[inaudible] i hear you. Punctuality. Man. We have everybody . Do we have folks on the phone again . Yes, sir. Ok, i will just let you know ,ho is here, Ryan Mccarthy chief of staff of the army, surgeon general, director of operations and plans, director of the Army National guard bureau and Sergeant Major of the army. The chief will make some opening remarks, and then we will open up to your questions. I think we have a hard stop at 1400, right . Ok. Thank you, mr. Secretary. The army has 288 confirmed cases of covid19 as of this morning. 100 of soldiers. 64 department of the army civilians. 5 are dependents nine are cadets. 50 are army contractors. This week, the secretary of defense signed orders for three Army Hospitals to deploy to new york and Washington State. Fortive 31st hospital for campbell, kentucky, and the night hospital for fort hood, texas, will deploy to new york city. An advanced party is on the ground as i speak. The main party will arrive at joint base mcguire, dix, lakehurst tomorrow. They will set up at the Javits Center this weekend and they will be operational for noncovered patients beginning monday. The 627 hospital from fort carson, colorado, will deploy to seattle. An advanced party arrived yesterday evening. They are coordinating with state and local authorities and conducting a site survey in a state fair ground and a location decision is pending. Our army corps of engineers is engaged in all 50 states, puerto rico, and the virgin islands, assisting fema and state authorities. They are on the ground conducting site assessments for alternate care facilities. The Lieutenant General will provide a Detailed Press briefing when the corps of engineers on the corps of engineers efforts tomorrow. Over 10,000 National Guard soldiers are supporting covid19 response efforts in communities in every state across the nation. Their missions include delivering food to communities, supporting local Emergency Management agencies, providing personnel protective equipment to First Responders and hospital support toproviding testing facilities, providing transportation to healthcare workers, cleaning and disinfecting public spaces and Staffing Call Centers for the public. Siemensnt general tom reached out to general officers, noncommissioned officers, and soldiers who have the skill to x the skill or expertise to assist with our covid19 efforts. This is a voluntary opportunity for medical soldiers for life to return to the fight if they so choose, especially if they are not currently assisting their local communities. So far, initial responses have been very, very positive. Also yesterday, the army directed all installations to assume Health Protection condition level charlie including all previous guidance on personal hygiene, social distancing, disinfecting common areas and having 14 days of supplies on hand. It also gives commanders more authority to restrict access and limit access to Mission Essential personnel. Our Immediate Response forces have assumed level delta to remain ready to respond to threats, just like we saw with the 82nd Airborne Division in january. We are meeting content by protecting the force and supporting the National Response effort. We are standing up to prevent covid19. This is a tough fight, but together we will do our part to help the nation win. Lets go to hope from nila terry. Com. Hi, general. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask about this voluntary callout. , are you looking for a specific number of retirees to come back . And what is the number of responses you have gotten so far . And what is the process if somebody is approved to return . First of all, g1 is working. I will get you the exact numbers, but we have had some positive responses. What we are looking for is medical expertise. Do you have anything you want to add on that . In addition, what we will do is even though weve gotten many volunteers, we walked through the process of certification, making sure that certifications and credentials are straight and once we do that, we will plug them into all of our medical Treatment Facilities as required to support the mission. Yes, im here. Just a couple of questions if i could. On the volunteer effort, can you give us even ballpark number of responders so far, and can you the about how much staffing Field Hospitals may strain the active duty and how many more hospitals can you actually or do you actually think you will be able to get sent out to the country at this point . And then i have a followup. Number of aal hospital center, which is the headquarters, as well as the sealed hospital itself and all of the supporting detachments is roughly around 300 30 soldiers. Those soldiers that are assigned to medical Treatment Facilities will be called military medically assigned personnel. Their primary mission is to support the force. When they are called upon to deploy, in this case here, to support the government or our nation, we look at cross leveling within the medical command and then the volunteers that you are talking about is where we also will leverage in addition to the army reserve to fill those holes from the medical Treatment Facility so that we can maintain the readiness of our soldiers as well as to the beneficiary population. We will followup on the exact numbers. There has been positive response. We will get you the exact numbers. Do you have a followup . Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about the movementimpact has had on training and where you stand on training right now . I will talk a little about abou committee in this case, the Senate Armed Services committee will come back with a series of questions so the transaction will be conducted in the digital space. Ok, so it was not really a hearing . No, not in the traditional sense. It was more a paper hearing. Yeah. General, you said 100 soldiers who had tested positive for the virus. Can you say where they are . Are they clustered in particular bases . . A dont want to get to the exact numbers of where they are at, but they are pretty much spread out. We have not seen clusters yet. I dont have that broken down. Also, the effort in new york, how many beds will you provide with that Field Hospital . How many personnel as well . As far as the beds that are going to new york, they are coming with 284. I think what we will see happening is and this is a good interagency kind of coordination. They are going into a fixed building, which means we wont be setting up tents. Fema has the capability to put in place, which they have, hospitals, beds, and equipment, and they are doing that right now as they speak. We are still bringing equipment there because we want to make what youave it, but are going to see is a good old government effort where the state is contributing, fema is contributing a lot of the equipment and instructor inside the site, and then we will be providing personnel to actually and dohat hospital noncovid19type care and that may give us actually more beds. And staff . How many staff roughly . About 330. And the beds you said were roughly 284 . 284 that one. The other one has 248. Thent want to get into nittygritty as far as transition between hospitals, but basically, that hospital has 284 beds and the one going up to seattle will have 248 beds, but again, there will be heads set up there and how we staff the beds, we will probably see a lot more than that. What is important for the context is they can bring that capability and stand it up, but followingefs point, nonexistent infrastructure increases your ratio of people you can take care of. Also speed. We got an order tuesday, on the road wednesday, doing the coordination and this weekend they will be putting people in there and monday we expect to be taking care of patients. You have a meeting on monday or earlier this week in conclusion was the army was not mitigating fast enough for the rise of covid cases and that you were short of money . There was a report put out that looks like an official document from that meeting. I just wanted to confirm with you that that in fact took place and that that was an accurate report. Im not familiar with the reporting. I would probably need more context. We are constantly making assessments of the resources that we need to sustain this effort. You will see in the supplemental bill we have a request to increase our efforts on prevention detection and treatment to sustain this over the longterm, but im not familiar with that report. General abrams was probably the first to have to deal with covid out in south korea. When did he put out the call to Army Headquarters, if you will, and when were you aware of what was going to be needed for various bases, and did you take decisions to lockdown other formations . I will say a couple things, and maybe if we could get general flynn up here, the army Crisis Action team i think january 26, right, charlie . Both the chief and i traveled to south korea in february and that is when we started to learn more about this. I think it is really important hasppreciate over time it taken a lot to learn about this issue because so Little Information came out of china on the front end of this process. , his tactics, techniques, and procedures that he and his command have developed have made a tremendous difference for the department along with some incredibly strong leadership from that team. I think charlie, do you want to fill in some of those links . But that is the rough timeline. Jennifer, i would say the secretary mentioned, i think what is important was obviously in asia andd china and general abrams, we were watching what was going on so when those indications happened because we have, you know, a lot of Army Soldiers and families in south korea and our eighth Army Headquarters is over there, that came to us in the g3 , and we were doing in asia. We said, ok, which exercises to do we want to reduce the scope of to give us the capability to limit exposure, and we did that. Traveling in that part of the world in february was incredibly interesting. I went the week before with the chief to thailand, the philippines, how little they knew. He started putting some of these data points together and trying to string it together over the course of february. It has been a very complex issue that has taken time to get the data points together. We are going to go on the line again. Yes, thank you. I actually dont have a question. It was answered earlier. Thank you. Great. Two questions. One is just the numbers. Youve been talking about beds and personnel for these Field Hospitals. Least, that initially at its just going to be the personnel on the facilities. Eing built how many medical personnel is the army sending to new york city and how many medical personnel is the army sending to seattle . And i got a second question. Personnel going to new york is roughly 650 ,eople, and a similar number maybe a little bit less, to seattle, but 600plus. I think it is important to point out what the general was discussing earlier, that those personnel are assigned to those hospitals, and they are going to go into this, and the whole government approach is that they are going to put a couple thousand beds in there, but what they are really doing is taking pressure off the local and state Health Care System and moving patients into that facility so patientsan help those because they are still going to have peopled broken legs and Car Accidents and Everything Else that will need care. Therefore, it takes a lot of pressure off the local and state Health Care System to do that. The idea here with the corps of engineers, with fema, and with is state and local officials to work in collaboration so we can provide skilled medical professionals to take some pressure off the local and state Health Care System with our army professionals. My second question is this