tonight, prs ident trump signe largest relief package in u.s. history, a lifeline to our community. healthcare workers around the nation including california are in urgent need of critical supplies to protect patients and themselves foile bracing a surge of new infections. how communities can come together in the age of social distancing. we will see how a group of young voluntrs are helping neighbors in need. good evening and welcome to kwed newsroom. we begin tonight with the federal effort mitigate the economic fallout from th coronavirus. president trump signed into law today a two trillion-dollar

economic relief plan, the largest in the nation's esstory. for industworkers and hospitals devastated by a virus that has affected every state. on wednesday the senate unanimously passed the bill at the democrats won concessions pl like increasing unment benefits for workers. also this week president trump said he would like to see the economy reopen by easter. but california gov. gavin newsom things that is too soon for the state. school districts in the bay area announced that they would stay closed at least until y 1. joining me now, from washington, dc, his california congressman, adam schiff. thank you so much for being with here today. so this stimulus bill is intend provide relief to all levels of society. can yospeak specifically to how it will help californians? >> it will he them a great deal, first of all, all californians and people around the country will get checks almost immediately. those are the cash payments of $1200 for adults, 600 for

children but it also help nontraditional workerlot of them for example, in the bay area but also in los angeles, that work in the entertainment industry that don't have traditional employment, that were contractor ntract. and smalsinesses all over the state, make payroll, pay the rent, pay utilities, and it will help some of the larger industries, so on the economic side, there is a lot for california, focaia will, because it is a large state with large revelation, get more than most other states, but it also will provide vital billions for those on the front line in healthcare system, s, hospitlinics, to be able to keep their doors open, see more patients, obtain protective gear. >> when you say almost immediely, what sort of date when will the checks actually

be in people's hands? my understanding is we are looking at several weeks out. >> it depends on whether people have electronic deposit or not. those that will have for example an ordinary circumstance there, the tax refund balternate deposit will get their checks quickest, others will, yes, they will have to wait weeks to get those in the mail. but those will probably be among the first payments to go out. also in terms of ancoappointmen ersation, we extended unappointed compensation, we enhanced the amount of unappointed compensation, on top of what the state ordinarily ovides for four months, the federal government will provide an adtionon $600 op of that. that is retroactive back to i think january 27. so people should go online to apply with the california emoyment office, and ther will be usmore genethan usual on employment benefits i hope for the duration of this

crisis. >> reporter: when you expect that we will be able to tell if this stimulus has en effective or if there are more steps that are >>needed. t almost certainly will be a case that more steps are needed. because the economic disruptiono is immense, so i think many of us view this as just another step, this is the third package we have passed as many weeks, but we will have to do more for the states, more for students, more for the homeless, more for those that need medical care. so i don't view this at all as the end of the story, i this is jua very large package, yes, but the most immediate need that we are trying to meet right now. >> we have heard about shortages of testing kits, ventilators, masks. and presidentrump today invoked the defense production t to compel nel motors to make ventilators after negotiations had broken temperature the administration. and gm, over cost.

do you think, in your opinion, the defense production act shld have been put into place and used earlier? or do you think that this timing worked, and how else do yothink it coulbe used? >> yes, i think it should have been used earlier, the administration has be late on just every aspect of this, initially because the president did not take the threat of this virus seriously, trying to down talk, saying it was not going to be an issue here. then quikly, moved to claiming to be a wartime president, that almost as quickly backed off and said that he wants businesses to essentially reopen around easter, once the church is full on easter. we would all love to see that happen but that is not iswhat scie and epidemiologists tell us is supported by e evidence, and our solution has to be evidence-based, but he

has also, on the need for protective gear and the need of ventilators, even as recently as yesterday, last night, downplaying how many ventilators states were going to need, ying he did not really need to invoke the defense production act, and of courab, having an t-face today, so yes, it is a necessary step, ithas been too long and coming and the mere indication of it is not the end of the story. he is not going to make sure that companies work withoteach r, at they get the parts that they need, that the ventilators go to where they are most neededthat the states are not in this, you know, race, and competition with each other. that the federal government can rely help logistically. >> he has been holding daily briefings about the federal response to the coronavirus. what stands out for you about the briefings? and in comparison perhaps, to the briefings on the more local state level, by governors gavin newsom, or andrew,. >> the briefings by the

governors exhave been llent, ct-based, you know, the news y conferences by the president have become less and less valuable over time, frankly, whenever the doctor is not speaking, there is not much value to be derived. they are turning into a kind of self-promotional oppounity. it becoming increasingly difficult to watch so i wish frankly they were focused more on the experts, thon a te substior some -- for the president's rallies. but what gov. newsom has done has pobeen ant and effective in pushing out good informion. >> reporterlot of californians are feeling anxious right now, and are struggling with sheltering in place. what would toyou have say to them?

