being knocked down earlier this month while responding to looting here in new york. the facebook labelled that as a graphic video. president reposted it. there is a label on that ad. perhaps more understandable to have a label on something like that, but you know, again, it just points to the type of ads and the type of discourse around politics and the election on these platforms is getting more and more coarse. and a big -- big issues and big challenges for that facebook face, john? >> thanks. and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing this important day with us. a big hour ahead. the white house coronavirus task force meeting publicly for the first time in two months. its members rarely see or speak to the president anymore which should give you pause. especially if you look at the current numbers and listen to

the nation's top expert. something is not working. those are the words of dr. anthony fauci. and the numbers back dr. fauci up. despite the president telling you the coronavirus is fading away but the problem is too much testing. 37,000 new confirmed coronavirus infections in the united states on thursday. that is a new single-day high. florida last hour reporting nearly 9,000 new infection in a single day. florida officials reacting by suspending alcohol consumption at bars statewide. the nation now adding 33,000 new cases per day on average over the last week. that is faster than at any point during this pandemic. dr. fauci says one urgent accept might be to abandon the current testing approach. pool testing, he says, would test more people at once and allow public health officials to more quickly identify hot spots. we learned the other day the president has not spoken with his top experts in weeks. imagine that. in the middle of a pandemic. and now listen to this -- four full months into this pandemic, more than 125,000 americans

dead, the president of the united states sounds like a man with no clue about how testing works and about how the virus spreads among people who show mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. >> so we have more cases because we do the greatest testing. if we didn't do testing, we'd have no cases. other countries, they don't test millions -- up to almost 30 million tests. so when you do 30 million, you're going to have a kid with the sniffles, they'll say it's coronavirus, whatever you want to call it. >> straight to cnn's kaitlan collins at the department of health and human services where the task force meeting will play out. you hear the president there once again dismissive. but the fact that they are having this briefing today, the first time publicly in two months, it means at least some members of the tafrfof the task the idea that they better show the american people they're taking this serious. >> reporter: yeah, and they're seeing the same numbers that we are. and they had a task force briefing on wednesday. so it's notable that now two

days after they had a second meeting here today, and they're going to have a briefing. and of course it's incredibly remarkable that they have not had a briefing in two months now. the last one was april 27th, in the rose garden, at the white house. and since then, these members of the task force have not appeared to brief reporters. they've done a few interviews here and there, but they have not appeared altogether with the vice president, with other members of the administration like we're going to see them today, john. the other thing that's notable is it's happening in this building behind me, at the department of health and human services. because typically these task force briefings happen in the situation room at the white house, and then of course you saw those briefings happening there in the briefing room at the white house. and instead they have changed the venue. we do not expect president trump himself to be here, as of course he has continued to really downplay the coronavirus. and he's trying to resume a normal presidential schedule, inviting a foreign leader this week, taking three trips out of washington. and we should note as i'm talking about the three trips the president has taken, he was

scheduled to go to new jersey this weekend to go to his golf club. and the white house said he was not going to follow that quarantine mandate that you saw come from the new jersey governor for people who have been in states with rising cases like arizona. and we just found out in the last few minutes that the white house has canceled that trip, and the president is no longer going to be going to new jersey this afternoon. though they did not give a reason for why they canceled his trip. >> kaitlan collins, we'll check back in as this plays out and take you there live when we get the information. the situation on the ground has changed dramatically since the last white house coronavirus public briefing. look at how much. if you go back april 27th, look at the case count. 990,000, 56,500 dead in the united states. that's the last time we had a public briefing from the top presidential advisers on this pandemic. april 27th. remember those numbers. now look at where we are. everything has more than doubled. more than 2.4 million total cases. 124,000 deaths and counting. you see the map as the coronavirus cases fill in coast

to coast. let's do a little bit more. if you look at the trends back then, you had 27 states going up, ten holding steady, and 13 states heading down. that's the green. red in orange is where you do not want to be. red and orange is going up. this is april 27th, the last time we had a public briefing. this is where we are today. 32 states, 32 states going up. look how many, including some big states, florida and texas among them, michigan also, 50% higher rate of cases this week than last week. they're not just going up, they're going up by big numbers, huge florida numbers today. huge california numbers this week. that's the trends today. the top five states, the last time we had a public briefing by the task force two months ago, new york, new jersey, illinois, massachusetts, and california. think about how much this has changed. the northeast was a problem early on. if you look now, the top five today -- texas, california, florida, arizona, and georgia. so the fight has shifted to other states. i just want to keep up here now the trend today where we are here as we bring in our guest.

