>> coronavirus infections are still on the rise this weekend and now americans are starting to weigh in. we've got brand new fox news polling that shows that 94% say they are concerned about the virus spreading. not a lot of surprise there, shall we say. welcome to america's news headquarters from washington d.c., great to be with all of you at home on this spring weekend. leland, it's great to be with you this weekend. i'm gillian turner. leland: there are 94%, 6% who are not. we're going to get into both sides of that.

i'm leland vittert. we're watching new hot spots now. that includes major cities in pennsylvania as well as the area surrounding the nation's capital. steve harrigan outside of the c.d.c. headquarters in georgia and how they're looking at the virus as well. hi, steve. >> bad numbers across much of the u.s. this past week. 27 states have doubled the number of cases in just one week alone and as you mentioned, some real potential hot spots, troubling experts. delaware up 221% in just the past week. the number of cases in south dakota, 218%. maryland, 194. rhode island 189. pennsylvania 183, all potential very worrisome hot spots. in the meantime, the economy continues to take a major hit from the virus. 16 million people out of work due to the virus. the president said reopening the economy could be the biggest decision he ever makes in his life. of course, the stay at home orders in the u.s. and most

states expire on april 30th. finally, a number of states grappling with how to mark easter sunday. here in georgia, the governor has allowed pastors to make their own decisions, in florida and in texas, religious organizations are exempt from stay at home orders and finally, kansas has gone back and forth. originally democratic governor issued an executive order, no groups of more than 10. that order then reversed by republican lawmakers. leland, back to you. leland: all right, we'll talk to the republican governor of oklahoma about what his decision is on this in the coming minutes. steve harrigan, thank you. >> president trump says he's going to make a decision any day whether to reopen the economy at the beginning of next month. he's also saying it's likely the biggest decision he's ever going to make in his life, not just during his tenure as president, but throughout his entire life. david spunt is at the white house. he joins us with the latest, david. >> gillian, and president trump has made some big decisions

throughout his life. he believes this happens to be the biggest decision and contrary to what some may think the president assures the american people he has not made up his mind yet. he's going to talk to experts, talk to different counsel and get different opinions if he should open the economy on may 1st. originally he talked about doing this around easter, which would be tomorrow. he said later at that was aspirational. obviously that's not going to happen. as far as may 1st is concerned, the president said he will listen to what the science has to say about the issue, gillian. this week, president trump will specifically be talking to members of the airline industry, executives, one of the hardest hit industries by covid-19. we've just come off what the surgeon general said would be our pearl harbor moment, yesterday over a thousand died from the virus and official expects the numbers may go down, do not become complacent. >> it's about the encouraging signs that we see, but as

encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak. >> we're hearing different things when the peak may be. now on tuesday, president trump will be talking about an open up the country advisory council, a task force, whatever you want to call it, he says this will have economic advisors, perhaps governors from both parties, republican and democrat, to talk about opening up the country. the president will announce that on tuesday. >> i want to put on both parties, i want to have some governors, am i going to have all the governors-- but would i like some governors on the counsel, any-- >> i've asked a couple. so far everybody said yes. i think that everybody would like to be on at that council, it's an important copresident's schedule. the vice-president is coming to the white house to meet with the coronavirus task force in the situation room. at this point no word on a coronavirus briefing.

if that changes, we'll let you know. gillian, back to you. gillian: you know, it's pretty shocking and sobering to hear that 2,000 more americans have now died and we haven't reached the peak of this thing yet. david, thanks for that report. we'll check back with you at the top of the next hour, david punt, thanks, leland. leland: those deaths coming while much of the nation is shut down, a majority really. there are eight states currently without statewide stay at home orders. you can see the map right there. joining us now the governor of one of those states, oklahoma, kevin stitt. good to see you, governor. appreciate it. anthony fauci who has sort of become america's doctor for lack of a better term has been saying on tv, i just don't understand why we're not doing that, referring to stay-at-home orders. it's up to the governors of individual states. i'll put it to you. why aren't you doing that. we've followed the c.d.c. guidelines and president trump's guidelines. they have not mandated you know, kind of a bunker in place type order. so we are focused on safer at

home. i've done that in all 77 counties in oklahoma and we're focused on the most vulnerable population. our deaths, the average age of the deaths are 73. and oklahomans are really paying attention. we're social distancing, i'm really proud of our business community. we've done-- we've gotten rid of all nonessential businesses. people are innovative and letting their folks work from home. we're seeing the outcome in oklahoma flattening the curve. we make the decisions in oklahoma based on our data not what's happening in other part of the state. leland: you mean by other parts of the country. >> country, other parts of the country. leland: i guess this is the question though. why-- does that mean that other governors in other states that don't have huge outbreaks, city next door in kansas where there is this shelter in place, bunker home, bunker down order, do they have it wrong? >> if you look at it in practicality, it is a personal responsibility. so if you look at the states, you still have to get out and go

to the grocery store. you still have to go to the pharmacy. you still have to go to work if you're in an essential business. at the end. day it comes down to personal responsibility and that he is what i've been telling our folks and they've been doing a really, really good job. we have the orders not to gather in groups of 10 or more, and we are flattening the curve. for example, over the last two weeks, our hospitalizations in oklahoma have been flat. and we've been focused on our surge plan, our hospital plans to make sure we're prepared for any peaks, so i look at the models every single day, we track ppe from every hospital and i want oklahomans to know we have the plan in place. we have actually four times the hospital beds available in oklahoma than our model shows the peak would be. leland: i have to ask you, because you got a lot of flak a little less than a month ago for a tweet you put out a picture of you eating with your kids. eating with my kids and my fellow oklahomans at the

collective okc there in town and it was deleted and a spokesperson according to the oklahoma newspapers, the governor would go to grocery store without fear and what encourage others to do the same. have you thought better of that? what's the advice if not go out to dinner? >> you've got to realize back then. this rapidly changed in the last month. the c.d.c. guidelines were don't be in groups of mo are than 250. if you remember, it went to 50 and then went to 10 so we were following the guidelines. i had not yet issued my executive order to get into groups of 10 or less. we've done that for the last three weeks and of course, all of our restaurants across the state are closed for in-dining. we're encouraging curbside and delivery. sat it was a different time and yes, i got criticized for it, but we were there supporting at

that time our local restaurants, and the guidance was no more than groups of 250. leland: fair enough. i guess this begs the question now looking forward. we hear about the president being sort of pushed on one side to do this national stay at home order which polls really well, a big constitutional question there. the other side, the president says i want the country open for business, i'm going to have this open the country task force. better to do this at a nationwide level or better left to the states as you seem to be making your own decisions? >> well, we believe in local control. so we're looking at the data, the scientific data in oklahoma and like i said, we've had flat hospitalizations. we have 400 people in our hospitals across the state of oklahoma. we're built for 4600. we have the national guard, i've got the corps of engineers and set up covid hospitals. leland: how are you looking forward in terms of how to open things back up, number one, and number two, do you need help from the federal government in terms of reopening oklahoma?

or is it ready for business now and you just want the government-- the federal government to get out of the way? >> well, that's obviously, we've got a task force. i've been planning for the lacks two weeks, how do we open up safely to keep the spread from happening in may, june and july and those are things we're working on it. you ease into it. elective surgeries that would come back and certain counties restaurants would go it maybe 50% capacity and you continue the social distancing. this is about personal responsibility, but also, in oklahoma we've developed an antibody test that we're really excited about and we're proving that today. a we've got a statistical sample, and we want to look at how many have already been exposed and we think oklahoma will lead the nation for antibody testing. leland: before we talk about that, and online and the oil

industry has these low oil prices. and we appreciate it the next weeks, godspeed. gillian. gillian: president trump says he's now weighing when and how to open, reopen the u.s. economy, start getting folks back into jobs, start being productive again. for more insight on this, we're going to bring on forbes media chairman. he's also-- sorry, forbes media chairman editor in chief, steve forbes. we're having some technological issues here and the american trucking association president and ceo chris spear. steve, i'm going to go to you first. president trump has been saying for the last couple of days that he's going to preside over what he's calling the biggest economic bounceback in american history. from where you're sitting, does that look likely? >> it depends on what they do

going forward. that's where this new council is going to play a critical role. first of all, on testing, to make an informed decision by the end of the month we should be doing three to four times the amount of testing a day. delighted what oklahoma is doing on that front. in terms of the economy itself, the president's plan to-- idea to have a payroll tax holiday for a year would be a game changer, it would lower the cost of hiring people, keeping people, give people immediate raise, for 3 $4,000 a year, you don't have any administrative costs and you just do it and the other thing is reducing the capital gains tax. if they set the right parameters in terms of those kind of economic policies and have the massive testing that we need so we can make informed decisions, like the governor of oklahoma is doing, knowing local conditions, then it can be done on a gradual and relatively safe basis instead of one size fits all. gillian: all right, so sounds like you're saying capital gains, payroll tax, as well as

widespread testing across the nation. >> three to four times what we're doing now. gillian: and coming to you next-- three to four times, got it. chris, truckers are really the life blood of the u.s. economy. that's being highlighted now during this pandemic. we're seeing shortages, you know, coast to coast, cities, rural areas, it doesn't seem to really matter. tell us what the number one challenge from your perspective is for truckers themselves right now? >> well, i think it's two-fold. it's making certain that our drivers can get from point a to b. restock those shelves, as well as get the medical supplies and emergency test kits to the front line with the emt's, the nurses and the doctors. i think second, to be certain we're removing as many i am p-- impediments. we're now interstate commerce and governors and mayors throwing up requirements not used to dealing with our industries, we have got to make

sure they remove the barriers. this they want the transition, then we've got to make sure that the trucks are ready for the economy. >> we've got nearly 17 million americans now recently newly unemployed over the last three weeks, acquiring-- inquiring about assistance from the fed here. once we get to kind of the zero point in terms of cases levelling off, president trump is ready to start moving forward and sending people back to work, from that point, how long does it take to get these 17 million people back, fed into the life blood of the economy, back to employment? >> sadly, it's going to be far above that 17 million in the next couple of weeks. but to get to your key question is, the key thing is, having those policies in place so that

people can feel safe going out in public again. having those incentives to keep people, hire new people then i think you could see a real move on that. obviously, the restaurant industry is going to need special consideration and the airline industry and the oil industry, so, there'll be parts of the economy that are going to be very slow in recovering, and that's where i think more special assistance has to be done. on the testing front, the governors are saying, this great new abbott testing machinery, they're not getting enough machines and cartridges to make it work, a very slow pace. the president needs a task force or a person to make that happen fast. in terms of small businesses, there are already talks about back logs about problems in getting loans. those have to be ram rodded through so these-- especially restaurants get the means to stay alive until they can start coming back again. they're going to need much more assistance. even when they're open, only able to do 40, 50% capacity.

