and the president to be front and center together and shaking hands for a change but don't see that happening. >> what would reassure the markets, if things get demonstrably worse. we'll be there with stimulus. just say it. david: that is is it for "bulls & bears." enjoy the president. elizabeth: we're in breaking news mode. edward lawrence, saying the white house holding a coronavirus task force. expect a briefing from potus, president of the united states. as we're watching inside of the room for him to come out. the rest of the task force also expected to be there, including possibly treasury secretary steve mnuchin and vice president of the united states. they will talk about the economic stimulus. he is looking forward to going forward, help offset some impact from the coronavirus. there is a meeting going on right before this with that group. about how they should go forward with that. capitol hill, lawmakers there are looking for the stimulus

package to see what the white house wants to lead on. paid sick leave is something the white house floated here as well as temporarily targeting tax relief for certain industries. that is another thing. senator chuck grassley that is a big thing for him. representative matt gaetz was actually told later today, that he has to quarantine himself. you see the president there going up air force one in florida. line him is representative matt gaetz. he was told on air force one that he had to isolate himself because he came in contact with that person at cpac. that is exactly what happened. matt gaetz sat in a different portion of the plane. no one else was with him, isolating himself. others, representative doug collins, senator ted cruz as well as representative azar or gosar, i'm sorry, have all quarantined themselves because of the person they came in contact with at cpac there. states, ohio, new york, latest to declare emergencies related

to this. the port authority director of new york, new jersey, said he tested positive. he had been visiting airports in recent days in that area there. so, liz, everyone taking this very seriously. again waiting on president trump to come into that room and lead this briefing. elizabeth: markets are on the cusp of a bear market, all three major indices down more than 7% each, s&p, nasdaq and the dow. the dow is now trading at january 2019 levels. three things hitting markets. not just coronavirus. also fears of a liquidity crunch. that companies are seizing up. not getting cash flow in. the federal reserve will potentially step in further in a bigger way we're just now hearing s that a credit crunch? oil prices plunging to levels not seen since the gulf war in 1991. so is washington going to do emergency action and what would it be? reporter: you know emergency

action in this point not yet. they are warning folks as you have heard, don't be in large groups there. the trump administration has responded this week recently within the last, five, seven days, shipping a lot of test kits out, thousands of them to certain states to try to make sure they have everything they need with the testing. they also want to limit people in large groups. if you don't have to go out to the large groups, don't do that. obviously go about your day. keep buying, doing things you do there but it is really the most elderly, those with underlying conditions that are really most susceptible related to this. if you look at the u.s. senate, the average age of this u.s. senate is 69.2 years old. five senators are over 80 years old. elizabeth: is congress going to shut down? >> at this point congress is not going to shut down. votes are not delayed. i spoke to the house leaders office and senate majority

leader. they are being careful, washing their hands, those sort of things. elizabeth: dow futures down 240 points. they are pushing the presser back to 6:30. the we'll stay on the news. markets in panic mode. indices on cusp of a bear market. dropping 7% today, largest point declines ever. we're in the biggest sell off since 2018. dow back to jon 2019 levels. we got angles covered. the s&p 500 did fall more than 7% earlier today, triggering a mandatory stock market trading halt. called a circuit breaker to stop a further plunge. adding to chaos, oil prices dropping more than 24%. we haven't seen this action in a generation or more. tonight we'll give you calm and common sense. we're going to give you the top experts. we'll bring in right now wells fargo senior economist mark vitner. your take on market action

today? >> there was a lot of it. there was a lot of action. we knew it was coming. we saw news over the weekend that saudi arabia would essentially start a price war with, in terms of with russia in terms of oil prices and ramp up production and that raises some risk here in the united states because we had an awful lot of investment in the shale oil area and some of that is higher cost. there is a lot of worry about some debt that the some of the energy companies taken on. that really got things rolling. you add that to the rest of the coronavirus fears. we had just a massive selloff today. elizabeth: do reality check. we're following experts on the data coming out of south korea. they are talking fatality rate there of 0.7% as they do way more testing, more data coming in. so the markets are trying to find that bottom as they lack information on the coronavirus. but we're seeing positive

