passed in congress. perhaps relatively speaking, if you go back, look during the fdr new deal days there was something that, if you time value it, you could say it was bigger, i don't know, certainly in terms of dollars by far away biggest ever, ever done. that is a tremendous thing because a lot of this money goes to jobs, jobs, jobs, and families, families, families. the senate bill as you know includes $350 billion in job retention loans for small businesses with loan forgiveness available for businesses that continue paying their worker. they continue paying their workers. that is what we want. we want to keep their workers and continue to pay their workers that will allow our economy to quickly accelerate as we defeat the virus.

$350 billion in direct cash payments will be available for every american citizen earning less than $99,000 per year. that would be $3400 very quickly for the typical family of four. nothing like that's ever been done in our country. up to $250 billion in expanded unemployment benefits. the average worker who has lost his or her job will receive 100% of their salary up to four full months. unlike normal unemployment benefits, independent contractors and the self-employed will be eligible. so you have independent contractors and self-employed people will be eligible for this. over $100 billion to support the heroic work of our doctors, nurses and hospitals. they have been incredible. $45 billion for a disaster relief fund. we're setting up a fund of

$45 billion for disaster relief. that is more than doubling the amount available to support my national emergency and disaster declarations. it is a doubling up. $27 billion to build up the strategic national stockpile with critical supplies including masks, respirators, pharmaceuticals and everything you can imagine because it was very depleted, like our military was depleted. now we have a brand new military, haven't had a military like this. we have equipment either coming or it's already come, for the most part it already has come but we have a lot of things that will soon be coming, planes, missiles, rockets, lots of things but the stockpile was very depleted, like everything else. this will also include significant funding for the development of vaccines on top of the $8 billion we approved several weeks ago.

over $500 billion in support for the hardest hit industries with a ban on corporate stock buybacks which is something i insisted on and frankly i tell you the republicans wanted that and democrats wanted that. we want them to use the money for the companies and the planes, or whatever they may be helping to get over this rough patch. i don't think it will be end up being such a rough patch. i think it is, especially if we can open the sooner the better. it will open up like a rocket ship. i think it will go very good or very quickly an you're going to have some tough newell limits on executive compensation also. they need the money. they will have to sort of make things work because we're interested in workers, the jobs and we're interested in the companies because that is really what, what fuels the workers in those great jobs and we have $16 billion in funding for the purchase of personal protective

equipment. you know about that, such as masks and respirators through the strategic national stockpile. i encourage the house to pass this vital legislation and send the bill to my desk for signature without delay. i will sign it immediately. we will have a signing and it will be a great signing and a great day for the american worker and for american families and frankly for american companies. some of which were, having the best years they ever had these last few years and then a little bit less than a month ago they went into a position that they haven't seen because of the hidden enemy, the virus. earlier today i spoke to the leaders of many of america's amazing non-profit organizations. i thanked them for their unwaving and unwavering devotion

to people, american families and to our nation and they have been fantastic. they have been collecting supplies, distributing food, supporting health care workers, caring for vulnerable workers and families. i encourage them to continue to do it but i tell you the non-profits are great, they are great people. i know a lot of them. i finally want to provide a quick update on the critical supplies. through fema the federal government has delivered is shipping 9.4 million n95 respirators. think of that, 9.4 million. 20 million surgical masks. we have others we think are going to be delivered pretty quickly. the whole world, not just us, not just the states, the whole world is trying to get these things, in competition with many, many countries. i believe today you broke 150 mark for the virus. we have a50 over 150 countries

where you have this virus. nobody would ever believe a thing like that is possible, nobody could have ever seen something like this coming. now we know, we know it can happen and happen again. if it does somebody is going to be very well-prepared because of what we've learned and how we've done. it has been incredible how we've done. remember there are more tests than anybody by far and, and the news, the reporters, the media, always like to bring south korea. they called me and told me, amazing your testing procedures are amazing. we have a test that is a very high level test and it is a test that is very accurate. 3.1 million face shields, 2.6 million surgical gowns, 2.6 million surgical gloves and almost 6,000 ventilators which go to the areas of greatest needs. we sent over the last day 4,000 ventilators to new york. and i spoke with the governor

about that. he was happy. i spoke with the mayor also about that. mayor de blasio. he was very happy. hard not to be happy with the job we're doing, that i can tell you. throughout this national emergency everyday heroes continue to step forward and demonstrate the extraordinary character of our nation including the people behind me. by the way, these people are amazing, they are amazing people and they have become, maybe i should speak for myself, to me they have become friend. maybe they don't like me. maybe they don't, make they do, all i can tell you they're talented people, they work very hard. in maryland a 7-year-old boy used his own birthday money to buy meals for dozens of senior citizens. in nevada a college student recruited 9 of her friend to help deliver groceries and supplies to the most vulnerable. this is happening all over the country. thousands and thousands of instances. i could stand up here all day

