Three of governments response to the outbreak. We could soon learn more. A massive trilliondollar stimulus bill, a package that could put checks in the hands of every single american, and time is of the essence. Two members of congress now becoming the first to contract the virus. Another putting himself in selfquarantine protectively this morning. Over at the white house, President Trump signing one relief package on paid sick leave, and free testing. The president taking rare executive powers that could put the response more on a war footing, as wall street marches on, sinking once again after another wipeout on wednesday. Our nbc news team is ready to g covering every angle of this ongoing crisis. Kristen welker at the white house, courtney at the pentagon, Stephanie Ruehl on set with me at 30 rock and Gabe Gutierrez outside of the Brooklyn Hospital center. All eyes on the white house this morning, kristen. We are awaiting an update from the Coronavirus Task force within the next hour. The president last night signing off on the second phase of stimulus. The commander in chief is calling on the pentagon to help combat the coronavirus, but its not enough. Tell us more kristen, what youve learned about what were expecting in the announcement or so in the next hour. Reporter well, first eamon to pick up where you left off, President Trump did sign that phase two overnight which is effectively going to expand the number of tests that are available all across the country, and to make sure that testing is free. They are now setting their sights on phase three. This would be the third phase of this package that would essential will i provide aid to not only individual americans in the form of checks, but also to Small Businesses. It would be a stimulus package that would give direct cash to some americans to help keep the gears of the economy going. Now, President Trump is going to have that briefing a little bit later on today, with the task force. We anticipate, hes been there for a number of the briefings but of course we cant be sure until it gets under way, and of course, the key question is, what happens next . What more will they do to make sure that hospitals have the equipment that they need. They have mobilized of course parts of the army to help with that. The army corps of engineers, courtney will talk more about that, but the question and House Speaker nancy pelosi raised this, this morning, yesterday he signed the defense protection act, but he has not officially invoked it yet, eamon. He wants to leave that as essentially a last step that he would take. Nancy pelosi saying dont wait, do it now. Hospitals all across the country need more equipment. They need to make sure that they have this personal protective equipment and gear to help combat this virus. So those will be among the top questions, what specifically would trigger the president to officially invoke that act. All of this comes as were also awaiting the president , heading over to the fda later on today, and we anticipate well get an update there, in terms of their efforts to try to develop a vaccine. Eamon . Kristen welker at the white house, as i mentioned. The commander in chief is calling on the pentagon to combat the virus. Courtney kuby joins us from the pentagon. The president deploying two hospital ships and assigned the defense production act. Talk about the new developments and how realistically are they going to possibly tip the scale in the ongoing fight one way or the other . The defense production act we dont have a good sense exactly what that will do immediately. The assumption is its used for encouraging or for really giving the federal government more authority that private industry could help produce equipment and things that are needed for Overall National security. There are shortages of ventilators and masks. Those are the two most obvious things that private industry would be used to produce more of. As far as the way the pentagon stands in this, the u. S. Military has already released some things from their strategic reserves, in this case its been about 2,000 of these breathing machines that are so needed all throughout the country, particularly up in new york, we hear a lot about new york right now, and then also upwards of 5 Million Masks from the military strategic reserves. Beyond that, we have the two hospital ships. I think its really important for viewers to know what these hospital ships are and what they are not. They are floating hospitals, but theyre not like you would think of a normal u. S. Navy ship in that they have a crew of people on and ready to deploy at a moments notice. There are not medical personnel constantly staffed on the ships. Both are in mant innocence as well. The mercy westcoast based ship was put on an early planning order on monday to be prepared to deploy so they could start getting equipment and personnel, the medical personnel needed on the ships so they could be ready to deploy hopefully in a matter of days. The comfort east coast medical ship is in maintenance and will not be able to be moved out for a matter of a couple weeks most likely. Thats the one that would go to new york. We dont know where mercy would go, obviously somewhere on the west coast, perhaps to washington state. Its also important to point out the ships are not built for Infectious Disease treatment. Theyd help civilians with things other than the coronavirus. So trauma cases, potential surgeries and whatnot. The ships will not be floating coronavirus hospitals. Courtney kube live at the pentagon. Stephanie ruehl joining us as nbc business correspondent. Yesterday