director of resolve to save lives. doctor, thank you so much for being with us. the coronavirus task force meeting publicly for the first time in two months tells you that at least politically they get the idea that they need look like they are on top of this. but the absence for two months, the words from the president in recent days and weeks that it's fading, that it's dying out, that we're doing too much testing, in the middle of this pandemic, do we also have a leadership crisis? >>. >> i think it's unbelievable that we haven't heard from the task force over 1.5 million cases and 70,000 deaths since the last time we heard from them. we need to hear from public health leaders every day. >> i want you to listen earlier as we go through this. this is the tucson mayor. arizona seeing a higher rate this week than last week. the mayor won't mandate masks but wishes people would use mac masks. listen to the mayor describing the urgency. >> arizona's in a state of crisis right now.

one in five tests come back positive. it's 20% positivity in tests taken in arizona. the city of tucson is the second largest city in arizona, and for a city of 560,000 and in the area in pima county we have a million people. we only have ten icu beds available. it's very scary. >> doctor, help our viewers understand the important point there was 20% positivity. testing is how you find out how deep of a problem you have. at this point in, four months in, if you have a state that's getting 20% positivity, what does that tell you? >> it tells me we're not testing enough. it tells me we don't have enough tests being done to get eyes on the virus. a lot more of the tests are turning positive, so we need expand our testing to really understand where disease is spreading and how to stop it. >> and so dr. fauci today saying something's not working. you can do all the diagramming you want, but something is not

working. what you need to do is find the penetration of infected people in your society, and the only way you know is by casting a broad net. and then dr. deborah birx saying around people doing a million or ten million tests is they're doing pooling. that gives the capacity of going from half a million tests a day to potentially five million individuals tested per day. explain test pooling, and why it could be better in terms of getting a better sense of the universe out there. and if it's a good idea, why are they just turning to it now four months into this? >> yeah, it's a way to get more efficient about using tests, test more people, but with not the same amount of tests. you don't have to test every individual, but you pool specimens together and only go on to test individuals if one of those pools tests positive. so overall the number of tests you do goes down. you can test more people if you expand a program like there with the same amount of resources. in terms of why we're only getting to this now, it's hard to say. i don't know. i would say it is a good sign that we're looking to new ways

of doing things. what we've done so far hasn't worked. >> we've talked about this before, sir. it's inevitable, we all knew it was inevitable that there would be more cases as the economy reopened. we all know it's impossible to keep the economy completely closed. we were going to have to deal with this change. when you see the rate, not just the rate of case increases, but the positivity in florida, we talked about in tucson, arizona, when you see at least eight states hitting the pause button on the reopening this week, and we can show viewers where they are -- i think we have florida at least today adding a new step saying you can't serve drinks in bars anymore, that would be an additional one -- is that enough? is hitting pause enough, or do you think the state governments and maybe the federal government need to rethink as they rethink testing, as dr. fauci says we need to rethink our strategy, do they need to rethink restrictions? >> i think we need to be adaptive in our response. this hasn't happened in 100 years. we have to use data and science

to guide us. we don't dou-- if we adapt our response and be targeted in our interventions in terms of instead of using blanket approaches, for example, then we'll be smarter about it. and things could reopen. we have to look to science and data to guide us. we have to be flexible in our approach. >> doctor, again, grateful as always for your expertise and insights and your time, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. up next for us, the timing here for the president is terrible. the number-one priority is your health, but the president's increased cases coming in the middle of an election year, the president's numbers are dropping. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. albring out the bold™