issue of putting troops up on the canadian border. Bests been answered by northcom. We dont have any direct impact on that yet. Ok, thank you. We are going to go to ashley folkie. Yes, hi, thank you. I had a question and then a followup. With the notice that went out last night at the stop movement order. What impact will that have on soldiers who are already deployed to europe 2020 . For the soldiers that deployed, it is a 60day stop movement order. Some of those soldiers that would have been coming back, they are not going to come back. Their tours will be extended, and the soldiers who were getting ready to go, they are staying here and limiting their exposure. Commanders in each of the areas, exception to policy authority if they have to have someone get back or they need someone to get over there, we will work the details on that. Ok, great, thanks. I also wanted to ask on the Defense Industry base, last week, you guys mentioned you were in talks and some of the states had differing issues. After a week, is there any other clarity on the situation on possible slowdowns and delays, and have you discussed potential penalties with companies for not being able to deliver on time . You are referencing existing weapons systems. You are not asking about defense production act authorities in response to the crisis, just to clarify . No, no, sir. And general murray have done an assessment of the Defense Industrial base. We have many contractors that are still reporting to work and vending metal and continuing to progress. We are working with states because it really is a statebystate related issue. If there is a manufacturer in florida that has a footprint or has parts of their Manufacturing Division in new york or connecticut and others, you have to work through some of these issues about their employees traveling from state to state. What we can do is we can make dr. Jenny and general murray available and kind of walk you through this very complex issue, but we have been pretty blessed of how these manufacturers are stepping up and continuing to put measures in place so their employees can continue to work modernizationthat path. Thank you very much. That would be great. We will do one more. Thank you. Just wondering about we heard a few of the training exercises have been canceled. What immediate effects to readiness are you seeing and what do you expect over the next few months . I think what we are going to see is its only been a couple of days, so to speak, on some of the training exercises. E will do an assessment ideally we want to get people back to doing the missions that they need to do. They are still able to train at the lower levels, exercising the proper procedures to limit exposure, but we certainly will be doing assessments as we move forward over the next couple of weeks. Can you tell us how many soldiers total have been tested and how youre getting test kits out to deployed soldiers in afghanistan . Second, can you talk about for the Immediate Response forces what the impact means . We have roughly conducted almost about 5000 test. In support of the commanders in the field downrange in combat areas, we are leaning forward to deliver that capability in a matter of days to support their missions forward. How are you getting those tests to them . For example, in afghanistan, there has been reports that soldiers are not able to get test and there are some concerns there might be a number of cases out there. Those tests are shipped to that location. Normally, we have a 24hour turnaround time on those tests. We have forces that are ready to go, just like you saw in january when the 82nd went on. When we say delta, what we mean is we want them to limit exposure. We want them doing pretty much only the essential tasks that they need to conduct. That means they are pretty much home or doing what they need to do at work. They are not out being exposed to other people. They can work out. They can take care of themselves, but again, we want them to limit their exposure to anyone else and almost create a safety bubble around themselves. That is what the technique that general abrams use. You create safety bubbles and make sure that all the people inside the bubble do not have the virus, and you keep that separation so you can protect the force. That is what we are trying to do with them. They are ready to go, and we dont want one person to expose others and that to reduce our readiness. Soldiers,t campbell how many, and if i missed the specific unit. Second, of the 5000 tests you have run, was it because there were symptoms or was it precautionary for particular unit . How did you choose first who got tested . The first, you take one. Scotty, you take the second. The hospital in Fort Campbell is roughly 350 people. Again in new york, that is two hospitals that are going up, so it will be 650, 700. We are following cdc guidance , symptoms, and medical professionals, again, when he ascertains, looks at those symptoms can see maybe i have to do a test and that is what occurred. We will go to barbara and then we will go back on the phone line. I wanted to ask about the operational side. I dont think i understand some of the previous answers. That 13, 14 case actually says current mitigation efforts have been insufficient . Know whatd like to led the army to the conclusion that current mitigation is insufficient. A reallyse lines, clear explanation for several days, the army other services, but we are talking army has said you trust local of whenrs to take care there should be large groups, not having large groups, but you continue to get these reports of large groups, of formations, of significant numbers of people, so with this now increased effort, is there anything that you have mandated not not happening . You say you want the kind of bubble that general abrams has, but he was incredibly stretched. Is the army there yet . Or what are you prohibiting . Why did