liz: look beyond the dark valley. [closing bell rings] definitely cuts a nerve for all of us. thank you, dan ives of wedbush. good to see you. we close not at session highs but a gain of 763 for the dow. we're out of bear market territory for the s&p. connell: surging into the close. first stocks extended their gains earlier in the day after the headline came that bernie sanders was dropping out of the presidential race, officially paving the way for joe biden to be the democratic nominee. then again we had a really big surge into the closing bell. strong session on wall street. good to be with you. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis this is "after the bell." the major averages closing near session highs. the s&p officially exiting bear market territory, at least for today. fox business team coverage. blake burman with the latest from the white house, lauren

simonetti is watching the markets and hillary vaughn is on capitol hill. let's kick it off with hillary. reporter: melissa, bernie sanders is out of the 2020 race but he is not off the ballot and he is still has his eye on the democratic national convention this summer. >> i will stay on the ballot in all remaining states, continue to gather delegates. while vice president biden will be the nominee, we must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform. reporter: former vice president joe biden is now the presumptive nominee for the democratic party. biden often attacked sanders for his calls for a political revolution but now today biden is thanking sanders for being the leader of a movement saying this, quote, while the sanders campaign has been suspended, it

is impact on this election and elections to come is far from over. we'll address the existential crisis of climate change, we'll confront income inequality in our nation, we'll make sure health care is affordable and accessible for every american and make education at public colleges and universities free. president trump chiming in on the news. bernie sanders is out. thank you to elizabeth warren. thanks to her bernie would have won almost every state on super tuesday. this is what the dnc wanted, same as crooked hillary fiasco. the bernie people should come to the republican party. trade. we know that bernie sanders and joe biden did speak today on the phone and we also know now that biden did talk to former president obama asking him for advice on who he should pick for his vp. melissa. melissa: all right, hillary,

thank you for that. now on to lauren simonetti for the market reaction. lauren. reporter: hey there, no whipsawing today, melissa. stocks were in the green all day. in fact the reasons are, another round of stimulus coming from congress but the fed, we got those minutes. they're going to keep rates near zero as long as they have to. also a lot of talk about reopening the economy, how to do it and when to do it. finally, bernie sanders, you just heard from hillary, let's show you a chart of the dow jones industrial average today, right when we got word 11:00 noon eastern time he was dropping out of the presidential race, look at that chart. the dow continued to spike, spike into the close. another factor today was the price of oil. that too surged. there is a virtual meeting among produces tomorrow. it is likely that they take supply off the table. so energy stocks rallied along with the price of oil today. so question, is this rally that we saw on monday, and again today, is this the start of a

new bull market or just a rally in a bear market? a lot of people would say, it is the latter. but we'll get more clues. it will be more indicative next week when we hear from the big banks, health care companies, city group, jpmorgan, johnson & johnson. all opening the books on their latest quarter when they report earnings next week. we'll get more information then. melissa, connell, i want to leave you with one more thing. a lot of beaten down sectors did really well today. homebuilders and real estate, two of those sectors, huge gains. take a look at american tower. that reit up 9 1/2% today. many homebuilders like pulte home and to brothers put in a nice performance as well. back to you. melissa: lauren, thank you. connell? connell: melissa, let's go to blake burman now. i saw in the briefing room for yesterday's task force update, i know we're waiting for another one about an hour from now, blake. what is the latest from the white house ahead of that?

