That in the first phase, schools that are currently closed should stay closed. Large venues, including some restaurants could operate under strict social distancing protocols. Games could reopen, if they maintain social distancing guidelines, but bars should remain closed. Tonight the u. S. Death toll from the pandemic is nearly 31,000 with more than 650,000 confirmed cases world wide. There are more than 2 million known cases and more than 140,000 deaths. Lets go straight to the white house, chief White House Correspondent jim acosta, we are learning details of how the president will propose reopening the country. These are guidelines. These are proposals. But he specifically says you are going to call your own shots, when he had that conversation with the governors. Reporter thats right, wolf. This is a total reversal from what the president was saying a couple days ago, when he was saying he has the total authority to dictate to the governor what is they can do in their respective states. The white house is not clinging to that position anymore. I that you could to a senior official saying these guidelines are simply that guidance to these governors to determine what is best for them and ultimately according to senior white house official it will be up to the governors discretion how to reopen the states. Lets move you through the phases as we are seeing them in these guidelines. We should point out all americans, all 50 states would start essentially at the same plays place and move to phase 1. It says, for states and regions that satisfy the gating criteria, they will move to phase 1, what does that mean . Vulnerable individuals, they shelter in place. In terms of workplaces, america will continue to urge to be urged to telework and return to work only if phases. As far as schools are concerned, they will remain closed. Schools that are in phase 1, states, they will remain closed, if they are closed right now and social gatherings, the administration is saying those social gatherings and states in phase 1 should not be larger than ten people and that nonessential travel should be minimized. Now, moving on to phase 2, these are for states that can move beyond phase 1 into phase 2, its a different ball game, vulnerable individuals, they will shelter in place. At the workplace, they will continue to encourage telework but some will be able to return to their work in phases. In terms of schools, thats where a big change takes place. Schools will be able to open if your state is in phase 2. Now, in terms of social gatherings, you will notice a change in numbers there, more than 50 people should be avoided at social gatherings. That means people will be able to have dinner party go to parties in homes, as long as theyre not larger than 50 people and nonessential travel can resume. Presumably if up are going to a state you live in a state in phase 2, presumably, according to these guidelines, you would be able to take that vacation and restaurants, bars, gyms, all those kind of places, they would be able to remain opened with social distancing. It all sounds very good. That is phase 2, we are not there yet. You have to go through face 1, phase 3 almost sounds like a mirage. That is the next phase if a state can move from phase 2 to phase 3, this is what it would look like, vulnerable individuals, still social distance, the workplace would have no restrictions whatsoever at the workplace, but restaurants, gyms, bars, they would remain opened with limited physical distancing and sanitation protocols. As i was just saying, wolf, it sounds wonderful to get to phase 3, most states arent even near that point and i suspect the president , other administration officials, dr. Fauci, who is expected to be at this press conference in just about an hour from now, dr. Deborah birx, they will be able to walk us through these guidelines when they present them to the American People shortly. These guidelines are recommendations from the president s to the governor. So whats the criteria in these guidelines for a state to move between phase 1 to phase 2, to phase 3 . Right. Well that is the key. Right now everybody is essentially not at phase 1, according to administration. There are some states obviously that have not had many cases of the coronavirus, you know, when you compare those states in places like new york and new jersey. But to get to phase 1, those states and regions would have to satisfy what the administration is calling gating criteria. That means a sustained decrease in cases of a coronavirus over a 14day period and hospitals would have to move to pre cut crisis conditions in those hospitals. If you can satisfy those requirements, tore admin according to administration, your states can move to phase 2, those are no evidence of a rebound of coronavirus cases and that satisfy those gating criteria a second time. So if you are showing proing in phase 1, you can move to phase 2. If you are showing no evidence of a rebound and to get to phase 3, again, this sounds like a mirage for everybody living in the United States right now. Those are for states or regions with no evidence of a rebound to and saffir the get aing criteria a third time. Washington, we should point out all of this is nebulous at this point. We dont have ault all of the fine details. For people in new york and new jersey and hardhit states right now, it is going to be extremely difficult as we all know, for those states, those places hard hit to move from phase 1 to phase 2 to phase 3, this is going to take a lot of time. As a senior white house official was telling me earlier today, all of this is going to be at the governors discretion. Not what the president was saying earlier this week. He was saying he was calling the shots. Thats not the case anymore. He says the governors will be calling the shots. We do have the guidelines, a document that the white house prepared, guidelines opening up america again. So all those elements contained in that document that jim acosta at the white house. Well get back to you, the president s reopening guidelines, comments, parts of