>> we will get through this. we have been through more difficult things in our stnatio y, and yes, this is going to be disruptive and difficult, and it will get harder before he gets easier but i have every confidence, we are going to get through this and will get through this together. we will rebound as an aseconomy and a state, we will once again have the opportunity to congregate with the people that we love, but for now, we are all going to have to maintain discip ne, we will hato maintain our distance, we will have to find ways to occupy ourselves within our homes. but thistoo shall pass. >> thank you so much for joining us today. this week san francisco warned that the number of coronavirus cases in the city will search in the next week or two. also the city recorded its first three deaths from covid- 19 this week. on wednesday mayor london breed and health offisaid the city may need 5000 more ho ital beds and up to 1500 more ventilators to treat a surgeon cases. ar there e additional resources coming soon, he says san

francisco has hired 82 new nurses, and lowers the 1 million facemasks. this as hospitals in the bay area and around the nation face severe shortages of critical suppli. joining me now by skype is krista durand, she is annc emerroom nurse at zuckerberg san francisco general hospital. thank you for being with us today. you just came off a shift, can you tell us what it is like there on the ground, at the hospital right now? i just got off of my shift yesterday, and it kind of feels storm, or the calm before the storm, we are doing a lot of preparation for what we se that isgoing on in new york, and italy, and, so, right now, we are not seeing a ge surge, but we are expecting one in the next couple of weeks, in our staff. they arementally prepared for that. >> what are the physical activities that are taking place, to r prepare? >> biggest concern is having enough personal

protective equipment, like masks, gowns, and goggles, to protect us from being vectors of the virus. so right now, we are asking a lot of questions about how to get that, as far as the number of patients that we are seeing, thtients are coming in sicker and sicker, our hospitals can bed about 179 patien , and currently, as of yesterday morning, we had 174 of our beds filled. that is altered to patients, not just covid-19. about a third were patients under investigation for vid- 19. and we are having positive results of covid-19. >> how are those patients being treated and how arg they be kept separate from other patients who are there? >> yes, and the emmegency depa, we are still kind of infine-tthat.

we have started screening every patient at the door, four those typeanof symptoms, if they screen positive, every patient is receiving a surgical mask. and ly there rereally sick they will go to a private room, if they are not so sick, they are going to a covid-19 triage area. and we are going to do a little bit more questioning, and to they might be sent home to self quarantine. >> you mentioned concerns about having enough personal protective equipment, and i want to ask you about that. we also talked with different sc generals spokesperson, brent andrew. we wanted to find out about the availability of critical supplies there, know nationwide this is an issue as well. so brent told us, that we have been actively acquiring supplies from the typical sources and many others. managing the use of those

supplies to ensure we have adequate stores. does that line up with what riu are excing at the hospital? >> currently, in the emergency údepartmen we are rationing our personal protective equipment, which means that we are usually using a mask for our entire shift. if we are not seeing a high isolation patients, in order to avoid running out. so right now, we do have enough, but i don't think brent andrew is correct in saying that they are working think that we need to be reaching out further to the public, and whenhe spoke to him i believe it was abc seven, he told him that we were not accepting donations and that was very concerning to me. >> why are you concerned? >> because we currently have gotten an announcement that we but we havenot seen it yet, so

it would be in our best interest to accept what is offered to us from the community right now. >> so what you are saying seems to me to yobe, that do not have faith in the management there, they are doing all they can to ecpryou. this is a situation in which i am sure everyone wants to be th that they can. do you feel like you are nagement -- your management should be doing something else? and what is that something else? >> this is a national problem,al but i think that it is a local issue. we are a public health, we are the nesafety of the city at san francisco general. and i think it is important for them to remember how important it is that if we of the virus, then we cannot care for the public. and we need toprotect healthcare workers, in order to be able to handle that. so in answering your question, i think our administration has

failed to hire enough staff, in order to handle a search, they have failed to re enough staff, just on a regu because we have been working as a disaster level care center, a critically low staff are many, many days. >> let's get to that because the mayor has announced that there are 82 more nurses were been hired and there are more to come. does that feel like it will help fill the need? is that enough? >> it whdepends on those nurses specialties are. i think those 82 nurses are spread out between departments. an what i haseen is in order to care for these respiratory covid-19 tients, we willneed a lot of icu and emergency ro specialty dorses, so i t know how many of those are specialized in that department. so i'm not sure it will be doenough, and i t think we have enough ancillary staff as well, eed is therapists, were going to be

vital to caring for covid-19 patients. >> what is your biggest fear in the coming days, as the hospital braces for a search of the new coronavirus cases? >> my biggest fear is i'll have to pick and choose which paentse care for. if we get overwhelmed, we only t have 60 ators, in ou hospital. and i hope it is enough and i situation where i choose one patient over another to care for. >> thank you so much for being with us. stay safe out there, protect yourself, and we thank you for the work you are doing on the behalf of the community. >> thank you. most san francisco residents appear to be staying at home, and socially distancing. but will it be enough? help hospitals facing a new wave of infections? joining me now is dr. bennett, member of the command staff at the san fransco department of

take you so ch for joining us. i want to jump right into this question about personal protective equipment. we knoa there is nationwide shortage, of masks, of ventilators, we had just heard francisco who isworried about running out of critical supplies. do we have what we need or will we be able to source it in time for this expected surge in cases? >> we do have what we need right now. we are asking in every avenue we know how from the state, from the federal prgovernment, fromate vendors, for more because we do know that we do need more chen the sehits. so we are both prepared now, and looking forward to meeting the nursery spoke with said you are not accepting donations at ffisgeneral. that correct? >> i'm not sure what that means. the city is excepting donations whetheor not ey are being dropped off at her particulth site, as donor site, maybe what she is thinking but we are in fact accepting donations.

