Generally vaccines that put the nail in the coffin of these types. We are now mounting a major effort. Washington journal live everyday at 7 a. M. Eastern and all of todays Program Available at cspan. Org. Here on cspan2 we will take you live to the health and Human Services department for live coverage of the White House Coronavirus task force. It is their first briefing in nearly two months. Good afternoon, and to our fellow americans at wes, good morning. We just completed todays meeting of the White House Coronavirus task force come and am pleased to be joined by many members of the task force with us for this briefing. I want to thank secretary azar, dr. Birx and dr. Fauci, dr. Redfield at the cdc as well as our attorney general, admiral giroir of the u. S. Public Health Service and dr. Hahn and seema verma. We will make a series of presentations to update the American People on the status of the coronavirus pandemic in the country and then be available to take questions, but we very much appreciate the attendance of all who are here and all of you who have made time to tune in. As we reported today we have now more than 2,500,000 americans that of contracted the coronavirus, and sadly we have lost more than 126,000 of our countrymen to this disease. And i know i speak for the president and for every american when we express our sympathies and our deepest condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones. Despite of those losses, since the end of our 45 days to slow the spread and the beginning of efforts to open up america, thanks to the cooperation of the American People, the efforts of governors and state Health Officials, efforts i want to proudly say the entire federal team under the leadership of President Trump, we have made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward. We have all seen the encouraging news of the open up america again, more than 3 million jobs in the last job report. Retail sales are rolling and, of course, the extraordinary progress in new york, new jersey, connecticut and new orleans areas that just a matter of the month ago were struggling under the weight of this pandemic. And now have a right at a very, very different place. As we stand today all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly. But with cases rising, take over the past week throughout the south particularly over President Trump directed our task force to brief the American People on several topics. First, we want to share with you as dr. Birx will what we are seeing in the rise of new cases that today surmounted 40,000 new cases in a single day. Secondly, we want to speak about what we have done and what we are doing at the federal level to support the state effort, particularly in the states will be see rising cases. Well talk today about how this moment in the coronavirus pandemic is different than what we saw two months ago to better equip the American People to respond and ultimately we will speak about what every american can do to play the part in reducing the spread and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. For our part, also ive spoken to governors in arizona, in florida, in texas in the last 12 hours, and dr. Birx and i will be traveling on sunday the texas, on tuesday to arizona and i will be traveling to florida on thursday of next week to get a grant report. And, of course, on monday we will conduct what would be our 26 weekly call with the entire White House Coronavirus task force and all of the nations governors as we meet this moment. As i mentioned, its important gathering today i think that we take, take a step back and think about how far we have, as a country how far we have come as a country. When the tapped me to lead the test for season with one mission, that was to save lives. President trumps decision to suspend all travel from china in january to stand at the White House Coronavirus task force, in february to halt travel from europe and amanda traveled tram other places around the country all contributed to giving our nation time to stand up a broadbased response. The whole of government response that we spoke about so many times at the podium throughout this pandemic. We at the state Department Also coordinated the repatriation of some 95,000 americans and then came the moment when we brought this chart to the president of the United States on the council of our very best scientists. The president was presented with a decision that if we did nothing, no intervention, the possibility existed at that moment in time that we could lose between 1. 52. 2 million americans. But with intervention 1. 5 1. 5 million, and 2. 2 million americans. What with the call to the American People to embrace the mitigation efforts, social distancing that were called upon first in the 15 days to slow the spread that would be, 45 days to slow the spread, our best scientists believed that we could reduce the number of american fatalities to a number ranging between 100,000240,000. The president made that decision, and we unveiled the 15 days that became the 45 days to slow the spread. In arguably as we see where we are today as a nation, because of what the American People have done, because of the incredible work of her healthcare workers, because of our partnership with governors in every state we did just that. We slowed the spread. We flattened the curve. We saved lives. In the midst of that we exponentially scaled Testing Capacity partner with private sector commercial laboratories. We now reached some 30 million tests across the country conducting some 500,000 tests a day. In that partnership with governors also the president directed us to make sure that states had what they needed and when they needed it. And at this point i am pleased