Walk us through the day. Romaine two things. First, it started with all eyes on washington, waiting to get that almost 2 trillion stimulus package. Summoning some encouraging some some encouraging signals from leaders that this was being worked out. Then we could potentially get a vote today in the senate. Then, it would go to the house. We had the president about effectively reopening the economy by easterday in the u. S. , less than three weeks away. A lot of people took that as an encouraging sign that Economic Activity would at least start to normalize. We saw the s p rally big time. The dow jones had its best day going back to 1933. I know none of us are old enough to remember what was going on in 1933. On that date we had the big rally in the dow, that was just two days after we had that first fireside chat from fdr and he sort of put some optimism back into the economy about what the government was going to do. We are seeing sort of shades of that here where the market is sort of waiting on the government to do something to boost the economy. I also want to point out, to be 14 was the date that we 2014 was the date we created the new york faang complex. Today was the biggest oneday gain on a percentage basis that we have seen on that index. A lot of people heading back into those growth stocks, those mega cap tech stocks. We saw apple go above one billion. One trillion, i should say. Athave Microsoft Holding that one trillion mark as well. Whole amazon, the complex. We have been here before, we have seen these big rallies only to be met with a selloff the next day. We will see if this carries over. You mentioned apple rally in big time. Mark mark berman mark gurman broke the story that apple is considering reopening stores in april. A lot of controversy. How does the market make sense of that . The marketght now, is really looking for any optimism out there. On some of the previous programs here, we have talked to several doctors of the scientists, who have basically said it will be difficult to meet that easter deadline president wants to get. We have not sort of reached the peak of what scientists think will be the most cases. Testing in the u. S. Has not rolled out like we have seen in other nations, including in europe. There are questions if the nation from a Health Perspective may not be ready to open up. The fact that youre hearing this kind of tone out of the president come out of other figures in washington, the fact that they want to get the economy back up and running, that is enough for some people to say that possibly the worst may be over. Emily hang on, i want to get more insight on this market swing from eric knudson. We do not have an accurate picture of the outbreak in the United States because testing has lagged. People who want to get tested simply cannot. We are still seeing a really disturbing number of deaths out of italy, spain, yet the president is talking about reopening the country. How do you make sense of that as an investor . I think you hit the key points. Clarity onin some the path of the virus, there will be so much uncertainty around the impact on gdp growth, the impact on earnings growth, that we will continue to see an extended period of volatility. Days, ity can be up can be down days. The rally today is very nice. It puts some confidence back in the market. We think it is too soon to say that we have the all clear. Emily i want to talk about tech in particular. A big rally in apple, microsoft, tesla. Are they going to be vulnerable to the swings, the gigantic swings that we have been seeing on a daily basis . We think that all risky assets will be vulnerable to the kind of volatility we have seen. The key predicates we are can getat before we comfortable have to do with comfortable, understandingly path of the virus. That will take at least another 68 weeks. Second will be understanding the impact on gdp growth and earningspershare. Major drivers of that will be the degree and magnitude of stimulus and how that stimulus is implemented. Expectation of a large Stimulus Program as well as the potential that if we get back to work sooner, that will limit some of the downside to gdp and earnings growth. We expect gdp growth to be worse 13 , and, maybe around earningspershare to take a 25 30 5 hit this year. There will be a lot negative headlines yet to come before we can get a sense that the virus has peaked and start to look through this. So we expect volatility to be around for at least another month or two. Romaine we know we will get this Economic Data rolling out over the next few weeks that will show some pretty dire numbers. Helpful those results will be. What is your Guiding Light here in terms of looking at fundamentals, looking at Economic Data, which will give you a better sense of where the economy is and where some of these companies stand. We are looking at market indicators first. From a fundamental standpoint, you need to understand the path of the virus, have some sense around gdp growth and earningspershare. We need to see liquidity return to some components of the market. We are starting to see evidence that mortgagebacked and Corporate Credit will normalize, although still a ways from that. We need to see volatility start to come down in markets. It is off the peak, but volatility has a memory. It is likely it will stay high for a period of months. Finally, we are looking for a bottoming pattern in a clean markets. We think it is quite possible that the lows in the s p 500 could be in the low to thousand. 