president that we're about to hear. >> good afternoon. the headline from president trump today is that he's declaring a national state of emergency under the auspices of two federal mandates. one is the national emergencies act. the other is the stafford act. declaring an emergency under the stafford act will allow the president to tap into the fema disaster relief fund. a total of $42 billion in that fund right now of which $35 billion would be available. that is the same fund, by the way, that fema uses to address natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, things like that. so the president will tap to billions to help respond to the coronavirus. the declaration under the natural emergencies act has to do with health and human services and waivers for medicare, medicaid and the s chip plan, this is designed to increase the capacity in local markets for hospitals to be able to treat people, for hospitaling to take each other in. right now there's restrictions in the number of beds funded by mid care and medicaid. weighers will allow them to do that. if one hospital is inundated and has to transfer medicare and medicare s chip patients to another hospital, right now there's red tape that would get in the way of that. this will cut that red tape in order to facilitate the easy transfer of those patients. what it's designed to do this afternoon is get more money to the people that need it most and at the same time facilitate the easy treatment of patients that come down with the coronavirus. we'll hear all of that from the president and more coming up in just a few minutes. >> bill: john, stand by as we await for that. i want to bring in "fox news sunday" anchor, chris wallace. hello to you. a counsellor in chief here. people are waiting for specifics as well. john filled in a lot of the blanks now. what are your questions? >> well, this has to be viewed in the context of the president's prime time address on wednesday night which was widely viewed as not doing what it needed to do. didn't re-assure the public, didn't staunch the panic. the stock market had the biggest single day point drop on thursday, 2,400 points, this is the second chance to make a first impression when it comes to getting on top of this crisis. another big issue here. it will be interesting to hear whether the president addresses that. that is that house speaker nancy pelosi has come up with a coronavirus relief bill that she's been working around with the treasury secretary, steven mnuchin for days now. they had seven phone calls just today about a half dozen yesterday. this bill would call for food assistance, especially for families where the kids, schools are closed and they used to get breakfasts or school lunches, free coronavirus testing, also paid sick leave for people that have to quarantine and improved unemployment benefits. now, it looked like there was a deal between the treasury secretary and the speaker of the house. the democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. but house republicans are unwilling to go along with this until they see whether the president will go along with it. there's been a number of cases where it appears that members of the administration and the parties agree on everything and the president at the last minute backs away and blows it up. the house democrats don't want to sign on unless that the president will sign it. that's a big question. it will be interesting to see whether the president answers that when he speaks today. >> bill: thank you, chris. stand by. i want to bring in former chief of staff, leon panetta from california. take us inside the west wing and give us a sense about the decision making and the meetings that are happening on a day like today. >> well, if it's working correctly, there ought to be a lot of meetings on policy and the direction that the president needs to take. there needs to be a coordinated task force operating out of the white house that can provide all of the policy information and provide some of the action guidance that the president needs to take. the president has to take charge of what is without question the most serious crisis in his administration since he became president. >> bill: you heard the details in the bill before congress, the house side anyway that chris wallace is talking about. how much relief could that bring to americans as they hunker down over the weekend and try to figure out how this affects them? >> well, you know, it's important that he declare the emergency. he probably should have done that as the center centerpiece for his speech to the nation from the oval office. i'm glad that he's doing the national emergency. provides funding, provides the kind of flexibility that is needed in order to deal with this crisis. in addition to that, i would help that the president can work with congress to come up with an emergency package that will bring republicans and democrats together in order to show the nation that we are working together in order to deal with this crisis. >> bill: when you see a situation like this, sir, you're in the trenches of this, the information, the headlines, they're flying at you. not just here but around the world. you look at the number of cases that have jumped in italy and spain and germany. it appears as if europe has developed into the epicenter for lack of a better word for the current pandemic. what did you think about the move the other night to restrict travel from europe to the united states and would you expect more to be added on to that? >> i think it's incredibly important that the president obviously focus on how we