific are studying the variations of the disease across the country. We will be using data to recommend new protocols to allow local economies to cautiously resume their activity at the appropriate time. We also have a large team working on the next steps once the medical Community Gives a region the ok meaning the ok to get going, to get back, to go to work. Our country was not built to be shut down. This is not a country built to be shut down. Toadministration continues work with democrats and republicans to reach an urgent reliefn bill for the millions of American Workers and Small Business is and Large BusinessesSmall Businesses and Large Businesses that have been badly affected by the medical difficulty that we have had. If you had a viable business in january, we are committed to ensuring the same is true in the coming weeks. We want to make it even better than it was before. We are doing things to help in that regard. America will again and soon be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that someone was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. Were not going to let the cure be worse than the problem. We are referring to the timing of the opening. Essentially, the opening of our country. Because we have it pretty well shut down in order to get rid of this invisible enemy. Two weeks ago, we moved at record speed to approve money for the development of treatments and vaccines. We are doing tremendous work on both fronts. The vaccines are coming along quickly. Congress must demonstrate the same bipartisanship and join together to pass the senate bill as written and avoid playing anymore partisan games. They have to get together and stop with the partisan politics. I think that is happening. A little while ago i got a call. I guess they are getting closer. It must go quickly. They do not have a choice. They have to make a deal. This should not be a time for political agendas but rather one for focusing solely and squarely on the needs of the American People. We are going to save American Workers and we are going to save them quickly. We are going to save our Great American companies, both small and large. This was a medical problem. We are not going to let it turn into a longlasting financial problem. It started out as a purely medical problem and it is not going to go beyond that. We are not going to allow that to happen. Our country was at its strongest financial point. We have never had an economy as we had a few weeks ago and then it was hit with something that no one could ever have thought possible. And we are fixing it. We are fixing it quickly. I want to thank the American People for what they have been through and what they are doing. Our country will be stronger than ever before. We fully anticipate that. It will not be that long. Let me provide you with an update on critical supplies. Fema is distributing 8 million n95 respirator masks and over 3 and over 13. 3 million surgical masks across the country focusing on the areas of greatest need. We have shipped 73 pallets of personal protective equipment to new york city and 36 pallets to the state of washington. In the past fema has also 96 hours, received donations of approximately masks. 6. 5 million. We are having millions of masks made as we speak and other personal protective equipment which we will be distributing to medical hotspots. We are focused on some of the hotspots. Across the nation, we are seeing an outpouring of creativity and innovative ideas widely shared between the federal leaders and mayors and governors. The Scientific Community and members of the private sector. They are really working together. Everyone is working together. I am pleased to report that Clinical Trials in new york will begin for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. At my direction, the federal government is working to help obtain large quantities of a drug. You can look from any standpoint tomorrow in new york we think and thearly the drug thezpac, the combination is looking good and will be distributed with 10,000 units going. It will be distributed tomorrow. And it will be available. It will be distributed tomorrow morning to a lot of people in new york city and new york. We are studying that very closely. Watching it very closely. You probably saw a couple of articles today came out. A gentleman that thought he was not going to make it said goodbye to his family. They had given him the drug a little while ago but he thought it was over and is and we thought he was going to die. A number of hours later, he woke up and felt good. He woke up again and felt really good and he is in good shape. He is very happy with this particular drug that we got approved in a recordsetting time. There has never been anything even close to this. I want to thank the fda which has been incredible. Dr. Hahn, stephen hahn, a highly respected man. They are doing everything positive to possible to increase production of this drug and others coming. Another drug is coming from regeneron. The one i am excited about right now is when we just mentioned. I think there is a real chance, again, we dont know, but there is a real chance that it could have a tremendous impact. It would be a gift from god if it were. It would be a gift from god if it worked. Distribution starts tomorrow early in new york. I think a lot of people will hopefully, many will be very happy with that result. It is something we have to try. It was