3/14/20: Members of the Coronavirus Task Force Hold a Press Briefing

Thank you very much, we just completed a very good meeting of the

coronavirus

task

force

and they are really doing a great professional job, the results are very, very, very good and when you compare this with what is happening around the world, We are I am very proud of our people. There has been tremendous coordination between states and cities. They are a slightly smaller form of government and things are going well for them. They're coordinating with us, and I think California in particular has been a great relationship. New York has been really good, we've had really good relationships, especially in terms of the hot spots and we're focused on those hot spots, some areas wouldn't have any problems and we hope it stays that way, yeah, before this is over.

I ask our great VP to provide me with an update. I just want to ex

press

my appreciation for the hard work done by the people behind me and the people in the various offices, including the fact that I just left the Oval Office, so we have some people. there who are probably watching this or are just working, we are using the full power of the federal government to defeat the virus and that's what we've been doing this past week: we got an initial sum of eight point three billion dollars from Congress to the corona virus and that was done quickly and very efficiently.

I want to thank all the

members

of Congress who declared a national emergency yesterday, which was very important because it opened avenues that we could never open without it and it will. doing it more than that will make more than $50 billion in disaster relief funds available to us immediately and that's available to state territories and local governments, so that was really good. Yesterday we also reached an agreement on a new legislative package that will provide strength for American families and communities in dealing with the

coronavirus

, so it was done in a very, very bipartisan way, it was very nice to see, probably cooperation.

I wanted to acknowledge the urgent statement from the Secretary of the Treasury, who did a fantastic job and worked with Nancy Pelosi. and their representatives and it was really great, it worked very well and a lot of people are benefiting from many provisions in the bill that they are going to discuss with you today and the tremendous provisions, so that is something that we should talk about. I was honored to see the stock market he spent most of his time with us set a record in a short period of time over a 45 minute period. We had the

press

conference yesterday in the Rose Garden.

It was a record in everything. -time record, I think we should do one of them every day, maybe how, but every five times a day we will do one five times a day, but that was something to watch and I had no idea we were back. I said, so how did it work? They said, sir, you just sent a new record in the history of the stock market, so it was pretty good and those big companies that were there couldn't have been too unhappy either if you think about it because they are all very big. publicly traded companies so they did a good job and more importantly they're going to do a good job when you look at CBS and Walmart and all the tremendous people that were there yesterday these are the biggest and the best and they are opening they are opening their facilities that are opening there right now, literally working right now on opening, doing something that has never been done before to the extent that we are doing it and so we are very proud of them.

Also, the bill provides free coronavirus testing for all Americans who should get tested, so people who get tested get it for free, they don't have to pay a lot of people said, wow, that's a lot of money and it's a Quite a complex test in reality and it costs. money and what is provided for free to keep people worried, also provides paid sick and family medical leave for those who need it, including those who have the virus, for caregivers and those caring for children affected by the shutdown of schools, so that's all taken care of. Also and we will continue with all these different actions.

We have other things planned. We will also work with companies that are financially affected. Our country is in the best financial situation. We've been so different in the past over the years. If you look at some of the real big crises that we had, they were financial problems and other things, now we are in a very strong financial situation with all the trading and all the other things that we have been doing, it has been quite surprising. I hope the Fed finally gets on board and does what they need to do because we are doing things that they should be doing frankly and we can all do them together, but they should be much more proactive on other boards and other countries and people they represent.

Those countries are taking much more aggressive actions than our Federal Reserve and, for the most part, we would like to see what the central banks did yesterday. We want to see our Federal Reserve be much more proactive. It's important, but. In the meantime, we are doing things that have been very well received. I guess you saw that yesterday, at the end of the day, with what we did, we have a lot of things to tell you in terms of respirators. Of all the different things that masks are being made by the millions and millions and millions, we have a lot of them now, but we're ordering by the millions, we're ordering the worst case scenario, we always say worst case scenario and that's where I'm going to go. , so I just want to thank everyone.

I think the press has been very present during the last 24 hours. I think the performances have really been very fair, for the most part they have been very fair. We are all in this together. It's something that no one expected. outside of China and it's one of those things that happens, no one is to blame, we will all solve this problem, we will solve it well. I think the American people have been incredible in the way they have acted. There have been and and if we look. in companies and sports leagues and all the things that they've done is something very special without necessarily being told, in some cases maybe they were told, but for the most part they want to get it over with, they want to do it.

It was over quickly and with very few deaths. Right now we have 50 deaths, which means a lot of good decisions were made or that number could be many times higher than that is based on a lot of good decisions, one or two in particular. You know, Europe. was declared the hot spot yesterday a big hot spot and number one and we made a decision we thought a little bit before that but we saw what was happening but if you have any questions this group will be very happy to ask but I just want to say that they have been led by Mike Pence.

The work they do has been incredible. They are working 20 hours a day. This man works 20 hours a day or maybe more. It's more? I think that's what Tony has been working on. I'm just looking at this old group and we've created a number of new stars, including the gentlemen right behind me. I saw it the other day and it was fantastic work. You know, I really appreciate it, but they'll be answering questions. We have a lot of new information, so I think you will find it very interesting. I will return to the Oval Office, thank you Mr.

