transfer it. but there is no medicine that you get for the coronavirus, right? it is just like the flu. the body has to develop its own immunity to that virus. we have been doing this testing to slow the spread. don't go into a nursing home. don't go into a senior care facility. don't expose a person who is immune-compromised, is recovering from cancer, who has emphysema, less respiratory illness. that's all this is. we are going to go to work. thank you very much. >> harris: sorry. yep. okay, that was the governor of new york. cuomo, wrapping up there. 200 couple of things that were very meaningful, as he was speaking. we are a little bumpy off the top here but we are going to get going.

the newer governor saying that -- >> kennedy: we've got it! >> harris: he and the president have worked out whatever wrinkles that may have been there, and that they are working together. in fact, it's not just new york, new jersey, connecticut now. pennsylvania has folded in as a fourth state which the governor of new york is now working with in concert. because he has clearly set over the last few days that whatever we do here in this huge, massive population across a few states needs to be as coordinated as possible. especially when it comes to things like medical care services and kind of rolling lockdowns and that sort of thing. communication is really going to be key. so he made that point. the only thing he wants people to be able to prepare for here in new york, and particularly in a city where you have so many large employers, is that businesses beginning -- they were talking about a timeline for this, but pretty expeditiously will not be open with any more than 50% of their

workforce. so 50% at least working from home at this point will be the restriction. a lot of information there. simultaneously, with that, we are awaiting the white house coronavirus task force press briefing where we expect the president to speak very soon. the president saying today that the united states and canada have agreed to temporarily suspend nonessential travel between the two countries. this, as coronavirus cases -- you heard the governor say they are in new york, but worldwide -- have exploded. there are now more than 201,000 confirmed cases with more than 8,000 deaths. some of that expected with the expanse and testing all around the globe. so that is part of what we are watching. here in the united states, nearly 6500 cases confirmed, and now more than 110 deaths. with cases now in all 50 states and the district of columbia. again, some of that burst coming from the fact that we are

learning more through the testing. that will continue to happen, according to the governor of new york and anthony fauci with the nih. dr. fauci. and so many other experts who over it.ng us that. you're watching "outnumbered." i'm harris faulkner. here today, melissa francis. board certified physician fox news contributor, dr. nicole saphier. fox news contributor, jessica tarlov. host of "bull & bears" on the fox business network, david asman. and he, as we like to say, is "outnumbered." >> david: [laughs] in the boxes. >> harris: it's much information. david, i want to start with you. one thing we haven't talked about is what it's going to be like for those businesses as we see more and more of this across the country, more people working from home. there's a lot of support digitally now, and it should be relatively smooth. what are you learning? >> david: first of all, 60% of american businesses are small businesses. there are the ones that sort of

operate from week to week. if they have employees, those employees, they can't pay those employees much longer. maybe for one or two or three weeks, a month at the most. if this shutdown of economic activity continues for more than a month, they are going to be in desperate straits. that's why we have the stimulus package being planned out of the by congress but the white house. it looks like they're putting political differences aside right now and really focusing on agreeing, to help he can help. with 60% of american businesses right on the edge right now, that's a very tough place for america to be. yes, we are able to do some telecommuting for home, to connect everybody. but not every business can do that, particularly the ones in service industries. and we remember that several years ago the u.s. became more of a service industry economy, that is people to people contact, close contact in

restaurants and bars, et cetera. >> harris: interesting point. >> david: than we used to be. we are really obliterating economic activity, or a lot of it, with these shutdowns. they are going to need help, those businesses, what it's over. >> harris: dr. saphier, i want to bring it. some of the headlines today, as i was trying to just point to the facts of all the testing that has ramped up, we will see some numbers pop. but there was no denying that when you get north of 200,000 people globally it is something to pay attention to, and here at home, 6500 confirmed cases. what are you telling people? >> dr. saphier: that's right, harris. the thing is, we've been saying this all along. as we see more testing come out we will see those numbers increase. so we did expect this. by no stretch of the imagination, this is a global pandemic and people need to take extremely seriously. in the marinade states, about a third of the cases are in new york city or the state of new york. it's a denser population area,

service industry, we are very social animals. this is why we have seen an uptick and cases composer increase in testing. >> harris: doctor, i'm going to cut inferences as i can. dr. saphier, i need to prosper mode to let our broadcast stations join us. we are going to cook along here because we have two. fox news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. the white house coronavirus task force is set to give an update now. we see them lining up on the dais from the white house. they've been doing this regularly, round about this time. we get a lot of questions answered. of course, they normally will open this up after a couple of comments at the top. answers from the media there. we have brought you this morning the new york state governor cuomo, andrew cuomo, talking about what he's going to be doing in the most populated areas here on the east coast. so we've had a lot of communication there, but maybe a key point was the partnership

that he says he has with president trump. we fully expect, as he does each day, for president trump to begin. let's watch together. >> president trump: i would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the chinese virus. i will be invoking the defense production act, just in case we needed. in other words, i think you will know what it is. it can do a lot of good things if we need it, and we will. we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while right after i'm finished with this conference. i'll be sending it. it's prepared to go. so we will be invoking the defense production act. last week i signed an emergency declaration under the stafford act, which as you know we invoked previously. and which activated fema's national response coordination center.

