limitation. so this is going to be a very slow process. the idea of a v-shaped rebound simply doesn't make sense given that this is a health crisis and -- charles: we will see how it goes. the stock market looking for really optimistic things. liz claman, this has been one heck of a rebound, hasn't it? liz: i like these numbers. i really do. you know, it's great to be watching the nasdaq, though. folks, you've got to watch the nasdaq in the final hour. but you know, just as the sun comes out for investors, mother nature's wrath throws another nasty curveball in the coronavirus crisis. how do you restore power to thousands of people while protecting your workers from the deadly pandemic? chairman and ceo of utility giant pse & g is doing it. he's here in a fox business exclusive to explain how. what long-term destruction will the pandemic storm wreak on global movie industry as amc theaters struggles mightily to

stay above the bankruptcy waters. imax which counts amc as its biggest u.s. partner, is watching closely. a fox business exclusive with the imax ceo on how he's focusing the lens of his company for the unknown. plus we will ask him when does he think china's screens will light up again. they tried to open them, then promptly shuttered them in china. we will ask rich that. and businesses big and small tapping government loans to stay afloat but what about all of those mom and pop microbusinesses desperately trying to survive? the godaddy ceo with us on saving millions of his web service customers. but look, we have green on the screen here. markets betting the economy is about to get its engines revving again. whether that's true or wishful thinking, tech is driving a robust rally with the nasdaq poised to exit its bear market hibernation. all the nasdaq needs to see is a gain of just over 40 points.

could it happen with less than an hour to the closing bell? got to stay with me. let's start "the claman countdown." liz: breaking news. general motors has just announced the first batch of ventilators that they have helped make are now ready for delivery to the u.s. government. these new devices are needed to treat severely sick coronavirus patients. gm is working with ventech life systems to produce the machines at its indiana plant and said it will ship more than 600 this month. the stock is down slightly about .66%. gm moved mountains to shift its assembly lines to make ventilators. good on gm. johnson & johnson is one of the top gainers in this final hour of trade and you can thank

tylenol and liftsterine for tha as consumers stockpiled those products. the stock is up 4.75% but they also have strong cancer drug sales which offset losses in its medical device unit as patients put off elective medical procedures. some retail records to report to you. amazon and walmart hitting all-time highs, just a day after amazon announced it's hiring an additional 75,000 workers. but with the good comes a little bit of concern here. we are looking at microsoft. let me pull up amazon for you. the concern comes that a french court ordered the online retail giant to limit its deliveries within 24 hours to just essential products. amazon is moving higher by 5.33% right now. to live nation entertainment. ticker symbol lyv. the world's largest concert promoter is now instituting hiring freezes, furloughs and major cuts in spending.

what kind of cuts? live nation announcing it's cutting top executive pay by 50%. live nation stock is up 4.75%. in this war between the oil bulls and the oil bears, it really seems the glut is winning over the cut. prices today are dropping once again now by 7.66% at $20.69. even after the record opec plus supply cut of 9.7 million barrels per day that was supposed to stabilize prices, well, that was swamped by massive demand destruction due to stay-at-home orders. people just are not driving so they are not using gasoline. johnson & johnson and earnings, when we are looking at that, minus j & j which had that good story, earnings kicking off on a disastrous note, particularly for the big banks. even though it was before the bell, let's check in on jpmorgan stock. jpmorgan stock is falling 2.75%

after reporting first quarter profit fell nearly 70%. the financial institution said it's bracing for a severe recession and will be setting aside another 6.8 billion to cover what it expects to be potential losses from loans that many consumers, because they have lost their jobs, will struggle to pay. let me get to wells fargo which was still dealing with this fake account scandal when the pandemic hit. the big bank saw its first quarter profit sink 89%. it had to take an impairment charge of $950 million on securities because of current economic conditions. that stock down 4.5%. $30. $30.03. tomorrow, we got a lost names here. we are getting earnings from bank of america, goldman sachs, we also get citigroup and morgan stanley as well as nearly a dozen other names later on this