another wild day on wall street. Stocks plummeting to say the least. You know this better than i do and adding to the fears and the jitter you have two traders on the floor of the Stock Exchange testing positive for coronavirus essentially shutting down not the markets, just the trading floor. This is pretty unprecedented, first time that happened to go to allelectronic trading platform. Yes, i wouldnt say whats happening on the new york Stock Exchange is different from what were seeing around the world. What were facing right now isnt a traditional financial crisis. In 2008 it was a selfinflicted crisis, Financial Institutions put our whole country at risk because they took too many risks with the houses money. Right now what were facing is a business crisis. Healthy Companies Across the board through no fault of their own have their revenue grinding to a halt, and now were seeing more and more people say were going to, in the emergency, for the new york Stock Exchange, were going to go online but there are lots of businesses where their income, their revenue is about to evaporate, so there are more calls for what do we need to do. Not to bail these companies out for wrongdoing but figure out how during this time when for Health Reasons you have to press pause, can you keep these businesses solvent, so their employees have somewhere to go when we get to the other side of this. Youll find few industries that can survive a sustained period of time with no revenue. And really quickly, to that point, are there more industries that are more critical to our economy, from your perspective, financially speaking and jobs wise. Is it based on Companies Like apple that have value but not necessarily a large number of employees or industries that have employees but not necessarily the value . Its an amazing question and really tricky. Trying to decide who is more systemically important is really difficult, which is why theres more people saying you need to do something across all business to just keep the machine going, because yes look at the cruise industry. It employees thousands of people but do you need a cruise . Good point. Thank you very much, Stephanie Ruehl, appreciate it. Lets cross back over to the white house and bring in Nbcs Kristen Welker for a quick update. Reporter just very quickly i misspoke, the president is going to fema this afternoon, not the fda. Hes also going to be speaking to governors all across the country as they try to combat this crisis together, eamon. Kristen welker with that update, thank you very much. Cross over to Gabe Gutierrez in brooklyn. Doctors are sounding the alarm about the lack of protective equipment. Gabe, its a reporter with getting from hospitals really across the country. Youre witnessing this firsthand from the reporting that you are doing. It is a pretty grim picture painted for you this morning. Reporter thats right, eamon. Doctors across the country are sounding the alarm. The American Medical Association in a letter to mike pence essentially warning of this shortage of supplies, as you heard kristen mention. I want to point out something behind me, this is the type of tents that have been popping up across the country, just in the last hour or so, a small line has started to build there. These are the prescreening tents where patients can come in and see if they meet the criteria to be tested for covid19. Now the Health Care Workers weve been speaking with say they can manage this. The situation is under control for the time being, but they worry if these patients continue to come, the cases continue to build over the coming days and weeks that they will not be able to handle it. Social media, there was a hashtag started get me ppe, personal protective equipment, things like surge cat masks, face shields and ventilators. Health care workers across the country say that is what they need right now and if they do not have this protective equipment, they could end up sick, and then what happens . They dont have plans in place. Now, eamon, the cdc also today is saying that some of these Health Care Workers as a last resort can actually use homemade equipment such as scarves to put on their faces to use as protective masks. They admit theyre not sure if that will be effective but as a last resort they can do that. Health care workers as weve been hearing say this could be a dire situation down the line if these cases continue to increase. Gabe gutierrez live for us in brooklyn, Kristen Welker at the white house, Courtney Kube at the pentagon, thank you so all of you. Maryland govern larry hogan updating after the first death in that state confirmed as a result of covid19. We have our eyes and ears on that. Well bring you any news out of that press conference as soon as we get it. Lets bring in nbc news medical contributor dr. Roy, clinical assistant professor at nyu l langone health. Critical moment for our nations hospitals and alarm from the governor of new york as well. Let me first get your reaction to that, the reporting that there is a lack of protective equipment for doctors and nurses on the front lines of this response. Good morning, eamon. Good to be with you. I hope everyone watching is trying to be as calm as possible during these unprecedented times. Ive been communicating with my colleagues all over the country with different specialties, emergency medicine, cardiology, oncology and primary care medicine, we are all very worried about whats happening right now in terms of the Health Care Worker shortage, as well as equipment. As you heard from your previous caller say that see dak is revising