Task force and we have continued. We have continued to be on the same mission we have been on throughout the course of this year that is to save american lives and work every day toward that day that we put the coronavirus in the past. Im joined today and youll hear in a few moments from members of the White House Coronavirus task force including those that are leading the effort of distribution, vaccinations under operation warp speed. I think you will be as impressed as i was at fema earlier today when i heard the detailed plans for the virtually Immediate Distribution of vaccines when they become approved and available to the American People. From very early in this pandemic had the presence direction we have followed an approach to this pandemic that was federally supported state managed and locally executed and to that end this past monday we completed our 41st Conference Call with all of the nations governor, every state and every territory. There we spoke about our current circumstances where we have seen cases and hospitalizations rising but we also continue to speak to them about the expansion of testing the availability of supplies in our ongoing efforts to continue to drive forward toward the development and the distribution of the vaccine for the American People but as we gather here today with cases and hospitalizations rising across the country President Trump directed us to host this briefing to describe the ongoing work of our task force and their partnership with state and local officials and their partners and friends to continue to put the health of america first. But first let me begin simply by saying that our hearts and our prayers are with all of those families that have been impacted by the coronavirus over the course of the past 10 months. Let me say personally not a day has gone by that i havent thought personally about families that have lost loved ones and i want to assure each of you that you will always be in our hearts and you will remain in our prayers. We wanted to take this opportunity also to thank the American People for the extraordinary sacrifices that you have made over the course of the past 10 months. We have been through a lot together. We went through 45 days to slow the spread when the Positivity Rate across this country was more than 20 . We managed to accomplish it our objective. We slow the spread, we flatten the curve in resave lives enduring the up break across the sun belt this summer when we saw positivity rise nearly 10 the American People, officials at the federal and state level stepped up again and we put that outbreak in the past and even as we see help on the way with vaccines being developed at a historic pace as i mentioned before as we gather today we are seeing cases and positivity rising across the country but we approach this moment with the confidence of experience. We know the American People know what to do. We have forged a partnership that is truly seamless with state and local Health Authorities and as we will describe to you today we continue to work seven days a week all throughout this year and up to this very moment to make sure the American People have access to the health care that wed want any member of our family to have as we get through this pandemic. Cases are rising throughout the country and positivity last 30 days has risen from an average of 5 to 10 and to that end we have continued the mobilization that began at President Trumps direction this year. We increased testing from a standing start in the month of february and now as of today we have we completed more than 170 million tests and we continue to approve new tests including an athome test the fda recently approved and we are distributing more than 150 million tests to schools and Nursing Homes around america as we speak. Our mobilization of supplies youll hear described in great detail continues to surge each and every day. We actually are able to track ppe and supplies on a hospital by hospital basis and so we are carefully monitoring and working with state officials with hospital of ministers to make sure the hospitals have the support they need for it also as we gather we are in 140 trials for therapeutics are underway but effective therapies are available widely known among the American People but for those over the age of 70 we are proud to report that we have decreased that fatality rate by more than 70 since those heartbreaking days of april. In may of this year of course is as the president spoke last week in the rose garden we launched operation warp speed focusing on excel or grading accelerating the development and distribution of safe and effective vaccine and you will have an update today on the progress from two of our leading experts and those that are coordinating operation warp speed. I want to say in the midst of all of this to the American People as we begin this briefing is that with the massive increase in testing over the last 10 months, with ppe and medical supplies and equipment available to the American People, with the medicines and therapeutics in very same vaccines that are available america has never been more prepared to combat this virus than we are today. Our pledge to each and every american looking on today is working aroundtheclock to keep it that way and we are going to make sure hospitals that are seeing patients coming in on an increasing basis know that we are going to work aroundtheclock to meet that need and you have our continuing pledge and the practice of experience would have along the way. In a few moments dr. Birx is going to describe what we are seeing in the rising cases literally every day for members of the task force begins with Detailed Analysis of whats happening across the country and she will ge our very best information for the rising cases and hospitalizations. That information is summarized each and every week to the nations governors are provided to them in particular detail as well. After dr. Birx space with vast general David Sanford with fema to provide an update on our ongoing efforts to provide ppe and medical supplies to our hospital needs. We are literally going to make sure as i said as we see cases rising we are meeting the needs of hospitals around america to stand up their responses anyone of us who want a Family Member to have access to put a vast dr. Fauci to give us an update on the incredible work of vaccines. Its good news happening everyday and great encouragement to the American People and governor parnham will outline or Distribution Plans from operation warp speed. At fema today we received a detailed briefing about or Distribution Plans and i asked the general general to come here today to make that presentation to the American People and its in a real sense putting us in a position that literally the day after one of these vaccines is approved we will be shipping it to the American People and within a day after that we will be seeing those vaccines injected into americans with a particular focus on those most vulnerable and those that are providing health care to the American People. Finally we will talk a bit about the way forward at state and local governments are continuing to take mitigation measures to slow the spread. I assure them as we did governors this week that we will support decisionmaking at the local level and we will continue to support decisions that are made in each individual communitybased on the circumstances on the ground. That being said President Trump wanted me to make it clear that our task force, the supposed ration and our president do n support another National Lockdown we do not support closing schools big youll hear from dr. Robert redfield of the cdc that actually the cdc never recommended that we close schools at any point ts year and dr. Cats who also serves with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health services at hhs will describe the real cost to children being away from school. Everyone of these cases we will give you the best information we have up to this moment and i just want to assure the American People i trust that you will have a sense today that we a going to continue to wo aroundtheclock to meet this moment. Help is on the way. We have every confidence in a short riod of tim we could have one or more safe d effective vaccines for the American People and as each of us does