information coming out. will the markets take out today's low tomorrow? will it go even further down? what do you think tomorrow? is the historic 11-year bull run over? will they take out the low tomorrow in trading? >> we might. lot depends what we hear from the press conference tonight. >> what do you want to hear? >> i would really like to hear a little bit more in the way of what the federal government is likely to do in the way of stimulus. to me what would make a lot of sense, to say, we'll put a stimulus program in place that increases incentives for the pharmaceutical companies to bring back that production that has gone to china and india. 80% of our pharmaceutical products are sourced basically from china, india. that is untenable. i don't think that's where we want to be. there is some common sense moves we could make that would help better health care situation here in the united states. also provide some stimulus. but i think we're probably going to have to look at temporary tax cuts of some sort to prime the pump and just build confidence.

we need more, we need more clarity on what the threat is on the coronavirus. elizabeth: yeah, that's the point. fear is more contagious than the virus. fear is outpacing the facts even new york governor andrew cuomo said that freaking out doesn't get your money back. are you guys buying the dip right now? >> i'm not an equity guy personally. i'm always invested. i'm long stocks. i'm trying to nibble at it as we go down. elizabeth: yeah. >> the problem i have, what a lot of other folks or investors have is the news flow is likely to get more negative. some people are just beginning to test people here in the u.s. we're likely to see more cases are going to be confirmed. elizabeth: great to see you, mark vitner, for your perspective. thanks so much. good to see you. get right to it with congressman lee zeldin. took apple 2 1/2 years to double. microsoft about a year-and-a-half to double. s&p operating profits have not

been going up in a straight line over the last five years but markets are up 60% since. i'm talking context here. your reaction to all of this? this is happening all around the world. it is starting in china, obviously a problem as you mentioned. different companies that might be trading here in the united states but whether it is supply chain or a lot of, more of their operation being based in china, that's causing an issue. you point out here at the top of the show what happened over the weekend with regards to oil prices. i think this press conference is important. i think not only do you have the united states of america and americans listening but really all around the world. i think that it's really benefit to europe and asia if that leadership is coming out of the white house in moments like this. it is a message, especially talking about policies that might impact companies. these companies have markets. they are active elsewhere. elizabeth: michael milkin says

this feels like the hiv panic or polio panic in the '50s. new york in a state of emergency. we had breaking news, boston canceled the st. patrick's parade. looks like people are already doing self-containment. we don't see the subways or streets that crowded. would new york do what italy did? italy is now entire lockdown for the entire country. could new york handle that? >> we're a big state. we are over 60 counties. listening to governor cuomo's comments this afternoon, there is a heightened focus where you might see more activity. so in westchester county, for example, that is where you have a lot more people testing positive. that is an area just north of new york city. so where you see schools, that might get closed, whether it's a grade schools or higher education, i represent a district on long island for example. one of our grade schools closed today, because one of the staffers had a husband who

tested positive for coronavirus. we have some higher education places on long island that closed as well as new york city. that is where the focus is going to be. congress passed a large, several billion dollar package. you had approvals for state laboratories to conduct testing. large increase in distribution of tests over the course of the weekend to the point where new york city received 23,000 tests and their lab said they didn't want anymore at this particular time. what we saw yesterday was approvals by one private lab called northwell which is based on long island. but there is a request for more private labs to get that approval. as well as getting approvals for something called automatic testing. while we've seen a lot of progress, there are active new requests out there to be granted. elizabeth: great to see you, congressman lee zeldin new york. we're staying on breaking news right now. the president is expected to

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elizabeth: there is a lot of panic out there on the coronavirus. let's get the facts. talk about the outbreak zones and how they're seeing turn around right now. we want to bring in one of the top experts an emergency physician. dr. neshwan. they're seeing krona cases a third of what it was, is that true. >> bacterial outbreaks and virus outbreaks peak and come down. that is not necessarily the case in the united states. we need to keep with preventative measures, preventative care, continued screening, look out for the most vulnerable. that is the senior citizens, underlying medical problems, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease. those are patients highest risk. elizabeth: we have breaking news. new jersey just declared a state of emergency. dr. fauci, anthony fauci, he said do social distancing if you're elderly or compromised immune system.

