Now. Fauci said the country was still kneedeep in the first wave of the virus. You can see that in the numbers. He said its not a good place to be. Asked about that, the president said the exact opposite. He said the country is in a good place and in three, four weeks well be in good shape. He can, of course, say anything he wants, but here are the numbers. They are getting worse. Nearly 3 million americans have now been infected. More than 60,000 cases were diagnosed just yesterday. Thats the highest number of new cases reported in one day. Nationwide, 35 states are seeing an increase in new cases. That is not good. Thats not a good place. Just three states are seeing a decline. The number of people needing to go to the hospital for care is also on the rise with eight states reporting record highs on tuesday. That is not good, but thats also not the focus of the president right now. His focus has now turned to focusing in on schools and forcing schools effectively across the country to reopen as soon as next month and threatening to cut funding if schools dont reopen and criticizing his own cdc for putting out guidelines that he calls expensive. How does that work . Is reopening schools based not on science, but instead on a hope and a prayer really a plan . Lets get over to the department of education, Cnns Kaitlan Collins is standing by for that briefing. Kaitlan, what are you hearing . Reporter this is really notable. The reason im standing outside the department of education is the primary focus of the tank force in the last few days has been reopening schools and that is the priorist president and so many people, actually, and yesterday the president said he would pressure governors to open their schools and whats really striking about this tweet that the president just posted a few moments ago is that he is disagreeing with the centers for Disease Control and prevention on their guidance for reopening schools. The president and the cdc have not been on page during this entire pandemic, but it is striking that he just said i disagree with the tcdc on the very expensive and tough guidelines on reopening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them. They include wearing face coverings, staying home inappropriate and potentially having staggered schedules and communal spaces being closed and having barriers and plexiglas including at the white house and he tweeted before that, kate saying that if other schools do not open he is threatening to cut off funding. This is something that education secretary betsy devos had been asked about yesterday and said was something that they were considering, but lets look at the numbers here because if youre looking at what funding is and what actually schools get from the federal government its not that much. Over 90 comes from state and local federal budget excuse me, state any local budgets, but there is that crucial 10 and a lot of that, kate, goes to disadvantaged students, title 1 students and students who need that funding the most and here weir in the middle of a pandemic when schools need more money for ppe and buy more School Busses to space students out and the president is threatening to cut them off if they do not open in just a matter of weeks. Thats exactly right, kaitlan. Kaitlan is standing by and shell be in that briefing when that briefing begins. Well get back to you, kaitlan. Thank you so much. Lets focus florida, the epicenter in the nation where icus in at least 56 hospitals are at full capacity now. Numbers heading in the wrong direction, but we still dont know the full extent of the problem because florida continues to release full data on covid patients. Unlike almost every other state in america. Cnns rosa flores is in miami beach and shes been following this trying to get information. Whats the latest . Reporter hi, kate. The Florida Department of health just released the number of new cases and its nearing 10,000. So these numbers are not going up. The record was more than 11,400 that was set last week. Despite this continued surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the state weve reported on this, the Florida Department of education requiring that all schools reopen in the fall in brick and mortar style for at least five days a week. Now were learning that Miamidade County to be exempt from that rule and heres why. Here is a tweet from the superintendent today. He said the wellbeing of students and employees remains our top priority. Miamidade schools will only proceed with inperson schooling option outlined in tentative reopening plan if miamidade successfulliness troisitions to phase 2. Currently the county is still in phase 1. The Positivity Rate yesterday was 27 here in this county. When you look at the number of hospitalizations and this is according to data released by the county, there is an increase of 87 in the number of covid19 patients in hospitals in this county. When you look at icu beds there is an increase of 19 and ventilators, there is an increase of 108 . The state is acknowledging and addressing the fact that there is a surge and they are sending 100 medical personnel to this county and theyre also upping the number of beds for longterm care facilities in Miamidade County, but kate, back to the education focus, in that tweet the superintendent made it clear that so long as the county is still in phase 1 they wouldnt be reopening in brick and mortar style and it would be difficult to believe with these numbers continuing to rise that this county would be ready to move to phase 2. Kate . Rosa, thank you so much. Changing day by day, but one thing thats not changing is the direction and the trajectory of the new cases that you just reported in breaking news that it is now almost 10,000 new cases as the pandemic continues. Joining me for much more on this is the mayor of hialeah, florida, carlos fernando. Thank you very much for coming in. A number that i am thankful rosa does bring to us because miamidade does bring these numbers. The Positivity Rate in your area right now