Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States accompanied by the Vice President of the United States. Pres. Trump thank you very much , everyone. Thank you. Beautiful day in the rose garden. Appreciate everybody being here. I would like to provide an update to the American People on several decisive new actions we are taking in our vigilant effort to combat and ultimately defeat the coronavirus. We have been working very hard on this, we have made tremendous progress. When you compare what we have done to other areas of the world, it is pretty incredible. Thet of that had to do with early designation and closing of the borders. As you know, europe was just designated as a hot right now. And we closed that border while ago, so i was lucky, through talent or luck, call it whatever you want, but through a very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the threat of the virus. I announced wednesday night, following the advice of our medical professionals, who are doing a tremendous job and we appreciate it very much, that we are suspending the entry of foreign nationals who have been to europe in the last 14 days from entering the United States, citizens, permanent residents and families, any families returning from europe, will be subject to extra screening as well as self isolation for 14 days. As the World Health Organization confirmed today, many of the things we said were 100 correct, including our designation before them, of europe. Like our earlier, very aggressive actions with china, this measure will save countless lives. I appreciate a number of the folks behind me. A number of the people behind me said that saved a lot of lives, that early designation. But it is only the beginning of what we are really doing, and now we are in a different phase. We had old and obsolete rules that we had to live with that worked under circumstances, but not under mass circumstances. They were there for a long time. There were in place for a long time, and we are breaking them down now. And they are very usable for certain instances, but not for this. To unleash the full power of the federal government, today i am officially declaring a National Emergency. Two very big words. The action i am taking will open access to up to 50 billion of very importantly, very important and a large amount of money for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against this disease. In furtherance of the order, i am urging every state to set up Emergency Operations centers effective immediately. You are going to be hearing from some of the Largest Companies in greatest retailers and medical companies in the world. They are standing right behind me and to the side of me. I am also asking every hospital in this country to activate Emergency Preparedness plans so that they can meet the needs of americans everywhere. The hospitals are very engaged. New york and various other places are also engaged. I just spoke with governor cuomo. We had a very good conversation, and we are working very strongly with many states, including new york. The emergency orders i am issuing today will confer broad new authority to the secretary of health and human services. The secretary of hhs will be able to immediately waive provisions of applicable laws and regulations to give doctor, doctors, hospitals and Health Care Providers maximum flexibility to respond to the virus and care for patients. This includes the following critical authorities. The ability to waive laws to enable telehealth, a fairly new and incredible thing that has happened in the notsodistant past. What they have done with telehealth is incredible. It gives remote doctors visits business and hospital checkins the federal waive certain regulations so that they can provide services with the greatest need. The ability to waive requirements that critical access hospitals limit the number of beds to 25 and the length of stay to 96 hours. The ability to waive the requirements of a threeday hospital stay prior to admission to a nursing home, big thing, the authority to waive the rules into hospitals ability to bring additional physicians on board or obtain needed office space. They can do as they want, they can do what they have to do. They know what they have to do. Now they dont have any problem getting it done. The authority to waive rules that severely restrict where hospitals can care for patients within the hospital itself, and ensuring the emergency capacity can be quickly established. Will remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary to deliver to our people the care that they they need and that they are entitled to. No resource will be spared, nothing whatsoever. 10 days ago, i brought together the ceos of commercial labs at the white house and directed them to immediately begin working on a solution to dramatically increase the availability of tests. Other countries have called us and worked with us, and they are doing similar things, or will be doing similar things. We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly and conveniently, but we dont want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldnt be doing it, and we dont want everyone running out and taking it, only if you have certain symptoms. Using federal emergency authorities, the fda approved a new test for the virus. We did this within hours after receiving the application from roche, a process that would normally take weeks. We therefore expect up to 500,000 additional tests will be available early next week. I want to thank roche, great company, great company, for their incredible work. I would like to also acknowledge the government will hopefully approve the application within 24 hours. And that will bring an additional 1. 4 million tests on board next week, and 5 million within a month. I doubt we will need anywhere near that. At the same time, we have been in discussion with pharmacies and retailers to make drivethrough tests available in the critical locations identified by Public Health professionals. The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed, without having to leave your car. I want to thank google. Google is helping to develop a website that is going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted, and to facilitate testing at a nearby, convenient location. We have many, many locations behind us, by the way. We cover this country and large parts of the world. By the way, we are not talking about the world right now, but we cover very strongly our country, stores in virtually every location. Google has 1700 engineers working on this right now, made tremendous progress. Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and to help all americans who have been impacted by this. Again, we dont want everybody taking this test. It is totally unnecessary. And this will pass. This will pass through, and we are going to be Even Stronger for it. We have learned a lot. A tremendous amount has been learned. I want to thank deborah birx, and i want to ask her maybe to come up and say a few words as to what is happening. Dr. Birx is a highlyrespected person. I have gotten to know her very well over the last six days. And what we have done is rebuilt something that was very old, very oldfashioned, somewhat obsolete, certainly obsolete when it comes to the kind of numbers that we are talking about. Dr. Birx, please. Thank you, deborah. Dr. Birx thank you, mr. President. It is a pleasure to be here with all of you. I think as you know at the , beginning of this epidemic, hhs through cdc proactively developed an assay developed on the flu Surveillance System. That Surveillance System was then converted to a diagnostic system. But last tuesday, seeing the spread of the virus around the globe, the president realized our current approach to testing was inadequate to meet the needs of the American Public. He asked for an entire overhaul of the testing approach. He immediately