can contain this virus within our own country. at the same time, i think as a global leader he ought to work with other countries and the world to develop a global approach to dealing with this. this is a global problem. this is not something that we can just isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. the reality is the world is going to have to confront this issue the same way we're going to have to confront it. that will take leadership, take the ability to try to develop a consensus policy approach that includes other countries around the world so that we can confront this virus and the defeat it. >> bill: what about the emergency defending, the disaster declaration. you approve of that. some suggested it come earlier in the week. we've reached the point we are where we are. i don't know if you've been watching tv, sir, but the governors are at the microphones in various states across the country trying to re-assure the people in their states that they have a handle on this. knowing that you cannot predict the next phase of this story, as a governor, as a leader of state, what do you tell your people? >> well, obviously there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty that is out there regarding this virus. uncertainty is probably the biggest threat that the president and these governors have to deal with. they all have to roll up their sleeves and confront it directly, this is a crisis that involves almost every level of government. but it has to be led by the president. the president has to show that he's willing to confront the reality that we're facing in terms of what the virus is doing, that he's willing to do everything necessary to get the testing out there that people need to deal with this virus and that he will do everything necessary to contain this virus. working with state and local governments as well. this has to be a unified effort by everyone, taking charge of their part in trying to make sure that we deal with this threat to our country, to our economy, to our society. >> bill: stand by. thanks for your time. we get a moment, we'll bring you back. back to chris wallace in washington as well. looking at the financial impact of the past week. everybody is going to open up their 401(k), chris. you have steve mnuchin on your program on sunday. the fed has inject add lot of money in this program. you're going to get more money. your questions for steve mnuchin will be pointed, i'm certain. here's the danger for everybody going away on a friday. who know what's they come back to monday. the teleworking is a real thing. major companies telling employees to work from home starting monday. steve mnuchin will say what? >> well, to go back to the bill that he's been working on with nancy pelosi, you know, leon panetta was talking about how important it is that you have a sense that everybody is pulling in the same direction, whether it's the president and the white house, whether it's the democrats in congress, whether it's the various governors and mayors around the country. seems to me it would send a very alarming signal if for all of the talk all week about congress was going to pass a bill, already been criticism in the senate because they decided to take the weekend off because they say we don't have a bill. now it looks like mitch mcconnell was pretty pressie as he has been so often. but after days of negotiations and nancy pelosi has made it clear she's going to bring to it the house floor. she needs a 2/3s vote which means she needs republicans and democrats. she just can't pass it with the democratic majority. if the president doesn't give the sign and the members of the house go home and they've done nothing, strikes me it's going to strike a somewhat alarming signal, send an alarming message to the country. that's an issue for steve mnuchin. he's been the point man with nancy pelosi on this. particularly based on the president's prime time speech on wednesday night where they had to walk back several issues. trade -- >> bill: it wasn't the best look. >> a variety of issues. it awfully important that what the president says today is, you know, 100% pure everything in it, accurate, factual and there's no effort to try to minimize what is obviously a very serious situation. >> bill: stand by. i thought it was interesting when nancy pelosi said they're pushing for the sick paid leave for 14 days. what they said last night 14 days and up to three months. there's a hold-up. we'll see if we can get to the root of it. chris wallace, stand by. quick commercial break here. we expect the president to come out in about eight minutes. so we'll hear what news he has to share with the country and the world in a moment. ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein. is entresto helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. i appreciate what makes oreach person unique.um. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ . >> bill: fox news alert. we have leon panetta in california, chris wallace in washington d.c. and dr. janet joins me live here in new york. she's a specialist in family and emergency medicine. welcome to our coverage. >> thank you. >> bill: today as you look globally at this situation, it appears the cases are decreasing in china and decreases in south korea. yet you see the ripple effect in europe. your concern at this hour on a story that is changing by the hour is what? >> my concern right now is making sure that we have as a physician doctors, nurses, first responders, that we have the supplies, the tools and the medications that we need to treat our patients. supplies meaning masks, gowns, hospital equipment such as ventilators, that sort of thing. that is critical. also, surveillance and quarantine. if you're told to be on 14-day quarantine, it's important to ensure that you follow those guidelines and take personal responsibility, this is how we can minimize the spread of this virus and prevent it from spreading from one person to another, which could potentially, bill, overburden the hospitals. if we can spread this out over months or days, it can minimize the burden. >> bill: you're seeing patients in new york. >> yes. >> bill: what is their condition? how do you treat them? what symptoms -- >> i spent last night testing and swabbing and treating patients. i found a lot of the time i spent with my patients counselling them and educating them. a lot of anxiety and fear. what i want to tell them, take personal responsibility. if you're sick, stay home. we'll look to see if you need to be swabbed for the coronavirus if you have symptoms. it's important to understand that 80% of the people so far from the data that we have recover. we heard dr. fauci say that. recover without my medical interventi intervention. the high risk groups are older. it's so important that patients understand, this is a highly infectious virus that easily spread from person to person. we have control of preventing that if we adhere to social distancing, avoiding large crowds, keeping your hands washed and clean and staying home if you're sick. i had a patient that was unwell. i say you need to stay home and get better, not go to arizona. >> bill: and that patient got on a flight and went to arizona. >> i hope not. >> bill: if way you laid that out, if the recovery period is as quick as you described, what does that tell you about the virus? >> that tells us there's hope. just as we see in china, the numbers are going down because of the strong quarantine measures, surveillance measures and enforcement of these measures in addition to testing. this will last a little longer. we're going to hit the peak and it's going down and a lower number of cases. right now it's estimated there's 5 to 10,000 or so cases in the united states. that number is expected to double every six days. that's why it's so important to be able to conduct testing and to be able to self-isolate. isolation doesn't mean quarantine. it means avoid contact with large crowds, that sort of thing. if our president declares a national emergency, that doesn't mean we're on lock down or doesn't mean that america is shut down. it's just to help enforce and allow federal and state officials to be able to have more flexibility, more funding -- >> bill: a greater ability -- >> yes. >> bill: we asked for questions from our viewers earlier today. we got a ton as you can expect. we're watching the door to the rose garden. to leon panetta first in california, give us a sense outside of our new york world as to how this is being viewed in california. you're a long way from where we are. yet the situation the serious as well in your state. the government declared a state of emergency several days ago. what is happening now there that we need to understand, sir. >> well, we're in the process of going through containment. the governor issued guidance yesterday that limited public events to 250 people, requires people stay five, six feet apart from each other. has issues other guidelines. the result is that events here and monterey are being cancelled. we had to postpone our lecture series set for monday. other key events are being postponed. it's important for the president to make clear to the american people that we all have to sacrifice in the short term. going to have to take some tough steps. this will pay off if we're willing to go through the pain of implementing this containment. once we get a handle on what is happening with this virus, then i think we can begin to turn things around. right now we don't have a handle on the extent of this virus. that is why testing and finding out just exactly how many people have this virus across the country is extremely important right now. we need a baseline in order to determine whether or not we're being successful or we're failing at trying to control -- >> bill: that is a call to arms in a social sense. perhaps in a medical sense as well. doctor, to the testing kits. dr. fauci designed that they were designed for a doctor patient relationship. how does that address a pandemic? >> we started off rocky. there was a problem with the initial testing from the cdc. they wanted it to be right. they wanted it to be accurate. that's what caused a delay. but now we have millions of kits being disseminated throughout the country and i'm able to test a patient if i feel that that is necessary. the only issue is right now, we're not testing every person. they have to meet certain criteria. do you have a fever? are you having difficulty breathing, coughing, do you have a negative influenza test? if that's the case, we will swab you and we have that capability. >> bill: call for -- put the number up there, guys, this is a severe case here. pro patriot 3 says i'm having heart surgery monday. is it safe to be in the hospital. answer that question when they talk about social distancing and the space they need in the medical community to do to work they need to do maybe it's not heart surgery or a simple colleague of mine said his wife is scheduled for a mammogram monday. what do you tell people? >> excellent question. depends on the type of surgery. if it's an elective surgery, postpone that so we can allow that bed for someone that needs it in case we have a surge, in