0s. He low 200 knutzen, thank you for your insights. Coming up, we will head to d. C. And get the latest on the stimulus package. Vice we will talk about president joe bidens campaign. How it evolves in a digital world. Fortime, we are standing by that press conference at the white house, the daily coronavirus briefing. This is bloomberg. Emily president now saying he wants to reopen the u. S. Economy by mid april as the head of the World Health Organization says the u. S. Could become the next hub of the outbreak and that the pandemic is accelerating. I want to bring in Lori Davidson latest on the president s thinking given that we do not have an accurate view of how widespread this outbreak is in the u. S. Given lack of tests. In the capital building, lawmakers are prepping for an economic downturn and people staying home longer. Right now, the senate is in the final stages of finalizing legislation that would expand unemployment and sermons, four or five months more. Shortterm loans for businesses that would go through the end of the year. At least on the lawmakers side, they are saying, look, we need to prepare both families, households, and businesses for an economic downturn that could last for months or years based on the virus and businesses really suffering. Emily meantime, the Vice President s chief of staff saying that the goal would be to reopen the economy by easter. They said they are going to listen to health care experts. That said, the experts are contradicting what the president is saying here, at least the goal he is setting. How do we expect this to play out . Laura that is a really good question. Next week is when the end of the 15 days trump had announced earlier. You hear from his experts when they go out, they have said, look, this will be a longer thing. We need to look at the data. Trump is saying, i wanted to get the economy going. I think more people will die from suicide, he suggested, than the virus spreading. You really see a disconnect of Health Experts saying this is going to be bad if we open up all commerce in schools, businesses, versus trump who of course has an ion his reelection and the economy playing very heavily into that. Forward ats move the expense of public health. Emily give us the latest on the stimulus plan. Do you expect to see a deal in the senate by the end of today . Laura a deal is a very loose term. It is possible we see a deal. Getting the actual text of that bill may spill into tomorrow. As of 20, 30 minutes ago, there were still some issues being negotiated. They were working out the language. It is possible it could come out tonight, but these things usually take a little bit longer than estimated. Thank you so much for that update. Meantime, the coronavirus is ushering in a new era of campaigning. Vice president joe biden, the leading democratic candidate, is trying rapidly to adapt. I want to bring in the digital director of president obamas reelection campaign. So great to have your perspective here. First of all, talk to us about how well positioned the Vice President is to make this switch. You cant hold campaign rallies, you cant meet with people in public, you cant shake hands, which is something that joe biden has always been pretty good at. I think it is a weird time in politics, just like in business and everywhere else. Challenges tot of throw out every plan and figure out how to do everything remotely. I also think there is a big opportunity. The entire country is stuck at home, spending more time with our devices than we usually did. I dont think it is going to be easy. We are all focused on one thing right now. They have a lot of people are probably not that inclined to donate to a campaign or do a lot of the other things a campaign needs. We are tethered to our phones more than usual. I think that creates the opportunity to do some cool stuff and reap the benefits. Rushed toens team put together a tv studio in his home, he gave a live update. Yet, none of the Major Networks took that broadcast. You had like tens of thousands of people tuning in. Meantime, you have President Trump on television every day and in front of americans faces. His bite and at a distant is joe biden at a disadvantage here given how well the president can use Technology Despite never sending an email . Teddy i think what you are saying is a condemnation of the mainstream media. We all know that the paper that the president is peddling misinformation at his once or twice daily to hourlong press conferences every day. I think the Cable Networks not to covering them. I think there ought to be combat the mom, i think there ought parity in themum, coverage of trump and the democratic party, the likely nominee. We have a whole bunch of Networks Covering trump live every day and the former Vice President is having to sort of Building Audience from scratch on his digital platforms every day. Us then biden is not the nominee yet. You still have Bernie Sanders out there who seems to be doing a pretty good job tapping into this online moment. He has upwards of 5 Million People dialing into his online rallies. Is senator sanders better equipped than the Vice President to take advantage of this . Senator sanders is probably the best digital candidate i have seen in my lifetime. Obama person so it is hard for me to say, but it is true. When you have millions and millions more followers than your competitor, that means there are millions more people who are likely to get a notification or