Cspan. Org coronavirus. Track the spread through the u. S. And throughout the world and hear from specialists any time unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Next, President Trump leads a briefing by the Coronavirus Task force. The president announced new actions to combat the spread of the virus. And Vice President pence and Task Force Members took questions from reporters. Pres. Trump thank you very much. We just completed a very good meeting of the Coronavirus Task force and they are really doing a great job, our professionals. They are really doing a great job, our professionals. The results are very good. When you compare this to what is happening around the world, we are very proud of our people. There has been a tremendous amount of coordination with the results are very good. When you compare this to what is happening around the world, we are very proud of our people. There has been a tremendous amount of coordination with states and cities, and things are going well. They are coordinating with us, and i think certainly california has been terrific, the relationship. New york has been really good. Weve had some really good relationships in terms of the hotspots, and we are focused on them. Some areas we have no problem whatsoever and we hope to keep it that way. Before i turn this over to our great Vice President to provide an update, i want to express my appreciation for the hard work done by the people behind me and the people back in the offices, including the fact that i just left the oval office. Probably watching this or they are just working. We are using the full power of the federal government to defeat the virus. We have people there that are probably watching this or they are just working. We are using the full power of the federal government to defeat the virus. Thats what weve been doing. Last week, we secured an additional 8. 3 billion for the coronavirus. That was quickly done and very efficiently done. I want to thank all members of congress. Yesterday, i declared a National Emergency which was a big deal, because it opened up avenues that we would never be able to open up without it. It will make more than 50 billion for us immediately available and that is available for states, territories and local governments. That was really good. We also reached an agreement yesterday on a new legislative package that will provide strong support for American Families and communities dealing with the coronavirus. This was done very bipartisan. A fantastic job and worked with nancy pelosi, and it worked out very well. A lot of people are benefiting by it. A lot of provisions we will be discussing with you today. Tremendous provisions, so that is something that we should talk about. I was honored to see that the stock market set a record in a short period of time, over a 45 minute period that we have the press conference yesterday in the rose garden. That was a record. I think we should do one of them everyday perhaps, how about five times a day . We will do 15 times a day. One five times a day. That was something to watch it, i had no idea. We had no idea. They said you just set a new record in the history of the stock market. That was pretty good. Those Great Companies there. They are big publiclylisted companies, so they did a good job. And more importantly, they are going to do a good job. You look at cvs and walmart and all the tremendous people that were there yesterday. These are the biggest and the best. They are opening up their facilities, literally working right now on doing something that has never been done before. So, we are very proud. Also, the bill provides for free coronavirus testing for all americans who should be tested. People who are getting tested are getting this free. That is a lot of money. It is a pretty complex test actually, and it costs money, and it is being provided free so people do not have to worry about that. It also provides paid sick and family medical leave for those who need it including for those who have the virus, for caregivers and those looking, after children affected by the School Closures. That is all taken care of. We will continue all of these actions. We have other things planned. We will be working with companies that are affected financially. Our country is in the best financial shape, so different from the past. If you look at some of the big crises, there were financial problems. We now are in very Strong Financial shape with all of the trade and the other things we have been doing. It has been pretty amazing. We hope the Federal Reserve will finally get on board and do what they should do because we are doing things they should be doing, frankly. We could all do them together, but they should be much more proactive. Other boards and other countries and people representing other countries are taking aggressive ction than the fed for the most part. So we would like to see, if you look at Central Banks, yesterday, we want to see the Federal Reserve be more proactive rate it is important. In the meantime, we are doing things that have been well received. I guess you saw that yesterday at the end of the day. We have a lot of things to tell you in terms of respirators, the Different Things the masks are being made by the millions and millions. We have plenty more but we are ordering more. We are ordering worstcase scenario we always say worstcase scenario, and that is where we are going. I want to thank everybody. I think over the last 24 hours, i think the representation has been very fair for the most part. We are all in this together. It is something that nobody expected. It came out of china, and it is one of those things that happens. It is nobodys fault. We all will solve this problem. We will solve it well. I think the American People have been incredible in the way they have acted. If you look at companies and sports leagues and all of the things, what they have done is something very special without , being told necessarily. In some cases, perhaps they were told, but for the most part, they want to get it over with quickly and with very little death. As of this moment, we have 50 deaths, which is a lot of good decisions were made or that number could be many times. That. You know that europe was declared the hotspot yesterday, a big hotspot, number one. We made a