is 27 . That was just yesterday. That is far, far beyond the realm of containment. What does that level of spread mean for your city . Its a big challenge and you were just talking about the mixed messages that were getting and thats making it very difficult at the city levels because people are getting different messages from the federal government, State Government and here at the county were getting mixed messages and thats causing a lot of confusion and again, what were trying to do at the local level is were trying to continue to educate our citizens about how serious this is. There are people not taking this seriously and we had demonstrations three weeks ago and all of that has caused a perfect storm for the numbers to go up, and the hospitals are blowing up and the expense for the cities its amazing right now and were doing the best we can to do what we can with the little help were getting from the federal level and the state levels. Most of the residents in your area are latino. Hialeah has the largest cuban and cubanamerican population in the country. The New York Times investigation that show black and latino people are three times more likely to get covid and more than two times more likely to die from covid. Are you seeing this in hialeah . Were seeing some of it. I think the hospitals are doing a great job. Their protocols have improved a lot in the last three months and thats whats helping a lot and thats why you see the death rate lowered, but again, we have to continue to send a message out and not just the confused messages and you have some saying we should open the schools and some we shouldnt and we should have one united message saying we have to take care of each other. We have to wear masks and be aware of social distancing and wash our hands constantly and we have to have one message come from the top to the bottom and as a city we need all of the help we can get from the State Government and the federal government because this has fallen on our laps right now. Specifically, one of the mixed messages is coming from the president when he says that the country is in a good place with the virus right now. What do you say to that . The numbers are not saying that. We are finding ourselves in deeper waters and im not going to say were in a critical situation right now, but were getting there. The message is we need to be united and we all need to respect social distancing and we all need to wash our hands as much as we can. I mean, we all have to unite. This is something that if we dont unite and if we dont all take care of each other, we will find ourselves in a very critical situation very soon in south florida. What is the most critical thing you need from the governor to get the outbreak under control. Is it consistent messaging, that consistent messaging is what you need right now . Think we have to start with that and we need a lot more tracing done from the state. Would you say youve had any tracing from the state level . Not that im aware of. Not that im aware of. I havent heard of a state doing any tracing down here or a county doing any of the tracing down here and thats one of the major things we need and weve not started in the city of hialeah or south florida. How is that acceptable . Contact tracing has been talked about since march when this began. Contact tracing is not a new concept to america. Contact tracing is used all of the time with other types of outbreaks that happen and it is a basic and fundamental and tried and true Mitigation Strategy when you dont have Something Like a vaccine. How is that acceptable that there is from your view, no Contact Tracing going on . Its not acceptable. I think were behind and the mixed messages are causing confusion among elected officials and at the end of the day people are paying for it with these numbers going up. We do need to unite one message and it will be critical real soon if big steps arent taking in the next couple of weeks. On schools, were waiting to hear from the White House Task force if theyll talk about the latest from schools. The state education commissioner in to reopen. What are you hearing about this . What does this mean with what you are capable of doing when it comes to schools . Theyre talking about opening schools and tomorrow and today are the last days that restaurants can be open. Thats the confusion and the misinformation or that its really causing a lot of problems and people are taking one side or the other instead of everyone coming together and saying lets take care of each other. So people are talking about not wearing a mask. At the city level we started enforcing, masks are not mandatory, we can fine people not Wearing Masks and close down businesses that are not doing the things that are being asked and those are the things that we are doing at this level and of course, educating the community, but we do need help from the state and the federal government. Again, theyre the big dogs and theyre the ones that can make big changes to help us quickly. And they have money, supposedly, that they could be helping if need be especially when it comes to the money thats going to be needed to get the schools to open safely because its not going to come on the cheap. Its going to actually require more funding. Mayor, thank you very much. Well check back in. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you. We shouldnt be surprised at this point, but flabbergasted that Contact Tracing is like this novel thing that isnt yet happening in a widespread basis in south florida. Its really disturbing. Coming up for us, President Trump directly contradicting dr. Anthony fauci. Put the that the riceatrics asi. It is a very real split right now. President trump threatening to cut funding if schools do not reopen. He disagrees with the cdcs guidelines on reopening schools. So what is his plan . Young man thanks for having us this weekend mrs. 