fema now is fully engaged at the highest levels. today, fema has activated in every region. we are at level 1, 1 being the highest level which we will work with. we've been working with fema. i've done a lot of work with fema, they're incredible. it's always been on hurricanes or tornadoes. they are right now in tennessee, a large group working in tennessee. they've been incredible. it was a tragic event. alabama last year, also a tornado. and then, obviously, the numerous hurricanes in different locations that were in some cases very devastating. and in every case, fema came through. this is a very different type of work for fema, but they will come through as they always do. we have tremendous people, tremendous talent in fema. we are sending, upon request, the two hospital ships are being

prepared right now. there are massive ships. the big white ships with the red cross on the sides. one is called the mercy and the other is called the comfort. they are in tip-top shape, they soon will be. they are getting ready to come up to new york. i spoke with governor cuomo about it, he's excited about it. we haven't made the final determination as to where it's going to go on the west coast. the comfort is located now in san diego, and it will be picking a destination very shortly. those two ships are being prepared to go, and they can be launched over the next week or so depending on need. earlier this week, the first clinical trial of the vaccine candidate for the virus began in washington state, as you probably know. the genetic sequence of the virus was first published in january, but thanks to the

unprecedented partnership between the fda, nih, and the private sector, we have reached human trials for the vaccine just eight weeks later. that's a record by many, many months. it used to take years to do this and now we've done it just in the very short while. that is the fastest development in history of what we are doing with regard to the vaccine, we are making very, very big progress. today i can announce further steps to expand testing capacity. we are working with several groups to determine if the self-swab, the much easier process than the current process that is not very nice to do. i can tell you, because i did it. we have a current process that is a little bit difficult. if you have it done -- the groups are working on determining if a self swab by an individual is as effective as the others.

the other is very effective, very accurate. but we are going to see if we can do a self-swab, which would be a lot more popular, i can tell you that. and that would be administered also by a health official, but it would be a lot easier to do. the fact is that the health professionals -- it would free up a lot, let me just say. the self-swab is what it is, you do it yourself. the other has to be issued by a health professional, and it is something that is quite difficult. and we think it is working out for the self-swab. if it would test positive, the people would go and they would do what they have to do. but we think that's probably working out. i've asked the fda to cut through the red tape and reduce regulatory barriers. we are looking at some very exciting things, and i'm going to be holding a second news conference either today -- we

are going to be talking about the fda, some things that are happening that are quite exciting. we are going to be doing that either later today or tomorrow, fairly early tomorrow. so we'll see what happens. but the fda, my instructions -- i've been working very hard on a number of developments, and we'll be discussing them with you later today or tomorrow. this afternoon i will be meeting with nurses on the front lines of the battle against the virus. they are truly american heroes. they want to get it done, they are incredible people. so we are going to be meeting with nurses. actually look forward to that, they are very brave. they are taking a lot of risk and they have done an incredible job. and they never complain. today i am also announcing that the deponent of housing and urban development is providing immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of april. so we are working very closely

with dr. ben carson and everybody from hud. every generation of americans has been called to make shared sacrifices for the good of the nation. in world war ii, young people in their teenage years volunteered to fight. they wanted to fight so badly, because they love our country. workers refused to go home and slept on factory floors to keep assembly lines running. the numbers of ships they built during world war ii, to this day, has never -- nothing like that has ever been equaled. they were doing ships would really on a daily basis. nobody's ever seen anything like it. to this day, nobody has ever seen like it, what they were able to do during world war ii. now it's our time. we must sacrifice together, because we are all in this together, and we will come through together. it's the invisible enemy. that's always the toughest enemy, the invisible enemy. but we are going to defeat the invisible enemy. i think we are going to do it

even faster than we thought, and it'll be a complete victory. it'll be a total victory. so we'll have a second conference again, having to do with the fda. i think it's going to be potentially very exciting news conference. we will do it as quickly as we can, whether it's today or tomorrow. with that, i will ask mike pence to say a few words. thank you very much. >> vice president pence: think you, mr. president. the white house coronavirus task force but this morning, and now that we have cases in all 50 states, we are continuing to move out on the president's call to bring the full resources of the federal government, the full partnership with every state and territory, the full power of the american economy, to support businesses and families. as the president says, to us and every day, we will do what it takes. we are all in this together. yesterday, the president met

with the tourism industry executives, and also had an engaging discussion with all the top companies in our industrial and medical supply chain. the president, as you all are aware, also announced today that, by mutual consent of the northern border to canada will be closed to nonessential travel. this does not include essential travel or the transit of goods. but it was through mutual discussion that took place this morning between the president and prime minister trudeau and the deferment of homeland security will be effectuating the decision. the president spoke with some of the nation's top business leaders today, again, to speak about the supply chain in the country. for our part, we are going to be conducting a conference call later today with state and local officials to renew our ongoing commitment of cooperation and collaboration. as the president said last , last weekand signing the sevee