decision prior to that, but we saw what was happening. If you have any questions, this group will be very happy to do it, but i want to say they have been, led by mike pence, they have been incredible, the job that they do. They are working 20 hours a day. This man is working 20 hours a day or maybe more. Tony has been working im looking at this whole group. We have created a number of new stars including the gentleman right behind me. I watched him the other day and the fantastic job he did. They will be answering questions. We have a lot of new information so i think you will find it very interesting and i will be going back to the oval office. There so many people right now that are rushing to Grocery Stores all over the country. They are filling up their baskets. Is that the right move . Do you think people should actually conserve what they buy . Also overnight, apple announced they would be closing all of their stores or two weeks. Do you want to see other retail outlets do the same thing . Pres. Trump i think what apple did is fine. We want to keep people away. When it gets better people are buying things, and i understand that. By the way, i had my temperature taken coming into the room. You did . Lets compare. Do you want to compare . That means we are all looking good. I also took the test last night, and i decided, based on the press conference yesterday, people were asking. I do not know whatever it takes, whatever it is, they send it to a lab. You have been sending mixed messages. We watched as you shook hands with people yesterday. You have talked about 5 million testing possible. Has your own sense of urgency evolved . Are you changing what you are doing . Pres. Trump this is urgent for me right from the beginning. You know that because i closed up the country to china. Why are you shaking hands . Pres. Trump it almost becomes a habit. Frankly, i was a nonhandshaker for the most part. I never believed shaking hands once you become a politician i noticed it, too. Political people walk up to me that want to shake my hand. Wait a minute. Just take it nice and easy, ok . Just relax. People come up to me and they shake hands. It is sort of a natural reflex. We are all getting out of it. All of us have the problem. Somebody comes up to you, they put their handout and you tend to shake it. Shaking hands is not a great thing to be doing, i agree. You dont think about it. People are thinking about it more and more. We have to think about it. Somebody said yesterday, i touched the microphone. Im trying to make it easy for them because they are going to have to touch it because we have to be able to reach the mic. If i dont touch it, somebody is going to have to. I might as well be the one to do it. We all have to get away from. Getting away from shaking hands is a good thing. Possibly that is something that comes out of this. Maybe people should not be shaking hands for the longterm because it does transmit flu and other things. We have flu in our country that kills on average 36,000 people a year. 36,000 people. That is something we are not talking about. As of this moment, we have lost probably 50 people and we are going to try to keep that number as low as possible. The pentagon is telling servicemembers and their families not to travel domestically. Should all americans follow that same advice . Pres. Trump if you dont have to travel, i wouldnt do it. We want this thing to end. We dont want a lot of people getting infected. We want it to end as quickly as possible. So far, i think we have done a fantastic job. I really think that the people behind me have not been given the credit that they deserve because they have done a fantastic job. When you see all of the School ClosuresSchool Closures are important but it causes problems. The bill that we signed yesterday takes care of a lot of those problems with children staying at home and the parents are working. Now we take care of that issue with what we have passed last night. It has to go through the senate, i have to sign it, but that will happen. I am now going back to the white house. You have great professionals. If there is anything that comes up thank you, mr. President. I just wanted to followup on that. Are you considering other travel restrictions perhaps domestically in that regard . Pres. Trump from certain areas, yes, we are. We are working with the states and we are considering other restrictions. Reuters is reporting that you are going to extend the travel ban to ireland on monday. Pres. Trump they have had a little bit of activity unfortunately, so we are going to be looking into that. We have already looked at it and that is going to be announced. Clarity it haset , been a hallmark of your presidency, going after the fed. If you feel so strongly, why dont you dismiss the chairman . Pres. Trump i think i have the right to remove him as chairman. He has so far made a lot of bad decisions in my opinion. I think we are going to have a tremendous bounce when this is over. I think there is a pent up bounce. I think you saw that yesterday with the stock market. I am not happy with the fed because i think they are following that lead and we should be leading. If you look at the Central Banks of other Central Banks, largely, they are lower than us, their rate. Their equivalent of the fed rate is lower. In some cases, that is a lot. In some cases, very substantial. I thought the fed should be much more proactive. Our fed is following. We have the number one currency in the world by a factor of many times. We have the power, we have by far, the strong currency. You look at the strength of the dollar. Our fed is not doing what they should be doing. We should not have a fed rate that is higher than our competitor nations. If you look at germany, they are under zero. They are negative. There are many countries negative. Japan, germany, and others. We are paying high interest rates. What i would like to do is refinance our debt. We could refinance our debt very easily. We have some tremendous opportunities right now but Jerome Powell is not making it easy. I have the right to take him and put him in a regular position and put somebody else in charge and i have not made any decisions on that. Was your temperature normal, mr. President . Pres. Trump normal. Vice pres. Pence good afternoon, everyone. As