Control. After meeting with bank ceos on a day when the markets again plunged, the president just tweeted that he will be addressing the nation from the oval office at 9 00 p. M. Tonight. He total reporters hell be announcing what he plans to do about the spread of the virus and its impact on the economy. We dont know exactly what hes going to announce, but his Oval Office Address will come after one of the most trusted Public Health officials on his White House Task force team, dr. Anthony fauci, sounded the alarm while testifying on capitol hill today. Is the worst yet to come, dr. Fauci . Yes, it is. Can you elaborate . We will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now. How much worse well get will depend on our ability to do two things, to contain the influx in people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country. Bottom line, its going to get worse. If we are complacent and dont do really aggressive containment and mitigation, the number could go way up and be involved in many, many millions. If we dont do very serious mitigation now, whats going to happen is well be weeks behind and the horse is going to be out of the barn. Even in areas of the country where there are no or few case weve got to change our behav r behavior. We have to essentially assume that we are going to get hit. Dr. Fauci, who has served six administrations, also recommended a ban on large crowds. Those warnings come amid an ominous sign that the everyday life of the average american is about to change dramatically if it has not already. The number of cases in the u. S. Continues to rise rapidly. It is now well above 1,000, with more than 30 deaths. Schools, businesses, churches, conferences, sporting events, Community Centers across the country are restricting movement or temporarily shutting down. The ncaa Just Announced moments ago that all tournaments including march madness will apparently be played with no crowds. Washington state has just banned gatherings of more than 250 people in its three largers counties. Seattle is closing all Public Schools for at least two weeks. A containment zone surrounding a cluster of cases outside of new york city goes into effect tomorrow. Globally the number of cases continues to soar past 100,000 and the death toll stands above 4,000. The World Health Organization has now declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. And officials are urging countries to act more aggressively. Germany has warned its citizens that 70 of the country could be infected. Closer to home, though, sources tell nbc news that congresss inhouse physician told staffers on capitol hill that he expects roughly a third of everyone in this country to be infected. Joining me now, nbcs Geoff Bennett is at the white house. Nbcs kasie hunt is in d. C. , where shes covering capitol hill. Nbc host david gura is at the New York Stock Exchange and also in d. C. Former Surgeon General dr. Viv echl k murthy who is a member of joe bidens Just AnnouncedPublic Health advisory committee. Geoff, the president s going to speak to the public tonight we think its going to be around 8 00 p. M. Do you have any knowledge of what he plans on saying . Reporter well, katie, the president just tweeted in the last ten minutes or so ago that he plans to address the nation from the oval office at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, 6 00 p. M. Pacific, and he could use that setting based on our reporting to announce a National Disaster declaration. That would unlock up to 40 billion immediately, push billions of dollars out the door to help state and local governments confront the spread and the Economic Impact of coronavirus. This would be in addition to the stimulus package that hes working out to congress. We also expect that he might could potentially announce travel restrictions to europe. Health advisers, Administration Health advisers are said to have advised him to restrict all but essential travel to europe and that any americans who would travel there would have to selfquarantine when they come back. One of the things that were keeping close watch on is this issue related to increasing the capacity of testing. Just yesterday in the White House PressBriefing Room i asked the Vice President when the administration, specifically when the administration expects the coronavirus test kits would be widely and readily available. The Vice President said that millions more test kits have been deployed and have been delivered, but still there is this bottleneck. Just today the North Carolina congressional delegation, members of that delegation, both democrat and republican, wrote a letter to the Vice President , making clear that North Carolina is a state with 10. 5 Million People, they only have 300 test kits left. So there is a clear bottleneck happening somewhere between the delivery of these test kits that the Vice President speaks of and the receipt of them all across the country, katy. Geoff, that is a remarkable thats remarkable reporting. Can you tell us, the change in the president s tone, has he been listening to dr. Anthony fauci . Have his advisers been getting to him . He tweeted today that hes prepared to do whatever he needs to do in order to combat this virus. Its a change in tone. He had been saying that it wasnt a big deal and comparing it to the flu as of yesterday. Thats right. And remember when he was on the hill yesterday he urged americans, he said be calm, it will all go away. Well, certainly that is not the case. To your question, has he been listening to his advisers . It appears that he