>> sandra: you will keep us up-to-date at 12:00 when we watch you on outnumbered. we will all be watching. >> see you tomorrow everybody. >> sandra: fox news alert. we are expected to hear this morning from the white house task force on the coronavirus. possibly an appearance from president trump himself. an explosion of coronavirus cases. connecticut and pennsylvania reporting their first fatalities. while infections and hard-hit areas like new york city doubled overnight. good morning everyone, i'm sandra smith. >> ed: the number of u.s. cases it growing to over 9,000. at least 150 americans have died. in new york city a virtual ghost town as folks brace for a potential shelter-in-place order. in seattle, a cdc investigation finds workers at a hard-hit nursing home accidentally spread

the virus to other facilities. as the white house pushes congress to pass a trillion dollar stimulus plan to help contain the economic fallout. >> sandra: president trump is teasing a big announcement from the fda this morning. we may learn more about that i coronavirus briefing that's happening two hours from now. we will have that for you live. meanwhile, here is the yesterday. >> president trump: i can announce further steps to expand capacity. we are working with several groups to determine if a self swab -- a much easier process than the current process. it's not very nice to do. i can tell you, because i did it. i've asked the fda to cut through the red tape and reduce regulatory barriers. they are looking at some very exciting things. >> sandra: we have fox team coverage for you this morning. standing by at the white house. they began with jonathan live from atlanta for us. >> today that chinese health

ministry is reporting that the city where this outbreak began and its surrounding province have reported no new cases of local transmission in the past 24 hours. the 34 new cases all involve imported cases. in other words, travelers who became infected and other countries and then brought the virus back to china. chinese health officials say this milestone and strict control measures have been working well. a new cases increase in the u.s. efforts are underway to support hospital workers on the front lines of the coronavirus response. here in metro atlanta, ymca facilities which are close to the general public plan to open friday as day care centers for medical workers. major hotels are starting to close in major cities including orlando, florida, where the hyatt regency announced it would stop taking reservations until may 3rd. nursing home staff members who reported to work while sick contributed to the spread of

covid-19 that long-term care facilities in the seattle area. according to a report from the centers for disease control and prevention. federal health officials say that the facilities lack adequate supplies, personal protective equipment, and sanitizers. staff members working at multiple nursing homes further spread the virus. >> ultimately we want to be able to share what has happened in our facility in a way that helps others prepare for this. i think that cdc report goes a long way down that road. >> another cdc report shows that although elderly patients are the most at risk for death and complications, nearly half of u.s. patients that were admitted to intensive care units were between the ages of 20 and 64, underscoring the need for all of us to protect ourselves from this virus. >> sandra: thank you. >> ed: meanwhile the white house grown a task force

meeting are set to hold us briefing a little later this morning after the president invokes emergency war powers to speed up production of critical medical supplies in the fight against the coronavirus. >> do you consider america to be on a wartime footing? >> president trump: i do. i actually do. i view it -- that's what we are fighting. it is a very tough situation here. you have to do things. he have to close parts of an economy that six weeks ago where the best they have ever been. >> live at the white house with the latest. it sounds like while the president has invoked the powers, democrats are pushing him to actually use those powe powers. >> just a couple of minutes ago, treasury secretary steve mnuchin announced the planned administration is going to push to congress is going to include $1,000 per person, $5,000 per child. this is a direct payment to the american public. no work for him yet on who

exactly is going to be eligible for this payment even before this announcement. describing the last 24 hours as a total complete game changer for president trump. he said essentially the sound bite you played there for the entire nation is on a war footing. you saw him sign the defense production act. that act essentially gives the federal government the authority to compel private sector businesses to wrap up manufacturing and distribution of critical medical supplies. the sentiment here really when it comes to public health, it is now the time to go big or go home. take a listen. >> president trump: i've never even had to think in terms of these numbers. we need millions of masks. we need respirators. we need ventilators. it's a big thing, because is a complex piece of equipment. we will be ordering more. >> this defense production act is going to make it a whole lot easier for the public and

private sectors to work together in the coming weeks and months. take a listen. >> defense production act means the president can take over production. we've had good conversations with 3m to really get them to ramp up their production. the bill passed last night means that 3m and now make 30 million addition masks available to medical professionals across the country. >> that's not all. the federal government is considering an entire suite of measures to enable the federal government to ramp up efforts to take charge. this includes claiming a large stake in large companies they bail out. and coming revenue losses for small businesses. let's take a look at the numbers. there are now 9,415 confirmed cases in the homeland. this places america firmly among the top ten type countries worldwide in terms of cases. this morning prompting nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, a little while ago to put

out a statement saying "president trump needs to not only signed but invoke all of its powers under the defense production act. this morning she said, folks on the front line, doctors, nurses, hospitals that are treating sick americans are really being jeopardized. this money is going to help them get to where they need to be in the coming days. >> ed: we will get back to the white house and a couple of hours for that briefing. thank you. >> sandra: for more on this my last spring and that democratic senator chris coons. i really appreciate your time this morning. thank you for being here. >> thank you, sandra. great to be on here today. >> sandra: would you like to see that presidents use them? >> i've been hearing folks from up and down my home state of delaware. our governor's office -- our governor directly as well as physicians and frontline health care workers saying we are facing as many other states a critical shortage of personal

protective equipment of masks and ventilators and other resources. test kits in particular. i hope that the president will work with us in congress will provide the financial support in the appropriations that he will provide the authority. we will quickly ramp up u.s.-based production on some of these critical issues. i'm on the small business committee. two weeks ago, chairman rubio held a hearing of how our supply chain for both medical equipment and pharmaceutical components is critically reliance on china. earlier in your broadcast you are showing how the province of china where this came from or the city is now showing no new infections. that is encouraging. as frankly, we are critically reliance on china's production for us to be able to respond to this crisis. going forward, sandra, i think we should look hard at providing incentives to american manufacturers and small businesses to bring back to our country some of this critical

manufacturing capacity. >> ed: meanwhile the numbers continue to go up in new york city. one of the hardest hit areas in the country, cases doubling over night. i want to read you a tweet from the president a moment ago, senator. he said we are going to end sooner than later. americans across this country are fearing what is next with all of this. what do you say to them this morning to assure them that the government is going to get this and that we are going to come out of this better than we went into it? >> sandra: sandra, i saw that $104 billion families first coronavirus supplemental bill go from an idea to a bill to being passed here in congress to being signed by president trump last night in record speed. that's getting out support for sick workers through paid sick leave, expanded unemployment insurance, support for medicaid, support for students who are home from school and who rely on school lunches. we are now working very hard on

a much bigger stimulus, as much as a trillion dollars. a majority leader mitch mcconnell is going to release his text later today. i have been working with the small business committee on a plan that would push a lot of liquidity out quickly to help vulnerable small businesses and encourage them to keep people on payroll so that families have a floor underneath them. we will need them to provide several rounds of stimulus to sustain the economy and make sure that we have the authority for states and look how to respond in public health system to be strong. i'm hearing from delaware and lots of fellow senators about just how hard this is hitting our families and communities. we are ready to work together to deliver a response. >> ed: meanwhile this virus is making its way to capitol hill. members of congress testing positive. he's tested positive for the corona virus as well as ben mcadams. here is the letter sent by the

capital attending physician on that. the offices of attending physicians identify the offices and locations that were found to be at risk. they have been found to be treated. other instances where the affected members may have briefly come into contact with other colleagues on the house floor would be considered to be low risk exposures and no additional measures are required other than for them to report if they should become ill. what is your response to 2 members of congress testing positive and where this goes next for you and your colleagu colleagues? >> this raises a critical issue. after 9/11, lots of work was done here to provide for congress to meet and vote here somewhere other than the capital. and they never came to agreement on emergency procedures that would allow the senate or the house to vote remotely. that is now being actively debated. i reached out to the affected members of congress and conveyed my concerns to them and their staff.

frankly, that capital is almost empty right now. almost all of my staff is working remotely. the rest of the delaware staff is working remotely. we are practicing social distancing and many are sheltering in place and teleworking. frankly, we don't have a provision that allows us to take up and pass some of the significant bills that provide support for families and workers and communities. we also need to pass a bill that would allow for vote by mail. i've introduced one yesterday. it's being led by senator wyden. in the middle of the civil war -- in the middle of the second world war, we were able to carry out election to get balance to our troops in the field and allow them to still low. we just saw the ohio primary delayed abruptly. we need to make sure we are making provisions and providing resources so that elections at the state and federal level are not interrupted by this pandem pandemic. >> sandra: we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you, sandra.

>> ed: a new cdc report finding is not just older americans who are hospitalized with a coronavirus. the latest data shows a significant number of patients that are actually between the ages of 20-54. here to talk about is dr. peter hotels, dean of the school of medicine in pediatrics at the baylor college of medicine. doctor, good morning. >> good morning, you got all that n. >> ed: you have on him before in a voice of reason and calm. it is important, because we are getting this new data that suggest that it may be this virus is hitting more young people and we expected. how do you make sense of that? >> absolutely. we got ahead of that when he saw what was happening in italy. the epidemic in italy started looking a little bit different from what we saw in china. in china we only heard about older individuals -- those with debilitating illness. if that became kind of the narrative. and now what we are seeing is a

different pattern where we still have that same population at risk. but more than expected younger adults. so this was true in italy. it looks like it's true in france. we are still early in this epidemic up to around 10,000 cases in the united states. about so far, unfortunately that's a pattern we are seeing. lots of young adults. it looked like a third of those 20-44 years of age. one-third of the hospitalized patients are 20-30 years of age. >> ed: lets show that data and make sense of it. you are to the cdc study by age range. 25%, 65-84. 80% 55-64. 20-44, 29% of the hospitalizations. and real quick, thorough study showing the range of fatality rates, 85 and older, 10% to 20%. then at the bottom, 20-54, less

than 1%. there may be more young people because of the coronavirus, but still very low mortality rate for them. but nonetheless, this is scary for all age groups. walk us through that number and what do you take away? >> exactly right. what you don't know is whether the reason why younger people are not having the same fertility rate is because they are surviving better on ventilators and intensive care. if that's the case, it is still a horrible ordeal for young adults. the messages that we have been trying to appeal to younger adults and have them shelter away and do the social distancing and explaining why that they are at risk for transmitting the virus to vulnerable populations. but now, it is a direct message. your health is directly at risk. now is the time to do that social distancing. you're still saying the

panoramic views of miami beach. in spring break. we've got to really halt that down to protect the public health. >> ed: we've got about a minute but i want to bring up something important. an announcement as early as this morning. there is a issue of a vaccine that we are making progress on, but may be still a year or so away. but then there are treatments, therapeutics. i want to run through 2 of them quickly. talk about an antimalaria drug that can be helpful. there's a report in "the new york post" saying that a japanese flu drug has been shown to be clearly effective in some trials to deal with the coronavirus. what is your early lead on this? >> two parts of this. i'm excited of the president's announcement of this coming up. we are about to see the full throttle power of the american science which is going to be something quite different from any other country that you have seen. you know the taxpayers have been putting money and investing in the nih year after year after

year, about a $36 million budget. now we are giving back. we're going to see lots of new therapies come out and new vaccines. we have a new vaccine that we are hoping to get into clinical trials. now you will see this on a rolling out on every several-week basis. that's something americans can feel good about and rally around this big audacious goal of getting out of these new therapies. in terms of clerk when, that's an old therapy for malaria. there is pulmonary data that suggest that it works against the virus in the test tube. there are some early clinical evidence that says it may have some effect. it's early available. it should be cheap. a well-known safety profile and you can make a bucket of it. so that would be great. the prophylaxis or treatment.