called the private sector laboratories to the white house, as noted, and charged them with developing a high through put quality platform that couldnt meet the could meet the needs of the American Public. We took up the charge immediately and within 72 hours, bringing additional testing access, particularly to outbreak areas of Washington State, and california, and now across the country. Grateful to the universities and large Hospital Systems that took up the charge to develop their own quality tests, made available by new fda guidance. This has resulted in expanded testing across new york, california, washington, colorado, and you see sometimes drivethrough options that have been made available through these high throughput options. Major Laboratory Equipment and diagnostic companies took immediate action to adopt and develop new testing systems. Last night the initial Company Roche received fda approval, moving from request to development to approval in record time. This innovative approach centered fully on unleashing the power of the private sector, focusing on providing convenient testing to hundreds of thousands of americans within short turnaround times. In less than two weeks together, we have developed a solution that we believe will meet the future needs testing needs of , americans. I understand how difficult this has been. I was part of the hivaids response in the 1980s. From 1981 it took us almost until 1985 to have a test. It took another 11 years to have effective therapy. It is because of the Lessons Learned from that that we were able to mobilize, and bring those individuals that were key to the hiv response to this response. I understand a lot of this behindthescenes action over the last couple of weeks was invisible to the press and the American People, but this intense effort has not only resulted in innovative solutions, but an automated, high throughput system bringing the availability of these quality coronavirus testing to the American People at unprecedented speed. Finally i want you to know that have ah korea, they did large number of tests available for the past several weeks. Their Positivity Rate is between 3 and 4 . Expandedcorp and quest testing the expanded positive , rate is 2 . We also want to announce this new approach to testing through which will start in the here,ing website up facilitated by google where clients and they shouldnts and patients and people can fill out a questionnaire, move down for symptoms and risk factors, yes. They would move down this and be told where the drivethrough options would be for them to receive this test. The labs will then move to the high throughput machines to be able to provide results in 24 to 36 hours. That is the intent of this approach. We have seen it work in our own United States and we want to bring this across the continent. Thank you very much. Mr. Trump thank you very much. I would like to maybe have tony i th want to everybody out here knows you pretty well, but tony has been doing a tremendous job working long long hours. ,you have seen a lot happened, but it has been a great experience. It has been terrific. Tony, please. Dr. Fauci thank you very much, mr. President. This is an example of, another example of what i have been referring to in my discussions with many of you in the audience as a proactive leaning forward aggressive trying to stay ahead of the curve. What you are seeing now with this order is we are going to be able to remove the constraints so that people at the state and local level, the individual physician, all the way through the federal government will have as many constraints as possible removed for them to do everything they possibly can so that we can implement the things we have been talking about. The containment and mitigation. As i have said many times, that curve that goes up, we dont want to have that curve. We want to suppress it down to that small mound. What we have done today is something that will be very important element in having us be successful in doing that. We still have a long way to go. There will be many more cases, but we will take care of that, and ultimately this will end. What is going on here today will help it to end sooner. Thank you. Mr. Trump thank you very much, tony. If i could, some of these folks that we know, celebrities in their own right, the biggest business people, the greatest retailers anywhere in the world. One of them is Doug Mcmillan from walmart. I would like to have doug, if you would say a few words. ,doug when we got the call yesterday from the white house we were eager to do our part to , help serve the country. Given what we are facing, that is important to do. We have been asked to make portions of our parking lot available in select locations and scaling over time as supply increases the people can experience the drivethrough experience the president described. We will stay involved to give assistance. Thank you, sir. Mr. Trump appreciate it very much. I will just stay right over here, and richard. If you could come up please. , richard. Please. Walgreens. Richard similar to doug and walmart, we are happy to stand in here and help in communities all across america. A lot of times when we have natural disasters, our stores are a beacon in the community. This situation is no different. We look forward to partnering with everyone and the Vice President is doing such a fantastic job. We are ready to engage and help. Mr. Trump thank you very much. Brian cornell, target. Thank you, brian. Thank you, please. Brian thank you, mr. President. Thank you for inviting us here. Normally you view us as competitors, but today we are focused on a common competitor and that is defeating the spread of the coronavirus, and we look forward to working with the administration to do our fair share to alleviate this growing threat. So thank you for including us today. In the near term we are all committed to making sure we are keeping our stores open to serve the American Consumer who is rapidly stocking up on household essentials, key food and beverage items that they need during this time, making sure we run safe stores, and creating an environment that is safe for our team members. Making sure that they feel supported during this very critical time. Thank you for including us. Mr. Trump is tom here . Please. Tom thank you. As ceo of becton dickinson, we are one of the leading providers of medical devices as well as collection products or testing, we are ramping up our manufacturing capacity to ensure that the right collection devices and testing equipment are ready to address this issue. Mr. Trump done a great job. Stephen murkowski, quest diagnostics, please. Great job. Stephen thank you very much. as mentioned, we recalled the leadership of the Vice President last week to come together as an industry. And we took advantage of that opportunity to work with the fda and work with the center for disease control. We are up and running with a number of tests in a number of our facilities. We now have tests we will bring in this weekend. I know myself and my colleagues at lab corp will be doing the same. The capacity available to the American Public to support this action with consumers will be considerably increased in the next few weeks. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. Trump i appreciate it. And matt of roche. Matt, thank you. Match. Matt thank you, mr. President. So from roche, we want to thank the fda for their rapid approval of our coronavirus test. We really appreciate the partnership with the cdc and fda to get that to market as fast as possible because it is critical for us to make that available to help patients in need and working with laboratories to get it up and going in the near future which will bring hundreds of thousands of tests available to patients in need in the United States. So thank you. Mr. Trump you can do it. You can do it. Great company. David pierre of signify, signify health. David thank you, mr. President. we are the largest house call provider in the United States. We go through the homes of the most multiple, elderly and through our and logistics engine we stand ready to help and provide our clinicians to be where they are needed whether they are in retail clinics or in the home and we are here to assist. Thank you very much. Mr. Trump thank you very much. We will be changing a lot of the rules and relations for future, should this happen in the future which we hope it never does, but , it could, somewhere out there. Bad ones over the years. I guess that will continue to an extent, but we hope it never happens. But we are going to be changing a lot of the old rules and specifications and regulations. Adam schechter, who has really been a tremendous help, lab corp. Please. Adam thank you, mr. President. We are working every second of every day to increase the number of tests we can run. We are working with academic medical centers, our colleagues at quest, with other hospital and other laboratories to ensure we do everything we can to increase the testing as we move forward. And i can tell you we understand how important the testing is, and we are committed to doing everything possible. Mr. Trump thank you. Great job. Thank you. Thomas moriarty, cvs. We all know cvs. Thomas thank you, mr. President. we have been focused since the start of making sure our patients and the customers we serve have the information they need and the safety they need as well. We are committed to working with the administration and Public Health officials to make this work as well and thank you for the honor. Mr. Trump great job. And bruce greenstein, lhc group. Tremendously talented people. Thank you very much. Bruce thank you for the honor of being here. The Home Health Industry has been treating patients and seniors from the safety and comfort of their home for decades. We are very proud to be part of the equation for testing. For americans that cant get to a test site or live in rural areas far away from a retail establishment, we are here to help, to partner with physicians and the people today to do testing around the country. Thank you. Mr. Trump ok. I like that. That is good. We are also announcing the following emergency executive actions today. To help our students and their families, i have waived interest in all Student Loans held by federal Government Agencies and that will be until further notice. That is a big thing for a lot of students that are left in the middle right now. Many of those schools have been closed. Based on the price of oil i have , also instructed the secretary of energy to purchase at a very good price large quantities of crude oil for storage in the u. S. , strategic reserve. We will fill it right up to the top, saving the american taxpayer billions and billions of dollars, helping our oil industry and making us even further toward that wonderful goal which we have achieved which nobody thought was possible of energy independence. It puts us in a position that is very strong, and we are buying it at the right price. That is something that would have not even been possible a week ago. The price of oil went down quite a bit, so we are going to fill it up. It is a good time to fill it up. I would like to ask mike pence to say a few words, please. Vp. Mr. Pence thank you, mr. President. It is this day should be an inspiration to every american because thanks to your leadership from early on, not only are we bringing the whole government approach to confronting the coronavirus, we are bringing an all of america approach. Mr. President , from early on you took decisive action. You suspended all travel from china. You created travel advisories. South korea and italy, we screened all travelers from all airports in both of those countries. And on the unanimous recommendation of your health experts, you, at midnight tonight, will effectively suspend all travel from europe , and americans that were returning will be screened and asked to voluntarily participate in a 14day quarantine. Throughout this process, mr. President , you have put the health of america first. But you brought the best of america to address it. It is not just the federal level. As you said, mr. President , we have been working with states across the country. We issued broad guidelines for every american. But this week at your direction , we tailored specific recommendations from cdc fot new york, california, massachusetts, florida, and we have been in continuous contact with governors around the country. Mr. President , you have forged a Seamless Partnership with every state and every territory in this country to put the health of our nation first. But today i trust people around the country that are looking at this extraordinary public and private partnership to address the issue of testing with particular inspiration. After you tapped me to lead the Coronavirus Task force, you said this is all hands on deck, and you directed us to immediately reach out to the American Business sector, commercial labs to meet what we knew would be the need for testing across the spectrum. And today with this historic Publicprivate Partnership, we have laid the foundation to meet that need. For americans looking on, by this sunday evening we will be able to give specific guidance on a on when the website will be available. You can go to the website. Have the president said, you will type in your symptoms and be given direction whether or not a test is indicated. And then at the same website, you will be directed to one of these incredible companies that are going to give a little bit of their parking lot so the people can come by and do a driveby test. Mr. President i want to join you , in thanking cvs and target and walgreens. These are Companies Large and small these companies which are synonymous with communities large and small. People come together and now they will come together to meet the needs of the American Public. These commercial laboratories, lab corp, quest, roche, they will literally make hundreds of thousands of tests available and being processed with results to patients in the very near future, but it is all the result of you tasking us bringing together not just Government Resources which all state labs can now test across the country. Cdc is testing. You said, mr. President , you wanted to bring all of the resources together, and that is what this partnership really means. The truth is we have coronavirus cases now in 46 american states. While the risk of serious illness of the coronavirus remains low, we want to encourage every american to practice common sense, practice good hygiene, go to the cdc theebsite to see what guidance is for your community or for the American People broadly. As the president had said, it is especially important now we look after Senior Citizens with chronic Underlying Health conditions. Last week the president directed the center for medicaid and Medicare Services to raise standards at Nursing Homes, increase inspections at our Nursing Homes. Today we are offering specific guidance which will articulate about visitations at Nursing Homes. It is important to remember that they were growing up, mr. President. They helped us with homework, night, theyus in at cheered us on as we pursued education and in our careers and now it is time for us to be there for them and recognize seniors with Chronic Health conditions are the most vulnerable, and americans can make a difference. Wash your hands, use common sense, look after the most vulnerable, and mr. President i know i join you in saying every american should be proud of this incredible Publicprivate Partnership which will be speeding access of testing to millions of americans in the weeks ahead. And together as you have said many times, together we will get through this. Together we will put the health of america first. Mr. Trump