he doesn't know if it goes to the general population or might, to do social distancing. does that make sense? >> especially don't get on a cruise ship. you could be atomtic and meaning no symptoms and could spread it to another person. if you put yourself in a situation where there is potential outbreak and expose yourself to higher risk of complications. the data shows that 5% of those who become infected with coronavirus, with covid-19 will suffer critical symptoms. 80%. elizabeth: that is the issue. 80% don't show symptoms. >> no. very mild or have no medical intervention. elizabeth: okay. people are freaking out about the death rate. there is still no single accurate coronavirus virus death rate. countries like south korea with way more widespread testing than the u.s., they're showing a 0.7 death rate. that is much lower than the 3.4% that has been stated.

we're hearing south korea had 53 fatalities in 700 cases. they're testing millions. -- 7500 cases. >> this is dynamic evolving situation. until the outbreak is completed we won't know the exact numbers. take numbers right here, right now today, number of cases, number of deaths that will give you a estimate of mortality rate. elizabeth: we're talking about cases only a subset of a subset of a -- cases of people showing up they're very sick. we're not counting maybe people with antibodies. maybe people not showing up. the numbers are all over the map right now. we don't trust the numbers. >> what that tells us is the mortality rate is probably lower. if someone is really, really sick, they will seek medical care. they will end up in the emergency room and we'll test them. we'll know the information, we'll know the data. the key, the goal, focus now, keeping those who are must vulnerable safe and taking strict precautions, screening precautions.

safety precautions. health care providers properly geared up in gowns. elizabeth: so glad you're here. we know that sars i think took like eight to 10 months to abate. so did merz. those are nasty viruses. we'll have the president coming on in reportedly about 12 minutes. stay with us if you can to monitor this? >> yeah. elizabeth: just ahead we'll stay on the press conference with the president and coronavirus task force. dr. neshwiat will be me for the rest of that. media and democrats scolding democrat voters for being sexist because they didn't vote for elizabeth warren. we drill down to the facts. women voters did not vote for elizabeth warren. how could that be sexist? the unbeatable strength and speed of advil liqui-gels. what pain?

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elizabeth: let's take a quick break on markets. update from the democratic primaries. update from the white house with potus. big races who will decide who will take on the president starting tomorrow. fox news contributor ari fleischer. great to see you, ari. >> liz, great to be here. elizabeth: six states vote tomorrow. followed by another four on march 17. we're hearing biden talking cabinet picks, john kerry, susan rice, klobuchar as vice president.

these are just reports. your reaction to all of this? >> one, i think biden is not talking that. nobody at this stage would talk that. i think some people around him with lose lips may be talking like that. it is foolish. it is a mistake. it is way premature. elizabeth: here is the other thing, turnout. how is turnout going to be a factor in michigan and other states tomorrow? >> well that is a great question, liz. if you look at the super tuesday states, there were nine states that voted last tuesday. also had super tuesday in same period of time, march of 2016. of those nine, only six states, i'm sorry, six states of those nine actually had a decline in turnout from the record-breaking year of 2008 when barack obama was on the ticket. only three had an increase in turnout, vermont being one of those three. so far the democratic turn out has been middling. it is not anything close to 2008 records. that's a problem for the democrats. but i still suspect in the

primaries what bernie needs, he needs young people to turn out and liberals. if that is the case, bernie will do well in six states that are up. joe biden, mostly moderates, joe biden will win. elizabeth: this is interesting, it is key, to what you're saying, it is about turnout. hillary clinton didn't bring the turnout in 2016 against the president in michigan. now we're hearing that you know, bernie sanders is saying he will double down if he loses michigan, go on to florida. woo your reaction to this? >> we'll see. i think he means it as he says it this time, something intervening a debate on march 16th. six states voting tomorrow on march 10th. other states going two days after the march 16th debate. illinois, florida, why should anybody drop out, why should bernie drop out. that debate on march 15th, will be do-or-die on bernie.

only chance, last chance to have joe biden one-on-one. elizabeth: critics warning that biden's weak spot so joe biden. show the sot montage. >> for folks in working class that are below 400, they will in fact will increase their premiums, the public option will available on my plan. we'll make sure it is not quality, we'll make sure it is only affordable. all men and women created by -- you know the thing. 3900 of them right here in the state of north-south carolina. >> next question. >> there used to be an epa. no, you think i'm kidding. almost not there now, but anyway nominate a democrat. a lifelong democrat. a proud democrat. an owe biden-obama democrat. elizabeth: your reaction. is this an issue?