week. aside from the banks or maybe just the banks, where will the ugliest earnings surprises be this season? let me bring in our floor show traders. john corpina, so many restaurants have had to shutter but some are finding ways to stabilize sales. what do you think? where will the ugliest disappointments really be? >> yeah. i think we have to look at the airlines. we clearly keep talking about them. they are the ones that will have a real big trouble getting out of this because even if and when they come back in business, do people still want to fly? do people still want to travel? then add hotels into that, add entertainment. all those industries out there have a big, big burden ahead of them. we are getting through bank earnings right now. keep in mind, banks are still open. they are not operating at 100% but they are definitely still operating. the earnings reports that we are seeing now do have operational revenue and income coming in and we will see that going forward. start looking at earnings reports for companies that have

zero revenue coming in. also keep in mind some of these reits out there, some of their tenants will not be paying rent. large companies, major income and revenue for these reits will the no be comi not be coming in. that's an area we will have to see some sort of information coming out of there. i can see the reits getting hit for quarters down the road. liz: yeah. remember, even though we see all green on the screen for the airlines, because they are going to get some major lifelines thrown to them from the u.s. government, the earnings are going to come in and they will probably take a hit. phil flynn, give me your picks on who will see big earnings disappointments. >> you know, anything in the energy sector right now. because everything that john just mentioned, the airlines and everything else, are covered by energy. listen, we know the banks are going to be big. jpmorgan, the reason why their numbers were so bad is because they have a lot of exposure in the energy space.

lot of these companies, of course, are not selling any oil. their profits are minuscule. they are not paying their loans. you will see a lot of those businesses perhaps being taken over by the banks. we're not seeing the type of lifeline to the energy industry that we are seeing to some of these other industries. like airlines and such. we hear a big bailout for the airlines, i'm not hearing the democrats saying let's bail out all the oil companies and shale producers. we are not seeing that. obviously, the opec deal is going to help quite a bit but i think energy stocks are going to have one of their worst quarters probably that we have seen probably in 25 years. liz: well, yeah. and unlike the airlines, they do not look right now very healthy. lots of red on the screen. john, phil, stay tuned because you know, john, you just mentioned companies that have zero revenue right now. that is the theater companies. amc and cinemark. coming up, we will talk to the imax ceo.

they don't have any revenue coming in, either, from their screens but they can survive and rich gelfond will explain how. closing bell ringing in 42 minutes. make that 52 minutes. we have the dow jones industrials seeing gains of 474 points right now and apple is shining after a surge in demand in china for its iphones. government data show apple shipped 2.5 million of its signature smartphones in china in march versus just a half a million phones in february during the height of the world's second biggest economy's quarantine orders. apple stock up 4.75% at $286 and change. coming up, we've got a real power player in the market, fighting not one but two foes. utility giant pse & g's ceo on keeping the lights on during both the spring storm season and the pandemic. "the claman countdown" is coming right back.

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liz: a raging storm system swept through parts of new york and new jersey yesterday. these pictures show the damage on parts of the jersey shore.

powerful winds ripping down trees and electrical wires, leaving thousands without power just when they need it most. newark, new jersey based pse & g raced to get the lights back on for its customers while following covid-19 public health guidelines. right now, the company says power is mostly restored except for a couple thousand customers on long island. pse & g is the largest electric and gas utility in new jersey with operations in the northeast and mid-atlantic u.s. ralph izzo is the chairman and ceo and we are thrilled to have you here. talk about when it rains, it pours. your teams have had their hands full. how are you managing outages during this pandemic? >> thanks for having me, liz. it is quite a challenge. the industry has a long-standing history of running to help other companies whenever there's a major storm that is affecting some other company but not themselves, but given the

pandemic, the ability to move people around has been greatly limited. so our employees just did a phenomenal job yesterday, as you pointed out, we had 50,000 customers without power at some point during the course of the day, and every one of those customers in new jersey is now -- we have other customers who are out now but not from yesterday. similar was true on long island and about 1,000 customers are still out there. our employees did a phenomenal job. i sit here in the comfort of this environment being able to call out the phenomenal work they did. liz: i'll tell you, it's one thing that always strikes me after storms, all kinds of companies help each other out and you see them up in the cherry pickers and thank you. thank you for that. especially at a time when people are staying at home on orders, state orders to stay inside because of this pandemic which makes me wonder about your commercial business and the revenues that are coming in.