thank you. Thank you very much. I would like you to maybe take that a step further, please, on Nursing Homes. Thank you to the president for the declaration. Thatlows my agency, cms, has oversight of all of the Nations Health care facilities to suspend regulations that could get in the way of treating patients during this time. This temporary National Blanket waivers are reserved for the rarest of circumstances and they represent a massive mobilization of our countrys resources to combat this terrible virus, and the flexibilities we are offering will be a godsend to the providers, clinicians and facilities on the front lines of this fight. And later cms is going to be issuing guidance directing Nursing Homes to temporarily restrict all visitors and nonessential personnel with a few exceptions such as endoflife situations. We fully appreciate that this measure represents a severe trial for residents of Nursing Homes and those who love them , but we are doing what we must to protect our vulnerable elderly. Thank you. Mr. Trump as i said in my address to the nation the other night, all americans have a role to play in defeating this virus. Our most effective weapon right now is to limit the damage to our people and our country and slow the spread of the virus itself. The choice we make, the precautions we put into place are critical to overcoming the virus, reducing its spread and shortening the duration of the pandemic which is what it is. The cdc has published guidelines on the coronavirus. Gov to enable coronavirus. Gov, and its very heavily used right now i will say, to enable every american to respond to this epidemic and to protect themselves, their families and communities. While the risks remain low, we have learned a lot about this over the last two weeks, anyone can be a carrier for the virus and risk transmission to Older Americans and those with Underlying Health conditions and those who are most at risk. They have not done very well, Older Americans who are, especially if they have a health problem, they have not done well. They must take all precautions and be responsible for the actions that we take and that we see other people take. We want to prevent the spread and transmission of the disease. It is incredible what is happening with the sporting world where so many of the great sports that weve gotten used to at this time of the year are not going to be meeting. They have done a Great Service but that would be another way it could be, problems could be caused. This is why i outlined on wednesday night my administrations, the fact that we have issued a requirement suspending all medically unnecessary visits to various places, but in particular Nursing Homes. We should all be working off of the same playbook when it comes to protecting americans. We have to. We need to be consistent in adopting measures to limit the spread of the virus. The virus is the same whether it is spreading in cities, towns or Rural Communities the tools and tactics are attacking it are similar in a matter where you no matter where you go. You have some hotspots throughout the world now that people would have never thought possible and are being seriously affected. The key efforts in breaking these chains of transmission, these measures have been adopted by many companies, universities and schools, and we want to protect the safety and the health of their employees and students. I encourage everyone to follow the guidelines we have issued by the cdc and these commonsense measures. A lot of it is common sense. For the areas where the virus is spreading, the cdc is advising communities to postpone large gatherings, postpone assemblies, social functions and sporting events, stagger recess for schools that are not canceled, limit in person meetings, increase scheduled cancels and worksponsored travel among numerous other steps that could be taken. Americans are the strongest and most resilient people on earth, and in the coming weeks, we will all have to make changes and sacrifices but these shortterm sacrifices will produce longterm gain, and again i have said we are learning a lot for the future and future problems like this, or worse. Or worse. It could get worse. The next eight weeks are critical. We can learn and we will, turn a corner on this virus. Some of the doctors say it will wash through, flow through. Interesting terms. And very accurate. I think you are going to find in a number of weeks it will be a very accurate term. In terms of hardship, the true character of america always shines through. The greatest heroes and most inspiring citizens anywhere in the world. We want to take care of our people. We want to draw on the strength of our history, draw on the strength of our people, and we will get through this. Altogether we will just get through it. So much progress has already frankly thed numbers because the steps that have been taken are at a level a lot of people are surprised especially when you compare them with other places. With far smaller populations. The spirit and the will of our nation is unbreakable. We will do feet this threat. Defeat this threat. When tested america rises to the , occasion, and to those families and citizens who are concerned for themselves i want , you to know that your federal government will unleash every authority, resource and tool at its disposal to help the lives of our people. So we are with you every step of the way. No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face down this crisis. As you know world and also , as you know we are rated , number one in the world and we are also helping other nations, many other nations, we are helping them a lot, and they are doing ok. In some cases they are not doing well at all. But we are working with a lot of groups of people and a lot of other nations. With faith and heart and hope and love and determination, we will succeed. We will prevail. We will be very, very successful and we will learn for the future. Thank you, all, very much. If you have questions, we can take some. If you would like to ask some of the folks up here mr. President , where are you with the house bill . Yesterday we talked to you and you were opposed to it. What has happened since then and what is the holdup . Mr. Trump well, we just dont think they are giving enough. We dont think the democrats are giving enough. We are negotiating. We thought we had something, but all of a sudden they didnt agree to certain things they agreed to. So we could have something, but we dont think they are giving enough. They are not doing what is right for the country. If i could ask dr. Fauci. Mr. Trump go ahead, please. Thank you, mr. President. You just mentioned waiving interest for Student Loans, talked about buying oil from what other specific targeted measures is your administration thinking about taking . The treasury secretary said you are in the second inning. Mr. Trump we are looking at many different things. Some of them have been written about widely, but we are going to be releasing a paper in about two hours stating quite a few other steps, very important ones. Please go ahead. , [indiscernible] mr. Trump please go ahead. , thank you, mr. President. I want to know if you are in contact with the brazilian president bolsonaro after a member of his delegation who was with you saturday was tested positive and also i want to ask another question if you will let me. Senator Lindsey Graham and senator rick scott are self isolating. Are you planning to take any kind of precautionary measure to protect you and your test with him . Mr. Trump no. We have no symptoms whatsoever. And we have we had a great , meeting with the president of brazil, bolsonaro, great guy he , is doing a fantastic job for brazil. As you know he tested negative , meaning nothing wrong this morning. We got that word. We did have dinner with him. We were sitting next to each other for a long time. Are you in contact