>> it is an issue and this is why that debate on march 15th could be so significant. if bernie shows he has the energy, this is older joe biden who shows up, joe biden could be in big trouble once again. if it is newer joe biden shows up, the one that has got momentum, one who did well on the debate on the eve of south carolina obviously a different night for joe biden. in the general election, boy it will be a issue. joe biden, stumbles, bumbles, gaffs, a sign of too consistently making these types of mistakes. not just his diction, not just his language or an impediment he had when he was a child. this is a sign of something more serious potentially. that could be very bad for joe biden. elizabeth: i want to return to this, now we have, again we're monitoring presser coming up possibly in 3 1/2 minutes, quickly, nancy pelosi, elizabeth warren, hillary clinton, bringing up sexism again. in other words that there is

sexism with democrat voters not choosing elizabeth warren. i, forgive me, we're in something like 55% of the democrat voters are women, in the primaries right now? >> excellent point. the issue isn't sex. the issue isn't gender. the issue is not race. the issue is merit. the democrat voters watch candidates with their very own eyes. they made the selection she made, they don't think the women candidates warren, klobuchar, were good enough. or gabbard were not good enough. what drives me crazy, when the democrats losing something count own them to allege sexism or racism instead of merit. that is the greatest weakness in our system these democrats do it, too much press lets them get away with it, that is such a juicy story to allege something like that. wrong as wrong can be. elizabeth: correct me, let you get final word. correct me if i'm wrong, did bernie sanders and joe biden win more of the women vote in

massachusetts, more than elizabeth warren? >> i would have to look that number up. elizabeth: i think they did. >> given their margins i'm sure they did. she came in third. >> all right. a flu fleischer, thank you so much. tune in tomorrow for our special election coverage. south carolina senator tim scott will be joining that coverage. we'll stay on breaking news. bring in dr. neshwat. what do you want to hear, thanks for joining us. what do you want to hear out of this presser is with the president possibly? >> so important to keep the american public informed and updated. we'll keep panic and fear levels down. i think he will say, continue normal lives, be smart, stay informed, take common sense precautions. stick to basics of hand washing, social isolation, hygiene. social isolation, don't go on a cruise ship. don't go to party with friend who are sick, that kind of thing. elizabeth: i think people are already self-containing here in

new york city, right? >> especially areas of the country where there is a huge outbreak you have to take precautions. >> do you feel like there is overreaction and panic here? are people overreacting? >> some people's anxiety levels might be accelerated. stay informed. latest from the information take precautions such as infection control. wiping down tabletops, coughing into the elbow, those types of things. stay home if you're sick. elizabeth: love to hear from people like elon musk, tech experts like you, market experts, elon musk says the fatality rate is greatly overrated. there are so few test kids, are tested for and counted. those with minor symptoms not tested and not counted. is that a valid point. >> no. elon musk respectfully needs to stick with cars. i can swab anybody we want to swab right now. you don't actually to have a kit. you have to have the utensils. elizabeth: we're talking about

counting of it in the rate, number of cases? >> the more we test, the more accurate numbers. elizabeth: that is the point. >> there is no limit on number of tests. we can test anyone that walks in the doors. meet certain criteria, chest pain, shortness of breath, fever, cough, if you feel you have coronavirus there is no shortage of that right now. elizabeth: edward lawrence. we're coming up on bottom of the hour. he may take the microphone. is he coming to the press conference? reporter: we expect the president at briefing. overreacting, senator roy blunt within the last 15, 20 minutes says he thinks this is overblown by the markets. they're going a little too far. the fundamentals of the economy are still there. senator blount saying possibly would not vote for stimulus package because this might be overdrawn or overdone a little bit. we'll have to hear what the president is talking about. they're in a meeting with task

force. exactly what types of things they want to do. stressed all day at white house are temporary, what will happen is temporary economic stimulus to the united states to offset some of this costs. elizabeth: meaning temporary payroll tax cut maybe? who knows, receipt? reporter: we're talking about paid sick leave, temporary being, for some of those folks. or temporary targeted relief to certain industries like the travel industry. elizabeth: we want to get update here. china has turned a corner reportedly in their number of cases. we always take that a little bit, we like to look into the data to see if china is being valid and truthful with the numbers. south korea, interesting to us, 0.7% fatality rate as they continue to test people, quote by the millions in the country of south korea. look at dow futures down 237. it was a slippery day to the downside for all three major indices. all the treasury yields breaking down below 1%. oil prices hitting the market as