reporter: another one an hour from now, connell. the focus is on $250 billion at least economically. the $250 billion, extra add on for the small business loan program, the ppp. here is what i was told from a senior administration officials that negotiations are ongoing right now but there is question as to what the next size and shape of the relief might be. both sides agree on the $250 billion but democrats want other measures added on to that as well. a senior administration official telling me the operating belief there will be a vote tomorrow but negotiations are continuing what else may or may not be attached to it. earlier today chuck schumer and nancy pelosi said on top of the 250 billion for the ppp there also should be $150 billion going towards state and local governments, $100 billion for hospitals and health centers and 15% increase in snap benefits. a spokesperson for schumer this afternoon, the add-on from democrats is quote, very

reasonable. however smart republicans have concerns adding on extra items now versus waiting a few weeks to see where things stand then. i spoke to a white house official about half an hour or so, connell, that official telling me, the focus needs to be on small businesses. the white house not saying exactly where the president stands on this one, considering the negotiations as we say are ongoing. separately as well here, i am also told that the treasury secretary is having ongoing conversations with the federal reserve about what would be called the main street lending facility. this would be a separate lending program for medium-sized businesses, businesses that have more than 500 employees but are not necessarily as big as the large corporations. so those conversations with the fed, connell, on going, i'm told, by a senior administration official, that announcement on that front could come as soon as tomorrow, maybe, even at some point later this evening. back to you. connell: all right. important stuff to possibly help

the small and as you said medium-sized businesses. blake, thank you. melissa. melissa: here now is mike huckabee, former arkansas governor, fox news contributor. governor, i mean what's abundantly clear that we need to get america reopened for business. you know i talked to so many people every day who are dying on the vine here. you know, like watching their dreams go up in flames whether it's a small business owner, salon, restaurant, we want everybody to be healthy but then the next step there has to be something to go back to. how do we balance that? >> well it's a tough thing because if we get back too soon, everybody starts going back to normal activity, we have resurgence of the coronavirus then the president will be beaten up because he didn't act more thought fully when it comes to health. on the other hand if we delay this unnecessarily, and we just say that we're not going to open back up until every single person is completely well, there

may not be much to come back to. this is going to be the president's biggest decision of his presidency thus far. and i think he is played this well. he balanced it. look, we know the president wants to open up the economy. even said so last night with sean hannity he would love to do it with one big bang and he realistic and understands it will probably be done in waves. i think the president has to listen carefully to all the people around him but he also must listen to health care people who may not be in the room with him but who have perspective from the 50 states as to what in their state is ready to open and how soon. melissa: yeah. it seems like two things that they could be doing, one, establishing some sort of a protocol. that you hope they're already working on this, right? how people could get back to work. maybe an anti-body test, that you take some sort of a quick blood test. then you are cleared to either go to work and leave your house or you're not.

that would seem like it was logical. i don't know if that could be rolled out on a large stale. also they have to think about what they could be doing between now and then to try to help the world prepare financially to reopen. what do you think about those two ideas, and how do you kind of do that? >> well i especially like the idea that you do a significant testing, find out whether people are ready to go back into the marketplace. are they healthy? have they proven to be free of coronavirus? certainly the people who have had it now have antibodies between using their plasma to help other people and then, testing. i think this is why reliable and quick test something one of the greatest sense of urgencies that the white house task force really faces right now. then we need to look at what needs to open up soonest. is it major league baseball and big sporting events? or do we need to first put people to work on main street in the forest, in the mail salons

and hair salons. lord knows i need a haircut. i would like to get one so i look so old looks like i have gone back to the '70s. we're all in the place where certain things need to start opening book up. maybe it is not big events, big crowds but it is main street businesses and even smaller restaurants that give people an opportunity to go, but having been tested first. we have to get america back to work sooner rather than later. melissa: that's such a smart idea, to focus how do we get smaller businesses open in steps. you're right, that is where demand is going to be. meanwhile, while you're here, i want to ask you about this, senator chuck schumer is proposing a 25,000-dollar heroes pay for front line workers as lawmakers prepare for a fourth stimulus. so what i love about this, they call it a heroes fund which sounds wonderful. it is about giving a bonus to basically everyone who still has

a job. that includes people in private companies. include people at amazon and duane reade. i don't know why taxpayers would give those folks a bonus when those companies are making more, companies like amazon are being forced to pay up and they should to have people on the job. 1bucks an hour or double -- seven teen bucks an hour, double that for overtime. republicans want to give front line workers, health care workers, a four-month federal tax holiday. democrats hate that idea. that is less money for them to play with. what do you think? >> i like the idea of the tax holiday because it puts money in their pockets immediately. it also, you know, doesn't discriminate a way the other does. i'm not sure why schumer would think if people are getting wages when other americans are not, even getting bonuses already because their companies are paying it because they have to, maybe something out there