President Derek, there are so many people right now that are running to Costco, they are Russert running to grocery stores across the country, they are filling their baskets is that the right move do you think the people should say maybe you know? keep instead of buying also overnight Apple Certificate they announce that they will close all their stores for two weeks do you want to see other points of sale, a restaurant like that does the same? I think they either do. I think, frankly, it's a good thing if they do it and I think what Apple did is fine and they want to keep people away for a while, just keep them away and you know, when it gets better, people go and buy things and I understand that. the way they took my temperature when I entered the room you did it well that's a good word that means we all look good you took it too I took the test too and decided I should do it based on the press conference Yesterday, people were asking me to do the test I don't know whatever it takes a day or two whatever it is they send it to a lab hands with people yesterday you talked about five million tests available you probably won't need that many you have your own sense of urgency involved and are you changing what you are doing?

No, I have been urgent, this is urgent from the beginning, you know this because I closed our country to China because it almost becomes a habit and you get out of it. custom and, frankly, didn't shake hands for the most part. I would never believe shaking hands once you become a politician and I noticed it too, political people come up to me and want to shake my hand. I said, well, you know. grab a Dyson AC, it's okay, relax, people come up to me, they shake hands, they extend their hand, it's kind of a natural reflex and we're all coming out of this, we all have that problem, someone comes up to you and they put their hand You probably tend to just shake it and we're all getting out of it, shaking hands is not a good thing right now.

I agree, but people give up sometimes. I'll extend my hand, don't you think? about it people are thinking more about it we have to think about it it's important someone said yesterday I touched the microphone I was touching it because we have people of different heights and I'm trying to make it easy for them because they are going to have to touch because I couldn't reach the microphone, no they could talk into the microphone, so I'll move the microphone down and they said, oh, you touched the microphone well if I don't touch it. I'm going to have to touch him, someone's going to have to do it, so I might as well be the one to do it, but no, we all have to get away from Ben, getting away from shaking his hand is a good thing and possibly that's something that comes out of this maybe. . people shouldn't

hold

hands long term because it spreads flu and other things.

You know we have the flu in our country that kills an average of thirty-six thousand people a year, 36,000 people, and you know that's something we're not talking about. but at this point we've lost 50, possibly a little less than 50, but probably 50 people, and we're going to try to keep that number as low as possible. The Pentagon is telling service

members

and their families not to travel domestically. All Americans follow the same advice. Well, you don't have to travel. I wouldn't do it if you don't have to go. We want this to end. We don't want too many people to get infected.

We want this to end. and then Dazz as fast as possible so far. I think we've done a fantastic job. I really think the people behind me haven't been given the credit they deserve because they've done a fantastic job when you see all these school closures. Look, school closures are very important but they cause a lot of problems. The bill we signed yesterday solves many of those problems with kids staying home and parents at work. In the end, now we deal with that problem with what was approved last night, none of it has to go through the Senate, I have to sign it but that will happen, but now I'm going back to the White House.

You have great professionals and if something comes out, if there is something, sir. president Thank you sir. President, I just wanted to follow up on whether you're considering any other travel restrictions, perhaps nationwide, in that sense, for games specifically from certain areas. Yes, we are and we are working with states and considering other restrictions. The riders are reporting that it's We're going to be traveling around the UK and Ireland on Monday is that you're looking at a very serious yeah because unfortunately they've had a bit of activity so we're going to see that actually we've already seen that and that is going to be announced if you could clarify a little your thinking on this has been a hallmark of your presidency you always go after the Fed if you feel so strongly about it why don't you impeach the president or Do you think you have no power to do it?

No, I think I have the right to do it or the right to remove him. He is the president. So far he has made a lot of bad decisions. In my opinion, we had a great time and will soon do so. I have again because I think you can have a tremendous rebound when this is over. I think there is a repressed rebound that is going to be tremendous. I think you saw it yesterday with the stock market. Now I'm not happy with the Federal Reserve because I think they are following that lead, we should lead.

I'm not happy because if you look at other central banks, you know other central banks are largely lower than us, their rate and their equivalent of the Federal Reserve rate are lower in some cases. by two points in some cases is a lot in some cases very substantially and I thought that the Federal Reserve would and should be much more proactive instead of following the Federal Reserve that has the number one currency in the world by a factor of many. Sometimes, as you know, we have the currency, we have the power, we have by far the strong currency, you also look at the dollar, the strength of the dollar, our Fed is not doing whatshould do, we should not have a higher Fed rate. that our competing countries, if you look at Germany, are essentially below zero, there are many negative countries, Japan is negative, Germany is negative, others are negative and we are paying higher interest rates and what I would like to do is, frankly, refinance our debt we could refinance our debt very easily at a much lower rate we have some tremendous opportunities right now but Jerome Powell is not making it easy no, I have the right to eliminate I'm not doing that I'm not If I don't do that, I also have the remote right to take him and put him in a regular position and put someone else in charge and I have not made any decision at that time.