tell you about other things. in minnesota hundreds of medical students have volunteered to provide child care for hospital workers helping to keep the doctors and nurses on the front lines, fighting to save lives. these inspiring americans remind us that we all have a role to play winning this great national battle and it is really a worldwide battle. we're dealing with other nations all the time. the people here are, i am a little bit, i take calls from a lot of people. they're in trouble. a lot of countries are in big trouble. so now we will hear from our great secretary of the treasury. he has been working rather hard i will tell you. steve mnuchin is a fantastic guy and he loves our country and he has been dealing with both sides, republican and democrats. he sort of lived over in that beautiful building. it is a very beautiful building, to me one of the most beautiful buildings actually in the world. he has gotten to know it, steve, very well.

so if we could have a little update, steve would be fantastic how we are doing, what it is looking like. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. president, and first let me say i would like to thank mitch mcconnell for his leadership and i would also like to thank chuck schumer for the enormous bipartisan support we had on this bill and the many senators, both republicans and democrats that worked tirelessly over the last five days on all the task force. the president said i got to live in the lbj room for the last five days and we couldn't be more pleased with the unprecedented response from the senate to protect american workers and american business in this situation. the president has outlined many of these but let me just quickly go through them. again, small business retention loans, this will cover roughly 50% of the private payroll in small businesses where we will immediately make loans that will

supply eight weeks of salaries as long as they keep workers employed and overhead. and those loans will be forgiven at the end of the period as long as they keep workers employed. these are sba loans but treasury will issue new regulations authorizing almost every single fdic insured bank to make these. i expect by the end of next week we will have a very simple process where these can be made and dispersed in the same day. so this will be a very simple system to get money into small business hands. for companies that don't qualify for that, we have a economic program of tax incentives to retain workers. and as the president said, we have enhanced unemployment insurance for people that don't fit into these two programs that will be administered you there the states. we also have economic impact payments. these will be within the next

three weeks, direct payments into most people's deposit accounts and for those that don't have it, we will be having the checks in the mail. treasury will have additional authorities. we have $500 billion that we can use to work with the federal reserve for emergency programs that will create up to an additional four trillion dollars if needed to support american business and american workers in an unprecedented way. finally the president mentioned 100 approximately dollars to hospitals and a $150 billion to states that have specific coronavirus expenses as well as many additional things. mr. president, i especially want to thank you and the vice president. you were constantly available to us. we spoke constantly throughout the day. you gave us guidance and quick decisions on many issues. and again, thank everybody for that great bipartisan work. this is going to be enormous

help for the american worker for the american economy. the president was very determined that congress would move swiftly to protect hard-working americans and business in this unprecedented situation. >> thank you very much, steve. great job. day and night, right? day and night. that was a lot of work. we'll see how it call goes. we need a vote, steve, do you have a question? reporter: do you think this bill will keep the economy afloat? >> hopefully a long time, we'll see. if we have to go back. we have to go back. we'll take care of the american worker and take care of the companies that fuel the country and make the country great. it's not their fault. it's not their fault. i would -- >> we anticipated three months. hopefully we won't need it for three months. hopefully this war will be won quicker but we expect that this is a significant amount of money, if needed to cover the economy. >> don't forget, a lot of this is going to keep companies that

are very strong, aaa rated companies previously, to keep them going and it is going to be in the form of loans. so the money is going to come back. a lot of this money is coming back. reporter: separately, let me ask you about something you said yesterday. you said we should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival. what did you mean by that. >> i said that for a long time. reliant on many countries where we give up our supply chains. we give up our factories. we give up our production facilities. we can buy it someplace else for a lower price. but it is really costing us more when it happens. we lose jobs and everything and lose our independence, we can't let that happen. we will be making changes. we have been making changes. reporter: executive order to basically ban the export of medical equipment? >> i don't think we'll need that. i think it is happening by itself. a lot of things are happening. some people, we make the best medical equipment in the world and you have some people like the european union, they don't

take it because they have specifications that don't allow our equipment in because it is designed in a different way, even though it is a better way, it is designed -- they're all playing games against us, okay? they have been playing games against us for years and no president has ever done anything about it. but the european union, you look at medical equipment, we make the best medical equipment in the world but we can't sell it because, or not appropriately, yet we take their medical equipment in our country. we're changing things, steve. all this is changing. but they have specifications so that our equipment, designed specifically so that our equipment can't come into their countries. it's a very terrible thing that's happened to our country. let me tell you, some of the people that took the biggest advantage of us, our allies. you know we talk about allies? they took advantage of us in many ways, but financially as

well as even militarily, when you look at -- look, i got, if you look at nato, the abuse that was given to our country on nato where they wouldn't pay and we were paying for everybody. we're -- now, because of me, they're paying a lot. now they paid 125, 135 million, billion dollars more and then, ultimately, secretary-general stoltenberg, who i think you would say maybe my biggest fan, we got them to pay an additional $400 billion, billion, other countries. but, you know, that and then there is the trade. they make it, they make it almost impossible for us to have a fair deal. they know this they know i'm just waiting. we have all the advantages by the way. it will be easy when i decide to do it. but this isn't the right time to do it but we've been treated very, very unfairly by the european union.

