the virus. reducing it overcoming the virus. reducing it spread and shortening its duration of the pandemic, which is what it is. the cdc has published guidelines to enable its coronavirus dot gav, and it is very heavily used right now to enable every american to respond to this epidemic and help them respond in their communities, while the risk to young and healthy americans remain very low, as we have learnt about this over the last few weeks. anyone can be a carrier for the virus and risk transmission to older americans and 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 ta ke responsible for the actions that we take and that we see other people take. we want to prevent the spread and transmission of the disease. it's incredible what happened in the sporting world where so many of the great sports that we've gotten so used to are not going to be meeting and they've done a great service. that would be another way. this is why allied on wednesday night my administration's, the fact that we've issued a requirement suspending law medically unnecessary visits to various places, but in particular, nursing homes. we should all be working on the same playbook when it comes to protecting americans. we need to be consistent in adopting measures. the virus is

the same whether it's spreading in cities, towns and rural communities. the tools and tactics for attacking it are the tools and tactics for attacking itare similar the tools and tactics for attacking it are similar no matter where you go. hotspots across the world people never thought possible to be affected. these measures have been adopted by many companies, universities and schools. we want to protect the safety and health of their employees and their students. i encourage their employees and their students. | encourage everyone their employees and their students. i encourage everyone to follow the guidelines we've issued by cdc and these common—sense measures. a lot of it common—sense. for the areas where the virus is spreading, the cdc is advising communities to postpone large gatherings, assemblies, social functions and sporting events. limit in person

meetings, increase schedule plantings and cancel work sponsor travel, among numerous other steps that could be taken. americans are the strongest and most resilient people on earth. in the coming weeks, we will all have to make changes and sacrifices but these are short—term sacrifices will produce long—term gain. again i said we've learning a lot for the future and future problems like this or worse. it could get worse. the next eight weeks are critical. we can learn and weeks are critical. we can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus. some of the doctors say it will wash through, it will flow through. interesting terms and very accurate, i think interesting terms and very accurate, ithink in interesting terms and very accurate, i think in a number of weeks. in times of hardship, the true character of america always shines through. we live in the company of

the greatest heroes and the most it two inspiring citizens anywhere in the world. we want to take care of oui’ the world. we want to take care of our people. we want to draw in the strength of our history during the strength of our history during the strength of our people and we will get through this altogether. we will just get through it. so much progress has already been made and frankly, the numbers because of steps that have been taken are at a level that have a lot of people surprise, especially when you compare them with other places. with far smaller populations. the spirit and will of our nation is unbreakable. we will defeat this threat. america rises to the occasion when it is tested. to those families and citizens who are worried and concerned for themselves and their love ones, i want you to know that your federal government will unleash every authority, resource at its disposable to safeguard the lives and health of oui’ safeguard the lives and health of our people. —— the disposal. no

nation is more prepared are more equipped to face down this crisis. we are rated number one in the world. we're also helping other nations. they're doing ok in some cases, and some cases they're not doing well at all, but we're working with a lots of groups of people and a lot of other nations. with faith and heart and hope and love and determination, we will succeed, we will prevail, we will be very, very successful and we'll learn for the future. thank you very much. if you have any questions, we can take some. if you'd like to ask some of the folks up here, that would be fine. where are you with the house bill? yesterday we talk to you in the oval office. you were opposed to it. what has happened since then and what the holdup? just don't think they're big enough. we don't think they're big enough. we don't think

the demographics are big enough. all ofa the demographics are big enough. all of a sudden, they didn't agree to certain things they agreed to, so we could have something but we don't think they are not giving enough. they're not doing what's right for the country. thank you mr president. you just mentioned waving interest for student loans. you talked about buying from the spr or adding to the spr. what other suspect might specific measures is your administration thinking about taking. we are looking at many different things. some of them have been written about very widely but we will be releasing a paper in about two hours stating quite a few other steps, very important one. go ahead. thank you mr president. i wa nt ahead. thank you mr president. i want to know if you are in contact with the brazilian president after a memberof his with the brazilian president after a member of his federation who was revealed saturday to test positive.