Well, good afternoon everyone, as the president just said that we just completed the coronavirus in the White House.

task

force

meeting in the Situation Room and continue to implement the president's vision, not only for a whole-of-government response to the corona virus, but for all of America, let us bring our task force's focus closer together today and in the future is to implement public-private partnership for testing with a focus on ensuring that state and local authorities have the guidance and support to ensure mitigation, especially in areas where we have seen community spread and continue to lean on the president's direction to address the issues of capacity in our hospitals and with respect to the team, let me reiterate the president's gratitude not only for the team that supports me and the team that supports all of our federal agencies that are literally working every day to provide a whole-of-government approach to this, but I also want to congratulate all the governors throughout the country.

Tomorrow I will speak again with the governors of the 50 states and terror, but as the president said yesterday in the Rose Garden, we couldn't be more grateful for all the governors in particular. in the areas where we have had community spread for the seamless cooperation that is taking place and we congratulate the local health authorities and all those who are literally on the front lines, also grateful for all the companies that saw in great relief yesterday, companies around the country in sports and entertainment in retail that are making decisions based on CDC guidelines and good common sense to protect the American people and lastly, as the president also said, we just want to thank the American people for Listen to local authorities and listen to CDC recommendations.

We'll hear more about that in a moment from dr. Fauci and dr. Burks, but as we are seeing it is not surprising that, as we have seen in the past, all Americans are responding to take care of not only their own health but also their families and their communities, and story after story is truly inspiring to the President and for all of us, as you know, it has been a dynamic few days, the president declared a national emergency yesterday, freeing up important federal resources for state and local authorities, as well as for our national response, the president announced a public-private partnership without precedents for testing and allowing I tell you that tomorrow at five o'clock we will be detailing the progress our team is making.

I can tell you that they are literally working 24 hours a day with private companies. We're very pleased that Thermo Fisher was approved last night by the FDA in record time and also providing what's called a high-throughput test that will actually increase the capacity of this public-private partnership, but again it details that in terms of when local sites will be available at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and other locations. in which communities they will initially be available when the website goes online and how it will continue to roll out at 5:00 p.m. Tomorrow, Eastern Standard Time, we will detail that last night the House of Representatives passed legislation that addressed the priorities that President Trump had laid out for the American people in the previous weeks.

I want to join President Trump in thanking Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy. Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives who, as the president said today, came together to pass legislation that is being carried out right now in the bipartisan spirit of health first that the American people would expect the Secretary of the Treasury to detail the legislation , but of course the agreement that passed the House last night we will head to the Senate early next week next week meets the president's plan for strong economic and health support focused particularly on those hardest hit, including Americans workers who may not currently be. has paid family leave today, provides free coronavirus testing for uninsured Americans, and builds on decisions President Trump made in expanding Medicare Medicaid coverage and also getting commitment from private health insurance companies to join us to waive all coronavirus copays. testing, so testing will now be free for all Americans, those with Medicare insurance, Medicaid, other programs and even those without insurance, the legislation also establishes tax credits that will be described by the Secretary of the Treasury and that will provide license family medical and paid sick leave for coronavirus-related work interruptions. wait for dr.

Dr. burks and dr. Fauci will reiterate this: If you are sick now, you should not worry. If you are an hourly wage worker in the United States, you don't have to worry about staying home. If you are sick, stay home. You won't lose your paycheck because of this. legislation moving through Congress we ensure that your employer, including small businesses, has the ability to provide you with paid leave, this also provides funding and flexibility to ensure that seniors, women, children, families of low incomes have access to emergency nutrition assistance and encourages states to once again facilitate access to work benefits.

The President and I are deeply grateful for the bipartisan spirit that drove this legislation, and let me also say how grateful we are to the Secretary of the Treasury and the long hours he spent negotiating this measure. Let me also say that at midnight last night the Department of Homeland Security implemented the president's decision to suspend all travel from Europe through 13 airports. Acting Secretary Wolf will detail the implementation of that to make it clear in countries where we have suspended American Section 212 f travel. They can still return to the United States, legal residents can still return, they are being screened at about 13 airports as we speak, if they are identified as having symptoms of any illness, there is an additional response in place, but those Americans are encouraged to go back home. and the self-quarantine for 14 days that began last night at midnight and the secretary will detail it in a few moments everyone ask dr.

Fauci to update us on the cases as well as the current CDC guidelines for all Americans and you all already know that this week we issued specific guidelines for about half a dozen states where we have seen community spread dr. Burks will briefly address the public-private partnership testing plan and also talk about what the data shows right now about the best guidance for each acting American secretary and we both want to join the president in praising the cruise line industry and yesterday they made a decision 85% of all domestic cruises announced that they would suspend cruise line operations for a period of 30 days and a wolf from Chad will explain to you the importance of that decision for which we want to congratulate the cruise industry. the cruise lines working with us and as we met last week on this day with cruise line industry executives, we will be working very vigorously over the next 30 days to implement new policies to ensure that when the cruise lines return to business They will be safer and healthier places than ever, but a big industry.

Americans love it and enjoy it, and we will make sure it is there for many years to come, also as the president just foreshadowed in our task force meeting today. The president has made a decision to suspend all travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland effective midnight Monday night Eastern Standard Time Chad Wolfe will outline the details of that, but again, as the president just suggested, everyone our health experts presented information dr. Pouchy will reflect on some of those numbers and unanimously recommended to the President that we suspend all travel from the United Kingdom and Ireland, effective at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Monday night, again.