we are certainly at fox not in the building. i know it looks like it, but we are at all different areas and i'm wondering what kind of interruption you are seeing in payments and what you are doing about that. >> so we are seeing a shift. we don't have a lot of data just yet, but what we are basically seeing is an overall decline in the amount, about 5% so far, and it's really tough sometimes to separate the effects of the pandemic from the effects of weather. it's been a pretty mild march and april so far so there's a little bit of both at play. but the movement is away from the commercial customer, more towards the residential customer. from an economic point of view, candidly, while that may affect the number of hours we sell, it doesn't affect our profitability too much because the residential customer is a higher margin customer for us, but time will tell. as this plays out, the sustained level of economic impact will eventually creep into payment patterns and things of that

nature. liz: so what do you do, ralph, when you have a lot of small businesses who have zero revenue and they can't pay their bill? are you giving any kind of buffer or leeway for them? >> so we have committed to residential customers that we will not shut them off and we will work with them in restoring their payment once they're back. at present we are doing the same for small businesses but we have not committed over the long term in the case of small businesses other than to work with them to help them gain access to various government grant programs that are available to them. but we were i believe the first utility to suspend all shutoffs for nonpayment of residential customers. liz: well, i'm sure that's much appreciated but yeah, at some point you've got a business to run. yes, it's a utility and speaking of which, you raised your dividend recently and now the

dividend yield is at about 3.7%. looking at beyond the pandemic, once this is all over, your stock is very attractive because of this, but what is the other selling point when you talk about future earnings growth? where do you see the payout heading? >> well, i think there's a couple things that make us attractive as a stock. first of all, we are an essential service. by the way, i would be remiss if i didn't express my gratitude and thanks to all the health care providers and first responders who are keeping us all safe. i love the fact that our employees and our company provides them the energy to do their job but they are just amazing in terms of what they have been able to accomplish. but as an essential service, we are pretty comfortable that yes, we will see some decrease in terms of the revenues and sales, but we are not going to see what some other industries have seen. so our balance sheet is extremely healthy. our dividend is secure. i think candidly, as this

becomes more expensive, people will see a rock-steady company like ours is something where they can park their money and go to bed and sleep very comfortably with that. liz: ralph, thank you for all you and your employees are doing, and for people out there who just think he's just a ceo in a suit, this guy is a genius physicist. i couldn't believe it. you started your career at the princeton plasma physics lab working on fusion. fusion energy. good luck to you. >> thank you. my pleasure. liz: see you next time. please join us again. closing bell ringing in 41 minutes and the dow is holding on to gains of 481 points, and the nasdaq looks like it will crawl out of the bear market and close there. we are out right now. stay tuned. see what happens in another 40 minutes. meantime, disney getting some of the magic back in the final hour of trade. disney's stock is moving higher by about 2.33% after securing a

new $5 billion credit agreement. most of the mouse house's parks are shuttered indefinitely worldwide, though, and the cash burn is epic on a daily basis. lockdowns also forcing 2019's $7 billion plus box office king to postpone major film releases from the black widow to its live action version of mulan but movie theater owners holding out hope for a hollywood ending to the covid-19 crisis come july blockbuster season. in a "countdown" exclusive, rich gelfond on what it will take to win back movie goers across the globe. that's next.

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liz: is the curtain dropping on the world's largest movie theater chain? as bankruptcy reports swirl around amc entertainment,

investment bank b. reilly today cut its price target on the stock to just 25 cents. now, the stock is moving higher today by a couple of percentage points but nearly a month after amc was forced by the coronavirus to shutter 1,000 theaters and darken its 11,000 screens around the globe, the stock is down about 12.7%. but year over year, it is down a massive 87%. with the entire movie industry, though, pretty much frozen in place and box office debuts including the live action mulan put on hold, we are joined by rich gelfond, ceo of entertainment technology giant imax. rich, good to hear from you. how are you doing? how's the team doing at imax? >> everybody is doing really well, liz. we are fortunately, i have been around long enough where in the early 2000s, a lot of financials came out in the exhibition

industry and we used that time to innovate and do some of the more remarkable things we have done and we are trying to use this time doing it. so people aren't sitting around thinking about how we can move forward and make things better. liz: things might be a little more difficult for amc, your big partner here in the united states. have you modeled for a bankruptcy, whether it's chapter 11 which would be reorganization under the best of circumstances, and if so, what does your modeling look like if amc really struggles to survive? on the phone: amc is a great company with lots of revenues and not only in the u.s. but in northern europe, in the uk and other places in europe and saudi arabia. they just happen to have a challenging capital structure so the starting point is whatever happens to amc and i have no particular insight into that, amc is not going away.

