Bars and restaurants close . V. P. Pence thank you, mr. President , and good afternoon. Than 2900 cases of coronavirus in 49 states around the country, i want to assure the American People that this administration, all of our partners at the state level and local Health Officials have no higher priority than the health and safety of the American Public. Cap the president s direction we will continue not only a whole of government approach, but as we discussed today, we will continue to build on a whole of america approach to confront the coronavirus across the country. The Health Experts continue to groom firm confirm, based on the latest information, for the American People as a whole the risk of serious illness remains low. But because the risk is heavily weighted to the most vulnerable, to people with immunodeficiencys and to i and peopleencies with serious Underlying Health conditions, our administrations, state administrations will continue to focus on the most vulnerable and we will continue to urge every american to be vigilant in practicing good hygiene, taking the advice of the cdc and local Health Experts to keep those most vulnerable safe. On behalf of the president and our entire team when i say how grateful we are for governors all across the country, a Seamless Partnership we have forged with them and state Health Officials, with our federal team. I spoke today to Governor Pritzker of illinois, and we are in continuous communication with governors. A phone call away. They know, they can contact us and address even the smallest need. Because is a former governor, i know firsthand that when it comes to Health Challenges in america, our states or on the local, in the lead our Health Organizations and we have a great partnership. We also want to express great appreciation to the American People. Surprisingly, it is inspiring to see the way tens of millions of americans are responding with compassion, with common sense, and we want to express particular gratitude to communities of faith that participated in todays national day of prayer. We have seen places of worship implement and policies to keep the most vulnerable safe, and also we are seeing communities of faith already stepping forward, to support and encourage those most vulnerable. Church back in a indiana that is actually no longer having services until april 10, but in the meantime they will be offering daycare to the children of healthcare workers in a central indiana. Churches all across the country are taking the opportunity to reach out and put feet on their faith, and it is truly inspiring. As the president mentioned, he spoke to leaders of the Grocery Store industry, where people buy food. We are reminded that america has the most efficient and effective supply chain in the world, and it is working just fine. Said, heesident received a commitment from those Grocery Store executives that stores will stay open, throughout the days that lie ahead. Hours may bethat reduced to allow for cleaning and to resupply, but American Families can be confident, your local Grocery Store will be open, it will be well supplied, and they specifically asked us to encourage americans to just by your weekly needs of groceries, because the Grocery Stores will remain open. Movingly, those same executives all reiterated their commitment to continue to support local food banks in the way that our brochures continue grocers continue to do around america. Tomorrow, the president and i will be briefing all of the nations governors, states and territories and the district of columbia, speaking about the progress we are making. We will be speaking to them specifically about our Widening Partnership and expanding testing to the American People. So allow me to speak to that issue, and then i will recognize the admiral, who will describe to us the excellent work the Public Health services doing. Dr. Burks will describe the importance of the new national Publicprivate Partnership for diagnostic testing that will open the door to thousands more tests in realtime for the American People in the days ahead. , first some fundamentals. As the American People know, testing is now available in all aretates, either state labs conducting tests themselves, or the cdc is processing tests. They are using the traditional manner of a manual test that allows for 40 to 60 tests per day. It is among the reasons why the president several weeks ago task to this group at the white house to reach out to commercial labs around the country and forage that Publicprivate Partnership that would bring the, the highspeed or more accuratelythroughput testing for coronavirus available in realtime. Based on the unprecedented speed of the fda, which last week approved highthroughput coronavirus testing through roche and thermo fisher, we will have access in the days ahead to over 2000 labs across the country that have equipment today to process coronavirus tests. Rapidly, at a much higher volume for the American People. In terms of delivering those services, more than 10 states, cdc labs, Public Health labs, and labs that states can now authorize in , more than 10 states have implemented drivethrough testing sites and we want to commend, new york, colorado, washington state, texas, and others that have implemented these onsite places where people can obtain test. We are also using the current cdc testing. But we are