>> sandra: we appreciate that. you wait for the president's announcement. thanks for coming in. >> sandra: fox news alert. we are waiting for the white house task force briefing which the president may be attending. later this morning we will be up to you live when it begins. >> ed: trading it's floor and a traitor tested positive for the virus. planning for all electronic trading on monday. >> sandra: how america's biggest city is handling this outbreak is confirmed cases of the virus surged in new york city overnight. it is usually busy streets nearly quiet they are today and basically empty. what governor cuomo is saying about the future. >> people get ill. if they will resolve. people who are vulnerable, we have to be careful. but the panic and the fear is wholly disconnected from the reality. eed.

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>> sandra: there is a new trend across the country. some americans are hanging christmas lights. it may be march, but with so many kids home, some say hanging their christmas lights steers

them up and keeps them busy while also maintaining social distancing. louisiana and rhode island are those leading that initiative. >> good idea there. the coronavirus hitting the northeast particularly hard. confirmed cases in new york city doubled on the past 24 hours. that is leaving usually very busy streets nearly empty. in the meantime, the mayor clarifying comments he made about a potential shelter-in-place. our correspondent is live right here in a city with the latest. good morning. >> good morning. it's deserted and very wet this morning. at this park is really in the heart of midtown manhattan and new york city is really the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the united states. now the number of office workers continues to dwindle. behind me you can see the canyons of buildings off of that distance. the new york city public library. tomorrow, that is when the

governor's order is going to take effect at on-site staffing no more than 50%. 50% or lower. that is for the latest numbers of coronavirus cases in the city last night -- that number child by nearly 1,000-mile totaling more than 1800. that is new york city alone. new york city mayor attempted to clear up growing confusion over the possibility that he will order residents to shelter-in-place. he was considering such a plan despite the fact the governor has had any blanket quarantine requires his or her approval and was not going to happen. speaking to near tv station "i want to take responsibility that there may have been more than one interpretation out there when i said shelter-in-place. i want to be explicit i'm talking about the san francisco model, because it actually exists right now in the country. it is working. the mayor said that he and the governor will be talking in the next 24 hours about his

proposal. in the meanwhile, new restrictions take place in new york and pennsylvania and requiring that all of these make bowling alleys close. all four states are working together to come up with a regional uniform plan to combat the virus. so far at least one inmate in one corrections officer have tested positive for the disease. and in some much needed good news, the suburban new york city lawyer who spread the disease earning the nickname "patient zero was quote is recovering. his wife posted on facebook that he is out of a coma and improving. lastly as i mentioned behind me, you can see the back of the new york city public library. many viewers recall that in front of the library are very statues of lions. the liens are nicknamed "patients" and "fortitude."

we need them more than ever. >> ed: i appreciate that report. >> sandra: some good news from the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. the city of wuhan now reporting no new cases. what led to that milestone? >> ed: we are watching that and awaiting the opening bell on wall street. trade and ride on the possible new chilean dollar stingless plan. she joins us next.

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speak to you about a minute into the opening of trading on wall street voice at the 50,000 but i think payment of the i was on the exchange of 5,000 people on the floor of the new york stock exchange. today there are only a couple of

hundred. they are too many in terms of having people together. it was a smart move and definitely will in my opinion changed the way we live and work for a long time. a lot of these things that we are doing right now, working from home, changing our behaviors, these don't go away overnight. i think you will see a fundamental change in the way that we operate in terms of business and individuals after we have gone through this cris crisis. >> sandra: meanwhile, we were just talking to senator coons of delaware. looking at the economic impact of all of this. when it comes to small businesses, a lot of members of congress are coming together trying to decide what can be done to help them out now? marco rubio made his pitch last night. >> the basic gist of it is, use private individual banks at the community level along with the bigger banks to get cash rapidly into the hands of small business.

if they use that money to make payroll for the next six weeks or so, and their other expenses of just staying afloat, more importantly the payroll, they will not have to pay that back. they will be forgiven. >> what else are you hearing, maria? what other options are on the table for small businesses? they are the engines of our economy. >> you're absolutely right, sandra. we do need more moves involving small business. as part of the stimulus plan that's coming out of the white house is the paid sick leave. so this is hitting small business hard. they are afraid that even after the crisis is over, they are not going to be able to take back the paid sick leave. that paid sick leave is happening for two reasons. not just to put money in people's pockets, but also to stop the spread of this nasty virus. key people at home. at this point, it looks like what is happening in terms of the pressure on small business is needing they need more.

secretary mnuchin joined me in the last hour over on fox business. he said that he is going to continue these conversations. steve forbes was on the show as well and he said, we need a constant and consistent open window for small business. a small business can go to the federal reserve and say, i need money now. i need this loan today appeared not in three weeks. not waiting for congress on the appropriations process to continue. that is one of the sticking points. will the white house go to the regular channels and make sure to go past all of these proposals through congress to get a congressional approval and wait three weeks-a month. is the treasury secretary going to use his authority to tell -- new options a window where small business will get the money immediately? that is what marco rubio is talking about. that is what steve forbes is talking about. my bet is that they are going to say yes. we need to get money into the hands of small business asap.

sandra, look at the restaurant industry. look at the airline. some of the small businesses will not make it. we know there will be the oil patch. they will not operate with a $20 oil pick the restaurant industry is also going to see many companies, many small businesses that will not be able to make it out of this. >> sandra: such urgency out there. here's the big board again selling a 434-point drop after a 1300 plus point drop for the dow yesterday. the message from the white house -- we will hear from the white house coronavirus task force coming up, maria. all eyes will be on that as far as market movement as well. peter navarro said this white house plan is to push by american and all of this. >> it's basically a 3-prong approach talking consistent with what president trump did back as candidate trump which is buy american come up make it, deregulate.

during the last crisis with this swine flu, it means basically, we are alone when push comes to shove. that's one of the reasons why we have to do this. >> sandra: buy american is the message coming from the administration. in the meantime, you have the federal reserve to get money to move and boost the liquidity out there in the market. are those efforts working? >> i think peter navarro has been doing a great job. he really called us from the get-go. he said we are going to see supply shortages, part shortages pretty talk about the efforts coming out of the white house to move the supply chain back to america, away from china. look, i think this is a major issue. also i miss you is buy american. the pentagon as well as the va, they don't buy american. they buy so many products from china and europe.

we need to change that mentality appeared we need to make sure their production is happening in america. and our own vital institutions that really are probably the bulk of buying when it comes to health care in the government. they need to start buying american as well. there's going to be a major shift on the part of corporate america as well as government agencies to focus on production in america. that is why i think this crisis over the long-term is going to be bad news for china. because american companies are not going to trust that china will keep to their contract. remember earlier this year sandra who were talking about the fact that we needed gloves. we dated masks. there were ships carrying all of these products from china. the chinese government said turn around. we need this stuff here in china. they are not going to america. they pull up all of those contracts. the next time around, america is going to be prepared much more so than this time. >> sandra: oil is trading at $22 per barrel this morning. we asked if we could see gas prices drop below $1 per gallon

during all of this. we will be watching it all, maria. thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> ed: finally, some good news out of china. wuhan reporting no new cases of coronavirus for the first time since the outbreak started there late last year. benjamin hall is following the global impact from london. >> good morning. yes, certainly that is the news this morning that is going to give everyone some hope that this virus can be contained and stopped with the right measures. of course in china, those are rather draconian measures. optimism all around on that news today. in wuhan today, residents are saying goodbye to the medical teams that flooded the city three months ago. of over 80,000 cases in total in china, more than 70,000 have now recovered. all of the new cases were found in people arriving from other countries. in fact, china is now sending medical teams and equipment to

help in italy where the situation is increasingly bleak. there were 475 new debts overnight in italy, making it the deadliest day of the virus outbreak anywhere in the world including china. and nearly 3,000 deaths are set to eclipse china's total death toll. in spain and other countries under lockdown, the military is out on the street. in germany, chancellor has called the virus the biggest challenge since world war ii. in italy, they are calling it their 9/11. russia and mexico are also reporting their first deaths. in london, temporary morgues have been set up in preparation for a sharp spike in numbers. despite rumors all week that there was going to be a total lockdown in london, the government has now announced that people will not be restricted to their homes in the foreseeable future. public transport will continue. for many people it has been the uncertainty of not knowing what restrictions were going to come into place. that is because they panic and panic buying. here in the u.k., the government have got ahead of that and said

they have been rumors. there's no need to jump to conclusions yet. schools are going to shut on friday. there is no sense of how long for. people are trying to urge some of the panic going around. >> ed: photos of the eiffel tower and landmarks with no people around it. just remarkable. thanks for that update. >> sandra: louisiana state, with a stern pep top on taking the coronavirus. >> i encourage you to follow the game plan. everybody is holding together. they get up unless -- we are tough. bring it on. >> sandra: he's a strong coach and a strong leader. he spreading the message. the dallas mavericks owner mark cuban will be joining us to discuss how his businesses are dealing with the outbreak and how to help so many of those

businesses that are struggling at this moment. >> ed: good stuff there. as we overweight the meeting at the white house, we could soon see a critical shortage of medical supplies across the country. how president trump is trying to address all of that coming up. we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