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There are so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Dont get yourself into false complacency. Despite that, overnight President Trump sent out this message. Death rate from coronavirus is down tenfold. And when asked about dr. Faucis statement of reality earlier that the status of the pandemic was, quote, unquote, really not good. This is how the president responded. I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said dont wear masks and now he says wear them and he said numerous things, dont close off china. Dont ban china, and i did it anyway. I sort of didnt listen to my experts and i banned china. We would have been in much worse shape. With me now is seema yasmin, a former cdc disease detective and cnns chief Political Correspondent dana bash. Dr. Yasmin, from a Public Health perspective, what does this do at this point . We are not at the beginning of the pandemic. We are squarely in the middle of it and this is what the president is saying about dr. Fauci. So its not just sidelining and silencing scientists, but its actively discrediting them and the more that i hear these clips and hear these exchanges the more i struggle for words to describe whats happening and how its making so many in the Public Health field feel because its frightening to see the experts who have dealt with countless epidemics, with six administrations and six president s be discredited when they know what theyre talking about. Theyre giving concrete advice based on the best Available Evidence and what we end up with is this tit for tat situation where the president says one thing and the experts have to try to debunk it and try to keep people accurately informed and every time they speak the president says dont listen to them. Its not just him, of course. Were hearing the same narrative of officials in different parts of the country and in different state levels and Lieutenant Governor dan patrick saying i dont need to listen to him anymore referring to dr. Fauci. We have this awfully mismanaged Pandemic Response where the evidence is being ignored. Dana, as a longtime trump watcher, the president s position here may not be surprising, but it doesnt make it any less troubling for what leaders and the government actually want which is to get past this pandemic. Yeah, and you know, the doctor just talked about how much this is hurting and is wrenching for medical experts around the country, never mind those on his own Coronavirus Task force, but lets just think about what this means when it comes to basic response. Kate, you just spoke to the mayor of florida and poppy spoke to the mayor of phoenix and she in particular is talking about the fact that there are doctors in hospitals who are having to make tough choices effectively turning away people who are older or maybe less severe, but still in trouble. This is the United States of america. Why is this happening here, and the answer according to the mayor you spoke to, this mayor and across the country is theyre not getting the federal resources, theyre not getting the level of federal response and the coordinated response, and the Strategic Response that is absolutely vital to making sure that people are able to go to a hospital in america and get treated. As was noted by those smarter than me earlier this morning, it is not just that he is ignoring science is that hes now making it about picking sides, and i heard that from the mayor of hialeah. He says now theres one side or the other. Theres not really theres only one side to be on. Its were on one side and the virus is on the other, but what is the impact, dr. Yasmin, of the president creating two sides of a discussion about masks or about democrats, about reopening communities safely. Remember when the president said the democrats wanted to keep it closed down for political purposes and now hes doing the same thing with school openings. Its just turned very simple, straightforward Public Health interventions like wearing a mask into hot topics where people are divided down party lines and it should never have been that way. The virus doesnt care what your political ideologies are. It just cares that youre vulnerable and it can infect you so its dangerous to have politicized this and to keep lying to us. Just yesterday azar said that Health Care Workers in the u. S. Dont get infected with covid19. You cant get more of a falsehood than that. Weve had 85,000 American Healthcare workers infected and around 800 who have died from covid19 in just the past few months. So stop politicizing this. Get the ppe out to people. Have that unified, easy to follow guidance, basic communication that tells people how they can protect themselves, protect their families, stop making it political. Dana, looking into today, i just wanted to ask you, dana, looking to today, theres a kind of a big question mark with this very public split between fauci and the president. If dr. Fauci will be at the briefing that will be happening in the next few minutes. Dr. Fauci was really the only official who directly acknowledged at the last briefing two weeks ago that there was a problem and that there was a big issue with rising cases. If he is not there today what message does that send . It sends a pretty clear message that they dont want the people who are telling the truth giving the hard truth to americans and also coming up with potential solutions. They dont want them to be out and speaking for the federal government. Well see what happens. Well see if hes going to be there. It sounds like maybe he wont, but hes obviously trying to do his best to get out there which is why the president felt that he had to contradict him. The one thing i will say to dr. Yasmin about taking politics out and thats, you know, probably should go without saying, but i could make an argument as someone who has covered politics for a long time. The best politics is to address this and be a leader as opposed to pretending its not happening and sticking your head in the sand. Thats a great point. Thats what we call a winwin, to be on the right side of history at the same time. Lets see where we end up in another couple of weeks from where we are right now. Theyll stick around because well be waiting for this briefing to be happening and see what news we learn from that. Coming up for us, though, the World Health Organization is updating its guidance on how the coronavirus can spread. The tempurpedic breeze makes sleep. Feel. Cool. 