i also want to ask senators lindsey graham, are you planning to take any kind of precautionary measure to protect you and also your staff who was there. no. we have no symptoms whatsoever and we had a great meeting with the president of brazil, also a great guy. he's doing a fantasticjob brazil, also a great guy. he's doing a fantastic job for brazil, also a great guy. he's doing a fantasticjob for brazil. as you know, he tested negative, meaning nothing wrong this morning and we got that word too. we did have dinner with him. we were sitting next to each other for a long time. are you in contact with him? we are. we did discuss if he had a problem. it was reported that he may have it and he does not, fortunately. we

heard earlier this week that the lagan testing was a failing. do you ta ke lagan testing was a failing. do you take responsibility for that and when can you guarantee that every single american needs a test will be able to have a test? what's the date of that? i don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. it wasn't meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers that we're talking about, and what we've done is redesign it very quickly with the help of the people behind me and we're now in very strong shape. i think we'll be announcing sunday night and this will start very quickly, and we will have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time. so no. but we have done and we are gonna be leaning a

very indelible print for the future in case something like this happened again, but that's not the fault of anybody and frankly, the old system works very well for smaller numbers but not for the kind of numbers. by sunday night will every american be able to get a test? the system was not designed. for what it was designed for, it works very well. if you want to get the kind of blanket testing and availability that anybody can get it or you could even do surveillance to find out what the penetrance is, you have to embrace the private sector. this is exactly what you're seeing because you can't do it without it, so when i said that i meant the system was not designed for what we need. now looking forward, the system will ta ke looking forward, the system will take care of it. if you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like

this. they didn't do testing like this. they didn't do testing like this and actually, they lost approximately ili,000 people and they didn't do the testing. they started thinking about testing when it was far too late. what we've done in one of the reasons i think people are respecting what we've done, we've done it very early. we also kept a lot of people... the last minute administration said they tested a million people. the testing they did with swine flu was a disaster. they have a very big failure there. with swine flu was a disaster. they have a very big failure therelj wa nt have a very big failure there.” want you to —— i want to ask about the european travel man in the exempt and you offered to the uk. there are 17 countries that have fewer coronavirus cases then the uk and just fewer coronavirus cases then the uk andjust in fewer coronavirus cases then the uk and just in the past 24 hours, the uk has added 208 coronavirus cases to their total. why did they deserve

an exemption and would you consider adding them to this travel ban list? that was recommended to me by a group of professionals, and we are looking at it based on the new numbers that are coming out and we may have to include them in the list of countries that we will ban or whatever it is during this period of time. the numbers have gone up over the last to a four hours, so we may be adding a couple of others and we may frankly start thinking about taking some off. thank you, mr president. you have been mentioned —— you have mentioned that the number in china has been decreasing. china has made tremendous progress in the past weeks. i'm wondering how much confidence in this give you to control the virus in the united states and do you see the data they have been sharing with the united

states has been helpful quiz although i think it has been helpful. we've been working very much with china. i've spoken with their president. they went through hell and their numbers are starting to look really good. we're very happy about that and we are sharing data. including the fact that some of our pharmaceutical companies are working over there right now with large groups of people. thank you, mr president. you spoke with canadian prime minister justin trudeau yesterday. did you discuss the potential closing of the border between canada and the us? are you considering ways to salvage the $2 billion daily trade between the two countries? we didn't discuss the border. we had a very good relationship. just about finished with the us embassy. he called me to tell me, i think it was the primary

reason was his wife had not been diagnosed. she's a wonderful lady. since then i've read that the result was that she has it. i was a little surprise, i think he was surprised also. we did discuss it prior to. she will be fine, but he thought she would not most likely have the virus. unfortunately, she does. but we did not discuss the border yesterday. if if you have questions for these geniuses up here, related to what we are talking about. is it relative -- what is your message today to the cruise line industry that florida depends upon, and since senator rick scott have the same exposure as you and they are self isolating, what's

your message to them that they shouldn't be quiz although i don't know if i had exposure but i don't have any of the symptoms. we do have a white house doctor and i should say many white house doctors and i asked them that same question and they said i don't have any symptoms whatsoever. we don't want people without symptoms to do the test. the testis without symptoms to do the test. the test is not insignificant. as far as the cruise line business, we're with them all the way. it's a great us business and i know how important they are to the country. that includes airlines, but the cruise line business obviously was hit very hard. we had a tremendous success in oakland where by president pentz did a fantasticjob. we worked with the uk and canada. —— pence. we have

