Everyone go to coronavirus. Gov for the most information uptodate from the cdc. Dont touch your face, cover your cough and ceases and avoid close contact with others if you or they are sick. It likely has not yet reached its peak but is affecting all of our communities. I think theres a person in this room ters who isnt worried about the elderly or immunocompetent on compromised. Just yesterday the first two cases of diagnosed in the counties i represent an illinois. Our job is to keep americans safe. And lead us strong federal government responseees including with a supplemental response to each of these developments we must continue to support the local is a Public Health departments the Emergency Responders to the front lines a starts with having reliable data to prepare for the Health System and how much equipment is needed for Health Workers and developing and disseminating clear at Risk Communication to thear public. America scientific expertise that is unmatched throughout thehe world and it must be driving our decision we must protect people from Health Care Cost and price gouging medical essentials must be stopped without taking the steps the epidemic will worsen because they will fear they cannot afford and the communities will be less safe. Third with the Economic Impact must be softened on Small Businesses and families. Paid sick leave for every worker and Food Assistance if w needed. With the Coronavirus Response effort. To protect workers on the frontlines of the outbreak travelers entering the us and referring them for screening by healthcare workers of necessary. We will have questions today of the efficacy and how it has been of the air and land and sea ports. Also with the departments ability weather has adequate personal protectiveve equipment for Border Protection officers Border Patrol agents and fiansportation security officers. Finally in case of outbreaks there which is ports of entry or checkpoints or immigration detention facilities. Today we are joined by the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary of Homeland Securityme to respond to these important questions. Also Department Representative on the task force i hope to tar from him about the work of the task forces afternoon a medical doctor and epidemiologist for the cdc. My understanding that he retired this month but it is agreed to stay on we thank you for the dedication to our country and thank you for being here the chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee for an opening statement. Thank you to the witnesses for your time to prepare for that. As i said last week for those who are undergoing treatment it is a global event requiring a globall response with that outbreak of serious disease in the past we marshaled our collective resources im confident that will be the case. Congress has workede closely with the past administration to work with outbreaks like yours the pandemic to will enhance governments for the medical countermeasures. Since 2015 under Republican Leadership we have increased funding with 70 percent and just last week we came together in a bipartisan pashion to provide 8 billion to help keep Public Officials able to respond to this crisis i hope the spirit of bipartisanship will continue to shore up the economy in the wake of this process but i am concerned of the effects on the response of the Vice President the commission on bioan defense agreed the Vice President should be leading the response the only one with a direct line with the authority to achieve a whole government coordinated response to the outbreak. The Vice President in the chain of command last week we heard from a panel who all agrees the government is doing the best they can under the circumstances today we have the cdc and dhs to talk about their response efforts im interested in hearing how they are using the supplemental Funding Congress provided last week as well as additional authorities to respond to this crisis. In the middle of a crisis like this its very important for political leaders i encourage everyone to see the advice when sick and go to the cdc prevention website for information. I yield back. You are recognized for an Opening Statements. They give very much i appreciate the vice chairwomans handling of theli meeting today. I have some talking problems so i will be short. We have to have Effective Communication in a situation like this. And to call the governor of the state of washington last sweek and that was most heavenly one heavily hit. And then the Vice President turned around to say he should be doing the job. And this is very important when the issue came up a lot of people say it was a hoax. It was never a hoax we had a video of what people said. So in the interest of addressing this problem, i word encourage us to deal with the facts but it starts at the top. People have to respond and Going Forward that we will not call names and address the issue, a lot of communities are concerned from new jersey to new york and texas, all over. Everybody is impacted. Most of us who came to washington this weekst there were a lot of empty plane seats on those planes coming to washington t because people dont feel comfortable to fly. Some people on the planes have masks. And we have been told by professionals the masks do not address the problem. So i would hope madam chai chair, that with our experts here today, we will hear the back. And i yield other members of the committee for Opening Statements to be submitted for the record i wille go witnesses. As a senior official performing duties of deputies security from dhs also representative to the white house and Coronavirus Task force previously served as acting director from Immigration Services and the attorney general through 2014. Next the Deputy Director for Public Health service from the cdc. Previously directed the preparedness response when he was responsible for state and local readiness and emergency operations. As a medical doctor and epidemiologist with 30 Years Experience without objection the witnesses false statements will be inserted in the record i now ask each witness to for fiver statements minutes beginning with mr. Kochan now they. Thank you vice chairman. And distinguish members of the committee it is my honor to appear before you today to talk about the department of Homeland Security what we are doing to respond to the current outbreak of he im proud to work and across the government the departments top priority is the safety and security of the American People. E. Dhs is taking action at airports and land ports of entry to support hhs to slow the spread of the coronavirus not to say and to work closely with partners from the cdc through all those that have been in Mainland China in the past 14 days and one of the 11 designated airports of entry with the federal government has focused on e Public Health resources. 