stepped up the coronation center. today, at the president's direction, fema has gone to level 1. fema's mission is to support disasters that are locally executed, state manage, and federally supported. tomorrow the president will be hosting all the nation's governors from a videoconference at fema to ensure that they have a full connection to all of the activated regions were fema going forward. with regard to testing, i am pleased to report that we are increasing the number of tests being performed by the thousands every day, thanks to the public-private partnership that president trump forged with commercial laboratories around the country. our health experts tell us to remind every american, it's important to remember, people without symptoms should not get tested. we want to make sure of the supply testing is there for those that need it most or are

symptomatic or in the vulnerable population. dr. deborah birx in a moment will address the progress we are making on testing. the infection rate, our recommendations to every american, as well as some important new findings about the impact on youth that we are gaining from data that is coming in from europe. it will be important to every american. on the subject of supplies, the president has our task force extremely focused, as the president mentioned, that he is invoking the defense production act today. secretary esper in a few moments will describe the ongoing efforts that the department of defense is taking to make medical resources available. secretary robert wilkie will announce decisions the va has made to expand hospital capacity within their system. also with regard to medical personnel, at the president's direction, hhs is issuing a regulation today that will allow all doctors and medical

professionals to practice across state lines, to meet the needs of hospitals that may arise in adjoining areas. in addition to that, we are again today asking every american and our medical community leaders and hospitals to partner with us in delaying elective procedures across the country in our health care system to ensure that medical supplies and medical capacity go where they are needed most. seema verma will describe guidance that cms will be issuing on that front. finally, i just want to remind every american of the president's 15-day guidance to slow the spread. we are grateful for members of the media and the general public that are adhering to these, sharing them with neighbors and friends. all of our experts continue to believe that if every american will do their part and embrace and put into practice these principles that we can significantly limit the reach of

the coronavirus in the weeks and months ahead. thank you, mr. president. >> president trump: thank you very much. dr. birx? >> think you , mr. president, mr. vice president. we continue to look at data every single day. there are concerning reports coming out of france and italy about some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the icus. we think part of this might be that people he'ded the early data coming out of china and coming out of south korea, that the elderly are those with pre-existing medical conditions were at particular risk. it may have been that the millennial generation, our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, there may be disproportional numbers of infections among that group. so even if it's a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequently in that group. and be evident now.

so we are looking at that information very clearly. we have not seen any significant mortality and the children, but we are concerned about the early reports coming out of italy and france. again, i'm going to call on that generation that is part of that group that brought us innovation, particularly throughout all of their ability to look around corners and skip through games -- i always went little by little. i didn't realize you could go from level three to level seven. that's what they taught us. they look for things that we don't see. we need them to be healthy. not only calling on you to heed what is in this guidance, but to really ensure that each and every one of you are protecting each other. we can't have these large gatherings that contently to occur throughout the country for people who are off work, to then be socializing in large groups and spreading the virus. you have the potential to spread it to someone who does have a

condition that none of us knew about and cause them to have a does asterisk outcome finally, on the testing piece and what we are learning, i know you know last week in bringing the private sector, what has been exciting to me over the last two and a half weeks is to see this administration harness the full capacity of the private sector. understanding that a lot of our solutions that we need to confront this virus rely on the private sector. bring in the private sector commercial labs was critical to this process. we are now beginning to see that they have spread out in a prioritized way, because we asked them to prioritize the regions that were mostly affected. so you still may have difficulty getting tests in areas that do not have significant cases. we've had them prioritize the regions where we need diagnoses, and the diagnostic percent -- remember, i told you south korea was under 4%? 296% of people were negative? the last report we've seen for

the last laboratories had about 7% plus positivity rate. still, 92% or negative. but i think that is encouraging to me personally that we are privatizing up her beauty to those areas that have the greatest need. today and yesterday, thermo fisher push out most of their laboratory testing capacity. that will grace the ability to run additional tests in addition to roche. i appreciate everybody's attention to these numbers. i'm excited that we prioritized where the need was the greatest, but again, please follow the guidance and please make sure and every report that you're putting out that you are talking about the presidential guidance to actually stop the spread of this virus. thank you. >> president trump: thank you, deborah, very much. >> good afternoon, everyone. i want to provide an update on

dod's coronavirus efforts, as we continue to focus on our three priorities. first of all, protecting our personnel and their families, second, safeguarding our national security mission capabilities, and third, supporting the administrations whole of government approach. first, i want to assure that the united states military remains ready and capable of defending the country and our interests abroad. with the outcome of the deferment is leaned forward and a response to covid-19. we've issued international and domestic travel restrictions to all dod personnel and families. that should dramatically reduce potential exposure to the virus. those have been in place for some time now. as i announced yesterday, the deferment of defense will make available up to 5 million respirator masks and other personal protective equipment from our own strategic reserves to the deferment of health and human services for distribution. the first 1 million masks will be available immediately. we are also prepared to distribute to hhs up to 2,000