very successful against malaria. Countries with malaria have had an interesting thing happened. They take this particular, powerful drug and there is very little semblance of the virus in those countries. There are those that say it is because this drug is very prevalent because of the malaria. We will see what happens. I am also announcing that we are postponing the deadline for compliance with real id requirements. At a time when we are asking americans to maintain social distancing, we do not want to require people to go to their local dmv. We will announce a new deadline shortly. Overnight, we successfully brought home 103 american citizens after they had been stranded for 10 days in brazil following a cruise. We want to thank the brazilian government and their great president. Most of those returned were Senior Citizens. My administration in cooperation with Governor Greg Abbott from texas and the private sector coordinated their safe return to the United States so thank you to governor abbott. A terrific governor. A terrific man. Earlier today, i signed an executive order invoking president ial authority under section 4512 of the defense production act to prohibit the hoarding of idle medical supplies such as hand sanitizers , face masks and other personal protective equipment. A lot of equipment is coming in. Some people are hoarding. Attorney general barr will speak on that in a few minutes. We want to prevent price gouging. Critical Health Resources will be protected in every form. Under this directive, the secretary of health and Human Services will designate essential Health Supplies as scarce. He will designate certain supplies, medical elements, as scarce and that means it will be a crime to stockpile these items in excessive quantities which is happening to a relatively small degree we think. Nevertheless, it is happening. We cannot let it happen. We cannot let them resell them at excessive prices. Very simply, we will not allow anyone to exploit the suffering of american citizens for their own profit. We will be watching that with our great attorney general closely. The department of justice will be aggressively prosecuting fraudulent schemes related to the pandemic. Yesterday, federal prosecutors took action in their first case shutting down a website selling a totally fake vaccine. If you can believe that one. As president , i will always fight to protect americans from being exploited. Thankfully, throughout the country, we are witnessing extraordinary acts of compassion. Benevolence and unity. Construction companies are donating masks by the hundreds of thousands. Manufacturing workers are transforming their assembly lines. Citizens are volunteering to deliver food and medicine to the elderly. We are truly seeing america at its best. We are seeing things that people never thought could happen. Frankly, we never thought this could happen but the way that most americans are working toward getting it solved in doing what they have to do to make this go away has been incredible. It has been incredible. Think to take a moment to the everyday heroes making our effort against the virus possible. Thank you to the Health Care Workers and the first responders. These are very brave people. Thank you also to the hardworking men and women of federal express, ups, u. S. Postal service and the truckers maintaining our supply chains and supply lines. We thank you very much. Great job. We also want to give our regards and thanks to everyone at our Grocery Stores working the night shift so shelves can be restocked. And the restaurant workers and delivery drivers keeping our families fed. So many of these restaurants, it is incredible, they are doing a service where people come and they pick it up it has been incredible what they are doing. Totally different business than what they were doing. Other than they cook food. Other than that, it is like a totally different business. Most of all, i want to thank the American People for rising to the challenge and showing incredible courage, determination, patience, and grit from new york to seattle and everywhere in between. Your acts of selflessness and sacrifice and ingenuity are a powerful testament to the american character and her american character. It is really being shown. It is showing up at a level that everyone is respecting. The world has problems. 148 countries are affected by the invisible scourge. A all of the uplifting reflections of the american spirit are out there for everyone to see. Together, we will care for our fellow citizens and we will win this war and we will win it much sooner than people think. We will be back in business as a country pretty soon. You will be hearing about that also pretty soon. Now, i would like to ask toorney general bill barr say a few words and we will take questions in a little while. Let mey general barr start by thanking you, mr. President , mr. Vice president for your decisive leadership in this unprecedented battle to save american lives. The department of justice, we are working hard to protect the health and safety of our personnel while at the same time keeping our enforcement efforts at full throttle. I would like to thank all of my colleagues in law enforcement. Not just those at the federal level. Of all of our state and local partners. The Police Officers and others protecting and conserving our protecting and serving our communities often at great risk to themselves. What i would