case we have an emergency. so if it's an elective surgery, postpone it. if you had a heart attack and for cardiac by pass, look at the risks and the benefits. hospitals are taking strong precautions to ensure the safety and well-being of patients to minimize infections that originate in hospitals. but it depends on the surgery. if it's an elective, yes, postpone it for the others in the community and you don't pick up an infection and depends. if you just had a heart attack and had heart failure and you need it for life saving measure, proceed with that and talk to your doctor. >> bill: doctor stand by. we're told there could be a delay there at the white house. back to chris wallace. what leon panetta talks about is this call to arms. you wonder how you hit that pitch while you have the same call to calm. you take the anxiety levels of so many millions of americans down to a lower level. everybody is feeling this right now. >> absolutely. you're feeling it either in terms of your personal physical health, in terms of your economic health. markets are doing well today. a lot of people with 401(k)s have seen big hits. you know, things as silly but, you know, part of our lives as march madness, the masters or baseball season. i have to tell you, i had to go to the hill to do some work on the house side. the house is in session. washington here on capitol hill is like a guest town on a friday midday. there were no cars on the street. the halls in congress were largely empty. it was quite astonishing to a degree that we talk about social distancing and teleworking. people are feeling it keenly. the question is how do you strike that measure, it's a tough one. on the one hand you don't want to panic people but you don't want to spin it. indicate well, it's not a big a problem as it is. people have to have the sense that, you know, they're getting the straight scoop and that our officials, health officials, government officials are on top of this. you know, we're going to level with the american people. we're not going to panic them but also not going to try to coddle there. one of the people who has been remarkably successful and i don't think it's a coincidence that he's going to be on all five sunday shows this week including ours, dr. anthony fauci, the head of infectious diseases for the government. he said some things that were tough. he said yesterday that our testing has failed. it's going to get better but it's failed. he's talked about this disease is ten times more lethal than the common flu. on the one hand that's alarming but on the other hand people appreciate being treated as grownups and told this is what it is. >> bill: any time anthony fauci pops up, i turn up the volume. i don't think i'm alone. thanks, chris. leon panetta, doctor here in new york, thank you. we await the address from the rose garden. a quick break. is when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to lif. for small prices, you can build big dreams. spend less. get way more. shop everything home at wayfair toda. . >> bill: i'm bill hemmer in new york. we bring you the president's statement live in washington. >> we're taking decisive actions in our attempt to defeat the coronavirus we've been working very hard on it. we've made tremendous progress. with you compare with what we've done to to other areas of the world, it's incredible. a lot of it had to do with the early designation and the closing of the borders. as you know, europe was just designated as the hotspot right now. we closed that border awhile ago. that was lucky, through talent or luck, whatever you want. but through a very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the threat of the virus. i also announce wednesday night following the advice of our medical professionals, water doing a tremendous job. wore appreciate it very much. we're suspended the entry of foreign nationals that have been to europe in the last 14 days from entering the united states. citizens and permanent residents, any of the families returning from europe will be subject to extra screening and self-isolation for a period of 14 days. as the world health organization, many of the things that we said were 100% correct including our designation before them of europe. like our earlier very aggressive actions with china, this measure will save countless lives. i appreciate the number that the folks behind me, a number of the people behind me said that saved a lot of lives, the early designation. but it's only the beginning of what we're really doing and now we're in a different phase. we had some very old and obsolete rules that we had to live with but not under mass circumstances. they were in place a long time and we're breaking them down now and very usable for certain instances but not for this. to unleash the full power of the federal government under this effort, i'm declaring a national emergency. two very big words. the as i am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important and a large amount of money for states and territories, localities in our shared fight against this disease. furtherance of the order, i'm asking every state to set up emergency operations centers immediately. you're going to be hearing from the largest countries and greatest retailers and medical companies in the world. they're standing behind me and beside of me. i'm asking every hospital in this country to activate its emergency preparedness plan so they they can meet the needs of americans everywhere. the hospitals are very engaged. new york and various other places are -- i just spoke with governor cuomo. we had a very good