the country are preparing for even more deaths. Lets go to cnns nick watt in los angeles for us. Update our viewers on the latest. Well, washington, another record death toll today here in californ california. I am ae forum if englewood. We are told there will be no more sporting events for years. Now this massive parking lot is a drive threw testing center. You pick up a test kit. You test yourself in your car. You then give the kit back and it is sent away to a lab. Now, listen, the president might be pushing back on the need for testing. But the mantra from most people is, in order to reopen, we need to test, test, test. Why wont you open tomorrow . Because were afraid the infection rate will go up. Reporter while we remain closed, the Unemployment Rate goes up dramatic allege little. More than 22 million americans filed for unemployment just this past month. Look at the lines at food banks. We dont have a buffer. There is no safety net for these folks. There is no savings. Reporter and new horrors still unearthed daily, 17 bodies, possible covid19 victims were found at this new jersey nursing home. I am outraged that bodies of the dead were allowed to pile up in a makeshift morgue at the facility. Reporter tonight the white house will announce new federal guidelines on social distancing with an eye to reopening. 24 of the counties of this country have no reported coronavirus cases. Reporter but many say too soon. We just dont have the testing. I think that would be really dangerous. Were ramping up the testing. We got to see who the infection rate is. Reporter massachusetts and rhode island could still be days or weeks away from their worst. Michigan may have passed its peak and some are now protesting their stayathome orders that are still in place. The fact of the matter is its still too dangerous to have people out and about. Getting out ahead of those new federal guidelines, new york, los angeles, washington, d. C. , all extended their stayathome orders a month. Through may 15th. New yorkers will have to wear masks, riding the bulls or subway. Im sorry it makes people unhappy. I do not consider it a major burden. Reporter amazon has now begun the process of building its own testing lab. In a letter to shareholders, Ceo Jeff Bezos wrote, for to us work we as a society would need vastly more Testing Capacity than is currently available. Because that vaccine is still likely more than a year away. God should ep us if this is one that will constantly change and we arent able to get a vaccine against. O. Mistic. Reporter the president optimistic on reopening can of course reissue new guidelines but at the end of the day, every governor will make up their own mind how to proceed. Reporter and every governor might have a completely different idea. You know we just heard from wisconsin, they have extended their stayathome orders through may 26th. Theyve tweaked it. Golf courses were closed. The golf courses are now opened again, so you can play golf but the pro shops and clubhouses remain closed. Expect to see a lot of that regional difference as we move forward in this process. We certainly will. Nick watt in california for us. Thank you. Joining us now, the governor of delaware, thank you so much for enjoining us. I know you were on that call about an hour or so ago with the president. What do you make of these knew guidelines the white house has unveiled as it pushes to reopen the countrys economy . Reporter yes, two good things i think from the white house conference calm. One is the president gave up the authority to close down and tell states when to open up and gave it back to the governors where it belongs in our discussion. That was a really good thing. The second good thing was to have the first take of this guidance about the conditions that need to be in place on the ground before we can start reopening our economies here in our individual states and the situation on the ground in every state is a little bit different. I heard governors talking about not having cases, cases declining. Thats certainly not the case here in the state of delaware. We still have an increase in the number of cases. Although its not what we predicted it to be. Were still having an increase in the number of hospitalizations. Again its not as bad as we expected it to be. So things are a little bit better. But were not in the position to even be at the starting line where you have to have 14 days of declining cases, 14 days of declining symptoms, flulike symptoms, before you can even think about getting to phase 1 and phase 1 is a very limited opening, which is really a prudent and a good way to do it. We have some guidance now that this is going to be done in phases. So it gives information to our Business Leaders and individuals across our state. But the overall message that were opening up as if its toeshl tomorrow, for me, is the wrong message here in delaware. Im still saying stay at home. Stay safe. Were still not out of this we still havent peaked and we will do everything we can to open when the conditions are right. When its safe to do so and we are told the president specifically said to the governors and you were on that call, you were going to call your own shots, which is a lot different he claimed he had total authority to to whatever he wanted, basically, so that is a dramatic reversal. What was the phone conversation like . Were you pleased . How did it go . Give us a little of the atmosphere. Yeah, the atmosphere was celebratory to a certain extent. I think that comes from states that are not the hot spots. Were not a hot hot spot. But were in a region in between new york, metro philadelphia and part of our northern part of our state as part of the philadelphiadelaware valley region and metro, baltimore, washington, so were, and were small little state. So were influenced by movement of people across our borders. Weve seen that early on in this pandemic outbreak with our beaches and our bars and restaurants and the lower part of our state, with shopping, Taxfree Shopping in the nowhere part of our state, so weve joined this