>> ed: president trump invoking wartime powers to try to combat the coronavirus to get much needed medical supplies across the country helps the professionals warned about shortages. a former fema administrator in executive chairman of hagerty consulting. thank you for coming in. >> good morning. we keep hearing that there could be a shortage of masks. other important medical supplies and respirators. is this hyper legitimate conce concern? >> let's back up and frame the

problem for our nation's hospitals. most of them are dependent on just in time in time logistics. when supplies come in, they are basically used up within a week or two weeks. most hospitals don't maintain more than a 2-week supply for personal protective equipment or equipment that would be needed for surgeries. many of these contracts are limited to one vendor. there is fairly little redundancy in what we are seeing. we are seeing this play out. when it comes to the redundancy, that's something that we've got to factor in. business continuity for hospitals going forward. helping them to maintain supplies and not being so depended upon the strategic national stockpile or the defense production act that was invoked yesterday. >> there is a hill newspaper article that says shortage average hospital providers what they say is in particular. they quote someone from a hospital from the american

college of university of positions. there are folks that say every night they take the mask home, they spray both sides with bleach. and they hang it up to dry in the hope that is going to work. so it is pretty bad. we obviously need to not just protect the public but in particular, our health care workers that are on the front lines. as at that sound kind of scary? >> it is scary, but let's talk about what the federal government is doing. the assistant secretaries preparedness and response capability put forward guidance. guidance on how to maximize the current stocks of personal protective equipment. hopefully that guidance is being followed by hospitals so that we can make what supplies we have on hand last longer. the other thing is that strategic national stockpile has activated. if you look at since march 11, they pushed out over 135 tons of supplies and equipment to our nations hospitals and medical

providers. that's not going to be the only answer. we are also seeing the department of defense shift some of their strategic supplies to the public health entities as well as the defense production act which is not invoked very often. this is a very rare act. it basically says that the federal government can force companies to produce and secure needed supplies to fight the virus. >> ed: last question. the president will be going to fema headquarters today to get a look at the operations there. you used to run it obviously. i remember covering some hurricanes. for one of them i was in one of your war rooms with a lot of your folks coming together. they are important, very critical function. this is a much different battle we are in the middle of. give our folks a preview of what the president may see in some of those war rooms they have at fema headquarters. >> first of all, the president has given fema tremendous

support while i was in office. they do not get the credit that they deserve. these guys have been working around-the-clock. not only are they dealing with the recoveries, the california wildfires and most recently the national tornadoes. now they are being put in the game because they understand command and control for an event of this magnitude. hhs and the cdc are the technical experts. but i don't have the capability that fema brings to the table when it comes to activating the national response coronation center and coordinate and clearly how to understand how to put forward resources to state request. >> ed: that's a critical function indeed. a lot of long hours battling these natural disasters. we appreciate your time and your insights. thank you. >> sandra: coming up, a new study explaining how long the coronavirus can live on surfaces from a few hours to a few days. we are going to tell you what you need to know to keep your

family safe. plus, we're now over an hour from the white house task force briefing on the coronavirus. we'll have that for you live right here in "america's newsroom." the president has been attending some of those events. we will have that for you.

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>> sandra: fox news alert. shedding light on how long the virus can live on surfaces. scientists discovering that they can remain detectable for several hours or even days in some cases. live in los angeles with what we need to know. >> you don't want to get this or give it to others. here's what the government study found on the coronavirus. say a person sneezes or coughs. at the virus stays airborne at high levels but detectable for three hours before the aerosol

droplets quality services where it can survive in cardboard up to 24 hours, stainless steel, two days, plastic for three. >> hard surfaces not shown in fabric as much or in cardboard, but hard service transmission. >> the virus remains communicable, but the risk declines over the time frame as it dies off. the take away, be careful at home in the public. especially if someone is infected. >> people should recognize that living with this thing means that there is a 35% attack rate that is a chance that someone else from the house gets the virus because one person in the house has it. >> best practice is to keep everything clean. refrigerator, microwave, tv remote, and countertops. use long strokes and wipe in only one direction. >> most people grab a towel and they move in multiple directions, and they're actually

pushing and pulling soil back onto a surface. think about pushing snow. you are always plowing in one direction. do the same thing when you are wiping off the counter. >> in public, dollars, coins, pathogens, gas pumps, elevator buttons. you get the picture, sandra. soap and water, commercial disinfected. >> sandra: that answered so many questions people have about that. thank you. >> ed: a live team coverage of this pandemic as we await that white house task force briefing. we have governor cuomo coming up. we will bring it all to you live coming up. o business. the business of family time... ...and downtime. ...and you time. ...and forgetting what time it is...altogether. modernized comfort inns and suites have been refreshed because when your business is making time,

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>> sandra: we are 60 minutes away from the update from the white house task force briefing updating developments on the pandemic. welcome to a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." it is thursday morning. i. i'm sandra smith. >> ed: the number of coronavirus cases rises to more than 9400 at least 150 americans have now died. the caseload of surging as testing rapidly expands. let's take a look at the impact on the west coast in particular. a number of shelter-in-place communities nearly doubling since half said they were clamping down on all nonessential activity. >> sandra: we have fox team coverage for you. brian standing by with brand-new reporting in the nation facing a

severe blood shortage. we begin with claudia cowan in san francisco with the latest on the growing allow cows that are happening. hey, claudia. >> good morning, sandra. public officials across the state of california taking unprecedented steps to combat the coronavirus by telling more and more people to stay home and closing bases they may be tempted to visit. on tuesday as you mentioned, it was about six counties around the san francisco bay. of that number has nearly doubled, stretching down to san luis obispo impacting many people. a quarter of the states population living in empty highways and shutter businesses. below are allowed to go out and get gas and groceries or to see their doctor. they can also take walks or bike rides. whenever they are out, they need to practice social distancing. these shelter-in-place orders are set to run through april 7th. if they could be extended only a few categories of so-called

essential workers are being given a pass including health care workers, first responders, delivery drivers, journalist, taxis, and red shares. the governor issued executive orders that temporarily protect tenants from being evicted or having their utilities turned off if they cannot pay their bills right away. it also suspends k-12 standardized testing's like the s.a.t. exam. emergency housing following the death of a homeless man in san jose. the governor said that population is considered disproportionately at risk, because many have underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to infection. the governor also told a national guard or to be ready to step into support public safety and humanitarian efforts if need be. food distribution. and in the meantime, ed, and sandra, bustling areas eerily quiet today. back to you.

>> thank you. >> ed: meanwhile, the american red cross are getting healthy to make an appointment to donate blood. thousands of blood drives were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. >> we will in the matter of days being severe shortage. we are trying to avoid that and hope that everyone will understand that we definitely need people and donors. >> another important angle on the story. brian with the latest. >> sandra: the american red cross which supplies more than 40% of the nation's blood said they are already facing a severe blood shortage due to an unprecedented number of blood drive cancellations nationwide. the coven 19 outbreak workplaces and schools and that is a huge problem, because more than 80% of the blood collected comes from these locations. according to america's blood

centers, nationwide, more than 5,000 drives have been canceled. they have been 130,000 fewer blood donations. the fda says it's safe to donate blood during this time. they have been no reported or suspected cases of transfusion transmitted coronavirus. covid-19 poses no risk to patients receiving blood transfusions. generally, centers are asking people not to donate if they have any covid-19 symptoms or have had close contact with someone diagnosed with or suspected of having covid-19 in the last 14 days. blood centers across the country are taking extra precautions at their centers enhancing, disinfecting of equipment, providing hand sanitizer, temperature checks on donors and spacing out there beds. >> people always need to blood whether it's accident victims trauma victims, cancer patients. there are so many normal daily uses for blood.

if there isn't any there come other people not get the transfusions they need to survive. >> so many people with chronic illnesses that can really use you right now. please go tonight blood. one donation can save up to three lives. the new york blood center are saying their supply is stable as of right now. he knew of all of those mobile drives being canceled, they doubled their appointment slots and hours of operation. everyone around the country at these blood centers is asking people to make an appointment. i don't just walk into. you can do so at redcrossblood.org >> ed: good information there. thank you. >> let's bring in our medical 18. public health expert at fox news contributor. dr. marc siegel also a fox news contributor. dr. i will start with you first. what is the message coming from medical personnel about just how important it is that we hear that the blood donations are down, please if you can, donate

blood. >> sandra: that is hugely important what we just heard from brian. in fact, -- this is the time to come together with a community spirit we are seeing in new york at the epicenter right now that the hospitals are actually overwhelmed. there are too many patients to be possibly triaged. there's not enough medical equipment or supplies. i want to make a really important point about that, sandra. the president yesterday invokes the defense production act. i want to tell you how important it is. we are going to need a lot more supplies for our health care providers as we expand that force. 95 respirator masks, full gallons. when they are in high-risk situations which is the breathing device that you attached to this beer to, gowns, all of this is necessary. for patients that are sheltering in place at home, and particularly interested in a little device that you can put on your finger to see what your

oxygen content is. because shortness of breath is a prominent symptom that helps me decide whether somebody needs a hospital or not. if i know how much oxygen you have in your blood, i can make a decision much more effectively. >> i agree 100%. this is a capacity crisis. what we are concerned about is that we don't have enough time to develop and administer the medications that we are working on. and to get ahead of it. we've got 100,000 icu beds in the united states. we could have 200000-2000000 critical care patients. this is all about reducing the peak of that influx at the same time health care workers are at the highest risk. so it's all about our capacity. >> dr. deborah burks was a key member. she is of the president's task force. it's what he said yesterday of how this virus is impacting

younger people. let's listen. >> sandra: it may have been that the millennial generation among our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades may be a disproportional number among that group. and so even if it is a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequently in that group. and be evident now. >> ed: if you look at our screen, we've got the hospitalizations by age group. this is brand-new data from the cdc. 20-44, 20% of the hospitalizations. so there is more young people getting this may be that people thought. thankfully, the mortality rate is still lower for the young. it's impacting people of all ages. whether this data tell you? >> dr. birx refer to part of the point. young people are not taking precautions they way they should. if they take fewer precautions,

it's around spring break time. obviously no one is in school at all and most other countries. people are coming together. they are getting affected more. the curve is larger. you might see many, many more mild cases that are not coming to our attention. you see the severe cases. the other thing that is happening is, there is a study out of spain that just came out. i don't want to scare anybody with this. this is an unstable to virus. it is changing and can mutate to some extent. it throws off different subtypes. and it is becoming more accustomed to human transmissi transmission. we have to watch that very carefully. the demographics can change over time. >> ed: can you weigh in on that? i've heard some folks say, each time it is transferred, transmitted from person to person, the virus can get less aggressive and as dr. siegel just said, he suggested the opposite. at that a kid mutate and get more aggressive as it goes from person to person. what do you know about all this?

>> both are correct. the virus can mutate, and it could also mutate to a less severe form, which is what we are all praying for. we're not seeing any sign that this virus is heat sensitive. we are following data from witness areas where it's over 8e same course of spread. so right now, this virus does not look like something that is going to out on its own. it's going to rely on some kind of community immunity or some kind of historical trends where we know new strains of pandemics take about three months. the good news is, it's hard for this virus to really hurt kids. and even though this is not a disease of 80-year-old as many think, there is a study that out of 2,100 kids, there is only been one reported fatality. we are going to rely on young people to get us through this pandemic as we pull all high risk people out of essential

services. >> sandra: so much of what we're doing is looking at what happened in china and what is happening in europe, particularly in italy. and is very important to look at that data, specifically when it comes to how young people were affected. he said this. >> sandra: we are seeing data emerging from italy that suggest that young people actually may be at increased risk as the virus needs to play out differently in different countries. for heavens sake, we don't want to go the pathway of italy. we want to look at what china is doing and be successful here in the united states. >> sandra: heads up that we have been telling our audience that we are expecting that white house coronavirus task force briefing at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. the white house says that it's got every expectation that the president will be there, but not absolutely confirming that he will be. we will likely hear from the president a short time from now. what does he need to say? what does that messaging need to be as americans are hunkered down in their homes right now

deciding what comes next? >> sandra: he needs to keep building bridges. to hear him talk about this partnership with the governor of california. i like that he's bringing in more supplies at a very serious about the fact that health care workers need supplies. we need more of that. another thing -- >> sandra: i think we have an issue with your microphone. we will go see if we can get that sorted out. we are also going to hear from the new york governor, andrew cuomo will be holding a news conference this morning at about 10:30 eastern time. that's about 18 minutes from now. he's dealing with new york state top of the list for the number of confirmed cases. here in new york city, the number of confirmed doubling over night as we got more tests available. >> first of all, unless surgeon general's comments, young folks might be at high risk of getting the affection.

they are certainly a much lower risk of dying from the infection. they are the community transmitters. they've got to be very careful. on new york state, does not confuse confirmed cases with real cases. we are hearing stories from hospital leaders and doctors that folks are coming in with influenza-like illness. they are not testing the patient. it doesn't change our management as a doctor and we test -- the test of and hard to get. let's not confuse confirmed cases with real cases. they are probably ten plus times more than the confirmed cases. >> sandra: thanks to both doctors this morning. meanwhile, turn your attention to the stock market. fox news alert is the coronavirus spreads, stocks looking for directions with stock so often overnight trading. we have now seen the dow turned positive in the first hour of trading. it is up and rising. now up 100 points. we are watching out for you. there's also over the past

several days. we've seen the volatility reflecting serious fear of what happens next with the u.s. economy. what a recovery could look like on wall street and main street. we'll have a look. >> the sports world also taking a big hit. mark cuban owner of the dallas mavericks is today's headliner. he says a bailout could benefit all employees, not just the executives. >> the hotel and tourism industry in big trouble, while one industry leader said it is worse than september 11th and the great recession combined. >> we got a text saying they were shutting everything down, food, casino. be out by 11:00 a.m. this is ava. these are ava's shoulders. they square off, hold firm, bear it all. this is her physical therapist, covered by blue cross blue shield. these are ava's shoulders. now stronger than ever.