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during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, that gives me cash back onesome new aeverything.akuten that's ebates. i get cash back on electronics, travel, clothes. you're talking about ebates. i can't stop talking about rakuten. pretty good deal - peter sfx [blender] ebates is now rakuten, sign up today. the political news for the president this week is simply bleak. that may be an understatement. the president losing to democrat joe biden in several key battleground states right now. states that helped him win in 2016. the president is behind in nine key states, according to polls released just this week. with me to discuss, abby phillip and dan balls of the "washington post." dan, when you look at the map, just these nine states, the nine battleground states that have

shown biden leads today. number one, they include some states that in our careers we would normally lean republican out of the box. texas, you see there, florida, you see there, arizona, you see there, north carolina, you see there, georgia, you see there. just back a few years, those would be lean to solid republicans without even thinking. ohio usually leans that way. biden ahead in all of these. those states we're showing have 173 electoral votes. joe biden starts with 200 confirmed democratic states. it would be a blowout if the election were today, right? >> it certainly would be, john. i mean, there is not a close election -- this is not a close election at this moment. and i stipulate that we're talking only about this moment. but the president is in a very deep hole right now. and i don't think that there is a fast way out of it. i mean, this is going to take a long grind on the part of the campaign. but also on the part of the president. and in a discipline that would be unusual for donald trump in delivering a consistent message and message that would begin to resonate beyond the hard-core

base come is always where he seems to pitch his rhetoric. >> and to that point, abby, dan's point, the president needs to change this dynamic. one way to do it would be to answer a pretty simple question -- if you get four more years, what would be your top priority? what would be number one, two, and three? the president got a chance last night in the most softball setting you can imagine for a politician, city across from sean hannity -- sitting across from sean hannity, who trieps to help the president. he asked him -- listen. >> what will your top priority items for a second term? >> the word experience is a very important word. it's an important meaning. you make mistakes like an idiot like -- >> not health care, not revive the economy, not continue the coronavirus fight. i'd have more experience and bolton's not idiot. that's great second-term agenda. >> yeah. it really encapsulates the problem that he's facing right now which is that the argument that the campaign has been making, and we saw this at the

tulsa rally, is an argument that is fundamentally just against joe biden. he has not articulated what the second-term agenda would be for his supporters. make america great again is probably sufficient. but for the rest of the country, it's not. and especially for the independents and people who have been actually moving away from the president in the last few months, that is not going to be a sufficient answer. the challenge now for president trump is that he thought that he was going to be running on a gangbuster economy. everything was going to be full speed ahead going into november. and that is not the case. it's not the case because of the coronavirus which the american public believes has been mismanaged. so when i talk to trump advisers, a couple of months ago at the beginning of this, they said the re-election strategy is getting this virus under control. that has not happened. and until it does, i think the president's going to continue to struggle to have a forward-looking message for the american public going into the race. >> dan, a simple rule of

politics. if you can't lift yourself up, you got to tear the other guy down. there is a new trump campaign ad i want you to listen to. trying to essentially to get into the politics of the moment. the racial reckoning in the united states, the demands for police reform, and to cause joe biden problems. listen. >> every major crime bill that's come out of this congress has had the name joe biden on that bill. >> we do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill. >> joe biden's policies destroyed millions of black lives. joe biden may not remember, but we do. >> i think it's pretty clear that a bruising campaign already is going to get even more so, especially if the president can't help himself, if he's not talking about a second term agenda, his campaign is going to try to take joe biden down. >> yes. i'd make two points. one is that we've learned over, you know, a number of recent campaigns that advertising in presidential elections is of limited value and compared to

senate race or gubernatorial race. that more important is kind of the national conversation that's going on, and that's being led by the two candidates themselves. so that's one problem. i think the second is that there has been no consistency to the message, even the anti-biden message that the trump campaign and in particular the president has delivered. i mean, if you go back and look at that tulsa rally where he spoke for an hour and 40 minutes, there were lines in the teleprompter version of that speech that added up to a kind of a coherent anti-biden attack. and yet, it was interspersed with all kind of other things from the president himself, rif f'ing and going ad-lib and talking about his walk down the ramp at west point that diminished the effectiveness of the attacks. i think the third thing is in an argument about who is going to be better for black america, donald trump is not going to win

that argument with black voters. and if they think that they can do it with suburban voters, i think that that's an even -- almost as big a challenge on that front. >> right. we've seen it. if you look at 2018, if you look at the polling, it's a very bleak, very, very bleak environment for the president. abby, as you jump in, i want you to listen to the president a little bit. he savages joe biden last night in the conversation with sean hannity. the president though the campaign says we don't believe the public polls, it sure sounds like the president believes them. listen. >> the man can't speak, and he's going to be your president because some people don't love me maybe. a friend of mine said, you have to be the most perfect person. >> and he's going to be your president. he sounds defeated. >> yeah. i mean, it is really remarkable to hear him say that even as he claims that all these polls are false. but the president clearly understands he's in a deep hole in terms of his approval rating, and that this race is not going