operational deployable ventilators for use as needed. yesterday i was at fort dietrich maryland, which is probably the military's premier research institute, where i got updated on the incredible work our people are doing as part of the interagency team to work on vaccines and therapeutics. they are making great progress there. we also have announced that we have certified our 16th lab, or we will soon certify our 16th lab, to help with processing tests from across the country. additionally i have directed, as the president mention, that the hospital ship's mercy and comfort be prepared to deploy to increase the nation's medical capacity. we have also alerted a variety of fields and expeditionary hospitals to be prepared to deploy as well, as needed, based on direction from the commander in chief. today, leadership from the army corps of engineers is new york with governor cuomo and his team. i spoke with governor cuomo yesterday, and other governors. i will speak with more in the coming days, to make sure they know what dod can provide for our system to address their

needs. my conversation with governors and members of congress about dod's resources made it clear we will continue to support the administration's competence of efforts every step of the way while ensuring our nation security remains the top priority. i want to conclude by thanking again all our service members and their families who have been affected by this outbreak. they are all great heroes. we are continuing to support them throughout this period we are all in this together. thank you all very much. >> yesterday the president made a very important announcement about telehealth. this is allowing our 62 million seniors to be able to get medical services from the safety of their home, reducing their risk, and without any co-pays. we are also making sure the health care system is prepared, and with those on the front line have the support they need. the reality is, the stakes are high, and we need to preserve

personal protective equipment for those who are on the front lines of this fight. to that end, we put out guidelines of a last two weeks to expand the types of masks that can be used in routine care and saving those n95s for the most risky situations. considering personal protective equipment is also essential to combat the virus. today cms will announce detailed regulations to further promote this needed conservation. specifically by limiting nonessential elective medical and surgical procedures, including dental procedures. we believe that these recommendations will help surgeons, patients, and hospitals prioritize what is essential, while leaving the ultimate decision and the heads of state and local health officials and those clinicians who have direct responsibility to their patients. and we urge providers and clinicians and patients to seriously consider these recommendations. they will not only preserve equipment, but it also allows doctors and nurses to help those that are on the front lines.

and it'll protect patients from unnecessary exposure to the virus. we fully appreciate that this is going to have a major impact on the health care system, but the shared sacrifice is essential to help those that are on the front lines. i want to thank the medical societies such as the american college of surgeons and the american dental association took a proactive approach and i've already posted these recommendations. we've also talked to "the american medical association," and they have fully indicated their support for this recommendation. we know invite the entire health care community to join us in this effort. thank you. >> president trump: thank you very much. robert, please. >> thank you, mr. president. my instructions from the president were very clear. i was to do everything imaginable, as aggressively as possible, to protect the 9.5 million veterans who are part of the deferment of veterans affairs. last month we established 19 emergency operations centers

across the country. we began to limit the number of visitors who entered our facilities. we began -- i think we were the first system to begin triaging across the country, in our 170 hospitals, the interest of anyone into our facility withoug questioned or tested. we expanded those restrictions to those in our 135 community living centers, which have about 7807800 veterans who are in an acute condition, to make sure they were protected. we also took the next step and made sure that we limited the dental surgeries that we provide. we've cut back by one-third the number of routine appointments we have had. and we have canceled elective surgeries. these were all part of the president's directive to be as aggressive in a public health sense as we could be. i think we have set the pace for

the entire country. i will say, we have often said that we work the most noble mission in the federal government. our veterans have been in the toughest spots in the world. they've been put in conditions that are unimaginable to most americans, and they have responded. they responded clearly, they have responded with passion, and also the 400,000 numbers of our department who are out there on the front lines. you've heard a lot about the fourth mission that va has. our first three missions are health care, benefits, and memorial affairs. our fourth mission is to support the federal government in times of natural disasters and pandemics. we are buttress force encased fema or hhs calls upon us to deploy medical professionals across the country to meet crises. we plan for that every day. we are gaining out emergency preparedness scenarios, and we

stand ready when the president needs us to expand our mission. thank you. >> president trump: thank you very much, robert. thank you. thank you all, that's very nice. any questions, please? >> reporter: two questions, if i may. your treasury secretary was on capitol hill talking about the potential for what could, and he said that unemployment could skyrocket to 20%. that could rival the great depression. are we looking at potentially -- >> president trump: i don't agree with that. no, i don't agree. that's an absolute, total worst-case scenario. no, we don't look at that at all. we are nowhere near it. >> reporter: okay. why do you keep calling this "the chinese virus?" there are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against chinese americans in this country. your own secretary azar said he does not use this term. he said ethnicity does not cause the virus. why do you keep using this? a lot of people think it's racist. >> president trump: because it comes from china. it's not racist at all.

it comes from china, that's why. it comes from china. i want to be accurate. john? please. reporter mike are you comfortable -- >> president trump: i have a great love for all the people from our country, but as you know, china tried to say at one point that -- maybe they've stopped now, that it was caused by american soldiers. that can't happen. it's not going to happen. not as long as i'm president. it comes from china. john? please. >> reporter: two questions if i could, mr. president. the act you are invoking today, senator schumer set on the floor of a short time ago that it urgently needs to put down might be put into action to produce medical supplies, particularly the ventilators. do you have some targets you would like to see immediately spooled up? >> president trump: we have tremendous numbers of ventilators but there's never been an interest like this, where no matter what you have there's not enough. that would be the case. it is being signed. it's essentially done and we'll