has. We know that delivering an Oval Office Address was among the many options presented to him this morning and he has chosen to do it, to use that position from behind the resolute des desk to convey to the American Public just how serious the situation is, katy. Kasie hunt, House Democrats met at 4 00 today. What is the latest on their coronavirus package . Well, katy, we know the broad contours of this package because Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi outlined their priorities on sunday afternoon, sunday evening, talking about where they want to focus the relief for people who are grappling with this. And as the political reality and frankly the Health Reality has gotten more urgent as the week has gone by, thats been reflected on capitol hill. So the big question mark right now on the hill is is the president ready to get behind this . Nancy pelosi has a lot of policy leverage in that this president clearly wants to be taking steps to address this, both for the health and safety of the American Public, but weve also seen kind of his tone in the political imperatives that he faces demand that. And that puts pelosi in a position to say and basically get the ideas she thinks are most important out front. The idea of a payroll tax cut which the president was up on capitol hill talking about yesterday seems to have been set aside in terms of any fast track legislation. And fast track, im talking about a speed that we very rarely see on the hill. Were talking about the next 48 hours. Im setting that payroll tax cut and any tax cuts for industries affected or even cash infusions for industries saying all that. Thats definitely something theyre looking at on maybe a two or threeweek horizon which is till as you know very fast for capitol hill. Right now were talking about things like paid sick leave for people that need to stay home. Were talking about covering costs of people for their Health Care Treatment when they want to go get treated for coronavirus. Trying to make sure that people dont feel as though they cant follow the advice of our Health Officials. So were thinking or were reporting that this could be on the floor as soon as tomorrow. And it could also include an extension of unemployment insurance, expanded food stamps and most importantly food for kids who are not able to go to school. A lot of kids get their hot meals school lunches, right. At school. School lunches. And if they close down schools there is concern about whether or not children will end up going hungry or will they be left out of being fed frankly if they dont were unable to access that is at school. David gura, we are officially in bear market territory, right . We are. Weve seen a 20 drop from the peak here with the Dow Jones Industrial average. Were in bear market territory with the s p 500. What we saw today were losses in every one of the s p sectors. So this is hitting all facets of the economy. When you talk to investors, thats what theyre honing in on here, that there is a general sense of anxiety that we all have thats certainly affecting the markets as well. You look at tourism. You look at manufacturing. There is still a whole lot of concern about supply chains and manufacturing. The president notably met with the heads of some big banks this afternoon. Each of them stressed the fact that the Banking Sector is doing pretty well. There are other sectors that are doing worse than that. What i want to talk about if i could is just the efficacy of the tools that the president has at his disposal right now. This morning the bank of england, the central bank in the united kingdom, lowered rates. Markets reacted positively to that for a while and then they fell once again. It kind of mirrored what we saw in this country just a week ago when there was this emergency rate cut that the Federal Reserve put in place. Again, markets responded positively for a few hours and then they fell once again. Thats on the fiscal side. Then on the monetary side, you get to the fiscal side what kasie was just talking about a moment ago, investors are hearing all these things, suggestions being bandied about but theres still nothing concrete yet aside from what democrats proposed. I think what theyll be listening for tonight, katys concrete proposals from the president ial. And what stands a chance of getting through the congress before Congress Goes on recess. Dr. Murtha, what would you like to hear from the president tonight . What i would like to hear is more about how were going to move aggressively to change the course of this growing pandemic. We know things are going to get worse before they get better. We should all the unfortunately expect that there will be more cases and sadly there will be more people who die because of this virus. But the future is not fully written yet and part of what it depends on is what we choose to do as individuals, what our government chooses to do and how aggressive we are in taking the mitigation steps we know can protect us and the people around us. So the president up until now has been sending . Mixed messages. And theres also real concern from Health Officials about whether we are going to be able to get a handle on this. Dr. Fauci today warned this is only going to get worse. The capitol hill doctor told staffers and lawmakers to expect 75 to 100 Million People to be infected. Thats a third of the population. What do you want to see happen across the country immediately to start to get a handle on this . In these kind of situations there are three Core Principles that we need from our leadership and from