gillian: all right, chris, now i want to get final thoughts from you, we keep hearing about the supply chain issues, manufacturers and farmers, saying, look, we're getting the product out there, it's a supply chain issue that's plaguing america right now. tell us a little about that. >> coming off your last question, there's plenty of inventory. what we need is customers to deliver to, the longer this takes to get to the recovery, the fewer customers we're going to have. they're not thinking about november. they're thinking about today, tomorrow, paying the rent, putting food on the table. and what we need from congress right now is speed and more liquidity. sba right now is pumping out basically 10 years worth of funding in a two-week time period and by next week, at this pace they're going to run out. congress needs to pick up the pace, get more liquidity in the market, make sure we have a bridge between the crisis and recovery. the more we have, we're going to

cover a lot quicker. gillian: the key there a bridge between the crisis and the recovery. gentlemen, we've got to leave it there. steve and chris, we appreciate it. >> thank you. gillian: leland. leland: a sad milestone reporting from reuters, u.s. coronavirus deaths top 19,600. that's the highest reported number in the world, exceeding italy, coming from reuters here in the past couple of minutes. more than 900 deaths have been righted in the united kingdom and we're learning a lot more about british prime minister boris johnson's condition which seems to have improved over the past couple of days. ryan chillicothe following that from london. hi, ryan. >> yeah, the u.s. has surpassed spain and italy as the epicenter of the pandemic here in europe. you mentioned those deaths in the united states. keep in mind the population in the u.k. is about a fifth of the u.s.'s population and yets, tomorrow, the expectation is

that there will already have been 10,000 deaths in this country. the concern this weekend, this easter, that people will go out and defy the national lockdown. we're three weeks into this lockdown now and it's expected to be extended perhaps by another three weeks later this week. we just don't know. you mentioned the prime minister, the first world leader to test positive for the virus, he's finishing off his first week in the hospital. he's in the. kristi kristin:-- icu, he's now out, doing pozles, watching lord of the rings and scans of his unborn child that his fiancee has been sending them. they haven't seen each other for 10 days. the lockdown for a month already continues in spain, very strict controls on movement there. they're credited with bringing down the daily increase in the numbers of infected people from over 20% two-weeks ago to 3%

today. spain reported its lowest daily death toll in nearly three weeks, still that's more than 500 people that have died there over the last 24 hours. more than 16,000 since the outbreak begin and there are less people in spain than the u.k. to south korea, where the government says it will strap electronic wristbands on those who defy the orders. they know that those have ballooned. they need the drastic measure to keep an eye on the people they need to watch. by the way, if you arrive in south korea from europe or the united states, you automatically go into a 14-day mandatory self-quaranti self-quarantine. leland: all right. ryan chillicothe in london,

we'll get back overseas in a couple of minutes. gillian. gillian: well, inmates at a kansas prison rioted for several hours yesterday. on friday, they stormed offices and set a whole lot of small fires. it took police officers several hours to restore the peace and no one is yet sure what caused the disturbance, but we do know that specific prison has drawn attention lately following reports that 16 employees and 12 inmates have contracted the coronavir coronavirus. millions of americans are facing the threat of severe weather this weekend. adam klotz is tracking it all from the fox extreme weather center, adam. >> hey there, yeah, unfortunately, big storms we're talking about, severe thunderstorms, winds up to 60 miles per hour. possibly tornados hitting the southeast this weekend. i'm going to be telling you where it's headed during my full forecast. that's after the break. this is our home.

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...simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] >> the u.s. military is packing up some hospitals on the west coast in new york. on the east coast the javits field hospital and the usns comfort, the beds are open.

lucas has the latest coast to coast. >> that's right, gillian, the u.s. army is looking at field hospitals, they're not treating many patients. yesterday i asked the pentagon, the top health advisor is it the governor or the states that got it wrong? >> i wouldn't say the states got to wrong. this he were doing due diligence and anticipating. being in a situation where they need that capacity and it's not there. >> the deputy defense secretary says he's now changing plans. >> well, what we're seeing is that inside new york city, many of the hospitals are still able to manage the workload. what they're suffering from is doctors getting sick or nurses or capacity. so the request had as been, trying to rather than always try to move the patients to you, when we have gaps, can you move the doctors to us? >> in new york, the ship and

javits center nearly empty. there are only a few hundred at the 2500 bed javits center in midtown. and the pentagon is sending hundreds of doctors into the new york hospitals. a shortage of tests is plaguing the military. >> why can't you test every sailor before he or she goes to sea? >> again, with the limited capacity in terms of testing, and it's not just the dod who wants the utilize testing, but they have the entire civilian sector, and in knowing that the current tests will show up a considerable almost of false negatives, we don't believe that is the best way to allocate testing resources. >> secretary says he's concerned

about the next ship to deploy, that's the u.s.s. nimitz. gillian: thank you for the reporting, we'll check back with you again, leland. leland: well, down in the southern part of the united states, not only are they dealing with the pandemic. they're dealing with the system moving through the central and southern part of the united states that could bring severe and dangerous weather this holiday weekend. meteorologist adam klotz tracking that. hi, adam. >> hey there, leland. yeah, unfortunately we're on the leading edge this have system. so it's something for saturday. it's going to be something for easter sunday, also. let's begin with the big weather we're experiencing on saturday, really bullseyeing on central texas. it includes austin, closer to dallas. what are we talking about with the system? well, big thunderstorms. there's possibility, a high possibility of some tornados once you get going later this

afternoon into the evening hours. this entire system then shifts off towards the east, and it looks even nastier for folks on sunday. so you're talking about an area right along interstate 20 from shreveport, running across mississippi and into alabama. again, thunderstorms with winds up to 60 miles per hour, large hail, big heavy downpours and some of those very strong tornados are going to be likely with this system on your easter sunday. even if you don't see that, a little farther to the north. there could be some flooding potential, you're getting into portions of eastern tennessee and that's rain up to six to eight inches. that's enough to be causing some flooding. unfortunately, yeah, this is a look at your easter sunday forecast. a lot of heat across the south and that's going to be firing up some of these storms. you also noticed a cold front across the center of the country. guys in the northern plains, there could be some winter-like weather, winter storms in the northern plains. so a lot happening this weekend, but folks stay safe across the

south. leland: stay safe, stay indoors and keep watching your local forecast. adam, thank you so much. >> yeah. leland: gillian. gillian: well, new york is seeing coronavirus related deaths climbing steeply this week, but the number of new hospitalizations appear to be stabilizing. that's good news according to health officials. we're going to bring you an update on new york and how other parts of the northeast are working to contain the spread of the virus. stick with us. ission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health.

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. gillian:. new york city's mayor bill deblasio is closing all public schools for the remainder of the school year, the city being the latest in the area to make that tough, tough decision. the latest on the ground from manhattan. >> gillian, some conflicting reports coming out of the mayor's and the governor's

office. that announcement that mayor deblasio made was not a decision, rather an opinion and a decision would not be made until he coordinates with the rest of the state and also neighboring states. now, of course, this comes just about an hour after deblasio announced that he would be shutting down those schools for the remainder of the school year and he was doing so to avoid a resurgence. listen. >> having to tell you that we cannot bring our schools back for the remainder of the school year is painful. but i can also tell you it's the right thing to do. all the focused strategies that are finally beginning to bear fruit, they need the time to continue to be effective. >> now, new york continues to carry the most cases in the u.s., 174,489 with now 7800 deaths, governor cuomo says the numbers show the state has

reached the apex which will continue to plateau for several days to come. daily coronavirus deaths are up slightly today at 783, but again, below that apex of 799 and intubations are in the negative as well. governor cuomo says if these continue to stay flat new york might not need those overflow field hospitals. new jersey is at 54,000 cases. michigan at 22,000 cases. now the crisis has taken a toll on the city's 911 system. operators receiving a call about every 15 seconds. the fire department averaging more and 5500 ambulance requests per day. 40% higher than usual and surpassing the total call volume that happened on 9/11. amid those calls painful stories, the new york post reporting a queens man lost his 73-year-old mother and 47-year-old brother in just one day. adding to his misery, he was put

on a wait list to be able to have a funeral home lay them to rest, just really tragic news. also governor cuomo continues to call on the federal government to institute a-- or produce mass testing. he said the state lab will soon be able to process 2000 tests per day, but that will not be enough, nearly enough to send millions of new yorkers back to work, gillian. gillian: well, another tragic landmark came this week when we were informed that new york state now has more confirmed cases of the virus than most countries around the world. thanks for that report. leland: now to the good that's coming out of this crisis. americans coming together. we'll introduce you to a group of volunteers delivering groceries to those in desperate need. one of the founders of that movement when we come back.