conversation. we're working very strongly with many states including new york. the emergency order i'm issues will confer broad new authority to the secretary of health and human services. the secretary of hhs will be a able to immediately weigh provisions of laws and regulations to give doctors, hospitals, all hospitals and healthcare providers maximum flexibility to respond to the virus and care for patients. this includes the following critical authorities. the ability to waive laws to enable telehealth, a fairly new and incredible thing that has happened in the not so distance past. i tell you what they've done with telehealth is incredible. gives remote doctor visits, hospitals the power to waive certain federal license requirements so doctors from other states can provide services with the states with the greatest number. number 2, the ability to waive requirements that critical access hospitals limit beds to 25 and the length of stay to 96 hours. the ability to waive the requirements of a three-day hospital stay prior to admission to a nursing home. big thing. the authority to waive rules, the ability to bring additional physicians on board or obtain needed office space. they can do as they want. they can do what they have to do. they know what they have to do. now they don't have any problem getting it done. the authority to waive rules that severely restrict where hospitals can care for patients within the hospital itself, ensuring that the emergency capacity can be quickly established. will remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary to deliver our people. the care that they need and that they're entitled to. no resource will be spared, nothing whatsoever. ten days ago, i brought together ceos of commercial labs at the white house and directed them to immediately begin working on a solution to dramatically increase the availability of tests. other countries have called us and worked with us and they're doing similar things or will be doing similar things. as a result of that action today, wore announcing a new partnership with the private sector to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus. we want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly and conveniently. but we don't want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn't be doing it. we don't want every one running out and taking it. only if you have certainly symptoms. using federal emergency authorities, the fda approved a new test for the virus. we did this within hours after receiving the application from roche. a process that would normally takes weeks. we expect up to a half a million additional tests will be available early next week. we'll be announcing locations probably sunday night. i want to thank roche, great company, for their incredible work. i'd like to thank thermo fisher. the fda's goal is to have it go out within 24 hours. it's going very quickly. which will bring additionally 1.4 million tests on board next week and five million within a month. i doubt we'll need that. but at the same time, we've been in discussions with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-thru tests available in the critical locations identify by public health professionals. the goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car. i want to thank google. google is helping to develop a website that will be very quickly done unlike websites of the past to determine whether a test is warranted and facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location. we have many, many locations behind us, by the way. we cover the this country and large parts of the world. we're not going to talk about the world right now. but we cover very strongly our country. stores in virtually every location. googlele has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. they have made tremendous progress. our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and help all americans that have been impacted by this. again, we don't want everybody taking this test. it's totally unnecessary. this will pass. this will pass through. we're going to be even stronger for it. we learned a lot, tremendous amount has been learned. i want to thank deborah birx. i want to ask her to come up and say a few words as to what is happening. dr. birx is a highly respected person. i've gotten to know her very well over the last six days. what we've done is rebuilt something that was very old, very old fashioned, somewhat obsolete when it comes to the kind of numbers we're talking about. dr. birx, please. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. it's a pleasure to be here with all of you. i think you know at the beginning of this i'm -- epidemic, we built an essay built on the surveillance flu system. it was converted to diagnostic system. last tuesday, seeing the spread of the virus around the globe, the president realized our current approach to testing was adequate to meet the needs of the public. he asked for an entire overhaul of the testing approach. he immediately called the private sector laboratories to the white house as noted and charged them with developing a high quality platform that can meet the needs of the american public. we're grateful to labcorps and tests. within 72 hours, we brought testing access to the outbreak areas of washington state and california and now across the country. we're also very grateful to the universities and large hospital systems that took up the charge to develop their own quality tests made available by new fda guidance. this is a result in expanded tests in new york, california, colorado, washington. you can