in the direction that he wants it to go. you know, i think all of this adds up to not necessarily that the trump campaign or the president himself believes that they can bring over black voters into their side or even bring some back, some of these suburban voters. but they do think that they can perhaps suppress some support for joe biden among black voters, particularly younger voters, and among people who are -- may be suburban republicans, who have moved away from him. so that might end up being the strategy. but it seems, john, that these poll numbers are suggesting that this is. going to be enough. if the president is down in states that are not even swing states to joe biden, they're going to need to take a completely different strategy. this is a president who has resisted that at every turn. he has never in the four years that he's been president tried to expand beyond his base. and in fact, he keeps tacking

back to these culture war messages, as he did in tulsa. and that is hurting him. and until the president himself buys into a strategy that is different from that, i think it's going to be hard to change their trajectory of the race. >> all right. as they say, it's hard to get people to change. and he doesn't want to change. appreciate it. to dan's point, the president seems out of step on the race issues in the country right now and out of step on the coronavirus. next week, major league baseball players will start reporting to their teams to prepare for the upcoming 60-game shoernted season. as we hear more and more stories about players and staffers testing positive for the coronavirus, what is on players' minds as they get back to work? matthew boyd is a pitcher for the detroit tigers. thank you so much for coming in today. how do you feel about the safety risks? just today we're learning member nba players tested positive. whatever you do for a living, whether you're an athlete or going into a factory, when people get back to work, we are seeing more positive. are you worried? >> you know, it's kind of --

yeah, there's going to be as we get more tests, you know, there's going to be more positives, right. and we -- we're accepting that risk. it's going to be a risk. it's putting a lot of accountability on us as players and staff and knowing that, hey, you know, when we go into the ballpark and what we do -- when we go into the ballpark, it's going to be a bubble, it's going to be safe. what we do outside of the ballpark is going to matter. we've got to take care of ourselves, take care of the guys around us. >> you have asthma which puts you at a bit more risk if you get the coronavirus. it's something you want to avoid at all costs. the team doctors, your personal doctors, taking any extra precautions for someone like yourself, or is it all the same? >> no. they are. you know, i had a phone call with our team doctor yesterday because i am high risk. i had an opportunity to opt out of the season. you know, for me, you know, this is a personal thing, but we can't live in fear. i can't live in fear. there is a risk.

i need to be aware of that risk. i need take precautions of it. and if it means i need to wear a mask more than other guys and if it means that -- i was working out in there, that maybe i'll be in full garb going head to toe in the workout room with gloves on and everything. it's -- it's what we've got to do. you know, i'm called to play baseball. i'm called to represent the city of detroit. and wear the "d" on my chest. i'm excited for the opportunity to do it. we're thankful for protocols that we came to an agreement on with major league baseball. and you know, it's going to be a fluid process. things will happen each day, and i'm sure that we all got to be adaptive in it. >> you're talking to a red sox fan, but i'm a big fan also of the story franchise. i love detroit and love coming to detroit to go to games. 60-game season. you get training camp july 1st. the teams will determine if fans will be allowed at some point. i would love to come to tiger stadium. i would love to spend time at fenway park this summer.

do you do you think that's going to be possible? >> that's up to the state officials. you know, it's going to depend on each individual individual state. that's what i've heard. but you know, we're excited -- if we can get fans there, we're excited to get fans back. more importantly, we're excited to deliver the game. that's what we're excited about. you know, it's not our game, it's the fans' game. baseball's been -- it transcends generations. passed down. so we're excited for it. whether it's with fans or without fans, you know, we play for the fans. hopefully it will be in person instead of on tv for most of the year. we've got to be smart as a society, as a nation in the process of that. we'll be patient. and let that happen when it's supposed to. >> how are you preparing for that challenge, of playing without fans? because it is such a fan-driven game. if you're in tiger stadium, they're cheering you on, if you're on the road, they're screaming at you and calling you things. that's what gets the adrenaline going r. you worried, and what