for the health care workers, some who put themselves in harm's way, directly in front of these germs and viruses and, you know they have had to isolate from their own families during this entire time. you know, i'm not going to reject the idea out of hand but it needs to be massaged a little bit more. i always worry when schumer comes up with some program to spend money because before it's over, more money is going to be spent and it has a whole lot more to do with political power and doing favors for people than actually does to stimulate the economy and to reward genuinely deserving workers. melissa: it is so true. that stocks -- tax holiday would make so much more expense. they have had to pay child care, expenses as a result of going out to save other people's lives. i know they feel like it is their duty. they deserve consideration. that tax holiday would be instant. governor, thanks for coming on.

connell? connell: as we continue here much more to come. we're looking at numbers, we're just about at 1 1/2 million cases confirmed worldwide of the coronavirus. 1.4, almost 1.5. 400,000 of them, more than 400,000 confirmed here in the united states. president trump has been warning of a big surge in cases in the next few days. as we await for an update from the president, the rest of the coronavirus task force we'll have the latest on the pandemic as it is developing. then we'll look where officials say where the next hot spot could be, the next hot spot after new york. new york still under pressure. officials working to curb the outbreak as officials in hospitals face a shortage of supplies. we're live at mount sinai in new york city with the latest on that. that's next. ♪. ♪

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♪. connell: new york state hitting a new one day high, 779 reported deaths in a single day. the governor of the state, andrew cuomo, was out earlier today urging new yorkers whatever they do right now do not become complacent. the death toll in the state more than doubling the number who died in new york during the 9/11 attacks. while we have that we also have other areas. states in the midwest, for

example, seen near deadliest days, michigan, illinois on that list. so fox team coverage with the very latest across the country. david lee miller at mount sinai in new york city. mike tobin in chicago. mike we'll begin with you in a moment but david lee miller, we begin with you. reporter: connell, another day and another record for the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in new york state. as you mentioned governor cuomo said earlier today that 779 new yorkers have now lost their life to the virus in just the last 24 hours. over the past few days fatalities have steadily increased. governor andrew cuomo said the trend wasn't bad news but terrible news. he says the mortality rate will likely get worse before it improves because it reflects the number of people admitted weeks ago to the hospital only now succumbing to the virus. on a positive note he said hospital admissions are down thanks to social distancing and shutting down of all non-essential services within the state. he urged new yorkers not to get

complacent. >> we have to remain diligent and disciplined going forward but there is no doubt we're bending the curve and there is no doubt we can't stop doing what we're doing. reporter: according to preliminary statistics the virus caused a disproportionate fatalities among hispanic and black new yorkers. the mayor blamed economic inequality and poor access to health care. more people might be dying than first thought. national guard said troops are removing 150 body as day from new york city homes. it is usually 25 bodies on daily basis that must be removed. millions of gloves, masks, personal protection equipment is being delivered to hospitals. the federal government is asking to be filled with number ever short fall of surgical gowns. nypd, slowly recover, 276 members who tested positive are back on the job.

215 firefighters and pair met dix who were thought to be exposed to the virus have returned to earth. lastly the show must go on, not now, not anytime soon. broadway theaters said today they're going to extend the suspension of all performances until june 7th. melissa, back to you. melissa: wow, june 7th. david lee, thank you. now to mike tobin who is live in chicago. mike. >> melissa, the consensus across the midwest we have not hid the apex. the worst is yet to come. no one can say when that will be or just how bad it will be. chicago hit the worst single day death toll since the virus began. the pandemic hit ranks of first-responders. a chicago firefighter died from the virus. mario rajo was 49 years old. four city employees have died including a chicago police officer. a the chicago mayor banned