well. potential liquidity trap is hitting markets as well. the federal reserve responded to that as we wait potentially look like president speaking on white house reaction to the coronavirus, i want to get back, i hear what you're say about elon musk but it is an interesting fight he got into with msnbc. he is saying media is mistakenly reporting that the date -- here comes the task force as we see them walking into the presser room. we might have them in just a second. the date of diagnosis is the same day they contract it. it overstates the virulence how of this, feels like some people are getting diagnosed in such a short amount of time. go ahead, doctor. >> not necessarily. when we have a test we'll use the test. we know this is highly infectious and highly contagious virus. we know that the more tests we have, more people will test positive, that is fact, like the flu. we'll have a lot more positive

because we have capability. we have tools. having tools, having information will allow us to know who is infected so we can tell them go home, be safe. stay away from other people. elizabeth: all elon musk is saying be careful about the data and how you report it. >> sure. elizabeth: all he is saying day of diagnosis is not the day you contracted it. in short amount of time sounds like more ton tank just. we don't know -- contagious. we're trying to get the information. who is in the press room, treasury secretary and dr. anthony fauci and alex azar. do you want to see more information about test kits going out? >> we already know, two million test kits were sent out. another four million sent out this week alone. that is not an issue. elizabeth: are you confident in the response from the government

>> absolutely. they got $8 billion not just for testing kits but supplies. to crucial first-responders have tools they need. >> to your point, here is the president of the united states. >> thank you very much. we just attended a very important task force meeting on the virus that everybody is talking about all over the world no matter where you go, that's what's on peoples minds we'll take care of and have been taking care of the american public and the american american economy. we're going to be asking tomorrow, we're seeing the senate, we'll be meeting with house republicans, mitch mcconnell and everybody, talking about a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief. that's a big, that's a big number. we're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners

getting help so they can be in a position where they're not going to have to miss a paycheck. working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they don't get penalized for something that is not their fault. it is not their fault. it is not our country's fault. this was something that we were thrown into and we're going to handle it. we have been handling it very well. the big decision we shut down the borders. we're the first ones ever to do that, we never done that in our country before. we have a situation it would be a lot more dire. we'll be seeing small business administration and creating loans for small businesses. we're also working with the industries including the airline industries, cruise ship industry, which obviously will be hit. we're working with them very, very strongly. we want them to travel. we want them to travel, people to travel to certain locations,

not to other locations at this moment. hopefully that will straighten out sooner later but we're working with the industryies. in particularly the hotel industry. some days we'll do well but some places probably won't do well as all but we're working with the hotel industry but the main thing we're taking care of the american public and we will be taking care of the american public and i really appreciate the professionals behind me and the professionals behind them in a different room. we have a tremendous team. it is headed up by our great vice president, mike pence. i want to thank mike because he has been working 24 hours a day just about. he is working very, very hard, very diligently and very professionally and i want to thank him. i want to thank the team. i will have mike say a few words. thank you very much. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. we just completed the day's

meeting of the white house coronavirus task force. we had the opportunity to brief the president today on a broad range of issues. and once again because of the unprecedented action that president trump took in january, suspending all travel from china, establishing a travel advisories for portions of south korea and italy, establishing screening of all direct flights, all passengers from all airports, italy and south korea, we have, we have bought considerable amount of time according to all the health experts to deal with the coronavirus here in the united states. in fact as i stand before you today the risk of contracting the coronavirus to the american public remains low and the risk

of serious disease among the american public also remains low. that being said the president did deploy not just a whole of government approach but also a whole of america approach and last week at the president's direction we met with leaders in industries from nursing homes to airlines, pharmaceutical companies, commercial labs and it has had great, great impact. pharmaceutical companies are already working, literally around the clock on the development of therapeutics medicines that can bring relief to people that contract the coronavirus and i know how pleased the president was to learn that the commercial labs in this country, led by companies like labcorp and quest, have already brought a test forward and are taking that to market effective today. this week at the president's direction we will meeting with