recommendations in terms of protection using scarves and bandannas which are suboptimal in terms of protecting us from infection. This is all in anticipation of a severe shortage in Health Care Workers, doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, so in addition i believe they said that even Health Care Workers with mild symptoms can still come in to work as long as they use appropriate protection. This is a reflection of what we are expecting to be a severe shortage in Health Care Workers. Dr. Roy as we were coming to you, i was talking about the governor of maryland giving us a press conference. Weve gotten some information from that press conference that i just want to share with you, that is the governor confirming that one of the patients contracting covid19 is a 5yearold child in that state, also a staggering number, 88 increase of cases in maryland in the last 48 hours. When you juxtapose that information, now that is just a single case obviously, the 5yearold, but a significant one to take note of, as a data point. When you take that as well with some of the reporting we are now learning that this may, in fact, impact younger adults as well, how alarmed should we be . This is the New York Times article also suggesting that nearly 40 of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were between the ages of 20 to 54. We dont have really a good complete understanding of who is all being affected by this. Yes, so that news is going to have a Ripple Effect. My again condolences to every Single Family thats affected particularly those who lost loved ones. The fact that a young child, i understand that this is just one case for now, but if its one, it could be many, many more, and again, the Ripple Effect means that if more and more children get it, that means the children who are exposed to older people particularly grandparents, people that are 60s, 70s, 80s, its going to increase the risk of more of the older people going into hospitals, getting sick and unfortunately, getting critically ill, and as weve already heard we have such a severe shortage of icu beds, ventilators and Critical Care supplies and again, Health Care Workers, this is going to be really serious but we need to keep watching the data and we have to keep on reacting in response but i really think its important to be proactive as much as we can in terms of setting up facilities, spaces, supplies and the appropriate staff as well. All right, dr. Lipi roy, thank you very much. Appreciate your time this morning. Programming note tonight lester holt hosts a live prime time special, coronavirus coronavirus pandemic our correspondents and experts will give you crucial real time information plus analysis and Health Advice from nbcs Coronavirus Crisis team, that is tonight, 10 00 p. M. Eastern on nbc, msnbc and the streaming service nbc news now. President trump and Congress Working toward phase three of coronavirus relief. Minnesota senator tina smith is here to tell us what lawmakers are doing to help americans. Plus, restaurants are one of the hardest hit industries in this age of social distancing. Well have a live report on what one wellknown los angeles eatery is doing to keep from closing its door. When you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com tmobile has the first and only nationwide 5g network. Experience it on a Samsung Galaxy s20 5g. Right now, when you buy one, you get one free. Plus get 2 lines of unlimited and 5g access included, for only 90 bucks a month. Were finally back out in our yard, but so are they. Scotts turf builder triple action. It kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. Our backyard is back. This is a scotts yard. Shouldnt you pay less when now you can. Data . Because Xfinity Mobile gives you more flexible data. You can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. All on the most reliable wireless network. Which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. Get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. Plus, get 300 off when you buy a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. I realize these days are only making more of us anxious. So much happening now at such a rapid pace we cant keep up. That is why right now, were going to do something that anyone can do and i promise it helps. Lets just take a pause. Lets just take a deep breath together. It costs nothing. It helps. All eyes are on Mitch Mcconnell this morning, waiting for the Senate Majority leader to unveil a third massive stimulus package aimed to help those with coronavirus. 500 billion in correct Cash Payments to americans, it comes after President Trump signed phase two into law overnight. The familys first Coronavirus Response act providing for free coronavirus testing, paid emergency sick leave, and more funding for medicaid, Food Assistance and unemployment benefits. Joining me from capitol hill, democratic senator tina smith from minnesota. I know you tweeted the family first bill was a good first step. Theres more work to do. What are you pushing congress to do next . Well, we face an unprecedented Public Health and economic crisis and made some good steps but we need to go full force ahead on three things i think are so important. The first is there is still a lot of work to do, to make sure that our hospitals and Health Care Systems are fully prepared. In minnesota, we have modeling which shows that when people really start to get sick, we can expect six times higher demand for icu beds than were ready for right now. We have to put resources into our hospitals and Health Care System. Second, testing. We are