reporter: mr. president, four republican senators have indicated extra $600 for unemployment insurance may encourage workers to leave they're jobs, even though you can only collect unemployment if you're fired. what do you think of that at this time? >> i know the issue very well. we talked about it a little while ago. steve, let you discuss that. >> sure. i spoke to several senators today. let me explain the issue, we wanted to have enhanced unemployment insurance. most of these state systems have technology that is 30 years old or older. so if we had the ability to customize this with much more specifics we would have. this was the only way we could assure that the states could get money out quickly in a fair way. so we used $600 across the board. and i don't think it will create incentives. most americans, what they want, they want to keep their jobs. i said for 50% of these

businesses, they will have the businesses keep those jobs. so this was, our number one issue was, how do we make sure that american workers who needed to keep getting paid, this is no fault of their own, that businesses have been shut down, the president and vice president wanted to make sure those hard-working americans got money this was the most efficient way of doing it. reporter: the senators that you spoke with are they in agreement now? >> i will not comment on specifics where they are. our expectation this bill passes tonight and gets to the house tomorrow and they pass it. we need to get this money into the american economy and american workers that is the importance of this. >> one good thing when you think about that, people actually get more money but we don't want to give a disinsenttives but they have been talking about that. good question, actually. yes, ma'am. reporter: thank you. family on, another subject, family of retired fbi agent

robert levinson, u.s. officials concluded that he died in iranian custody. are you aware of that? have your officials reached that conclusion? >> i've been very much involved in that and he was a great gentleman and a great family. it is just, i have to say this, an, they have been making the statement to the family, i believe, but it is not looking good. he wasn't well for years anyway, in iran. it's not looking promising. we have gotten some people back. we got two people back this week but robert levinson, who was outstanding, he was, he has been sick for a long time and in, it is a rough problems prior to his detainment or capture and we feel terribly for the family but -- reporter: do you expect that he is dead? >> no, i don't accept that he is dead. i don't accept it. i'm telling you, it is not

looking great but i won't accept that he is dead. they haven't told us that he is dead but a lot of people are thinking that is the case. feel badly about it. reporter: you tweeted earlier linking the closing of the country to your election success in november? is this eastertime line based on your political interests -- >> what do you mean by my election success? reporter: you tweeted that press wants the economy -- >> the media would like me to see you closed -- reporter: lawmakers and people on both sides reopening by easter is not a good idea. what is that based on. are you ready? certain people would not like it to open so quickly. certain people would like it to be financially poorly because they think it would be very good as far as defeating me from the polls. i don't know if that is so, but i do think it is so there are people in your profession that would like that to happen.

i think it is very clear -- reporter: does not -- >> i think it is very clear that there are people in your profession that write fake news. you do. she does. there are people in your profession that write fake news. they would love to see me, for whatever reason, because we have done one hell of a job. nobody has done the job we've done. and it is lucky that you have this group here right now for this problem. or you wouldn't even have a country left. okay. go ahead. reporter: mr. president, two questions. first one once you sign the 2 trillion-dollar package, how soon or rapidly -- >> who are you with? reporter: i'm with cbn. we're hearing april 6 to have direct payments issued to taxpayers s that the target date? >> i would say -- >> our expectation within three weeks we will have direct payments out where we have depository information and, we're looking to get a lot more information than and we have

procedures do that. three weeks for that. end of next week, we ant all the banks to be able to originate loans same day. reporter: thank you, mr. president. i have two questions for you. one is that tomorrow will be speaking with the g20 leaders and i want to know if you're going to lead an effort to craft worldwide ban on wild animal markets to prevent another pandemic, given that covid-19 was zoonotic in trade of exotic animals. >> i don't know if that will come up. there is a lot of talk how this happened, came out of china. they said that is how it happened in china. maybe that will be something we talk about but not the top of my list. [inaudible]. reporter: also, dr. shah, the head of harvard's global health institute the key to getting this economy open as soon as possible is to test everyone who needs testing to quarantine all infected individuals and allow everyone else to go back to work

immediately. would you subscribe to that strategy? >> no. we have tested more than anybody. reporter: if not, how many deaths are acceptable? >> how many? none. how many debts are acceptable to me? none. okay, none. if that is your question. look, i saw him. i saw his statement. we have tested by far more than anybody. we're testing more than anybody right now. there is nobody even close. and our tests are the best tests, they're the most accurate tests but if you're saying we're going to test 350 million people, i watched his statement. i disagree with it. we can go to certain states, i could name them now but i'm to the going to do that, we could go to certain states now severity allly no problem or very small problem -- virtually. we don't have to test the entire state in in the middle west or wherever they may be. we don't have to test the entire