the army say that current mitigation was insufficient . What led you to that conclusion . What led us to that conclusion as we are seeing what i would say response to the threat. As you look around the country, we see the virus and we see it has gotten to increase around the country, so what we are trying to do is put the appropriate measures in place to protect the force, and each of these commanders is doing a trade off. They know they have a wartime mission that they have to train for. They need to protect the force or they will not be ready if they are called. What weve been doing is watching the threat, so to speak, and as the threat has become more prevalent, we are ramping up the procedures and also checking and getting back with commanders and making sure they understand the guidance as far as how they limit exposure, and we are taking some of that risk off of them. We are trying to give them guidance. Like we said, we put out some feedback. We are going to tell them you should not be having these large type formations, not doing things like town halls and bringing people together. We have commanders that we have a Large Organization and they are implementing those procedures as we speak. When you say you looked at American Society and see trends, what are you learning within the army . Do you have Trend Analysis that tells you it may increase significantly or to some extent in the coming days in the u. S. Military . Well, we think that if we do not limit exposure and have not talked to commanders like have been and who what some would call tough spots beentspots, we have really going to school and getting advice from them on where we should be in the spectrum, given the threat we are seeing and we think we applied the appropriate measures for where we are at right now. Limit say if you do not exposure. Right. What we want to do is protect exposure. By limiting and you think more needs to be done . Yeah, i think we need to do more to limit exposure, especially for those who are not doing Mission Essential tasks. That is what we are really saying right now. When we look at our commands, we say, do you really have to do this task that may increase the risk to our soldiers . Or if you have to do that task, then how can you make it a little safer . You see us standing six feet apart and as we move, we are doing social distance. Physicall need to do fitness, but dont do it in formation. You still need to train on our aircraft, but make sure the people that are training together, you keep the numbers small. This is how you limit the exposure. Very quickave one one. Asking you as a member of the joint chiefs and the army which often relies on other services for combat assistance out in the a remarkable day. The Aircraft CarrierTeddy Roosevelt basically out of commission in guam because as you know, they have had a number of cases. They are going to test the entire crew on board the carrier. Long time since an Aircraft Carrier in this country was out of commission for any type of reason. As a member of the joint chiefs, what does that say to the chiefs about the scope of this threat, that it could take a carrier out of commission, a carrier your forces could need . I think all the chiefs are wrestling with the same issue or same challenges. They want to protect the force, but at the same time, they know they have a mission and that is the balance. To admiralfer that gill day as far as what you do on a ship or on a post to protect soldiers, but its obvious you want to create bubbles and keep the small amount of people in that bubble because if one person comes up with the virus, you dont get into that exponential growth that we see if people are touching a whole bunch of people. From where we sit, the best thing we can do is keep the exposure or the circle that people run into very small. We kind of like the squad as an example. About 10 people or less. You keep your circles very, very small and that is how you flatten the curve. We are going to go to the phone, take a couple more questions. Jack, are you on the line . I dont have a question at this time. Mandy from National Defense magazine. I do not have a question either. Thank you. Going to try one more. Sean from yahoo . Then i will go back here. Hi, thank you, gentlemen for doing this. The last time you did this sort of press conference and today, whatave highlighted and in abrams in korea italy have done. I was wondering if you could talk in a little more detail about what the keys to their success have been and to what extent those practices are transferable to installations in the United States and civilian communities in the United States. One of the things i discussed exposure, you limit and what general abrams did was because he controls the military posts and who comes on and who goes off, you are in a much put inposition to measures that allow people to be tested. They ask questions, they have kind of a triage where they can check temperatures, and if someone does get the virus, they quickly determine who they have seen and what they have done and they put those people in quarantine. Again, as i have talked to general abrams, he just reinforces to me, the best thing you can do to keep the safety bubble and limit exposure, the better off you are going to be. He has told me it is much more challenging in the United States because theres things that still have to be done. We have soldiers that have a mission and they have to continue to train. They still have to do combat operations. Doing isou are really mitigating risk, and that is what we are trying to do here. I just want to stay on general abrams for a second because everyone points to him as the guy i think he had one positive case correct. Hes had a couple more now. There were Lessons Learned from general abrams. Im wondering, looking back, why didnt everyone do what general abrams it did . Is it because at that time you maybe thought it was