amc will re -- if they do file, it's going to reemerge in a different form with less debt. so we're not that exposed to amc, you know, we're very current on our receivables and all other things, so as i said to you a minute ago, we have been through this, we have seen this rodeo before and we have survived nicely so i don't know what's going to happen, but we have a very strong balance sheet, we have $350 million in cash. we could survive if the theaters didn't open for another two and a half years. so like you and everyone else, we are watching but we're not -- we don't consider ourselves particularly vulnerable to that. liz: so you, with zero revenue, the company could be in survival mode for sure for two years. that is significant. rich, talk about you mentioned we have seen this rodeo before. part of that, i'm assuming, means what happened in wuhan and in china, where theaters were shut down. china recently tried to reopen

some 500 theaters and then promptly shuttered them once again due to some type of scare. listen, it's hard because they're not exactly transparent in china, but what are you hearing there? because you have about 702 theaters in china for imax. on the phone: so what we are hearing is that it was less about a scare and more about wuh wuhan's internal politics. so they were starting to open some of the theaters, a small number, in late march and the schools have yet to open and in fact, we think they are opening in late april, early may. so there was a lot of uprising sort of on social media in china saying how could you be opening theaters when schools haven't yet opened and other things haven't happened. i think the government officials and film industry in china got a little bit of cold feet and decided they ought to walk before they run. so they slowed it down.

if you look at a lot of other indicators in china, i mean, it's starting to come back. my team in china tells me that traffic in shanghai is about 75%, 80% of what it was, restaurants have started to open. i heard this morning that the number one levi strauss store in the world is in wuhan. i don't want to make too much of that. there's not a lot of great comparables but china is starting to come back and it's coming back in due time. i think once the schools open by early may, i think you will probably start to see some theaters reopening then. liz: well, everybody's waiting on the new james bond film, "no time to die." chris nolan's "tenet," "wonder woman" and the big one next year, "avatar 2." what will change in your opinion about the movie going experience?

people are nervous now to sit very close to others and the communal feel about watching a movie with a bunch of people, how do you see that changing, if at all? on the phone: so i think a lot of it depends on how this all goes, meaning how the crisis winds down. so if there's a viral cocktail or some kind of vaccine, i think people will go back to movies quickly and they will feel safe about it. there was just a poll in china that one of the ticketing agencies conducted that said 72% of the people in china are ready to go back to the movies right away. they have been quarantined, there's a lot of pent-up demand. i think if there's not a vaccine or there's not a viral cocktail, then it will probably segment so i think millenials who are objectively safer than people with pre-existing conditions or older people, and generally are

more willing to take risks, i think they will go back to the movies, i think. the higher risk groups are likely to hold back but from a business strategy point of view, the millenials are the ones that go to imax kind of blockbuster movies. obviously we are hoping these are very safe places and they are safe soon, but i think even if there are still some issues, fortunately, the kinds of people who go to our kinds of movies are likely to come back. liz: when will you feel comfortable enough to go back into a theater? on the phone: you know, that's a good question. i would answer it the same way, which is it depends on how this all winds up, without telling your viewers about my age or my health situation, i'm on -- i'm not as safe as millenials and young people are. so it will be later than other people but i look forward to going back. liz: yeah. me, too. me, too, rich.

great to talk to you. thank you so much. i'm glad to hear you guys have enough of a cushion there for a couple years, although we don't think it's going to last that long, thank goodness. rich gelfond, thank you. closing bell ringing in 29 minutes. any time -- now look at the dow, up 517 points. by the way, regarding the nasdaq, it is now back above both its 50 and 200 day moving average. fintech, financial technology, getting in on the action of the paycheck protection program. square, paypal and intuit all getting approval to provide small business loans to struggling companies out there who need them. clients of the non-traditional lenders will now be able to apply for low interest forgivable loans from the government's $350 pool. they are all moving higher by 4% apiece. up next, we will get you an update, the very latest numbers on how the ppp is performing.

the personal paycheck protection money. and we will tell you what other silicon valley power player is doing to try to keep the doors open at the microbusinesses that use its web services. the godaddy ceo is here next on "the claman countdown." i've got some terrific news for veteran homeowners from newday usa. interest rates have dropped to record lows. newday usa makes it so easy to refinance that one call can save you $2000 a year. newday's va streamline refi lets you refinance without having to verify your income, without getting your home appraised and without spending one dollar out of pocket to get it done. it is the quickest and easiest refi they've ever offered. one call can save you $2000 a year, every year.