liquor sales after 9:00 p.m. because people came outside and gathered in the nice weather. informal social gatherings in chicago are often linked to violence. mayor said in middle of crisis, 14 people were shot, 7 killed. >> violence of any kind is never acceptable but the fact that this is especially urgent now, as our ability to treat all chicago wants is being stretched to the breaking point. we cannot allow this to happen. and we will not allow this to happen. reporter: 114 people died in michigan from coronavirus today, and that is after setting a single day record yesterday at 118. number of cases in michigan passed 20,000. the death toll is bearing down on a 1000. governor gretchen witmer says the state is not close to the apex. detroit, population center, mayor mike duggan says hospitals will be stretched beyond

capacity. on top of that, 700 employees at henry ford center tested positive. detroit is turning the convention center to a hospital as many cities are. the director of health and human services says the social distancing is working. speed of cases double something slowing down. in illinois, a mayor of a town called alton outside of chicago. the mayor asked the police force to crack down on social gatherings. they bust ad local bar and picked up the mayor's wife. melissa, back to you. melissa: wow, that is quite a story, mike. connell, over to you. connell: quite a story. calling it a moral responsibility, meantime the mayor of miami, frances suarez, become the first person in florida to be a plasma donor after he beat the coronavirus. mayor suarez will be on the show. he joins us again. in fact he is coming up again. thousand thousands of small business owners are stuck in limbo awaiting emergency relief. we're tracking the stay of play

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♪ connell: this is coronavirus virus success story. the second person in all of miami-dade county to test positive for the virus and first to in entire state of florida to donate blood plasma to help people battling covid-19, mayor suarez. we're glad you're back with us. as you were confident you were able to do last time we had you on, how did it come about you would donate your own plasma, how did that start? >> that came together miraculously, the day that i tested negative for the second time, understanding i went through a strict testing protocol, i was someone actually able to get a test, after testing positive. and can prove that i was

negative, i got a call, immediately both from a company called one blood and also got a call from a family from a local hospital that needed very badly a plasma donation. it just so happened, that i was the same blood type with the donation. the person was in critical condition. so it all came together quite quickly and quite nicely, as you said. i was the first person in florida, one of the first in the country. and now we're trying to get testing for those who have already tested positive and have been positive for, you know, about 20 days. so that we make sure we don't have a second positive test. hoping that, once they test negative, they can show that to the employers to go back to work, also they can donate plasma like i did to save lives. connell: that part of the testing is really, really important. the going back to work thing we talk a lot about but this, we understand it is an experimental treatment. we've done a decent amount of reporting on the plasma therapy, it works with other viruses,

hopefully it works with this one. what about people interested in that? i'm sure a number of people watch having either tested positive themselves or have friends and family who have, they have worked through their symptoms, what should they do? i think it is pretty difficult to get that second test sometimes, right? >> it is. i would recommend that they reach out to one blood, that they google one blood and reach out to the company. they will guide them on the right protocol to determine whether or not they're eligible. we in the city are trying to start a program now with our first-responders where we will retest our first-responders who tested positive. use them, you know, sort of to test out and to help other people and, and so then, the process is quite simple. you go, they either draw blood or draw plasma. if they draw the brood, takes you about five minutes. obviously aside from questions you have to answer when ever you give blood. if you do plasma, takes longer

or able to help more people. i drew blood last week. i will hopefully draw plasma next couple weeks so i can help more people. connell: all right. that is encouraging. great work that you're doing, encouraging other people might be able to get involved now. let me ask you about miami while i have you. how are things there? we are watching curve in various cities to see if they're flattening. are things improving in miami or do you still think you're aways off? >> things have been better the last four-days. it is hard to determine with such a small sample size. we hit a high point on april third but there is a lag between testing and results. it is hard to tell whether we're at the top of the curve or the curve is flattening. we will know next few days. we were testing more than we were a couple days ago. that might be indication there is still more out there. but you know, we implemented very strict measures early on. i canceled large events. we put stay at home orders