can you do -- you can't simulate it. what can you do to prepare yourself that this is going to be weird? you know, you're going to throw a great pitch, and it's going to be silence. how do you prepare for that? >> you know, it's going to be unique. what was normal, now this is the normal. how long this will be normal, we don't know. for me, i think it's where my game comes from. if my game is kind of dependent on the fans or the location, you know, there's something inside that i really need to get out of myself that i maybe need to do a little soul searching. but my game, you know, shouldn't change on location. it shouldn't matter if it's in detroit, boston, toledo, or on the moon, right. my game is inherent inside of me. it's my game. kind of think it will be a new challenge if there are no fans there, which probably to start the year there won't be. there will be baseball in the purest form. like in the back yield with wiffle balls to our teammates and friends back in the day. it will be -- it's going to be the game kind of cut down to its

raw form. i'm excited about that. >> i'm grateful for your time. i wish you the best of luck and hope everything works out. and i'll be rooting for you except when you're pitching against the red sox. how about that? >> that's that sounds fine. thanks for having me on. >> best of luck. please take care. ahead for us, the white house coronavirus task force just moments away from holding its first public briefing in nearly two months. you say that customers make their own rules. let's talk data. only xfinity mobile lets you switch up your wireless data whenever. i accept! 5g - everybody's talking about it. how do i get it? everyone gets 5g with our new data options at no extra cost. that's good. next item - corner offices for everyone. just have to make more corners in this building. chad? your wireless your rules. only with xfinity mobile. now that's simple easy awesome. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill.

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to remind you we're standing by. the white house coronavirus task force due to have its first public briefing in two months being held today at the department of health and human services, not at the white house as was tradition. we'll take you there live the moment that starts. meanwhile the texas governor says closing down his state is a last option. but today he is put something new coronavirus restrictions in place as cases in texas surge. cnn has more from houston. what is the governor saying? >> reporter: hey there, john. this is the first step toward rolling back a reopening. a first step into that water. new restrictions on bars, they won't be allowed to be open except for takeout and delivery. there are also new restrictions on restaurant capacity. new limits on outdoor gatherings. is this enough? well, according to local officials, the answer is no. we are in harris county. it is the third largest county in the nation. they say that the outbreak here is surging. they are trying to urge people to stay home. local county officials now

moving the covid threat level warning system from the second highest level, significant, to the highest level, severe. that is a warning to people that they should not leave their house for any reasons that are not essential like getting food or medicine. listen to the county judge who just put this order in place -- >> the outbreaks are worsening, our public health capacity is strained or exceeded, health care surge is not only likely but is already in progress. this is a serious situation. and we cannot let this moment pass without action. >> reporter: the warning from judge hidalgo that people should be staying home largely is just an advisory, that's all she has the authority to do. for more you would need an order from the governor. that, of course, has not happened. you've got judge hidalgo now imploring people to take this seriously as we see these cases climb, setting records every day. we're also seeing a rising rate

of hospitalizations every day. the judge saying this is an invisible hurricane. asking people in the houston area to recall the floodwaters of hurricane harvey, remember how they helped their neighbors then, and do it again, john. >> on the ground in houston, important time to be there, appreciate the live reporting, thank you so much. any moment now the first task force briefing in two months. on april 27th, the united states had fewer than one million cases. 56,500 the death rate. today surging across the country, more than 124,000 americans have died. as we wait for the briefing, let's discuss with chief correspondent dana bash and chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. i want to go to you first. dr. birx and dr. fauci suggesting to that we change the testing strategy. that we go to something called pooling tests. but your reporting is that there is a disagreement or some sort of a schism among the task force members on this testing

question? [ no audio ] sanjay, i'll come back to you in a minute. we have an audio issue there. dahnn dana, the president has bn saying this is dying out. this is fading away. yesterday in a town hall with sean hannity he was mocking the idea of more testing saying, wealth, they're finding people with the sniffles. dr. fauci today, the president who's been dismissing the science all along, dr. foush says something has to change, we have to do something different. we have a problem. the fact that they're having a public briefing for the first time in two months tells you some of them get it. that they need try to convince the american people they're on top of this because the president has essentially said this is -- there is gone. >> that's right. we haven't seen the task force really have a very public role at all except for maybe things like the congressional hearing that we saw this week, but not

in a formal here's what you need to know to the public since that time that the president talked about using effectively clorox to ingest it. and that everything spiralled from there. and it wasn't just that the president didn't want to be in front of the -- of the setting because he messed it up, it metropolitan meant the whole task force wasn't there. it turned into the donald trump show for so long, more than the let's get information from medical experts hour. and so i'm looking down it looks like we might see them momentarily. but look, this is very, very important. it is so critical for americans to hear from these medical experts because the white house and because on a federal level they have been trying to push it to the states and not just that,

