Availability of testing. The nations top Infectious Disease expert, after telling lawmakers yesterday the system is failing, sounded a bit more optimistic today. What we are doing right now is getting the private sector involved. The companies that make a living doing these tests. Getting involved in looking forward, you are right, going back the situation was not optimal. Going forward right now with the private sector involved you see a major escalation of capability of getting people tested when they wanted. Harris chief correspondent john roberts live with the latest outside the white house. John . Week of the press conference at 3 00 this afternoon, harris, but what may happen before or after that, we are not sure of the timing. I expect before the president declares a National Emergency, we understand, under the stafford act and under the National Emergencies act. Now, what does that and how did those things differ . If he declares a National Disaster or emergency under the stafford act, what that does is it frees up the Fema Disaster Relief Fund that would normally be applicable to things like hurricanes, earthquakes, other natural disasters. Theyve raised currently about 42 billion in that account that could be tapped. The amount might be a little lower because they currently have some obligations through until the end of the fiscal year 2020. Now, if he declares an emergency under the National Emergencies act, that would apply to health and Human Services and would allow the secretary of health and Human Services, alex azar, to waive certain guidelines in order to fight the coronavirus. Were not sure exactly what those guidelines are that would be waived waive but that would be the net effect of the disaster or emergency decorations. One of the other things we are following is what is going on with brazils president , jair bolsonaro, and with the real story is there. President trump spent a number of hours with bolsonaro at maralago last saturday night. They had dinner, you see them standing together. There outside of maralago, a member of bolsonaros staff came down with covid19 for that was his Community Shows director. Bolsonaro himself had been tested for the coronavirus. His son, eduardo bolsonaro, told somebody with fox news early this morning that a preliminary test had come back positive. You see the two men shaking hands there. But then his son eduardo said that the second test had come back negative. With we do know is that francis suarez, the mayor of miami, had contact with bolsonaro and his entourage and he has now tested positive. Thats not suarez there, that secretary mnuchin. Ill get to him in second. But jair has now tested positive. The Financial Assistance package being nuclear wow negotiated by the secretary along with nancy pelosi, the house speaker, is close to agreement. The secretary expects it will be in agreement later on today that will include free testing for the coronavirus, money for people who are laid off, as well as extending unemployment insurance. Also, paid leave for people who have to stay home. But the secretary suggesting this morning, harris, that there is a lot more that is going to have to come down the road in terms of Financial Assistance to Many American industries. Probably firs first and first at among them, the Airline Industry. Listen to what he said. I can tell you the airlines ive met with, ive spoken with all the airline ceos. That is the next priority on my list, only because, again, its critical we have Domestic Airline travel, under different than after september 11th, this has had the Airline Industry particularly hard. I can also tell you hotels, cruise lines, small businesses, again, these are all areas we are focused on. The secretary said this morning that a lot more help is going to be needed because of the trickledown effect in the economy, how one thing affects another and another and another. One piece of news to report, hhs has given over a Million Dollars to two American Companies who are developing a rapid coronavirus test. This would get back test results within an hour. Testing, as you know, harris, remains a real problem in this country. The cdc and private labs are trying to push out as many tests as they possibly can, but its still not enough. Harris . Harris while you were talking, dr. Siegel of our medical aid team here is slid in. They were right on time with that information. Dr. Siegel is here, and youve been together with us all week as he talked about whats available out there for test kits. Youve actually brought some in. Just to be clear, this is just how you collect the specimen. Nobody out there knows until now. But it isnt the reagents that john is talking about that will run the test for you. Thats what the shortages, and several companies are now coming along and saying we can do it faster. This is how i would go about doing it. Harris okay, talk to me to me. Theres two swabs you use in a relatively healthy patient. Someone whos not in the icu. Someone who is coughing, short of breath, has a fever. Im in a lab and i want to test them. Harris is this what they do in the drivethrough up in new york . This is what theyre talking about . Yes. Harris okay. One swab. Harris the thicker one. The thicker one goes in the throat. The sample specimen in the back of the throat. This one is a nasal swab, this goes all the way up. Harris very uncomfortable, ive heard. It goes all the way up and ask it get to the top. Then, we have a medium we use