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applications approved for small businesses, totalling more than $263 billion. but of the $350 billion allotted, we know there is uncertainty that reigns over whether the money will run out by the end of this week. there's some real concern and worry over that. also this breaking news. one of the largest website creation companies in the world, godaddy, has announced exclusively on "the claman countdown" right here that 30 companies have now joined forces with godaddy's open we stand movement. all right. what is that? major publicly traded names like salesforce, slack and paypal have all partnered with godaddy to help small businesses stay afloat amid the coronavirus crisis. godaddy's ceo aman bhutani joins us live in a fox business exclusive. aman, great to have you. explain to our viewers what the open we stand movement is all about, how it works and how it's coming to entrepreneurs' rescue.

>> liz, thanks for having me on the show. four weeks ago we started with three simple words, open we stand. the idea was simple. the word open because it was about keeping small businesses open even when their doors were closed. we, because we are in it together and it's not just about good, it's about a coalition of companies putting things out there for small businesses. and the word stand because we wanted to publicly say what we are standing for in this very very difficult time. and we started, what started as an idea has become a movement now and as we worked on it, we found lots of big businesses have great offers for small business, but where should small businesses go to find those offers? and by the way, how should they find out about it. we would love to fill that gap. we created a website called openwestand.org where we have offers from all these partners

you talked about and we have more partners coming every day, there are going to be more offers on that site. we have already seen two and a half million views on this site with people just clearly looking for guidance and support on how to take their businesses online. then on the other side, we -- i'm sorry. we created an ad, put it on youtube and it's had over 11 and a half million views in the last couple weeks and it's adding a million views a day. it tells people to go to the site, filter search, find the offer that makes sense for you. liz: well, i will tell you, aman, it's not just publicly major traded names but tiny digital businesses that really create the backbone of this nation. how many customers are you hearing from, how are they keeping their small businesses afloat during this time, and you know, godaddy has its finger on the pulse, do you not, of all that's happening with micro businesses?

>> that's absolutely our customers segment, liz. we are here to support micro businesses, defined as businesses that have five employees or less. let me tell you about human creativity. i'm a big believer in human creativity and in the best of times and the worst of times, it shows up. and a couple examples. we have someone in seattle who runs an art studio. no one is walking into that studio today. what does she do? starts a you tube channel, then creates an online presence. she's even concerned about the fact that her patrons don't have that much disposable income right now so all the art she's selling online is $100 or less. we have got a chef in nashville and he created a simple website. we know restaurants have become drive-throughs but he's asking you for what's in your fridge right now, then giving you a personal lesson on how to cook something with it. this is creativity. liz: wow.

i love it. >> yeah. small businesses in all sectors, opening their doors, opening up deliveries, opening up downlo dl downloadable and doing it with tools online. pivoting online, that's what we need. liz: amen. amen. thanks for all you and that team are doing, and the stock is up today for godaddy. aman, good to see you. by the way, through you guys, i got my own domain, lizclaman.com. not much on it but it goes right to fox business. we are thrilled to have you. thank you so much. good luck. >> thank you. liz: closing bell ringing in 18 minutes. we do have a rally on our hands, folks. this really feels good on a day like this. we kind of needed to see the dow up 553 points and that's what you've got. nasdaq, s&p all moving higher. in the meantime, streaming giants roku and netflix racking up big wins, too. roku racing ahead after beating first quarter sales estimates fueled by spiking stay-at-home demand.

and look at netflix, up 4.5% there. hitting fresh 52-week highs after bank of america securities raised its price target on the original "tiger king" of content to $460. we're at $414 right now for netflix. roku seeing a gain of 10.33% to $106. one of the biggest names in live sports, not wanting to be left out of today's rally. the essential move that has wwe shares laying a smackdown on covid-19 fears heading into the close. "the claman countdown" is coming right back. america's oldest lighthouse has weathered many storms. seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. together, we'll weather this storm.