our government. We need first of all to lead with science and with scientists. Second, we need transparency. We need to make sure that we are communicating to the public what we know as a government in terms of how many cases we have, how many people are being tested. But third, we have to make sure we get the resources for the people on the front lines. This means departments of Public Health. It means doctors and nurses and Hospital Systems and people who are struggling for information at times and need to know how to keep themselves safe. What i would like to see across the country is all of us recognizing that there are steps we can take to keep ourselves safe. Washing our hands frequently, making sure that we stay home if were sick, covering our mouth if we cough. And certainly ensuring that we are practicing social distancing. Now, this has been part of the Mitigation Strategy that weve been hearing now is so essential right now. Social distancing means changing how we greet people, moving away from contact, handshakes to a hand on the heart or at most an elbow bump. We also need to think about shifting to telework. We need to start avoiding large crowds, especially if were vulnerable, if we are older or if we have other illnesses and they put us at increased risk. This is not easy to do np means changing a bit and sometimes a lot of how we live. But these are the steps that if we take them can make a real change in the trajectory of this illness. Simple but steps everybody can take. Why is there a bottleneck in terms of resources . Why were there problems italianly with the cdc getting the test out . Why are there not more tests available . Theres also reporting now that theres a shortage of Lab Materials to process the coronavirus. Whats going on at the federal level . I dont think its entirely clear what is causing the challenge with testing. But one thing that has to be resolved quickly because without adequate testing we are flying blind a little bit. We dont exactly know how many cases we have in our community if we cant test people for it. One of the key elements of the response that we saw in south korea, in china, and in other places where they moved aggressively to get the virus under control was that they had adequate and expansive testing. So they knew where the virus was. Listen, to be fair, we have to recognize that in any of these response efforts there are going to be some stadium numbles. I say this having been inside of the administration during the ezika outbreak and ebola. What you need is to get the help thats needed, whether its within government or outside of government in terms of publicprivate partnerships. To resolve these road blocks so we can ultimately get tests and resources to the front lines where people need them. To be fair, and im not trying to look backward, but the president fired his Pandemic Response team in 2018. You were part of administration thats had that in place. Did that hamper in place . Well, certainly after the experience with ebola and zika the administration when i was serving recognized that we needed to invest much more deeply in Global Health security, recognizing that what happens in Health Care Systems around the world has a direct impact on us. Were seeing that once again with this novel crohn avenorona we will see it again with future outbreaks. Thats why its so important we invest in Global Health security, why we build strong partnerships with other countries, and why we help strengthen Health Care Systems around the world. That is the way that we keep ourselves safe, and thats where we need to invest more money, more effort, and i believe more partnership attention. Dr. Murthy. Doctor, thank you very much for joining us. Geoff bennett, thank you as well. Kasie hunt, david gura, we appreciate it. We were expecting to hear from the White House Coronavirus task force during this hour but we just learned a couple minutes ago while we were on the air that the briefing has been canceled after the president said he will be addressing the nation tonight. So coming up, the coronavirus is now officially a pandemic. In massachusetts more than 70 people are sick after a conference in boston. Ill talk with boston mayor marty walsh about whats being done to keep things from getting worse. Before we talk about taxsmart investing, whats new . Well, audreys expecting. Twins grandparents we want to put money aside for them, so. Change in plans. Alright, lets see what we can adjust. Wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. Okay. Mom, are you painting again . You could sell these. Lemme guess, change in plans . At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Thats a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. Lemme guess, change in plans . Our gummies contain a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no nextday grogginess. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturally superior sleep. Over the course of 24 hours this week coronavirus cases in massachusetts doubled jumping from 41 presumptive cases on monday to 92 on tuesday. And that number ticked higher today. Over 75 of those cases are believed to be the result of a single gathering, a Leadership Conference for the bostonarea based Biotechnology Company biogen. Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency. Universities including harvard and Boston University have moved Classes Online and have told students to spend the rest of the semester at home. And boston has canceled its st. Patrick day parade. But the city has not yet pulled the plug on next months bost