Americans in the United Kingdom or Ireland can return home. Legal residents can return home. but as the secretary will detail, they will be channeled through specific airports and processes. We continue to emphasize that the risk of serious illness for the average American remains low, but data shows that older people with serious underlying health problems are our most vulnerable population, people most susceptible to serious medical outcomes seem to be more in a moment. We'll talk about the president's decision yesterday to restrict all visitors at all nursing homes across the country and other actions that we've taken, but it's so important, it's so important to all of us.

We, who are lucky enough to have seniors in our family, like my 88-year-old mother, take care of seniors with serious underlying health conditions and ensure that all Americans who work with them practice the best kind of hygiene, the best measures to ensure they are not exposed. We will also hear from dr. Carson and the Surgeon General and before I wrap up and answer some questions, let me acknowledge dr. Tony Fauci for an update on our position and recommendations and guidance. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President, just a quick review of the numbers as of yesterday afternoon, let me quickly start globally and then we'll go to the United States.

Right now there are 129 countries that are involved with the coronavirus globally, the numbers are over 132 thousand, so it's a little over 132,000, around 7,500 of which are new cases, which is important and this is something we mentioned in recent days: if you look at what was previously the main feeder of this coronavirus outbreak, China, they have 80,000 or 81,000 new ones. cases, but only 11 new cases and only 7 new deaths, things have changed now outside of China, which has actually triggered our decision, the President's decision to impose travel restrictions on areas other than China and I think it's It is important to recognize that because when this is all over and done with, you will see a curve of how the corona virus outbreak evolved, it will not be one-dimensional or homogeneous because countries are going to do this and then we have already seen it with China.

We are starting to see it with Korea, which brings us now to what we can expect in our own country, so if you look at the national cases, there are around 20,226, including corresponding repatriations, 50 deaths, 532 new cases and 9 new deaths, which means we have not reached our peak now we will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death predominantly as the vice president said among the vulnerable in our society, the people with the conditions with which we speak and the elderly but integrated, that is to say. a challenge and the challenges that we still have the opportunity to influence the course of that curve, so we would like to see that when this is all over, our curve was not like that, our curve was like that, so that's the reason why we're implementing what things were talking about and finally I just want to make a comment about yesterday, you know, as a doctor, which is what I primarily am, who sees patients every day before I do this, is that there are things that They happened yesterday I believe.

They're going to be really important for the people who are going to be affected by this, but particularly for the doctors, and that is for the president to declare a state of national emergency because that's going to be what I thought, the word I use essentially to free us. of any of the things that will get in the way of our implementation, particularly the new powers given to HHS Secretary Alexei Zhou and the departments within his agency, particularly CMS, which you will hear about shortly and within that group in particular. the situation of the nursing homes that we really have to protect, the other thing is that they always ask us about the tests, you saw the CDR there, now it is all the systems, let's look forward, the responsibility will be on us, but also on them, because as If we obtain information aboutnew tests, we will alleviate the anxiety that we have in the world that we don't know what is happening, but we will also give the doctor and the citizen the opportunity to know where they stand. there and happy to answer questions later thank you thank you thank you good afternoon.

I just completed my second week, so I want to start with the four things I've learned in the last two weeks. We are at our best when the country. it comes together in a bipartisan way and it's been really extraordinary to witness that, but secondly, what you may not have seen as much is the willingness of state and local governments to work together with the federal government in a seamless way, regardless of affiliation partisan. What's important has been the notable decrease in red tape and bureaucracy to get to where we are today, this is particularly evident at the CDC, and finally the understanding that to liberate and serve every American we have to create public-private partnerships. that brings together the extraordinary strength of our private sector, so we saw problems with testing and again I want to remind everyone that it was a surveillance system that was established by public health institutions in the United States, our CDC to be a test of surveillance, then because there was no other option to move it to a diagnostic test, but now we have the full power of our testing capacity. what do I want to say with that?

We are analyzing what is needed to have access to the consumer and that is where the private sector is contributing to us. Secondly, we had to have high-throughput automated testing because we want the American people to be able to get their results quickly and you've heard from Roche and Thermo Fisher that access, but ultimately we want to make sure that patients get results and that was critical in that bill yesterday about reporting and requiring reporting because obviously as we decentralize, as we move out of state and local laboratories, public health laboratories, as we move into hospitals and communities, we need to know the results of the tests to be able to concentrate resources where they are needed most, finally I want to include conclude with something that is very important when the test is done and our results look very similar to those of South Korea until the date, where South Korea more than 96 percent of people with symptoms tested negative, which also means they had respiratory symptoms, let us remind all of us of the most respiratory.

Diseases are contagious, so if you have any respiratory symptoms, you need to protect and treat yourself, but you also want to protect others, so when everyone has a respiratory disease, let's assume you have a contagious disease, because if it's not allergies, it's contagious and let's use those precautions across the board and when you get a negative test, that means you're negative that day, that doesn't mean you can't spread the virus overnight because it replicates in your nose and your nasal secretions and you would have a test. positive tomorrow, so if you have a negative test, that doesn't mean you can stop precautions, it doesn't mean you can start taking risks because you were negative, so let's make sure that if you have symptoms, you are contagious. treat yourself as if you're contagious and if you test negative, let's make sure you continue to protect others from whatever you have and that doesn't reassure you personally and ultimately you take on additional risk.