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liz: the 2020 presidential race cranking up today after president obama officially endorsed his former vice president, joe biden, in the race for the white house against president trump. charlie gasparino joins us now with more details on who else may join biden's 2020 ticket. hi, charlie. charlie: i think this is a long shot but there's clearly a movement out there and you know, it's been rumbled about i think for months now, ever since new york governor andrew cuomo assumed a higher stature based on his handling of the coronavirus in new york. he's gaining a lot of points out there for that, for that leadership, and now there's an official draft cuomo movement out there to try to persuade joe biden to appoint him as his vp. again, i think it's long odds but from what i understand, two -- a bunch of -- there are several democratic governors who are close to cuomo who are

pushing this. the two at the forefront, what democratic party sources are telling me, is connecticut governor ned lamont and tom wolf, the governor of pennsylvania. those are the two that are at the forefront of this trying to push cuomo as the vp for biden. again, this is a long shot. biden has publicly stated he wants a woman, as we reported i think on "the claman countdown" just last week that amy klobuchar appears to be at the top of that list. she's the senator from minnesota and kamala harris, the senator from california, also on that list and on the top but there is a draft cuomo movement. one of the reasons why there is is that joe biden does come to this election with some liability. he's older, some people think he lost a step or two, and andrew cuomo is a pretty formidable force whose stature is just growing immensely amid his handling of the coronavirus and he's a tough guy, and people

think he could be tough against donald trump, and the polling, at least for now, appears that that team fares very well against trump/pence. now, it's long odds at least according to people close to biden. he's already said he wants a woman in there. klobuchar is a midwestern woman, she does appeal to the midwest, which is where hillary clinton lost in 2016. remember, three states, wisconsin, pennsylvania and of course, michigan went to donald trump. those states you know, are key to the democrats winning this election and a midwestern woman may push that to the democratic side this time around. also, it's really unclear how andrew cuomo fares in the midwest, with midwestern voters. he's a real new yorker. the other thing that's unclear is how much does andrew cuomo want it. i mean, listen, his dad, who i know and admired, i covered him early in my career, mario cuomo,

the governor of new york, was named -- was dubbed hamlet on the hudson because he was fickle about whether he wanted to run for president in the late '80s and early '90s when he was a national figure in his own right. andrew is displaying some of that as well. he's saying publicly he doesn't want it, it's obviously very difficult to leave being the governor of new york in the middle of a pandemic to run for president. that's another factor. but people who know him ultimately say he wants to be president and look at the numbers this way. he's 63. if he passes it up this time, when can he run next? maybe after four years of biden, and biden bows out, he can challenge his vice president. that's all kind of messy. so there's a lot of pros and cons here. again, the people close to biden tell me it's a long shot. he's almost locked into this selecting a woman but there is pressure on from democrats who

say look at the polling and look at andrew cuomo's stature. back to you. liz: thank you very much. perfect timing here. we are waiting on the tape from president trump. we just got one minute away. the wwe getting a main event win in florida. orlando county mayor demings convincing top brass the sports entertainment company is an essential business in the sunshine state. vince mcmahon's empire able to air its three weekly shows live instead of taping them in event. live tv contracts accounting for about $470 million in annual revenue. the can sto stock is up 2%. president trump has just met with hospital ceos in the cabinet room as the dow jones, 562 points. all right. let's go to the white house and listen in to the tape we have just gotten. >> many of our nation's top hospital ceos, it's an honor to

have you. friends of mine for a long time, in many cases. we are glad to be joined by vice president pence, who is in the other room, he will be coming in in a little while. seema verma, who you deal with all the time, administrator. jared kushner, ceo of the u.s. international development finance corporation. adam bolan, rear admiral john bilufschek and pat werk, appreciate everybody for being here. we will have a big discussion today having to do with costs and hospitals and obviously, how it relates to the hidden enemy. look forward to discussing our new partnership to establish the dynamic ventilator reserve. as you know, hospitals throughout the country currently have more than 60,000 unused ventilators. probably never had so many, have you? what do you think? are you building up or are you going down? are you going in the right direction? >> slowly. >> slowly but we're building thousands of them right now.

we're grateful that through this initiative, your hospitals are committing to lend unused surplus ventilators to other hospitals that have an immediate need and you have been doing that. we appreciate it. fema and hhs will support this initiative by guaranteeing that in the unlikely event a lending hospital needs or if there is a big lending need, more ventilators, we will make sure that we have them. we will make sure that you get them and we are a great backup for you. we are building literally thousands of ventilators right now. as you know, they are starting to come in. other countries have also been asking us for ventilators. i don't know if you have been having that situation, but we are being asked by other -- i just got off the phone with the president of france and we are being asked about ventilators from everybody, everybody. when the virus struck our nation, governors raised fears that people who needed ventilators would not get the ventilators.