see it on their feet. That means more people are going to tune in. Vice President Biden has a disadvantage in that he was in office ofresidents eight of the formative years were a lot of other politicians were building up their followings. That means he has less of an audience to bank on. Emily lets talk about facebook. You had candidates like mike bloomberg, tom steyer spending time on facebook ads. Mike bloomberg, of Course Company found the founder of bloomberg lp, the Parent Company of this network. Does that have something to say about facebook and the value of facebook ads . Teddy for me, its is a little bit less about the value of facebook ads than it does about the value of ads. I dont think you can point to Television Ads as having had any more affect on the primary outcome as facebook ads. The founder of this network i am on was reported in the times spend fiveekend to times more on Television Ads that he did on internet ads. For me, we are in a period in which we have to rethink our old assumptions about what works and what does not work in politics. It is obvious that money overall, no matter how it is spent, did not sort of determine the outcome of this particular primary. It was a weird primary, so im not sure that you can conclude from this one that next time there is a competitive primary, the highest spender will win. Primary,usly in this neither tv ads, nor big field presence in iowa, none of that seemed to determine the outcome. I think everyone doing my line of work is to think long and hard about how we make decisions. Emily fascinating to have your perspective today. The digital director from president obamas reelection campaign, teddy goff, thank you so much. Coming up, we will talk about amazon suspending 4000 sellers for price gouging. And, we are waiting on President Trump to appear at the daily coronavirus briefing. This is bloomberg. Amazon has said it has suspended almost 4000 sellers for price gouging on its ecommerce website. I want to bring in spencer, who covers amazon in seattle. Price gouging has been a problem now for a week. Amazon has tried to crack down here and there. And did not work apparently they are taking more dramatic steps. They knocked down about 4000 sellers. That is about the best that amazon can do right now, play whackamole. On a during the site and watching for items for sale at inflated prices. It is a common theme for them. We have seen it happen in hurricanes and previous natural disasters. They just have to show they are taking some action so that they are seen as an ally in fighting this as opposed to a perpetrator. Well has this worked . Cursory search of amazon and you still see inflated prices for Hand Sanitizer and bleach wipes. Spencer the best they can hope is to deter the activity. Send a signal. Other people are discouraged from doing it. They will find a few shopkeepers here and there, potentially even arrest some, and hope that discourages others from doing this. Another thing to consider its state laws vary. Some states do not have any price gouging laws at all. The ones that do, they cover different types of products, generally food and fuel. The rules are all over the place. Emily i saw an interesting analogy that what amazon is trying to accomplish now is like black friday or cyber monday happening every day and they did not have months to prepare like they do for a typical black friday or cyber monday. Talk about how well amazon is managing this. We know that bezos is having these daily sessions about what they can do better. It is still hard to get the stuff that you need and get it quickly. Amazon is in the middle of this crisis just as much as anyone else. Seeing a surge in demand at a time that is usually fairly slow. They are also managing a panicked workforce. We are seeing the coronavirus spread. Now you have workers that you need more than ever are full of selfdoubt on their own. Is it worth me even going to work . Mode. Azon is in crisis we know that twoday delivery is just not an option. They are doing the best they can out of those circumstances but the circumstances seem to be getting worse. Soper in seattle, thank you so much. Coming up, a view on the credit crisis with the ceo of credit karma. And we will take you to washington where the president will be speaking on whether to reopen the economy. We will take you there as soon as it starts. This is bloomberg. Awesome internet. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] emily welcome back to bloomberg technology. You are looking at a live shot at the White House Press room where President Trump is scheduled to appear momentarily for the daily coronavirus briefing. When that starts, we will take you there. We have headlines out of the state department. The state Department Planning 40 flights to pick up 3400 americans who have been stranded abroad in the middle of this pandemic. We will continue to bring you headlines on that as we get them. Meantime, we are waiting for this 2 trillion stimulus package for a deal to be reached on that in the senate. This is the irs has extended the tax filing deadline in the u. S. To july. I want to bring in the ceo of credit karma, kenneth lynn, to give us a view on what is happening for americans out there. Thank you so much for joining us. Credit karma is an interesting gauge of what is happening in consumers lives right now. What is happening in their pocketbooks. Are you seeing a decrease or increase in app usage right now and if so, how much . Kenneth we