I just wanted to conclude with a group of Clients and patients that we are all very concerned about. These are individuals we call long-term HIV survivors. They are here all over the country and have survived more than four decades with HIV. Many of them still have a level of immunodeficiency at all. of them, take care of yourself, make sure you do everything you can to make sure you don't get exposed, thanks buddy, great comments Mr. Secretary on the legislation the house passed thank you mr. vice president, so first in particular I want to thank Kevin McCarthy and Kevin Brady and all the House Republicans who worked with us around the clock.

I would also like to thank Mitch McConnell and his team who also provided input. I especially want to thank Speaker Pelosi, who was literally available to us 24 hours a day for the last three days, and I also want to thank the Vice President and the President who were very specifically involved in the details with us and providing guidance, as well which I'll just highlight Some of the issues here, the first thing I would say is that this meets what the president announced in his speech the other night, obviously, the people who need to be quarantined and the people who have the virus, we want them. at home and we want to continue to get paid, we don't want to be in a situation where they are afraid of not getting paid during this two week period, so the first thing this does is create a very fluid process for people who work for small and medium-sized businesses . large businesses will continue to get paid by their employer they don't have to worry about big government going to big government to get their checks they will still get paid we were also very sensitive to small and medium sized businesses many of them These companies covered sick pay , but they will have many more people who can be quarantined on normal sick pay and we didn't want them to have to bear the cost, so one hundred percent of the cost will be taken for these limited situations. taken care of by the federal government and finally we want to think again, like I said, how do we get money to people in the quickest way.

We didn't want to take six months to implement some government system, so I want to thank everyone. at the IRS, the way we can do this again, the IRS will issue tax credits to most employers, they will simply deduct the money from what they owe us, but I want to emphasize on small and medium sized businesses that have cash flow issues. cash. we'll issue guidelines, you'll be able to go to the IRS and get the money up front so you don't have cash flow issues, so we were very careful in balancing ourselves to make sure people got paid without creating an undue burden.

We will also have unique circumstances where schools are closed in many places parents can telework and care for their children and still receive payments from their businesses, but in certain circumstances parents have to be home to care for young people or people older again. to ensure that they had the ability to do that and it was mentioned to the vice president for the children who received meals in the schools, the schools were closed, we wanted to make sure that those children continued to receive paid lunches. I especially want to thank the working group. Two things that were very important to us in this: there is a provision related to masks, we can now increase up to 30 million masks a month and we wanted to make sure that there was free testing, but there is also a provision that states will communicate to the CDC these results so that we get them quickly.

The last thing I want to say is that I thank the house for staying very late last night at 12:30. I don't want people to be surprised because we will do a technical test. correction on Monday morning even though we worked very hard, we had a text agreed upon with the speaker with Kevin McCarthy, it did not make it into the final bill last night at 12:30 Kevin, the speaker and I agreed that they would vote on it and they would have a deal there will be a technical fix so I don't want anyone to come back Monday morning and be surprised by that so again thank you to the vice president and the president and let me also say that I would describe this as a baseball game the first inning It was eight billion dollars this is the second entry we have a lot more to do with Congress and the speaker and I have recognized it we will be working starting immediately the airline industry in particular no different than after September 11th has unique circumstances for the cruise industry and the hotel industry.

I would say we have a lot more work to do and we very much appreciate the bipartisan support and anticipate that everything will be implemented very quickly. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and what I know is that the president would like me to tell you again how grateful we are for all of his efforts on behalf of the American people. Acting Secretary Chad Wolfe will talk about cruise lines' current travel suspension and expansion of the UK and Ireland mr. Secretary, thank you, good afternoon, and let me begin by thanking the partnerships we have with our private sector partners, both in the airline industry and the cruise line industry, for implementing a series of travel restrictions and safety orders over the last few weeks and months, as well as A vice president and the president have described that we have issued new directives denying entry to the US to foreign nationals who have been in certain affected countries, that is, 28 countries to date.

At the request of the President and again as the Vice President highlighted earlier, we have had several major cruise lines that have agreed to suspend outbound sailings for 30 days, we have had several smaller operators that have followed that example and then we have also given orders to a very small handful of not sailing and that started at midnight last night, as well as today, as the vice president described it, the president made the decision, due to the increasing number of cases in the United Kingdom, to apply these restrictions to both. the UK and Ireland so as we move forward again these restrictions prohibit travel from surf or from certain foreign nationals who have been present in the UK and our island in the last 14 days and again this comes into effect at midnight on Monday to be clear about the President's Proclamation and These travel restrictions do not apply to the US.

Citizens, I want to be very clear on that and the Vice President mentioned that they do not apply to us. American citizens so I think we saw some reports about how American citizens quickly return from Europe if they don't need to, they will be allowed to enter the US legal permanent residents, family members under 21, foreign diplomats and then we have other exemptions that are outlined in the proclamation, you can certainly travel back to the US, you will undergo some medical tests and some other questions when you arrive and then you will be asked to quarantine for 14 days, these restrictions for the The United Kingdom and Ireland, like the Schengen zone in China and Iran, do not apply to cargo and economic air cargo, sea cargo, economic transport or the like, so let me close again by saying that the president has actually taken action unprecedented to protect the safety of the American public.