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>> sandra: fox news alert now, hotels around the world's taking a big hit from the coronavirus outbreak. 95% of its workflows. 2,000 people who work for marriott are not out of a job. >> ed: joining us live from skype. he's the ceo from lodging association. i appreciate you coming in. the three thanks for having me. >> ed: mister rogers, i wonder what you can tell us about how it has already gotten for the hotel industry and if there is

any money coming in from washington that capital behind you. i've heard from chuck schumer and others that they want to guarantee that the money will go to the employees and not just to the executives. and you make that assurance? >> i can start with that assurance 100%. if that money comes in, and we are certainly hoping that would come into the employees. that would be the only money coming in. this is as bad as we have ever seen it. if you take what happened right after 9/11 and what happened after the financial crisis, which were both significant hits to the industry. if you combine those and probably doubled it, you may still not be at the point where we are now. we have seen occupancy rates fall from last month 67% all the way down to the single digits. at the bottom line is that people are not in hotels. there's no revenue for the hotels. most of them are shutting their doors. >> sandra: we are about to hear from the white house. a briefing at the white house. the president is expected to speak as well.

what would you like to see and hear as far as action on the part of the federal government? >> let's get past this as quickly as possible so people can get back to enjoying their lives which include hotels. how do we take care of that millions of workers? 8.3 million in our industries. half of them may be laid off by the end of the year. how are we going to take care of them? we would love for them to be able to stay on the payroll as furloughed workers to have access to some of their benefits. at the federal government who has been part of shutting all this down, rightfully so could help us out. that money will go to the workers. all we are trying to do is get money to those that meet it and work and though it and help those businesses stay in business so there is a job they can come back to. >> ed: the numbers we want to get on the screen in terms of the impact of up to a million jobs at risk of layoffs. in the coming weeks, that's 45% of the workforce in the hotel industry. $1.4 billion in lost revenue.

in terms of the aide requested that you are looking at, $100 billion in support for furloughed workers. 50 billion for strongly hotel owners. talk about how you with the federal government to structure all of this. would he look at cities like las vegas, the strip is completely shut down. >> it is not just las vegas. you can go to any major cities and most of those hotels will be shut down because there are no customers. if the hotel is shut down, there's no need for an employee to be there. that doesn't mean that the needs of the employees go away. what we are asking for is a system where the money can go directly to the employees. straight from the government to the employees. if they are able to stay on the hotel payroll as a furloughed worker, they can access the benefits. when this turns around, they can come immediately back to work. you don't need to go through the hiring process or any of those struggles. those workers want to get back to work as quickly as possible. that is what we want for them.

>> sandra: you have heard so many economists trying to predict what the snapback for the economy looks like after this situation starts to improve. you have to assume there will be so much pent-up demand and business demand. conferences to be rescheduled. people taking vacations again. what if you could in this moment in time -- what could that look like potentially? >> sandra: we would love for her to come back immediately. if that is not what we are planning for because right now we don't see where the end is. here's the problem that you're facing. unlike some of the other histories, the hotel industry is made up of tens of thousands of owners. all the hotels that you see, almost all of them are owned by individual owner or ownership group. these are small businesses. the decisions they are making right now are, i only have a certain amount of money left. if i continue to pay on the loans that i have in the business never comes back, i'm just throwing good money at the bad. some of them are making the

decision whether i take the keys to the bank and say, take the hotel. it's yours. if that happens it will be devastating. the hotels that need to open up will not be able to open up. that's why action by congress is necessary so quickly. >> that is what you want in the days ahead. what about what congress and the president signed into law on what they have already done? they talked about this paid leave. there has been some question about how efficiently it can be handed out to various businesses. in the hotel industry, are you confident that the paid leave that washington says they are sending to workers around the country will get two people needed? >> it's a little bit more troubling in our industry. some like the airlines and the cruise ships -- there are three or four major employers in major companies that pretty much runs those industries. those are franchise which means there are tens of thousands of franchisees who own and operate individual hotels. getting that assistance to those

franchisees is much more difficult. we clearly understand that. with respect to the employees which is our major concern, them instant access to unemployment benefits. that seems to be the simplest way to do it. allow a furloughed worker to get unemployment benefits so he or she can stay officially employed how they do not have any hours and they can get some of their benefits. >> sandra: such an important voice you are for the hotel owners. we appreciate your time. thank you. >> ed: fox news alert on the coronavirus. at the briefing is set to begin 30 minutes or so from now. we will go there live as soon as it begins. this is that trump administration works on a brand-new stimulus plan, massive plan to put money in your wallet amid his pandemic. will lawmakers go for it? what are the changes? >> sandra: businesses shutting down coast-to-coast. we will get to market cubans

take on what the economy looks like, the owner of the dallas mavericks is our guest and he joins us next.

>> ed: fox news alert, the financial fallout is clearly being filled far and wide. many sectors of the economy now asking for bailouts. we heard from the hotel industry, there are others looking as well. >> sandra: airlines asking for

assistance. it's a matter of survival. joining us now on the phone is our headliner this morning mark cuban the owner of the dallas mavericks. good morning. >> thanks for having me. >> sandra: i know you are putting out bold solutions on how the government can step in and assist some of these growing companies. which is it? >> i'm a big fan of bailouts and government support. we are in unique times and this requires unique strategies. i think we also have to take the taxpayers perspective as well and try to make sure that we accommodate what is best for the taxpayer. i think part one, if we are going to bail out a public company, they are not allowed to do stock tiebacks. part two, when you go through scenarios like we did in 2008, a few years afterwards, companies will reprice their stock options. we can't allow that to happen. if there is any type of renumeration or bonus system, and it's got to go to everybody.

part three, if we're going to bail out a big company or industry, you're going to require them to retain 100% of their workers. why? if you don't, those workers are going to go on public assistance and the cost for public assistance is going to be more than the cost of the bailout. >> ed: we should give you credit at the beginning of this crisis, you are bold and direct in saying that she wanted to take care of the workers in your arena. knowing that the employees would get it hard and you wanted to get them rallied. you are out front early. in the context of these bailouts, following on what you just said, how should it be a structure make sure employees at hotel companies and airlines are getting their money and not just the executives? there's a lot of anger going back to what happened in 2007 and 2008. >> no question. are they key is having quick liquidity. if you are hotel, restaurant or

airline you don't have cash flow coming in. the government is trying to move quickly. they have to get behind banks and sages open up the spigots. we've got to get behind the spa and open up the spigots. the government will deal with those that take advantage of the system later. by doing so, you are allowing them to pay their employees. in this unique situation -- we will have imperfect data. there is no perfect way to manage it. it's going to be a ready, fire, aim scenario. if we don't keep employees on payroll, they are going to go on public assistance. we are paying more that way then we are through helping the employees. >> ed: we have limited time today. we apologize for that. >> any time that you want me on. >> ed: we have governor andrew cuomo stepping up to the microphone. >> i think it is the best positive sign that the federal

government is actually stepping up to the plate. he will see that this has been as diagnosed -- pardon the pun. as a health care crisis for a moment 1. this is always been about one thing, reducing the rate of spread so the health care system can manage it. and it has been a question of math and projections. and it is still exactly that. can we get at the spread down to a rate that the health care system can manage? what is going to be the issue in the health care system? it's going to be the number of hospital beds. it's going to be the amount of protective equipment. and most of all, it is going to come down to ventilators. a piece of equipment that up until now was a relatively inconsequential. but when you have respiratory illnesses, and then this volume

of respiratory illnesses, illnesses, all of a sudden the number of ventilators becomes critical. just to give you a sense of scope, we have about 5000-6000 ventilators that we can identify. we need about 30,000 ventilato ventilators. this is a nationwide problem. i was on the phone with the governors from the other states with the national governors association yesterday. every state is shopping for ventilators. we are shopping for ventilators. we literally have people in china shopping for ventilators, which is one of the largest manufacturers. so this is a major problem. it is an issue that the federal government can actually play a very constructive role. something called the federal defense procurement act where

the federal government can basically order companies to produce certain materials. and we are going to need protective equipment and hospitals. we are going to need ventilators. and it is something that a state can't do, but the federal government can do. also, as this has gone on, we said we are fighting a war o on 2 routes. we are fighting the virus. and we are fighting fear. and they are two totally different situations that you have to deal with. in many ways, the fear is more dangerous than the virus. i started working on disasters and emergency situations when i was in my 30s. my first experience was hurricane andrew in homestead, florida. and i felt it. i saw on the ground what happens when people panic. and of the panic and the fear is

as dangerous or more dangerous than the hurricane. i have seen it in floods. i've seen it in fires. we now have misinformation and fear and panic, which is as contagious or more contagious than the virus. as we have to deal with both of them. i've had some conversations that are just irrational with people who were hereto for wholly rational. i had a conversation last night with a business person new york city who i know who was panicked that new york city was going to be locked down my that they were going to be roadbloc roadblocks. that they were going to be mandatory quarantining. that he was going to be imprisoned in his house.

i said, where did you hear that? he said that's what they say. that's what i'm hearing. they are saying. and i was saying, i would know, right? because i would have to authorize those actions legally. it's not going to happen. well, here it is going to happen. well, i would have to do it. i'm telling you, i'm not doing it. it must have taken me 25 minutes just to slow him down to hear the information. when you get that emotional -- that fearful, you literally don't process information in the same way. so we have to be very aware of that. clear communication from everyone. from our friends in the media, from the health care professionals, from all elected officials. clear communication. consistent communication.