are definitely seeing an increase. People are now just getting used to this notion of sheltering in place. Once people get over the notion there is no shortage, people will start thinking about what is happening with her finances their finances . That is a realization people are coming to. Emily how much of an increase are you seeing . Are you seeing an increase of people accessing their credit lines . If so, how much . Kenneth what we are seeing specifically is a lot more people working. A lot of people are realizing this might go one. People are trying to shore up their overall financial situation. Roughly double digit increases in personal lending applications. To counter that, we are seeing less Credit Card Applications. Fewer people are transacting because people are sheltering in place. As a result, credit cards become slightly less utilized. Personal lending and having dollars. Meantime, the tax filing deadline has been extended. What impact do you think that will have . Kenneth a couple of things. First, they are obviously extended to july 15. This is an everchanging thing, but the filing has been extended to july 15 but also the payments have been extended. That is important because it preserves more cash in peoples pockets. Right now, cash is king. The way the markets are with the credit markets, because we dont know what unemployment is going to look like, but the government and what the irs is planning on is getting people more relief. If you have cash, holding onto it a little longer i should note, right now, the federal pieces are changing. Each state still varies. Emily now, you started credit karma in the middle of a recession. This wouldnt be the first time that americans in recent years have seen stimulus checks. President obama sent stimulus checks. George w. Bush sent stimulus checks. In your view, do these checks actually work for Everyday Americans . Kenneth they help reach the shortterm gaps. Keep in mind that roughly speaking, a quarter of americans live paychecktopaycheck. Roughly half americans dont have 1000 in savings. A 1200 stimulus check goes a long way relative to where people are. That ist said, i think only a shortterm fix. Consumers really need to hunker down. They need to think about what their necessities are. The need to make a budget and preserve their cash. They need to make their cash on hand go further in this economic environment. We dont know if this is going to be a threemonth thing, ninemonth thing or ian 18 month problem. People need as much electability as possible. Emily nobody knows the answer to that question. A lot of folks have credit cards tied to airlines, Airline Miles and rewards. When airlines are not flying, you cannot rack up points that way. How do you imagine that impacting some longterm Credit Card Application choices here . Kenneth i think even as a more broad picture, i think it is important to recognize Credit Card Companies generally model the default rates to be similar to the Unemployment Rate. Because we dont know what the Unemployment Rate is going into all of this, Credit Card Companies in particular are very concerned about who do you lend to in a world were a lot of Small Businesses might be hurting . That is the problem we are seeing. I think for most consumers. I think that is why having a plan is important. Extending your cash lines. This is why if you have a mortgage or car, having an opportunity to refinance so you can preserve your cash flow, those will be the important things for consumers. Emily the feds decision to cut rates, how was that impacting some of your Services Like your savings offers . Kenneth well, the yield has gone down quite a bit, obviously. That has actually reduced the incentives to stay. But the reality, a lot of people need to pull those dollars out. Although the shortterm rates are not directly tied to things like mortgages, what would you are seeing is the bond rates going driving an influx in mortgage refinance. That is rate for consumers. The problem is a lot of mortgage capacity has been eaten up. You are seeing mortgage lenders are not able to get out. Good for business in the sense that it drives more refinancing necessary to rally the economy. The flipside is the shelterinplace and lack of resources makes the processing much harder. That is the tension we see in the market. Emily all right, kenneth lin, ceo of credit karma. Really important to have your perspective. Thank you for joining us. Coming up, we are going to be talking about testing. What is the state of testing in the United States as the president makes his decision about reopening the economy . We will take you to that press conference at the white house. This is bloomberg. Lab scientists are warning the u. S. Will not reach full Testing Capacity for covid19 for at least another month because of shortage in testing kits as well as a skilled lab workers. Another month. I want to bring in our Health Care Reporter kristin brown. It seems like if you want to get tested, it is incredibly difficult to get tested right now. Im getting notifications from my district if you feel a little sick, dont get tested until you have to go to the emergency room. Give us a picture on testing right now in the United States and how that is likely to evolve over the next few days. I think a few things are happening here. At the same time that we are having Companies Come in and rampup testing, put many different versions of tests out there, we are seeing more and more cases of the coronavirus. We