people quarantined. it was a big operation and it worked out really... you don't hear about it any more, it worked out really well. mike, you may want to say something about that. thank you, mr president. that programme is continuing to be administered in the highest standards as the president directed, and americans that needed treatment have received them. i spoke to the governor of iowa today and some of those have now been cleared are able to be returning to iowa. others in texas, others in georgia, governor brian the president directed me to travel last saturday. we met with

all the leaders, several cruise lines have announced a 60 day pause in operations. our department of homeland security has praised them for doing that because the unique health challenges presented to seniors with underlying conditions. we have a proposal from the cruise line industry, but they're currently considering what steps they might take, perhaps even similar to what those other lines have taken. we're anticipating some response on that and the next 24 hours, but as the president said the american people chair is our cruise line industry. —— cherish our cruise line industry. the president directed us to do is whether there is a pause at the moment as some girl 's eyes are doing, we want to work with the

cruise line industry to ensure that when we come through this, cruise lines and medical services and passengers and all of the crew, cruise lines are safer than ever before and can prosper for many years to come. go ahead. discretion is for doctors. based on what you currently know, what is the trajectory for when this outbreak will peak? how long will the american people have to remain on this emergency footing was back as the administration has to —— try to get its arms around this issue, the next need could be hospital equipment. what is the administration doing now to ramp up the production of respirators and that kind of equipment? when you have an outbreak like this, particularly if you're trying to interfere with it, it's really impossible to predict the time

element of when it's going to peek and when it's naturally going to go down. if you look at the situation where countries really did not get to the point of trying to contain and mitigate very well, you see a peek over several weeks and then down again over several weeks. what we're trying to do is blood that peak —— when you talk about preventing a infections from out in, which is the kind of restrictions we talk about, how do you handle what you already have in your country? you try to proportionate to the areas where there are the most infections. the success of that and how much you make this turn into this is going to give you the amount of time. if we're successful, it will be less. if we're not successful, it will be more. this kind of things generally run out in

a few months, hopefully we will make it several weeks. i can't give you a number because it depends on how successful we a re. number because it depends on how successfulwe are. it's number because it depends on how successful we are. it's a great question and we've worked together a very long time. it's a privilege to work with him every day. i think you can learn, and i appreciate there are some graphics overrode the porting. you'll line the data from china with the data from south korea, you can start to see almost a complete overlay on that data. that's what we're tracking very closely as well as italy. but you have an excellent question. ijust wa nt have an excellent question. ijust want to make one note. in south korea, i want to repeat, only 4% of those tests were positive. that means 96% of the people had a different respiratory disease. we're in the middle of flu season, cold season and all of the other respiratory diseases that we get every day. in lab core inquest or

lead a lot, they're running about one to 2% positive. that means we have a lot more other diseases out there besides the coronavirus and that's why the screening is critical, but even with the screening, we're gonna run what we think are very low rates. needless to say, we're taking it in extraordinary seriously to plan for what could come. what doctor found she talked about blunting the curb, that peak of the curb we are all planning for. this emergency order and the secretary of hhs's ability, it unlocks all of the stockpiles and needs, what the dod 's has and the hospital emergency preparedness plan allows them to defer elective issues to keep those hospital beds open for those who might need it. we're in full planning mode for each of those

things. i might add that we are in the process and have already done it in some cases, ordered a large number of respirators just in case. we hope you don't need them but we ordered a large number. thank you, mr president. you mentioned the situation in china about korea have improved and you are thinking about removing the restrictions. when can we expect that warning and how do you see the overall progress that asian countries are making? some are making progress, some are not. as i make progress, as they get down to the number we all think is right and they know is right, we'll be opening it up. some are really moving along rapidly. we hope to be able to be able to open things up as quickly as possible. thank you, mr president.

i'd like to ask, just how... not 100% but 90%. go ahead. i'd like to ask, just how... not 10096 but 90%. go ahead. this affects 10096 but 9096. go ahead. this affects the elderly primarily and it's a sort of unusual disease. is any person ‘s pacific research being done as to why it affects our senior citizens more than others? —— specific research. we already know why it would affect senior citizens more. when you talk about anything that requires a robust immune system, as you get older, your immune system is not as potent as it is when you are young. that's the reason why when you talk about even influe nza, reason why when you talk about even influenza, which we have extraordinary experience with over