because misinformation, emotion, fear, panic is truly more dangerous than the virus. at this position in my opinion. because the facts on the virus we know, we have watched it from china to south korea. we have studied it here. we know the numbers. it is exactly what we said it was. it is exactly what we said it was from day 1. they talk about the increased spread. we talk about the vulnerable populations, seniors, compromised immune systems and people with underlying illness illnesses. so we know what this virus does. we know how it communicates. and we know how to deal with it. it's not going to be easy. it's not going to be pretty. but we know the trajectory of

the virus. let's just take a deep breath and make sure we are all -- we are acting on facts as opposed to acting on fear. when you act on fear, then you are in a dangerous place. the facts, we can handle. let me give you a couple of the new facts today. just to recap, we said we have a plan of action. if there are three steps. flatten the curve, slow the spread, increase the current hospital capacity and identify a new hospital beds. do them all at the same time. which is the challenge. make government work. mobilize, operationalize, get it all done, get it all done today. on density reduction, this is a data-driven decision. look at the increasing the number of cases. look at the hospital capacity.

and it do adjust do everything that you can to slow the increase of the spread so that your hospital system can deal with the growth. we've been taking increasing on density reduction because the numbers have been increasing. and again, this is driven by science and by data. we said voluntary work from home, mandatory closing schools statewide, mandatory reduction of state and local workforce. mandatory tri-state agreement on bars, restaurants, gyms. mandatory in office workforce cut by 50%. we set that yesterday. the numbers have gone up overnight. i am going to increase the density control today. no more than 25% of people can be in the workforce. yesterday it was 50%.

we are reducing it again, except the essential services that we spoke about yesterday. that means that 75% of the workforce must stay at home. and work from home. again, voluntarily, i'm asking all businesses to have people work from home. as a mandate, 75% of your employee base must work from home. in terms of increasing current hospital capacity, our current hospital capacity is about 50,000 beds statewide. the majority of those beds are in downstate new york. the commissioner is working with the hospital industry. he's going to put out new regulations assessing how many more beds we can get in our existing hospitals. waving department of health rules, waving department of financial service rules. how many more beds can make it in those hospitals?

and we are working on that aggressively. at the same time, identifying new hospital beds. the army corps of engineers was with us yesterday. we had a very good meeting. we are looking at sites across the state to find existing facilities that could expeditiously be turned into health care facilities. and again, when i said the federal response is very welcome, i want to thank the president. he said that he would bring the army corps of engineers here. i spoke to him last night to follow-up on the meeting. this is going forward aggressively. we are also going to take a bold action but necessary action, offering 90-day relief on march mortgage payments based on financial hardship.

meaning if you are not working -- if you are working only part-time, we are going to have the bank said financial institutions waive mortgage payments for 90 days. that will be a real-life economic benefit. it will also be a stress reliever for many families. waving these payments will not have a negative effect on your credit report. there will be a grace period for loan modification. we are not exempting people from the mortgage payments. we are just adjusting the mortgage to include those payments on the back end. no late fees or online payment fees. postponing or suspending any foreclosures during this period of time. and waiving fees for overdrafts, atm credit cards. this is a real-life benefit. people are under tremendous

economic pressure. making a mortgage payment can be one of the number one stressors. eliminating that stressor for 90 days i think will go a long way. again, we will reassess as the situation goes on if that should be extended or not. a number of positive cases. total positive, for thousands. a number of new positive 769. you see additional counties that are being added to counties that have cases, spread mirrors what happens in the country as the spread is going through all states. the spread is going through our counties. it was downstate first and now moving upstate. new york now has 2,000 cases. washington state, 1100 cases. washington state had cases earlier because it went to a nursing home if you remember.

but new york state has more cases than washington state. more cases than any state in the nation. i've made that point to the federal government and the president. he understands that if there is a state that needs help, the state by the number of cases is new york. in terms of testing, we have tested now 22,000. we tested 7500 people last nig night. why are you seeing the numbers go up? because you are taking more tests. people see those numbers go up. they get nervous. they panicked. look at how many more people have the virus. it is not how many more people have the virus. you are just taking more tests. see you are finding more positives. there are thousands and thousands of people who have the virus who we are not testing.

there are thousands and thousands of people who have the virus before we started testing. there are thousands and thousands of people who had the virus and who resolved and never knew they had the virus. we're still testing, because you want to find the positive cases so that you can track them down, isolate people and fight to the spread. you can't watch these numbers like the stock market and say, well, that is the indicator of anything other than the indicator of how many tests we are taking. it is good news that we are now up to 7500 tests. we were at one time doing 200 tests per day just to put that 7500 and focus. so that is a tremendous increase in the number of tests. you are going to see the numbers go up. the hospitalization rate is very relevant, because remember, this

is all about the flow into the health care system. so 777 of 452. perspective, perspective, perspective. we know the virus. we know what it does. we know who it hurts. we know who it affects. john hopkins from day 1 has tracked this virus to china. 9,000 deaths. 84,000 recoveries. 129,000 pending. one last point. we talk about this as a government response. the federal government is doing this, governments, government, government. this manifests on a number of levels, and the government responses are very important. the impact is greater and probably greatest as a social

phenomenon and on people and on families. this is tremendously disruptive. on all sorts of levels. it came out of the blue. for me in new york, it reminds me of 9/11 where one moment -- which was inconceivable. just change everything. it changed your perspective on the world. change your perspective on safety. children who were young at that time but of school age watched on tv. they didn't know if their parents were coming home. i think it change their whole outlook on life after 9/11. this is a situation like that. it's obviously a totally different magnitude. it is like that. it is a moment that changes your

whole life. yesterday, you are going to work and you were going to go to the office party. today you are at home. and the kids are at home. and you are worried about health. and you're worried about your job. you're worried about economics. and you are dealing with personal issues, and you are dealing with family issues. and it is all happening at once. and then you turn on the tv and there's all this different information. and no one can tell you if this is going to be 30 days, 60 days or four months or five months or nine months. the stress, the emotion is just incredible. and rightfully so. it is a situation that is one of the most disruptive that i have seen. and it will change almost

everything going forward. it will. that is a fact. it's not your perception. it's not just you. it is all of us. and it's true. and it's real. nobody can tell you when this is going to end. now i can tell you. i talked to all the experts. no one can say two months, four months, nine months. nobody. it's hard living your life with that big question mark out there. no i could tell you when you go back to work. people can tell you that it is not just you economically. it is everyone. take comfort in that. at the federal government is working on an economic package. but it's true. having your family altogether is a beautiful thing. it's also different for a lot of

people. especially for a prolonged period of time. these are major shifts in life, and in the most emotional stressful conditions that you can imagine. and i think my own personal advice is, understand it for what it is. and that it is not just you. it has changed everything. and it will for the foreseeable future. and think through how you're going to deal with it and what it means. and even try to find a positive in it, right? it's a very negative circumstance. but you are going to have time on your hands. you're going to have time with your family. there are going to have time at home in this busy, hurry up world. all of a sudden someone said

okay, you have a couple of months where you're going to be home with the family. no work. you work from home. but it is a totally different situation. how do you use that? how do you adjust? it is not going to be done overnight, but it's something that everybody has to think through. my last point is to the younger people in our great state and in our great society. and that is why i invited our special guest here today, michaela. my grandfather andrea, my grandfather on my father's side. his name was andrea. i'm named for my grandfather, andrew. an italian-american immigrant. when i was youngish, 16, 17, 18, and i would do something that he didn't like, he would just look at me, and he would say, we grow too soon old, and too late

smart. i would say, what does that mean, grandpa? is that a criticism? we grow too soon old and too late smart. these pictures of young people on beaches. these videos of young people saying, this is my spring break. you know, i'm out to party. this is my time to party. this is so unintelligent and reckless. i can't even begin to express it. now, i had a conversation with my daughter about this. i'm governor of the state. i can order a quarantine of 10,000 people. but i can't m tell my daughter o do anything. and i have to be careful because there is almost an inverse response towards direct action. but, i did say to all three of

them, from as soon as they could crawl, i used one line. what is the one line i used to say? >> sandra: risk-reward. >> risk-reward. whatever answer i would offer they would do the other. risk-reward. it makes no sense to go expose yourself to these conditions and expose other people. expose other people. michaela -- first of all, michaela was graduating this year. and her school clothes to online courses. she's not going to have graduation. we are going to have a big party at the appropriate time. we don't know what that time is going to be if it's going to be two months, four months, six

months, nine months. first of all we are going to have a big party. that's going to happen. but she was deprived of the last year at the last few months of college which i'm sure were very intense study. max. i remember those. a lot of study. with that is a shift in life. but she was going to take a vacation on spring break. and go with friends and take a trip. and it risk-reward. and, luckily, she made the right decision. and i'm proud of her for that. no prompting from me besides questions. risk-reward. what these people are doing is the risk. it does not justify the reward. if they are putting themselves at risk. young people can get coronavirus. that is one of the other myths.

young people don't get it, young people to get it. and young people can transfer. and you can wind up infecting someone and possibly killing someone if you are exposed to it. risk-reward. questions/comments? >> four oh $4 billion bailout? will they step in? >> the economic consequences here are for the mta, for the state budget, for the county budgets, village budgets, all of the public authorities. it is just a big question mark. they have all lost tremendous revenues. and we are going to have to figure out as a nation how to deal with this. the ridership is down on the mta. the revenue is down on the mta. say hello to every other public

transit system in this united states of america. so it is going to have to be a national response. >> to shut down transportation, how is that possible? is there any plan -- >> the mta will continue running. they are an essential service on the essential service list. and the revenues, we are going to have to make do. rob, do you have anything that you want to add? >> we are looking at the ridership. ridership is down and all of the systems. the workers are running and running on time. there are still some businesses and essential services that are flowing. the mta is part of bringing people back and forth. right now we are looking at that. every transit system in the nation is facing the same reality. >> impacts --

>> we are looking at the mta as well. this is part of the discussion we are having with the legislature as well. we are looking as the governor mentioned, the entire budget is impacted by this. we are going have flexibility in the budget to be able to prioritize certain services over others. it is an essential service for your city. >> remember all of these broad statements. we have to run a government. we have to run and service a society, right? we need the health care system up and running. doctors have to get to work. nurses have to get to work. health care workers need to get to work. we need police, fire, bus drivers and day care workers. all of those functions have to happen. so we need a transportation system, because we need people getting to work. it refuse has to be picked up, right?

all of these functions have to continue. when i talk about shut down, you know, we have to make sure we are operational and healthy and functional. >> i know you've had trouble with the phrase "shelter-in-place." are you considering any more stringent restrictions on people leaving the home are going to businesses or things like that. >> yeah. the i believe communication is important and i believe words are important. say what you mean, and don't say what might alarm people. the level of alarm in this country in this state especially in new york city is higher than i have ever seen. somehow, people have the idea that new york city may be quarantined, may be locked off, that they may be imprisoned in their home. i don't know where they get it.