my administration has used the defense production act and it's really had a big impact on companies and companies wanting to get them done and get them done quickly. we are preparing ventilator capacity for any and all scenarios. initiatives like the dynamic ventilator reserve will help us to achieve that goal. we need ventilators but now we're pretty well stocked. we really needed them, we took over a country which was, i have been saying to a lot of people, they don't like to write it but the cupboards were bare in many ways, including ventilators. in addition, under the defense production act, the united states will produce or acquire more than 32,000 ventilators by the end of may and listen to this one, 150,000 ventilateors by the end of the year. so we will have more ventilators by the end of the year that we ever even thought possible. and we will be helping out some of the states but we'll be helping out other countries, too, which i think we have on

we're getting tremendous calls from italy, france, spain and a lot of other countries beyond that by the end of the week hhs will finish distributing the first $30 billion in direct payments to more than 300,000 hospitals and health care providers. if you don't need it, please let me know, we won't make the check available. i think you people have been having a hard time from what i'm understanding, you're having a hard time and i understand that very well. all facilities that accept medicare payments are receiving funding based on the amount of medicare fee-for-service payments that you received in 2019, if that makes sense. is that what you're looking at, right? soon hhs will distribute additional fund from the remaining $70 billion provided in the cares act, a big deal to get that passed, a significant amount of this money will go to the hospitals and hot spots while abortion of it will reimburse hospitals for the cost of treating uninsured patients

and for the coronavirus. so i think that is pretty much what we've been talking about and what you're looking at. so now i think we'll do, i would like to maybe in front of the media, go around the table quickly, just introduce yourself and your association, your hospital or whatever it is, whoever you are representing and say a couple of words if you would like, please. we'll start with you, sam. >> thank you, mr. president, ceo of hca health care. we have 185 hospitals across the country and we're proud to be a partner with the federal government. we think that is the only way fundamental to solve this crisis. we're proud to be a part of it. >> thank you very much, i appreciate, sir. please. >> i'm chief community health officer foreigner mountain in utah. we're test about 65% of those getting tested in our communities right now and the

surge is fairly small in our community. and we believe that this is going to be a long-term -- >> a problem relative to other place. >> relative to other places and not yet and we know this will be a dynamic situation. so we appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the federal government and with our colleagues, hospitals across the country because we think flexibility is being really important. >> what testing are you using? >> we're using a few different tests. we have some biotest. >> abbott tests too? how do you find the abbott tests quick? >> yes. >> are you finding the antibody tests, are you using that too? >> we're just exploring antibody tests right now. we want to be careful how we deploy that because we don't have many exposed to the disease in our communities it might not be tile yet for antibody testing. >> that's good. how many cases would you say you have in your community?

>> 2400 in the state of utah. >> relatively small. >> relatively small and gives us concern what can happen if we relax but we are being diligent. >> great job. you have done a great job. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> please. >> david dill, president and ceo of lifepoint health. we own and operate 88 hospitals right out through 29 states in smaller communities which i know are communities very important to you. we applaud the efforts of your administration on does persing persing -- dispursing $30 billion of funds quickly. we ask to continue deploying the remaining $70 billion. rural hospitals are important in this country and treating uninsured and medicaid population. thank you for what you've done. we have not seen a significant surge at this point although our caregivers have done a fantastic job preparing. >> what area do you cover? >> all over the country.

29 different states. think about the mid definitely country. we don't have any hospitals on the west coast in california or in the northeast but virtually every state in between. >> a lot of places that don't have the big hot spots, right? >> we have only couple hundred covid patients in our hospital. >> wow! >> our biggest risk i believe are us nursing homes. so protecting nursing homes, making sure nursing homes are and we're very careful. >> great job. joe? >> joe, president and ceo of ascension. i represent 165,000 associates in communities across the country. we have 150 hospitals in 20 states. we're proud to be part of this partnership. appreciate your leadership, mr. president. i would like to thank you and vice president pence for everything you're doing. >> appreciate it very much thank you. good job you do too. please? >> president of the american