have more than 20,000 cases in new york alone confirmed at this point. Wrapping up the number of tests produced cannot keep up with demand for those tests. The cdc did expand guidelines to help providers that they should use their best judgment but they are urging people to prioritize people who are very ill, that have symptoms of coronavirus, or people like healthcare workers that have been in contact with someone with the coronavirus. Or has a preexisting condition, as well as moderate symptoms of the coronavirus. Right now, they are trying to triage and figure out of the limited number of tests there are, who makes the most sense to give those two. O. Emily why, why, why is there still a shortage . Is it because they dont have enough money to make the tests . Enough suppliers to make the tests . What is the very root of this problem . Kristen i think it is a lot of different factors all coming together at once here. You need a place to do the test. You need a facility that can pump out tests. This means capacity for many factories. The companies that make these tests were not anticipating a month ago. We have companies rushing to put tests out there. At the same time, we have cases in the United States growing exponentially. That production cannot keep up with that demand. I think we wont see some easing, but at this point i am hearing that doctors that even a week ago were able to give tests to people who just had mild symptoms are now saying, ok, go home, monitor your symptoms, check back in with us. Because the number of tests is just, the shortage is increasing as the number of cases increased as well. Emily you are saying the testing situation is actually getting worse, not better . Kristen i am saying as the number of cases grows, the demand is the number of cases grow, the number of manufacturing cannot keep up. Manufacturing are trying. More and more tests are coming online every day. People are trying to solve the problem. There are really good efforts being made. I think we will see a little bit of easing of this issue in the near term. At the current moment, we are seeing Manufacturing Capabilities that just cannot keep up. We are hearing from doctors who are saying that a week ago, they were able to get test results back into her three days. Now sometimes it is taking as long as a week. The whole system is really stressed. Trying to work as fast as it can, but it is not working as fast as the virus is spreading. Emily all right, kristen brown, thank you so much for that update. Now we will talk to one of the companies that is trying to solve this problem, carbon health. An Urgent Care Network across california. I want to bring in the founder caesar, joining us now. Your Company Actually released some inhome testing kits on friday. Just a couple of days later, you retracted them. What happened there . Did you actually get approval or try to get approval . Yeah, we followed emily hang on. We are going to have to come back to get. The president just took the podium. Lets go to the white house. Pres. Trump ease the guidelines and open things up to very large sections of our country as we near the historic battle of the invisible enemy. Going on for a while, but we are winning. I said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. I think that would be a great thing for our country and we are all working very hard to make that a reality. We will be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done. Easter is a very special day for many reasons. For me, for a lot of our friends, it is his very special day a very special day. What a great timeline would be. Easter is a great timeline. What a great timeline that would be. My First Priority is always the health and safety of the American People. I want everybody to understand that we are continuing to evaluate the data. We are working with the task force and making decisions based on what is best for the interest of our fantastic country in order to defeat the virus. We must continue to be very strong. Spirit hasence and been inspiring to everyone. Right now, this virus is attacking 149 countries, but everybody looks to us and they are watching us and i am very proud to be president. There is tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Stay focused and stay strong. My administration and myself will deliver for you as we have in the past. Let me provide you an update on critical preparations and supplies in our war on the virus. Through fema, the federal government is this riveting more than 8 million distributing more than 8 million n95 respirators, 14 million masks, and many millions under order. Shields, 1. 9ace million surgical gowns. 13. 5 million gloves. And more than 4000 ventilators neede areas of greatest have already been sent. We have 4000 being delivered to new york. The federal government is using every resource at his disposal to acquire and distribute critical medical supplies. The core element of the strategy is my executive order authorizing the use of the defense production act which has already been activated, actually a long time ago. Edingte companies are heatin our call to produce medical equipment and supplies because we know we will not hesitate to invoke the dpa in order to get them to do what they have to do. It is called leverage. You dont have to use it from the standpoint of actually been activated, but the threat of it being there is great leverage. Companies are doing as we ask and companies are actually even better than that. They