These actions had never been taken before, so the department let me think that the Department of Homeland Security, the men and women of the department, are working day and night 24 hours a day. hours a day to implement these restrictions and make sure that we do it in a very orderly and efficient process and we also continue to look at all the measures on the table and the new measures that we have to implement as we move forward as the virus continues. to evolve so thank you Thank you mr. Secretary and I know the President would want me to reiterate his gratitude and praise for the dedicated men and women of DHS who are on the front lines of implementing these travel policies by doing an outstanding job.

I'm going to recognize Seema. Verma, the head of CMS, to talk about our continued emphasis on seniors and particularly the risk to seniors with serious underlying health conditions and the steps we are taking regarding nursing homes and the inspections and guidance for protect the most vulnerable like the president and The vice president said we took action last night to say that nursing homes must restrict all visitors effective immediately and that includes all non-essential staff. There are some exceptions for end of life. We are also canceling all group activities and community meals. there is active screening of health care workers who are in the facilities, the emergency declaration is a medical failure, he said, it is also very important for our health care workforce, they have much more flexibility, for example, they can have workers from other states, doctors and nurses who can help them, hospitals have the ability to transfer patients, so that will also be very helpful as they move forward with this also with the nursing homes that we talked about a couple of weeks and that we issued a call to action for all healthcare facilities.

To step up infection control practices, we have now developed very specific guidance for our inspectors and have already begun the process of going to nursing homes.elderly, especially those where we have had a history of problems with infection control and those inspections. we've already started, we've been doing them in Washington state in California, New York, but we'll be ramping them up in the coming weeks. Thank you, Seema, and I am aware of the fact that there are likely many seniors in nursing homes across the United States who could be watching over us at this hour and let me assure you that we will continue to take steps to ensure that all guidance from the CMS and CDC guidance on preventing the spread of infectious diseases remains low, but within the threat here.

I want to be clear as dr. Fauci has said that he could simply ask you to emphasize again that the threat here is not to older people in particular or to older people who may be taking certain medications for older people with serious underlying health problems; We are taking steps to suspend visitors in order to protect the most vulnerable, but do it with all those other seniors who are watching from nursing homes or maybe watching from home or with a healthy doctor's bag, maybe they will would you say a word, yeah, right, I think I mean, obviously, when you see a person like me. that my degree of protection against infection is not as good as it was in my thirties, but if you are an otherwise healthy older person, the things you actually have are less risky than if you have an underlying condition, thank you, thank you partner.

More updates for you. I want to hear from the Surgeon General and Dr. Carson and then we will answer any questions you have. That's fine thanks. Yesterday was a very big, very important day for our nation's providers and for our nation's patients in terms of the emergency declaration and also in terms of the agreement with the House that Secretary Minuchin negotiated and I want everyone to understand some direct words from the nation's doctor, we really need everyone to support each other and prioritize the health and safety of the American people, no more arguing, no more partisanship, no more criticism or finger pointing there will be plenty of time for that but we all must Press the reset button and lean forward.

The health and safety of the American people are his top priority. More stories about how people can protect themselves. More people on how. People can get the resources they need that we have unleashed from the federal government and state and local governments. Les stories that look at what happened in the past again. There will be time for that. I want everyone to understand if the Falchi doctors said this. It will get worse before it gets better, but we are moving forward to flatten the curve and we are moving forward. Three important points, number one, almost all people will recover.

Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine percent of people will recover. People need to know that and we heard a great story on NPR this morning about an eighty-nine year old man from that nursing home in Seattle who recovered number two. We must support ourselves in protecting the most vulnerable, those with chronic or serious medical conditions, especially the elderly. Now is the time for us. to support us in that and we are taking the measures to protect them in the secretary of the HHS Hayes our Bob Catholic Bob Redfield Admiral Chihuahua or working hard right now supporting us in that from the federal level but we need your help social distancing and mitigation there to not protect the 30 year old or 20 year old get coronavirus there to protect their Nana there to protect their grandpa there to protect the people they love in their lives and we need your help and ultimately we all have a role to play if we are accommodating , selfish, uninformed, if we spread fear, distrust and misinformation, this situation will last longer and more people will be hurt, but if we collaborate and share the facts, we will flatten the curve and overcome this situation, so finally my recipe know your risk.

Understand your circumstances and get the facts to protect yourself as Governor, Secretary and Dr. ben carson thank you mr. Vice President, you know sometimes you have to stop and think about what is unique about America and one of the things that is really wonderful and that we should stop and think about more often is that we have so many people who are willing to stop aside their self-interest for the good of the nation and want to thank those people at the federal, state and local levels who put their lives on

hold

to try to help their fellow Americans;

It makes a big difference, but just as important I want to To thank the private sector, there are many people in the private sector who have volunteered their services and who have stepped forward and who are willing to recognize that maybe they are going to suffer a small financial hit, but they recognize that we have to create the right environment so that everyone can succeed in this nation and too often we overlook those people. I want you to know how much we appreciate you. What we face now is a significant threat. As a doctor and as a surgeon, I faced many things. of very, very complex problems and most of them we were able to overcome not so much because of me but because of the fact that we had incredible people working together on this, it was the teamwork that made the biggest difference in the world and that is what I'm seeing here in government right now two people behind me along with others who are willing to work together as a team to be able to achieve the goals for the American people and I used to think that we had a lot of hours and medicines, you know, we work. in 24 hours straight and working from midnight to 2:00 in the morning, this team is working that way so that life sucks.