in a maybe more reprehensible way as you said from the president's point of view, saying it's not a problem. >> i'm going to interrupt here. the vice president of the united states, you see dr. deborah birx, dr. fauci, others, members of the task force, the secretary of health and human services coming into the briefing room. let's listen as the vice president opens this briefing. >> well, good afternoon and to our fellow americans out west, good morning. we just completed today's meeting of the white house coronavirus task force, and i'm pleased to be joined by many members of the task force with us for this briefing. i want to thank secretary azar, dr. birx, dr. fauci, dr. redfield of the cdc, as well as our attorney general, dr. girard of the u.s. public health

service, dr. hahn and seema verma. we'll make a series of presentations to update the american people on the status of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, and then be available to take questions. we very much appreciate the attendance of all who are here and all of you who have made time to tune in. as we reported today, we have now more than 2,500,000 americans that have contracted the coronavirus. and sadly we've lost more than 126,000 of our countrymen to this disease. and i know i speak for the president and for every american when we express our sympathies and our deepest condolences to al the families who have lost loved ones. despite those losses, since the end of our 45 days to slow the spread and the beginning of

efforts to open up america, thanks to the cooperation of the american people, the efforts of governors and state health officials, efforts i want to proudly say of the entire federal team under the leadership of president trump, we have made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward. we've all seen the encouraging news as we open up america again. more than three million jobs created in the last jobs report, retail sales are rolling. and of course the extraordinary progress in new york, new jersey, connecticut, and new orleans, areas that just a matter of -- of a month ago were struggling under the weight of this pandemic. and now have arrived at a very, very different place. as we stand here today, all 50 states and territories across

this country are opening up safely and responsibly. but with cases rising, particularly over the past week throughout the south, president trump directed our task force to brief the american people on several topics. first, we want to share with you as dr. birx will what we're seeing in the rise of new cases that today surmounted 40,000 new cases in a single day. secondly, we want to speak about what we've done and what we are doing at the federal level to support the state efforts, particularly in the states where we see rising cases. we'll talk today about how this moment in the coronavirus pandemic is different than what we saw two months ago, to better equip the american people, to respond and ultimately we will speak about what every american can do to play their part in --

in reducing the spread and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. for our part also, i've spoken to governors in arizona and florida and texas in the last 12 hours, and dr. birx and i will be traveling on sunday to texas, on tuesday to arizona, and i'll be traveling to florida on thursday of next week to get a ground report. and of course on monday, we will conduct what will be our 26th weekly call with the entire white house coronavirus task force and all of the nation's governors as we -- as we meet this moment. as i mentioned, it's important gathering today, i think, that we take a step back and think about how far we've come as a

country. when the president tasked me to lead the coronavirus task force, he said we had one mission, and that was to save lives. president trump's decision to suspend all travel from china in january, to stand up the coronavirus task force, in february to declare a national emergency, to halt travel from europe and amend travel from other places around the country, all contributed to giving our nation time to stand up a broad-based response. the whole of government response that we spoke about so many times at the podium throughout this pandemic. we at the state department also coordinated the repatriation of some 95,000 americans. and then came the moment when we brought this chart to the president of the united states on the counsel of our very best scientists. the president was presented with

a decision that it we did nothing, no intervention, the possibility existed at that moment in time that we could lose between 1.5 million and 2.2 million americans. but with intervention and with mitigation, by calling on the american people to embrace the mitigation efforts, social distancing that we're called upon first in the 15 days to slow the spread that would become 45 days to slow the spread, our best scientists believed that we could reduce the number of american fatalities to a number ranging between 100,000 and 240,000. the president made that decision, and we unveiled the 15 days that became the 45 days to slow the spread. and inarguably as we see where we are today as a nation,

because of what the american people have done, because of the incredible work of our health care workers, because of a partnership with governors in every state, we did just that. we slowed the spread. we flattened the curve. we saved lives. in the midst of that, we exponentially scaled testing capacity, partnering with private sector commercial laboratories. we now reached some 30 million tests across the country conducting some 500,000 tests a day. and that partnership with governors also, the president directed us to make sure that states had what they needed when they needed it. and at this point, i'm pleased to report that the federal government both delivered and facilitated the delivery of billions of supplies, of face shields and gowns and gloves and masks, and we continue to be on track to construct more than