localized in asia and did not think it was a threat in the United States . Is it that he was so stringent in what he did it would be hard if not impossible to do the same thing . Just well through what youre thinking was back then. A lot of people said why didnt everybody do what abrams did . You want to take that when . I think what i would say is again, we were watching it. We were monitoring it, but i think when it jumped into europe, really, right . That is where it migrated to first and then reporting out in the middle east, always challenging, right . I think the fact that when it was on those two continents, if you will, then, really, back to general mcconville in the secretarys point earlier, we had a major deployment going on in europe. That was when we started to forces Going Forward into europe, europe is going not in a positive direction. If you had ships pulling into port. Ships pulling out of fort, and i think at that point, the Senior Leaders of the army said we need to change some directions here in the state because we are introducing soldiers into exercises that could, in fact, be infected because it was getting worse in europe. The chief and secretary made a decision to halt, if you will, so we could sort of stem that tied, and i think that was becamethe point where we thoughtful about what we needed to do here. The bottom line is what abrams was dealing with, you thought it was maybe more localized, and then it kind of jumped to europe and you were like, we have a real problem on our hands . The chief and i both have the advantage of seeing general abrams facetoface in early and mid february and going to the philippines in thailand. Got back home, we started to look at putting more time against it to better understand the problems. The point general flynn made, once europe really started letting up, that was when you saw this was a virus that was morphing very quickly. At that point, you did not know how bad it was going to get . That was not enough data to make a determination at that point. Why werent orders given two weeks ago to shut down bases and create a bubble like general abrams did in the continental u. S. . Youre talking the speed of the decisionmaking . Orders from above. It has been very much at commanders discretion. Localized efforts, very inconsistent across the continental u. S. Its hard to understand when you became aware in europe and after south koreas experience, that you would have ordered all the commanders to do what general abrams had done. We still have a combat mission. We still have to keep the force ready. We cannot shut the army. Just like First Responders. You cannot shut down police forces. You cannot shut down the air force. What we are trying to do is look at what the actual threat is in each of these places, and again, we have kind of slowly brought it up, and we put measures in place that i think are warranted where we are at right now. We are going to go on the line. Yeah, hi, thank you. The question is both for the general and for secretary mccarthy. Do you feel comfortable at this point that the measures you put in place are enough to stem the disease within the army . Icause it does seem and think youre hearing the same questions over and over. It feels as if we are still chasing it. It even now feels as if we are chasing that. Do you feel comfortable with where you are . As this goes back to why not have done something a little bit bigger a little bit earlier . Ofit is a tenuous balance continually being ready and being able to perform Current Missions to support national objectives, but it is also of stemming the threat. This is a day to day assessment and we will take the appropriate measures accordingly. Just shutif we could down every military post and not have a mission, then we could do that, but again, just like the First Responders, just like people in hospitals, they are not shutting hospitals down because they continue to do the mission. The army has the same mission and we are not shutting down our bases. What we have done is taken a look at who is Mission Essential and who is not Mission Essential and allowed commanders to apply the appropriate measures to safeguard the force. Abrams had a combat mission. He was able to do it. I guess that is where we are confused. Really thing i would suggest with general abrams is different. His troops are with their equipment in their basis bases where they are basically set. He has a lot more control over that than we do. He has gone to a higher level because he does not control the contractors the way he needed to. Theres Different Levels that you have to apply, and he and i have talked about that. It is a different situation in the United States than in korea. Clarify. Ant to a couple times we have said, you shutdowneral abrams the base, but we have the secretary and the chief keep saying he is still doing pt. I asked the eighth army yesterday, did they stop doing physical reinstatement . Absolutely not. We say we closed the base. What he says is that we created a bubble. Those are some training things we have to do. Physical readiness is one of those things we look at that you just got to do. You cannot make that up when it is time to be needed, but i just want to clarify that everybody keeps saying we shut it down. Those are things that i asked specifically for korea and italy did you do this because of your mission . Italy, were you bringing folks in to do individual tasks . Yes. Did you bring folks in right now to do physical readiness . Yes, we create the bubble so folks coming in are not infected. Are you in the lane getting your Temperature Check . It is not exactly shut the gates and nobody comes into the base. It is Mission Essential, but there are still things that other places have done to shut things down in the u. S. That they did not actually do because of their location. It is not a onesizefitsall, and those are some of the things i