hospital ceos, health insurance ceos and all building on top of what the president will be announcing tomorrow with regard to economic relief for working americans. we also met today in a conference call with 47 of america's governors. we were able to brief them on the latest, the progress that we've made. we were able to confirm with them that testing is now available in all state labs in every state in the country. a million have been distributed this week. another four million tests will be distributed. as i said before with the deployment of the commercial labs we literally, we literally are going to see a, a dramatic increase in the available, availability of testing and that's all a direct result of the president's leadership. in today, in a few moments we will, we will outline community

guidance that dr. birx and dr. fauci will be publishing. at the president's direction we'll be providing guidance how to keep your home safe, how to keep your business safe. how to keep safe and healthy at your school and we'll be publishing that information and speaking about that. a brief word about the grand princess. the grand princess has docked this afternoon in oakland, california at a commercial dock. 25 children we were happy to learn through the screening over the last few days, 25 children on the ship are all healthy. the people that have contracted the coronavirus, 21 in all, they're being dealt with in proper isolation, working with health authorities in california. we hope before the end of today to begin to disembark california

residents to travis air force base in miramar. we made arrangements with canada and the uk to, to take their passengers back. they will be transported directly to the tarmac, charter flights home and tomorrow the remaining passengers will be transported again through very, very carefully-controlled environments, buses, out to the tarmac and flown to military bases in georgia and texas. all the passengers will be tested, isolated as appropriate, quarantined as appropriate and i want to express appreciation to the governor of california and his administration, the governor of georgia, the governor of texas for their strong cooperation with us in resolving the issues around the grand princess. it has been, it has been a partnership which the president

directed us from the very beginning and the process bob cadlic will detail in a questions in a few moments, continues to move forward. the remaining people on the ship, the crew itself will, will push off from the dock and they will be quarantined and observed and treated ship board but the president made the priority to get the americans ashore and we're in the process of doing that as well as returning foreign nationals. let me just say one other point as the president has spoken today to congressional leadership. one of the things that i informed the president i've been hearing from governors is the concern about hourly wage earners in this country feeling that they had to go to work even if they were ill and the president has tasked this economic team and is working already with leaders in the congress to make sure that, that

anyone who is not, feels they are at risk of losing their job or losing a paycheck because they may contract the coronavirus. when we tell people if you're sick stay home, the president has tasked the team with developing economic policies that will, will make it very, very clear we're going to stand by those hard-working americans, stand by those businesses large and small and make it possible for us as the president said from the very beginning, to put the health of america first. we'll be available to take any questions on any of these topics but, mr. president, i didn't know if you want to speak more in closing? >> what we'll be doing is having a news conference tomorrow to talk about various things that we're doing economically. they will be very major, including obviously the payroll tax cut and so we'll be meeting again tomorrow afternoon. we'll be coming back from the

senate. we have a lot of very important meetings set up. and we'll have a press conference sometime after that and we'll explain what we're doing on an economic standpoint, from an economic standpoint but they will be very, very dramatic and we have a very great economy, we have a very strong economy but this blindsided the world and i think we've handled it very, very well. i think they have done a great job. the people behind me have done a great job. so i will be here tomorrow afternoon to let you know about some of the economic steps we're taking which will be major. thank you very much. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: have you been tested. >> thank you, mr. president. reporter: has he been tested? reporter: have you been tested? >> i have not been tested for the coronavirus.

reporter: in proximity to people with the coronavirus? >> let me answer that question. we'll refer the question to get a answer from the white house physician very quickly. let me ask dr. fauci and dr. birx to come to the podium. you all, and the american public will have at their fingertips very quickly guidance, this is for every american. we're working with communities like the seattle area, like portions of california, new york, and florida that have what we call community spread, concentration of coronavirus cases but we directed our team to come up with helpful recommendations for every american, every american family, every american business and school and if dr. birx and dr. fauci step forward they can outline that for you. >> great, thank you, good evening. we've been -- it was good

getting out last week meeting with communities. we know the real solutions to this is every american has a role in stopping the spread of the virus. so we wanted to really put out guidance for every american and every community that was practical and common sense but detailed in a way that everyone would know precisely what to do. the guidance will be around how to keep work places safe, how to keep schools safe. how to keep the home safe, and how to keep commercial businesses safe where people would eat or be present. the importance of about this that we believe communities are at the center of this. i came from a field where it was the communities that really solved our issues around hiv prevention. so we're very much speaking to the communities and to the american people about what can be done. all of this information came from a paper that dr. fauci provided from the australians. first arthur daulton.