sign in a little while. if we need to use that, we will use it at full speed ahead. >> reporter: you said it's urgently needed. do you have some targets? >> president trump: we don't know whether they are urgent, but we have targets. for certain pieces of equipment. we have targets for masks, the numbers of masks are incredible. we've ordered millions of them. but we need millions more. a thing like this has never been requested, and we've never had to even think in terms of these numbers. but we need millions of masks and all that will be -- we need respirators, we need ventilators, that's a big thing. because it's a complex piece of equipment. so we have a lot of ventilators, but we are going to be ordering more. >> reporter: second question, what size will the checks beat that will be sent out? >> president trump: to be determined. we are working with the senate right now, we are working with everybody on capitol hill. there's been tremendous -- there really has been trade with some exceptions, obviously, because that's always the way it is. but they've been getting along very well, republicans and

democrats. it's a nice thing, very bipartisan. >> reporter: would you like to be more than a thousand dollars? >> president trump: we will see. i don't want to get into that right now, john. we are looking at different numbers, we are looking at timing that would be different. splitting the time, splitting the payments. we are looking at a lot of different things. it hasn't been determined yet but it will surely be determined. people want to go big. everybody seems to want to go big. they want to get to the recovery, the big day -- the big thing we can do is get rid of this horrible -- i call it the "unseen enemy." there's a thousand different terms for it. it snuck up on us, and it did 128 countries, i think. something like that, very close to that. think of that. so it spreads violently. it's a very contagious, very, very contagious virus. >> reporter: do you consider america to be a wartime footing in terms of fighting this virus? >> president trump: i do, i'm looking at it that way. if it got unde out of control, d

a big stoppage of people coming in. it could be very heavily infected. that was a good move and it was very early, very, very early. most people including a lot of professionals didn't want us to do it. that really saved a lot of lives. yeah, i view it as, in a sense, a wartime president. that's what we are fighting. it's a very tough situation. you have to do things, you have to close parts of an economy that six weeks ago where the best they've ever been. we had the best economy we've ever had, and then one day you have to close it down in order to defeat this enemy. but we are doing it, and we are doing it well. i'i tell you, the american peope have been incredible. for the most part they been really credible. report back i have a question for you and one for secretary wilkie. i'll start with you. he said there's a tremendous amount of ventilators you have. for weeks, hospitals have warned about a critical shortage they say we are not prepared for. so i did it take so long to

invoke the defense production act? >> president trump: hospitals -- when we have thousands of ventilators, it sounds like a lot. but this is a very unforeseen thing. nobody ever thought of these numbers. nobody ever saw numbers like this, even with regard to testing. normally we wouldn't be testing, and they decided to do it. very, very hard to ramp up. now we are getting highly sophisticated tests and it's going very well. but nobody's ever heard of testing and the kind of quantities you're talking about. >> reporter: but we knew for weeks we needed more ventilators. so i did it take this long? >> president trump: we knew, depends how it goes. worst case, absolutely. best case, not at all. so we will have to see where it goes. but we are ordering thousands and thousands of ventilators. and they are complex. these are complex machines, but we are ordering them. does anybody have -- mike, maybe you do. how many do we have? please. do you know the number? >> we have a specific number of ventilators in the stockpile,

it's an excess of 10,000. you just heard the announcement from the apartment of defense, they will be adding several more thousands of that. even this morning, and yesterday afternoon, speaking with the largest companies in the supply chain in this country. we are hearing a tremendous spirit among industry leaders who are ready to step in and add to that volume. the stockpiles don't count all of the ventilators that exist today in the marketplace and in health care facilities around the country. but the president has given us a directive to make sure our stockpile -- just as important lee, working with industry leaders, that we are securing the increase in ventilators, the increase in masks, gloves, by protective care, garments, that are all necessary to lean forward. we are comfortable do not confident we will be able to encompass that with the incredible support of the supply chain that exists in america today. >> reporter: do you know

nationwide how many ventilators we have? >> president trump: we will give it to you. but we are ordering a lot more. go ahead come in the back. >> reporter: i have one question for -- >> president trump: once again, we'll do it in a second. >> reporter: two questions, mr. president. the first one, on the canadian border, what was that important? on friday you said no one knew -- >> president trump: i said not yet. i spoke with the prime minister trudeau, very good relationship, obviously, between us and our two countries. no tipping point. it's just that we want to isolate from the standpoint that we don't want people coming into contact. that's the way we are going to win this war. that's so important. people thought it was something else. it's not affecting trade, its nonessential crossings. it won't affect trade at all. it was just something we thought would be good for both countries. yes, please. report a mexican question, mr. president. how do you make sure that trade --

how can you be sure that trade and everything that's being shift -- >> president trump: they are doing it in a very careful manner. you can only be vigilant and very professional, but we are not -- it's not pertaining at this moment to trade between the two countries. yeah, please. >> reporter: the trillion dollar economic stimulus package could look something like $50 billion for the airlines, $150 billion in loan guarantees, a $250 payment in april, another payment on the 18th. again, directly to individuals. as well, $300 billion for small business loan guarantees. is that, in a general sense -- >> president trump: it could be. we are also playing with a lot of numbers, a lot of very big numbers at a lot of very small numbers, frankly. we want to take care, we want to help everybody. it was nobody's fault this have been paid some people could say it was somebody's fault, actually. it was nobody's fault, and