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>> americans across the country coming together now amid the coronavirus pandemic. every day we're seeing stories about ordinary folks stepping up to help those in need. one group at the epicenter is getting groceries to those who cannot leave their homes and are the most vulnerable. joining us now is invisible hands, simone, thank you for joining us today. your story is especially

wonderful because you're an actress who suddenly found herself with temporarily without work and didn't want to sit around doing nothing when you could be helping folks. it all started, as we understand it, with a facebook post. you wrote on facebook, hello, is there a way for an able-bodied 25-year-old to volunteer to deliver groceries and supplies to elderly tenants around the city? does anyone know of something like this? and from there, everything flowed. >> yes, yeah, that was the facebook post that started it all. i mean, i had been walking home from the subway and i saw elderly people doing their own groceries. i remember we weren't in full quarantine mode and it was starting to get bad and this doesn't seem right. there are healthy young people that should be helping them. and i posted it on my facebook status and my friend said why don't we be the people who make it and get people to help out

and invisible hands was born. gillian: so as i understand, you find that you're serving primarily elderly folks in new york, is that right? >> elderly and immuno compromised folks, people most at risk. >> so, people who are really under the most pressure to follow those stay-at-home orders, those guidelines. what are you finding as you go door-to-door to see those people? what are you learning about this pandemic that we might not know sitting here in a tv studio? >> we are learning that there's such, you know, in a time of what's called social distancing, which i think is incredibly wrong. it's physical distancing while still maintaining social connection. gillian: i like that. >> we're finding our volunteers call the person on the phone and they chat. they're standing onned -- on

the other side of the door and they talk about their day and make a new friend and people are so grateful for the help and grateful for the groceries and grateful to have a person to talk to and someone from a different generation could have a different experience of life that's connected by this little awful thing, but in a weird way in a time of intense separation, we're bringing people together. it's been so amazing to watch. gillian: very well said, thank you. so since that day, since the facebook post, you guys have recruited 5,000 volunteers and something like $20,000 in donations. is that right? >> we're actually-- we just passed 10,000 volunteers. we've done over 2000 deliveries. gillian: wow. >> we're right at about $60,000 in donations. gillian: wow, okay, so we were way off. so congrats. >> every day there's exponential growth. yesterday looked different from

today and-- >> tell us about individuals who want to join invisible hands or be on the receiving end. what is the website and info they need to know. >> invisiblehandsdeliver.org. find things out invisible hands. find delivery on the site or volunteer on the site. we're on social media @invisible hands official. and come join what we've built. it's an amazing way to get involved in your community. right now we're only serving the new york and new jersey area, but volunteers around the world are helping remotely. we have a section of our work space, you can help out remotely and answering phone calls and matching process. you don't have to be in new york and new jersey, but right now that's where the deliveries are happening. we'd love to expand, but we want to make sure we've got it right and stable in new york and new

jersey before we kind of head elsewhere because, you know changing and growing. gillian: well, simone, thank you so much for joining us to tell your story. i hope lots of our viewers will check out the website. at least check out you guys on social media. invisible hands. thanks, simone. >> thank you. leland: great work by simone and many of her friends. what comes next? how to get america back to work. president trump announced a new group to help reopen the country. >> we're also setting up a council, a very, very great doctors and business people. i call it the opening our country task force or opening our country council. leland: and joining us now, someone who has experience with white house councils and task force, shall we say. mack mccarty. it's good to see you, sir. does this make sense to you or too early?

>> no, i think it's about right, leland. i think the president, along with the governors and mayors and other leaders in our country both in the public and private sector first need to meet the moment, which was the crisis of the pandemic, to really seriously address the health issues. i think they-- if they make every effort to do that with dr. fauci and dr. birx and others, to flatten the curve so the hospitals do not get overrun. all of our hearts and admiration go out to the first responders, and doctors and nurses. now it's time to look past the moment. not to take our eye off the ball to be very clear. we've still got work to do to make sure that we safe as many lives as we can from this very viral epidemic. but it's time to look forward, how we can get this economy reopened because that's about renewing and building lives as

well and how to do that. so i think the president's timing is about right and other governors across the country are taking similar measures in their states, leland. leland: we heard from the governor of oklahoma who talked about how to exactly reopen, starting with elective surgeries, and restaurants and et cetera. as we look at the weekly job numbers. 6.6 million unemployment games. 6.9 million the week before. 3.3 million the week before that. 16.78 million, 10% of the work force without a job in three weeks. do you think it's fair to say that no president has ever faced something quite like this before? >> i think this situation is unprecedented, leland. i don't think there's any question about that. it's whiplash. the economy was moving forward at a rapid pace in terms of growth, jobs and even wage increases and all of a sudden, the pandemic hit and the economy

was shuttered, shuttered. and you can just look at the front pages of newspapers, look at those unemployment claims, which respect the 10%. so this is unprecedented. it's unsettling and it's challenging, but i think we can rise to meet the occasion. leland: you have a unique perspective in this having served at both the highest levels of government and highly successful in business both before and after your time in government. where is the intersection that government can actually help when it comes to reopening the country and what does government need to stay out of to allow american business and american prunes to do and be there best? >> leland, that's the right question in my view. i think the government, again, both at the federal, state and local level has to be supportive to be on the health front and from the local level and private sector for the health care

providers. and i think a pathway ahead to the extent it can be started and noted. that's what the government can do, give a framework and support. i think the package that congress passed following the administration's lead is a part of that. leland: mack mclarty of the clinton group, and happy easter. gillian. gillian: former vice-president joe biden is now the lone democratic candidate. the question is who he'll pick as his running mate. we have the short list coming up next. hold my pouch.

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>> the coronavirus will likely be here in november, whether it's here or not the presidential election will take place. all bets are off for formalizing the democratic ticket. joe biden says he's going to pick a woman for his running mate. jacqui heinrich with the short and long list. >> hey, leland, they expect the former vice-president to experience a running mate at 77 it's an important decision. if he were elected he would become the oldest president in

american history. biden has already committed to selecting a woman and praised california senator kamala harris and georgia's stacy abrams, and there's speculation, cart masto and michigan's gretchen whitmer. biden's campaign facing pressure from bernie sanders dedropping out of the race, wanted to exert pressure on the democratic platform. biden has committed to expanding medicare, for giving student loan debt, but biden's plans are not as progressive as sanders' plan.

the trump campaign has accused the biden campaign, and the health care stemming from china, seeing an up-tick on attacks. and biden said the xenophobia from trump and this administration is a scourge. biden has slammed president trump over the coronavirus response although the two men held a friendly conversation on the pandemic over the past week. leland: thanks so much. we'll be right back. hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!!

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leland: we have reached a sad milestone in the coronavirus epidemic and the fight against it. there have now been 2,000 deaths in just one day. that happening on friday. and as you can see there, by the graphic, at least 18,777 americans dead since the outbreak began. with that, we start our coronavirus pandemic special from washington. gillian, we're going to delve into the latest from here and from new york about the virus and also take some questions on what folks can do to keep themselves safe at home. gillian: that's right. we've got an excellent doctor, a couple doctor panels coming up for you next. leland, it's great to be with you, great to be with everybody at home. officials are keeping a close

eye now in addition to new york on new jersey and michigan. they've got the second and third largest number of deaths nationwide. we're going to head now over to the cdc headquarters, that's in atlanta, georgia, steve harrigan standing by with those latest numbers. steve. >> reporter: gillian, unfortunately the numbers at this point are all bad. the u.s. has now surpassed italy for the most deaths from this virus. the u.s. now has more than 18,000 deaths. that number has doubled in just one week. the highest single death toll in the u.s. came yesterday, 2,108 americans dying from this disease. 500,000 cases overall in the u.s. taking a hit on the economy as well, more than 16 million people losing their jobs, at least so far, from this crisis. president trump said whether or not to reopen the economy, when and how to do that could be the biggest decision of his life. of course, the stay at home

mandatory orders for most states are scheduled to end on april 30th. and finally, a number of states are grappling with how to celebrate easter sunday. in georgia, the governor allowed pastors to make the determination whether or not to gather. in florida and texas, religious organizations are exempt from stay at home rules. and kansas has really gone back and forth. the democratic governor issuing an executive order, no groupings larger than 10. the republican lawmakers overturned that, so a struggle there in kansas, see what to do for easter. gillian, back to you. gillian: steve, thanks for that report. we'll check back with you later in the show. leland. leland: president trump has said his decision when to reopen the united states' economy will be the biggest he's ever had to make and he's going to get advice from a new group of people on that and how to do it. david spunt from the north lawn of the white house with a little more on the president's plan. >> reporter: good afternoon from the white house. president trump and members of

the coronavirus task force will meet at 5:00 this afternoon, vice president pence also attending that meeting. president trump will talk to members of the airline industry, airline executives, that will happen at some point this weekend. air travel fell 96% last week, flights are empty, airlines struggling. the president signed the $2.3 billion -- trillion dollars, i should say, cares act a few weeks ago. 25 billed will go toward -- $25 billion will go toward the struggling airline industry. the president hopes to possibly have the economy open by may 1st. that's the day after the current 30 days to end the spread ends. president trump said yesterday whether or not to open the economy is not an easy decision by any means. >> i will certainly listen. i will certainly listen. >> will you take that advice. >> i understand the other side of the argument very well. i look at both sides of an argument. i will listen to them very carefully, though.

>> reporter: we have come off what the surgeon general said would be our pearl harbor moment. when it came to deaths yesterday, more than 2100 people, 2108 people died from the virus. officials say the numbers eventually are expected to go down. do not become come play sent. >> it's important to -- come complacent. >> this is not the time to feel since we made such important advance in the success of mitigation, that we need to be pulling back at all. i was actually harkened by the fact that we've been talking about the new york, new jersey, new orleans and other areas where they have really big spikes. >> reporter: looking ahead to tuesday, lee hand, that's when president trump will begin and unveil this new opening the government council or task force, whatever you want to call it. he said it's going to be economic minds.

we're hearing a little more about may 1st. we'll see what happens. president trump said we'll see where the science takes us. leland. leland: los angeles county extended their stay at home order until may 15th. we'll go from that. we'll see if the president comes out after the briefing at 5:00 p.m. thank you, sir. gillian: state and local officials are also playing a key role now in helping to contain the spread of covid-19. we're going to bring in a lawmaker who is on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus from new york. nassau county executive laura koran joins us. tell us what you're seeing on the ground in nassau county today. >> so we believe that we are in the plateau of cases.

we for five days in a row, we have seen more hospital discharges of covid patients than patients coming in with -- i believe that our efforts to stay home, to do the social distancing, keep the numbers from getting worse than they could. gillian: what about the econo

economy? president trump said he's going to make this big decision about when and whether to reopen the economy nationwide. >> we have to do it in a concentrated, method call way, together. we can't do one offs. we are not an island in and of ourselves, our schools are not an island in and of themselves. we have to look at the numbers and we have to do it together. everybody's ready to get back to work, everybody's eager to get back to work. we have to do it in a way that's safe, method call, using the data, that's regional. gillian: what is the number one challenge you're seeing now? states are saying it's a lack of

ppe and ventilators. what is it for you guys? something else completely? what is it? >> right now, believe it or not, the thing we're lacking the most is gowns. gillian: what's your advice, dealing with this for months, other hot spots around the country that are beginning to emerge like your neighbors in new jersey, like detroit, what can you tell local officials there. >> take very seriously the social distancing, the more seriously you take it, residents take it, the more lives you'll save and the less tax you'll be

putting on your hospitals, your healthcare workers. ours were stretched to the limit. when we were at our apex, it was desperate. to protect the healthcare workers, protect residents, you have to take the social distancing guidelines very seriously. we don't like it. we're human beings. we're social creatures. it's in our dna. it's the way to get through this more quickly, more safely and with more lives saved. gillian: we're going to have other local officials on the program today, we'll be sure to share that advice with them. thank you for joining us, telling us about what's going on in nassau county. we appreciate all of your time, of course. >> thank you very much. gillian: leland. leland: nationally, president trump ordered top administration officials to help italy in the fight against the coronavirus, this as the number of deaths in that country has reached nearly 19,000. amy kellogg live in florence as we understand they've also extended the stay at home order there. correct, amy?