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Ahead of this briefing, the president tweeted out this morning that he disagrees with cdc guidelines on reopening schools calling them tough and expensive and he says that the cdc is asking schools to do very impractical things and he is threatening schools nationwide that hell try to cut funding if they refuse to reopen on time. Heres how he put it yesterday. The schools will be open in the fall and we hope that most schools are going to be open. We dont want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think its going to be good for them politically so theyll keep schools closed. No way. So we are very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools. Everyone agrees getting kids back in school is hugely important and a top priority, but how to do that when there are now rising cases in 35 states is a puzzle no School Administrator has yet to figure out. Joining me now is the former secretary under president obama arne duncan. Thanks for coming back in. First and foremost, i want to know where your head is right now and do you think schools can open in the fall . Well, trump has been just catastrophic in his leadership and has made himself totally irrelevant in this conversation because of what the federal government hasnt done. Everybody everybody, every educator, every parent, myself as a parent, we all want kids to go back to school, but we can only do that if its safe to do so and we as a nation have failed to do the things that would make our schools and our communities safer and so what we have to do now in the month of july is make those small sacrifices to give our children a chance to go back to school physically in the fall. We have to wear a mask. We have to stay away from the beaches. We have to stay out of the bars. We have to not do the Indoor Dining and if were not willing to do that, were going to rob our children of a tremendous opportunity. I desperately want us to go back to school this summer, to start now and make up for the loss of learning during covid, but we as a nation simply havent done those things that other nations have done. That has cost us, unfortunately, thousands and thousands of lives and is costing our children very important learning and social and academic opportunities. You would be the one person, one among few, who would know this very specifically. Can the president of the United States cut funding to schools nationwide . No. He just bullies and he threatens and the truth of the matter is very little k through 12 comes from the federal government. I wish they were really investing and they didnt put real money into the stimulus package. He may try to bully or bluster. Everybody wants to go back to school. We have to do it in a way that is safe. Most schools will try to open in a hybrid situation with children going monday, wednesday or friday or tuesday, thursday, maybe saturday, maybe morning shifts, maybe afternoon shifts. This is going to be very, very complicated and complex. There will be certain children where its not safe for them to go to school at all because theyre living at home with a grand mother or a grandfather thats very much at risk. So well have to accommodate their learning at home and there may be certain teaches who cant teach. On the flipside, they cant teach in a physical environment and will have to teach virtually and there are children where mom and dad are an essential worker where they have to be school every single day so it is not safe for them to be at home. We have to think about all of this stuff, community by community, school by school and grade by grade, and do it with thoughtfulness and compassion. What you just laid out is even a slice of it, right . The schedule of it and it is complicated. It is complex and it is Different School district from School District and school is a school, even. It is not an insurmountable challenge and you know they can do this if theyre allowed to put their heads together, and im wondering when you hear the president criticize cdc guidelines of safe reopening. Calling them expensive. Can you make this complicated strategy work with less money. The president is just a dishonest and disingenuous and has lost all credibility on this issue a long time ago when he said everything would be open by easter and he was telling people to take lysol and this thing would magically disappear. No one trusts him and no one is paying attention and to your point superintendents are working on this unbelievably hard and everyone is helping each other and yes, the federal government must invest in education. We have to be safe. We have to have masks. We have to have the ability to test frequently. We may have to put in place plexiglas shields around desks and everything will be different, unfortunately. This will be just one fall. We have to do this the right way for our kids, for our teachers and for our principles and for our parents at home. This is our common humanity thats never been so clear, hopefully and unless were willing to do the right thing we will rob our children. Will say this, though. You said that he is irrelevant and hes made himself irrelevant in this conversation, but people are still paying attention to what the president is saying. Im hearing from mayors that the messaging coming from the president is hurting their efforts and not helping because it is confusing. So what is your advice, then to the governors to state education commissioners . Are you saying ignore the president and go it alone . No. Theyre not going alone. Theyre working together and the leadership at the local and state level has been fantastic, but if anyone is listening to the president on this issue theyre doing it at great