certainly none of these companies that all of a sudden had no passengers in planes and had no passengers on cruise ships, all of the things that have happened, but i will say that they can't be blamed for this. we want to keep those companies vibrant, because there's going to be a come back very, very quickly. as soon as this is solved. and it will be solved. we will win, and they will be a come back. it'll take place very quickly. >> reporter: $250 billion, when there's give or take 300 million americans are so. just do the math on that, that's about $750 a person. a family of four, that would be about $3,000 on average, rough math. >> president trump: i don't want to say that, it's a moving -- every number that you mentioned, yes, we've talked about those numbers. we are also moving those numbers in both directions. so we'll let you know. it's moving along fast. again, there is a great bipartisan effort going on that i haven't really seen before to this extent.

>> reporter: at the beginning of this you mentioned the fda approved -- >> president trump: no, they are looking down the line and they are looking at it very seriously. i think it would be a great thing. to use a nice word, it's very inconvenient. it's very tough. >> reporter: you tweeted this morning about your approval rating amongst republicans. you said you give yourself a 10 in terms of handling this crisis. how do you reassure americans at home who don't trust you to handle a crisis of this magnitude? >> president trump: well, i think you're doing a really good job. we started with a termination of the border. people coming in from china where this all started, that meant i took a very seriously. when i use the word "calm," that doesn't mean i'm not taking it seriously. we should be calm, we should be extremely calm. 95% within the republican party and over 50%, and i also have -- we have very great approval numbers. people like the job we are

doing. when you compare this to other epidemics or, if you want to use a different term, you can, but within this country. you look at what's happened over the years. this is being handled very, very professionally. where the greatest professionals in the world. we're doing a good job. nobody's ever been swamped like this. nothing has been so contagious, the level of contagion has been incredible, actually. nobody's seen anything quite like this. peter, go ahead. >> reporter: federal officials have shipped millions of tests, as you and your colleagues have said, why are there only 59,000 tests that have been processed to this point? we just heard from the atlanta public health director saying they have fewer than 50 test kits for more than 900,000 citizens. >> president trump: i will let mike answer that. >> that's a very critical question. thank you for answerin asking i. the test kits to put out last

week, the rapid movement of that meeting that president trump called less than two weeks ago, that has resulted in bringing our private sector to the table. the one that was out there can only run between four and 12 tests per platform per day. we have now moved into platforms that can run basically tens of thousands of tests per day. so yeah, the reason i'm grateful for your question, it allows me to point out that of course there was backlog. there were individuals who had been tested who hadn't had their specimen run because of the slow throughput. it's now in the high-speed platform. so we will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increase over the next 4-5 days. i know some of you will use that to raise an alarm that we are worse than italy because of the slope of our curve. to every american out there, it

will be 5-6 days' worth of tests being run in 24-48 hours. so our curves will not be stable until sometime next week. the reason i talked about thermo fisher yesterday is because their platform is in 2,000 laboratories. they are the ones who are putting out the million tests this week. that will solve the issue that atlanta and others have brought up. i wanted to be clear. we prioritize the areas -- we do county by county analyses. based on those analyses on what counties had more than 50 cases, we prioritized the test kits we put out. the 400,000. that's why we are seeing a 7% plus positivity rate. we will be able to expand that platform and reprioritize based on this sense assess ability of the other cats do not kits. >> reporter: how are professional athletes getting

tests while others are waiting in line and can't get them? to the well-connected go to the front of the line? >> president trump: you'd have to ask on that question. i wouldn't say so, but perhaps that has been the story of life. that does happen on occasion. i've noticed where some people have been tested very quickly. we've inherited -- excuse me. we've inherited a very obsolete system. this was a system that was out of date, obsolete, it was a system that was never meant to take care of the kind of quantity. the number of people we are talking about. millions and millions of people. if you go back to years past, even recently, like the flu, nobody had tests before. they didn't test the entire nation to see whether or not they had the flu. they got the flu, they got better. hopefully they got better, that was it. now all now all of a sudden they do this very complex testing. we've done is broken it down, broken up the system. but it was obsolete, and/or you could say it was also a system

that just wasn't meant to handle the kind of volume you're talking about. we revolted into a system that, for the future, will be a very good system if you want to go this route. but this was never done before, and i would imagine it will be done in the future. we built it into a very good system by using private companies, great private companies. i have to say, roche has been doing a very good job. they're doing a lot of work, very good job. this was an obsolete system. this is not a symptom done access to meant to do anything like this or near this. john? >> reporter: a major trade coalition is calling on you to suspend tariffs with other countries as part of the response to the coronavirus. >> president trump: who heads the group? those countries do. [laughs] go check. i'm sure, free trade. china is paying millions and millions of dollars in tariffs, and there's no reason to do that. they haven't even spoken to me about that. china hasn't asked me to do that. but we are getting billions of dollars a year from tariffs from