this is the conversation i was talking about last night. it was a smart person who i know for a long time just panicked. just fear. none of that is going to happen. none of that is going to happen. there is no quarantine plan for new york city. he said to me, is there a containment plan for new rochelle? i containment plan in new rochelle do not contain any one. it was a bad word. it was meant to contain the virus. you can come and go in new rochelle. schools were closed, large gatherings were closed. there was no quarantine containment. well, you called out the national guard. i called out the national guard for food delivery and cleaning services. we use the national guard every time there is a snowstorm fire or flood. i called out the national guard. it is not signal martial law. you know?

shelter-in-place, mandatory evacuation. but you don't have to evacuate. well, then don't call it mandatory evacuation. mandatory fasting, but you can eat. don't call it fasting. if you look at the principles of shelter-in-place -- first of all, shelter-in-place is deceptive, because it does have a meaning. shelter-in-place literally means -- it is currently used in an active shooter context. it was most recently used for nuclear war protection. and what shelter-in-place meant was find the room in your house with no windows where you would be free from smoke or gases, and stay there until you get the all clear sign. that is where it comes from. well, we mean a modified

shelter-in-place. then don't say shelter-in-place. say modified shelter-in-place. if you look at what other places called shelter-in-place, it is what we are doing now. >> is not exactly, though. what they are doing in a san francisco bay area is warning people only do essential things. you can go get medicine and groceries and things like that. would you consider that sort of model, the san francisco model for new york city? >> do you want to wager a dollar that's not the san francisco method? be careful, because there it is. i won't take your dollar. the shelter-in-place, except guard for essential services, walk the path, guard for exercise, walking, biking, running. family members homes to help with a family member or family member pat. well, if i'm going out to help with paths, i'm not in a room in a post nuclear holocaust waiting

for an all clear sign. so, language matters. that's all i'm saying. excuse me a second. we are doing businesses down to 25% of the workforce. should go to work. that will continue to adjust with the spread. the on the residential side, stay home. stay home. if you have to go out to shop for essential services, go out to shop. if you have to go help a family member, they have a problem, go help a family member with a problem. but -- and if you have to get outside of the house to exercise to get some fresh air -- which is 100% necessary for a lot of people in a lot of circumstanc circumstances, then do it. but, social distancing. it just stay away from people. these people even in new york city parks were all

clustered together. i don't know what they are thinking. stay away from people. a person can infect you, and they won't even know that they have the virus. and then, a special consideration. if you are a senior citizen, then hyper cautious on all of these points or hyper immune or underlying illness. if you look at the actual rules, jesse, what san francisco is doing and what we are doing, they are virtually identical. words matter at this point. words matter. quarantine, locked down. if these words are scary words. and no one is talking about those things. >> san francisco is talking about this place. >> shelter-in-place is a scary term for people, especially when they don't know what it means. and especially when you are doing what it means.

if you are not doing that, why do you call it that? we have a mandatory evacuation policy. but you don't have to evacuate. well, why didn't you call it mandatory evacuation? you know what i mean? why do you scare me and then i have to get unwound, right? there's not an active shooter shelter-in-place. it's not a nuclear holocaust shelter-in-place. wait for the all clear sign. there's not going to be any all clear sign. >> what about filing positions on time now that the deadline has been shortened? >> we change the dates. didn't really? >> the legislature passed a law -- travel with the new end date of the petition. previously it had been at march 30th avenue between april 1st and april 3rd, you had to file.

if you see the dates traveled exactly, the issue with leaving the filing deadline open is it invites fraud. people continue to collect signatures and predate them. that was all that we did. we have the dates traveled together. >> on a topic of rumors spreading and things for social media, there's a lot of chatter on social media. the communities there. you know many things about any positive tests in that village? is that an area of concern at this point? >> i have not heard that john. i have even heard the rumors. normally i hear the rumors. >> there are rumors of positive tests. i'm trying to figure out if that's true. >> i have not heard. >> of the 770 -- >> not that we are highly into rumors unless they are from th the -- >> the hospitals, how many are in the icu and how many -- at this point? >> we would have to get those

numbers for you. most numbers on a rolling basis. but then sometimes they come with incomplete information as to, where is everyone? the numbers are getting so big now that they are hard to get over the particulars. but as soon as we get them, we will get them to you >> in china trying to procure more ventilators? >> you know how we went through the price gouging on hand sanitizer? and you know, we make our own hand sanitizer here in the state of new york. i can get it for you. i know people. i know people. citrix smell. i was kidding when i said it was that floral bouquet. i took a pounding for that. i thought it was an obvious jo joke. obviously, not everyone appreciates my sense of humor. yeah, i know. i know too well. i was the question again?

ventilators. we had price gouging on the hand sanitizer. the ventilators, there is a global rush for ventilators. and literally, we have people on the ground in china. you can't even buy them from china. as i mentioned, i had the national governors association and most of the governors on the telephone yesterday. every state is looking for that. that's why the federal government has to come in and handle this. i believe the army corps of engineers and the state working together can create more beds. the beds to me very little good without the ventilator. because almost all of these covid cases require the ventilator. and a bed is great, but if you don't have the ventilator, then the bed is virtually useless. there is a federal stockpile of medical equipment.

i haven't gotten an official number, but the suggestion is that stockpile has about 12,000 ventilators for the nation. again, just for context where we are, we have about five or 6,000 security. we need 30,000. the federal government has 12. i mean, this is a bad situation. and, it would literally take the federal government to say to manufacturers, stop what you are making or start making these machines. they are fairly technical as i understand it, but the supplying chain issues are real. but it would take the federal government saying, we need to make these ventilators. it would take the federal government to say we need ppe equipment. we need gloves, we need masks. you know, when a cdc starts putting out guidance, you can use a scarf as a mask.

you know, it is time to make more masks. >> there is a sales tax tomorrow and yesterday the restaurants association rode a letter that you practically -- practically begging you to -- the deadline. >> if you know who that is? that's not -- do you know the video on baloney? he is the man. now, go ahead. no, no, no, no. we will talk later. i don't like to answer his questions -- rocket answer. i don't know the answer. i was stalling. >> we are looking that's deadline. this is for sales taxes that were collected prior to the crisis. people pay their sales taxes. businesses collect them on behalf of the state. they are holding those taxes.

so we are looking at the deadline. we are not asking them to pay anything. they are holding taxes. we're looking at the deadline because they may not be able to file and the it. we are considering and we will have some decision on that today. thank you. >> what is the effect of this new federal coronavirus on the state budget? you said before that your budget couldn't work -- >> it is no real money in the state for the budget. it's good for people. it's good for industries. but it is the minimalist from our point of view. one last, last, last point. i'm glad that michaela is with me here today. all of this government talk, this is a social family issue as much as anything. and it has to be talked through and dealt with family by family. and it's a little different for all families. i am dealing with it with my

family, with my daughters, with my siblings. the person i'm most concerned for is my mother. and so, i think her joining me today. she is with me up in albany now that she is not on spring break. i think it's cooler to be with me than road trip, right? oh, cool. are you sarcastic? thank you guys very much. now, i was saying to everyone. >> will you address the situation -- there is a prisoner that is testing positive. what are you doing with prisoners and/or guards? >> we have very specific precautions in prison. i just don't know. thank you, guys. >> you have been listening to new york governor andrew cuomo

addressing concerns after they saw a doubling of confirmed cases overnight. he is now mandating 75% of nonessential workforce staff must work from home. he says that we are taking this action to further reduce the density across the state and slow the spread of this virus. on this information -- he really took that on a big way saying this could be more dangerous than the virus itself. he sought out to clarify some of the warnings that you are hearing, especially for young people. he warns that young people -- they should be unintelligent and reckless by continuing to party during this crisis, responding to pictures of florida beaches still filled with young people on spring break. and the panic over the possibility of an entire new york city shutdown. he put that to rest or pushed back on it i should say from what we are hearing by saying, it's not going to happen. and that was the governor of the

state of new york. you've been watching a split screen, and now you see what was on the other side of that screen. that was the white house press briefing room where we await the president, the vice president and the white house task force briefing. >> ed: that is where we began a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." we are now moments away from the white house task force briefing. we will get an update on the outbreak. president trump has addressed reporters there. when it starts, we will bring it to you live. a lot happening at the white house. in the meantime, coronavirus cases surging around the country now had more than 9,000. the president taking actions to deal with the crisis and emergency aid packages. welcome back to "america's newsroom." i'm ed henry. welcome, sandra. >> sandra: the white house is pushing the senate to pass its stimulus package as the dow did cross back into positive territory after selling off overnight. you're now looking at a dow of

30 points a couple of hours into trading after erasing all of the gains so far that president trump had seen in the market since he took office. live in atlanta, john roberts. we saw you waiting at the white house where things appear to be a bit delayed. good morning. >> i think they were waiting as they did yesterday for governor cuomo to finish his press conference. getting more clarity from the secretary of treasury in terms of cash payments to american taxpayers. here's the way it breaks down according to secretary mnuchin on fox business this morning. it would be $1,000 to adults and $500 per children. a family of 4 would get a check from the government for about $3,000. we do not know at this point what the eligibility criteria would be. if the president yesterday said there's no reason to be sending somebody who makes a million

dollar a year a $1,000 check. it is clear that the white house is prepared to do whatever it takes to keep the economy from imploding. larry kudlow the chief economic advisor saying that the white house is considering taking as the obama administration did certain cases back in 2008 and 2009, an equity stake in some large companies. even suggesting that the administration and federal government might cover their revenues for certain small businesses. with money as cheap as it is right now, borrowing is basically a bottomless pit. if the stimulus is designed to keep companies afloat for at least a few months. but this idea of when america will be able to emerge in the strict guidelines that the president put out a number of days ago remains in question. the initial period is 15 days. but the surgeon general jerome adams saying earlier this morning that it may take a lot longer than that. listen here.