see the drive-thru options that have been made available. following the meeting last weeks, mayor companies took action to adopt new testing systems. last night the initial company, roche, received fda approval requesting from request to development to approval in record time. this innovative approach centered fully on unleashing the power of the private sector. focusing on providing convenient testing to hundreds of thousands of americans within short turn-around times. in less than two weeks together, we have developed a solution that we believe will meet the future needs, testing needs of americans. i understand how difficult this has been. i was part of the hiv aids response in the 80s. we knew from first findings cases in 1981 that it took us to almost 1985 to have a test. it took us another 11 years to have effective therapy. it is because of the lessons learned from that that we were able to mobilize and bring those individuals that were key to the hiv response to this response. i understand that a lot of this behind the scenes action over the last couple weeks was invisible to the press and the american people. but this intense effort has not only resulted in innovative solutions but an automated high input system bringing the availability of these quality coronavirus testing to the american people at unprecedented speed. finally, i want you to know in south korea, they did have large number of tests available over the last several weeks. their positivity rate is between 3 and 4%. with labcorps and quest testing, their positive rate is between 1 and 2%. so we want to also announce this new approach to testing which will start in the screening website up here, facilitated by google where clients and patients and people of interest can go, fill out a screening questionnaire, move down for symptoms or risk factors, yes. they would move down this and be told where the drive-thru options would be for them to receive this test. the labs will move to the high through put automated machines to provide result in 36 to 24 hours. this has worked in the united states and we want to bring it across the continent. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. i'd like to maybe have tony -- you want to come up? you've been -- i think out here knows you well. tony has been doing a tremendous job working long, long hours and you've seen a lot happen. this as been a great experience working with you. it's been terrific. tony, please. >> thank you very much, mr. president. this is an example of -- another example of what i've been referring to in my discussions with many of you in the audience as a proactive leaning-forward aggressive, trying to stay ahead of the curve. what you have seen now with this order is that we're going to remove the constraints so that people at the state, the local level, the individual physician, all the way up through the federal government will have as many constraints as possible removed for them to do everything that they can so that we can implement the things that we've been talking about. the containment, the mitigation so that as i've said many times, that curve that i referred to that goes up, we don't want that curve. we want to suppress it down to the small mound. i think what we've done today is something that is going to be a very important element in having us do that. we still have a long way to go. there's many more cases. we'll take care of that and ultimately as the president said, this will end. what is going on today, it will end sooner than it would have. thank you. >> thank you very much, tony. if i could, some of these folks we know, celebrities in their own right, the biggest business people, the greatest retailers. anywhere in the world. one of them is doug mcmillen from walmart. i'd like to have doug say a few words wherever you may be. please. >> when we got the call yesterday from the white house, we were eager to do our part to help serve the country. given what we're facing, that is certainly important. we should all be doing that. we've been asked to make portions of our parking lot available in the beginning and scale over time as supply increases so people can experience the drive-thru experience that the president described. we'll stay involved and do everything we can from a supply chain point of view. >> thank you. appreciate it very much. i'll stay over here. richard, if you can come up. walgreen's. >> thank you, mr. president. similar to doug and wal-mart, we're happy to stand in here and helping communities across america. a lot of times with natural disasters, our stores are a beacon in the community, this situation is no different. we look forward with partners with the cdc, hhs, the administration and the task force and specifically the vice president doing a fantastic job. we're ready to engage and help. >> thank you. great job. >> brian cornell, target. >> thank you, brian. >> mr. president, thank you for inviting us here tonight. along with our colleagues from walmart, walgreen's and cvs, normally we're competitors. but today we're looking at defeating the spread of coronavirus. we look forward with the administration to do our fair share to alleviate this growing threat. thank you for including us today in the near term we're committed to keep our store opens to serve the american consumer who is stocking up on household e essentia essentials, making sure we have safe stores and making sure our team members feel supported. thanks for including us. >> great job is. tom here? tom poulan? please. >> thank you, mr. president. as ceo of beck and dickinson, testing products for coronavirus, we're ramping up our manufacturing capacity to make sure the devices and testing equipment are ready. >> thank you. great job. stephen from quest diagnostics. please. great i don't know. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. president. as mentioned, we were called from the leadership of the vice president last week to come together as an industry. we took advantage of that opportunity to work with the fda, to work for the centers for disease control and we were up and rolling with tests in a number of our facilities. as the president mentioned, we have capabilities from roche diagnostics that we'll bring into our facilities this weekend. i know myself and my colleague an labcorps will be doing the same. the capacity to the american public to support this action with consumers will be considerably increased in the next few weeks. thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate it. and matt sauce of roche. thank you, matt. >> thank you, mr. president. so from roche, we want to thank the fda for their rapid approval of our coronavirus test. we really appreciate the partnership with the cdc and the fda to get it to market as fast as possible. it's critical for us to make it available to help patients in needs and working with laboratories to get it up and going which will bring hundreds of thousands of tests available to patients in the united states. thank you. >> you can do it. you can do it. great company. david pierre of signify health. thanks. >> thank you, mr. president. we are the largest house call provider in the u.s. we go to the homes of the most vulnerable, elderly. through our networks and logistics engine, we stand ready to help with clinicians whether in retail or in the home. we stand ready to help. thanks very much. >> we'll be changing a lot of the rules and regulations for the future should this happen in the future, which we hope it never does. but it will i guess somewhere out there. bad ones over the years. i guess that will continue to an extend. we hope it never happens. but we're going to be changing a lot of the old rules and specifications and regulations. adam schecter from labcorps. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. we're working every second of every day to increase the number of tests we can run. we're working with academic medical centers, our colleagues at quest and other hospital and other laboratories to ensure we do everything we can to increase the testing as we move forward. we understand how important the testing is and we're committed to doing everything possible. >> great job. thank you. thomas moriarty from cvs. we know cvs. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. we have been focused since the start of making sure our patients and the customers we serve have the information they need, the safety they need as well. we're committed to working with the administration and local public health officials to make this work as well and thank you, sir, for the honor. >> thank you. great job. and bruce from lhc group. tremendously talented people. thank you. >> mr. president, thank you for the honor of being here. the home health industry has been treating patients and seniors in the comfort of their own home for decades. we're proud to be part of the equation for testing in their own home. for americans that can't get to a test site or live in rural areas, we're here to help and partner with our hospitals and physicians as well as the people we have here today that will be doing testing around the country. thank you. >> i like that. thank you also announcing the following emergency executive actions today. to help our students and their families, i've waived interest on all students loans held by federal government agencies and that will be until further notice. that's a big thing for a lot of students that are left in the middle right now. based on the price of oil, i've instructed the secretary of energy to purchase at a very good price large quantities of crude oil for storage in the u.s., strategic reserve. we're going to fill it up to the top. saving the american taxpayer billions and billions of dollars, helping our oil industry and makes us further toward that wonderful goal which we've achieved, which nobody thought was possible of energy independence. it puts us in a position that is very strong and we're buying it at the right price. that's something that would have not even been possible a week ago. the price of i'll went down quite a bit. so we're going to fill it up. a good time. i'd like to ask mike pence to say a few words, please. v.p. >> thank you, mr. president. it is -- this day should be an inspiration to every american. because thanks to your leadership from early on, not only are we bringing a whole of government approach to confronting the coronavirus, we're bringing an all-of-america approach. mr. president, from early on, you took decisive action. you created travel advisories, south korea, italy. we screened all travelers from all airports in both of those countries. and on the unanimous recommendation, you at midnight will restrict travel from europe. americans will be screened and asked to voluntarily participate in a 14-day quarantine. throughout this process, you put the health of america first. you brought the best of america to address it. it's not just at the federal level. you said, mr. president, we've been working with states across the country. we issued broad guidelines and cdc for every american. but this week, at your direction, we tailored specific recommendations from cdc, new york, washington state, california, massachusetts