President trump thank you very much. We just attended a very important Task Force Meeting on the virus that everybody is talking about all over the world. No matter where you go. Thats whats on peoples minds. We are going to take care of and have been taking care of the American Public and the american economy. We are going to be asking tomorrow, were seeing the senate, were going to be meeting with house republicans, Mitch Mcconnell and everybody, and discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief. Thats a big number. Were also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where theyre not going to miss a paycheck. Be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they dont get penalized for something thats not their fault. Its not their fault, its not our countrys fault. This is something we were thrown into and were going to handle it and we have been handling it very well. The big decision was early when we shut down our borders, first ones ever to do that. Weve never done that in our country before. Wed have a situation that would be a that would be a lot more dire. Also were going to be seeing Small Business administration and creating loans for Small Businesses. Were also working with the industries, including the airline industries, the cruise ship industry, which obviously will be hit. Were working with them very, very strongly. We want them to travel, we want people to travel to certain locations and not to other locations at this moment. Hopefully that will straighten out sooner rather than later. Were working with the industries and, in particular, those two industries. Were also talking to the hotel industry. In some places, actually will do well, and some places probably wont do well at all. But were also working with the hotel industry. The main thing is were taking care of the American Public and we will be taking care of the American Public. I really appreciate the professionals behind me and the professionals actually behind them in a different room. We have a tremendous team and its headed up by our great Vice President , mike pence. And i want to thank mike because hes been working 24 hours a day just about. Hes been working very, very hard, very diligently. And very professionally and i want to thank him. I want to thank the team. And ill have mike say a few words. Thank you very much. Vice president pence thank you, mr. President. We just completed the days meeting of the White House Coronavirus task force. We had the opportunity to brief the president today on a broad range of issues. Once again, because of the unprecedented action that President Trump took in january, suspending all travel from china, establishing a travel advisory for portions of south korea and italy, establishing screening of all direct flights, all passengers from all airports, italy, and south korea, we have bought a considerable amount of time, according to all the health experts, to deal with the coronavirus here in the united states. In fact, as i stand before you today, the risk of contracting the coronavirus to the American Public remains low and the risk of serious disease among the American Public also remains low. That being said, the president did deploy not just a whole of government approach, but also a whole of america approach. Last week, at the president s direction, we met with leaders in industries from Nursing Homes to airlines, pharmaceutical companies, commercial labs and its had great, great impact. Pharmaceutical companies are already working literally around the clock on the development of therapeutics that will be medicines that can bring relief to people that contract the coronavirus. And i know how pleased the president was to learn that the commercial labs in this country, led by Companies Like lab corps and quest, have already brought a test forward and are taking that to market effective today. This week at the president s direction well be meeting with hospital c. E. O. s, Health Insurance c. E. O. s, and all building on top of what the president will be announcing tomorrow with regard to Economic Relief for working americans. We also met today in a Conference Call with 47 of americas governors. We were able to brief them on the latest. The progress that weve made. We were able to confirm with them that testing is now available in all state labs, in every state in the country. Over a million tests have been distributed before the end of this week. Another four million tests will be distributed. But as i said before, with the deployment of the commercial labs, we literally are going to see a dramatic increase in the availability of testing and thats all a direct result of the president s leadership. Today, in a few moments, we will outline Community Guidance that dr. Burks and dr. Fauci will be publishing. At the president s direction, were going to be providing guidance about how to keep your home safe, how to keep your business safe, how to keep safe and healthy at your school and well be publishing that information and speaking about that. A brief word about the grand princess. The grand princess has docked this afternoon in oakland, california at a commercial dock. 25 children, we were happy to learn, through the screening over the last two days, 25 children on the ship are all healthy. Of the people that have contracted the coronavirus 21 in all are being dealt with in proper isolation, working with Health Authorities in california. We hope before the end of the day to begin to disembark californian residents to Travis Air Force base in miramar. We have made arrangements with canada and u. K. To take their passengers back. They will be transported directly to the tarmac with chartered flights home. Tomorrow, the remaining