quickly. we also put in a a curfew with you which they think implemented social distancing standards in our city. connell: one more real quick i want to ask you about reopening the economy. we understand we've been talking about this balance between getting it right on the health side and also realizing small businesses and others are going through such a tough time. you want to get people back to work safely. what are your priorities there? do you think certain businesses should open before others, certain areas of the economy? what about the relationship between the state and local and federal authorities in terms of who makes the decisions? what kind of meetings are you guys having about that? >> we talk often. obviously our governor and i speak on a regular basis and definitely, you know, we have to open up businesses possibly will be outdoors first and also, we want to try to have robust testing on the back side. obviously right now we're focusing a lot on symptomatic

testing, on people who have symptoms, who want to get tests to see if they have covid-19 but we have to start testing people who have already been diagnosed with covid-19 like i was. so they can assure their employers that they are safe to go back to work. so that is another thing we're working on right now. connell: okay. keep us up to date on that. very important component of all of this, continued good health to you, sir, mayor of miami, frances suarez live from the city. melissa, back over to you. melissa: an escalating fight. united airlines is facing a class-action lawsuit from a passenger for the refusal to issue a cash refund amid awave of coronavirus cancellations. the carrier has kleined to comment specifically on the action, only saying it enacted new policies to give, quote, our customers flexibility during the outbreak. yeah, we'll see. a lot of flyers unhappy about that, connell. connell: all right. we will see. the warning of potential threats

to the nation's supply chain. truckers calling for immediate relief in the pandemic. what could this mean for the next run to the grocery store? something we'll look into later on in the hour. coronavirus task force set to give us another update on the pandemic that should begin in a few minutes from the white house. comes as some states are starting to show signs as we've been reporting of a possible plateau in certain areas. it will be interesting to see what officials have to say tonight. any breaking headlines from the white house this hour. and a spokesperson for downing street confirming, the british prime minister, boris johnson in stable condition and he is responding to treatment after spending two nights in an intensive care unit battling coronavirus. the spokesperson adds that the prime minister will remain at the hospital for close monitoring.

connell: to the small business loan confusion that we're been seeing. there has been some backlash for the small business administration, also some of the big banks as they seem to struggle to process thousands and thousands of applications as they come in. looks like what we can see the community banks have fared a little better but edward lawrence would know. he is been tracking numbers literally on hour by hour basis

as they come in. what is the latest, edward? reporter: connell we've had a huge demand from small businesses in order to get this. we've had somewhat of a delay with the big banks processing through their loans. they are accepting applications. but you're right, community banks are still leading this and let's get into those numbers. they have crossed 400,000 loans they have created. they are crossing the 100 billion-dollar mark that has been dispersed through these loans. the small business administration says that that money has saved an estimated 9.5 million jobs. that's the total number of jobs on all of the applications. so maybe not all of them would have been laid off, still a very big number. amy wright has a coffee shop in wilmington, north carolina, employs 120 people. majority of them have special needs. she laid them off. she received money from the payroll protection program. listen to her today. >> most of our employees never had a job before, when we had to temporarily lay them off. it was a very scary time.

i'm very excited to share with them that they will be continuing to earn a paycheck and contributing to our business reporter: she is one of the successes of the program. there has been some failings though. community banks had passwords expire for some of them in the small business portal they're trying to get in. the banks had to wait for the new password. that delayed processing of loans. they're delaying billions of dollars per hour. the big banks are not processing through all of their applications frustrating some of those small business owners. senator marco rubio says this is a massive you know -- undertaking. >> we have to have perspective. this plan was passed two weeks ago this friday. hasn't been implemented until six days later. until friday of this week there was not a bank in america that had never made a ppp loan and sba had never made one. reporter: he says that the sba is getting faster every day that goes by. on those direct deposit checks,

the direct help to americans, i'm told by a senior administration official those direct deposits will start happening monday and tuesday ahead of schedule. the irs had targeted april 17th. now i'm hearing monday and tuesday. also the paper checks will go out the week after this, april 20th. again, ahead of schedule. back to you. connell: that last part is good news. hopefully we have more stories like the woman who owns the coffee shop. thank you, sir. melissa. melissa: they're not all like that. here now to discuss his experience applying for loans is lance, a small business owner. i understand you own space 519 and it's a retail business and you have applied to six different programs to try to get relief? is that right? tell us your story? >> it has been kind of an exhausting process for me, certainly not one that been at all streamlined. we were closed by the city of illinois on the 16th.