with him over the Coronavirus Crisis . Mr. Trump we have we are talking about it country to country, but we did discuss it was reported that he may have it, and he doesnt fortunately. Thank you so much, mr. President. Dr. Fauci said earlier the lag in testing was in fact a failing. Do you take responsibility for that and when can you guarantee every single american who needs a test will be able to have a test . Mr. Trump no, i dont take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. It wasnt meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers we are talking about. What we have done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of and we are now in very, very strong shape. We will be announcing sunday night, and this will start quickly. We will have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time. What we have done and what we are going to be leaving a very indelible print for the future in case Something Like this happens again. That is not the fault of anybody and frankly the old system worked very well for smaller numbers, much smaller numbers but not for these numbers. Tony . Maybe you would like to say something. Sunday night, will every american be able to get a test . Dr. Fauci to reiterate like i said many times, the system was not designed what it was designed for, it worked very well. The cdc designed a good system. If you want to get the kind of blanket testing and anybody couldhat get it, or you could do surveillance to find that with the penetrance is. You have to embrace the private sector and this is what you are seeing. You cant do it without it. When i said that i meant the , system was not designed for what we need. Now looking forward the system will take care of it. Mr. President , with respect mr. Trump if you go back please if you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like this. They didnt do testing like this, and they lost approximately 14,000 people, and they didnt do the testing. They started thinking about testing when it was too late. What we have done and one of the reasons people are respecting what we have done, we have gotten it very early. We have kept a lot of people out. Mr. President the last , administration said they tested one Million People at this point. Mr. Trump ask them how they did with the swine flu. It was a disaster. Next, please. Next, please. They had a very big failure with swine flu. Very big failure. I want to ask you about the european travel ban and the exemption you have offered to the u. K. There are 17 countries that are in the socalled schengen zone that have fewer coronavirus cases than in the u. K. In the past 24 hours the u. K. Has added 28 coronaviruses to their total. Why do they, mr. President deserve an exemption and would , you consider adding them to this travel ban list . Mr. Trump that was recommended to me by a group of professionals. And we are looking at it based on the new numbers that are coming out and we may have to , include them in the list of countries that we will, you could say ban or whatever it is, during this period of time. But the numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours. We could be adding a couple of others and we frankly start may thinking of taking some off. Thank you, mr. President. I am a hong kong corresponded with hong kong phoenix tv. You have mentioned the numbers in china have been decreasing in and china has made progress in the past weeks. I am wondering how much confidence does this give you to control the virus in the United States and do you see the data china has been sharing with the United States has been helpful . Mr. Trump i think it has been helpful. We are working very much with china. I have spoken, as you know with , president xi. They went through hell. Their numbers are starting to look very good. They look very good. We are happy about that. We are sharing data. We are sharing quite a bit of data including the fact that some of our pharmaceutical companies are working over there with large groups of people. Go ahead, please. Thank you, mr. President. You spoke with canadian Prime Minister trudeau yesterday. Did you discuss the potential closing of the border between the canada and the u. S. . And by extension, are you considering ways to salvage the 2 billion daily trade between the two countries . Mr. Trump we didnt discuss the border. We have had a good relationship, just about finished with the usmca as you know. He called, actually he called me to tell me that. I think it was the primary reason for the call. At the time his wife had not been diagnosed. She is a wonderful lady. Great lady. Since then i have heard the result was she has it and there was a little surprise. I think he was surprised also. We did discuss it prior to he she is going to be fine, but he thought that she would most likely not have the virus. Unfortunately she does. But we did not discuss the border yesterday. No. Go ahead, please. If you have any questions for these great geniuses up here, you should even a business , question, related to what we are talking about. From abc news miami. As a relatively new floridian, what is your message to the cruise line industry and travel industry that florida depends upon . Since senator rick scott and miamidade mayor Carlos Jimenez have the same exposure and they are selfisolating, what is your message to them, that they should not be . Mr. Trump i dont know if i had exposure. I dont have any symptoms. I have a white house doctor, i should say many white House Doctors and i asked them the same question. They said you dont have any symptoms whatsoever. We dont want people without symptoms to go and do the test. The test is not insignificant. As far as the cruise line business, we are with them all the way. It is a great business. It is a great u. S. Business frankly. I know how important they are to the country. That includes airlines, but the cruise line business was hit hard. We had tremendous success in oakland where we moved Vice President pence did a good job with that. We worked with the u. K. And canada. They took their people back. Canada is approximately 600 people. The u. K. Likewise took a large number of people back to the united kingdom. We had people quarantined. It was a big operation and it worked out you dont hear about it anymore. You may want to say something. That was really done properly. Mr. Pence thank you, mr. President. That program with the ship the grand princess is continuing to be administered at the highest standards, orderly way as the president directed. Americans in need of treatment have received them. I spoke to the governor of iowa today and some of those who have , been cleared are able and proper supervision to be returning to iowa. They are making arrangements for them to do that. Others in texas, others in georgia, it is an example of the cooperation of Governor Abbott and governor gavin newsom, Governor Brian Kemp of georgia. To add to that the president , directed me last to travel saturday down to miami. We met with all of the leaders of the cruise line industry. Several cruise lines have announced a 60 day pause in operations. Our department of Homeland Security has praised them for doing that because of the unique Health Challenges to seniors with underlying conditions. We have a proposal from the cruise line industry, but they are currently considering what other steps that they might take. Perhaps even similar to what those other lines have taken. We are anticipating some response on that in the next 24 hours. As the president said, the American People cherish our cruise line industry. The men and women who work on the ships the men and women who , work on the shore, the economy which has so benefited by a vibrant cruise line whether there is a pause in the moment, as some cruise lines are doing, and as we all continue to discuss, we want to work with the cruise line industry to ensure that when we