Coalition Led by Governor Cuomo to try to think about how we put in place the guidance, how we use the guidelines, to make those decisions to open our economies. Do it gradually, do it in a coordinated way within our region, because decisions that are made by Governor Wolf in pennsylvania really affect delaware. We have thousands of people who live in pennsylvania, work in the northern part of our state. Hundreds of people live over in maryland, go back and forth to lower delaware. We are influenced by num as well. So we will think through it as in a regional kind of way, using the expertise and the data of the scientists driving this and make decisions for our individual say its. But your assessment of these guidelines opening up america again, the document that the white house provided you and we have a copy of right now, your assessment is that these are credible, legitimate phases that potentially you should be working for that even though you dont necessarily have to accept them, they make sense from your perspective . Reporter yeah, they seem to make sense. I would say were days maybe weeks away from the starting line and then have you to have 14 days of declining cases, declining symptoms and Hospital Capacity that exists if case you have a rebound. And once you get through those first 14 days, then you have another 14 days where you have to meet the same criteria in phase 1 in order to move no phase 2. And phase 2, really is the stage that looks a little bit like normal. Its not its certainly a new normal this even phase 3 is not going to be the old normal that we were used to. Its going to be a new normal until we get a vaccine with protections against a rebound of covid19. I think that new normal is going to continue to include for many of us certainly i dont know about delaware, i assume delaware like maryland or washington, d. C. , virginia, its going to include social distancing. Its going to include a lot of testing, masks, and all sort of other stuff, gloves, for that matter. Schools, what what about schools . Theyre going to be closed for the rest of this Academic Year in delaware, is that right . Well, we havent made that decision yet. Looking at these guidelines, it looks like thats probably where we will end up. You mentioned testing. I want to go back to that. Because before you can get to the starting line, have you to have a series of things in place, including a testing framework that enables you to identify people who are covid19 positive isolate them and do contract tracking. You also have to have a series of things in place with respect to your Hospital Capacity. Just to get to the starting line for the 14 days of phase 1. And thats something we dont have. We had a governors only call yesterday, Governor Hogan is our chair on nga and we heard it on the call with the president. So many states that dont have the Testing Capacity really to implement this phasedin approach to recovery. And thats a really key element and there was a lot of back and forth about all the tests exist here or there. Various private labs. But when i hear my colleagues and when i talk to the Hospital Leaders in my state, theyre not able to get the test kits and the Testing Capacity that we need to implement this recovery plan. I hear that from a lot of your governor, your colleagues, the other governors as well. And its hard to believe that here in the United States of america that testing equipment is still not available to all of you. Governor carney of delaware, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Good luck to everyone in delaware. Stay with us. Were standing by for todays White House Coronavirus task force briefing. Its back in the Briefing Room today, also coming up, im speak with the mayor of new orleans about these new guidelines from the white house. Her city has been hit very hard by the coronavirus. What will a return to normal look like there . Being prepared and overcoming challenges. Usaa has been standing with them for nearly a hundred years. And well be here to serve you for a hundred more. As we await todays White House Coronavirus task force briefing, i am joined now by the American Medical Association dr. Patrice harris and our chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. Dr. Harris, these new guidelines from the president before you even get to phase 1 of opening up, the white house wants states to meet certain criteria, these include what they call a downward projectory of reported case, 14 day, two weeks, the ability of hospitals to treat owl patients without crisis care and robust testing for atrisk healthcare workers. What do you think . Does that go far enough . Wolf, its good to be with you. Certainly i look more to learning about these guidelines, but at the end of the day, these decisions need to be made based on the evidence, the science and the data. At first blush they certainly seem reasonable. Particularly around robust testing. We have been behind since the beginning. So we need to expand testing. Not only for diagnostic tests but the antibody tests. So we know some regions of the country have not reached their peak and the data we have right now is incomplete. We have data around deaths and hospitalizations. We need data on the total number tested, segmented by race andest nicety and perhaps zip code. So i look forward to learning more about these guidelines but all decisions knead to be made based on science and the evidence. Thats an important point. Sanjay the plan calls for testing and the contact tracing, Surge Capacity of hospital, plans to protect different sectors of society. How far are states from meeting these initial standards . Some states are better equipped than others. In some ways we are talking about the same issues, washington, we talked about late january, early february. You wanted hospitals to have Surge Capacity. Enough protective equipment for the Healthcare Providers and enough testing. Its the same thing we talked about back then that are Still Necessary now as we think about a phased reopening. But theres some states that are clearly they dont fee