Briefing at the department of education to discuss the latest efforts to get schools reopened in the fall. The briefing came shortly after President Trump tweeted that he disagreed with the cdc guidelines for reopening schools, which led to a response from the cdc director at this briefing. Vice pres. Pence good morning, all. The White House Coronavirus task force met today at the department of education, part of our ongoing effort to focus on a mission to save lives and meet the needs of our states and healthcare workers, to protect the vulnerable and safely reopen america, and reopen americas schools. , we havell hear today tested more than 39 million americans. Among those, more than 3 million americans have tested positive and more than 1. 3 million americans have recovered. Than 133,000 americans have lost their lives and our sympathies are with all of the impacted families. Because of what the American People have done, because of the work of our healthcare workers around the country, we are encouraged that the average fatality rate continues to be low and steady. It is a credit to the sacrifices the American People have made, the extraordinary work our healthcare workers are doing. We pledge to continue to work our hearts out 24 hours a day to keep our losses low. Moments, dr. Birx will outline the data that we are seeing around the country. Statebystate, county by county. We are actually seeing early indications of a percent positive testing flattening in arizona, florida, and texas. Governors have taken strong steps to flatten the curve and seen we are beginning to early indications that positivity is flattening. Florida, wena and are beginning to see a decline in emergency room visits as well. We believe the take away for every american is, keep doing what you are doing. We are starting to see the first wereations of that as we able to do in the northeast, in new orleans, in louisiana, and other places around the country. We are beginning to see indications that they are having a good effect. We are focused on the states where more than half of the new cases have arisen. Texas, arizona, florida, and california. We have received encouraging reports even through this morning. Strong supplies of ppe in hospitals. Hospital Capacity Remains strong. The one need we did hear is for personnel, and over the last week, working through fema, department of defense, and hhs, we have been processing requests to Deploy Doctors and nurses and medical personnel. Roughly 525 are on the ground in arizona, california, and texas, and we are processing a request from florida for an additional amount. Weve made it very clear. Duty militarytive medical personnel to new york, new jersey, connecticut, michigan, louisiana, and we are in the process of doing that again. Just to make sure that those dedicated doctors and nurses and healthcare workers have the relief they need as we see cases rise in various communities across the sun belt. We had a Conference Call yesterday with the nations governors. We are in the process of continuing to send detailed county by county summaries, analysis, and recommendations that are being implemented and well received. We also are issuing renewed guidance on preservation and reuse of ppe. , talkingre hearing directly to hospitals, is that because of the historic effort that President Trump implemented to spin up hundreds of millions of supplies, gloves, masks, face shields, as well as all the construction of ventilators, ppe , we hear, remains very strong, but we are encouraging healthcare workers to begin to use some of the best practices that we learned in other parts of the country to preserve and reuse the ppe supplies. Make sure ouro states have everything they need when they need it. We are working to make that a reality. See to the needs of our states and focus on health care, we are reopening america and americas schools. Yesterday, President Trump convened a summit of education leaders and healthcare officials at the white house. As the president made clear yesterday, it is time. It is time to get our kids back to school. The summit yesterday gave us an opportunity to outline and learn what we might be able to do. In just a few moments, im going to ask secretary devos to talk about the approach the department of education is taking. And also we will hear from dr. Redfield, who has been, literally, since early in this pandemic, providing guidance to schools. I wouldnt want to pass the opportunity, not just as Vice President , but as someone who has been married to a schoolteacher for 35 years, just to say thank you to all the teachers out there. ,rom early in this pandemic teachers learn how to do the distance teaching and did a remarkable job. Oftentimes having to care for their own families to make sure their childrens studies were happening. We also want to say thank you to the parents who had to step in and become educators. It has really been remarkable when you see what our kids have been able to accomplish during this difficult time. But what we heard again yesterday from education officials and what we heard from the American Academy of pediatrics, is absolutely essential that we get our kids back into classroom for in person learning. We cant let our kids fall behind academically. But it is important that the American People remember that for children that have Mental Health issues, special Needs Children intrition, communities facing persistent poverty, the school is the place where they receive all those services. So this is not just about making sure our kids are learning and advancing academically, but for the Mental Health, wellbeing, physical health, weve got to get our kids back to school. As you heard the president yesterday, and even again this morning, we are determined to work in partnership with our states to give guidance for states and communities to safely reopen our schools. The cdc will be issuing new guidance next week. Part of a fivepart series of recommendations that will give new tools to our schools. What dr. Redfield made clear yesterday, im sure he will make clear again today, we are here to help. We dont want federal guidance to be a substitute for state and local laws and rules and guidance. We are here to assist with the shared objective that i think is shared by every parent in america, we want to get our kids back. We want to get our teachers back. We want to get our kids learning in person once again. Recessress is still in but will gather again soon, we are in discussions about additional potential support. We were able to remind governors that 13 billion is available in the cares act for states to assist them as they roll out and restart schools across the country. At the present moment, we learned yesterday that only 1. 