12473 cbp officers continue to remain alert to notify cdc another Public Health officials when encountering passengersns with overt illness regardless of travel history. Dhs currently supports cdc enhanced entry screening efforts with agreements of private sector emergency medical services, Public Health and First Responder personnel at all 11 designated ports of entry those that have been in china or iran the first 14 days. We support the collection of passenger informationon for cdc to provide direct information to state and local Public Health officials to facilitate tracing efforts. Cbp of the coast guard continues their work to recognize to assist individuals for the land ports and waterways coordination with the cdc in Us Coast Guard has measures already in place at all ports of entry to identify travelers of the first signs of illness to minimize the risk to the public. Us coast guard reviews all advance notice of arrivals 96 hours in advance of a scheduled arrival. Theh, captain communicate city concerns coming from deceased crew and the pageants. B will cooperate. This process has been working smoothly across the country. At and between landad ports of entry to see those with recent travel to china or iran to make appropriate referrals to cdc for the local Health System. Dhs workforce and every precaution is taken to keep our workforce safe especially for officers and agents on the frontline to make sure all remain safe and healthy is a critical with the onset of covid19 is a global concern the department proactively took action the dhs managementnt directoror established a workforce Protection Command center to ensure those procedures are in place for the frontline workforce who would regularly encounter potentials anden is working with all dhs components to assess readiness. We work with Us Government interagency state governors and state and local Public Health agencies non gl no on and private industry are partners and stakeholders with medical and Public Health coordination and information sharing. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure has been assessing the National Critical functions for iinfrastructure and systems from covid19 working closely with private sector owners and operators to identify issues of concern to ensure suntinuity of the critical assets. Fema is served on providing support and with incident management but additionally it remains to support hhs with consequent with any medication action. Dhs and its component is taking Decisive Action to analyze the threat and minimize the resistance and slow the spread by working with professionals and interagency partners involved in the whole of government effort. I want to thank you vice chairman underwood and the members and staff of the committee for the support shown to the department and the governments effort to respond to covid19 i look forward to your questions. Your now recognized for five minutes. Good afternoon chairs and good afternoon to members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to talk to you. Good afternoon chairwoman and thompson and Ranking Member rogers thank you for the opportunity to talk with you about the cdc role in the response to the covid19. Before i began its important to recognize this is a new virus and a new disease. Science continues to accumulatete he will continue to incorporate that into our response posture there are three overriding themes. First the cdc role of the interagency response is built on decades of Infectious Disease experience and second the response is dependent of the front line the state and local Health Departments. As we see communities spreading will all take action from common sense i can washing, stay home if you are sick and in particular for the high risk and vulnerable populations, to avoid crowds. I encourage you to visit the coronavirus website for the encdc thank you this is the second time we can talk about the website and all the information that is they are from the outset cdc in Us Government partners have implemented an aggressive multilayer strategy to slow the introduction of this virus into the United States. So to learn how it behaves and to prepare the Public Health care system for the possibility of a Global Pandemic which has been declared today. And to educate americans how best to prepare for disruptions to the daily lives and risk to families. The administration interagency containment strategy has relied upon triedandtrue Public Health interventions. Early diagnosis and for those fthat are returning from individual hospitals. But the Public Health response has relied p on detection and to slow the virus into the United States. February 25 was the Inflection Point for the outbreak when for thetb first time we saw a new cases outside of china outpace new cases within china we observed rapid widespread persontoperson transmission south korea iran and italy and before long we had detected the first case of communities spreading california. So what have we learned . The virus spreads easily and rapidly from respiratory droplets from sneezing and coughing going from 30 cases to over 100,000 worldwide in less than two months. Reports from china are so if 80 percent have and then in predominantly an older person for medical conditions. For this reason the cdc has issued new guidance for seniors to avoid crowds, stay close to home and avoid cruise ship travel and long plane trips. As of today cdc has receivedd confirmation of more than 900 cases of covid19 in 38 states and it is with Great Sadness i report there have been 31 deaths on this one disease in the us. As we experience growing communities spreading in the us state and local health agent agencies will make difficult decisions to reduce theo spread of guidance and support. Thank you for your support of Additional Resources to to help our communities. Cdc has put more than 630 staff in the field and working with state and local partners for 1500 working on a response in the field. Cdc is committed to the mission continuing to work 24 7 to protect the American People from the Global Health threat. Thank you and i look forward to yourloo questions. I remind each member you have five minutes to question the panel i recognize myself. Americans want to know what they should expect in the coming weeks andee months with our Health Care System needs to know so they can do everything they can to be prepared. I am looking for numbers what is the cover on upper and lower estimates that we should expect in the United States . I dont have an exact answer. It is important a lot of that depends on the Public Health intervention to determine the ultimate course of this epidemic theres are many unknowns. What are the updates for hospital and icu admission on admission. Again the same answer. The intensity of the intervention measures will determine the ultimate impact. Between california and Washington State how many beds. Again the more intense the lower those numbers will be. You expect seed dc to do modeling that is widely reported . E im not sure what our plans are we are in communication with modelers from uk and a lot of that has to do with estimating the value of interventions taken so i know those will be published but there is information out there already. So far Health Systems prepared to test every patient that meets that criteria but right now not everyone who should be tested has been how many meet the current criteria have actually been tested and received results . I can give you the number of people who have been. The guidance has changed recently. Thats what youre asking about current criteria. May be more than 1700 have been tested by cdc but if i might let me take the opportunity. Whatec we are trying to understand is how many tests need to be done to accurately depict those levels from the United States. What i like to do how Laboratory Testing works in the United States. We have heard that briefing so what is the plan to support the communities to get the test done and when will that be done . We have taken aggressive action over the last several weeks. Cdc has set materials to 75000 people to the Public Health system there are over 1 million tests. But my question is does your plan get those test out for every Single Person there is those numbers that you have outlined. That is true. There are two different systems and play the Public Health system not just for this disease but in general to detect cases early mid disease and then to estimate the overall burden of disease there is a clinical system which is more Clinical Care that the person is treated for the right disease and that is the much larger capacity that is being implemented rapidly with the previous efforts. I will stop you right th