state. that is ridiculous. we don't have to do it. a lot of those states could go back now. they probably will. at some point in the not-too-distant future certain states will come off the rolls. maybe new york can't and maybe california can't. maybe the state of washington can't, if you look at them their biggest problem was one nursing home. go ahead. reporter: but the states are silent. if you test one state, the person moves over to the other state -- >> just look at that but if you take a look at the states, many states i'm talking about, they don't have a problem. we have some big problems but it is confined to certain areas, high density areas. so why would we test the entire nation, 350 people? with that being said i will say it again. we tested far more than anybody else. we are, we have the ability to test, i mean we've come a long way from an obsolete, broken system that i inherited. we have now tested with the best tests far more than anybody else. i want to say anybody else, i'm

talking about other countries. no country is even close. they came out with a statistic, i guess yesterday that i heard from dr. birx where it is for, eight days here, more than eight weeks in south korea. south korea has done a good job but we did in eight days more than south korea did in eight weeks. that is a big number. and we're getting, i said before, exponentially better every day it is going up substantially. we have an incredible apparatus built now but no, i don't want to test 350 million people. i think it is ridiculous. yes, please. reporter: mr. president, two questions, one [inaudible]. for coordinated seamless package, ban on tariffs, waives on sanctions to prevent what they call an apocalyptic

pandemic. would you consider those measures? >> with respect to what? reporter: on tariffs and also related also to, tariffs and also -- >> we have strong borders. yeah. reporter: would you consider joining global effort? >> before i came here we weren't into borders. we had a country, people could come in. we had a whole different deal. now we're up almost to 164 miles. think of that, 164 miles of wall, big, beautiful wall. and in those areas it is very, very tough to come in. we've been very tough on the borders. i mean, where we have the wall built, nobody is getting through. now they're going around but that is a long trip. they're going around that is a way they get through. i'm very strong on boarders. i don't want people coming in here. what i want, if they have to come in legally, they have to come in through merit. we're not having the people that you're talking about come into our country.

reporter: [inaudible]. reporter: question for you and dr. birx if you let me. both republican, democrat packages of the stimulus included $25 million worth of fundings for the the kennedy performance arts center here in washington, washington, d.c. shouldn't the money go to maskings -- >> it was 35 million. we took off 10. but i'm a fan of that although i haven't spend there because i'm far too busy. i'm too busy evenings doings things. that is more important than me. the kennedy center suffered greatly. nobody can go there, it is essentially closed. they do need some funding. i said look, that was a democrat request. that was not my request, but you have to give them something. something they wanted. it works that way. democrats have treated us fairly. i really believe we had a very good back and forth.

i say that with respect to chuck schumer. i spoke to him a number of times, but they had requests also. so that was a request. there were 35, as you know, came down to 25. we got it down to 25. we agreed. i have said that is lousy sound bite. that is not a good sound bite but that is the way life works. with that being said, the kennedy center, they do a beautiful jock, an incredible job. david rubenstein does a fantastic job. very much involved. he puts up a lot of money, does a lot of things a lot of people wouldn't be able to do or do but they have been essentially closed. they have tremendous deficits that are built up. this thing has been devastating to it. so i didn't have a big problem with it but this was a request from the democrats because of the fact they have a facility that is essentially closed up. reporter: another question, sir -- >> you couldn't go there if you wanted to. if i wanted to go there tonight to look at "romeo & juliet," i love "romeo & juliet," they

said, 200 people, 250 people, whatever it might be down to today. reporter: earlier today, senator marco rubio told rcp world health organization showed favoritism to china. michael mccaul, ranking, questioned integrity of the world health organization director, said there were red flags in the past with respect to his relationship with china. do you agree, do you think the world health organization showed favoritism. once all the dust settles do you think that the united states should reexplore its relationship with the world health organization? >> i think there is a lot, certainly a lot of talk that has been very unfair. i think that a lot of people feel that it has been very unfair. it has been very much sided with china and a lot of people are not happy about it. at the same time dr. fauci and myself and other people, there are people on there we like and we know. a lot of, i think your friend are on there, a lot of good people, a lot of food professionals.