china, and i can't imagine americans asking for that. but it could be that china will ask for a suspension or something. we'll see what happens. china is having a very rough time. they had their worst year at 76 years, as i understand it. they're having a very, very tough time. on top of that, this happened with the virus. but no, we are taking in billions and billions of dollars a year in tariffs. this was caused by something totally unrelated to tariffs. >> reporter: on asylum-seekers and people who cross the southern border illegally, are you planning to invoke 42 usc 265 which would allow you to prohibit entry of certain people? >> president trump: the answer is yes. >> reporter: when will that happen? >> president trump: very soon, probably today. >> reporter: are there plans to fully shut the mexican border? what do you define as a central travel when it comes to the u.s.-canadian border? >> president trump: i think essential is medical. we have military working

together. we have industry working together. again, it's not affecting trade. things like that. just leisurely, let's go to a restaurant to have dinner, which a lot of people do. they come both ways, they go in both directions. that kind of thing. we have ended on a temporary basis. please, go ahead. no, we're not going to close it. but we are invoking a certain provision that will allow us great latitude as to what we do. please. go ahead. >> reporter: i wanted to clarify something. just a week ago you all were standing here telling us that unless you had sustained contact with somebody who was symptomatic for covid-19, he really didn't need to worry. the president, the vice president, they shook hands with somebody who had this, they took a photograph with somebody had this period that you didn't really need to worry. several days later we are in a situation where people are being told, don't leave your houses. there are curfews saying you cannot walk alone at night after a certain time. can you walk us through what

seems like a very dramatic swing, very dramatic disconnect from what we are hearing before to what we're hearing now? >> two things. we look at data all the time. i know you're looking at the china and south korea data. when you look at china and south korea data and you look at what china and south korea did, you can see that their curves are not only blunted outside of wuhan -- so, chinese areas outside of wuhan, blunted curve, and south korea, blunted curve. if you look at their curves today, they are already on the far end of the epidemic curve. of course, none of those countries are fully back to work. so that's what we worry about. i'm sure you seen these articles published, about surface contamination. i think none of us really understood the level of surface peace. so we are still working out, how much is that by human to human transmission, and how much is that by surface?

this is why those fundamental guidelines were put out that says, "don't expose yourself to surfaces outside the home. those guidelines are, don't expose yourself to an excess number of persons who could be asymptomatic and infected, and the person-to-person contact. and don't expose yourself to surfaces that could have had the virus on it, for which on hard services -- i know we had the cardboard issue about shipping -- hard surfaces not shown in fabric as much or in cardboard,e transmission. these are issues we haven't had to deal with before with the level of respiratory infections. that's why we have this concern. that's why the president put out the guideline. so it's to cover both of those pieces. that's all new science, all new models. i think many of you have the imperial studies available, and looked at the impact of those. that's the first time those have been modeled as a comprehensive approach to mitigating an epidemic. >> reporter: dr. birx,

yesterday -- >> reporter: what about money? >> reporter: mr. president, "the wall street journal" is reporting the administration is looking into executive orders that would expand the use of investigational -- but the fda scientists are warning that this could put patients at risk. >> president trump: i haven't seen the article. we are making a lot of progress therapeutically, i will say that. but i have not seen that artic article. go ahead. >> reporter: mr. president, we've shut down nonessential travel to canada. are you considering shutting down all travel to ground the spread of the virus? referred from industries like the airlines who are seeking relief. what other industries, or -- how exactly is your administration going to determine which industries and businesses get help? >> president trump: there are certain industries people know. airlines would be number one if you look at what's going on. they go from having the best year they've ever had to have them no passengers because of what we've had to do in order to

win this war. it's a war. basically, what many of the industries are. what we want to do is make sure they all stay together so that after the war is win we can go back to her we weren't even beyond. i think we will go beyond where we were paid a lot people say that, by the way. we are poised to do that. but we have to win the war for us. >> reporter: a follow up on that, the treasury proposed $150 billion today for those industries. but the proposal doesn't detail which industries would get that money, and how much. so aside from the airlines, would you just mentioned, what about the cruise industry, the hotels? how much of that money -- >> president trump: we are talking about all of it. we haven't detailed yet. be detailed into senators and members of the house. we have been talking about it and we are coming up with numbers. haven't gotten there yet. the hotel industry, the cruise ship industry, the airlines, those are all prime candidates, absolutely.

>> reporter: on the border, sir -- >> president trump: which border? >> reporter: the northern border. when you say "temporary," which he said in your tweets, does that mean 30 days? >> president trump: hopefully at the end of 30 days will be in great shape. jeff, please. >> reporter: i was struck what dr. birx said about millennials and perhaps others not taking these warnings as seriously as he would like. some of those people also seem to be your supporters and conservatives who may be quoting some of what you said at the beginning of this, comparing it to the flu. what is your message to them, to really follow what you've been saying so far? are you concerned that they are still listening to some of your earlier comments rather than your more recent ones? >> president trump: i think my earlier comments are to be calm. i do want people to be calm, because we are going to win this. it's just a question of time. i want to go quickly. based on the fact i wanted to go quickly. i hope they just listen to what we've been saying over the last period of time. we don't want them gathering.