the president just said, we completed the Coronavirus Task force meeting in the situation room. We continue to implement the president s vision, not just for response of government to the coronavirus but the whole of america approach. The purpose for our task force is in permitting the partnership implementing the partnership on testing, focusing on ensuring that state and local authorities have the guidance and support to ensure mitigation, particularly in areas where we have seen Community Spread and we are continuing to lean in at the president s direction on addressing capacity issues in our hospitals with regard to equipment. Let me reiterate the president s gratitude and not just for the team behind me and the team behind them, all of our federal agencies that are literally working every day to bring a government approach to this. We also want to commend all of the governors across the country. I will be speaking to all of the governors in all 50 states and territories tomorrow. As the president said yesterday, we could not be more grateful for all of the governors particularly in areas where we have had Community Spread. The seamless cooperation is taking place. We commend local Health Authorities on the front lines. We are grateful for the businesses around the country in sports, entertainment, and retail that are making decisions based on cdc guidelines and good common sense to protect the people. As the president said, we want to thank the American People for listening to local authorities, listening to recommendations from the cdc. We will have more about that in just a moment from dr. Fauci and dr. Birx. Not surprisingly as we have seen in the past, the American People are all responding to look after not only their health, but their families and their communities. One story after another is truly inspiring to the president and to all of us. It has been a brisk few days. The president declared a National Emergency yesterday freeing up a get federal resources for state and local authorities as well as our national response. The president announced that Unprecedented Partnership on testing. At 5 00 tomorrow, we will be detailing the progress that our team is making. They are literally working aroundtheclock with private companies. We are pleased that fischer was approved in record time. Also providing a high throughput test that will actually increase the capacity of this partnership. Details on that in terms of when the local sites will be available at cvs and walgreens and walmart and other locations. What communities they will be available in, when the website will go online as well as how this will continue to roll out. 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 weeks before that. Want to join President Trump in thanking Speaker Pelosi, leader mccarthy, the republicans and democrats in the house of representatives, as the president said earlier today, pulled together to pass legislation and meeting this moment in the bipartisan spirit that the america people would expect. The secretary of the treasury will detail the legislation, but to be clear, the available head to the Senate Next Week and delivers on the president s plan for Strong Health and economic support particularly focused on those most impacted including bluecollar americans who may not have paid leave. It provides free testing for uninsured americans and it builds on the decision that President Trump made expanding coverage for medicaid, medicare, and also getting a commitment from private Health Insurance companies to join with us to waive all copays on coronavirus testing. Testing will be free for every american. Those who have insurance, medicare, medicaid, other programs, and even the uninsured. Legislation also established tax credits and the secretary of the treasury will describe that it will provide medical leave to coronavirusrelated employment interruptions. If you are sick, now you need not be concerned. If you an hourly wage earner in america, you need not be concerned about staying home. If you are sick, stay home. You are not going to miss a paycheck. Legislation will make sure that your employer including Small Businesses have the ability to provide paid leave. This also provides funding to ensure that Senior Citizens, women and children, and lowincome families have access to Emergency Assistance and it incentivizes states to ease access. The president and i are grateful for the bipartisan spirit that drove this legislation. Let me say how grateful we are for the secretary of the treasury and the hours he put in negotiating this measure. Let me say last night at midnight, the department of Homeland Security and permitted the president s decision to suspend all travel to europe. The acting secretary will detail the implementation of that. To be clear, countries where we have suspended travel under section 212f, americans may still return to the united states. Legal residents may still return. They are being screened at 13 airports. If they are identified as being some thematic or any illness, there is an additional response on site, but those americans are being encouraged to return home and selfquarantine for 14 days. That started at midnight last night. The secretary will detail it. In a few moments, i will ask dr. Fauci to update us on cases as well as current cdc guidance for all americans and all of you are already aware that we issued specific guidance to about half a dozen states where we have seen Community Spread. Dr. Birx will touch briefly on the partnership testing plan and speak about what the data is showing at this moment about the best guidance for every american. Acting secretary wolf and i want to join the president in commending the cruise line industry. 