5 of those funds has been drawn down by states and we encourage governors to to get vantage of that. Our objectives are to save lives, meet the needs of our states, protect the most vulnerable, and safely reopen america and our schools. We ared news is, reopening america. The jobs report spoke for itself. You, evidence around the country is that people are finding a way to do their part, to put the health of their neighbors first even while we all find a way to get back to work, to worship, and to school. We all have a role to play to protect the most vulnerable and to safely reopen our country and our schools. Iwould just close, before turn the podium over, to say thank you to the American People. Thank you for what you have done so far. Thank you for the way you put the health and wellbeing of, not just family members and friends, but strangers, people we didnt even know. We encourage you to keep doing what you are doing. Keep heating the guidance of state and local authorities. Practice good hygiene, wear a role each of the us can continue to play, and we are seeing some early indications in some of the most impacted states that americans are doing just that. We want to encourage you, to tell you we are going to continue to do our part. Im confident, just as we proved when this pandemic was striking so deeply in the northeast, in louisiana, and in michigan, the American People know what needs to be done and we know we can do it. We flattened the curve before. We slowed the spread before. We can do it again. But weve got to all do our part. With that, dr. Deborah birx, and then we will get a report from admiral gerard before other reports. Dr. Birx. Dr. Birx thank you, mr. Vice president. First slide, please. I know some of you watch what i wear, so im wearing this specially today. This came from the salt river tribe. Masks can be a fashion statement. I want to thank the salt river tribe. It was a pleasure to speak to individuals around the United States about the issues they are facing, to meet with communities, hospital personnel, africanamerican communities, that was a privilege last week. I want to start with arizona. Just to pick up where the Vice President left off. That orange line is the number of tests performed and the blue line is positivity. Countiesoes have three that we are tracking closely. The largest one being phoenix and maricopa county. But this does show that the blue team,thank to the data the sevenday average is showing some flattening. Encouraging, we know that the test Positivity Rate is the first thing to increase, and we are hoping that it heralds a stability in arizona of at least reaching a plateau in their curve. The redline represents emergency room visits for covid like symptoms. This is also an early indicator. We find that encouraging. The next slide shows the counties we are tracking. Maricopa county was the largest number of infections. Mentioned thedent weekly reports that go to governors. This is what the report looks like. His is alaska on the front page is our interpretation of what we are seeing relative to their epidemic. Coded by yellow and red. It follows that they see everything you are seeing in that first report and then each of the counties are represented, so they have pages from the white house that summarizes what we are seeing and that goes out weekly. Next slide. This looks at florida. , early see the red line suggestions of decreasing emergency room visits for symptoms of covid, and some stability starting in that blue line, hoping that heralds stability in the number of daily reported cases. We also understand that we went through a Holiday Weekend and that can impact data. Underreporting through the weekend and then catch up reporting after a Holiday Weekend. This shows the counties of florida that we are tracking. These are the top 10 counties in florida. Each of them have a different profile. I want to call your attention to the counties across the bottom. Some of those represent jacksonville and other large metros including tampa. When the governor talks about how they were steady and low for a long time after reopening, this is where that is reflected. Clearly there was something that happened. Florida happened in happened across the sun belt. All of the curves and all of the findings are mirrored. Early on in march and april, we were talking about first the new york metro, followed by boston, followed by philadelphia, then chicago, and new orleans was with the new york metro. So it was a series of individual curves. In this case, whatever occurred occurred most simultaneously. So we are investigating that closely to see the ideology. That can also help us in guidance to the American People. Next slide, texas. Situationn a similar with their blue line. We are watching this very closely. Next slide. I think all of you know there is a series of major metros. So the governors get this type of report with specific recommendations, and then finally california, where you can see a long time of stability, but then this increase in the number of test positives and increase in cases. And you can see the majority of the