not where we need to be on testing, and then third and fourth i would say is how important it is we put money into the hands of minnesota and american families, that have lost their livelihoods literally overnight and we support Small Businesses that are over 50 roughly 50 of the jobs in this country. This is a time where we need to respond i think with honesty and urgency and with compassion. People are really hurting. Senator, to that point helping families in minnesota and across the country let me get your thoughts about how democrats are involved in negotiations right now. Were talking about phase three, but specifically what are democrats bringing to the table . What are the sticking points, if any, that are holding this up . Well, we have laid out over this last week a pretty full agenda of policy ideas that would do those things i described focusing on health care and testing and putting families and Small Businesses first. Honestly, right now, whats happening is the majority leader is not, last i heard not working with the democrats, and this is a big mistake, because minnesotans and americans expect republicans and democrats to Work Together on this. This is not a time for partisanship, and i want to add that the bill that we passed yesterday passed with broad bipartisan support. It had the support of the president. Thats the coming together that i think people are expecting us to do. Let me talk to you a little bit about your home state, minnesota, now 77 confirmed cases, i believe. Im not sure if that number changed since i last checked. What is the biggest obstacle facing your state right now, and do you believe your state is doing enough in terms of the social distancing or do you want to see a shelter in place order issued by the governor . To give context to that, 77 cases today, a week ago it was nine. So we are seeing dramatic shifts. I am really happy for the leadership of our governor, governor walls who put into place significant new social distancing policies over the weekend. Minnesota schools are closed, restaurants are closed, hair salons and nail parlors are closed, so people are hunkering down and holding in place, and its kind of like going into a deep minnesota winter right now. But heres the thing, im really worried about this. 50,000 minnesotans in the last week applied for unemployment insurance. Thats from up around 2,000 a year ago. So thats the scale of the economic crisis were seeing. I dont think we have a full picture of how bad it is about to get for this friday and its economy. Let me get your thoughts finally on the building you work and you had senators early on in this selfquarantines them selves. What steps a the safety of this staff and more importantly should congress continue to work in the same way it is, the Senate Majority leader and speaker of the house not wanting to ask members to work remotely or vote remotely. Im here, i think almost all of my colleagues are here because the work that we have to do is so important, and we have our offices are all working virtually here here in washington, and also in minnesota, and i think all of my colleagues are being very careful when we come and go from the senate floor to keep our distance. I worry about the clerks and the senate staff that have to be there all the time and dont want to have them be exposed to what we might have been exposed to. We have to be careful about this and i am somewhat optimistic in the face of all of this that even around the country, people seem to be taking this need that we need to stay away from each other physically as much as possible, the people are taking that for the most part a lot more seriously than they were a week ago. You would not think so if you look at the images out of clearwater over the weekend. Exactly right. Certainly troubling. Minnesota senator tina smith thank you for your time. Thank you. New york Governor Cuomo have l have a live press conference, well bring that to you as it gets under way. As many as 7 million jobs could be lost because of the coronavirus, including restaurants where many are struggling to stay afloat. Well talk to one of the most famous restaurants in los angeles. First a sign of Global Solidarity in Uncertain Times in rio de janeiro. The christ the reseemer statue was lit up with the flags of all the countries impacted by the coronavirus. It is as billions around the world deal with a threat that knows no race, ethnicity or nationality, an important show of togetherness even as countries are increasingly forced to hunker down in isolation. Into a smaller life . Are your asthma treatments just not enough . Then see what could open up for you with fasenra. It is not a steroid or inhaler. It is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Its an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. Fasenra is designed to target and remove eosinophils, a key cause of asthma. It helps to prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can reduce the need for oral steroids like prednisone. Fasenra may cause allergic reactions. Get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. Dont stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, or your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Could you be living a bigger life . Ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. Could you be living a bigger life . I need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Yoall this grass. All this mulch. All these projects to do. You need a tractor that can do it all right. You need the 1 selling subcompact tractor in the u. S. The versatile kubota bx series. phone ringing a phones offers big button,ecialized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. , get details on this state program. Call or visit and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state program call or visit im eamon mohyeldin. Welcome back to msnbcs breaking coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Any minute well hear from new York Governor Andrew Cuomo from the state cappal inial banny. Half an hour the Coronavirus Task force will hold a briefing at the white house. Two headlines serving as a backdrop to that update. U. S. Cases totalling around 9,000, and that phase 2a package signed into law by President Trump, paid sick leave and free testing. Congress and the Administration Working to fast track a third bill around 1 trillion. The focus there direct payments to americans, Small Businesses, and how for some of the hardesthit industries help. An hour into the trading day stocks not looking too bad, 82 points up, you see it will as layoffs, furloughs and hour reductions continue to accelerate. Has a long way to go to make up for the losses over the past couple of weeks. Joining me is democratic congresscome susan wild of pennsylvania. Her district announced unfortunately its first coronavirus related death on wednesday. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us this morning. Im sorry to hear about that loss. What are you telling your constituents this morning about that and do you foresee this leading to any changes in how your area is responding to the pandemic . First and foremost im deeply sorry about the death in my district, it is alarming to people here and my constituents. I grieve for his family and for everybody who is so worried about the health of their own family members. Our district that has two really fine hospitals, they are working so incredibly hard to keep up with the demand. Theyve been testing people. Were waiting for a number of tests to come back. Im expecting that pennsylvanias number of 133 confirmed cases is going to escalate rather rapidly, as those test results come back. I dont think that should be a cause for terrible concern. This will be accumulated tests that have happened over a number of days. Were just now going to be getting the results this week. The hospitals are in overdrive. The concern is over lack of personal protective equipment. The supplies are dwindling and want to make sure those continue to be received as needed. We touched on the economic aspects of all of this. What are some of the most urgent needs in your area as we survey what the country needs . Well, i heard senator smith speaking before. My district has a lot of the same concerns. I have an awful lot of people who are selfemployed, who are Small Business owners, who are a part of the gig economy, independent contractors. I am hearing from them every single hour, multiple messages from people directly. Their concern whether they are going to have enough money to put food on the table and a roof over their familys heads. The same concerns i know districts are experiencing across the country congresswoman, sorry to cut this short. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is updating on the coronavirus outlook. Lets tack a listen. Projections and it is still exactly that, can we get the spread down to a rate that the Health Care System can manage. What is going to be the issue in the Health Care System . It will be the number of hospital beds. Its going to be the amount of protective equipment, and most of all, its going to come down to ventilators, a piece of equipment that up until now was relatively inconsequential, but when you have respiratory illnesses and the volume of respiratory illnesses, the number of ventilators becomes critical. To give you a sense of scope, we have about 5,000, 6,000 ventilators that we can identify. We need about 30,000 ventilators. This is a nationwide problem. I was on the phone with the governors from the other states with the National Governors association yesterday. Every state is shopping for ventilators. Were shopping for ventilators. We literally have people in China Shopping for ventilators, which is one of the largest manufacturers. So this is a major problem. Its an issue that the federal government can actually play a very constructive role. Something called the federal defense procurement act, where the federal government can basically Order Companies to produce certain materials, and were going to need protective equipment in hospitals. Were going to need ventilators, and that is something that a state cant do but the federal government can do. We said we are fighting a war on two fronts. Were fighting the virus and were fighting fear, and they are two totally different situations that you have to deal with. In many wise, the fear is more dangerous than the virus. I started working on disasters, emergency situations when i was in my 30s. My First Experience was hurricane andrew in homestead, florida, and i felt it. I saw on the ground what happens when people panic, and the panic and the fear is as dangerous or more dangerous than the hurricane. Ive seen it in floods. Ive seen it in fires. We now have misinformation and fear and panic, which is as contagious or more contagious than the virus. And we have to deal with both of them. Ive had some conversations that are just irrational with people who heretofore were wholly rational. I had a conversation with a businessperson from new york city who i know who was panicked new york city would be locked down, that there were going to be road blocks, that there were going to be mandatory quarantine. He