passengers will be transported again through a very carefully controlled environment, out to the tarmac and flown to military bases. All of the passengers will be tested and isolated as appropriate, quarantined as appropriate. I want to express appreciation to the governor of california, and his administration, the governor of georgia and governor of texas for their strong cooperation with the in resolving the issues around the grand princess. It has been a partnership, which the president directed us from the very beginning. In the process that bob kadlec will detail and any questions in a few moments as we continue to work and move forward. The remaining people on the ship, the crew itself will push off from the dock and they will be quarantined and observed, and treated. The president has made it a priority to get the americans on shore. We are in the process of doing that, as well as returning foreign nationals. Let me just say one other point. The president has spoken today to congressional leadership. One of the things that i have informed the president that i have been hearing from governors is the concern about hourly wage earners in this country, feeling like they had to go to work, even if they were sick. The president has tasked the Economic Team and is working with leaders in congress to make sure that anyone who feels that they are at risk of losing their job or losing a paycheck. We tell people if they are sick, stay home. The president the team with the developing economic policies that will make it very clear that we will stand by those hardworking americans, stand by those businesses, large and small, and make it possible for us to put the health of america first. We will be able to take questions on any of these topics. Mr. President , i didnt know if you wanted to pres. Trump what we will be doing is having a News Conference tomorrow to talk about various things that we are doing economically. It will be very major, including the payroll tax cut. We will be meeting tomorrow afternoon and coming back from the senate. We have a lot of very important meetings set up. We will have a press conference sometime after that and we will explain what we are doing from an economic standpoint. It will be very dramatic and we have a very great economy. This blindsided the world. I think we have handled it very well. I think they have done a great job. The people behind me have done a great job. I will be here to let you know about some of the economics that economic steps that we are taking, which will be major. Thank you very much. Mr. President , have you been tested . V. P. Pence thank you, mr. President. Has he been tested . Have you been tested . V. P. Pence i have not been tested for the coronavirus. Has the president been tested . V. P. Pence let me get you an answer to that. I honestly do not know the answer to the question, but we will refer that question and get you an answer from the white house very quickly. Let me ask the doctors to come to the podium. You all and the American Public will have at their fingertips very quickly guidance and this is for every american. We are working with communities like the seattle area, like portions of california, new york and florida, who have Community Spread, a concentration of coronavirus. We directed our team to come up with helpful recommendations for every american family, business and school. If the doctors step forward, they can outline that for you. Dr. Birx great, thank you, good evening. It was good to get out, meeting with communities. We know that the real solution is that every american has a role in stopping the spread of the virus. We wanted it to be detailed in a way that everybody would know precisely what to do. It will be about keeping workplaces safe, schools safe, the home safe and how to keep commercial businesses safe, where people would eat or be present. The importance about this is we believe that communities are at the center of this. I came from a field where it was the community who solved our issues around hiv prevention. We are speaking about what can be done. All of this information came from a paper that the doctor provided. From the australians. You can actually look at the Scientific Evidence that informed each of these guidelines, but we will be providing that in great detail, so every mother, father, son, daughter and caregiver will know what to ask for. Dr. Fauci just to reiterate what she said, we have been speaking about the kinds of things that would keep our citizens safe in a variety of environments. We have been speaking about conferences. The cdc has been talking about this for a long time, so we thought we would put it together anyway that would be available to the general public. Dr. Burks mentioned i got a message from one of my colleagues in australia. What we had been talking about, so we came up with the idea that it would be good for clarity. We edit it and look at it how people can . What about workplace . These are simple, lowtech things. It is stated in a way that is clear, that people can understand. One thing i want folks to know is we have been looking at the data from around the world. We now know more than we ever did about who is at risk. I hope you will help us communicate this to the American People, or people over the age of 60 are much more likely to develop complications from the coronavirus and to be hospitalized. The average age of death is 80. What we also want communities to know is if you are a child or young adult, you are more likely to die from the flu then you are to die from the coronavirus. There is something about being young that is protective. We want people to be reassured by that. We want people to know that we are focusing in on groups that are at