85 of all the domestic cruise lines announced they would be suspending cruise line operations for a period of 30 days. Chad wolf will explain to you the importance of that decision. We want to commend the industry for working with us. As we met last week on this day with cruise line industry executives, we will be working vigorously over the next 30 days to implement policies that will ensure that when they start back up, they will be safer and healthier places than ever before. Great industry, the American People love it, we will make sure it is there for many years to come. As the president just foreshadowed in the Task Force Meeting today, the president has made a decision to suspend more all travel to the United Kingdom in ireland effective midnight on monday night, eastern standard time. Chad wolf will describe the details of that. As the president just suggested, all of our Health Experts presented information. Dr. Fauci will reflect on some of those numbers. Made a unanimous recommendation that we suspend all travel from the u. K. And ireland. That will be effective midnight, monday night, eastern standard time. Again, americans in the u. K. Or ireland can come home. Legal residents can come home. Andsecretary will detail they will be funneled through specific airports. We continue to emphasize that the risk of serious illness for the average american remains low. The data shows that seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions are most vulnerable, the people most susceptible. In a few moments, we will talk about the decision to restrict all visitors in all Nursing Homes around the country and other measures we have taken. It is so important for all of us, all of us who are blessed with having Senior Citizens in our family like my 88yearold mom. Lets look after seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions and make sure that every american around them is practicing the best kind of hygiene and the best kind of measures to ensure that they are not exposed. We will hear also from dr. Carson and the Surgeon General before we wrap up and take some questions. With that, let me recognize dr. Fauci for an update on where we stand and recommendations and guidance. Dr. Fauci thank you very much, mr. Vice president. Just a quick review of the numbers as of yesterday afternoon. Let me start off globally and then we will go to the united states. Right now, there are 129 countries with involvement with coronavirus. Globally, the numbers are 132,000 plus. About 7500 of which are new cases. Importantly this is something we have mentioned, if you look at what was formally the main theater of this coronavirus outbreak was china, they have 81,000 new cases but only seven new deaths. Things have switched over to outside of china which has actually triggered our decision to do the travel restriction in other areas besides china. I think it is important to recognize that because when this is all over, and it will end, you will see a curve of how the coronavirus outbreak evolved. It is not going to be homogeneous because countries are going to do this and then that. We have seen it already with china. We are starting to see it with korea which brings us to what we can expect in our own country. If you look at the domestic cases, there are about 50 deaths, 532 new cases and nine new deaths which means we have not reached the peak. We will see more suffering and death dominantly as the Vice President said among the vulnerables in our society. Individuals with the conditions we spoke to and the elderly. Built in that is a challenge and the challenge is we still have the opportunity to influence the course of that curve. We would like to see that when this is all over, our curve was not like that, our curve was like this. That is the reason why we are implementing the things we are talking about. Finally, i want to make a comment about yesterday. As a physician, which i primarily am, there are things that happened yesterday that are going to be really important for the people out there who are going to be impacted by this, particularly by the physicians. That is the president declaring a state of National Emergency. That would be the word that i used which is essentially unshackling us from the things that will get in the way of the new powers given to alex azar and the departments within that e agency, particularly cms which you will hear about shortly. Particularlyroup, the nursing home situation, which we really have to protect. We always get asked about testing. It is all systems go. Lets look forward. The responsibility is with us, but also with them. We will alleviate the anxiety that we have in the world. It will also give the divisional physician and individual citizen the opportunity to know where they stand. I will stop there and be happy to answer questions later. Dr. Birx thank you, good afternoon. I just completed my second week so i want to start with the four things i have learned. We are at our best when the country comes together in a bipartisan way and that has been really extraordinary to witness. Secondly, what you may not have seen as much off as the willingness of state and local governments to Work Together with the federal government in a seamless way. Independent of party affiliation. The third thing has been the markable decrease in bureaucracy and red tape to get us where we are today. This is particularly evident in the cdc. Finally, the understanding that in order to serve every american, we have to show partnership. We saw issues with testing and i want to remind everyone it was a Surveillance System set up by Public Health institutions to be a surveillance test. Because there was no other move to do a diagnostic test. Now we have the full power of testing capacity. We are looking at what it will take to have consumer access and that is what the private sector is bringing. Secondly, we had to have automated high throughput testing because we want the people to get their results quickly. Finally, we want to make sure that patients get results and that was critical in that bill yesterday on reporting and requiring reporting. As we move out of state and local laboratories, as we move out into the hospitals and the communities, we need to know about the test results so that we can focus resources where they are needed the most. Finally, i want to conclude with something very important. When you are tested, and our results look very similar to south korea now, with south korea with 96 plus of people with symptoms are negative. Lets remind all of us, most respiratory diseases are contagious. If you have any symptoms, you want to protect yourself and treat yourself, but you also want to protect others. When people have a respiratory illness, you had a contagious illness. If it is not allergies, it is contagious. Lets use those precautions across the board. When you get a negative