>> i don't -- again. when you look at the china numbers we are making be looking at 6 to 8 weeks before we hit our peak. >> yesterday the president and acted what is known as the defense production act. during wartime planes and tanks. the president says he is only enabled it, but hasn't put it into action. the democratic leadership of on capitol hill urging the president to pull the trigger on it. nancy pelosi in a statement saying the president must immediately use the powers of defense to produce these critical supplies before the needed worsens on those shortages become even more dire. if there's not a day to lose. the surgeon general saying that they have been getting good cooperation from private companies so far in terms of ramping up the supply of medical devices. >> the defense production act means the president can take

over productions. we've had good conversations with 3m and vitamins look manufacturer's spirit and the bill passed last night means that 3m can now make 30 million and 95 mask available to medical professionals around the count country. >> as dr. deborah birx said yesterday we expect the number of cases to spike dramatically. the backlog of tests are being put through a high put machine. we are getting results more quickly. the president may announce this morning that he is signing an executive order to have the fda allow the use of investigational drugs to treat people who are seriously ill with coronavirus. this goes on all the time with cancer patients, sandra. there has been resistance of the fda to do that because of the inherent dangers in allowing investigational drugs to be used without a lot of proof of safety or efficacy. it looks like the president is

making headway on that front. we will hear from him soon. speak to what we know about the meeting this week? he's been meeting with the travel industry and small business try to gauge on what they need and what federal assistance they need and at what level. we know that he's huddling this morning with the coronavirus task force. steve mnuchin made an appearance at the last briefing. and that was very important to hear what sort of stimulus they were talking about. that was the moment where he said i like the idea of a thousand dollars to each american. now we are looking at 2,000. might we see this morning and who is the president running a meeting today and the rest of the week? >> dr. birx will be here, dr. fauci might be here. dr. hahn might be here as well this morning. let president mixes it up a little bit. they tried not to have too many people on the podium around the podium at any one time. they are practicing social distancing just as we are at the

white house. i should tell you to reiterate before we are allowed to come into the white house complex, our temperatures are taken. before the briefing room, our temperatures are taken again. every person you see in this room again at behind me or around me at this moment does not appear to have any symptoms of any type of illness at all. that is a good thing. it's comforting to us to know that we are among people that appear to be healthy. >> ed: there is also news from the energy department. we've heard that the president has directed the energy department to buy some more oil. oil at such a low price fill out the strategic petroleum reserve right now. it may be a smart move at a time when oil prices are so low. >> when the oil prices are in the 20-plus dollars per barrel, you don't want to do it when it is $210 per barrel. what it allows the united states to do is backfill the petroleum reserve.

they keep some of those oil companies that might otherwise have their sales down afloat. there's no question that a lot of these companies that are in shale plays whether it be shale gas or shale oil are really hurting right now. i think we're going to have to see some economic stimulus to them as well. otherwise they run the risk of going out of business. eventually as the president has said, everything will come back here we are not going to have $20 per barrel oil for very long. you can bet when the economy starts to come back as the president predicts it will, the price of oil will spike up again. in the near term, a lot of the shale producers who are producers that have made the united states the number one energy producer in the world are likely going to need a lot of financial health in order to stay afloat. >> sandra: all right, john roberts at the white house for us where we expect everything to be underway at any moment. thank you. we have a lot more coming up. we are watching the white house for that briefing to begin. we will have that for you live

from "america's newsroom." we will be right back.

>> sandra: fox news alert. on wall street, here's a look at the big board this morning. a pleasant sight for many who saw many days of sharps allow for the dow jones industrial average. now you have the dow up 220 points as we await the white house task force briefing. it was set to begin at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. we have not seen them yet.

we are watching markets as we are looking at this now proposed massive stimulus package. the president talking about sending a thousand dollars to adults and $500 to kids in this coronavirus stimulus bill. he has been showing up at these briefings. we could see him just moments from now. >> ed: we are getting news that the state department is now going to advise americans not to travel internationally at all. they are going to level 4, their highest level. we had already heard about no level to china and the european china band. the impact on the global economy, not just the american economy, the state department is saying no international travel at all. >> sandra: allow changing it every moment now. >> ed: in the meantime, the u.s. seeing a growing number of cases as testing wraps up. at the number of deaths rising to at least 150. as connecticut and virginia

report their first fatalities. good morning, jonathan. >> as the case count continues to increase here in the u.s., there's actually some some encouraging news out of the chinese city where this outbreak began. today for the first time, at the of wuhan have reported no new covid-19 infections. this milestone shows that strict control measures have been working well, and they may lift up the lock out on that region if no new cases emerged over the days. here in the u.s., the covid-19 pandemic has dramatically reduced to blood donations because many of the schools and donations that normally host food drives have closed. keeping blood centers open and urging healthy people to donate. take a listen. >> the people that drop out are taking every step to make sure that the environment is safe including taking the donor's temperature when they present and take in their own

temperatures. having our donors use hand sanitizers before, during and after the donation. >> the cdc report finds that nursing homes reported to work while sick contributed to the spread of covid-19 among vulnerable elderly residents at long-term care facilities in the seattle area. at least 30 deaths are linked to the -- another cdc report on outcomes on the first u.s. patients with covid-19 found fatality risk increased with age and estimated to be as high as 27% for people 85 and older. the same report found that 38% of u.s. patients requiring hospitalization where between the ages of 20 and 54. and nearly half of patients admitted to icus were between the ages of 20 and 64. even though children are at very low risk of death are complications, they are capable of spreading the virus to those

who are at risk such as their grandparents. and so ed and sandra, public officials are trying to underscore that it's important for all of us to avoid infection regardless of age. >> ed: we appreciate that report. we are getting ready for the coronavirus task force. we are going to pause -- we're going to stretch it a little bit and see the white house task force is getting together and forming. we will see the vice president, mike pence is coming out as usual. we will see whether or not president trump comes out as well. in the meantime, we want to pause for all of our fox stations around the country to join us. >> you are looking live at the white house with the president's coronavirus task force is going to be holding a news briefing any moment now. you can see some members including the surgeon general have formed there. the vice president typically leads these, but in the last few days the president of the united states has also joined. he has keyed up the possibility today, an announcement involving

the fda, and terms of some therapy to deal with this pandemic while the scientists are also working on a vaccine. in the meantime, i'm ed henry in new york joined by sandra smith. sandra, we are waiting to see whether or not the president joins the task force, as well. >> sandra: really interesting, this hour every day on our show this week, watching this moment. where you got the governor of new york state, the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the nation in that state, he tried to calm fears out there so people take the right precautions and the right action to stem the flow of this virus. across the country, and then we have seen the briefing at the white house with the coronavirus task force that's been led by the vice president. the president himself has made appearances somewhat regularly. but we are expected to hear from them. and steven mnuchin appeared earlier this week at one of the briefings. so they are tackling this from

all angles when it's keeping americans safe. >> ed: here's the president and the vice president joining the news conference. >> president trump: thank you very much. i think this is going to be very important conference. i will get to that toured the middle. but i have a few things to report. i want to thank you all for being here. i have to say, i think with social distancing that the media has been much nicer. i don't know what it is, all these empty -- these in hyphen between chairs. we probably shouldn't have anybody sitting behind you, either. but i love it, it's so much nicer. i shouldn't say that because you will get me now. thank you all for being here. we continue our relentless effort to defeat the chinese virus. before i begin i want to start by announcing that today we are bringing home another american citizen, it's a big thing. very big.

he's on his way back to the united states after being imprisoned in lebanon since september of 2019. he's battling late stage cancer, mr. fakhoury will not be able to receive the much needed care and treatment in the united states. we've been working very hard to get him freed. he's finally able to have entire family at his side. so i'm very grateful to the lebanese government, they worked with us. we are very proud of his family. they've stood by him so strongly. and they were thrilled. the united states has no higher priority than the safety and well-being of our citizens. we've gotten a tremendous number of hostages out, as you know. i think we are 42-0. robert o'brien, as you know, was our chief negotiator for a large part of it.

did so well that now we have him in a different position. so i want to thank and congratulate robert and his te team, and i want to let everyone know that recovering americans held captive and imprisoned abroad continues to be a top priority for my administration. we have one young gentleman, austin tice, and we are working very hard with syria to get them out. we hope the syrian government will do that. we are counting on them to do that. we have written a letter just recently, he's been there for a long time. he was captured long ago. austin tice, his mother is probably watching. she's a great lady. we are doing the best we can. syria, please work with us, and we would appreciate you letting him out. if you think about what we've done, we've gotten rid of the

isis caliphate. we don't a lot for syria. we have to see if they are going to do this. it would be very much appreciated if they would let austin tice out immediately. as you know, my administration is working every day to protect american people, and the american economy, from the virus. yesterday i signed into law a critical support for american workers, families, and small businesses. it's a big thing. we are providing sick leave and family medical leave to those affected by the virus, and more help is on the way as we speak. our entire team headed by secretary mnuchin is on the hill. we are working with democrats and republicans, and there's a lot of good will going on. this is something that happened that was -- some people would say it's an act of god. i don't view it as an act of

god. i would view it as something that adjusts the pride the whole world if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped in place. it could have been stopped right where it came from, china. if we would have known about it, if they would have known about it. but now the whole world almost is inflicted with this horrible virus, and it's too bad. it's too bad, because we never had an economy as good as the economy we had just a few weeks ago. but we'll be back. i actually think we'll be back stronger than ever before. because we learned a lot during this period of time. i've also just invoked the defense production act to help facilitate distribution of essential supplies if necessary. we are working with congress to provide major additional relief to the workers, small businesses, and the hardest-hit

industries. we want to make sure everybody is able to continue on so that when we recover all of these companies and these great businesses, both very, very small and very, very large, are not going to be broken up and you have to put them back together. that would take a long time. because we really believe -- i believe in the curves , when this is defeated, this hidden scourge is defeated, i think we are going to go up very rapidly. our economy, and get back to where it was and beyond. today i want to share with you exciting progress that the fda's making with the private sector, as we/red tape like nobody has ever done it before. somebody was on yesterday on one of the networks and said there's never been a president even close that's been able to do what i've done in slashing all of the red tape and everything to get very important things to the market. medical. so we slash red tape to develop

vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done, long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this. as you know, earlier this week we began the first clinical trial of a vaccine candidate for the virus. that was launched in record time. it was just a few weeks. that would have taken years to do, not so long ago. as we raced to develop a vaccine, we are also producing antiviral therapies. that's what we are really going to be talking about today. that's the purpose of being up here today. to me, that's even more important. by its nature, you have to have long tests because you have to make sure what goes into somebody's body is not going to do destruction. do bad things. so you need long tests. they are doing great with the vaccines, but it's still a long process.

the therapies are something we can move on much faster, potentially. the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity and duration of the symptoms, make people better. essentially we are looking at things to make people better, or at the very early stages, they wouldn't even know they had it. that's where i believe it's going to work even the best. the fda commissioner, stephen hahn, is with us. he's fantastic. he's been working 24 hours a day, he has worked probably as hard or harder than anybody in the group, other than maybe mike pence. or me. what the fda is doing is incredible. they've done things in times that were not even thinkable. i've directed the fda to eliminate outdated rules and

bureaucracy, so this work can proceed rapidly, quickly, and i mean fast. we have to remove every barrier. there were a lot of barriers that were unnecessary. they've done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments, and we think we have some good answers. we'll find out very, very soon. clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies, and we are working on scaling these to allow many more americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise. we've had some really good promise. we will do so in a way that lets us continue to collect good data to know which medicines are safe and which medicines are working the best. we have a couple that we are in

really good shape on, and that's for immediate delivery. immediate. like, as fast as we can get it. the fda has also approved compassionate use for a significant number of patients. you know what that means. we are also reviewing drugs that are approved abroad, or drugs approved here for other uses. you know, one of the things i'm most proud of that i got was right to try. that's where somebody who is ill, somebody was very sick, determine ill, usually -- in past administrations -- we send this a year and a half ago -- you wouldn't be able to even think about getting any of the drugs that may be showing great promise. they've been trying for many decades to get this approved. it sounds simple but it's not because there is liability involved in lots of other things. i was able to get it approved, working with congress. right to try. this is beyond right to try.

what we are talking about today is beyond right to try. right to try has been, by the way, a tremendous success. people are living now that had no chance of living. where we take treatments, things that would have to go through years of a process, and if somebody was terminally ill -- i would say, "why wouldn't they be able to try this schema" they go to asia, europe, all over the world to try and find something. or some people, if they had no money, would go home to die. they go home to die, they had no hope. right to try has been an incredible success. this is beyond right to try. if treatment is known to be safe in europe, japan, or other nations, or effective against a virus, we will use that information to protect the health and safety of american people. nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus. now, a drug called