100,000 ventilators in 100 days. and as i spoke to governors last night, they confirmed to me again what fema's reported. we have no outstanding requests from any state at this time for personal protective equipment or medical supplies. let me say that again. in the affected areas, particularly the states down south that are seeing rising cases, we have no outstanding requests. as i told the governors, we are ready at a moment's notice to surge personnel and supplies, to expand capacity and to support their health care response. in the midst of all of that, i think it always bears saying that because of the great work of our health care workers and because of american manufacturing, no american who required a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator in the united states. and i consider that nothing short of a national accomplishment.

we also surged hospital capacity in areas of the greatest anticipated need, we sent military and national guard personnel. and these charts showing the progress that we've made in new york and new jersey and new orleans all demonstrate the efforts of the people of those states in cooperation with federal government and all the great health care workers to show the progress that we made in areas that were once deeply impacted. and we extend our thanks. we extend our thanks to the people of each of those states for the sacrifices that they made during those great and challenging times. at the close of that 45 days to slow the spread, we unveiled a plan to safely reopen america again. and now all 50 states and territories are moving forward. as i said, we're seeing america go back to work. and in much of the country we're -- we're seeing jobs

expanding and economic activity expanding. but our focus today is very much on the advent of a rising series of new cases across the american south. and where our first mission was to save lives, once we came out of the 45 days to slow the spread, what our task force has been focused on over the course of the past two months is to partner with states to save lives and safely reopen. in fact, we've had some 17 meetings of the white house coronavirus task force in the intervening days since we began the process of opening up america again, and we've been working very closely with states to move that agenda forward. as the president has made clear, we want to open our economy up. we want to move america forward

even while we take and continue to take the steps necessary to protect lives and the health of the american people. we stand here today because with the rising cases among southern states, president trump asked us to brief the american people, to give details on what we're seeing, what we're doing, and how it's different from two months ago. as you may recall, after seeing overall cases drop from 30,000-a-day average in april to 25,000-a-day average in may, the first few weeks of june actually saw cases averaging roughly 20,000 new cases a day, we now have seen cases begin to rise precipitously across the south. in fact, 34 states, 34 -- let me make sure i've got my numbers

exactly right here. as we reported early on, 34 states across the country, though, are experiencing a measure of stability that is a credit to all of the people of those states. when we speak about stability, we are talking about not necessarily states where there are no new cases, but these would be states where they're their are either no new cases and no rising percentage or no combination of those two things. there may be states across the country that are seeing a modest increase in cases, but the percentage of positive rates is stable. and nevertheless, there are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages. and we'll be focusing on those states today. first thing we'd share with the american people is that while there's a penchant in the national debate to use a broad brush and to paint an entire

state one color, if there are rising cases in a portion of the state, there is is actually a br picture of the data we analyze every single day. dr. birx will take a few minutes to unpack the specific outbreaks in texas, florida, arizona, and california. but the first thing we would convey to the american people is that from this new positive results in the last three days, you can see the concentration of new cases in specific parts of states, and of course very specifically in parts of countries -- parts of the country. secondly, we want the american people to understand it's almost inarguable that more testing is generating more cases. to one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the

country. as i said at the top, we're testing more than ever before, some 500,000 people a day, and perhaps we could go to the testing chart if it's there just to show you the acceleration of testing that's taken place over the course of this pandemic in the united states. it's truly been remarkable, and it's been a public and private partnership from the very outset. one of the things we're seeing among the cases -- we hear this in florida, texas, and elsewhere -- is that roughly half of the new cases are americans under the age of 35 which is at a certain level very encouraging news, as the experts tell us. as we know, so far in this pandemic, younger americans are less susceptible to serious outcomes of the coronavirus. and the fact that we are finding more younger americans who have

contracted the coronavirus is a good thing. and so we'll speak about the testing and the admiral is here and can detail any questions that you might have about testing going forward. thirdly, we'll talk about what these new numbers mean and how we can address them. and dr. fauci will speak about that in just a moment, particularly in the affected areas. and the other area that we spend a great deal of time thinking about is hospitalization. not only do we track new cases every day on a county-by-county basis, but we also track hospitalization. and the map on the left of your screen represents how -- coronavirus cases over the last 14 days. the map on the right shows you how we look at it and how we