and florida. we've been in continuous contact. you have forced a seamless partnership with every state and every territory to put the health of our nation first. but today, i trust that people around the country that are looking on at that extraordinary be public and private partnership to address the area of testing with particular inspiration. after you tapped me to lead the white house coronavirus task force, mr. president, you said this is all hands on deck. you directed us to immediately reach out to the american business sector, commercial labs to meet what we knew would be the need for testing a cross the spectrum. today we have laid the foundation to meet that need. for americans looking on, by this sunday evening, we'll be able to give specific guidance on when the website will be available. you can go there, type in your symptoms and be given direction whether or not a test is indicated. and >> and the same website directed to one of these incredible companies give a little bit of their parking lot so the people can come by and do a drive-by test. mr. president, i want to join new thanking walmart and cvs, target and wall green. these are companies synonymous with communities large and small. now they will come together to meet the need of the american public. these commercial laboratories, labcorp and quest and roche have done an incredible job stepping forward and they will literally make hundreds of thousands of tests available and being processed with results to patients in the very near future but it's all the result of you tasking us with bringing together not just government resources which all state lab can now test across the country. cdc is testing. but you said, mr. president, we wanted to bring all the resource of the country together, and that's what this partnership really means. you know, truth is, that we have coronavirus cases now in 46 american states. and while the risk of serious illness of the coronavirus remains low, we want to encourage every american to practice common sense, practice good hygiene, go to the cdc' website to see what the guidance is for your community or for the american people broadly. as the president has said, it's especially important now that we look after senior citizens with chronic underlying health conditions. last week the president directed the centered for medicaid and medicare services to the raise the standards in nursing homes. increase inspections at our nursing homes. and today we are offering very specific guidance verma which will articulate about visitations at nursing homes. it's important to remember that they were there for us when we were growing up, mr. president. they helped us with our homework. they tucked us in at night. they cheered us on as we pursued education, cheered us on in our careers and now it's time for us to be there for them and recognize that seniors with chronic health conditions are the most vulnerable and americans can make a difference. so wash your hands, use common sense, look after the most vulnerable and, mr. president, i know i join you in saying that every american should be proud of this incredible public/private partnership that is going to be speeding access of testing to millions of americans in the weeks ahead. and, together, as you have said many times, together we'll get through, this together we will put the health of america first. >> thank you, very much. >> siva? i would like you to maybe take that a step further, please, on nursing homes, thanks. >> thank you. well, thank you to the president for the declaration. it allows my agency cms that runs medicare and medicaid and has oversight of all of the nation's healthcare facilities to suspend regulations that could get in the way of treating patients during this time. these temporary national blanket waivers are reserved for the rarest of circumstances and they represent a massive mobilization of our country's resources to combat this terrible virus. and the flexibilities we are offering will be a god send to the providers, clinicians and facilities on the front lines of this fight. and, later, cms is going to be issuing guidance directing nursing homes to temporarily restrict all visitors and nonessential personnel with the few exceptions such as end of life situations. we fully appreciate that this measure represents a severe trial for residents of nursing homes and those who love them. but we are doing what we must to protect our vulnerable elderly. thank you. >> as i said in my address to the nation the other night, all americans have a role to play in defeating this virus. our most effective web right now is to limit the damage to our people and our country and slow the spread of the virus itself. the choice we make, the precautions we put into place are critical to overcoming the virus, reducing its spread and shortening the duration of the pandemic, which is what it is. the cdc has published guidelines on the coronavirus.gov to enable its coronavirus.gov. and it's very, very heavily used right now, i will say to enable every american to respond to this epidemic and to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. while the risks the young and healthy americans remains very low, we have learned a lot about this over the last two weeks. anyone can be a carrier for the virus and risk transmission to older americans and those with underlying health conditions and those who are most at risk. they have not done very well, older americans who are especially if they have a health problem. they have not done well. we must take all precautions and be responsible for the actions that we