>> reporter: that is correct, leland. and i want to start with a couple of items that probably made a lot of italians smile today. first was that aid package that you just referenced, $50 million aid package from the united states to italy which will involve also a lot of the -- or some of the 30,000 u.s. troops who are stationed here in this country. also, today the press conference about the numbers of deaths and recoveries and new infections, there was an item about a 94-year-old man who has just pulled through coronavirus. so anyway, meantime, of course the italian authorities keep saying we need to really make sure we don't throw away any of the gains that we have made in terms of flattening the curve with the restrictive measures that have been put in place, the lockdown is extended until may 3rd but it's easter weekend and a lot of italians are clearly really feeling

cooped up, wanting to be with families. 10,000 summonses were handed out to people for breaking the quarantine. now of course also that implies that the police are out in force and will be all weekend and apparently they're even going to be checking the utility bills and garbage disposal to catch those who may have escaped to a second home here, something that is not allowed and this is one of rome's finest grocery stores you should be looking at people making preparations for easter weekend at home. the mood somewhat solemn as people prepare to celebrate an easter like no other. many were sad not being able to partake in the stations of the cross last night, the good friday procession usually carried out at the coliseum. italy's foreign minister sent a message of thanks to the americans, president trump and mike pompeo for the support that the united states is showing to italy at this time. again, that support to ngos,

that support that will involve troops over here, some of them will be helping to treat non-covid patients because of course the hospitals here are absolutely full to the gils during the crisis. leland, back to you. leland: amy kellogg in italy, live coverage of the mass at saint peter's bas basilica tomow morning at 5:00 a.m. herein. thank you. gillian. gillian: negotiations between republicans and democrats on capitol hill over a new potential phase four relief package for families and businesses is heating up now, this as some people could as soon as this week start seeing major relief from the phase three recovery bill. garrett tenney has all the latest details on that. garrett. >> reporter: gillian, these checks couldn't come at a better time for the 16 million americans who lost their jobs during this crisis. a senior treasury department official tells fox news that most folks who are eligible to receive those payments will see them in their bank account or

mailbox by wednesday. at the same time, the white house is warning that funding for the payroll protection program is expected to run out by the end of this next week. more than half of the $350 billion in forgiveable loans to small businesses have already been approved. this past week, democrats blocked the gom effort to add another $250 billion to the program and are demanding that hospitals and state and local governments get another $250 billion as well. >> we're all for continuing to provide relief but we want to get the money out that's already been promised and we want to make sure that next tranche of dollars goes to the areas that are hardest hit, particularly in minority communities. >> reporter: this morning the top republicans in the house and senate slammed the democrats' effort, calling it a reckless threat to continue blocking job saving funding unless we renegotiate unrelated programs which are not in similar peril

adding this will not be congress' last word on covid-19 but the crucial program needs funding now. american workers cannot be used as political hostages. this latest comes after the white house agreed on friday to bipartisan negotiations for a phase four relief package and there's already a lot of disagreement of what that should include today, the heads of the national governor's association weighed in on that, demanding $500 billion from the federal government to make up for losses in state revenue during this crisis. gillian. gillian: well, coronavirus has come and at some point coronavirus will make its way around the world and be gone. but congress will always be fighting about something no matter what. garrett, thanks for that. leland: the fight against the coronavirus is personal for everyone who has it and for their families and we're learning a little bit more about lisa murks' battle against if coronavirus. you might remember, she's a colorado nurse who fought the virus off, tested negative, was

on the show and has now tested positive again. lisa joins us now from her home in colorado. lisa, how are you feeling? do you feel like you have the virus again or is it simply antibodies rolling around somewhere in the bloodstream? >> that's a really good question. so i tested positive 30 days after. i'm still testing positive. i feel like i have the antibodies but i'll know a little bit more. they sent a blood specimen to the cdc on the ninth of april so they're going to be studying that and they did another pcr test on me as well. so i'm just waiting to hear back. leland: as we went through your first battle of the coronavirus with you, you were really in very rough shape. i think you would agree with that statement. i don't want to categorize it too much for you. but do you feel like have you the virus again? >> no, i don't feel like i have the virus. i definitely feel like it's been a roller coaster ride. a couple days i feel really good, other days i would feel

pretty lousy. for the last week i've been feeling really great. i had a minor, minor sore throat and that's it. but that was after they did a swab on me. so i think maybe it's just stirred up some stuff. other than that i've been feeling good. i've been walking down our alley, i've been doing stuff around the house. my energy's coming back, my appetite is coming back. so i've been feeling really great. i keep -- i guess i'm a super shedder. it's been 30 days and i have another -- i have a girlfriend that's also shedding the virus, a healthcare worker and she's on day 28. leland: we heard about so many americans, healthcare workers on the front lines of this, also contracting the virus which is one thing in a big city like new york or chicago or detroit where there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in the medical world. but in a place like rural colorado where you are, it's only a couple of dozen or so. are you at the point right now

in your county where people are able to still get medical care if they need it or are things running short? >> we can get medical care. we've enacted a law in the county where we're not allowing any second homeowners or anything like that to come into the county, just because our hospital is a very small hospital. so we don't want to burden any of the healthcare workers or hospitals. and if you get put on a ventilator it's likely you're going to have to get flown out to a different -- to st. marry'r mary -- st. mary's or up to denver. leland: gunnison colorado, for those who have not experienced god's country, is a long way from just about everywhere in central colorado. it's a tough place to get to, he's person any the winter. i wonder what it's like in town. this is a ski town.

you rely on tourism and the economy there has got to really be crushed by that. is that weighing also on the healthcare system? >> the economy has definitely suffered here in crested view. we have a lot of restaurants and essential business -- nonessential business that's are closed right now so people are really relying on help from others and the stimulus packages that are going to be coming out but it's been rough. i mean, we have the last time i looked, we had over 101 cases in the county alone and we only have about 9,000 people in the county. leland: as you point out, such limited healthcare resource there's in terms of being able to put people on ventilators. our viewers will be heartened to know you're still helping out folks with telemedicine and we can say we appreciate that as i know so many people in that rural part of america does as well. god speed to you. we're going to check back in with you and let us know what the cdc says about your blood test. all right? >> i will. i'll keep you posted. thank so much.

leland: happy easter. keep the faith. gillian. gillian: let's bring in a lawmaker helping to battle the coronavirus in the midwest. now from detroit, mary sheffield joins us. she is detroit's city council pro tempor. we keep hearing about how detroit is an emerging hot spot. i want to ask if you agree with that assessment. tell us what that looks like on the ground. >> first of all, thank you for having me and unfortunately it's the reality of what is happening here in the city of detroit. when you look at a city that has a high concentration of african americans, predominantly a black city that has a concentrated area of poverty, i think it further reveals some of the disparities that already exist and i think the coronavirus sheds light to that so we are experiencing high amount of cases in detroit but i do think that with the orders that are in place, with the 15 minute testing that we have on the

ground here, with the drive-through testing, we are going to beat this and we are making some strides and some progress. gillian: now, what's the number one challenge the city is facing? is it lack of ventilators? lack of hospital beds? lack of ppe and medical equipment or something completely different? >> i think it's really a combination of those. i mean, we are definitely in need of medical staff to help assist. we have a field hospital now at the tcf center which is a very huge conference facility here in the city of detroit and we put out calls. we need medical staff to help assist, to treat the patients. we are in need of ventilators. you mentioned we're going to eventually have ford and gm produce some ventilators here in the city of detroit to help with that, that speed and that production that we need. but it's really all hands on deck effort and we're looking for medical staff, ventilators and more beds to help assist and treat individuals who are experiencing symptoms and are

sick. gillian: a whole host of problems challenges you're confronting now. mary, we wish you the best. thanks for joining us. hope you'll stick with us into the next side of the break. there was a time when this represented the future.