>> dr. hotez: , and some would add to it hydroxychloroquine, so chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, this is a common malaria drug. this is also a drug used for strong arthritis. somebody has pretty serious arthritis. also, it uses this in a somewhat different form. it is known as a malaria drug. it's been around for a long time, and it's very powerful. but the nice part is it's been around for a long time. so we know if things don't go as planned it's not going to kill anybody. when you go with a brand-new drug, you don't know that that's going to happen. you have to see and do long

tests. but this has been used in different forms -- a very powerful drug -- in different forms. it has shown very encouraging, very, very encouraging, early results. we are going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. that's where the fda has been so great. they've gone through the approval process. it's been approved. and they did it, they took it down for many, many months to immediate. we are going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states -- i spoke with governor cuomo about it at great length last night, and he wants to be right -- he wants to be first in line. so i think that's a tremendous promise based on the results, and other test. there is tremendous promise. normally the fda would take a

long time to approve something like that. it was approved very, very quickly, and it's now approved. by prescription. individual states will handle it. they can handle it. and doctors will handle it. i think it's going to be great. we are quickly studying this drug, and while we are continuing to study it, but the studying is also going to be done as it's given out to large groups of people. perhaps in new york and other places. we will study it there. there are promising therapies produced by gilead, and that is remdesivir. that's a drug used for other purposes that has been out. very good results for other purposes. but it seems to have a very good result, having to do with this

virus. that drug also has been approved or very close to approved, in that case, by the fda. i can't tell you how much we appreciate what the fda -- these people are incredible patriots. the job that stephen hahn is doing, dr. hahn, one of the most respected doctors in the country, by the way. i said, "are you sure you want to do this chemo" we weren't sure this would be in the playlist, what happen here. but he really has stepped up to the plate. wherever you are. where his see? i'd shake my hand but i'm not supposed to do that. i would get a lot of trouble if i did. but he's been fantastic. he's going to speak right after i'm finished. regeneron is a company that's in fantastically well, as i understand, with the bull and

other things. they are looking at some very promising events, also. so you have remdesivir, and you have chloroquine, and hydroxychloroquine. so those are two that are out now. essentially approved for prescribed use. i think it's going to be very exciting. i think it's going to be a game changer. and maybe not. but i think it could be, based on what i see. it could be a game changer. very powerful, very powerful. so i want every american should know we are doing everything we can, and these actions are important next steps. for the fda to act the way they acted with this kind of speed is an incredible thing. mostly they would say, "well, we could have it by next year. we could have it in two years from now." you understand, this is normally -- it's years and years and

years. they had it immediately. based on the fact that it's been used for other things, totally unrelated things. we believe these therapeutics and others under evaluation right now will be able to provide relief to many americans. we really hope that's going to be. this could be a tremendous breakthrough, tremendous breakthrough. and we will work toward a much-needed vaccine in the future, as i said. what we are doing with the fda is so exciting, and so many other fields. so many things happening. it's a very exciting time for medicine. and we appreciate that the american public has pulled together. they are really staying home. there is tremendous spirit in this country right now, a spirit like a lot of people have not seen. people have not seen anything like it for a long time. and that means democrat,

republican, they are pulling together. i hope everything is going good on the hill. maybe i shouldn't say this until i check out what's going on, because you never know. but i think there's a great spirit where the democrats and republicans and everybody else are getting together and trying to get things done. most importantly, the american public has been incredible. we took the best economy we've ever had and we said, "stop, you can't work. you have to stay home." there's never been a case like this. normally you pay a lot of money to get things going. he was a case where we are paying a lot of money to stop things because we don't want people to be together. so that this virus doesn't continue onward. so, there's never been anything like this in history. there's never been, nobody's ever seen anything like this. but we are doing the right thi thing. we have to get rid of it. our big war -- it's not a financial war, it's a medical

war. we have to win this war, it's very important. with that, i would like to just introduce dr. stephen hahn. again, i would like to send back with steve and our thanks to all the people working at the fda who are fantastic, talented people. we appreciate very much everything you've done, especially the speeds that you've got these two elements, these two very important drugs past. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to thank you for your leadership during this coronavirus outbreak. and thank you for the kind words about the fda staff. we have 10,000 scientists, doctors, and others. and more than that, working around the clock to aid the american people in this fight against the coronavirus. and those words are very much appreciated, sir. before the president nominated me, and i was confirmed as commissioner of food and drugs, i was a cancer doctor. i've sat across from a countless

number of patients and how to talk to them about their diagnosis and their treatment. one thing that was really important is to provide hope. i have great hope for how we are going to come out of the situation. what's also important is not to provide false hope, but to provide hope. as a doctor, that's the way i come to this. i'm speaking now to the american people as commissioner of food and drugs, but that part of me has not left. just look at the way the american people have responded to our calls for mitigation for social distancing. the american people have great resiliency, and i am so incredibly proud of how the american people have responded. as the president mentioned, he asked us to be aggressive, to break down barriers to innovation, and accelerate the development of life-saving treatments. we are doing that at the fda. the fda is committed to continuing to provide regulatory flexibility and guidance. let me make one thing clear -- the fda's responsibility to the american people is to ensure

that products are safe and effective. and that we are continuing to do that. our folks and their tremendous professionals are working day and night to do this. you just can't even imagine how much they are working to provide this support for the american people, and i thank them. since early january, long before the first domestic case, fda began working in collaboration with cdc. i also want to note we set up a command group and have been focused on the coronavirus since the very beginning of this public health emergency. this is in addition and all-government approach. i will describe what that means with therapeutics. an important part of that work is expanding the potential therapeutic options associated with coronavirus. we have learned from our colleagues across the globe about this. i want to focus on one thing. i was a cancer researcher before all this, and one thing i know about this great country of ours is that we have unbelievable

innovators. we have people who, every day, it's their job to develop treatments for all sorts of diseases. we are incredibly blessed as a country to have this. as is true in any unit, these great innovators, academia, private sector, they have engaged us about the best possible treatment options. we are looking at everything that is coming across our desks as possible treatment options for coronavirus. we are extremely encouraged by the interest and the promise that we've seen from these great american innovators. again, we need to look at it. we need the data, we need the information to make the absolute best decisions for the american people. but i want to assure you, we have over 70,000 people at fda were doing this every day. we need to make sure this sea of new treatments will get the right drug to the right patient at the right dosage, at the right time. as an example, we have the right

drugs, but it might not be an appropriate dosage form right now. that might do more harm than good. those of the things that it's our job to look at. that's why it's really important we have these dedicated professionals looking at these aspects of therapeutic development. at the same time, we are also looking through different mechanisms to get drugs into the hands of providers and patients. the president mentioned this, but one of the mechanisms is called compassionate use. let me tell you about this, if there is an experiment all drug, is potentially available, a doctor could ask for that drug to be used for that patient. we have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that. the important thing about compassionate use -- and that's with the president met that this is beyond right to try -- as we get to collect information about that. one of the things that we promised the american people as we will collect the data and make the absolute right decisions based upon those data about the safety and efficacy of the treatments. we are working expeditiously and we are working to make sure these products are as safe and

effective as they possibly can be. let me tell you about a few things we are currently working on. this is a plan that was developed with many of the people at this table, our infectious disease experts on the task force. in the short term we are looking at drugs that are already approved for other indications. so, they're already approved, as the president said, for other diseases. as an example, many americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug, chloroquine, and antimalarial drug. it's already approved, as the president said, for the treatment of malaria as well as an arthritis condition. that is a drug that the president has directed us to take a closer look at, as to whether an expanded use approach to that could be done to actually see if it benefits patients. again, we want to do that in the setting of a clinical trial, a large, pragmatic clinical trial, to actually govern event information and answer the question that needs to be answered. asked and answered. let me give you another example,

there's a cross-agency effort about something called convalescent plasma. this is a pretty exciting area. again, this is something that we have given assistance to other countries with as this crisis has developed. so fda has been working for some time on this. if you've been exposed to coronavirus and you are better, you don't have the virus in your blood, we could collect the blood. this is a possible treatment, it's not a proven treatment. i just want to emphasize that. collect the blood, concentrate that, and have the ability once it is pathogen-free -- that is virus-free -- be able to give that to other patients. the immunoglobulins could provide a benefit to patients. the everything over the next couple weeks, we have more information we are pushing hard to try to accelerate that. that is in the short term. there will be a bridge to other therapies that will take us 3-6 months to develop. this is a continuous process, there is no beginning and end to each of this.

we are pushing this through. the other great thing about the innovators of america, some tell us it has taken years to develop therapies. they are looking at pushing that to the month period of time. we are trying to provide them the regulatory flicks ability. at the same time, the scientific oversight to make sure it gets done in the best way possible for the american people. the president mentioned there is a vaccine trial currently being performed, a phase one trial. the earliest study that gets done. we expect that to take 12 months, to a time where we could actually improve a vaccine. these are all things to bridge to the prevention part of this with a vaccine. it's exciting work and the president's right, this is record time for the development of the vaccine. and impressive public-private partnership. the fda efforts to facilitate these products are focused on ensuring timely access while also meeting the agency's

world-respected gold standard, relying on strong data from clinical trials to determine if an experimental or an off-the-shelf drug that's used for something else can safely and effectively treat patients. we want to assure the american people that fda is all hands on deck. as the president mentioned, these efforts continue to work with interest sponsors to help expedite the work. we remain steadfast in fostering the development of safe and effective therapies for covid-19. thank you. >> president trump: thank you very much. mike? about the masks? >> vice president pence: thank you, mr. president. the white house coronavirus task force have met this morning, and all this very first day of spring we continue to make steady progress toward president trump's objective not only to marshal all the resources of the federal government, every state government, every local health official, but also to harness the power of the american private sector and activities over the last day reflect

all of those priorities. yesterday the president spoke with america's top physicians and nurses and garnered helpful insights about how we can best serve those who are serving americans who are dealing with the coronavirus. we also had a productive call with over 5,000 state and local officials, explaining the federal government's approach and our strong and seamless partnership with all 50 states and the territories. last night, as he heard, the president signed the family first coronavirus response act, which provides free coronavirus testing, paid sick leave, family leave for caregivers, and food assistance for the needy, among a broad range of benefits. today, as the president indicated, we expect that the senate will begin work on an economic relief package. later today, the president and i will meet again in a teleconference with the nation's governors. we will meet at the national response coronation center at

fema, and outline president trump's decision to have fema take the lead in our national coronavirus response. our nation's response through fema will be locally executed, state-managed, and federally-supported. on testing, we want the american people to know once again that testing is available in all 50 states and is becoming increasingly available literally every hour of the day. because of the public-private partnership that the president initiated several weeks ago with major commercial labs, i am pleased to receive a report today that tens of thousands of tests are being performed every day, and with the passage of last night's legislation, state and private labs are not required by law to report all coronavirus testing directly to the cdc. which will give the american public and also our researchers timely and important information. it's important for every american to remember that if