are coming through and they are calling us. It has been really something to see. 3m,rning, fordur General Electric health care are making tremendous numbers. They have already started respirators, ventilators and face shields. We did not have to exercise or utilize the dpa in any way. The fact we have it helps. For the most part, we wont have to. We are receiving full cooperation from companies with the understanding that the federal government stands ready to compel cooperation if need be. We have not found that to be the case. It has been really amazing to see thsese big, strong, powerful, and in some cases, very small companies, familyowned Companies Step up and make a lot of great product for what we are going through and what we will continue to be going through for a while. The army corps of engineers and the National Guard are Building Four hospital facilities in new york city. It will be operational very soon. They have already started. In addition, they are Building Four separate medical facilities in different parts of the state. We are dealing with Governor Cuomo on that. Four hospitals and four medical facilities at the highest level. Really incredible facilities. Temporary, but incredible. We are also deploying the u. S. Navy hospital ship and that will be arriving in new york harbor in the nottoodistant future. It is finishing its maintenance. Vagueness outine maintenance and we condensed it very seriously. The other hospital ship these are incredible ships it is already on its way to los angeles. We are in frequent contact with state and local officials. And, getting a lot of work done. We are likewise building hospitals in los angeles. We are working also in the state of washington. We are working with the governor of the state of new jersey, building a medical facility and hospital facility. And doing a lot of work. I want to thank the people from fema and also the army corps of engineers. Secretary mnuchin and the members of my administration continue to work closely with congress. Im pleased to report that we are working to pass the biggest and boldest Financial Relief package in american history. Soon hopefully vote on a 2 trillion bill that will deliver direct Cash Payments to struggling americans, no fault of their own. This came out of nowhere. Nobody could imagine this even happened. But it is not their fault. We want to protect, and we will, all of the things that a person needs protected, a family needs protected. We are working on Job Retention loans for Small Businesses and extended Unemployment Insurance for laidoff workers. The legislation will include billions of dollars for Additional Resources for our really heroic, incredible doctors, nurses. Brave. In hospitals as well as support for hardhit industries such as the Airline Industry and the cruise ship industry which employ tremendous amount of people and are serving very important functions beyond that. With very tough protections for the american taxpayer. The loans will be very secure and they will be very profitable. At the same time, they will bridge they call them bridge loans in many cases. They will be bridging these Companies Back into very good health. Some of them are very Important Companies that for weeks ago did not have a problem. Im also confident that the democrats will do the right thing. I feel very confident. They are working very hard together right now, republicans and democrats. They are very close to a fair deal for the people of our country. Today, as you probably saw, the dow surged over 2100 points. Alltime record, history in the exchange. This is very encouraging. I think part of the reason is they are looking at what is close to being passed. And a very big part of it is they see we want to get our country open as soon as possible. We are working very hard on that. That is a very big factor in todays historic gain. The legislation developed in the senate is the first step to restoring confidence and stability to americas economy as we look ahead to the time we can carefully and responsibly reopen our country for business. We hope that is going to be very soon. I want to assure americans that we have a team of public Health Experts. They are great people. Incredible talented. They love our country. Also, economists and other professionals working to develop a sophisticated plan to reopen the economy as soon as the time is right. One based on the best science, the best modeling and the best medical research there is anywhere on earth. Our great people have been, especially when it comes to public health, experts and officials have been helping other countries, dealing with other countries, in touch with other countries helping them out cousin many of them have never seen what has happened. Our decision will be based on hard facts and data. Im also hopeful to have americans working again by that easter, that beautiful easter day. Rest assured, every decision we make is grounded solely in the health, safety and wellbeing of our citizens. This is a medical crisis. This is not a financial crisis. Thing that nobody has seen for many decades. Nothing like this. Marshaling our economic strength is a key feature of defeating the virus. Producing the Material Supplies and equipment that we need, and doing a really fantastic job. We are helping the governors. In a Conference Call the other day with the governors, we allowed the press to join us on the call. The spirit between us and the governors has been really great. We