test, that means you are negative that day. It does not mean that you could not get the virus spreading overnight because it replicates in your nose and nasal secretions and you would have a positive test tomorrow. If you have a negative test, that does not mean that you can discontinue precautions. It does not mean you can start taking risks because you are lets ensure that if you have negative. Symptoms, you are contagious. Lets treat yourself as being contagious and if you have a negative test, lets make sure that you are still protecting others from whatever you do have and doesnt take additional risks. I wanted to conclude with a group of clients and patients that we are all very worried about. These are individuals that we call longterm survivors from hiv, they are here across the country that have survived more than four decades with hiv. Many of them still carry a level of immunocompromise. To all of them out there, take care of yourself. Ensure that you are doing Everything Possible to ensure you dont get exposed. Thank you. Vice pres. Pence mr. Secretary, on the legislation that passed the house. Azar i want to thank Kevin Mccarthy and kevin brady and all of the republicans work with us aroundtheclock. I would like to thank Mitch Mcconnell and his team who were providing input as well. I especially want to thank Speaker Pelosi who was literally available to us aroundtheclock us aroundtheclock for the last three days and also want to thank the Vice President and the president who were specifically involved in the details with us and providing guidance. I would just highlight some of the issues. The first thing i want to say is this delivers on what the president announced in his speech. People who need to be quarantined and people who have the virus, we want them at home and we want them to continue to get paid. We dont want to be in a situation where they fear not getting paid during this two week period of time. It creates a very seamless process of people that work for small and mediumsized businesses, they will continue to get paid. They dont have to worry about Big Government and coming to Big Government to get their checks. It will continue to get paid. We were sensitive to Small Businesses. Many of these covered sick pay but they will have many more people that may be on quarantine and we did not want them to have to bear the cost. 100 of the cost for these limited situations will be taken care of by the federal government. Finally, we want to think of, how do we deliver money to the people in the quickest way. We did not want to take six months to implement a government system. I want to thank everyone at the irs. They will issue tax credits for most employers which will deduct the money from what they owe us. For small and mediumsized businesses that have cash flow problems, we will issue guidelines. You will be able to come to the irs, get the money in advance so you dont have cash flow issues. We were very careful in balancing and making sure that people got paid without creating undue burden. We also have unique circumstances where schools are closed. Parents may be able to telecommute and take care of their kids but in certain circumstances, have to be home to take care of youngsters or elderly people. We wanted to ensure that they have the ability to do that. As the Vice President mentioned, for kids that received meals in schools, the schools are closed, we wanted to make sure those kids will continue to get lunches paid for. I want to think the task force. Two things that were important to us in this, there is a provision as it relates to masks. We can ramp up to 30 Million Masks per month. There is also a provision that the states will munich it back communicate back. We will very quickly get these results. I think the house for sticking around very late last night. I dont want people to be surprised, we will be doing a technical correction on monday morning despite is working very hard. We had language agreed with the speaker and Kevin Mccarthy, it did not get into the final bill. Last night, the speaker and i agreed that they would vote on it and have an agreement. I dont want anybody to come back on monday morning and be surprised by that. Again, thank you to the Vice President and the president. I wanted to also say i would describe this as a baseball game. The first inning was the 8 billion. This is the second inning. The speaker and i have acknowledged it. We will be working immediately. The Airlines Industry in particular, no different that after 9 11, has a very unique circumstance. The cruise industry, the hotel industry, we have a lot more work to do and we appreciate the partisan support in rolling things out quickly. Vice pres. Pence thank you, mr. Secretary. I know the president would want me to say how grateful we are for your efforts on behalf of the people. The acting secretary chad wolf will speak about cruise lines, the suspension of travel and the expansion to the u. K. And ireland. Let me start off by thanking the partnerships that we have in the Airline Industry and the cruise line industry. As the Vice President and the president has outlined, we issued new directives denying foreign nationals who had been in affected countries. 28 countries today from entry into the u. S. At the president s request, we had a number of major cruise lines that have agreed to suspend outbound trips for 30 days. Weve had a number of smaller operators follow that suit and we have given orders to a very small handful to not sail. As the Vice President outlined, the president made the decision due to the number of cases in the u. K. To apply these decisions to the u. K. And ireland. These restrictions bar travel for certain foreign nationals who had been present in the u. K. Or ireland in the past 14 days. That goes into effect monday at midnight. I think we saw some reporting, how do u. S. Citizens get back from europe, they will be allowed into the u. S. As legal permanent residents, family members, foreign double mass, and other exemptions outlined in the proclamation can certainly travel back to the u. S. They will undergo screening and some other questions when they arrive and they will be asked to selfquarantine for 14 days. These restrictions to the u. K. And ireland do not apply to cargo and economic air