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gillian: you are looking live

at new jersey's governor phil murphy, speaking in ton trenton, providing an update. let's listen in. >> our fema partner testing sites will both be closed. next week's schedule for each site will be posted on our information hub at covid-19.nj.gov/testing. on that page you can find information on the 18 other public testing sites being run in countless -- sorry, in counties, rather, across the state. but there are quite literally as i said dozens more testing sites that are available to you if your primary care practitioner determines you meet the requirements for testing. i think i said this as of yesterday or thursday, that number is at least at 57 around the state. and before i hand the briefing over to judy -- gillian: that's governor phil murphy in new jersey. we will bring you back to him if anything breaks out of there. for the moment, we're going to take you to a panel of experts,

part of our job here at fox news channel is to make sure that you at home can stay as healthy and safe during the pandemic as possible and towards this end we try get you the best medical information, the most up-to-date advice from some of theting ques from viewers all week long. we got a team of experts who analyzed some of the questions so we can throw them at doctors here live for you on air. we're going to bring in fox news contributor and health policy professor at johns hopkins, this is dr. martin mccarey and respiratory director, professor of pulmonary critical care, dr. charles powell. dr. mccarey, first question from the viewers is for you. it comes from john judd who says how many mutations have been identified now and what

difference does it make on the severity of the virus? >> so far, this has been a stable virus despite the mutations. initially there were two, now we know there are at least eight. i respect most at harvard, dr. elidge, he says the different strains will not affect the different antibodies, the immunity to the virus. we hope it mutates to a safer form or heat sensitive form but so far we've not seen that. gillian: okay. dr. powell, next question goes to you. it's from a viewer named george person. he says how does the coronavirus live within the lungs, exactly? >> well, the coronavirus enters the lungs through the mouth, through the nose, and goes right to the lung cells where there's a receptor that binds tightly to the virus. the virus makes its way inside and it grows and replicates. and then it will persist until

the immune system or the inflammatory system can knock it out and kill it. that happens in most patients, 80 to 90%. but in about 10% of patients the immune system, the inflammatory cascade that gets released by the virus being in the lung cells can cause more problems and cause severity of illness that happens eight to 12 days into the course. i want to add one more thing into the topic that we talked about which results in mutations and while there's no evidence that there's a change in the severity, the information from that mutation really gives a bar code to tell us the origin of the virus and that's very important to understand how it got to the united states. so in washington state it looks like the virus came from china and in new york it looks like it came from europe. gillian: from europe. we're starting to get a glimpse into all of that now. dr. mccarey, viewer kathy nash says i understand why the

elderly especially in nursing homes may be affected more by the virus. my question is how are the virus getting to them. they are there 24/7 and not out and about. good question. >> it's most likely from the staff and from visitor as long ago as two weeks ago. the incubation period can be up to 14 days and we know that in the one to two days before you develop symptoms is the time when we see the most viral shedding during that asymptomatic period. how many people have the virus and don't even know it, the first study out of germany in an area called ganglet near belgium found that in 80% of the random population sampled 15% of the population has the antibody so more people have had the virus without symptoms than probably realize. gillian: okay. dr. powell, ptate junior 56 says can the virus spread through tobacco smoke? >> no. it is not airborne spread.

it is spread by droplets. however, i can't resist the opportunity for us to think in the long term. when covid is over, we have to pay attention to the health consequences of smoking and we should not smoke gl. heather.gillian: never a good o do, whether there's a pandemic circulating across the globe or not. don't go anywhere. hold tight. we're going to ask you another round of viewer questions coming up on the other side of this quick break. stick with us.

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gillian: new york's governor, andrew cuomo, has announced a growing number of fatalities in his state. experts keeping an eye on the growing number of cases in other parts of the northeast now. correspondent aishah hasnie has the latest. aishah. >> reporter: gillian, the governor says that the state has reached its apex and the numbers will continue to plateau in the

next several days. new york continues to carry the most cases in the entire country, 174,489 now with more than 8600 deaths. daily coronavirus deaths are up slightly at 783 but again, below the apex of 799 and intubations are also down. now, cuomo says if the rates stay flat, new york might not need the overflow field hospitals. meantime, new jersey is still at second place and michigan at third. governor cuomo pushing back after mayor de blasio announced he was closing schools for the rest of the school year. listen. >> there has been no decision on the schools. that's the mayor's opinion. i value it. i value laura kern's opinion, george vladimir's decision but the decision will be

coordinated. he didn't close them and he can't open them. >> reporter: those two offices remain at odds there. the crisis meantime has taken a toll on the city's 911 system, operators receiving a call just about every 15 seconds. the fire department averaging 5500 ambulance requests per day, that is 40% higher than usual and surpassing the total call volume on 9/11. amid the calls, some painful stories. new york post reporting a queens man lost his 73-year-old mother and his 47-year-old brother in just one day, adding to his misery, he was put on a wait list to be able to have a funeral home lay them to rest and this shocking story out of westchester county now, according to local news reports, apparently police have arrested a 29-year-old man after 22 vehicles had their tires slashed and those vehicles, those owners included nurses who had just worked an overnight shift.

back to you. gillian: something you just reported there that just jumped out at me, 5500 ambulances being called every day in the city. it's just horrifying. aishah, thanks so much for that report. leland. leland: sadly, we are now approaching 20,000 u.s. deaths from the coronavirus with 2,000 alone just yesterday. fox news medical contributor, health policy professor at johns hopkins, dr. martin mccary, professor, dr. charles powell join us now. gentlemen, appreciate you sticking around to get to some more of the questions that were submitted on facebook and instagram. if your question doesn't show up, please submit it again. lisa writes through facebook, can you get the coronavirus through the eyes? we are covering our knows and mouse -- nose and mouth. should we have eye protection,

dr. powell. >> yes, coronavirus can enter through the eyes. some patients have eye symptoms, irritation of the eyes, red eyes and the virus can be found in the lining of the eyes. so why don't we wear protection on the eyes? we don't because the main purpose of protection is to prevent us from coughing and expelling our droplets from our nose and our mouth. it's not in the tears. there's no need to cover the eyes. leland: if someone's going shopping at costco or wherever that there's a lot of folks, costco is doing social distancing but pick a store that doesn't limit the number of people inside, good to wear glasses over your eyes? does that make a difference if someone next to you is sneezing or coughing. >> if you feel that you can't resist touching your eyes and putting something between your hand and eye is a good idea. otherwise, not necessary. leland: interesting point. when the shut down is over and people leave their homes, isn't the virus just going to explode again?

this comes from jim adams. we were hearing governor cuomo talk about this at length. we have had encouraging information, leland, over the last few days. the number of new patients that go on a ventilator is at record low levels. we're seeing a milestone, fewer admission toss an icu than discharges. so there's a lot of encouraging information that we're hiting that plateau. we have to remember, yesterday may have been the most deadliest day in modern american history and those days are going to continue and next week may be the deadliest week. although the chaos and the hell is all in hospitals and it may seem calm outside like we don't really have a problem, the suppression is working. we know generally these modeled curves are symmetrical. it may be that we need a ramp-down time and it may be our get back to work phase is at different stages for different groups at different levels of risk. we have to prepare the virus may

not be eradicated by summer. there could be cases in the fall and hopefully we can contain that burden to that similar to a regular seasonal flu season. leland: we can hope. dr. powell, given your title and what you've been at counse conqg over the past couple weeks, i can imagine it's been a long couple weeks. shelly writes this. if the virus is spread through the air, how safe is it to have hundreds of people shelter in place in apartment buildings if the ventilation systems aren't adequate, this a chance of spread through the air ducts and a follow-on question was about cruise ships because there was some thought that people who were quarantining on cruise ships might be getting arthritis yo--getting it through the air ducts. >> most of the evidence just shows it's from droplets, not airborne. so shelly doesn't need to worry about the duct system in her apartment, just needs to stay distant and that will be the most effective strategy to reduce the spread. distancing works. we need to stay apart.

we cannot let up. leland: i can't miss this opportunity to ask a question about your time there in new york. from your training through your residency, through your fellowships and now being an attending physician and professor, was there any way to train and to get ready for the situations that you all encountered over the past couple weeks in the hospitals of new york or did you just sort of have to design the airplane as you flu it -- flew it? >> there are two elements to this. i've been doing this for over 20 years and i never, ever, ever saw anything like this, so many really sick patients coming in such a short period of time. it's unprecedented. when i say there's two approaches here, one is to make sure we have enough people, enough protection, enough medicines and enough supplies to take care of all those who needed our care. that was step one. we're not used to doing that every day. step two is to take care of the patients once they're here. we're much better at that, much more accustomed to that. now we're able to transition from that step one, new the peak

is over, to focusing on step two and take all the learnings that have accumulated and apply them so we can apply new treatments and better diagnosis tests and help patients with covid. leland: boy, i can just imagine how exhausted you and your teams are there. our thanks to them. thank you for joining us, sir, dr. mccary, thanks as always for taking part in this. another doctor's panel tomorrow, same time, same place, same instagram and facebook to submit your questions. gillian. gillian: here in washington, d.c. the mayor is honoring the lives of those who have parished from the -- per requireished fre coronavirus so far. there are 38 deaths so far in the city. take a listen to what she says. >> i'm asking the residents of washington, d.c. to join me in a moment of silence in recognition of lives lost in our city.

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gillian: this is a fox news alert. queen elizabeth just released an easter message, she touched on the impact that the pandemic is having in the united kingdom, across the world, all while striking a hopeful, optimistic tone looking forward. take a listen. >> this year, easter will be different for many of us. but by keeping apart, we keep others safe. but easter isn't canceled. indeed, we need easter as much as ever. the discovery of the risen christ on the first easter day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose and we can all take heart from this. gillian: you know, leland,

she's almost 100 years old now but she's been an incredible leader through this pandemic for the u.k., i mean, a real voice of like moral certitude and resilience and giving people hope especially while the prime minister has been in the hospital. leland: she has seen so much and her country go through so much, from world war ii and the blitz and the recession that hit the united kingdom, the troubles with northern ireland. she's been a steady hand for those in need of comfort and the promise of a better tomorrow. so many of the folks that need a tomorrow and the promise of that is the people out of work during the coronavirus outbreak and food banks across the nation are ramping up efforts to try and help the growing number of people in need. christina coleman taking a closer look at how these org. organizations are doing it and the challenges facing them. there are lines that go for hours now, christina. >> reporter: that's right, leland. food banks and pantries across the nation are scrambling to

meet the big surge in demand as millions of people need help feeding their families after losing their jobs, many people waiting on unemployment checks. cars can be seen in long lines for miles. the high demand for food assistance right now is depleting resources at some food banks. one of the nation's largest hunger relief organizations, feeding america, operates 200 food banks nationwide. and they released a statement saying they face critical gaps in funding, food and volunteers since the covid-19 crisis. they said, quote, never has the charitable food system faced such a tremendous challenge and we need all the resources we can get to help our neighbors during this terrible time. meantime, the tsa established a food bank at washington dulles international airport to help employees in the airport community who were laid off or had work hours slashed. that food bank is taking steps to stretch the amount of food they are able to give out.