wanted to highlight. There are some measures here iare actually much more will call it drastic or much more severe than what they are doing in korea. We have laura from politico. This. Thanks for doing im wondering if you could tell us a little bit about there has been some talk of deploying forces in a Law Enforcement role. I know some officials have pushed back, that theres no talk of martial law, but what would this look like if we were to go to that state . What does putting troops out in public in a Law Enforcement role look like . At our soldiers across the 54 states, ofritories, and district columbia, we are there to protect our territories, not to police them. We have no forecast or any planning taking place and we are not aware of any mission set to go down that way. Came down to enforcing others, we have seen countries like the u. K. Use the military to enforce curfews and those kind of things. That is undering consideration . What would that look like . Actually, none of that is under consideration at this time. When we look across the states, they are working closely with their state leadership about every mission set, and that is currently not any of the mission sets we are looking at right now. Thank you. Carla, are you still on . Im still on. Thanks. I actually have a couple of clarifications first and then a couple of questions. The clarifications are back on the numbers. You guys mentioned there were 284 beds that are going to be built in new york. Is that for both the medical units, the five 31st and the nine, or is that for each unit . Quick status for both. Again, that is what they bring with them. That is not what will necessary necessarily be the final bed count they are supporting. Ok, i understand. Can you tell us more about the army corps converting hotel rooms into hospital beds . Is that still happening . Mentioned five Army Hospital units were unprepared to deploy orders or maybe he just said hospital units. When and where others units going to deploy . With respect to the corps of engineers, it would be important for you to take the opportunity to listen to the briefing tomorrow. He will be able to show you the concepts that they put in place. It could be anything from falling in on a convention center, a hotel, a dorm room theres a variety of different options, and all of that really comes down to the proximity to a hospital. If you are about 30 minutes or willfrom a hospital, they look for existing infrastructure like those i mentioned and that is where they will fall in. It is all part of the Systems Engineering approach for the care, from screening all the way through recovery. What was the second one . The second was on the hospital prepare to deploy orders. We have six activeduty as general mcconnell and the secretary mentioned. Three are moving to new york and seattle, so we have three more available. We have a combat mission, and we have forces that potentially could deploy, so we are working fema and really with northcom on what they need, so that is what we have in the inventory now. We actually have 15 in the reserve. That is what we have available. Just to confirm, the other medical units on deeply orders are not all three army units currently in the process of deploying to new york and seattle . I am not aware of other hospitals on repair to deploy orders, i know what we have. We have courtney. Sure it was be general mcconville who said this. Think more must be done to especiallyission among nonessential personnel, was that you . Trying i said was we are to avoid exposure to other people. We look at nonmission personnel, the intent is they stay at home and do minimum exposure to other people outside the bubble. That is how you limit the spread of the virus if someone has it. The intent is if you are in a delta situation, you are at home. If you have to go to the grocery store, you go to the emergency store. On we do not need you out the town, so to speak, being exposed to other people because we need you for that mission. It was we you said need to do more. I am wondering if you think there are additional steps that need to be taken. Thinkou said that, do you if you went to essential personnel fast enough . I think we did. You talk about, lets go to delta. People ask why did you put the initial contingency forces to that level, because we want to make sure we are absolutely limiting exposures. If we have to react to a situation around the world, they are ready to go. You. Ank that is it for the reporters on the line. Followup, we had the briefing last week, one thing that stuck out to me was when they type access. Tightened access. Some of us are pushing on why isnt something put in place at bases like in Washington State and california where you do not know who is coming on base, and if they have symptoms if they do not have symptoms, they could be a carrier. Many are doing it. They are doing it at different the bases. Cross some are at buildings, summit entrances. I know units are doing it in morning formation areas to engage and keep everybody alert and aware of what we are trying to do with social distancing. Because if you look at the access point on i5, normal gait exposure, you will clog up the whole road. There should be nobody on the road. To anothere you get area does not mean they are being checked. Checking at other locations, do not get into big formations. They are limiting people and making checks, they are just not doing it because of that access, they closed some dates too. It may not make sense to do it at that gate or area, that is commandersmportant do that and have the flex ability to check somewhere else. It makes sense for that location. Does that mean everybody is having their Temperature Checked . Not necessarily. That may not be necessary for that location. I will check the temperature, but do i have to do everybody on every formation every time they move . Lets go to what they are doing for