cargo, maritime cargo, economic shipping, or the like. Let me close with the president has taken unprecedented action to protect the safety and security of the american public. These actions have never been taken before. Let me thank the department of Homeland Security are working day and night to implement these restrictions and to make sure that we do this in an orderly and efficient process and we continue to look at all measures on the table, new measures that we have to implement as we go forward as the virus evolves. Thank you. Vice pres. Pence thank you, mr. Secretary. I know the president would want me to reiterate your thanks and accommodation to the dedicated men and women of dhs on the front lines of him implementing these policies. I will recognize the head of cms on the risk to seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions and the steps we are taking relative to Nursing Homes and guidance to protect those most vulnerable. Thank you, mr. Vice president. As they said, we did take action to indicate that Nursing Homes should restrict all visitors Effective Immediately and that includes all nonessential personnel. There are some exceptions for endoflife. We are canceling all Group Activities and there is active screening of healthcare workers that are in this facility. The Emergency Declaration is very important to our health care workforce. There is a lot more flexibility that they have. They can have workers from across state lines, doctors and nurses that can help them. Hospitals have the ability to move patients around. That is also going to be very helpful as they go forward with this. Also with the Nursing Homes, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. We had a call to action for all of care facilities to double down around Infection Control practices. We have come up with specific guidance for surveyors. We have begun the process of going into Nursing Homes, especially the ones that have a history of Infection Control. Those infections have already started and they have been doing this in washington state, california, new york. We will be increasing those over the coming weeks. Vice pres. Pence i am mindful of the fact that there are likely many seniors that could be watching this. Let me assure you that we are going to continue to take steps to ensure that all of the guidance from cms and cdc about preventing the spread remains low. I want to be clear, as dr. Fauci has said, and i might ask him to emphasize. The threat is not to seniors particularly or to seniors that may be on certain medications. For seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions, we are taking the steps of suspending visitors for the purpose of protecting the most vulnerable. All of those seniors are watching from Nursing Homes, homes who are otherwise healthy dr. Fauci obviously when you are a senior individual myself, if you are otherwise healthy, you really have less of a risk than if you have an underlying condition. Vice pres. Pence thank you, doctor. A couple more updates. I want to hear from the Surgeon General and dr. Carson and we will go to as many questions as you have. Thank you. Yesterday was a very important day for our nations providers and for patients in terms of the Emergency Declaration and in terms of the agreement with the house. I want you all to understand, we really need you all to lean into and prioritize the health and safety of the American People. No more bickering. No more partisanship. No more criticism or fingerpointing. There will be time for that. We need to hit the reset button and move forward with the health and safety of the American People as the top priority, how they can protect themselves, how they can get the resources that they needed that we have unleashed from the government. Less stories looking at what happened in the past. I want you to understand this will get worse before it gets better but we are making progress to flatten the curve. We are making progress. Three important points. Number one, almost all people will recover. People need to know that. We heard a great story about an 89yearold from that nursing home facility in seattle who has recovered. Number two, we must protect the most vulnerable. Those with severe medical conditions, especially seniors. Now is the time for us to lean into that and we are taking measures to protect them. Secretary azar and others are hard at work right now from the federal level. We need your help. Social distancing and mitigation is not to protect the 30yearold or the 20yearold from getting coronavirus. They are to protect your nana, your granddaddy, the people you love in your lives and we need your help. We all have a role to play. If we are complacent, selfish, uninformed, if we spread fear and distrust, the situation will last longer and people will be hurt. But if we pitch in and share the facts, we will flatten the curve and overcome this situation. Finally, my prescription, know your risk. Understand your circumstances and get the facts to protect yourself at coronavirus. Gov. Secretary and dr. Ben carson. Secretary carson thank you, mr. Vice president. You know, sometimes you have to stop and think about what is unique about the united states. One of the things that is really wonderful that we should stop and think about is we have so many people who are willing to put aside their self interest for the good of the nation. I want to thank those people at the federal, state, and local level who put their own lives on pause in order to help their fellow americans. It makes a big difference. I want to thank the private sector. There are so many in the private sector who have volunteered their services, who have stepped up and are willing to recognize that maybe they are going to take a financial hit, but they recognize that we have to create the appropriate environment so that everybody can succeed in this nation. So often we overlook those individuals. I want them to know how much we appreciate them. What we are facing now is a significant threat. As a physician and as a surgeon, i faced a lot of very complex problems. Most of them we were able to overcome because of the fact that we had incredible people working on this together. It was the teamwork that made the biggest difference in the world. That is what i have seen here in the