come through this, that cruise lines and the medical services that are available, and for the passengers and all of the crew, the cruise lines are safer than ever before and can prosper for many years to come. Mr. Trump go ahead, please. This question is for doctors fauci and birx. Dr. Birx, what is the trajectory for when this outbreak will peak . How long will the American People remain on emergency footing . And for dr. Birkx, as the administration tries to get its arms around this test, the next glaring need could be respirators and hospital equipment. What is the administration doing right now to ramp up reduction of respirators and production of respirators and that type of equipment . Dr. Fauci so when you have an outbreak like this, particularly if you are trying to interfere with it, it is impossible to predict the time element of what when it is going to peak and when it is going to go down. If you look at the situation where countries really did not get to the point of trying to contain and mitigate very well, you see a peak over several weeks and then down over several other weeks. What we are trying to do with the efforts we are doing is to blunt that peak. I mentioned many times and i think it is appropriate for me to mention it again because it answers your question when you , talk about preventing infections from without in, which is the kind of travel restrictions we are talking about, then how would you handle what you already have in your country . You have some sort of containment but you also do mitigation. You try to proportionate to the areas where there are the most infections. The success of that and how much you make this turn into this is going to give you the amount of time. If we are successful it is going to be less. If we are not successful, it is going to be more, but these kind of things generally run out in a few months. Hopefully we will make it several weeks. 8, 9, whatever but i cant give you a number because it depends on how successful we are. Dr. Birx great, thank you. It is a great question and dr. Fauci and i have worked together for a long time and it is a privilege to work with him every day. You can learn and i appreciate there were graphics done by the reporting over the last several days. If you align the data from china with the data with south korea, you can start to see almost a complete overlay on the data. And so that is what we are tracking very closely as well as italy. But you do have an excellent question. I want to make one note. In south korea i want to repeat only 4 of the tests were positive. That means 96 of the people had a different respiratory disease. Because we are in the middle of flu season, cold season, all the respiratory diseases that we get every day. In lab corp and quest early data they are running 1 to 2 positive. That means we have a lot of other respiratory diseases out there besides the coronavirus. That is why screening is critical. But even with the screening we are going to run what we think are very low rates. Needless to say we are taking it extraordinarily seriously to plan for what could come. What dr. Fauci talked about blunting the curb, that makes it , much less high need at the peak of the curb we are curve we are planning for. We are in full inventory of all of our assets and the president on locking and the emergency order. It unlocks all of the stockpiles, the needs of the v. A. Has, what the dot has the , National Guard and what every hospital has. The hospital Emergency Preparedness plan allows them to defer elective issues. To keep those hospital beds open for those who might need it. We are in full planning mode for each of those things. Mr. Trump and i might add that we are in the process and in some cases have already done it ordered a large number of , respirators just in case. We hope we dont need them but we have ordered a large number. Go ahead, please. Thank you very much, mr. President. In your speech to the president , you mentioned the situation in south korea and china have improved, and you are thinking about removing the restrictions and warning in place right now. When can we expect that announcement, and how do you see the overall progress that Asian Countries make . Mr. Trump well some are making , progress and some are not. As they make progress as they , get down to the number we all think is right, that they know is right, we will be opening it up. And some are really moving along rapidly. We hope to be able to open things up as quickly as possible. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. I would like to ask secretary how d dr. Fauci just dr. Fauci, ok. Mr. Trump better. Not 100 but 90 . This affects the elderly primarily and in that sense it is an unusual disease. Is there any research being done as to why it affects our Senior Citizens more than others . Dr. Fauci i dont mean to diminish your question, but we already know why it would affect Senior Citizens more. Because when you talk about anything that requires a robust immune system, as you get older, your immune system is not as potent as it is when you were young. That is the reason why when you talk about even influenza, which we have extraordinary experience with, over decades and decades, the people who are very vulnerable are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. The same thing holds true for a variety of other diseases, why cancer is more prevalent in older individuals. The immune system that screens for it is less robust. It is something that is well known over a lot of studies. Mr. Trump ok. O. E. N. Please. O. E. N. Mr. President , the chinese officials are expressing tones of discontent with how where the , source of the virus has come from. They are spinning some odd narratives. What is your response to the chinese officials who are doing that and have they signaled any sort of resistance to upcoming trade talks in response to how we are handling . Mr. Trump no. We have a deal with china. They are going to be buying 250 billion worth of goods and 50 billion from our farmers. It is a great deal for our country. It is about time somebody did that, and frankly, phase two we will start negotiating. I did read one article, but i dont think that article was representative certainly of mine conversations with president xi. They know where it came from. We all know where it came from. Thank you, mr. President. Pbs newshour. My first question, you said you dont take responsibility but you did disband the White House Pandemic Office and officials that were working in the office left this administration abruptly. What responsibility do you take to that, and the officials who worked in the office said the white house lost valuable time because the office was disbanded. What do you make of that . Mr. Trump i just think it is a nasty question because what we have done and tony has said numerous times, we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing. And when you say me i didnt do , it. We have a group of people. I could ask perhaps the administration, i could ask tony about that because i dont know anything. You say we did that. I dont know anything about that. You dont know about the reorganization that happened mr. Trump perhaps they do that. Let people go. You used to be with a different newspaper that you are now. Things like that happen. Go ahead. We are doing a great job. These professionals behind me, these great, incredible doctors and businesspeople, the best in the world. And i can say that whether it is , retailers or labs or whatever you want to say, these are the best in the world. We are 40 people right now, 40. Compare that with other countries that have many, many times that amount. One of the reasons we have 40 that number is going up, so you understand. The number of cases which are very small relatively speaking is going up, but we have done a great job because we acted quickly. We acted early. There is