would be interesting if you like to talk about the world, w.h.o. the fact is i have heard for years that is very much biased towards china. so i don't know. doctor, you want to, you want to get into this political mess? no, i don't want you to do that. >> but i will. tedros is outstanding person. i known him from the time he was minister of health with ethiopia. anybody that over the years says w.h.o. has not had problems has not been watching the w.h.o. as far as this he has had good leadership. i was, talking about china. you asked me about it. edros. reporter: worth health coringization pricing china on their response to the pandemic. >> i can't comment on that. i don't have a viewpoint on on

that. i don't even know what the your question is on that. >> [inaudible] >> let me tell you i heard that for years. i spoke to him yesterday. seems fine to me, i don't know but we're the ones that gave the great response and we're the ones kept china out of here. if you didn't do it, you would have thousands and thousands people would have died, would have decided are now living an happy, if i didn't do that early, call on china an nobody wanted that to happen. everybody thought it was a, just unnecessary to do it and if we didn't do that, thousands and thousands of people would have died, more than what's happened. so that, maybe one more, steve, go ahead. reporter: when you have the g20 meeting tomorrow what sort of coordinated response are you expected? >> no coordinated. we'll have a meeting with the 20 nations total including us and there will be, it will be a conference call tomorrow morning sometime. i look forward to people i know, i like. i think in every instance i like everyone of them, but it will be

an interesting call. you will be the first to know. reporter: next week when when te 15-day period ends what should we expect? will you extend -- >> i will be speaking with tony, i will be speaking with deborah and i will be speaking to people they like and respect and bring along with them. i will speak to vice president mike pence and steve. i will speak to everybody. i will not do anything rash or hastily. i don't do that. but the country wants to get back to work. our country was built to get back to work. we don't have a country, hey, let's close it down for two years. we can't do that. that is not our country. so we're going to be talking and it could be we'll do sections of our country. there are beg sections of our country, very little affected by what is taking place. there are other sections very heavily affected so there is a big difference. no, would say by easter we'll have a recommendation and maybe before easter. at the end of the 15th day

or during the 15th day we'll have some kind of recommendation. but our country wants to get back to work, steve. i have had some people, and they want to practice social distancing and they want to practice no handshaking, no handshaking. they will not walk around hugging, kissing each other in the office when they come back even though they may feel like it. they will wash their hands more than ever done, do all the things they're supposed to do. but steve, you know what? it is time. they want to get back to work. i get it from both side in all fairness and maybe it combination of both. tony said before combination of both sometimes is very good but there are areas that possibly, probably, they won't qualify. there are other areas that qualify almost now. so we're going to have to see what happens. but, it will be an interesting period of time. i would like to get our country back. i have tremendous numbers of

people wanting to go back. you have tore owners where the store is sitting there, they don't know what has happened. they want to get back. you have businesses that will want to be closed. the longer we stay out, longer we do it, we want to go quickly. the longer we stay out, the harder it is to bring incredible, we're having most suck esful years we ever had in the history of our country. you saw what happened with the stocks. today they're up. i'm telling you if steve gets the deal done, incredible incentives, it will take care of people. it will take care of our workers. it will take care of companies that employ all these workers. small and big. by the way i think we spent more time on small companies than the big companies. people ask about that. we spent more time thinking about the small businesses than the big. that is, that really fuels our country. we want to get back and people want to get back. we want to get our country going again, and we'll be able to do that. so vice president will stay with

you. and, going to take a few more questions specifically and i will see you tomorrow. thank you very much. [report reporters shouting questions] reporter: mr. president, a question for you on the dpa. -- epa. >> thank you y'all. a report on today's action. by the white house coronavirus task force. the president and our entire team continue to be an inspired by the way people all across this country are putting into practice. 15 days to slow the spread. we are 10 days into the 15 days. and let me say again, to every american, if you're in an area that has been impacted by the coronavirus, it is absolutely essential that you listen to state and local authorities for guidance but for every american, what you can do is implement the

practices outlined in the president's coronavirus guidelines today because we truly do believe that as millions of americans have done, and will continue to do, that we can significantly impact the rate of growth in this epidemic in our country. we can spare americans from exposure to the coronavirus. and we can save lives. and so on behalf of the president and our entire task force, i want to say thank you to the american people. thank you for your cooperation, thank you for embracing the principles in 15 days to slow the spread. we heard about that cooperation today in a series of conference calls. we spoke with equipment manufacturers who are stepping forward as never before to assist us in developing the medical equipment that is essential whether it be masks or other medical supplies or ventilators. fema reported to our task force

today that hundreds of companies have stepped forward to be involved in the supply chain and we're, we are vetting nearly 70 of those countries for specific repurposing of their manufacturing to produce everything from masks to gloves to gowns and of course to ventilators. we also had a very productive call with secretary betsy devos with education leaders from around the country today. let me say on behalf of the president and a grateful nation, thank you to all of our teachers, many of who are now home teaching children from afar, in many cases while they have their own kids home from school. you are truly heroes, the department of education, as well as the state department of education are grateful to each and everyone of you who find yourselves educating out of home and the department of education has a helpful website on coronavirus recommendations.