you can look up the scientific evidence that informed each of these guidelines but we will be providing that this evening in great detail so that every mother, father, child, son, daughter, caregiver will know precisely what to do, what to ask for. >> dr. fauci? >> yeah. just to reiterate what dr. birx said, it was as symbol as that. we've been speaking about the kinds of things that would keep our citizens safe in a variety of environments. we've been speak about telephone calls. we've been speaking about conferences. the cdc has been talking about a long time as has dr. birx and i. we thought we would put it together in a neat form way that would be available to the general public. what dr. birx mentioned just the other day i got one of many, many emails where some of my colleagues i know from australia actually decided they were going to write a paper on it and make a number of boxes which was exactly saying what we had been

talking about. we came up with the idea, it would be very good for clarity, why don't we put it together, he had it a little, the way people can look. what about home, the school, the workplace? these are low-tech things, nothing complicated but stated in a way that is clear and people can understand. >> i might ask the surgeon general anything about the guidance you want to reflect on? >> one things i want folks to know we have been looking at the data from around the world and we now know more than we ever have about who is at risk. who is at risk? i hope you will help us communicate this to the american people. are people over the age of 60, much more likely to develop complications from the coronavirus and to be hospitalized from the coronavirus. the average age of death is age 80. now, what we also want communities to know is that if you are a child or young adult, you are much more, you're more

likely to die from the flu, if you get it than you are to die from coronavirus. so there is something about being young that is protective. we want people to be reassured by that. we want people to know that we are really focusing in on those, those groups that are at highest risk for complications and helping them understand how to be safe and this new advice that will be coming out tomorrow is designed to keep our communities safe, help keep the most vulnerable safe and it is important to understand even though young people aren't at risk from dying from coronavirus they can potentially spread that to older people in the communities and people with chronic diseases so it is important we all take precautions, washing our hands, covering our cough, keeping our distance from people who are sick and taking steps coming out in this new guidance to help make sure we're doing everything we know possible to keep our most vulnerable protected. >> well-done, thank you. i'm going to, i think the

surgeon general raises a very important point. my mother is 88 years young. my stepfather is about the same age. this is just a really good time what dr. fauci tells us, what the experts tell us is look after, look after family members, loved ones who are senior citizens, particularly those who have serious underlying health conditions. all the data dr. birx confirms to us that they, they're the most vulnerable to serious consequences if they contract the coronavirus. so guidance that we would ask members of the media and the american public looking on, you can go to coronavirus.gov. this information will be posted tonight and hopefully it will be useful, helpful, common sense, for families, for schools, for businesses and for commercial establishments that welcome the public in, just to, just to

create the kind of practices that we believe will mitigate the spread of the coronavirus across the country as a whole. but with regard to seniors i might just ask irma to step up to speak about, last week at the president's direction, we raised the standards for every nursing home in america with regard to infectious disease and we're deploying all 8,000 of our inspectors in every state as we told the governors today, to focus exclusively on infectious disease compliance at our nursing homes. our hearts break for the families at the kirkland nursing home in seat tale, the loss of life has ben grieve -- been brief grievous that nursing homes have greater protection against the coronavirus at

nursing homes. >> thank you, mr. vice president. that is exactly our focus is around infection control. we're working with the health care industry. we released more guidance of nursing homes, making sure people coming into the nursing home, that they are gloved other masked so they protect people in the nursing homes. we know many senior citizens are vulnerable, we want to make sure they know that the medicare behind them is behind them and we're here to support them. we're letting patients know they can get a coronavirus test. there is no cost sharing associated with that for our seniors on the medicare program. we're also letting them know because of the president's leadership over a year 1/2 ago, he took action to actually extend more telehealth benefits to our nation's seniors. this is a very historic change that we made under the president's leadership. so if they're sick and they're ill, they can call their doctor, they can skype with therapy doctor, and medicare will reimburse for those services. we've also in our conversations