peril to themselves and their community and as i talk to schools around the country and i talk to chief officers no one is paying attention to what hes saying and theyre trying to solve the level of complexity and detail and honesty that he has no interest in. We have so many more i have so many more questions of things id like to go over with you. Secretary, lets continue this discussion. This is the preeminent important topic to be discussing in the coming weeks as we head toward the possible reopening of some schools in the fall. How to do it safely and how to get it right because just like we saw with many communities and especially with schools, youve got one chance to get this one right for the safety and health of our students, our kids and the teachers standing at the front of the class. Thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for the opportunity. So we are Just Moments Away from hearing from the white house Coronavirus Task force. Theyll be briefing from the department of education. Lets see what they say. Do they agree with the cdc guidelines on safely reopening schools where the president does not . If they dont agree, what is their plan as theyre demanding that schools reopen in the fall . Well bring that to you in a second. Iberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need . I should get a quote. Do it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Here at the department of education, part of our ongoing effort to focus on a mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, our healthcare workers, to protect the vulnerable and to safely reopen america and reopen americas schools. As you will hear today from admiral brett jirar. Weve tested 3 million americans and more than 1. 3 million americans have recovered. Sadly, more than 133,000 americans have lost their lives and our sympathies are with all of the impacted families. While we mourn with those who mourn, because of what the American People have done and our extraordinary healthcare workers around the country, we are encouraged that the average fatality rate continues to be low and steady, and at days earlier this week it was actually 90 lower than at the height of this pandemic. Again, its a credit to the sacrifices the American People have made that the extraordinary work that the Health Care Workers are doing and we pledge this Task Force Working in partnership with governors across the country we will continue to work our hearts out, 24 hours a day, to continue to keep our losses low. In just a few moments dr. Deborah birx will outline the data that were seeing around the country. We are tracking literally state by state, county by county, but as she will describe in a moment, we are actually seeing early indications of a percent of positive testing flattening in arizona and florida and texas. Governors in each of those states have taken strong steps to flatten the curve and again, as dr. Birx will describe were beginning to see early indications that positivity is flattening and in arizona and florida, we are beginning to see declining numbers of emergency room visits, as well. We believe the takeaway from this for every american particularly in those states that are impacted as keep doing what youre doing because were starting to see the first indications that as we were able to do in the northeast, as we were able to do in new orleans and louisiana and michigan and other places around the country, were putting into practice those mitigation efforts and were beginning to see indications that they are having a good effect. We are focused on the states where more than half of the new cases have arisen, texas, arizona, and california and have received reports even through this morning. Strong supplies of ppe in hospitals, Hospital Capacity remains strong. The one need that we did hear from governors across the region is for personnel and over the last week, working through fema, the department of defense and hhs, weve been processing requests to deploy over 1,070 doctors and nurses and medical personnel. At this point roughly 525 doctors and nurses are on the ground in arizona, california and texas and we are processing a request from florida for an additional amount. Weve made it very clear as we if youll recall, we deployed at the president s direction activeduty medical duty personnel to new york to new jersey to connecticut, to michigan, to louisiana and were in the process of doing that again just to make sure that those dedicated doctors, nurses and Health Care Workers have the relief that they need as we see cases rising in various communities across the sunbelt and well continue to work that. We had a Conference Call yesterday with the nations governors. We are in the process of continuing to send every week the detailed county by county summaries, analysis and recommendations to governors that are being implemented and well received. We also are issuing renewed guidance on preservation and reuse of ppe. Again, what were hearing and not just speaking to governors and talking directly to hospitals is that, frankly, because of the historic effort that President Trump implemented and the spin up of hundreds of millions of supplies of gloves and masks and face shields as well as the construction of ventilators. We have 59,000 ventilators in our supplies. Ppe, we hear, remains very strong, but were encouraging Health Care Workers to begin now to use some of the best practices that we learned in other parts of the country to preserve and to reuse the ppe supplies. So our focus is to make sure our states have everything they need when they need it and were working closely with all of the governors to make that a reality. What brings us to the department of education is as we see to the needs of our states and we focus on the health care of the American People we are working to reopen america and reopen americas schools. Yesterday President Trump convened a summit of education leaders and Health Officials at the white house and as the president made clear yesterday its time. Its