the highest risk. This is designed to keep the community safe. Keep the most vulnerable safe. It is important to understand that even though young people are not necessarily at risk, they can spread it to older people in the community. And people with chronic diseases. It is important we all take precautions. Wash your hands, cover your cough and take the steps that will be coming out in this new guide to make sure that we are doing everything that we know possible to keep those vulnerable protected. V. P. Pence world well done. Thank you. I think the Surgeon General raises a very good point. Young, myis 88 years stepfather is about the same age. This is just a really good time, us, whatfauci tells the experts tell us, is to look after family members, loved ones who are Senior Citizens and particularly those who have serious Underlying Health conditions. All the data that dr. Brix confirms todr. Birx us, is they are the most vulnerable. Serious consequences, if they contract the coronavirus. We would ask members of the media and the American Public looking on, you can go to coronavirus. Gov and this information will be posted tonight. Hopefully, it will be useful, helpful, common sense for families, schools, businesses and commercial establishments. Just to create the kind of practices that will mitigate the spread of the coronavirus as a whole. With regard to seniors, last week we raised the standards are for every nursing home in america and we are deploying all 8000 of our inspectors in every state to focus exclusively on disease compliance at our Nursing Homes. Our hearts break for the families in seattle, but we are sending the message out. They have an additional cover of protection. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Vice president. That is exactly where we are. We are working with the entire health care industry. Today we issued more guidance to Nursing Homes about upping the screening to make sure that we can protect people. The other thing we are doing is because we know many of our citizens are vulnerable, we want to make sure that they know that the Medicare Program is behind them and we are here to support them. We are letting our patients know that they can get a coronavirus test and there is no cost sharing associated with that for our seniors on the Medicare Program. We are letting them know that because of the president s leadership, over a year and a half ago, he took action to extend more benefits to the nations seniors. This is a very historic change we made under the president s leadership. If they are sick, they can call with theirr, skype doctor and medicare will reimburse for those services. We have talked about having Services Available in the medicaid program. Great. Let me invite bob to come forward as well, to fill us in on the latest progress. It is dockside now and is going through a very careful process of having americans and foreign nationals come off and everyone will be tested. Thank you very much. Yes, we began our medical operation to basically disembark those passengers. On saturday, we placed a medical crew on the boat to augment the physicians and nurses that were already on the ship. We basically ensured that the quarantine on the boat was being enforced. We evaluated first children and those who were ill, identifying anyone who is severely ill if possible. When the boat arrived on the dockside, additional personnel came on board. We disembarked about half the passengers from the boat today and the other half will leave tomorrow. Everyone will be medically screened before they get off if there is any question about their physical health, they will be screened again and additionally. And they will be transferred to sites the four quarantine in the united states, Travis Air Force base, miramar, Naval Air Force base, and Dobbins Air Force base. Foreign passion theres passengers will be transferred. We are working with the United Kingdom to return their passengers back to the United Kingdom. We are doing this all in cooperation with the support of the state of california and the city of oakland and with the support of the department of defense, department of Homeland Security and and u. S. Coast guard. V. P. Pence great. On the subject of testing, we had a good discussion today with 47 governors. Outlined for them all the testing methods available. Now in every state lab in america. We are rapidly expanding that. Let me ask the secretary of hhs to give us the best on the availability of testing. Thank you, mr. Vice president. We continue with our strategic plan. Across all of the components represented by many of the here, which is to diagnose, treat, contain, mitigate, research, and communicate. Its what we do in a health care situation. One element of that is to test which cdc developed in record time after getting the genetic sequence posted from china. That was available at cdc. Was noat point on, there individual that a Public Health official needed to get tested. The cdc did not have surplus capacity to test. We have been moving progressively to move the test closer and closer to the patient and the bedside and make it as easy as possible for us to use testing. Very much in line with our countries facing other circumstances. At this point, has many of you were here on saturday for the have overnow, we one million tests that have shift from the cdc and two private contractors. Those are now out. Every state Public Health lab is validated and operating those tests. In addition, hundreds of thousands of those tests are in hospitals, and private labs, in commercial labs. 2. 1ow have a total of million tests that are available that are shipped, waiting to be shipped, or waiting to be ordered. By the end of this week, we expe