working closely with our governors to make sure the new testing regimen is available for remote sites as well. As i mentioned, as of monday we will have more than 2000 labs coming online. With aalso working number of Retail Partners to add to the work states are doing around the country, working to set up parking lot testing story testing stores. Theadmiral will update on progress over the last 20 hours. The admiral and our public forged arvice have partnership with fema and reached out to all 50 states to create a process that will enable all americans who need to be tested to go to a communitybased testing site outside of usual health care facilities. The focus on these tests, as dr. Will describe will be based on priority, and Health Care Workers and First Responders who are out there alongside people with the coronavirus we want to make sure that they have priority access. In those 65 and over will be prioritized over other tests. Describe theill progress we have made in a few moments, but we will continue to work very diligently, hourbyhour in the days ahead to expand access to this extraordinary and unprecedented national Publicprivate Partnership for diagnostic testing. , we areard to testing so pleased that congress joined. Ith our testing ae president direct did change in our medicare and Medicaid Programs to ensure coronavirus testing was included. Health insurers were brought in. They all agreed to waive copays. Good bipartisan work in the house of representatives, coronavirus testing is free and americans,or all including uninsured americans. And we urge the passage of that legislation by the senate this week. Let me say one final word about the testing issue. As the president often says, we are all in this together. Across theesting country, beginning with the the various state leadership tell us a most important, its important they are available for people most in need and for our Health Care Workers and First Responders that are helping them and supporting them. As dr. Birx will describe, the testing that is available should , for any reason you think you may have the coronavirus. We encourage people to consult their doctor. If you are symptomfree, we encourage you to work with us to make sure the testing is experiencing those symptoms. Its extremely important we have the continuing cooperation of every american and make it available during this time challenging come in the life of our nature. The that i am going to ask admiral of the Public Health commission to come forward and described the work that they are testing withnd this new Publicprivate Partnership testing. Admiral . Adm. Giroir thank you, mr. Vice president. As the Vice President said, over hours, we have developed and beginning to implement now a process in a program of testing that will neede americans to are in of coronavirus testing to be tested, effectively and efficiently, according to a few principles. Number one, we want to ensure those most vulnerable and impacted are able to be prioritized. Number two, we do not want to do testing that in any way systemns the acutecare where they could infect other people or subject themselves to infections. And we want to balance needs among diagnosis, but also treatment. Tot the balance balance the stress on the Strategic National stockpile in all our commodities so everyone gets all the materials they need. What do we do . Because, as the Vice President said, last week we had the testing, weough pit are going from manually slow to the management the regimen where we contest many hundreds of thousands of individuals per week and maybe even more. We will have 9. 1 million more of these high throughput tests available this week with numerous labs starting to turn the lights on beginning this week and over the week. Thats a game changer for us because the back of the shop testing capability is there. The front of the shop is what we have been really working on. Get a test, you have to swab individuals, get them into the system without paralyzing the Health Care System. ,ith the Emergency Declaration this was very, very important to us because it really enable be historic effective processes of working and protecting states through the normal fema mechanisms. So, representatives of fema from across the government and our Commission Core have been working on joining the unique and unprecedented Public Health mission with the historically Successful Mission of personal distribution centers, places for distribution, the pod system of fema. Our Public Health service has already deployed at thousand officers in support of the coronavirus mission. That includes to the diamond princess, to the quarantine stations, to the acutecare settings where we are caring for nursing home residents in seattle. We have a very experienced Group Brought these together. When we look at this design and how we are working with the states, we have contacted all 50 states. Every single region. Every single state. , some Vice President said of the states are rolling out their own communitybased testing. We believe we created a model based on the Public Health and the fema system that is optimized that can be used for drivethrough or walkthrough. Can screamse units 2000 individuals a day with all the appropriate personal gear and linkage to the Public Health system, including testing. We know we have the logistics to do that. We have the