>> as soon as people found out about it, they started coming in droves, hundreds of people, taking quite a bit of the food and nonperishablings like diapers and things like that so we had to limit to one small bag per person so we can do as much as we can to give food and stuff for everyone. >> reporter: and instead of allowing people to pick and choose what they want like food pantries normally do, the volunteers are handing out prefilled sacks of food to lessen the person to person interaction and reduce the chance of any potential spread of the virus. leland. leland: noteworthy there with the tsa workers at dulles who set up the food bank for folks who work at the airport and are out of work, the folks who work at the airport set up this for the tsa when they were shut down. so paying it back. gillian: the real estate industry is reeling now from the pandemic. we're going to take a look next,

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leland: spring is usually prime scene for the housing markets but the coronavirus making it near impossible for realtors to show houses the way they used to.

allysia kunez shows us how they are adapting. >> realtors have had no choice. take a look at the staggering number, from new data out by zillow. 3-2 home tours are up by 408% since february. some folks do want a personal approach. they also want to stay safe. there are some real estate agents like sally forster in los angeles who are showing folks homes this way. >> you have the open area to the kitchen. and what a kitchen this is. this is where you may want to hang out. then we have an absolutely beautiful fireplace. >> mortgage rates are super low right now but many americans are now waiting to see how the economy looks on the other side of the pandemic, that goes for buying and selling. according to the new report, the number of newly listed homes nationwide is down 27% from a

year ago this month. and look at some of the worst hit cities, detroit, pittsburgh and new york, with prospective home buyers want to see a place in person, agents are doing whatever is necessary, bringing purell, wiping things down with clorox. in plai blaine, minnesota, a tie company started doing closings via drive-through, a lot of folks are refinancing right now. the total inventory of the market is up which may be confusing since the number of new listing is down. what that means is that the houses that have been on the market are actually not moving. i'm in denver. we'll be right back. it's tough to quit smoking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

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libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. leland: now fox polling shows that 75% of people think the worst is yet to come with the coronavirus pandemic as we learn that there are now more than half a million coronavirus infections here in the united states. sad benchmarks that we're making, making that the third hour now of america's news headquarters from washington. i'm leland vittert. good to be with you at home. good to be with you, gillian. gillian: hi, gillian. this is hour three. i'm gillian turner. we're seeing that over 19,000 people across the country have been killed by the virus. it's a terrible, terrible number that's continuing to climb.

interestingly, wyoming the only state that has not reported any deaths. a little glimmer of hope, perhaps. steve harrigan is going to join us now, he's at the cdc headquarters which is in atlanta, georgia. he's tracking all the latest stats and data for us this weekend. hi, steve, what can you tell us? >> gillian, across much of the country has been an extremely rough week, 27 states say after one week the number of cases in those states is more than double what it was just one week ago. and at least five hot spots are emerging with record numbers of the virus. delaware up 221% in just one week, south dakota, 218%, maryland, 194, rhode island, 189, pennsylvania, 183. the economy still getting battered by the virus, more than 16 million people have lost their jobs due to the virus. president trump said when and how to open up the economy to reopen it would be the biggest

decision he's ever had to make. of course, most states still sticking to that april 30th deadline, that stay at home deadline, that's the date that expires in most states unless it is extended. also, a lot of debate over the easter holiday, how to mark it in different states. in georgia, the governor said it's up to the pastors to decide when and how to congregate. in florida and texas, religious organizations are exempt from the stay at home orders. in kansas, they flip-flopped. the governor, a democrat, issuing an executive order, no gatherings of 10 people or more but the republican lawmakers overturned that so a real battle in kansas for how to celebrate easter. gillian, back to you. gillian: steve, thanks for that report. president trump is calling his decision on when to reopen the u.s. economy the biggest he's ever had to make, not just going to impact tens of millions of americans but people all around the world. this comes as he announces a

formation of a new council to help come up with a plan to do just this. david spun joins us live from the white house with more. david. >> reporter: a lot of sad numbers to report yesterday, the united states saw the most deaths that they've seen so far that this country has seen so far. actually right now the united states today passed italy as the most deaths in the world for coronavirus. president trump and members of the coronavirus task force will meet at 5:00 this afternoon in the situation room to discuss different things about mitigation and testing. the administration has come under a lot of criticism about that testing and how fast those tests are being turned around. want to read a tweet from senate minority leader chuck schumer this afternoon. president trump, you need to get a handle on testing now. we fought for free coronavirus testing and we're continuing to fight to ensure that americans are getting tested so we can beat this pandemic and help those affected. the president is touting rapid test results, hoping to make it available to the majority of those tested.

really 15 minute results. the reality is now there are still people being tested that are not finding out results for five, six, seven days. the president was asked about testing yesterday specifically about the fault in the u.s. testing system. listen. >> we have virtually every country in the world calling us, asking us how do we get these tests that you have. your testing is the best in the world. how do we get it? they've done a fantastic job and when you ask a question like that it's very insulting to a lot of great people. >> reporter: then we talk about the economy, we're talking about potentially may 1st the president floating that idea to open up the economy. well, some people think may not be such a good idea. on tuesday, president trump will be announcing a task force to really reopen the government. it's going to have experts, it's going to be bipartisan. according to officials at the white house, and president trump says ultimately he'll make his decision, the biggest decision of his life, he said ultimately he will listen to science. >> i'm going to have to make a

decision and i only hope to god that it's the right decision. but i would say without question, it's the biggest decision i've ever had to make. >> reporter: again, no word on any coronavirus briefing. the president has frequently been in front of cameras at the white house. as of today, none scheduled. that task force meeting is scheduled today at 5:00. any changes we'll let you know. gillian: never a bad thing to let science dictate the future. thanks for that. leland. leland: as you're sitting at home watching on this saturday rather than outside enjoying the various activities you would normally do on a weekend it's proof that the pandemic is changing just about everything we do in our lives and a lot of us are staying home rather than hitting the road. with that, you might be eligible for a refund on your tau toe insurance -- on your auto insurance. joining us now, bill westrate,

president of american family insurance in madison, wisconsin. okay, bill, how much do people get back? >> thanks for having me. thanks for your interest in american family. american family insurance customers are going to be receiving checks for $50 per vehicle insured with us. and we're really doing this out of responsibility to our customers. we recognize when this pandemic was declared that we had two immediate focuses on our customers and on our people. and first getting our people, making sure they're healthy and safe and also preparing, equipping them to serve and support our customers with the necessary precautions. we really look at this as a responsibility to those customers. leland: read a little bit about you and your background there, that you started there as an actuary, running the numbers in the situations and how this works out for an insurance company. do you guys have any statistics to back this up about how much less people are driving, therefore how much less likely they are to get into an accident? >> yeah, we certainly do.

we have a lot of data as an insurance company. we make significant investments in technology and data. one of those investments has been a program called know your drive. which essentially is our customers choose to share their driving behavior with us and therefore we are capturing information daily, millions of miles of driving experience, where we could see shortly after the world health organization declared the pandemic that miles driven began to change precipitously and as a result, we knew this was not only going to be impacting our customers and their livelihoods but we knew it was going to impact our business. leland: i only have a couple minutes. give me statistics here that as you said are significant in terms of how much less people are driving. >> people are driving -- right now, again, it ranges but we can see a good 40% reduction in miles driven since the shelter in place and stay at home orders were put in place. and i think the really big question is how long that's

going to last. we had to make an estimate of that. we had to forecast that. and we decided it was better to put cash in the hands of our policy holders right now where the need may be greater than waiting to know for sure the duration of this event. leland: there's a picture of short hills, new jersey, some of the mall parking lots are absolutely empty. cash in people's hands right now for people that are laid off and furloughed, there is no substitute for it. one thing the insurance companies are going to face with this are exceptionally low rates in terms of the return you guys can get on money that has been given to you in premiums and also enormous amount of claims when it comes to business interruption insurance, et cetera, et cetera. how are those all weighing in on you guys? >> i think obviously that's going to affect every insurance company differently. we're a multiline insurance company. we insure autos, homes, commercial lines, life. our commercial lines business is not as large. but the business interruto be dw

significant that will be because many policies contain exclusions for business interruption caused by a virus or bacteria and in particular that's important because we haven't collected premiums based on that. the difference is, in auto insurance, we have collected premiums based on the fact we anticipated our customers would be driving and the reality is they're driving less and that's why we're returning premiums at this time. leland: i don't think anybody will be upset with $50 check in the mail. we appreciate you coming in on a sasaturday to chat with us. we know it's a busy time for you guys. we appreciate it. >> thank you for allowing me to share the american family store ily and i want to -- story and i want to wish you and your family a happy easter. leland: you as well. bill. gillian. gillian: several biotech companies are beginning clinical trials of vaccines and treatments as the coronavirus continues to spread at unprecedented rates worldwide. for more insight on this we're

going to bring in former fda associate commissioner, he's also president of the center for medicine in the public interest, peter pick. thank you so much for joining us today. there's this race across the globe to get to a vaccine. hearing different officials give us different numbers, different -- vair varying lengths of timw far we are from that. the question that matters most to americans is not when there will be a vaccine, but when there will be a vaccine that is approved for widespread use. what's your best guesstimate on that now? >> you know, there's a lot of good news here. biotech companies are working with governments and regulatory agencies and academia all around the world to get the vaccine done, to get therapeutics invented. the fda in the u.s. is working 24 hours a day, around the clock, making sure that experimental medicines get through the system, existing medicines are getting emergency

use exemptions to doctors have the tools they need to fight for people that are the most ill, people in the hospital, older people, pre-existing conditions. chloroquine is undergoing solid research and being used in clinic right now. you can't base these things purely on anecdote. we are doing the right thing when it comes to testing. similarly, whether it's testing that shows positive or negative or whether it's plasma antibody testing, those tests are sped forward. my guess relative to a vaccine is probably 10 months to a year. for vaccines that's pretty fast. i think there's solid cause for optimism. >>.gillian: well, now there's a race to the vaccine. you say that's 10 to 12 months out. there's also these antibody tests that you mentioned. we keep hearing about them. take a listen to dr. anthony fauci, a couple days ago, on these tests. i'll get your reaction on the other side. >> within a period of a week or so, we're going to have a rather