Nothing Better than closing our borders to highly affected areas. Please go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. For latin american countries and also for spain. I would like to ask you two very brief questions. One, for how long are we going to have the emergency, the National Emergency and mr. Trump i hope not along. But it is they are now and it gives tremendous powers for things we need. Tremendous power actually. And stafford act and various other things that we are involved with, have studied and memorized in so many different ways and forums, it gives us the kind of power that we need to get rid of the virus. We will do it quickly, and i hope we wont need very long, but whatever it takes. So for now we still dont know how long. And how do you think is it a essential coordinating with other countries and learning from the lessons they already suffered in this same situation, countries of course like china and south korea and now recently italy and spain . And how is that coordination done . Thank you very much, mr. President. Mr. Trump we are in touch with italy. It is a country that we love. We have tremendous, millions and millions of people originally, origins from italy. We are working with them. They are in a very they are probably relatively speaking the toughest position of all. We are in touch with everybody. With, when i say everybody, we are in touch with many of the countries that you know about, that you are writing about, and they are calling us asking for advice. They are asking for the advice of the people behind me. Italy has got a tough situation, but they are really they have , clamped down. I think they are going to see good results. They took their medicine. They are going to see some much better results. Jeff. Thank you, sir. With regard to Domestic Travel should americans feel safe or , should americans at all be traveling to states such as Washington State, new york, and other hotspots within this country . And a followup on brazil, you are asking people who come back from europe, americans coming back from europe to selfquarantine for a couple of weeks. You were in a picture with somebody who now has coronavirus from brazil at maralago. How is that different . Mr. Trump well, i will tell you, first of all i am not coming back from someplace. You were exposed. Mr. Trump they say somebody has it. I have no idea who he is. I take pictures and it lasts for literally seconds. I dont know the gentleman. I have no idea who he is. I have not seen the picture. I take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day and that night i was taking hundreds of pictures so i just dont know. I did sit with president for probably two hours. He has tested negative. That is good. [indiscernible] mr. Trump go ahead, please. [indiscernible] mr. Trump i would say if you stay home, it is not bad. It is not bad. Now there are certain parts of the country are essentially, zero problem. Washington has been very tough. In particular Nursing Homes. Washington, the state of washington has been very tough. It has been a big percentage of when you talk about the 40 deaths, it has been a big percentage of the deaths as you know very well. They all came from a very certain area unfortunately. Please go ahead. Go ahead. Ok. Thank you very much, mr. President. Sky news. You talked this week about the u. K. Doing a good job in tackling coronavirus. In light of the rise in cases, are you changing your mind about that . You spoke about possible travel restrictions. Have they discussed you discussed when they might be put in place . Mr. Trump in light of the results, we are going to be looking at it. I know the task force is looking at it very strongly. The Vice President and everybody. It was looking good but the results have been building up rapidly. We will be taking another look at that. Go ahead please. Mr. President , thank you. I want to follow up on jeffs first question because the person you were standing next to whether you know who he is or not tested positive for coronavirus. Dr. Fauci said this morning if you stand next to somebody who tested positive, you should selfisolate and get a test. You say your white house doctor is telling you something different. Who should americans listen to . And my second question mr. Trump i think they have to listen to their doctors and they should not be jumping to get the test unless it is necessary. They have to listen to doctors. I mean, i dont know. I have not seen the picture. Somebody said there is a picture, somebody taking a picture with me. I havent seen it. You might have it even if you dont have symptoms. Are you being selfish by not getting tested mr. Trump i didnt say i wasnt going to be tested. Are you going to be . Mr. Trump most likely. Yeah most likely. , not for that reason but i will do it anyway. Fairly soon. We are working on a schedule. Followup mr. Trump go ahead. I know there has been a lot of talk about testing. I just want to make sure we are clear. We have been hearing from doctors who say as of today, they still cant get patients tested who need a test. Everyone whoy can a doctor wants tested get tested and if not, when . Mr. Trump that has been true for a while, but i will let mike answer that. Mr. Pence as the president said, and dr. Fauci has articulated, the nature of our current system, where the cdc has samples sent and tests are performed or state labs perform tests, or in some cases university in hospital labs perform tests, is generally adequate for an Infectious Disease or people getting diagnostic work done. But given the sheer scale of this, the president tasked us with bringing together this extraordinary public and private partnership. Today by some estimates, when you had add all of the labs together, the president made it possible for every state in the country and their state labs to authorize labs across their state to do coronavirus testing. We are estimating somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 tests a day are able to be performed. But very soon with the program that was announced today, americans will be able to visit one of the sites closest to them as described on the website, if they are symptomatic, if the questionnaire indicates it, to be able to have a test there. These incredible companies will process the test, and they will receive that information. But for now the best advice we can give for people is to speak to their doctor, as the president just said. If a doctor indicates that physician, if it is not a University Hospital or an otherwise authorized lab, can contact the state lab. Every state can perform tests today. What the president charged us with, when i was tasked to take over the white house Coronavirus Task force, was open up test all all across the country. The president said a few days ago, we made it clear anyone who wanted to get a test would be able clinically to get a test. I heard from the governor of Washington State who said the doctors in Washington State were saying if you are only mildly symptomatic, they would not order a test. And fortunately the president directed cdc to clarify that. Now anyone in consultation with their physician regardless of their symptoms can request a test. And their doctors will contact those agencies, those labs and their state. But very soon americans will be able to go to these drivein sites and be able to obtain and participate in a test. Dr. Birx . Dr. Birx just to review one more time about the testing, with lab core and quest, i think you have seen little boxes outside doctors offices. They deliver both the specimen collection piece, because remember it is a nasal swab, they deliver that to doctors offices and hospitals and will arrange to pick that up. The important piece in this all is that they have gone from a machine that may have a lower throughput to the the potential for automated extraction, i know you dont want all this detail, but