italy, they have an over watch tame to make sure everyone washes their hands when they go in. Checking temperatures, but not every day for every move. Why is it so hard if you have army units on bases to close entrances and exits, and only essential personnel comes on and off . It seems there is a large flow of people coming on to bases. That is why we had gone to charlie. This started happening several weeks ago. You are talking about the large flow . Is a statistics issue. People have to get to work. People live on post, that is a challenge when you look at have our communities are. 70 are coming what we are you have to limit exposure. That is what the challenges and what we are trying to coach and get out there. You can do perfect with the soldiers, but they are living off post and they have dependents and the are exposing themselves. You have a real challenge. Not everyone will have a temperature when they are coming on post. It is an indicator, we have talked to everyone. People are checking. I checked myself twice a day. Conditions are not apples to apples with us. Yesterdaye said as of current mitigation is insufficient. What else what makes you convinced this will be enough . Operationally, what do you need to do . That europe was some weeks after korea, you had a lot of contact with general abrams. Are you ok with having not gone ahead and take an xml measures and taken extra measures. . Someone might have told you there was a serious medical problem in the world. You said current measures are insufficient. , what is do you think the best advice you are getting on what needs to be done . We are learning every day. With respect to what you are getting now, i mean no disrespect, what are practical examples we can report on . Eventually what we want to get to is to know who has been some type ofget test. People are going to recover. People are going to be exposed along the way. We know when we have a case so we quickly go into a quarantine situation, that is a challenge, to know when someone may be exposed to have the infection. We can get them the care they need. If they do not have symptoms, it makes it more challenging. From a medical standpoint, you are in touch across the military with your medical counterparts in the other services, what are the Surgeon Generals and medical experts in seeing, analyzing, where is the Trend Analysis for the u. S. Military . Are you concerned you are still . N an upward trajectory medically what do you recommend to bring it down and what needs to be done . First, i am absolutely concerned as the trends increase in the United States army that will impact not just citizens but soldiers. That could affect readiness. The bottom line, you heard it today, you heard the Surgeon Generals, we have to limit the exposure. I call it the discipline of social and physical distancing. Thee can limit and stop exposure, that can flatten the curve. That will allow the researchers to do what they do best, to find countermeasures and vaccines. That will take time. At that time progresses, we as soldiers and citizens must practice the art and science and discipline of social distancing because this is brandnew for us. It is complex. As we move through these, we researchive the community the opportunity to find the medical countermeasures. We must first protect ourselves, the mission, and support the whole government response. What is the medical data showing you and your counterparts . What is it showing you in this country right now . I assume you are looking across the board to see what is going on in the civilian medical sector. What is the medical data showing you about the upward trajectory, and do you have any analysis for yourselves and the country, and the military, for when you can reach an apex and bring it down . Hoping the summer timeframe that this is seasonal and the trend will come down. This is new for us. This is complex, new territory. As we continue to practice the protection of our soldiers, the mission, the citizens of the country, the art of social discipline, the discipline of social distancing is going to be a key factor. If we do not, the numbers will continue to increase, then we put ourselves at risk of exposing ourselves. There is no different analysis from what you are seeing. We are hoping that trend line will come down. You think about another three months of restrictions or constraint in the military, you said earlier. I can only speak to the trend itself, it is increasing. We need tot trend, limit exposure. That is the individual responsibility of every citizen and soldiers to practice that same art. You said there have been 5000 tests read you are facing what the American People are facing, there are not enough tests must that you do not know the universe of who is infected until you test . That is correct. Had you get more tests . Become the test kits more available, you can increase the testing. As numbers trend higher we will see more testing because we are getting more positives. That will drive the testing up. Witht now we have nine labs the ability to test. The kids you actually need . Enough kits to ,est within the United States our ability to test will be expanded, and that will create more demand on test kits. How many kits do you have now . Right now we have over 19,000 tests available. Where did you get them from . From the restsame of the country, they are coming from health and human services. How many do you need . Unknown, this is new territory. If we do not practice social distancing, the numbers will go up. The 19,000 individual tests that is correct. I know you have a staff meeting. We have a meeting with our boss and a little bit. Thank you, we will see you next week. I thought you were the boss. Not the big guy upstairs. The pentagon announced everybody aboard the uss theater will be tested for covid19 after more sailors tested positive. 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