large number of tests that are available. these antibody tests are tests that we do on other diseases but they need to be validated. you need to make sure they're consistent and they're accurate. and that's what we're doing now. both with the nih and with the fda. gillian: so unpack that a little bit for us. talk to us in real speak about what this means for americans. >> well, firstly, what dr. fauci is saying you don't want tests approved that are inaccurate. you want to expedite but not rush and that's what's happening right now and that takes a team effort to make sure it's happening and it is. but the importance of these antibody tests is it doesn't necessarily show whether you're positive or negative. it shows whether or not you've already had the disease and that's important for two reasons. the first is the blood plasma, the antibodies for people who have come through to the other end of the tunnel might give patients a bit of immunity,

might make the course of the disease easier to handle. it will give us an idea how many americans have had the disease. that's a key data point relative to when we can reopen our economy. gillian: there's this continuing saga for lack of a better word with hydroxychloroquine. president trump keeps touting it and the task force briefings as a viable treatment. he wants more people to start using it. but a lot of medical experts say it hasn't been tested enough. it's been tested but not clinically. what's your take on that? >> the data that's out there right now is purely anecdotal. there's no real solid science behind it that you can build a foundation on but we're collecting it. should it be used? i think doctors have the option to use it for their patients. an important point here is that this is a medicine that's being used for patients with a chronic condition such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. we don't want shortages. we don't want people to demand these drugs. 85% of people that have covid-19

will ride it out at home with plenty of liquids and they won't need chloroquine. doctors have it as a tool for the most seriously ill patients who really need it to survive. gillian: sounds like risks there with using hydroxychloroquine are not just to the users but concerns about causing a shortage for other medical patients who rely on it to stay healthy themselves, independently of covid-19 and the coronavirus. peter, thanks so much for your time and your expertise today. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. stay safe, shelter in place. gillian: you bet. leland. leland: there is some folks down in the southern part of the united states who not only are going to have to shelter from the coronavirus but potentially severe weather as well. adam klotz tracking the storms, as they make their way across the united states. hi, adam. >> hi there, lee hand. you are absolutely right. we are tracking big weather, really kicking off across portions of the country. this is going to be a big story

across texas, moving into the southeast on easter sunday. we'll have all the details on this coming up in my full forecast after the break. allergies with nasal congestion make it feel impossible to breathe. get relief behind the counter with claritin-d. claritin-d improves nasal airflow 2x more than the leading allergy spray at hour 1. claritin-d. get more airflow.

leland: the u.s. military has rushed supplies to doctors as well to open field hospitals wherever the coronavirus hit the

hardest in the united states. we're learning the javits center field hospital and navy hospital ship comfort are reporting thousands of open beds in new york. lucas tomlinson joining us from the pentagon. one field hospital has closed, right, lucas? >> reporter: that's right. to be fair, these dire predictions a month ago, everybody thought the disease was going to infect more people as new york governor andrew cuomo reminded us this morning. >> the cdc was projecting that more than half the population would be infected. they were talking about 2.4 million to 21 million people being hospitalized. we only have 925,000 beds in the united states of america. >> reporter: in new york, the hospital ship comfort and javits center remain nearly empty. there are 60 patients on-board comfort and a few hundred patients are at the 2500 bed javits center in midtown.

in la -- hundreds of doctors and nurses are being sent into new york hospitals. >> mr. secretary, why can't you test every sailor before he or she goes to sea? >> again, with the limited capacity in terms of testing and it's not just the dod who wants to utilize testing of the entire civilian sector, and knowing that the current tests will show up a considerable amount of false negatives, we don't believe that is the best way to allocate testing resources. >> reporter: and because that shortage in tests, u.s. military is scrambling to get tests out to the west coast, the ussnimitz is scheduled to relief the uss theodore roosevelt which today reports a 100 more cases of the

virus on-board bringing the total to 5 550, that's about 75% of the u.s. navy's total. leland: great reporting on the roosevelt as well. lucas, thank you. gillian. gillian: well, in addition to the coronavirus, big parts of the country now bracing for severe weather this weekend. meteorologist adam klotz is in the extreme weather center with today's forecast. hi, adam. >> hey there, kristin. been tracking really big weather sweeping across portions of the country, having a little bit trouble with my internet access. not sure what we have for our graphic package. this is the area we're concerned about. a lot of heat really pooling in the middle of the country, looking at temperatures in the 70s and the 60s. unfortunately, i'm not able to move this forward which is going to be the forecast. but the big concern area today is the spot where you're seeing the temperatures at the highest,

down there in portions of texas that's where numbers are in the 70s. thunderstorms popping up in the next couple hours and that is all going to be shifting into the southeast where currently temperatures are in the middle 60s. tornadoes likely with this system, strong thunderstorms, winds up to 60 miles an hour, hail, very heavy rain. that's going to be on easter sunday. so even though we're looking at some of these very warm temperatures right now, unfortunately they're going to be coming with severe weather and also unfortunately hard working from home, struggling with these maps right now. kristin. gillian: thanks for -- it's gillian, adam. thanks for pushing through that. >> i'm struggling all over the place. gillian: don't worry about it. i'm sure you can't see me on return there. thanks for that. we appreciate it. thanks for pulling through on that one. leland. leland: all right. former vice president joe biden is now the apparent democratic nominee for president. and there is increasing

speculation about who he is going to choose to be his running mate. jacqui heinrich joining us from new york as we understand the rollout could come as soon as this week. hi, jacqui. >> reporter: sources close to the biden campaign expect the former vice president to potentially announce a running mate as soon as this week. he's already said 12 to 15 people meet his criteria and he's committed to picking a woman. he's regularly praised figures like senator kamala harris and georgia's stacy abrams. there's speculation he's considering katherine cortez and gretchen whitmer man. some advisors indicate democrats are interested in a woman of color. to present a united front against president trump his campaign will have to pull some of senator bernie sanders' disenfranchised base. he wants to continue racking up delegates to influence issues

like forgiving student loan debt and creating free public college. biden is coming under fire from president trump's campaign, which released an you a tack ad -- an attack ad against biden, accusing him of being soft on china and accusing his family of being soft of chinese officials. democrats condemn the clip that leaves the impression former washington governor gary lock is a chinese official, he is in fact chinese american. biden's campaign slammed the ad, saying the regular gle xenophoba we've seen is a national scourge. the trump campaign tells the washington post that clip places biden in beijing in 2013 for what they call the 00 deer buy -- hunter biden clip. leland: if we're going to get the announce empty by biden some time this week and his camp, any idea on how the rollout is going

to happen, some kind of digital rollout or will they be together in a press conference. they can't do a big rally like we would typically see for a vp rollout. >> reporter: i'm sure coronavirus concerns will change the scape of all the announcements we'll see out of both campaigns. it's tough to say how things will be done. we know that former vice president has been hosting his discussions round tables, live appearances on television from his studio in his home and we can expect as long as social distancing in place that kind of thing we'll continue to see. leland: from downstairs in his basement in wilmington. jacqui heinrich in new york. thank you. gillian. gillian: lots of businesses are doing their part to pitch in for the coronavirus relief effort. we'll talk to one of the founders of an activewear company that is producing badly-needed face masks, coming up next.

gillian: new york governor andrew cuomo and new york city mayor bill de blasio have a disagreement now over who gets to decide when schools close and when they open. this after the mayor announced the city schools are going to remain closed for the rest of the school year. correspondent aishah hasnie joins us now with the latest on this as it unfolds from manhattan. aishah. >> reporter: hi, gillian. governor cuomo says a decision on schools will not be made until he has time to coordinate with the rest of the state and also the neighboring states. in the meantime, he says the numbers do appear to show that new york state has reached its apex. but he's warning all residents to remain cautious. >> someone says, well, cdc was wrong and the white house task force is wrong and peter navarro's wrong and columbia's wrong and the gates foundation, they were all wrong.

it's too soon for monday quarterbacking because the game isn't even over yet. >> reporter: now, new york state continues to carry the most cases in the u.s., 174,489 with more than 8600 deaths. daily coronavirus deaths are up slightly at 783 but below the apex of 799 and intubations in new york state are also down. new jersey is at second place, continues to stay at that place and michigan at third place. the meantime, the crisis has really taken a toll on the city's 911 system, operators are receiving a call just about every 15 seconds. the fire department here averaging more than 5500 ambulance requests per day. 40% higher than usual. and surpassing the total call volume that happened on 9/11. amid all those calls, painful stories coming out. the new york post reporting a queens man lost his mother and his brother all in one day and

adding to his misery, he was put on a wait list to be able to have a funeral home lay them to rest. governor cuomo is continuing to call on the federal government to produce mass scale testing. he says the state's lab will soon be able to process just about 2,000 tests per day but he says that will not be enough to send millions of new yorkers back to work. gillian. gillian: a lot of tough news in that report to hear, aishah, thank you. leland. leland: through the horror of the pandemic, it's important to pause and recognize how america is coming together and the worst of times are bringing out the best in americans. that includes small businesses. joining us now, kevin hubbard, one of the founders of robak activewear is adding masks to their fine product line of shirts and tops. as i understand it, the masks are selling so well, kevin,

you're having to hire people? >> that's right, leland. we normally produce performance polos and pullovers like i'm wearing here. when the crisis hit we decided to shift as much production as necessary to start producing masks. here's an example of one of them. and the demand ha been so crazye have had to hire some people in charlottesville, virginia. leland: we have pictures of people holding up the masks. there's an american flag on them. you're calling them victory masks. >> yes. we thought to encourage people to wear them. we learned in the history books -- leland: i don't remember, i don't think you do either. we weren't around for that continue. >> from the history books, americans grew victory gardens to support the war effort. we thought if we put an american flag on the mask, it would encourage everyone to do their part and wear the mask and help slow slow the spread. we made the decision to sell