government right now. The people behind me with others who are willing to Work Together as a team to be able to accomplish the goals for the American People. I used to think we had long hours of medicine, working 24 hours straight. Working at midnight and 2 00 in the morning. This team is working that way, too. I frequently get calls at 9 00, 10 00, 11 00, midnight about putting together policies and doing various things. I want to thank all the people involved and i hope that we as a nation can use this as an opportunity to pull together for good. President trump is going to be recommending a national day of prayer. We have gotten away from prayer and faith a lot in this country. There is nothing wrong with godly principles no matter what your faith is. Loving your neighbor caring about people around you. Having values and principles that govern your life. Those are things that made america zoom to the top of the world in record time and those are the things that will keep us there. Vice pres. Pence thank you, mr. Secretary. Questions . Can you tell us why secretary azar is not here . The discussion of google ponnuru and google says it was not aware that this was going to be announced and it was not prepared in the same way the president told the country. The website, googles involvement and why the secretary is not present. Vice pres. Pence the secretary was at the Task Force Meeting this morning. He is back to work and we will have a roundup for these presentations so we can get quickly to your questions. The secretary is doing a remarkable job working seven days a week for the American People and making a difference. With regard to google and others, i know google issued a statement that they are planning to launch a website. They gave the date of monday, march 16 and we are working around the clock. I know that the whole team working on this could not be more grateful to all of the hardworking people at google that are helping to put this website together. Tomorrow at 5 00, we will have very specific description about when the website will be available, when the parking lot sites will be available for people to be tested. We are working with state and local communities to determine where it is best to roll those out. A number of communities are already doing a great job meeting there need so we are trying to flow the resources. 5 00 tomorrow night, we will have details. Can you clear up the discrepancy between the letter that was issued from the white house the Physicians Office just before midnight last night in which the physician concluded that you and the president did not need to be tested . I know the president announced that he has been tested and i am going to speak immediately after this press conference. As of last night, the white house physicians said that neither i nor he had the symptoms that would necessitate testing. Maybe i will ask dr. Birx to step up. As we extend testing, we want people to be able to go to a website to determine whether or not a test is in order. We want to make sure people are being tested that have the symptoms. Im going to speak to the white house physician after this briefing. Dr. Birx thank you, mr. Vice president for mentioning that. As i told you, there are 250,000 plus tests and 90 were negative. We are working hard integrating they have learned about symptoms and screening and that is going into the development of this website. It is not a simple checkbox website. It will go through critical symptoms and that is why we are giving ourselves the weekend. So far in the united states, they are running a 99 to 98 negativity. This worries me because i worked in Public Health a long time. When you tell someone they are negative, it is reassuring, but the last thing we want is them so reassured that they stop practicing Critical Practices that will protect us. This epidemic will be stopped at the community level. Their response will get us over this. You are going to have to help us carry the message that this means just at that moment you are negative and you need to continue to do your protection and protection of others to make sure you remain there. To follow up on google, they said the website they are developing is in its early stages and will be limited in the San Francisco bay area which is different from what you are saying. Vice pres. Pence they are planning to launch a website this coming monday, march 16 that would enable individuals to do Risk Assessment and be scheduled for testing at testing sites in the bay area with the goal of expanding to other locations. We are very grateful for that. The objective is to have a website up very quickly that first people in the areas that have been deeply impacted, washington state, california, new york. We have seen Community Spread in massachusetts and also florida so we want to make sure we are flowing those resources as well as those remote testing sites in that area. That is the statement i was handed this morning from them. I want to tell you folks, we are working 20 47 on this. We will have specific details on the roll out of this testing at 5 00 tomorrow. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Could you give us more detail on the potential Financial Assistance for the entertainment industry, for the cruise industry that the administration is looking at right now . If i may on the temperature check, were all the members of the cabinet have their temperatures checked . I see you nodding. Is it also white house policy that anyone who comes into the oval office needs to have their temperatures checked . Vice pres. Pence i would refer those questions to the white house Physicians Office. I have been informed that they are establishing temperature checks. I thought secretary mnuchin put it very well. We got the initial support, 8. 