ed.gov/coronavirus. and as we mentioned before, secretary betsy devos and secretary sonny perdue will be joining us at this podium on friday to speak about distance learning recommendations that have been made not just for secondary or for college education but also for k-12 education. we're opening up avenues, creating new flexibility so that not only college students can continue to be involved and learning from afar but children k-12 can do the same. secretary perdue will also be here to talk about the food lunch program and free and reduced lunches. today the president and i also spoke to 150 ceos of the top non-profit organizations in the country. we thanked them for their ongoing work, supplying the needs, not only of people impacted by the coronavirus but the most vulnerable among us in our communities. organizations like red cross,

the salvation army, feeding america, are all still working every day and we promised to urge every american, if you have the means and have the ability, continue to be generous to non-profit organizations that are helping those most in need in your community. the president marshalled a whole of government approach that means working with our governors today and the president and i were in direct contact with governors new york, california, washington state, new jersey, michigan and others and we continue to be inspired and impressed by the leadership that the governors are providing in their states, making tough choices, leading their state and the president and i are truly grateful. the task force made a recommendation and fema has assembled a team for, to provide technical assistance to the state of new york. and that team was welcomed by governor cuomo. it will be arriving on the ground there very soon along with all of the other resources

that the president recently announced would be flowing to new york and to washington state and to california. in my conversation with governor gavin newsom of california i was pleased to speak to him and hear that our fema team is literally at the table with the state of california's team working to meet their supply needs, working on capacity and i want the people to know, and the state has are most impacted by the coronavirus, that we are with you, we're going to stay with you, we'll continue to work around the clock to make sure that your courageous health care workers, your health systems and your state governments have the resources to support your response. on the suck wreck -- subject much testing, dr. birx will reflect on what data is showing. not including local labs and hospitals we're at 432,000 tests completed. we're pleased to see that there are literally drive-through and

community sites around the country and the u.s. public health service is assisting states standing those up each and every day. we do remind hospitals and labs around 9 country, the moment the president signs the bill it is absolutely essential they provide the results of the tests to us. it gives us visibility to what is happening on the ground but because of the public/private partnership president trump initiated with these vast commercial lab networks around the country we are adding tens of thousands of tests every single day. on the subject of supplies, before the end of the week we'll talk a bit more as the president did moments ago about the supply chain. i was at fema last night and literally saw a room full of people with laptops and cell phones. we are literally leaving no stone unturned. as i told governors today, to find medical up plies, whether it supplies, whether it be masks

or gowns or gloves or ventilators and the team is working around the clock to meet those needs. a few smaller items. first and foremost, the cdc is developing guidance which we'll be publishing tomorrow about the best way to utilize our natural resources at our parks. it would be several weeks ago that our park service waived all entrance fees, and we directed the cdc to produce guidance how people can still practice social distancing and common sense, be out of doors and enjoy our national parks. we'll share the guidance with the vast state park systems around the country and encouraging their support. with that, let me last say again, there is nothing more important for the american people to do to slow the spread than to heed your state and local guidance in areas impacted

by the coronavirus and for everyone else to put into practice the 15 days to slow the spread. dr. fauci will reflect on the importance of mitigation and the impact that we believe that it is having around the country. but it is, the people ask me from time to time, what can i do? and i say from my heart to every american, this is what you can do, not just to protect your own health and that of your family, but no american wants to inadvertently spread the coronavirus particularly to those that may be vulnerable to serious health consequences. remember that. the risk of serious illness to the average american remains low. i mean the vast majority of people that contract the coronavirus will have mild symptoms to flu-like symptoms and will recover. for seniors with serious underlying health conditions or people with immunodeficiencies

everyone needs to practice the principles of 15 days to slow the spread. the president announced this week we're looking forward to the day that we can open up the country and this team will be bringing him recommendations about how we can safely and responsibly do just that. but for every american that wants to see america back in business, you can hasten the day by putting into practice the 15 days to slow the spread. go to coronavirus.gov for details and i truly believe if we all can do what we can do we will slow the spread and help the most vulnerable and we can heal our land. let me recognize to recognize dr. fauci to speak about, dr. birx and then dr. fauci. >> thank you, mr. vice president. thank you for you all listening us stalk to the american people. we're watching testing. it visit call to us and looking

at it very careful. two things going on in parallel, system looking at flu-like illnesses is still up and running in county after county and state after state. why is that important? for those following the flu epidemic this year. remember we had flu a, and we had another peak of flu b. those systems in every single state and local government a platform we can see if there is any increase in flu-like illnesses. if you have very few cases in your states and counties, maintain your flu surveillance system that you worked closely with the cdc on and look for changes in your slope of new flu-like illnesses. there is particularly enough of the cdc test kit that runs on your flu surveillance platform to be constantly surveilling what those flu-like illnesses are in states and counties that have very low number of cases.