them at cost, no profit whatsoever. our goal is to get as many out to the public as we can. leland: you sold 100,000 of the masks. you're selling them at cost. these 100,000 people are buying the masks for themselves or do they go to healt healthcare wor? >> we donated the first batch we produced to healthcare workers free of charge and then we opened it up to anyone who wants to buy for healthcare workers at cost. that was the first round. when the cdc changed their guidance last friday we put them on our site and immediately got thousands of orders because i think there's a huge need right now in our country so we hope other companies start doing this too and we can get as many out there as we can. leland: not only have other companies followed suit and they look better than all the homemade masks you see on facebook and other places. but you guys are giving back now. we understand there's a thing called carts for hearts which is a number of online retailers we have a picture of everybody who is there, m flynn, robak, a

whole list up there and this happens next week where people not only get a discount but part of what they give goes to a good cause. >> absolutely. we believe that even though we're all small e-commerce businesses, that since we're still open we have an obligation to give back. so next thursday we're going to donate -- we're going to offer sales to anyone who wants it on our website and donate a portion of all sales that day to an organization or gofundme that's helping local communities in our hometowns, whether it's a food bank or a gofundme helping laid off restaurant workers, we hope everyone goes to cartsforhearts.com to check it out and support the brands participating and any e-commerce brands out there wants to join go to the website and join and hopefully together we can make a big impact. leland: tell us what this has done for your business. as people are struggling and getting laid off and worried about their 401-ks, et cetera, it has to really hurt in terms of you guys in terms of your

sales as well. we're heading into the spring and summertime, golf and tennis season. this was going to be a big sale time for you, right? >> it was. we were on pace for another 200% growth this year and we're definitely going to have to take stock of that. luckily, we are e-commerce. we don't have brick and mortar. i'm really feeling for those companies that have that, that's really tough and a lot of laid off workers. everyone is feeling affected by this no matter how big or small you are. we'll get through this. this is america. we've done it before. it's only a matter of time. leland: robad curbing to order the vic -- robak.com to order the victory masks. we appreciate it. good luck. keep up the good work. >> thanks for having us. leland: all the best. take care. >> bye-bye. gillian: this is a fox news alert. massachusetts governor charlie baker now speaking about the coronavirus outbreak in his state. let's listen in for a minute.

>> the price you pay to have your gear decontaminated in most cases will be less than what it would cost to go buy new gear. for all intents and purposes it's an expense that would be incurred by healthcare providers anyway. i want to give dr. beninger an opportunity to speak about the question that was asked about the validity of the process and the decontamination system itself because i think that's important for people to hear. >> thank you, governor. i would like to also add my thoughts and thanks to the governor, to lieutenant governor, and federal reality. this really is an extraordinary opportunity to continue to protect our healthcare workforce. we have nurses, respiratory therapies, physicians, clinical staff who care for patients -- gillian: you are listening there to massachusetts

governor's live address about the coronavirus. he is giving a press update on this now. if any new breaking news comes out of this we will bring it to you later in the program. leland. leland: all right. british prime minister boris johnson is recovering from the coronavirus at a hospital in london. he was in the icu. the u.k. ambassador to the united states on the special relationship between our countries. outback delivery is here.

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leland: british prime minister boris johnson is out of intensive care and reports are that he's in good spirits, talking to friends and family and other members of the government. this as the number of deaths in the united kingdom continues to sadly rise. ryan chilcote following the latest from london. hi, ryan. >> reporter: yeah, the u.k. has surpassed both spain and italy now as the pandemic's epicenter here in europe. more than 900 deaths just in the last 24 hours. the total death toll is expected to exceed 10,000 tomorrow, easter sunday. the big concern in the u.k. is of course that this lockdown that has now been in place for three weeks, that people tomorrow it being easter sunday may want to go out for walks and may ignore it. the government has been pleading with people not to do that. meanwhile, boris johnson, you mentioned the first world leader

to test positive for the virus is finishing his first week in the hospital, the prime minister's spokesman says he's going for short walks inside the hospital, playing soduku, binge watching lord of the rings and enjoying scans of his unborn child that his fiance is sending him. meanwhile, the queen issued her first ever easter address, first ever in her 68 year old reign telling the country no one has canceled easter but it's important to stay home to keep others safe. >> we know coronavirus will not overcome us. as dark as death can be, particularly for those suffering with grief, light and life are greater. >> reporter: and today the u.k.'s health secretary said that the government thinks the lockdown is starting to have an effect on flattening the curve

but the peak could still be as much as a couple of weeks away. the expectation here in the u.k. is that the lockdown is expected to extend into may. that's what italy has already said they're going to do and that is what the spanish prime minister warned spaniards spain will do as well just last thursday. back to you. leland: as we watch and see in terms of what lockdown dates we'll get in the united states. ryan, thanks so much. gillian. gillian: for more on britain's efforts to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus we are joined by britain's ambassador to the united states, dame carol pierce. thanks for taking time out of your day to join us today. we know, unfortunately, the u.k. is in the top 10 countries with the most cases worldwide. it's also in the top five in terms of number of fatalities. tell us a little bit about how the british people are holding

up. >> well, thank you. the british people are following the government guidance, government has been very clear, the message is stay home, protect the national health service, save lives and on the whole people are determined to follow that. we've had a lot of volunteers go to hospitals to help the nh s and we've had a lot of volunteers go around and look at vulnerable people like the elderly, delivering food parcels. but on the whole, people are trying to do their best and stay home. gillian: tell us about the healthcare system. we know that hospitals sort of across the country have at times been overwhelmed as have hospitals and medical centers here in the united states. is there a sense of great, great urgency on the part of the government to help hospitals work through this? >> oh, yes, i think so.

i think everybody, government-down, is very well aware of the debt we owe the national health service workers. people came out of their houses, stand on their doorsteps and clap to support the national health service workers, the nhs. the government's also introduced a special system run by the military to get personal protective clothing and other equipment to those hospitals that most need it and there's a 24 hour help line so that people, hospitals that are critically short of equipment can phone in and have a ppe drop as it's called. gillian: what are you anticipating in terms of continuing the lockdown that's now in place? here in the united states president donald trump is saying he's in the process of making a decision about when to open up the u.s. economy and send americans back to work.

it could come as soon as the first of next month, may 1st. what's the latest thinking in the government over there? >> well, we're watching our partners and allies very closely. we're watching what president trump is doing. you mentioned spain and italy in your report. we're watching very carefully what they're doing. at the moment, the government believes the lockdown should continue but we keep it under review. we don't want people to have to stay home longer than they need. but we do need them to stay home as long as they need and that's something the government is watching very carefully. our health secretary's made it clear that the time to lift the lockdown isn't yet. but the government will keep that under review. until then, we do ask everybody to follow the guidance, stay at home and save lives. gillian: i've got to ask you about the prime minister. he fortunately was released from

the icu but still a long road to recovery ahead for him. are there a lot of contingency plans in place, should he carry on being sick for a while to come? >> well, the prime minister has been very heartened by all the messages he's received from americans, from the president, and the white house, down, messages of support, messages from ordinary american citizens, messages from congress, from both parties. he's very grateful for that. the prime minister was born in america so he feels a very special connection here and he's been very pleased to get those messages. in terms of running the government, the prime minister has designated our foreign secretary, dominic raab. he is standing in for the prime minister whenever decisions are needed. he's also what we call a first secretary of state. so he's our senior minister and he's in charge of the government

while the prime minister is unable to make decisions. that said, the prime minister is in very close touch with all his cabinet colleagues including dominic. gillian: well, ambassador, thank you for taking time today for that update, for your perspective on all these issues. we appreciate it and we wish the best to you, your colleagues in government and to the british people. thanks so much. >> thank you. gillian: leland. leland: all right. it's important at times like this to honor those who are on the front lines of the coronavirus. we're going to show you how people around the country are just taking a moment to appreciate our doctors and nurses. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase. robinwithout the commission whicfees. so, you can start

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gillian: thank you to everybody at home for joining us for this three hours of america's news headquarters today. was great to be with you for all our viewers who are celebrating easter. we wish you a wonderful easter tomorrow, for everybody celebrating passover this week we wish you continued happy and joyous celebrations throughout the week. leland: indeed we do. we take a minute also to thank medical workers across the country who are on the front lines. in new york, the fdny and nypd gathered outside new york

hospitals to applaud nurses and doctors. in miami, first responders drove in a recession, flashing lights to honors medical workers. in denver, buildings were lit up in red and white lights. in la buildings were lit up in blue to honor healthcare workers. you pointed out this is easter and passover, the holiest in celebrations in two of the major religions in the world. if you have the ability to be with those you love virtually or in person, one of the reasons for that is because of the healthcare workers on the front lines, taking care of people who are sick. we owe them a debt of thanks, gratitude and perhaps a couple of prayers. gillian: beautifully said, leland. i would add to that also folks that are doing the things that it takes to keep cities, states, the entire nation moving forward. you know, folks we spoke to, truck drivers earlier this hour, folks working on stocking

grocery stores, pharmacies, thank you for everything you're doing. it's a hard, hard task these days. a lot of people with jobs that have suddenly become much tougher to do. leland: i'm reminded of of something mike huckabee said to me during hurricane katrina, he said if you know where your family is tonight and you know they're safe and you can call them and tell them you love them, you should get down on your knees for a minute and thank god or thank somebody for that because it is a true privilege. he said that during hurricane katrina when so many people had lost their homes and their lives. it was true then and it is true now as america got through katrina, it will get through this. thanks for being with us, gillian and i will be back here tomorrow. take care. i don't add up the years. and i don't count the wrinkles. but what i do count on

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arthel: the u.s. marking a grim milestone now reporting more coronavirus deaths than any other country. nearly 20,000 americans have died with covid-19 with confirmed cases topping 506,000 but officials warn the real number is higher as states continue to struggle with testing shortages and backlogs, hello, everyone, welcome to america's news headquarters, i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, arthel, thank you for joining us this afternoon, i'm eric sean. yesterday marked our deadliest day, more than 2,000 deaths and in some states we are told that the people n