was going to be imprisoned in his house. I said, you know, where did you hear that . Well, thats what they say, thats what im hearing theyre saying and i was saying, look, i would know, right, because i would have to authorize those actions legally. Its not going to happen. Well, i hear it is going to happen. I know, you i would have to do it and im telling you, im not doing it. It must have taken me 25 minutes just to slow him down to hear the information. When you get that emotional, that fearful, you literally dont process information the same way. We have to be aware of that, from the media, the elected officials, clear communication, consistent communication, because misinformation, emotion, fear, panic is truly more dangerous than the virus at this position in my opinion. Because the facts on the virus we know. Weve watched it from china to south korea. Weve studied it here. We know the numbers. It is exactly what we said it was. Its exactly what we said it was from day one. We talked about the increased spread. We talked about the vulnerable populations, seniors, compromised immune systems, people with underlying illnesses. So we know what this virus does. We know how it communicates and how to deal with it. Its not going to be easy. Its not going to be pretty, but we know the trajectory of the virus. Lets just take a deep breath and make sure were all, were acting on facts as opposed to acting on fear. When you act on fear, then youre in a dangerous place. The facts we can handle. Let me give you a couple of the new facts today. Just to recap we said we have a plan of action. There are three steps, flatten the curve, slow the spread, increase the current Hospital Capacity, and number three, identify new hospital beds. Do them all at the same time, which is the challenge, make government work, mobilize, operationalize, and get it all done, get it all done today. On density reduction, this is a data driven decision, look at the increase in the number of cases, look at the Hospital Capacity, and do adjust and do everything you can to slow the increase of the spread, so that your Hospital System can deal with the growth. Weve been taking increasing steps on density reduction, because the numbers have been increasing, and again, this is driven by science and by data. We said voluntary work from home, mandatory closing of school statewide, mandatory reduction of state and local workforce, mandatory tristate agreement on bars, restaurants, gyms, mandatory inoffice workforce cut by 50 . We said that yesterday. The numbers have gone up overnight. I am going to increase the density control today, no more than 25 of people can be in the workforce. Yesterday it was 50 . Were reducing it again, except the essential services that we spoke about yesterday. That means 75 of the workforce must stay at home, and work from home, again, voluntarily im asking all businesses to have people work from home. As a mandate, 75 of your Employee Base must work from home. In terms of increasing current Hospital Capacity, our current Hospital Capacity is about 50,000 beds statewide, majority of those beds are in down state new york. Commissioner zucker is working with the hospital industry, is going to put out new regulations, assessing how many more beds we can get in our existing hospitals. Waiving department of health rules, waiving department of Financial Service rules, how many more beds can we get in those hospitals, and were working on that aggressively. At the same time, identifying new hospital beds. The army corps of engineers was with us yesterday. We had a very good meeting. We are looking at sites across the state to find existing facilities that could expeditiously be turned into health care facilities, and again, when i said the federal response is very welcome, i want to thank the president. He said that he would bring the army corps of engineers here. They came here the next day. I spoke to him last night to follow up on the meeting. So this is Going Forward aggressively. Were also going to take a bold action, but a necessary action that offering 90day relief on mortgage payments, waiving mortgage payments based on financial hardship, meaning if you are not working, if you are working only parttime, were going to have the banks and Financial Institutions waive mortgage payments for 90 days. That will be a real life economic benefit. It will also be a stress reliever for many families. Waiving these payments will not have a negative effect on your credit report. There will be a grace period for loan modification. Were not exempting people from the mortgage payments. Were just adjusting the mortgage to include those payments on the back end. No late fees or online payment fees, postponing or suspending any foreclosures during this period of time. And waiving fees for overdrafts, atm credit cards. This is a real life benefit people are under tremendous economic pressure. Making a mortgage payment can be a stressor. Eliminating the stressor for 90 days i think will go a long way. Again, well reassess as the situation goes on, if that should be extended or not. Number of positive cases, total positive 4,000. Number of new positives 1,769. You see additional counties that are being added to counties that have cases, the spread myrrhors whats happening in the country, just as the spread has gone through all states. The spread is going through our counties. It was down state first now moving up state. New york has 2,000 cases. Washington state 1,100 cases. Washington state had cases earlier because it went through a nursing home, if you remember, but new york state has