should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival. I think we have learned a lot, learned a lot. This crisis has underscored how critical it is to have strong borders and a Robust Manufacturing sector. For three years, we have embarked on a Great National project to secure our immigration system and bring back our manufacturing jobs. We have brought back many jobs, record numbers of jobs. T, thiss really shows experience shows how important borders are. Without borders, you dont have a nation. Our goal for the future must be to have american medicine for american patients, american supplies for american hospitals, and American Equipment for our Great American heroes. To both parties must unite ensure the United States is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word. Energy independence. We have established that. Something incredible we have established. We are energy independent. Manufacturing independence, economic independence. And, territorial independence enforced by strong, sovereign borders. America will never be a supplicant nation. We will be a proud, prosperous, independent and selfreliant nation. We will embrace commerce with all, but we will be dependent on none. Above all, we know that the best thing for our economy and the very, very now is a powerful victory over the virus. Every day, the American People are selling the unity and resolve that has always defined the character of our nation. In new york, citizens are using 3d printers to make hundreds of face shields. They are making them by the hundreds. In texas, businesses and churches are uniting to collect gloves and thermometers for hospitals. In these selfless actions of our amazing citizens, we are seeing enduring strength of our magnificent nation. A spirit that can never be futureand a victorious that can never be denied and never will be denied. Now, what i would like to do is perhaps ask a person who has really established herself as maybe the worlds great expert on what she does. If i could ask deborah to come forward and sing a few words and then i will ask tony to come up and speak. Then, our Vice President. Then, we will take a few questions. We will do it quickly and probably see you again tomorrow. Thank you, mr. President. I think those of you who heard the town hall, we are continuing to accelerate testing at a record rate. Tests that 370,000 have been done on the majority of those, over 220,000 in the last eight days. Which those of you have been tracking the south korea numbers, put us equivalent to what they did in eight weeks that we did in eight days. This was made possible because of the hhs team working together. Bringing together the strength of the fda with the cdc and under the leadership of secretary azar. We are very proud of those numbers, but we know we have to do more and we continue to accelerate testing to ensure those who need the test are tested first that have access. As we talked about yesterday, we are working on the ability for people to take their own samples. That does not mean home testing. That means taking your own sample in the front of your nose with available swabs into normal saline that can be transported to the laboratories. That will allow and free up all of the drivethroughs that are staring on ppe. You will be able to do that with gloves rather than the full ppe outfits. This will allow for more of that ppe to be dedicated to our hospitals. I think those of you are tracking this epidemic closely like i ham. You are beginning to see there are encouraging results coming out of italy. We are impressed by the decreases that are seen in mortality, the number of people succumbing to this illness, and the number of new cases. Our new cases will continue to surge because we are still working on our backlog. Although, we will be in touch with the laboratories after this press conference to find out how many are still in backlog and how many were run in the last 24 hours. Until we can get into a 24 hour cycle, we will have disproportional number of new cases compared to the actual new cases. We will let you know when we have reached that equilibrium. Willly i know dr. Fauci talk about this further we remain deeply concerned about new york city and the new york metro area. Of all cases in the u. S. Are coming out of the metro area and 60 of all new cases are coming out of the metro new york area. 31 of the people succumbing to this disease. It means, because they are still at the 31 mortality compared to the other regions of the country, that we could have a huge impact if we unite together. This means they have to be following the president ial guidelines that were put up eight for nine days ago. This will be critical. To everyone who has left new york over the last two days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left new york. I think like Governor Desantis has put out today, everyone who was in new york should be selfquarantining for the next 14 days to ensure the virus does not spread to others the matter where they have gone. Whether it is florida, North Carolina or out to far reaches of long island. We are starting to see new cases across long island that suggest people have left the city. This will be very critical that those individuals do selfquarantine in their homes over these next 14 days to make sure they dont pass the virus to others. Based on the time they left new york. So, if they have already been four days out, it is 10 more days. I thank you to help get that message out to others. Dr. Fauci . Thank