with the governors today, we talked about having telehealth services also available in the medicaid program. >> great. let me invite bob cadlik, deputy secretary of hhs to come forward as well, fill us in latest on progress on of the grand princess. >> thank you, mr. vice president. >> it is dockside now and going through a very careful process of having americans and foreign nationals come off and everyone will be tested. >> thank you very much, sir. yes, we began our medical operation to basically disembark those passengers. on saturday we place ad medical crew on the boat to augment the physicians and nurses already on the ship. we basically insured that the quarantine on the boat and isolation were being enforced. we evaluated first the children and those who were ill. identifying anyone severely ill if possible. when the vote arrived dockside,

additional medical personnel came on board and we began orderly desi am barking. we disembark half the passengers today and the other half tomorrow. everyone i will be medically screened when they get off. if there is a question about their health they will be screened again more additionally and sent to quarantine sites, miramar, lackland air force base and dobbins air force base in georgia. the foreign passengers will be transferred to the, canadians will be taken back to canada and we're worked with the united kingdom to return their passengers back to the united kingdom. we're doing this all in cooperation with the great support of the state of california, the city of oakland and with the support of the department of defense, the department of homeland security and u.s. coast guard. thank you. >> great. and on the subject of testing we had a very good discussion today as i mentioned with 47

governors. and, outlining for them all the different testing methods that are available. we have tests now in every state lab in america but we're rapidly expanding that. let me ask the secretary of hhs to give us the latest own the availability of testing to the american public and to the states. >> great, thank you, mr. vice president. so we continue with our strategic plan at hhs across all of the components represented by many of the leaders here, which is to diagnose, to treat, to contain, to mitigate, to research and to communicate. that is what we do in a health care crisis situation. one element of that is the test which of course cdc developed in record time after getting the genetic sequence posted from china. that was available at cdc. from that point on there was no individual that a public health official needed to get tested that the cdc didn't have surplus capacity to test but we've been

moving aggressively to bring the test closer and closer to the patient and to the bedside to make it as easy as possible for us to use testing very much in line with our peer countries facing similar epidemiological circumstances. at this point as many here on saturday for for the briefing know we have over one million tests that have shipped from cdc and two private contractors, the cdc type of test. those are now out. as the vice president mentioned, every state public health lab is validated, operating those tests. in addition hundreds of those us of those tests are in hospitals in private labs, in commercial labs. we now have a total of 2.1 million tests that are available either shipped or waiting to be shipped or waiting to be ordered. we by the end of this week expect to be able to be producing up to four million tests per week in the united states. and that is on top of what the private commercial entities, the

companies you know of like lap corp. or quest using their technology, the test they're getting out a better experience for the patient, they're able to collect samples directly in doctors offices, have very sophisticated collection system to their labs, making it very much more seamless patient experience. they're validated, getting up and running, that you will see even more of that. as i said over the next week or so you will see a progressively better patient and physician and provide every experience connected to diagnostic testing here in the united states. thank you. reporter: how many so far? >> questions in a >> i want to invade the director cdc to come forward and give you an update of where we are in regard to number of cases.

then we'll take questions. >> we do continue to see an increased number in cases as we said we would as time passes. we have 500 cases in the united states outside the repatriation cases and the diamond princess. we have cases in 35 states including the district of columbia. the present time the risk to the american public does remain low. we have several community outbreaks which we are focusing on snlt area -- in the seattle area, santa clara, california, westminster, new york, and florida. liz: we are recapping for you what is happening at this hour. the president said he will hold a press conference to talk about

a possible payroll tax cuts and paid leave. >> paid sick leave and payroll tax cut relief. also small business loans. he will work with specific industries, airlines, the hotel industry, to get through these events. what is very interesting is the people who were affected by the coronavirus. 60-plus are the ones affected. liz: the dow futures before this presser down 200. started coming back on the news of the payroll tax cuts and more testing. final word, not just 4 million tests, but on top of the private labs doing their own testing. >> more tests and more accurate results.

it's the 60-plus who are affected. and 80-year-olds who are affected, not children. liz: lou dobbs is next. lou: i'm lou dobbs in new york. you have been watching a press conference initially with the president and members of the corona task force talking about what they are doing to protect americans from the corona outbreak which many are calling including this broadcast a and dem i becauseo -- a pandemic because it affects 111 countries.