i see they do gather, including on beaches and in restaurants. young people. they don't realize -- they are feeling invincible. i don't know if you've felt invincible when you were very young. but they were feeling totally invincible, or are feeling that way, but they don't realize they can be carrying lots of bad things home to their grandmother and grandfather and even their parents. so we want them to heed the advice. i think it's getting through. i do believe it's getting through. what? >> reporter: i think there are a lot of them watching. >> president trump: i think i just said it. heed the advice, i just said it. thank you. >> reporter: mr. president -- >> reporter: mr. president, how long -- >> president trump: we will get you next. say it? >> reporter: in talking about china you've been very clear about how you think is to blame or where the origin for this virus is. >> president trump: i don't think, i know where it came from. i don't know if you would say

china is to blame. certainly we didn't get an early run on it. it would have been helpful if we knew about it earlier. but it comes from china. it's not a question, nobody's questioning it. >> reporter: senator cotton is saying they should be punished, in so many words, for inflicting this on the american people. do you feel that way about it? >> president trump: i have a lot of respect for tom cotton and i know exactly what he's been saying. there are those people who say that, so we will see what happens. thank you. go ahead. please. he's been waiting a long time, please preview how your hand up so nicely for a long time, it's your time. >> reporter: thank you, sir. seen the chinese governor kick out journalists. what is your message to them when it comes to transparency in what don't i could moment where you still have reporters asking questions here at the white house? >> president trump: i'm not happy to see it. i have my own disputes with all

three of those media groups. i think you know that very well. i don't like seeing it at all, i'm not happy about that at all. yes, please. >> reporter: i wonder if you agree, do you believe china is inflicting this up on our country? >> president trump: i don't believe they are inflicting, i think they could have given us a lot earlier notice, absolutely. go ahead, please. >> reporter: mr. president, your credibility ratings are very low. there is a recent npr poll -- >> president trump: who are you asking with that question connect because i see they are very high. 95% of the republican party, we just had a poll that was done by a very reputable group where i'm beating sleepy joe biden by a lot in florida, in the state of florida, and another states. i don't know who you're talking about. jennifer, go ahead, please. >> reporter: two questions if you are willing, sir. your conversation with the airline executives, did you

explain to them what's coming chemical was a reaction? >> president trump: i did, they explained to me where they're coming from. they went from full planes packed, the best year they've ever had by far, to boom, one day empty because of what we've had to do t to to win this war. we had a little deaf people haven't seen before. they've been fantastic, they've been great. they went from being extremely happy to being people that are running companies that are. >> reporter: would you be willing to give us an update on how that's going? counties have been having difficulty -- >> president trump: a lot of people are looking at it but we will be increasing funding a lot. they are very well prepared to do what they have to do. the sba's doing a fantastic job. she's doing a really good job, the administrator. >> reporter: a couple questions for dr. birx, if i

could. dr. birx, researchers have had some luck with hydroxychloroquine it is that something that might be in the arsenal of therapeutics in the united states? >> i think we are exploring every one of those issues. the president asked for a critical briefing on that today. he opened with that. it is more than that single drug. there are other drugs that individuals are looking at. just to go back to what we talked about many times, the things that look really good in cell culture in the virus that may look good and small animals and then don't have an impact in humans. those are the pieces we are looking at very carefully. of course there's also anecdotal reports, and we are trying to figure out how many anecdotal reports equal real scientific breakthroughs. >> reporter: second question, are you confident of the seasonality of coronavirus? >> all we can do is look at the past to inform the future.

we know what sars looked like. we also know -- and i just want to put this out, i know you can get it online. look at the curve in china and look at the curve in south korea. those curves were accomplished in still the winter season. so we are trying to understand what those relationships are. we are very interested in the curves in italy, because of their different approach. and we are following every single country's curve. all we can do is look at prior coronavirus and prior respiratory rna viruses. these are rna viruses. when you look at flew in the nova hemisphere, when you look at other viruses, when you look at sars, that's the way the peak normally occurs. but that a november-april. we all started later. so you're asking me to predict based on a later start, and

that's what we are trying to really look at china and south korea to really inform that. >> president trump: caitlin? reported mike a question for secretary wilkie, if you don't mind. how many veterans that have needed to be tested have been tested? >> those that have needed to be tested, we believe we've caught most of them. right now we have 44 veterans who have tested positive. sadly one has passed, in portland. we are working with state labs and private companies to make sure that testing is available. the president had us out aggressively, early, we have been in a better place than most health care systems in the country. dr. birx said, when the next surge will become if it will be. one of the things we do at the va's prepare for a national

emergencies. be it national disasters or epidemics, we prepared for this, we started stockpiling equipment. our equipment is stable, and i think that's in large part because of the instructions the president gave. >> reporter: to have a number of how many have been tested? >> we've tested several hundred. i can't give you the dash we've tested several hundred, yet. i don't know exactly. i do know 44 veterans have the virus. most of those are quarantined at home. >> reporter: i think you, mr. president. question for dr. birx quickly. i'm trying to understand -- it's about the mortality rate. yesterday we underlined the fact that we had reached 100 deaths, and this morning we wake up and we are at 110. within 12 hours, we have climbed by 10%. is this something we have to expect from now