we have counties still with zero to one cases but they can participate in the surveillance that we need to have out there now by using their flu-like surveillance system. we thank all of the states who have that up and running. if you go to cdc dot-gov, go to flu surveillance, you can see state by state. you can look at the curves with us. that is what we're looking at day by day in addition to the testing results coming in. for the testing results still there is four counties that constitute the majority of both the current cases and new cases. i think you know those are new york city, westchester, new york, suffolk and nassau county. those are the four counties all associated with new york and the new york metro area. there is a few counties in new jersey but this is still where 56% of the cases are and 56% of the new cases. it is very important that people look at the number of new cases

per day. remember we told you it was going to take us a while to work through the testing backlog. i think we're close to working through the testing backlog so that you can interpret the number of cases per day and you will see in new york city that the number of cases per day has been relatively constant over the last three days. those are the number of new cases per day. this is a real call to every person in new york city and the new york metro area to continue everyone of these fifteen days to slow the spread. do that part at the same time they're following the mayor's and governor's piece. we talked about people that may have left the metro area that were residents, residents much metro area that may have gone to secondary homes and other places to reside. we asked all of them to carefully monitor their temperatures and self-isolate from the communities where they went, to insure their own health

and health of their communities while the people move around the country. finally, why this is so important. it is very important to me personally because my grandmother, for 88 years lived with the fact that she was the one at age 11 who brought home flu to her mother, named leah for which i am named, when her mother just delivered. her mother succumbed to the grate 1918 flu. she never forgot that she was the child that was in schools that innocently brought that flu home. this is why we keep saying to every american, you have a role to protect each and every person that you interact with. we have a roll to protect one another. why we're social distancing and we're social distancing. and to every american out there, when you are protecting yourself, you are protecting others. and if you, inadinadvertently

brought this virus home to someone with a preexisting condition, i tell you my grandmother lived with that for 88 years. this is a message important to everybody. this is not theoretical. this is reality. you see number of deaths occurring. we have all have a role preventing them. thank you for the work you do to get the message out to others to make sure every american understands how important their role is as we move through the next five days, not to let up for an instant. i hear some reports, someone said the new cases in new york are increasing or hospitalizations are increasing. the number of new cases over the last three days have been consistent but not rising anymore than a consistent day over day rise. you will see hospital cases continue to increase because they are a reflection of what happened one to two weeks ago before the full mitigation efforts were put into place.

so each person in every place, no matter what county, what community, what state, can work with us to insure that we prevent the spread of this virus to others. so thank you. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i just want to spend a couple minutes telling you a little bit about some information that i got on our weekly call that we have, at least once a week with the w.h.o. which is led by tedros and mike ryan, the point man there, to give us information. in that regard i want to apologize for my curt response to you when you asked me about the china deal. i shouldn't have done that. that is not my style but what i really wanted to say that my job is i'm a soon activity, i'm a physician and i'm a public health person. i don't like to get involved in that stuff. anyway, getting back to the w.h.o., so we learned some really interesting information, obviously other countries like china and others had been hit prior than we did. one of the things that was

striking to me, and i just throw it out, it is something we will face, we're not facing it now but we will face, our chinese colleagues are very concerned because they went through the entire cycle of the curve to come down. they have very, very few cases but what they're starting starte as they're relaxing constraints on travel, that they're getting imported cases. they wanted to warn us when we get successful, make sure you very carefully examine how you're going to release the constraints on inputs. so i know we're going to be successful in putting this under control but i think we're going to have to remember we don't want to import cases in. that is the first thing for today. the second thing that was important, is that something that dr. birx mentioned, and that is when you look at the infleckion of the curves we have multiple different countries that have gone through various

phases of their individual outbreaks and you can learn something from them about where you are in your own outbreak. for example, when china went up, what happened they just didn't turn around. they went from going to, i'll just take an arbitrary number, 500 new case as day. the next it was 1,000 cases, then 1500, then 2,000. once the number of new cases each day starts to flatten out, that is when you get to that point where the inflection goes down. so things we want to look for, the things that dr. birx had mentioned, that doesn't mean you declare victory when it does that, but you know at least you're on the way to where you want to go and i think that's really very important. the third an and final thing gets back to the question that you in the audience asked about us, would this become a seasonal

cycle thing, and i always indicated to you that i think it very well might. the reason i say that what we're starting to see now in the southern hemisphere in africa and southern hemisphere countries, we're having cases appear as they go into the winter season. if in fact they have a substantial outbreak, it will be inevitable we need to be prepared that we'll get a cycle around the second time. what does that mean for us and what we're doing? it totally emphasizes the need to do what we're doing in developing a vaccine, testing it quickly, and trying to get it ready so that we'll have a vaccine available for that next cycle. in addition, to do the randomized control trials of drugs so that we will have a menu of drugs that we have shown to be effective and shown to be safe because i know we'll be successful in putting this down now but we really need to be prepared for another cycle.