it is key for the laboratory people. It is automatic extraction of the rna that runs in an automated way on a machine with no one touching it and the result comes out the other end. Sample to machine to results cuts out a lot of the manual pieces that were delaying the test results. What is the timeline like from when you get tested to results . With the prior testing, it was taking several days because the test is slower. We believe with this test, because of its throughput, that the testing can go from start remember it has to transport to the laboratory that will run it, and we hope all that can be finished within 24 hours, similar to other tests you received today. These are not pointofcare tests. We are working on pointofcare tests, but we have to realize pointofcare tests take six months or more to develop. So we are not waiting for those. We are still diagnosing this on nucleic acid, this is an antibiotic, the antigen, the actual virus in your nose that we are amplifying. President trump you have to remember we are working very closely with states, where you have a smaller form and more targeted form of government going in and doing it, like in new york, where the relationship is very good, like gavin newsom, where he made the governor of california, he made very complementary comments the other day about how we are working together. We worked on the ship together, but we worked on a lot of other things having to do with this. The relationship we have, i cant think of a bad relationship. We are helping them. We are funding them in some cases, depending on what youre talking about, and we are all working together very closely. So we have done really a tremendous job of teamwork with different states. One or two more, and if you have questions for these folks, does anybody have a question for the folks up here . Who has a question . Go ahead. Reporter i have one for you as well. [laughter] but i do have one for them. President trump ask them first, please. Reporter with regards to ceos, can you please tell us when you expect to see items like Hand Sanitizer that have been going out of stock very quickly, back on shelves . There have been a lot of reports about that. And mr. President , could you talk about a potential bailout for the cruise industry . You suggested that could happen. Is that something you are looking out, and how much would that be . President trump i didnt suggest it could happen, but i will tell you it is an industry that was very badly impacted by what is going on with the virus. And it is a great industry. It is a very important industry, and we will be helping them and helping the Airline Industry if we have to, assuming we have to. So far people havent been asking, but if they should be asking, we want to make sure our airlines are very strong and then one day, all of a sudden it wasnt looking so good. Interestingly i was talking to doug, the numbers they are doing from the retail standpoint because of this your business is the opposite, you have been selling a lot of stuff. Do you want to answer the question as to Hand Sanitizers . Specifically the areas where we are seeing pressure in the supply chain are surface cleaners, cleaning supplies, paper goods. Hand sanitizer will be difficult to have 100 stock for some time. We are still replenishing and shipping it them about as soon as it hits stores, it is going. All of the retailers will be working with suppliers to bring that to the market as fast as we can. Reporter what is your advice for americans seeking those items . They are selling out online and stores. The team has given you other examples of what people can do to fight back against this virus. You should look at the entire list. It sounds simplistic, but wash your hands as often as you possibly can. I know that you are not always in the position to be able to wash your hands, but wash them as much as you can. If you dont have alcohol wipes, try to get them. If you cant, try as best as possible to do it. You have to do the best you can. Just general preparedness. You want to wash your hands. You want to keep distance from people. If you are around someone sick, keep away from them. Just basic, basic Public Health. These guys are selling a lot of toilet paper. You want to get the information out that toilet paper isnt a basic protection against coronavirus, but they are selling out. So, hot water, soap, 20 seconds. That is how you do it. Reporter mr. President , you have a great team. Are you happy from the chinese response . Did they correctly tell you what happened . Prime minister modi of india has closed borders until april 15. Have you spoken with the Prime Minister of india . Have they needed any help . Any message to the Small Businesses losing business because of this . President trump on Small Businesses, the Small Business administration is now stacked with money to help them, and we will make the money readily available if they need it, Small Business. We had a great time in india, an incredible two days, and he is a great friend of mine and a friend of his people, because he was greeted incredibly warmly, as was i, in that stadium. It was an incredible event. I loved being with him. So just say hello to him. Six but we talked about everything. We talked about far more than just borders. And as far as president xi, likewise, he is a friend of mine. I believe we are dealing in good faith. As i just said, we just worked an incredible deal, big deal, one of the biggest deals made of any kind, even big by the standards of some of the people here, the deal with china. But i think they want to get to the bottom of things also. Our Drug Companies and pharmaceutical companies are working very closely with china and india and all over the world. These are magnificent companies that are very knowledgeable. And we are very lucky to have them. Because i think you are going to come up with, whether it is therapeutic or just help, help in getting better, and ultimately a vaccine, which takes longer because of the test periods and other reasons. You are going to have it very quickly because of the great knowledge, and they will have it very quickly. They have made a tremendous amount of progress. Thank you all, very much. We appreciate it. Thank you, very much. Reporter you said cases were going down to zero. Can you explain why that didnt happen . [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indistinct chatter] it is easy to follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan at org coronavirus. Track the spread throughout the world with interactive maps and charts. Watch briefings and hearings with Public Health specialists anytime unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this afternoon and agreement have been reached on a coronavirus economic aid package set to be voted on later this evening. There is no deal yet and they are still reviewing the bill. The package includes paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, and increased federal funds for medicaid to support health systems. When the bill is ready for debate on the house floor, we will bring it to you live on cspan. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Saturday morning, we discussed the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on the economy with the washington post. And the Economic Policy institute on the state of paid sick leave in the u. S. And recent proposals due to the coronavirus. On to higher ed will be talk about how politics and universities across the u. S. Are responding to the spread of the coronavirus. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion. We are going to show president trumps remarks again now from the rose garden as he declared a National Emergency to deal with the coronavirus, which frees up 50 billion to fight the pandemic. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States accompanied by the Vice President of the United States