Formally this week from bill bryant, the science and Technology Director at the department of Homeland Security. He will outline as the president said encouraging news about the impact that heat and sunlight have on the coronavirus which will increase the confidence that we feel about the coming summer. On the subject of testing, at the present moment we have reports of 4. 93 million tests having been performed across america. And encouraging news, as states have been engaging commercial labs at a higher level across the country. Yesterday our commercial lab system did more than 100,000 tests in a single day. So were beginning to activate all of the capacity. And tomorrow at the president s direction our task force will convene a Conference Call with all of the nations governors to talk about their progress they are making on testing and were going to hear from governors about the practices that, and methods that they are employing to significantly increase testing following our briefing about capacity and laboratories this past monday. For instance, Governor Mike DewineJust Announced that ohios testing has been greatly expanded after the fda approved thermofishers new extraction reagent saying in his words that the action, quote probably doubled, maybe even tripled testing in ohio virtually overnight. Governor tim waltz of minnesota announced with the state health care system, mayo clinic and the university of minnesota what he described as a breakthrough for rapid widespread testing. They were able to test more than 20,000 people using a molecular test per day. Governor kim reynolds of iowa, launched a triple Testing Capacity with nomi health and domo. Worked with university of iowa hospitals to leverage capacity and Governor Eric Holcomb and andy beshear of indiana and kentucky respectively announced more new drivethrough testing locations. Our focus has been to focus on those impacted by the coronavirus and on those Extraordinary Health care workers administering to their needs every day. And i know, mr. President , how proud you are that our men and women in uniform have come alongside our Health Care Workers in communities most impacted and i know the American People are proud as well. As of today fema reports that 35,000 National Guard have been deployed across the country to aid in our coronavirus response. Governor of ohio deployed the National Guard to hospitals across the state to evaluate protective equipment and Hospital Capacity and report it into state Emergency Management and fema and Governor Greg Abbott of texas actually mobilized more than 1200 National Guard and 45 teams to provide greater access to testing. Along with the National Guard at the president s direction today more than 4500 active duty military doctors, nurses and medical assistants have been deployed across the country. Yesterday 1013 medical professionals in our military were actually deployed to 19 hospitals in seven states to support those amazing Health Care Workers. And with 4. 4 million more americans filing for unemployment in the past week i join the president in welcoming passage in the house today of the paycheck protection program. It will support working families and allow Small Businesses to keep people on the payroll for a period of two months t also, as the president requested, included 75 billion to assist hospitals across the country n that spirit the president and i will continue to urge states across the country, given the unique burden on hospitals we are now encouraging states to restart elective surgeries wherever possible, either statewide or on a county by county basis. We recognize the role elective surgeries play in finances for local hospitals and will work with states to enable that. In that vein governor doug ducey issued and executive order allowing elective surgeries for may 1 for hospitals that meet criteria and indiana Governor Eric Holcomb is allowing elective surgeries to begin on april 21st. Finally, mr. President , the task force received the first report on state reopening plans. At the present moment 16 states released formal reopening plans. 13 of those were release since you unveiled the opening up america guidelines to our governors and nation last week. To your point, mr. President , states are beginning to make those plans. Were encouraged to see so many States Embrace the phased approach to reopen economies contemplated in our guide lines for opening up america again. For instance, governor mike parson of missouri announced the showme strong recovery plan. It has two initial phases intended to protect the most at risk. Governor tom wolf, announced the plan for pennsylvania that would begin may 8th, will end stayathome order for just portions of pennsylvania but the plan again requires regions to have fewer than 50 new positive cases per 100,000 for a period of 14 days and it also lays out a phased reopening road map. Governor kate brown of oregon updated their framework for reopening doing three faces again on a county by county basis. Governor brad little of idaho released rebound idaho in the last few days that will consist of four phases and require specific criteria that idaho and businesses need to meet to begin to reopen. Mr. President , with the, with the guidelines to open up america again, states are making plans and at your direction, our task force will continue to work very closely, providing them with data, providing them with resources to be able to implement those plans in a safe and responsible way. So with that, let me just end where i began and to say thank you to the American People. The progress that we are seeing is a testament to what all of you have done, to our Extraordinary Health care workers. A partnership between the federal government and to the state and local official and im confident it is also owing to the prayers of millions of americans each and every day. All of that combined were slowing the spread. Were protecting the most vulnerable. Were saving lives and every single day we are one day closer to opening up america again. With that, mr. President , i would be pleased to call bill forward. Bill bryant leads the science and Technology Directorate of department of Homeland Security and will make a presentation on the recent study. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Thank you, mr. President , for this opportunity to do this today. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is bill bryant and i lead the science and Technology Directorate at department of Homeland Security. S and t is work owing develop deploy and tools and information to deploy our response to this crisis. As part of our efforts were leveraging the unique capabilities of s and ts National Biodefense analysis and Countermeasure Center to study biology of the covid19 virus this center is high Biocontainment Laboratory located in frederick, maryland t was established in the early 2000s in response to the anthrax attacks where we study, analyze, develop Counter Measures for biological threats to the homeland. We work closely with the cdc, fda and hhs and department of defense colleagues and many others. Yesterday i shared the emerging results of our work that were doing now with the coronavirus Traffic Force and today i would like to share certain trends we believe are important. If i may have the first slide, please. While that is coming up our most striking observation to date the is powerful a effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus, both surfaces and in the air. Weve seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well where increasing temperature and humidity and both is generally less favorable to the virus. Le meet illustrate with the first slide. If you look to the right, the term, halflife with a bunch of time time stamps. We measure the decay of the terms of the virus in its halflife. We dont know certain elements. We dont know how much a person expectorates when he spits or sneezes whatever the case may be. We dont know how much virus is in there. That has a bearing how long the virus will be alive an active. We measure in halflife, halflife doesnt change f you look 18 hour halflife. Basically saying every 18 hours, the life of the virus is cut in half. If you start with 1000 particles of the virus in 18 hours youre down to 500. 18 hours after that youre down to 250, so on, so forth. That is important as i explain the rest of the chart. If you look at the next three lines, surface, talking about nonporous surfaces, door handles, stainless steel. As temperature increases humidity increases with no sun involved you see how drastically the halflife goes down on the virus. The virus is dying from rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposures to humidity. If you look at fourth line you inject sunlight into that, you inject uv rays into that, same effects on line two 70, 75 degrees with 80 humidity on the surface, look at line four, now you inject the sun, the halflife goes from six hours to two minutes. That is how much of an impact that uv rays has on the virus. The last two lines are aerosols. What does it do in the air . We have very unique capability, i was discussing this with the president prior to coming out, he wanted me to convey it to you, how we do this i believe were the only lab in the country has this capability. If you imagine a home depot bucket, five gallon home depot bucket, were able to take a particle that was developed and designed by our folks a the npac. Were taking a particle of the virus and suspend it in the air inside of this drum and hit it with various temperatures, various humidity levels, multiple different kind of environmental conditions to include sunlight and were able to measure the dei can of that virus while suspended in the air. This is how we do the aerosol testing. We work with Johns Hopkins applied physics lab. We applied a larger drum to more testing four times the size of that. This is the capability we bring to this effort. So in summary within the conditions weve tested to date the virus in droplets of saliva survives best indoors and dry conditions. The virus does not survive as well in droplets of saliva, thats important. Because a lot of testing being done is not necessarily being done, number one with the covid19 virus and in saliva or as paer to fluids. Number two, the virus dice quickest in presence of direct sunlight in those conditions. If you look at aerosol as you breathe it, put it in a room. 70, 75 degrees, 20 humidity, low humidity, halflife is been an hour. But you get outside and cuts down to a minute 1 2. Very significant difference when it gets hit with uv raise. Mr. President , while there are many unknown links in the covid19 transmission chain we believe these trends can support practical Decision Making to lower the risks associated with the virus. If i could have my next slide. While that comes up, you will see a number of some Practical Applications. For example, increasing the it will ture and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus and extra care may be warranted for dry environments that did not have exposure to solar light. Were also testing disinfectants readily available. We tested bleach. We tested ice eisnaugle sew propoll alcohol. Bleach kill the virus this five minutes. Alcohol will kill it with 30 seconds. You rub it, it goes away even fast tore. Were looking at other disinfectants. Were looking at covid19 in saliva. Were enat that greating our findings into Practical Applications to mitigate exposure and application. I would like to thank the president , the Vice President , for their on going leadership to the department. And for their leadership in addressing the pandemic. Take the scientists and s and t and npac and larger scientific and r d community. Thank you very much. Reporter mr. Bryant . Thank you very much. A question that probably some of you are thinking of, if youre totally into that world which i find to be very interesting. So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it is ultraviolet or very powerful light you says that hasnt been checked but you will test it. Supposing you brought the light inside of body you can do either through the skin or in some other way . I think you said youre going to test that too. Sounds interesting. [inaudible] i see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside or, or almost a cleaning . Because you see it gets into the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs. Be interesting to check that. You will have to use medical doctors. But sounds interesting to me. So well see. But the whole concept of the light way it kills it in one minute, thats pretty powerful. Steve, please . Reporter [inaudible] better place by early summer. Does that mean you will need to extend the soaks distancing guidelines until then . We may. We may go beyond that well very to see where it is. You will know, people will know, i will know, we will know out of common sense. At some point we wont have to do that until we feel its safe well being extending. Reporter you have 23 cases where new cases, in 23 states where new cases in decline. What does that mean about when the country can be safely reopened to a more normal point . It means well watch those cases very carefully. I think weve all gotten very good at it. Weve gotten good at tracing. We see where the cases are, where theyre going and were going to be watching it and it is called containment. At a certain point well be able to contain. When you see this, a lot of people have been talking about summer. Maybe this is one of the reasons, i once mentioned maybe it goes away with heat and light and people didnt like that statement very much. The fake news didnt like it at all. I just threw it out as a suggestion but seems like that is the case. When it is on a surface that would last for a long time. When that surface is outside it goes away very quickly, it dies very quickly with the sun. Yeah, go ahead. Reporter you said yesterday that youre going to look into senator mcconnells suggestion for allowing states to declare bankruptcy versus well look into it. I have been looking into it. Ive been talking to a lot of different senators but i dont want to talk about it now. That was a very interesting presentation. Go ahead. Reporter i want to talk about mcconnells suggestion i told you im not talk about it now. I will talk about later. I would like talk about something more interesting to people. Reporter can i ask mr. Bryant a question . Yes. Reporter thank you, when you started your presentation you described this as emerging result. Does this mean youre study is conclusive . Is there more work to do . Were continuing to do that. On aerosol side figures are 20 humidity. Were looking higher humidity levels. We expect would have greater impact on the virus. Were looking at other types of disinfectants. This is a, as Scientific Community were continuing to study the virus to understand its characteristics. Reporter can you explain some hot spots in the u. S. , hot and humid like new orleans for example . Let me explain, if you look at coronavirus as a chain with many links, what weve done through our study, weve identified some of the weak links in that chain. That the virus transmission of the virus depends upon. We identify that heat and humidity is a weakness in that chain. Weve identified that sunlight, solar light, uv rays is a weakness in the chain that doesnt take away the other activities, guidance from the white house, guidance from the cdc and others on the actions and steps that people need to take to protect themselves. This is just another, another tool in our tool box, another weapon in the fight. That we can add to it and in the summer we know that summerlike conditions are going to create an environment where the transmission can be decreased. That is opportunity for us to get ahead. Reporter president mentioned idea of a cleaner, preach [inaudible] there is no scenario that could be injected into a person, is there . No im here to talk about findings within the study. We dont do that at our lab. Reporter [inaudible]. Talking about almost cleaning sterilization of area. Maybe it works, maybe doesnt work t certainly has a big effect on a stationary object. Reporter are we simplifying too much by saying it would be better with the warmer weather and sun coming out more and more that people would be outside instead of staying inside of their homes confined to the four walls of their house . It would be irresponsible for to us say that we feel that the summer just going to totally kill the virus and it is a freeforall and people ignore those guidance. That is not the case. We have an opportunity though to get ahead with what we know now and in fact adding to the Decision Making for what opens and what doesnt. Saying on surfaces the heat, hot summer, and whatever other conditions, humidity an lack of humidity that would have an impact so that on surfaces where it can be picked up it will die fairly quickly in the summer as in the winter it would not die so quickly . Yes, mr. President. Suppose ever expose towed uv rays, take playground equipment, the kill the virus when hits on playground equipment. Underneath, sun hasnt touched where someone touched and has it on their hands it could be still there. Has to be direct sunlight with the uv rays. Touching somebodys hands and havent touched their fa