our part in partnership with state and local offials each of us does our part to look after our own falies and our own communities i believe t day is coming soon that well put this coronavirus in the past. Without let me in today is dr. Deborah birx who will update us on the cases and after that we will give a presentation on the availability of supplies that we connue to make available to hospitals and health care provids around the country. Thank you mr. Vice presint and its a moment we want to call and every american to increase their vigilance and i want to go through some data about why we are asking people from nevada to Denver Colorado to philadelphia to Madison Wisconsin to El Paso Texas and across this great nation to increase their vigilance at this moment. I want to thank the governors and mayors and county commissioners that ive had the privilege to talk to over the st four and a half months being on the road. If we could have the first slide pleasedith the number of universities 42 states and 30 universities and a large number of chairman from our tribal nation. The reason we want to be here is to understand the reality on the ground when we were facing and understand how we can be more supportive. This is a call to action for every american to increase their vigilance because of the graphic that is shown here. I wt to show you the differences in slopes between the spring surge the summer surge in the fall surged. The American People know that this is more cases, more rapidly than what we had seen before but to also make it clear like the four we do know what to do and we are asking american to do those things today. The next slide shows or increase in test positivity. The light brown bars or the number of tests that were performed but even with the number and everincreasing numbers of tests performed you can see the increase in test positivity to around 10 . In some areas of the country it is much higher than that and it illustrates the Ongoing Community spread in your counties, and youre small and large metros and in your rural areas. The next slide really shows the country as a whole and why we are asking every american to remain vigilant. To do those things that we have been asking you all to do, to wear a mask comes to physically distance and to continue hand giene but really in this moment of bringing people together to really limit interactions in doorso immediate households when we see this level of community spread. Behind this lel of Community Read is a lot of asymptomatic cases the people are spreading the virubecause they dont know they are in acted with the virus and so people are coming together in doors and everyone los healthy but among those individuals could be individuals that aeady are in fact did and have no symptoms and are unknowingly spreading the virus to others. It is because of this asymptomatic threat that we have asked people to wear a mask in doors ando ask people to wear masks when among others but sometimes when we go in doors with friends and family we just assume if you look okay url k. And now we know over 50 of the end of the littles parcularly those under 35 many could be infected unknowingly spreading the virus. Thisirus increased so rapidly because there was an unusual cold that began in the Northern Plains and went through the hetland in the end of september and beginning of october. Large numbers of people moved indoors so we have been going across the country in the Midatlantic States in the northeast to really increase tec cases and they reay want to thank the governors across this great land who have heeded that call and set up what we call sentinel populations whether its nursing hom k12 Teachers Community college student, county workers specific businesses to rely have routine weekly testing so that we can see the spread of this virus down to the zip code and combat that with additional mitigation. The next slide shows what we have been talking about with the level of hospitalizations and in the slide you can see the hospitalizations by the darkness of the color and i want to make it clear and with the Vice President talked about. We can see every addition every day and i want to thank the hospitals who have been sending us data and improving that data working with cdc so we can see admissions and impatient status and ccu nicu status and see whos being admitted by age groups. Right now its about 5050 between those between 40 and 69 of those over 70. You can see we have some areas of the country and the hot red and bright pink and the darkest red or those states that have more than 21 of their hospitals are Covid Patients and the light pink is between 16 and 20 and the light orange between 12 and 15 . You do see that there are still states in the green area and to all of those states that have not seen this surge to really increase your testing among asymptomatic by setting up the sentinel populations. When we took 45 days to stop the spread of me as each state to alok the criteria part of that criteria included looking for asymptomatic cases. With these new antigen test we have the capacity to really expand testing to find those cases and stop that spread. In the meantime as we started with we stopped the surge in t south with very targeted mitigation that started with mask and physical distancing but also includes decreasing those friends and family gatherings where people come together in unknowingly spread the virus. I want to thank the mayors of miami, miami city in miami county. They were the ones that first in the summer really foundow much asymptomatic threat was occurring in household gatherings. As you bring together individuals remember what the Vice President talked about. Every american needs to be vigilant in this moment because we know that when yll are we can mitigate this virus and stop the spread together. C thank you dr. Birx and as you can see on a statebystate basis we want the American People to know that we have eyes on your local hospital. We know about admissions and the availability of icu beds and from early on at the presence direction we set up the greatest National Mobilization since world war ii and i want the American People to know that continues to this moment and general David Sanford has been with us every step of the way is going to brief you on the status of our supply chain and the reserves that we have in our ongoing efforts to make sure our hospitals and Health Care Facilities have the resources and the support to meet this moment. General. Mr. Vice president thank you sir and dr. Birx thank you maam. We are in a much better place and continue to improve upon the capability. We continue to grow our National Stockpiles to meet the requirements laid out by our states and populatio. We continue to expand upon these to bridge the vaccine delivery to continue to protect American Population presents a late summer we have grown our capabilities 10 to 15 times over what they were previously and to continue to grow capability to meet the surge requirement we may expect. As you canee behind me on the third or fourth column in the four months of surge cability based on current case diagnosis with n95 mass. More masks areeing added every month. The Strategic National stockpile d their fema stocks are ready to be the backstop when her state requires it. Thats a strong domestic medical gesture something where weve been able to expand upon or build in some cases user defense production act in the cares act accordingly to provide the capabilities for the American People not just now but into the future hand for future crises or medical ents. Go to the next slide please. This is contained to work on estates on a continuing basis are famed ministers constantly engage witthe governors or their staffs to reach out to our regional admintrators to the state Health Department officials and Emergency Management officials to find out what their needs are to help overcome their challenges and to grow the states stock while. As a relay for federal murders to mandate of state management and federal support. As used on the previous previous light into wilsey on this colorcoded map between our states and federal government we stand in a much better position than we were a month ago and certainly more than four or five months ago to meet the surging ppe demands of power termination. This is