more cases than washington state. More cases than any state in the nation, and i made that point to the federal government and the president , and he understands that, if theres a state that needs help, the state by the number of cases is new york. In terms of testing, we have tested now 22,000. We tested 7,500 people last night. Why are you seeing the numbers go up . Because you are taking more tests. People see those numbers go up, they get nervous, they panic, oh, look at how many more people have the virus. Thats not how many more people have the virus. Youre just taking more tests so youre finding more positives. There are thousands and thousands of people who have the virus who were not testing. There are thousands and thousands of people who had the virus before we started testing. There are thousands and thousands of people who had the virus and resolved and never knew they had the virus. We are testing because you want to find the positive cases so you can track them down, isolate people and stop the spread. But you cant watch these numbers like the stock market and say thats the indicator of anything other than the indicator of how many tests were taking. It is good news that were now up to 7,500 tests. We were at one time doing 200 tests per day just to put that 7,500 in focus. So thats a tremendous increase in the number of tests, and you are going to see the numbers go up. The hospitalization rate is very relevant, because remember, this is all about the flow into the Health Care System. So 777 out of 4,152, perspective, intperspective, perspective. We know the virus. We know what it is does. We know who it hurts, who it affects, Johns Hopkins since day one has tracked this virus through china, 222,000 cases, 9,000 deaths. 84,000 recoveries, 129,000 pending. One last point. We talk about this as a government response, federal government is doing this. State government is doing this, government, government, government. This manifests on a number of levels, and the government response is obviously very important, but the impact i think is greater and probably greatest as a social phenomenon, and on people, and on families. This is tremendously disruptive on all sorts of levels. It came out of the blue. For me in new york, it reminds me of 9 11, where one moment which was inconceivable just changed everything, changed your perspective on the world, changed your perspective on safety. Children who were young at that time, but of school age watched on tv, they didnt know if their parents were coming home. I think it changed their whole outlook on life after 9 11. This is a situation like that. Its obviously totally different magnitude, but its like that. Its a moment that just changes your whole life. Yesterday you were going to work and you were going to go to the office party. Today youre at home and the kids are at home, and youre worried about health and youre worried about your job and worried about economics, and youre dealing with personal issues, and youre dealing with family issues, and its all happening at once, and then you turn on the tv, and theres all this different information, and nobody can tell you if this is going to be 30 days or 60 days or four months or five months, or nine months. The stress, the emotion is just incredible, and rightfully so. It is a situation that is one of the most disruptive that i have seen and it will change almost everything Going Forward. It will. That is a fact. Its not your perception. Its not just you. Its all of us. All of us. And its true and its real. Nobody can tell you when this is going to end. Nobody can tell you i talked to all the exports. Nobody can say two months, four months, nine months. Nobody. Its hard living your life with that big a question mark out there. Nobody can tell you when youll go back to work. People can tell you that its not just you economically, its everyone. Take comfort in that. Federal government is actually acting on an economic package, but its true. Having your family all together is a beautiful thing. Its also different for a lot of people, especially for a prolonged period of time. So these are major shifts in life and in the most emotional, stressful conditions that you can imagine. And i think my own personal advice is understand it for what it is, and that its not just you. It has changed everything and it will for the foreseeable future. And think through how youre going to deal with it and what it means and even try to find a positive in it. Its a very negative circumstance, but youre going to have time on your hands. Youre going to have time with your family. Youre going to have time at home in this busy hurryup world all of a sudden somebody said, okay, you have a couple of months where youre going to be home with the family, no work, work from home. Its a totally different situation. How do you use that . How do you adjust . Its not going to be done overnight, but it is something that everybody has to think through. My last point is to the younger people in our great state and in our Great Society and thats why i invited our special guest here today, michaela. My grandfather andrea, my grandfather on my fathers side. Im named for my grandfather andrew, Italian American immigrant. When i was youngish, 16, 17, 18 and i would do something that he didnt like, he would just look at me, and he would say we grow too soon old and too late smart. I would say what does that mean, grandpa . Is that a criticism . We grow too soon old, too late smart. These pictures of young people on beaches, these videos of young people saying this is my spring break, you know, im out