I get calls at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 midnight to make some policies and do various things, and I just want to thank everyone who is involved and I hope you know that we as a nation can take advantage This as an opportunity to unite forever. Now that President Trump is going to recommend a National Day of Prayer and you know we've gotten away from a lot of prayer and faith in this country there's nothing wrong with godly principles, no matter what your faith is, loving your neighbor, caring for the people around you, you are developing the talents that God has given you, cities become valuable to the people around you, you have values. and the principles that go into your life, those are the things that got America to the top of the world in record time and those are the things that will keep us there too.

Thank you, which areas are not here and also, can you point us to one? One of the things that the president launched yesterday was a discussion about a legal partnership with the federal government and then Google said that it didn't know this was going to be announced and that it wasn't prepared in the same way that the president predicted for the country. so here is the discrepancy over the participation of the website Google and why the Secretary of Health and Human Services is not present secretary a czar was at the coronavirus task force meeting this morning, he is back at work and we will have a round of changes for these filings so we can quickly respond to your questions, but the secretaries are doing an extraordinary job and working seven days a week for the American people and making a difference from Google and other private partners.

I know Google issued a statement that they are planning to launch a website, I believe. They gave the date Monday, March 16, we are working literally 24 hours a day and I know that our entire team working on this public-private partnership couldn't be more grateful to all the hard-working people at Google who are helping to put this site up. website together, but tomorrow at 5:00 sharp we will have a very specific description tomorrow about when the website will be available, when the parking spots will be available for people to get tested and we are working right now with state communities and local to determine where it is best to deploy them, as several communities are already doing a great job to meet their needs, so we are trying to get resources flowing, but tomorrow at five o'clock tonight we will have details of the Corona virus and Can you or anyone else clarify the apparent discrepancy between the letter issued from the White House medical office just before midnight last night in which the doctor concluded that you and the president did not need to be tested?

The president announced that he had been tested and that I will speak immediately after this press conference with the White House medical office. By this time last night, the White House medical office had said that neither I nor Mrs. The pants had symptoms or contacts that would require testing and maybe you could ask the doctor Dr. Burks will step forward as we expand testing across the country. We want people to be able to go to a website. There will be a questionnaire there to determine whether a test is correct or not because we want to make sure that people are being tested.

Those are the ones who have the symptoms, but I'll talk to the White House doctor right after this press conference and the lady. pence and i would be more than happy to be tested dr. Burks Thank you mr. vice president for mentioning that, because as I told you in South Korea there are over 250,000 tests, about 96 percent were negative, so that was with symptoms, so we are working very hard to integrate everything that you have learned about the symptoms and screening tests, and that goes into the development of this website, so it is not just a website with a simple checkbox, but you will actually experience critical symptoms and that is why we are giving cells the weekend so we can hold out better so far in the United States based on the LabCorp research they are running. about 99 to 98% negativity, this always worries me because I've worked in public health for a long time when you tell someone they are negative, yes, it's reassuring, but the last thing we want is for them to become so calm that they stop practice these critical practices. that they are going to protect us all, this epidemic will be stopped at the community level, those are the individuals, it is the Americans and their response, that will help us overcome this obstacle and that is why yes, we will have tests available, we will have to know .

Many will sometime be negative and you will have to help us carry that message, that means that right at that moment you are negative, you must continue to do all your protection and the protection of others to make sure you stay there. The website they are developing is in its early stages and will be limited to the San Francisco Bay Area, which seems very different than what you would find on our site. Well, what Google said was that they plan to launch a website next Monday in March. The 16th will allow people to do a risk assessment and schedule them for testing and at pilot test sites in the Bay Area with the goal of expanding to other locations and we are very grateful for the fact that the goal here is to have a website very quickly that the first people in the areas that have been deeply impacted, Washington state in California, New York, we have now seen the expansion of the community in Massachusetts and also in Florida, so we want to make sure that that we are making those resources flow, as well as those remote ones. testing sites in that area, but that is a statement that was given to me this morning and again I want to tell you that we are working 24/7 on this, we are going to have very specific details about the launch of this new public . private association in testing tomorrow at 5 o'clock, could you give us more details on the possible financial assistance for the entertainment industry for the cruise industry that the administration is considering at this time and, if I may, on the tranches The cabinet that was here today also had their temperature checked and I see them nodding, but it's also White House policy now that anyone who, for example, enters the Oval Office needs to be Your temperature is checked at the door. those questions to the White House medical office informed me that they are establishing new protocols for temperature checks and I had my temperature check to allow me to ask the Secretary of the Treasury to address what could be the next entries, I thought Secretary Minuchin Very well said, We got the initial support of eight point three billion dollars from Congress, the House passed legislation to act on the president's priorities, but we understand that the president made it very, very clear whether it is our airline industry or the cruise industry that We hope to be returning to Congress to make sure that, as we put America's health first, as companies make those difficult decisions to prioritize the health of their employees or those they care about,who they serve or their clients, we will make sure that they can return until the end mr.