to report that the federal government both delivered and facilitated the delivery of billions of supplies of face shields and gowns and gloves and masks, and we continue to be on track to construct more than 100,000 ventilators in 100 days. And as i spoke to governors last night they can from to me again what fema has reported. We have no outstanding requests from any state at this time for personal protective equipment or medical supplies. Let me say that again. In the affected areas, particularly the states down south that are seeing rising cases we have no outstanding requests. But as a till the governors and we are ready at a moment noticed to expand capacity and to support their healthcare response. In the midst of all of that i think it always bears saying that because of the great work of our healthcare workers and because of american manufacturing, no american who required a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator in the United States. And i consider that nothing short of a national accomplishment. We also surged Hospital Capacity in areas of the greatest anticipated need and we send military and National Guard personnel. And these charts showing the progress that we made in new york and new jersey and new orleans all demonstrate that the efforts of the people of those states in cooperation with the federal government and all the great healthcare workers to show the progress that we made in areas that were once deeply impacted, and we extend our thanks. We extend our thanks to the people at each of those states for the sacrifices that they made during those great and challenging times. But at the close of the 45 days to slow the spread we unveiled a plan to safely reopen america again. Now all 50 states and territories are moving forward. And as i said we are seeing america go back to work, and in much of the country we are seeing jobs expanding and Economic Activity expanding. But our focus today is very much on the advent of rising series of new cases across the american south. But where our First Mission was to save lives, once we came out of the 45 days to slow the spread, what are task force has been focused on over the course of the past two months is to partner with states to save lives and safely reopen. In fact, we have had some 70 meetings of the White House Coronavirus task force in the intervening days since we began the process of opening up america again, and we have been working very closely with states to move that agenda forward. But as the president has made clear we want to open our economy up and we want to move america forward, even while we take and continue to take steps necessary to protect lives and the health of the American People. We standard today with the rising cases among Southern StatesPresident Trump asked us to brief the American People to give details on what we are seeing, what we are doing, and how its different from two months ago. As you may recall, after seeing over all cases drop from a a 30,000 a day average in april the 25,000 the 25,000 a day average in may, first few weeks in june actually saw cases averaging roughly 20,000 new cases a day. We now have seen cases begin to rise precipitously across the south. In fact, 34 states, 34 let me make sure i got my numbers exactly right here. As we reported early on, 34 states across the country though are experiencing a measure of stability that is a credit to all the people of those states. When we speak about stability we are talking about not necessary states where there are no new cases but these would be states where there are either no new cases and no rising percentage, or no combination of those two things. There may be states across the country that are seeing a modest increase in cases but their percentage of positive race is remaining very stable, and but nevertheless, there are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages. And we will be focusing on those states today. The first thing we would share with the American People is that while there is a penchant in the National Debate to use a broad brush and to paint an entire state one color if there are rising cases in the state, this is actually a better picture of the data that we literally analyzed every single day. Dr. Birx will take a few moments to unpack the specific outbreaks in texas, florida, arizona and california. But the first thing we would convey to the American People is that from this new positive results in the last three days you can see the concentration of new cases in specific parts of states and, of course, very specifically in parts of the country. Secondly, we want the American People to understand that its almost inarguable that more testing is generating more cases. Cases. To one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a Great Success in expanding testing across the country. As a set at the top, we are testing more than ever before, some 500,000 people a day and perhaps we could go to that testing chart if it is a bear just to show you the acceleration of testing that has taken place over the course of this pandemic if it is a bear. It has truly been a remarkable and it is that a public and private partnership from the very outset. One of the things were seeing among the cases of your disk in florida and we had this in texas and elsewhere is that roughly half of the new cases are americans under the age of 35. Which is at a certain level very encouraging news as the experts tell us because as we know so far in this pandemic that younger americans are less susceptible to serious outcomes of the coronavirus. And the fact that we are finding more younger americans who have contracted the coronavirus is a good thing. And so we will speak about the testing and admiral