like to do here is start with a few remarks about the order that the president mentioned. To ensure the availability of critical medical and Health Supplies from hoarding and price gouging. On march 18, the president issued executive order 13909 invoking the defense production act. With respect to the health and medical resources needed to respond to the spread of cov and9 including ppe ventilators. We have started to see some evidence of potential hoarding and price gouging. Earlier today, the president signed a second executive order providing the authority to address, if it becomes necessary, hoarding that threatens the supply of the Necessary Health and medical resources. Under section 102 of the defense production act, the president is authorized to prohibit the hoarding of designated materials. Once materials are so designated, people are prohibited from accumulating those items in excess of reasonable personal or Business Needs or for the purpose of selling them in excess of prevailing market prices. It is a crime to engage in prohibited activity. In todays executive order, the president is delegating to the secretary of hhs this other this authority to protect designatingding by these critical items. No items have been designated yet. The department of justice will work with hhs to identify cases where hoarding may be impeding the supply of medical resources needed to respond to the covid19 pandemic. Today, we convened our first task force meeting. National task force. That will be working on the supply chain issues. And specifically on the issue of hoarding and price gouging. We are designating in each of our 93 United States attorneys offices, a lead prosecutor that will be responsible in that district responsible for pursuing these cases. I also want to say that we have not waited for this order to be signed as we have received evidence recently. We have already initiated investigations of activities that are disrupting the supply chain and suggestive of hoarding. I want to stress we are not talking about consumers or businesses stockpiling supplies for their own operations. We are talking about people hoarding these goods and materials on an industrial scale for the purpose of manipulating the market and ultimately driving windfall profit. If you have a big supply of toilet paper at your house, this is not something you have to worry about but if you are sitting on a warehouse with with masks, surgical masks, you will be hearing a knock on your door. Thank you, thank you mr. Vice president. I would like to thank the ministers of health around the world sending us their data despite the fight they are in themselves. Particularly our european colleagues. They continue to send us their mortality data which is very critical. When you are in the midst of this level of fight that European Countries are, following mortality data will give you the best insight. The epidemic is proceeding in those countries because they cannot be testing at the level to understand the depth and breadth of their new cases. In that data, there has been no child under 15 that has succumbed to the virus in europe. There was 114yearold child in china. There is less severity in children. That should be reassuring to the moms and dads out there. To generation z and my millennial colleagues at the forefront of many of these responses, less than 1 of the mortality is less than 60. That does not mean that individuals will not have the disease. 99 of all the mortality coming out of europe in general is over 50 and preexisting conditions. The preexisting condition piece still holds in italy with the majority of the mortality having three or more preexisting conditions. I think this is reassuring to all of us but it does not change the need to continue to protect the elderly. In order to do that, we need to continue to do the president s directives and guidance for the next week of the 15 day challenge. Finally, i would like to close by thanking the Laboratory Personnel on the front lines. 250,000 tests have been run in the last seven days. This happened because these large commercial laboratories are doing roundtheclock runs and remember, all of them are being exposed to the virus in the same way. From the swabs. Yet tirelessly they have worked on and on to get those results available. They are still getting more test tests than they can run per day. That is because we were primarily expanded into a certain machine. Those results have been getting to the clients and we have been asking them to prioritize hospitalized patients. There was a breakthrough today i think you will see this from the fda. For all of you waiting for self swabbing options, they will be available sometime this week. You will be able to do your own test. That said, remember, these platforms are keeping up with those that need to be diagnosed in the hospitals and those that come to the emergency room quite ill. So hospital beds can be freed up for those that do not have covid. That will be critical. If you dont need a test, do not come in to be tested. That mortality data i gave you should be very reassuring. Finally, to conclude, new york city. The new york metro area, new jersey, new york city, and parts of long island, have an attack rate of close to one in 1000. Five times what the other areas are seeing. Through their lab investigations, were finding 28 of the submitted specimens are positive from that area. It is less than 8 in t