decades and decades, the people who are very vulnerable all the —— are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. the same thing holds true for a variety of other diseases. why cancer is more prevalent in older individuals but, because the immune system that screens for us is less robust. something that is kind of well—known over a lot of studies. the chinese officials are expressing some tones officials are expressing some tones of discontent with where the source of discontent with where the source of the virus has come from and they're spitting some odd narratives. what are your response —— what is your response to the chinese officials who are doing that, and how they signalled any kind of resistance to upcoming trade talks in response to how we're

handling this virus? china will be buying $250 billion worth of goods and $50 billion from ourfarmers. it's a great deal from our country. it's a great deal from our country. it's about time somebody did that and frankly, phase two will start negotiating. i did read what article, but i don't think that article, but i don't think that article was representative of my conversations with the president. we all know where it came from. thank you, mr president. you said you don't take responsibility, but you did disband the white house pandemic office and the officials that were working in that office left this administration abruptly. what responsibility you take to that, and the officials said the white house lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. what you make office was disbanded. what you make of that? i think it's a nasty question because what we've done is,

and tony has said numerous times that we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing, and when you say me, i didn't do it. we had a group of people. i could perhaps ask tony about that because i don't know anything about it. you say we did that, i don't know anything about it. you don't know about reorganisation that happened? he used to beat with a different newspaper. —— be with. we're doing a greatjob. newspaper. —— be with. we're doing a great job. these great, newspaper. —— be with. we're doing a greatjob. these great, incredible doctors and business people, the best in the world. i can say that whether it's retailers or labs or anything you want to say, these are the best in the world. we're doing the best in the world. we're doing the greatjob. we're 40 people. compare that with other countries who have many times that. one of the reasons we have 40 and others have, and that numbers going up, and a

number of cases are going up. we've done a greatjob because we have acted quickly and orderly. there was nothing we could have done better than closing our borders to highly infected areas. i would like to ask you to very brief questions. one, for how long will we have the national emergency.” for how long will we have the national emergency. i hope not long but it's there now and it gives tremendous powers for things we need. the stafford act and various other things we were involved in and have studied and memorised in some may different ways and forms. gives us the kind of power we need to get rid of this virus and we will do it very quickly. i hope you won't need a very long, but whatever it takes. so for now we still don't know? i

also want to ask do you really think it's essential coordinating with other countries and learning from lessons that they are ready suffered in the same situations? of course like china and south korea and now italy and spain. how is that coordination done? we're in touch with italy and it's a country that we love. we have tremendous, millions and millions of people originally from italy. we're working with them. they're the toughest position of all. we're in touch with everybody. we're in touch with many of the countries that you know about that you're writing about and calling us asking for advice. they are asking for the advice of the people behind me. italy's got a tough situation, but they're really cla m ps tough situation, but they're really clamps down. i think they're going to see some really good results.

they really took their medicine but they will see some much better results. with regard to domestic travel, should americans feel safe or should americans at all be travelling to states such as washington state, new york and other hotspots within this country? and a follow—up on brazil. you're asking people who come back from europe, american coming back from europe to self quarantine for a couple weeks. you are in a picture with somebody who now has coronavirus from brazil. how is that different? first of all, i'm not coming back from someplace. but you were exposed.” i'm not coming back from someplace. but you were exposed. i have no idea who had it, but i take pictures and it lasts for literally seconds. i don't know the did not gentleman who we are talking about. i haven't seen the picture. i take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day so ijust

don't know. i did sit with the president for probably two hours, but he's tested negative so that's good. it's not bad to stay home. there are certain parts of the country that are essentially, zero problem. washington's been very tough. the state of washington has been very tough. it's been a big percentage of when you talk about the 40 deaths, it's been a big percentage of the deaths. they all came from a certain area, u nfortu nately. came from a certain area, unfortunately. go ahead. thank you, mr president. you talk to this week about the uk doing a good job in tackling coronavirus. in light of the rise in cases, are you changing your mind about that? you also just

spoke about possible travel restrictions. have you discussed when they might be put in place?m light of the results as we discussed before, a lot of the results we will before, a lot of the results we will be looking at and i know the task force is looking at it very strongly. it was looking good, but the results have been building up pretty rapidly. we'll be taking another look at that. absolutely. mr president, i want to follow us —— follow up. the person you stand stood next to had coronavirus whether you knew him or not. if you stand next to somebody who tells positive, you should self—isolate. you said you're white house doctor is telling you something different. who should americans listen to? they should listen to their doctors and they shouldn't be jumping to get the test and less it's necessary. but