giroir is here and can detail any questions that you might have about testing going forward. Thirdly, we will talk about what these new numbers mean, how we can address them. Dr. Fauci will speak about that in just a moment, particularly in the affected areas. And the other area that we spend a great deal of time thinking about is, is hospitalization. Not only do we track new cases every day on a county by county basis but we also track hospitalization. And the map on the left of your screen represents how shows you how we look at it and how we ensure that hospital and healthcare test resource and support they need. Again as in the matter of new cases come you can also see with hospitalization it is highly focused highly detailed and highly specific. Secretary azar will speak about hospitalization, the work of hhs to make sure that our hospitals around the country have the capacity to meet this moment. But as dr. Birx may well reflect as well we are encouraged that we are where as two months ago we were seeing some 15 of new cases being hospitalized. Now that number is averaging roughly 5 around the country, which is also encouraging news to say the least. And so while we have 16 states that we are focusing on, again i would just reiterate to the American People the most useful thing to note is where it is happening seeking take the steps necessary to do your part. But rest assured in our conversation with the governors in all of the most impacted states, we continue to be assured that Hospital Capacity remains strong and they know the federal government stands ready to provide them with the personal protective equipment or supplies or even expanded capacity in personnel to meet any moment. But at this point in time we are told that it all of the states most deeply impacted that hospitalization remains very, very broadly available. Finally i want to speak about the progress that weve made as a country on the most difficult aspect of this. I said at the beginning that our hearts and our prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, and i know i speak on behalf of everyone in this country when i extend our sympathies to the more than 126,000 families that have lost loved ones. As president has said many times, one life lost is too many, but nevertheless, i believe at this point in the course of the pandemic we can still take some comfort in the fact that the counties are declining all across the country. There literally was a day two months ago this week where we lost 2500 americans in a single day. This week, because of the extraordinary work of our healthcare workers, because of the availability of a new medicines like remdesivir and because of the cooperation of the American People heeding the guidance that we gave at the federal level and state and local officials gave, this week there were two days were lost less than 300 americans. You can see from this chart what has been a precipitous decline from some of the worst moments of this pandemic as it impacted areas of new york and new jersey and the northeast. Again, i have a heavy heart anytime i recite these numbers, but the fact that we are making progress, reducing the number of americans that we have lost and are losing, i hope, and encouragement, because as we see new cases rising, and were tracking them very carefully, there may be a tendency among the American People to think that we are back to the place that we were two months ago, that we are in a time of great losses and great hardship on the American People. The reality is we are in a much better place with the efforts President Trump mobilized at the federal level, with the efforts of this team, this whole of government approach, the efforts of governors across the country, are incredible healthcare workers and the cooperation of the American People. We are in a much stronger place. The truth is we did slow the spread. We flattened the curve. We were able to stand up the resources and the capacities and our Healthcare System to be able to meet this coronavirus in a way that would put the health of all our country first. We have also, we care for the most foldable and continue to focus resource and testing and supplies on the most vulnerable seniors with serious underlying conditions and i believe with all my heart that we have continued to save lives. We created a Solid Foundation for whatever challenges, either in the days ahead or in the months ahead here thats a credit. Thats a credit i believe to our president , to our federal team and state partners. But mostly it is a credit to the American People and our healthcare workers. And so we stand today. We believe we have made progress, what as we reminded as we see cases rising across the south, that we still have work to do and so we say to every american, particularly those in counties and in states that are being impacted by rising cases, that now is the time for everybody to continue to do their part. And i think youll hear from this podium today a particular message to younger americans, younger americans across the sunbelt and the role that you can play in protecting the vulnerable and making sure that why the coronavirus doesnt represent as significant a threat for serious outcomes to a younger american, none of us would want to bring the disease back to our parents or grandparents, moms and dads and elderly friend or a friend who has an immunodeficiency and cause a serious outcome as well and so we leave you just with the guidelines for all of the phases. When we put out the guidelines to open up america again, we laid out, and at the outset, guidance for responsible reopening. States across the country are doing just that. 34 states are reopening safely and responsibly and seeing low and steady cases, not s