ensure that hospitals and health care workers have the resources and support they need. again, as in the matter of new cases, you can also see hospitalization it's highly focused, highly detailed, and highly specific. secretary azar will speak about hospitalization, the work of hhs to make sure that our hospitals around the country have the capacity to meet this moment. but as dr. birx may well reflect, as well, we are encouraged that where two months ago we were seeing some 15% of new cases being hospitalized, now that number is averaging roughly 5% around the country, which is also encouraging news to say the least. and so the -- while we have 16 states that we're focusing on, again, i would reiterate to the

american people, the most useful thing to know is where it's happening so that you can take the steps necessary to do your part. but rest assured, in our conversations with governors in all of the most impacted states, we continue to be assured that hospital capacity remains strong, and they know the federal government stands ready to provide them with the personal protective equipment or supplies or even expanded capacity and personnel to meet any moment. but at this point in time, we are told that in all of the states most deeply impacted, that hospitalization remains very, very broadly available. finally, i want to speak about the progress that we've made as a country on the most difficult aspect of this. i said at the beginning that our hearts and our prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones in the course of the

coronavirus pandemic. and i know i speak on behalf of everyone in this country when i extends -- extend our sympathies to the families that have lost loved ones. as the president has said many times, one life lost is too many. but nevertheless, i believe at this point in the course of the pandemic we can still take some comfort in the fact that fatalities are declining all across the country. there literally was a day two months ago this week where we lost 2,500 americans in a single day. this week because of the extraordinary work of our health care workers, because of the availability of new medicines like remdesivir and new treatments like steroids and because of the cooperation of the american people heeding the guidance that we gave at the

federal level and state and local officials gave, this week there were two days where we lost less than 300 americans. and you can see from this chart what has been a precipitous decline from some of the worst moments of this pandemic as it impacted areas of new york and new jersey and the northeast. again, i have a heavy heart any time i recite these numbers, but the fact that we are making progress at reducing the number of americans that we have lost and are losing, i hope is an encouragement. as we see new cases rising and we're tracking them carefully, there may be a tendency among the american people to think that we are back to that place that we were two months ago, that we're in a time of great losses and great hardship on the

american people. the reality is we're in a much better place with the efforts president trump mobilized at the federal level, with the efforts of this team, this whole of government approach, the efforts of governors across the country, our incredible health care workers, and the cooperation of the american people. we're in a much stronger place. the truth is we did slow the spread. we flattened the curve. we were able to stand up the resources and the capacity in our health care system to be able to meet this coronavirus in a way that would put the health of all of our country first. we've also cared for the most vulnerable and continued to focus resources and testing and supplies on the most vulnerable -- seniors with serious underlying conditions. and i believe with all my heart that we've continued to save lives. we've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges come, either in the days ahead or in the months ahead.

and that's a credit, that's a credit i believe to our president, to our federal team, to our state partners, but mostly it's a credit to the american people and our health care workers. and so we stand here today, we believe we've made progress. but as we are reminded, as we see cases rising across the south, that we still have work to do. and so we say to every american, particularly those in counties and in states that are being impacted by rising cases, that now's the time for everybody to continue to do their part. and i think you'll hear from this podium today a particular message to younger americans. younger americans across the sunbelt and the role that you can play in protecting the vulnerable and making sure that while the coronavirus doesn't represent as significant a threat for serious outcomes to a

younger american, none of us would want to bring the disease back to our parents or grandparents, moms and dads, and an elderly friend or a friend who has an immunodeficienciy an cause a serious outcome, as well. we leave you just with the guidelines for all of the phases. when we put out the guidelines open it up america again, we laid out at the outset guidance for responsible reopening, and states across the country as i mentioned are doing just that. 34 states are reopening safely and responsibly and seeing low and steady cases, and not seeing a rise in the percentage of positives. in the 16 states being impacted, particularly those that we'll focus on here today, we would just encourage every american to

follow the guidelines for all the phases, continue to practice good hygiene, wash your hands, avoid touching your face, disinfect frequently lfrequentl. people who feel sick should stay home when it comes to businesses, social distances, equipment, temperature checks and isolation. these are the guidelines for all of the phases, and they are good practices to implement. if you're in a community that's affected or even if you are not. we're all in this together. and the progress that we made, that you saw illustrated in those charts and places like new york and new jersey, connecticut and new orleans, was a result of the american people stepping forward, heeding the guidance of federal, state, and local authorities. and we encourage you to continue to do just that.