and what we're doing i believe will prepare us well. thank you. >> thanks, doctor. we'll take a few questions. please. reporter: mr. vice president on ventilators, reporting from the center of public integrity they suggested there are only 16,000 in the national stockpile. can you give us some clarity, how many ventilators do you have in the national stockpile, who else is making them and how long will it take to have critical mass and centers -- appears there will be not enough and people will die as a result. >> vent regulators is singular voc us of our supply chain stabilization task force from fema, since the president stood up fema's national response center. we're making progress in variety of ways. first there is the national stockpile which you refer, depending on what has been distributed we just delivered 4,000 ventilators to new york including ventilators we sent to

new york city but there is that number of some 20,000, less than 20,000. i won't dispute your number. beyond that, there are literally are by most estimates 150,000 ventilators in the broad health care system across the country. also working with anesthesiologists, there was a very important conference call today, we have determined, several weeks ago, that the devices that anesthesiologists use for outpatient surgery can be converted with a change of a single vent to a very useful ventilator. i spoke to governor cuomo about that today. he is in the process of surveying all of his surgical centers as governors around the country are doing. we literally believe there are tens of thousands of ventilators can be converted now that the fda has given guidance and dr. birx can probably speak to

that in a moment. we actually produced a helpful video to explain how quickly those devices can be converted. but we're also working with general motors and other companies to immediately spin up production ever those. contracts are being reviewed. we're vetting their capability but one much the other ideas, as we look at areas of the country that are most impacted and now more than half of the cases for coronavirus are in new york state and in the region around there, but we'll focus, we'll want to focus our resources including ventilators on where communities are struggling the most with coronavirus. one of the ways we're working through that at fema now, by spinning up production, at the same time working with the existing national supply, maybe from areas that don't have a particular burden yet with the coronavirus and making sure we're manufacturing backfilling and meeting that need.

but what i can tell you we have an extraordinaire team. admiral polkwek is doing amazing job. we're identifying resources around the world and contracting, arrange transportation for those. maybe dr. birx, speak to the ventilators. >> thank you, sir. i want to thank mary peterson, thank the whole team of the american association of anesthesiologists, because they immediately we asked them can they be modified? they went to immediate work. they will have q&as up and every anesthesiologist in every city and every state working with local health officials to work how to change this. it is not only the ventilators they will be supplying, they have the people that run those ventilators not any longer doing elective surgery. so changing that elective surgery piece over a week ago

has freed up a lot of additional resources. when i talk to you about how we are, we've done things very horizontal across the country, but we're collecting data now in a county by county granular way. it is like any epidemic. it is not equal everywhere. there are places that are very spared and there are places where there is more. we have a very vast country with a lot of capacity and a lot of infrastructure. so looking very specifically about where the virus has been, where is it going, who has got freed up resources from where it has been because it didn't hit, it hit washington state earlier than it hit new york and looking at all of those pieces to really insure how we can innovatively move equipment around based on the need. i know it has become a place where people are looking at numbers rather than what is needed. because if you do these projections, when you got to

those projections that said, like in germany and others that implied that 60% or 50% of the population would get infected, the, i want to be very clear, the only way that happens is this virus remains continuously moving through populations in this cycle, in the fall cycle and another cycle. so that's through three cycles with nothing being done. so we're dealing with a cycle a right now, not the one that could come in the fall of 2020 or the we're getting prepared for it by innovations being worked or, not 2021. we're dealing with the here and now. we're planning for the future. i think numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people but i can tell you if you go back to look at wuhan, and hebei and all of these provinces when they talk

about 60,000 people being infected, even if you said, all right, well there is aye symptomatics and all of that, you get to 600,000 people out of 80 million. that is nowhere close to the numbers that you see people putting out there. i think it is frightened the american people. elizabeth: lot of headlines coming out of the white house coronavirus task force, just wrapping up, what it is doing to combat the virus. big headline the president did say if we have to go back we'll go back for more stimulus. does want to get the country to reopen. 19 governors have either announced or planning to announce stay at home orders. they have the power to do that. that is what the constitutional fight will be. social distancing, the president is urging social distancing but moving and pushing hard on stimulus for the country. thinking about small businesses and the individual taxpayer. that does it for us. we have lot more show tomorrow night. thank you for watching. lou dobbs is next right here on the fox business network. have a good evening.

>> 100,000 creepy crawlers... >> spiders that'll cover your whole face. >> all collected from the far reaches of the world. >> wait. is it alive? >> talk about a bug's life. >> walt disney went into the museum and wanted to buy the collection. >> but there's a bigger story behind this bizarre bequest. >> that was an interesting and eye-opening experience all of its own. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and right now i'm driving on the outskirts of c