to party, this is my time to par party, this is so unintelligent and reckless, i cant even begin to express it. Now, i had a conversation with my daughter about this. Im governor of the state. I can order a quarantine of 10,000 people, but i cant tell my daughter to do anything. All right . And i have to be careful because theres almost an inverse response to a direct action. But i do say to all three of them from soon as they could crawl, i used one line. What is the one line i used to say . Riskreward. Riskreward. Just pose the question. I couldnt offer an answer because whatever answer i would offer, they would do the other. Riskreward. It makes no sense to go expose yourself to these conditions and expose other people, expose other people. Michaela wanted to take first of all, michaela was graduating this year, and her School Closed to online courses, so shes not going to have the graduation. Were going to have a big party at the appropriate time. We dont know what that time is going to be, two months, four months, six months, nine months, but at the first opportunity were going to have a big party, so thats going to happen, but she was deprived of the last year and the last few months of college which im sure were very intense study period, and thats what shes deprived of, the intense study period of the last few months. I remember the last few weeks, a lot of studying. But thats a shift in life, but she was going to take a vacation on spring break and go with friends and take a trip. Riskreward. Luckily, she made the right decision and im proud of her for that. No prompting from me besides the question, riskreward. What these people are doing is the risk does not justify the reward. Theyre putting themselves at risk. Young people can get coronavirus. Thats one of the other myths young people dont get it. Young people do get it. And young people can transfer it and you can wind up infected someone and possibly killing someone if youre exposed to it. Riskreward. Questions, comments . Your plan for the mta theyve asked for a bailout. What if they cant get that from the feds . Would the state step in . The economic consequences here for the mta, for the state budget, for county budgets, town budgets, village budgets, all the public authorities. Its just a big question mark. Theyve all lost tremendous revenues, and were going to have to figure out as a nation how to deal with this. The ridership is down on the mta, and the revenue is down on the mta. Say hello to every other Public Transit system in the United States of america. Its going to have to be a national response. Shut down transportation, how is that possible [ inaudible question ]. The mta will continue running. Theyre an essential service, on the essential service list, and the revenues, were going to have to make due. Rob, do you have anything that you wanted to add . Right now were looking at the ridership. Ridership is down in all of the systems, but the workers are there, the workers are running the trains. The trains are running on time and new york city still has there are still some businesses and essential services that are flowing. The mta is part of bringing people back and forth. So right now were looking at that. Every Transit System in the nation is facing the same reality. [ inaudible question ]. Were looking at the mta as well. This is part of the discussions were having with the legislature right now. [ inaudible question ]. Were looking at, as the governor mentioned, the entire budget is impacted. Were going to have to have plexability in the budget to prioritize Certain Services over others. As the governor indicated, the mta is an essential service for new york city. Remember all these broad statements. We have to run a government. We have to run and service a society. We need the Health Care System up and running. Doctors have to get to work, nurses have to get to work, Health Care Workers have to get to work. We need police, we need fire, bus drivers, daycare workers. All those functions have to happen, so we need a Transportation System because we need people getting to work, refuse has to be picked up. All these functions have to continue. When they talk about shut down we have to make sure were operational and healthy and functional. I know youve had trouble with the phrase shelterinplace. Are you considering any kind of more stringent restrictions on people leaving their home or going to businesses or things like that . I believe communication is important and i believe words are important. Say what you mean and dont say what might alarm people. The level of alarm in this country, in this state, especially in new york city is higher than i have ever seen it. Somehow people have the idea that new york city may be quarantined, may be locked off, that they may be imprisoned in their home. I dont know where they get it. This is the conversation. I was talking about it last night. This is a smart person who i know for a long time just panic, just fear. None of that is going to happen. None of that is going to happen. There is no quarantine plan for new york city. He said to me, you did a containment plan for new rochelle. My containment plan in new rochelle didnt contain anyone. Its a bad word. It was meant to contain the virus. You can come and go in new rochelle. Schools were closed, large gatherings were closed. There was no quarantine containment. Well, you called out the National Guard. I called out the National Guard to help with food delivery and cleaning surfaces. By the way, we use the National Guard every time theres a snowstorm or a fire or a flood, i call out the