issue is in the los angeles area. We see this through riverside, sacramento, and now san francisco. So i want to finish with where the Vice President started about the sacrifices of the American People. , when youcommendation have a county with these types of cases, we are recommending everyone use a face covering. I think the studies show that cotton face coverings work. That does open up the ability for us to have individualized face coverings. But in addition, the work that these governors have done and asked the American People to stop going to bars, to close the bars, to decrease any kind of indoor gatherings, to all of the americans out there in these is really asking the American People in those counties and states to not only use the face coverings, not going to bars or indoor dining, but really not gathering in homes either and decreasing those gatherings back down to our phase one recommendation, which was 10 or less. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Since we are bragging on our face coverings, this was made by a Small Religious Community in pennsylvania. They hand sewed these for a lot of our officers. So i wear this proudly and i think of that Community Every single day. Testing, three quick topics. First is where we are numerically. The Vice President has said we are now topping 39 million tests across the country. In states crushed their goal june. Cdc numbers have finalized that at about 16. 5 million tests for june. Congratulations to the states who made or exceeded their goal. Between 600000 and 700,000 tests per day. About 620,000ng tests per day. We continue to shift. The states tell us what they need. We work with them to set their goals. Fema ships those every week. That is sort of the overall general view. What wenced yesterday talked about last week, and that is federal search sites. We opened these in three communities. There was a list of communities identified by dr. Birx and her team that had certain characteristics, but also met certain characteristics of numerical numbers and isolation, that surge testing might have an impact over a short time. Our goal is to do at least 5000 tests per day. Those are in baton rouge, jacksonville, and mcallen in texas. We have many other sites that we are working with. This is a partnership with the state and local governments. Baton rouge started yesterday. The other two sites start today. Is going very, very well. The last thing i want to talk about is phoenix. I dont know if we have the slides for this. I get concerned when i hear things in the news like, we are doing nothing for phoenix. Because that really is not correct. It undermines a lot of the things we are doing. I didnt make these slides up. This was part of the 55 slide slide deck just on phoenix, where we understand the demographics, the health disparities, the racial and ethnicity backgrounds, whether tests are done, where the resources are. We are in Constant Contact with governor ducey and his team. We not only talk on the calls, but i know dr. Redfield does this as well. Supportwo, we provide according to the state plans. Swabsshipped over 500,000 and media to the state to fulfill their plans. Slidean get the first back, please. I just want to say, we have lots of support in phoenix. This is the communitybased testing locations. Phoenix has three federally funded retail sites. This is paid on a per capita basis. Program has tested just around one million individuals. 13 retailve pharmacies that because of regulatory flexibility, they can do that without a federal stipend or grant. Federal sites in phoenix. Next slide. , dont know if there is a map but under the leadership of secretary as are, we have surged into federally qualified health centers. This is where you want testing to happen. These are medical homes. Sites performing testing just in the phoenix area right now. Next slide. We dont have that slide, but weve also identified every single testing machine in phoenix. So there are testing machines to do tens of thousands of tests per day and we are sending at least100,000 at 100,000 to the phoenix area every week. These are all the things we are doing in the background that happen on a regular Basis Community by community. That theago, i heard mayor was unhappy because there was no federal support. I heard that on monday morning. I was on the phone with fema in the afternoon. It was clear to me that phoenix was not in tune with all the things the state were doing. We convened a call last night. We had various Health Officials on the phone. We got everybody together. Surge in arizona state. There are state testing sites in phoenix. This morning, governor ducey looked at everything, thought a search site would be helpful, and we are contracting that now. I just wanted to give you that example. It pains me when somebody says the federal government isnt doing anything when we have federal sites there. We are sending supplies and tests. We are contracting that this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you,pence admiral. The focus today is unsafely safely reopening our schools. As we discussed yesterday at the white house summit, the centers for Disease Control has been issuing guidance for schools and Childcare Services in early march. March 12, to be specific. 15 daysfirst published to slow the spread and encouraged people to engage in schooling from home wherever possible, from that point forward, cdc has published decision trees. Week, as dr. Redfield can elaborate, they will be issuing five new documents that will range from preparing communities to return to school safely, to decisionmaking tools for parents and caregivers, to create symptom screening considerations as students and teachers returned to school. As we made clear yesterday, we are here to help. None of the cdc recommendations are intended to replace state and local rules and guidance. Weve made clear to governors and state and local Health Offic