Secretary, so let me emphasize that this is a unique circumstance, it is not like the financial crisis where people did not know how long this was going to last and let me say that there is no doubt because of the things that people were requesting. What to do, there are parts of the economy that are shutting down or slowing down dramatically and as I said before and I said yesterday, we are committed to using every tool and every resource of the government to make sure we protect the economy for as long as possible. Of the industries that you've talked about, as I said, airlines are the most obvious because we have a unique circumstance where we have shut down travel and these are strategically important to us, but we appreciate that there are many industries that are affected by this.

I would also say that there are a lot of people that the president has talked to about a stimulus program, whether it's through a payroll tax cut where there are three refundable tax credits, we are 100 percent committed and I can assure you that there is support bipartisan so we have a lot of tools the Fed has a lot of tools some of these tools that we don't have and that we had in the financial crisis we will go back to Congress and one of the reasons why this bill was so important is because this is the now second step on bipartisan support we will make sure the economy recovers from this and any support how much more money will you see?

I'm not talking about the previous bill, I'm talking about the future for those industries, let's just comment that it would be premature to comment on specific money, like I said, I used the analogy of using a baseball game and we're in the first innings, we have a hundred different things that we are analyzing yesterday, the president announced about the students. loans with suspension of interest, that was one of the things he announced using the strategic oil reserve, this is a great moment, we also have a unique circumstance that has nothing to do with the coronavirus, parts of our economy are greatly affected because of the temporary low price of oil, so the president, the vice president and everyone else is 100 percent committed, we have a hundred different ideas and whatever we have to do we will do, mr.

President, thank you very much, I have a question for you and if I can for Dr. Burks first, first for you, sir, if he will allow me, your language has changed a little. He tweaked it a little bit from the beginning. He said there was a low risk for the average American to contract the coronavirus recently. His language has changed a little. Is he saying that the risk of serious illness remains low? Can you explain why the change is that the potential for the average American to contract the virus is no longer low? Why the chancer?

Well, I'll let Dr. Burks address that because the reason we are, sir, and you, the vice president, if you don't mind, sir, everything we communicate to the public is based on the unanimous opinion of our health experts based In the information that At that time, it has been just over a few weeks since we had our first case of community spread in the United States and we let the American people know that the president took all measures to prevent the corona virus from entering to our country. I can't overstate how unprecedented and extraordinary the suspension of all travel from China was when the president made that decision before the end of January and the travel warnings with parts of Italy, South Korea, the screening of personnel entering our country, but let me leave you.

Dr. Burks addresses that because what we're going to continue to do is provide the American people directly from health experts with the best information we have to look after their own health, the health of their family and their community. Burks thank you mr. vice president, so every day we look at data from around the world and look at the age groups that are affected, we look and try to get an idea of ​​the number of late asymptomatic. Patients now remember that all the groups that are testing The screening tests are symptom tests, so we're trying to find out, based on that information and the profile of the epidemic, to really understand if there is an entire group under 20 that really doesn't.

We don't have significant symptoms, but we don't believe that exclusively people under 20 are naturally protected against the virus, so they are a potentially asymptomatic group and they spread the virus because of that and because of the unknown, we don't want to say that. the risk is low when we don't know how low the numbers are for asymptomatic people, we have a good idea of ​​the number of people who have symptoms and we have a good idea of ​​who is deeply affected by this, I mean, if you look all the data coming out of all the countries that we triangulate twice a day, people of a certain age are at higher risk for a worse outcome and that's why we've been so focused on that, but on the other side. of the epidemic is how much transmission and until it is really understood how many people are asymptomatic and how many asymptomatic people transmit the virus, we think it is best for the entire American public to know that the risk of serious illness may be low, but they could potentially be spreading. the virus to others and that's why we're asking all Americans to take personal responsibility to prevent that spread and that's why we've made all of these recommendations broad even for people who have symptoms or not, because we need everyone take precautions. you said tomorrow you're going to talk to all the governors, we're going on Monday on Monday, how stars, yes, you're going to talk to all the governors, are we looking at some kind of domestic travel restrictions that could come up in the near future and my other The question for you it's Leader McConnell's statement saying that he was going to read the bill that he was going to talk to some of his members over the weekend.

Are you sure the Senate will take up this House legislation? Well, the president expressed strong support for the legislation. He received a large bipartisan vote in the House, but we respected the process. We appreciate the support that Leader McConnell has expressed for the process and the priorities the President has outlined will work with members of the Senate to unpack the bill. for them and why President Trump endorsed it yesterday and we think they should pass it quickly regarding additional travel restrictions, let me tell you that, as the president said, we are considering a wide range of measures but no decisions have been made. still, but I just want to assure the American people of two things: we will continue to follow the facts, we will continue to listen to the experts on the recommendations that we will present, as we did this week when the president made the decision to suspend all travel from Europe, we bring the best recommendations from our health care experts to the president and I promise you and the American people that this president will continue to take all necessary steps to protect the American people. and put the health of the American people first and together we will get through this