time for us to get our kids back to school and at the summit yesterday gave us an opportunity to outline and to learn what we might be able to do then. In just a few moments ill ask secretary devos to talk about the approach that the department of education is taking to assisting the local communities and states in bringing the schools back online and well hear from dr. Bob redfield who has been literally since early in this pandemic providing guidance to schools and will be issuing Additional Guidance next week. I wouldnt want to pass the opportunity, though, not just as Vice President , but as someone who has been married to a School Teacher now for 35 years just to say thank you to all of the teachers out there from early in this pandemic and teachers learned how to do the distance teaching and did a remarkable job. Oftentimes having to care for their own families and making sure their own childrens studies were happening and so do all of americas teachers. We say thank you. We also want to say thank you to the parents who had to step in and become educators for all their kids and its remarkable when you know what your kids have been able to accomplish during and what we hear from the American American a cad moo of pediatrics. It is absolutely essential for them to get into the classroom for inperson learning and its important that the American People were that for children who have mentsal health issues, for special needs children, for nutrition and for children in the communities facing persistent poverty, the school is the place where they receive all those services, and so this is not just simply about making sure our kids are learning and theyre advancing academically, but for their mental health, for their wellbeing and for their physical health and nutrition. We have to get our kids back to school, and as you heard the president yesterday and even again this morning, we are absolutely determined to work in partnership with our states to give the guidance for states and communities to be able to safely reopen our schools. The cdc will be issuing new guidance next week and part of a fivepart series of recommendations that will give all new tools to our schools about what dr. Redfield made clear yr, and we are here to help. We dont want federal guidance for a substitute of state and local laws, rules and guidance. We are here to assist with the shared objective that i think is shared by every parent in america which is we want to get our kids back. We want to get them back in the classroom. We want to get our teachers back in the front of those classrooms. We want to get our children learning again. Congress is still in recess but will gather soon we already learned about additional potential support and able to remind governors 13. 3 billion is available in the c. A. R. E. S. Act for four states to assist them as they roll out and restart schools across the country. At the present moment we learned yesterday only 1. 5 of those funds has been drawn down by states and we encourage the governing to take advantage of that. Our objectives as i said are to save lives. Meet the needs of our states and their Health Care Workers. Protect the most vulnerable. And safely reopen america and safely reopen our schools. The good news is we are, we are reopening america. The jobs report last thursday spoke for itself. Nearly 5 million jobs created. And i can tell you, evidence all around the country is that the American People are finding a way to do their part, to put the health of their neighbors first, even while we all find a way to get back to work, to worship and to school. And we all have a role to play. To slow the spread, to protect the most vulnerable and to safely reopen our country, and our schools, and so i would j t just i would just close before i turn the podium over to dr. Birx for her report to simply say thank you to the American People. Thank you for what youve done so far. Thank you for the way youve put the health and wellbeing of not just family members and friends but but strangers. People you didnt even know first, and we just encourage you to keep doing what youre doing. Keep heeding the guidance of state and local authorities. Practice good hygiene, wash your hands. Wear a mask wherever a state and local authorities determine its indicated or where you cant engage in social distancing. Kniss is the role each of us can continue to play, and were seeing some early indications in some of the most impacted states that americans are doing just that. So we want to encourage you on and tell you that were going to continue to do our part, and im just absolutely confident, just as we proved when this pandemic was striking so deeply in the northeast, when it was striking in louisiana and in michigan, the American People know what needs to be done, and we know we can do it, and we flattened, we flattened the curve before. We slowed the spread before, and we can do it again. But weve got to all do our part and well do it together. With that, dr. Deborah birx and then a report from admiral gerard before we move on to other reports. Dr. Birx . Thank you, mr. Vice president if i could have the first slide, please, and i know some of you do watch what i wear. Im wearing this especially today. This came from the salt river tribe. I just want to, mask can be a fashion statement. I thank the salt river tribe. A real pleasure to be out speaking to individuals around the United States about the issues that theyre facing with covid19, to be able to meet with communities, hospital personnel, africanamerican communities, hispanic communities and our pride tribal nations. That was a privilege last week. I want to start with arizona. Just to pick up where the Vice President left off. That orange line is the number of tests performed and the blue line is the test positivity. Now, this is at the level of the state. And arizona does have three counties that were tracking very closely. Obviously you know the largest one being phoenix and Maricopa County, but this does show that the blue line