3 billion from congress. The house passed legislation to act on priorities. We understand the president made it very clear whether it is an Airline Industry or cruise industry, we expect to be coming back to congress to make sure that as we put the health of America First and as businesses make a priority the health of those employees and those that they serve and their customers, we want to make sure they can come all the way back. This is a unique circumstance. This is not the financial crisis where people did not know how long this will go on. There is no question because of the things that wwe are requesting people to do, there are parts of the economy that are shutting down or slowing down dramatically. As i said before and i said yesterday, we are committed to use all of the tools, resources, and government to make sure we protect the economy. Many of the industries you have talked about as i said, the airlines are the most obvious because we have a unique circumstance where we have shut down travel and these are of strategic importance. We appreciate those industries that are impacted. There are many individuals. The president talked about a Stimulus Program whether it is through eight taxcut or tax credits, we are 100 committed and i can assure you there is a partisan support. We have a lot of tools, the fed has a lot of tools, some of these tools we did not have in the Financial Congress will be going back to congress. One of the reasons why this was so important is this is just the second step on bipartisan support. How much more money would you like to see . I am not talking about the previous bill. It would be premature to comment on specific money. We have 100 Different Things we are looking at. Yesterday the president announced on Student Loans suspending interest. That was one of the things. He announced a Strategic Oil reserve. We also have a unique circumstance having nothing to do with the virus. Parts of our economy are impacted by the temporary lowprice of oil. The president , Vice President , and everybody else is committed. We have 100 different ideas and whatever we need to do, we will do. Mr. Vice president , thank you so much. I have a question for you and dr. Birx. You said there was a low risk for the average american to contract the virus. Your language has altered a little bit. You are saying risk of serious illness remains low. Can you address why the change and the potential of contracting the virus no longer low . Why the change . Vice pres. Pence i am going to let dr. Birx address that. If you dont mind, sir. Vice pres. Pence everything is based on the unanimous opinion of Health Experts based on the information that we have at the time. It is now more than a few weeks since we had our first instance of Community Spread in the united states. The president took every step to prevent the virus from coming into our country. We cannot overstate how unprecedented and extraordinary the suspension of all travel from china was before the end of january. Travel advisories for portions of italy, south korea, the screening of personnel coming into our country. Allow me to let dr. Birx address that. We will continue to tell the American People straight from the Health Experts the best information that we have two see that our own health, the health of the family, and health of our community. Dr. Birx every day, we analyzed data from around the world. We look at and try to get a sense of the amount of a symptom medications asypmyomstic patients. We are trying to figure out based on that information and the profile of the epidemic to really understand is there a whole group under 20 that does not get significant symptoms, yet we do not believe that people under 20 are naturally protected from the virus. Are they a group that are potentially a symptomatic and spreading the virus. Because of that unknown, we dont want to say that the risk is low when we dont know how low the numbers are for people who are asymptomatic. We have a good sense of who is deeply impacted by this. If you have a look at all of the countries on a daytoday basis, people of a certain age are at a higher risk for an outcome. The other side of the epidemic is how much transmission. Until you understand how many people are asymptomatic, we think it is important to know that the risk of serious illness may be low but they could be potentially spreading the virus to others and that is why we are asking every american to take personal responsibility to prevent spread. That is why we have made all of these recommendations brought even passed people who have no symptoms because we want everyone taking precautions. You said you are speaking to all of the governors. Are we looking at any Domestic Travel restrictions that could be coming down anytime soon . My other question is Mitch Mcconnells statement that he is going to read the bill. Vice pres. Pence the president expressed the bill received by the house. We are grateful for the support that mcconnell has expressed for the priorities that the president has outlined. We will be working with members of the senate to unpack the bill for them and wipe the president endorsed it yesterday and why they should move it expeditiously. With regard to additional travel restrictions, let me just say that the president said we are considering a broad range of measures. No decisions have been made yet. I want to assure the American People of two things. We will continue to follow the facts, listen to the experts about recommendations. We will bring the decision to suspend all travel from europe. We will bring the best recommendations to the president and i promise the American People that this president is going to continue to take every step necessary to protect the American People and put the health of the American People first and together, we will get through this. And i promise the American People that this president is going to continue to take every step necessary to protect the American People and put the health of the American People first and together, we will get through this. What is being done to help those in Public Housing . Is anything being done . What specifically . A lot of things are being done. Of things are being done . What specifically . [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] on monday, the Atlantic Council holds a virtual town hall to talk public trust in government. Live coverage begins at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan2. The senate has plans to take up an economic aid package in response to the coronavirus. The legislation already passed by the house would require free coronavirus testing, provide pay to medical and family leave, and bolster food aid and unemployment decision insurance for those affected by the operate. A final vote will come next week at a time to be determ