for collecting viruses. Thats this. You put both swabs into this medium and he would break the tops so you can close it. Harris got it, thats why theres a perforation on the swabs. You can see where you break them. Right. Its a seal so you wont be contaminating it. Harris where you sending that . Heres whats happening, universities around the country are now doing their own tests. Cleveland clinic has gotten approved to do them. And why you will do one as of monday. Nebraska, where i visited, was already doing one. That takes six hours. And they are bio containment, they were doing their own. And cdc would confirm. As of now, lab core and questars starting to do this monday or tuesday theyre going be running specimens. If i bring this to a labcorp or a quest, they will be running it. They are running it as of monday. Harris when you hear labs reporting that they want the test, weve just done is take down some of the heat on this misinformation out there. So people actually not only have two go get this ordered by a doctor, physicians are the ones who are responsible then for making sure that this gets run at a lab. Which is why you cant just show up and expected to happen. That sounds very basic, but in the frenzy of worry, sometimes we will think things like that. Heres another point thats related to the point you just made, harris. Cdc wants physicians to screen for symptoms. Do you have a cough, do you have shortness of breath, do you have a fever . What i want and what dr. Fauci was saying today is i want to be able to test anyone who may have been exposed. I dont want to be told to rate the level of exposure. Id like to be erring on the side of safety and over test people to get more and more negatives. Im happy to get a negative result. I do hiv tests on anybodys ever been out on a date. Harris harris so they comu and they are a patient of yours, you want to just baseline a few things, and thats one of the things you do. Thats very interesting. Are we there yet where we can do that kind of baseline testing . Should dr. Say, you renew this person or that person commit we are not there yet and we need to get there very rapidly. South koreas testing 20,000 specimens a day. The United States of America Needs to test at least 100,000. Harris with the governor of new york is doing and pockets without that cluster up a new rochelle, this drivethrough, there will be six lanes, he says, for people to drive through and get testing. Talk to me about the efficacy of that. Does that seem like something reasonable to you . Its completely reasonable, that should lead to Rapid Testing. He made a point earlier which i agree with. I want there to be a doctor in the loop. But theres random testing of people on their own recognizance, we wont have control over this. I do want practitioners and nurses in the loop on this. Harris do we need what john roberts was reporting, that a Million Dollars to each of two companies that was coming from hhs for this Rapid Testing, results within an hour . I like that. I want to point out that to announce they announced today they announced their Rapid Testing has been approved by the fda for coronavirus. Thats happening in labs across the country. That should be starting also by monday. Thought for our test has been approved by the fda. Harris agile people in my social media that you be joining me twice today. When you come back i will have a lot of questions for the viewers. If you havent visited my physically unsocial, its Harris Faulkner across all platforms. Thank you for getting a test and coming in and teaching us how it works. I really appreciate that. The dramatic step of closing schools in response to the coronavirus outbreak. My next guest is once in their shoes. Former arkansas governor mike huckabee, next. Get em while theyre hot. Applebees 25 cent boneless wings are back in your choice of three sauces. I need all the breaks as athat i can get. Or, cent boneless wings at liberty butchemel. Cut. Liberty mu. Line . Cut. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Cut. Liberty m. Am i allowed to riff . What if i come out of the water . Liberty biberty. Cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Harris there is breaking news as the Texas Governor abbott is giving an update to the people of texas on things i cant tell you. Earlier dallas declared a state of emergency and we brought you love the messages as governor. Governor abbott of texas. Lets watch. Last week, it was announced that ten Public Health labs in texas are now equipped to perform covid19 testing throughout the state. The established a website for covid19 to share uptodate information. It would be helpful if you get that out. It is dshs. Texas. Gov coronavirus . Again, it is dshs. Texas. Gov coronavirus . The state has also asked Health Insurers and hmos operating in texas to speech health costs associated with the testing and telemedicine visits concerning coronavirus. We have a long list of Health Insurers that have agreed to comply with that request. Very importantly, for the uninsured, if an uninsured person needs testing for coronavirus, there are two options. One is Public Health testing, or private laboratory testing. For Public Health testing, he requires consultation with local Health Departments. If the person meets Public Health criteria, then the person is eligible for testing through Public Health testing with no cost to the person. Private testing can also occur, but there could be a cost to the