which is a fiveday, a sevenday average. Thank you to the data team for these wonderful slides. The sevenday average is showing some flattening and we find that encouraging. Equally encouraging at this point, because we know the test Positivity Rate is the first thing to increase and were hoping that it heralding a stability in arizona of at least reaching a plateau in their curve. The red line represents the emergency room vitas f visits ff the covidlike symptoms and also an early indicator and we find that encouraging. The next slide shows the county were tracking. Obviously, the largest county being Maricopa County with largest number of infections, but clearly issues in houma and pima. The Vice President mentioned the weekly reports that go to governors. What the report looks like. Full size pages. This is alaskas, on the front page is our interpretation of what were seeing relevant to their epidemic. With specific recommendations related to where we see them as far as being in a danger zone. They are coded by yellow and red. And it follows that they see everything youre seeing on that first report and warning boxes, and then each of the counties are represented so that they have in one place five pages from the white house and task force that summarizes what were see and that goes out weekly. Next slide, please. This looks at florida, and you can see in the same way the red line early suggestions of decreasing emergency room visits for the symptoms of covid, and some stability starting in that blue line hoping that heralds a stability in the number of daily reported cases. We also understand that we went three a Holiday Weekend and Holiday Weekends can impact datas on both ends. Under reporting through the weekend and then catchup reporting on monday, tuesday and wednesday after a Holiday Weekend. Next slide. This shows the counties of florida that we are tracking. These are the top ten counties in florida, and you can see each of them have a different profile, and i want to call your attention to the counties that are across the bottom there, that are more difficult to see. Some of those represent jacksonville and other large metros including tampa. When the governor talks about how they were steady and low for a long period of time after reopening, this is where that is reflected for almost five weeks after reopening. Clearly, there was something that happened, though, and were looking into this across the board. Because whatever happened in florida happened across the sun belt and that all of the curves and all of the findings are mirrored. If you remember early on in march and april, we were talking about first the new york metro followed by boston, followed by philadelphia, and then chicago. New orleans was with the new york metro and so it was a series of individual curves. In this case, whatever occurred, occurred almost simultaneously across the south. So were investigating that very closely to really see the etiology behind that, because they can help us as an Early Warning signal, but also help us in guidance to the American People of what were asking them to do. Next slide. Texas. You can see texas is in a similar situation with their blue line. Were watching this very closely across texas. Next slide. But i think all of you know that theres a series of major metros in texas with significant increase in cases from houston to dallas to san antonio to el paso and mcclellan area. So the governors get this type of report with specific recommendations and then finally california. Where you can see next slide, thank you again a long time of stability but then this increase in the number of test positives and rapid increase in cases. Next slide. You can see the majority of the issue is in the los angeles area, although we see this through riverside, imperial, sacramento and now San Francisco with increased number of cases. So i want to finish with where the Vice President started about the sacrifices of the American People. Because in that recommendation, very clear recommendations that when you have a county with these types of cases, we are recommending everyone using a face covering, and i think studies now that have been done showing that cotton face coverings work that does open up the ability for us all to have individualized face coverings that express our personality. In addition, the work these governors have done and asked the American People, to stop going to bars, to close the bars to move to outdoor dining, to decrease indoor, any kind of indoor gatherings again, to all of the americans out there that are in these four states and the states that have a report in the red zone, because a series of other states we have in that zone is asking those americans in those counties, in those states to not only use face kov irving, not going to bars or Indoor Dining but really not gathering in homes either. Decreasing those gatherings back down to our phase one recommendation, which was ten or less. So thank you. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Report on testing. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Since were breaking on our face coverings, this was made by a Small Religious Community in pennsylvania. Who were helped by the Public Health service and they hand sewed these to match our operational dress, this blue uniform. I wear this proudly and think of that Community Every day, everybody pitching in across america to help us all. Where we are numerically the Vice President always said topping 39 million tests across country. The states really crushed their goal in june. The state goals was about 12. 9 million in june. Cdc numbers have finalized at about 16. 5 million tests for june. So congratulations to almost all of the states who made their goal, exceeded their goal. Were doing very well right now, between 7600,000 and 700,000 a day. 637,000 per day were averaging. Right with swabs and media. States tell us what they need. We work with nem to set those goals based on their state testing plans. After Technical Assistance by the cdc and my