i immediately went to the sba website at that point and applied for the disaster loans that are available because illinois had been declared a disaster at that point. spent two days pulling all those documents together. up loading everything. i received a confirmation on the 20th saying that my loan will be processed. i hear nothing. then 10 days later i get another email from the sba saying now that they're going to redo my application because i think this was after the cares act had passed but that as an incentive they would be giving businesses $10,000 grant would be within three days of finalizing the application. so of course that was a huge incentive. i redid the application. i got an approval. not approval. i meant confirmation it was processed. it is 10 days later. i don't have the $10,000. if you go to the sba website

they're not talking about the $10,000 in the same way. it is between one and $10,000. and that it is not going to be paid in three days. so that is kind of my whole process started. and then i, been working workinh through the ppp program. i bank with three different banks. one is an sba lender but i bank with citibank, capital one. both have business accounts with both of them. even as of this morning if you go on their website, neither of those banks have any ability to be taking any applications and they keep saying just come back and stay tuned. i called my citibank representative in downtown chicago branch. the branch was closed. i was transferred to someone at a call center in india who had no idea what i was talking about. she talked to her supervisor. then they referred me back to the same web page. so i was finally able to get a loan processed this week through

my existing sba loan provider, after i had made many, many calls to them. their website says, you have to put, you can't submit a application directly. you can make a request, but i somehow made it through. and my rep there is telling me maybe she will have update later this week or the beginning of next week. so you know, it has been challenging. some applications with the state of illinois and also with the city of chicago. same thing. you finish your application. someone will get back to you in two or three days, you never hear anything. so you know, i am three weeks out from this and, i'm counting on money from somewhere so i can, a, hire my employees back, but also i have many small vendors i deal with and they need me to start paying them. melissa: that unbelievable story. i hate the government.

you just i willlous strayed right illustrated right there, they say one thing and the bureaucracy is just impossible. there is one message at the top and actually carrying it out it takes so many people and everybody is not on the same page. so it sounds like the thing that got you the closest so far, sorry, trying to help people based on your experience, unfortunately you tried everything and so many of those things other people have also hit a dead end. i think big banks right now are really struggling to sort through this. they have got beat up. they're not that eager to get involved. with the sba itself, you had an sba lender that is closest you got so far, is that right? >> existing on sba loan i did with nutech, which is the second largest 7-a, which is type of sba loan provider in the united states. so as an existing lender with an sba loan i finally was able just yesterday to get the form and

everything submitted. they had i think, you know, approved me through their preprocess. but now i think they're all just waiting to try to submit everything through the sba in washington. you know, another funny anecdote about that. if you go to the sba website right now it says that there is also a program available for 25,000-dollar bridge loan for anyone that has existing sba loan, which i do. so, and that you go to your sba loan provider. i talked to mine yesterday who is you know, second biggest provider in the united states. they have no idea about this. people there are going to sba website to look at this. it is just nonsense. it seems like, you know, i feel like the sba website right now is a pr tool and to try to actually dig through to get the resources is very difficult. you hear again and again, from the president that everything is

going swimmingly. well i did hear in your segment before about all this funding but i'll tell you i deal with hundreds and hundreds of small companies that are just like me and most all of us are applying for this. i have not heard after single person that received any funding. >> lance, i'm with you. we get updated stats of every hour, this many thousand businesses have been approved for the loan but like you, i don't actually know anyone who has got it. so it is kind of a mystery. we want to stay on top of it. yeah, lance, will you come back and tell us, keep in touch with us, tell us how the process. we need to help people like you get to the bottom of this because it is so incredibly frustrating. it is so important but again, you know, it's the government. we're here to help. >> we'll come back. melissa: okay. i think his shot froze.