material to do that, and again, this is federally supported. Many states want dozens of Public Health officers to work in protective gear to test. They need supplies. They need logistical supports. Other states only need a fraction of that. Know thely need to template. Implementing those in the states, including those that are hardest hit right now. Again thatmphasize we are focusing on two very important groups and you will hear the said three or four different ways. And the groups that can be the impactful in or our outbreak number one, healthcare workers and First Responders. This is very important for two reasons. Number one, we have to take care of the Health Care Workers and responders, because when America Needs them they need to be available, and healthy, to that we allcare expected. The second group would be the we are classifying that, according to risk as those 65 years of age or older with respiratory illness in a fever of 99. 6. Those who are older do not spike high fevers like children do. 100, 105. A high that there is risk of consequences. With theirgage Health Care Professional to make sure they have an outstanding outcome. That is where we are. You will see these sites rolling out progressively over the week. This is not makebelieve. This is not fantasy. We have a model. We have rolled it out to the states. Gear,l start shipping stuff, tomorrow. We will start deploying officers tomorrow and tuesday. We will begin seeing these sites whereddition to the ones in additionle to all of the capabilities that will be distributed in the central core laboratories. I know you will have many questions. I take care of sick people. I know what happens when we get sick people. The surgeon general, the anesthesiologist takes care of respiratory difficulties. What happens there. The front endk on with the Emergency Declaration. We have all the tools in all of government to come together and industry. Not just government and states. It has really been government, industry, to bring the swabs, the laboratory testing, the fronts with walgreens and walmarts. This is been something, in my mind which has been unprecedented. Vice pres. Pence thank you, admiral. Moving, nowe are that we are ahead of the Public Private partnership, now you have a Public Health team, as well as fema moving to the states. We will also be working closely with members of the media in individual jurisdictions. As well as google. There are online resources to literally access a questionnaire. Are indicated. And in the days ahead we look forward to the same website being able to direct people to community center. But let me introduce dr. Bert dr. Burks to talk about that and the right people seeking the testing in the days ahead. Dr. Birx thank you. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Let me start by recognizing the minute women of the military serving us every day. They are my brothers and sisters. I was privileged to serve alongside them. Particularly i want to recognize Commission Core behind me. We went to visit them yesterday so we would not disturb them because of their level of dedication. Working nonstop. Thank you for your work. Thank you for explaining it so quickly. Let me go back to the way that Laboratory Work is done in the United States. I think all of you know, when you go to your doctor and you need a lab test, it is done in your doctors office. When we started this emergency started with the flu platform. It was not started and the doctors office. It was started up in state and local labs. Over the last two weeks, we have been working with the group that serves you for decades. We are ensuring that they could have the full capacity to meet the needs of the American People. It was not going to be 50 to 100 to 1000 tests. It was going to be thousands of tests. The last two weeks will be spent on getting used getting you what youre used to. How do we serve the needs of the people in the community where they reside . We know we are talking about the old with vulnerable conditions, depression, people with vulnerable conditions, depression. We do not want them waiting in doctors offices. Communityy providing led services. The processnting and utilizing our Health Care Delivery system, which is different than south korea, and adapting to our system. To the hospitals and the laboratories, we know that there will be pentup demand. The people who work in labs like i do myself, make sure that you have all the test kits you need to run this laboratory. You know what you mean. Make sure you have that available for these tests. We know with the increased ability to have tests, additional samples will be going to the sinners. Think about it. Hiv viral loads, same thing. Know what you need, make sure you have that. That will be run and the most important thing, i know, for each and everyone of you is how am i going to get my results . That theking sure reporting is available to you, to your doctor, and to the state and local governments. Understand where there are positives, where there are negatives. Sure that they have what they need. About say one bit reporting. You will know when the tests roll out, we will have a spike in our curve. For those who watched china and china reporting, they changed their definition. We are going to see that. We are going to see it spike as more and more people have access. Want to remind people how important