individual. If people need to find a local provider, they can call 211, which can connect them to low or no cost providers in their area. As far as texas schools are concerned, the tea, the commissioner, they work daily with schools to prepare the appropriate response for every school district. The commissioner has begun leading daily calls with superintendents. Very important to note, texas is seeking waivers for federal regulations for the School Lunch Program to give district flexibility to provide students food, should the district need to shut down for a temporary period to respond to the coronavirus. Now, some information about numbers, where we are today. I understand they constantly change. But at this time, not counting the people who have been repatriated into Lackland Air Force base, texas has 39 confirmed cases in collin, dallas, fort bend, greg, harris, montgomery, smith, bell, and travis countys. Hundred 20 texans have been tested in either texas Public Health labs or by the cdc. We have approximately 75 texans who are being tested as we spe speak. Texas, some important facts i want to make sure you get. Texas Public Health labs have the capacity to test 273 People Per Day currently. With that ability to increase, also with private labs coming online. Importantly, next week cpl will be able to test several thousand per week. In addition, there is labcorp and Quest Diagnostics that provide testing. Im also pleased to announce something that is happening as we speak right now. Its the first drivethrough testing facility. I am pleased to announce that mayor nuremberg in the city of san antonio and his team are opening the first drivethrough testing facility in texas. This has been a swift advancement with the combined effort of the city of san antonio, city manager eric walsh, metropolitan Health District director dr. Don emerick, Fire Department chief charles hood, southwest Texas Regional advisory council, executive director eric eppley, Ut Health San antonio president bill heinrich, and University Hospital ceo george hernandez. This facility is opening at this moment. It will initially be for first responders, health care workers, operators of critical infrastructure, and key resources, and certain highrisk patients. Since theyve only been open quite literally a few minutes, its too seem to tell how many people he will be able to test each day. Weve been working with the cities of san antonio and dallas and is the conversations to the city of austin to also implement drivethrough testing sites that will run at the national and local level. I anticipate that at least two if not all three of those cities will be up and running next week or the week after that. Our local leaders and partners know their communitys best, and i appreciate their swift action in providing these facilities. As the situation continues to unfold, texas is taking additional action to mitigate the spread of the virus, and to protect the Publics Health and safety. To ensure that the state of texas and are cities and counties are fully capable to prepare and respond to covid19, i am at this moment declaring a state disaster for all counties in the state of texas. Now, pursuant to this state disaster declaration, they will be many directives issued by this office over the coming day. Here are a few. This will authorize the use of all available and necessary State Government resources to help prepare and respond to covid19. This will give the Texas Division of Emergency Management the ability to reassign and fully utilize personnel where they are needed the most. This will provide the immediate ability to move resources around the state, including resources obtained through the Strategic National stockpile. This will empower the Texas Attorney general to pursue cases of price gouging and assure that offenders are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And my office can approve the waiving of state laws that enter state agencies abilities to respond to covid19. A few more things. A key focus in our response is to prioritize the protecting of the most vulnerable populations who would be most likely to contract covid19. As a result, i am directing state agencies to restrict visitation at nursing homes, statesponsored living centers, hospitals, and day care s this directive allows limited exceptions for things like endoflife visitation and requires all individuals to go through the proper screening. We want to make sure we do all we can to protect this vulnerable senior population are others in hospitals from being contracted with covid19. I also directing state agencies to restrict visitation at prisons, jails, and juvenile justice facilities. While staff remains in Constant Contact with those facilities as they work on establishing best practices protocols. Im also directing state agencies to take any action necessary to facilitate telemedicine. In addition, i am directing state agencies to provide flexible place and telework policies to employees to care for their families while ensuring the State Government continues to function at full capacity and provide all necessary services. This means that anybody who thinks or feels or believes that they are ill in any way, they need to stay home and work from home. You may have the flu, you may have some other Infectious Disease, or you may have covid19. We dont need people who are sick coming into work. One byproduct of having more people work from home, whether it be people who are working or whe