he would come back. thank you for telling your story. that will help people, connell. go ahead. connell: that is exactly right, melissa. we'll 100% stay on top of stories like lance, there are some of them out there we've all been hearing about them. as we heard for an update meantime from the coronavirus task force at the top of the hour, keep in mind stories like this when you hear the update on the program, how it is going. the president tweeted the event wit begin at 5:30 p.m. eastern. they're getting things set up. we'll bring you the briefing as soon as it starts. more in a moment. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

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connell: so many americans have been pivoting amidst of the epidemic. we have national association manufacturers president, ceo, jay timmons knows about this. member companies make one thing one day, jay, to being asked to make some ppe the next. but i guess it is tough to really do it that way. these things take time. what have you been hearing, seeing out there. >> well they do take time, connell and some of our manufacturers are able to expand their supply of existing ppe and medical supplies. some are offering to repurpose their lines, to do exactly that. i will say that we have a, we

have a great amount of supply in the country right now. what we're trying to do at the nam, we're trying to move the supply through fema, state's governors, state health agencies, to the hospitals where they're needed. but there is always, as we know, there is room for more. connell: there has been a push to use, and president has now a few times, the defense production act to implore some companies may not be cooperating the way the government sees fit and make them, require them to do it essentially. a lot has been made of 3m, whether some products were being exported rather than i guess made here in the united states. what do you make of all of that, how it has been handled? >> sounds like 3m and the administration worked all that out which is good. look the defense production act is a really effective tool when it's used to help, for instance, a small manufacturer who is raising their hands. we have tons of them raising their hand, saying we want to repurpose our lines an provide some of this ppe.

it's a great tool to be able to say we'll help you do that, we'll deploy dpa, that way you can apply for grants, loans, to actually help you repurpose those lines, but your initial point is really important t can sometimes take weeks, even months to repurpose a line. so the faster we get that going the more effective we'll be. connell: jay, come back soon, if you can, i want toe talk to you more how this might impact the industry longer term. we have a lot of breaking news this hour, we have it every hour. thank you for coming on. jay timmons on manufacturing. melissa. melissa: warning of an impending threat to the industry. truck drivers are calling for extra protections as they remain on the front line much this pandemic. details next.

gilday:

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critical supplies, they are asking lawmakers for help, grady trimble in illinois with with details. reporter: coronavirus outbreak put a spotlight on important work that truckers are doing. keeper our grocery store shelves stocked. we have been here all day with a nonstop stream of them, they are working hard. an industry group that represents tens of thousands of drivers is calling on congress to make changes now to help drivers during this pandemic and after it passes could they want testing and protective gear for truckers, in particular these going to hot spots and more parking. they need to rest, they don't want to waste valuable times searching for a mace t a -- plao park, and they want relaxed restrictions on how long truckers can drive.

in a letter to congress, association said, lawmakers have been quick to express their gratitude, but professional drivers cannot afford to think you have praise is a sufficient response to their hard work. they pointed out that dmv's are closed across country, they need drivers, they need to make sure there is licensing and training still going on. so we can make sure there no shortage of drivers at the time when we need them most. >> that is a really great point, thank you for that. without question having those different facilities closed right now is a hardship on everyone. that does it for us, here on after the bell. as we close out another day on wall street, lou dobbs tonight

starts now. lou: good evening, as the president and his task force have warned this pandemic is claiming the lives of ever more people, as of now total number of cases worldwide neared 1.5 million people infected. in united states death toll risen to 13,000, more than 4,000 americans infected. and wuhan virus is killed more than 85 thousand people in the world. in the midst of these sobers and difficult losses there has been a shift in projections for future severity of the pandemic in america. america's