and they are going to san francisco general among other places. >> donations of masks, gloves. those types of equipment. okay. the same is also told us her worst fear is that she and doctors at the hospital will have tgo through and make the choices that have been made in italy, new york, deciding who lives, and who doesn't, because there simply is not enough equipment. re? likely is at scenario >> we have lots of projections that span the range about how to plan for how many peopled will nextra care. so i will broaden people scope a little bit, that it is not, it is not just life and death decisions, va majority of people are going to be decisions about whether or not we are able to alleviate anybody's sufferin people need comfort, to prolong their stay outside th hospital.

so we have a lot of layers of decision that are going to need to be made, ne of us want to be in a position. and so we are getting new hospital beds, we are ordering uipment, and doing e best that we can but we do need help >> let's talk about that outside help. what else would you like to see, the state and the deral government do. >> we have made requests for ppe equipment, for covid-19 testing equipment, i know that the plan is coming together around facilities and other things that we need, but that is a tal plan that is coming together right now. ac the past have artie been made for the testing equipment and ppe, and some of that has arrived. >> e know ththe mayor has made request for 5000 more hospital beds, and for 1500 more ventilators. what has beenthe response on those requests, are we getting what we need? >> so we have made esmany re over the last month, both for equipment and for various kinds of staff and we have gotten some of those requests met. the new request that have

recently be made, i don't believe that we have actualized those, but i do know at it a minuteby minute process and we are getting responses as they come through. >> just today,san francisco mayor london breed once again urged everyone to stay inside, to shelter in place, the only go outside for essential trips, do you think we are seeing an impact to that sheltering in place?ng are we sein effect from the work that people are doing by staying home? >> so there are two afcts, so the first is that we are seeing people further away from each other, in a way that we know keeps them from being infected. so if you walk out on the stveet, everybody is focused on the two people they do see or the small cluster potentially family members come up but i want to focus on those that they don't see.

there are vast spaces from those you see inthat is what is keeping people from being infected. what we are looking for, is that going to have an effect on the numbers that we see in terms of positive cases? the numbers you see today are not an indication of whether or not that activity has been fective because those ople were infected a week or even two weeks ago. what we are looking for is next week and the week after, do the numbers start to level and go down and we expect that gey wiup right now because we are expanding testing. so we are finding more people as we get mo supplies and being more intentional about trying to get as many testing sites as possible so you are gointo see raisesand the numbers, that don't necessarily reflect more people being infected and were infectedthat we expected. the numbers to watch are the numbers coming forward. >> what we might seeing in the next week or two. >> so ng are sea concerted effort from all over the medical community, so rious different health systems have all opened testing sites, the department has several testing sites, and

we now are opening the city to testing sites for first responders. úsites all over the city from one provider or another. we don't have a unified health system, right, so there u are seeing all the various health systems that have patients in the city tryito develop their own sites, and they are, they are doing that hasuccessfully. >> tnk you so much for being here today. i appreciate it. it has been nearly 2 weeks since residents were ordered not to leave their homes, except for essential tasks like picking up medicine or food but for some vulnerable residence, that can be tougto do. while limiting their exposuru to coronavi so madeleine and three the volunteers launched a grassroots organiztion to help neighbors in need in san francisco. from delivering groceries to seniors, or just being a friendly vtoce to talk they are helping their communities stay safe but noisolated.

joining me now is madeleine, one of the co-organizers. thank you for being with me today. >> thank you for having me. >> tell me about how your ganization began and o you support. >> yeah, so we started almost 2 weeks ago now, and there are four of us that started out y,a basicawe all met through next door because we had seen other folks voice similar interest around how we can corral all of the generosity and support people have been voicing on there, so it started off as how can we match a lot of this interest and help each other out, to how do we match that with some of the growing needs in our community and er connected togeso we are really trying to create a community where the universe can support neighbors. s >> it selike this organization has also been bringing a lot of intergenerational connectionha

that you didn't necessarily before it started. tell me a ablittle bit out that experience. and have you beyourself helping out, in ways that you can share with us? >> definitely. so this is a broader goal of how we think about our community and how we take collective action together. say, emily, who helps out tom, not only besome who delivers his groceries right now, but in a few months from now or year from now, emily goes to tom's th house and play cards. they talk about how they can engageliin civic , and come you know, local organizational efforts around the community. yo and comeknow, me personally, i have talked to a few different folks, who have requested some support and it has beenanything from wishing someone happy birthday to helping organize eir

groceries. i think cithat is tating not only assistance but longer- term relationships. >> what are the age ranges of those were serving? often hear itis older people who are having trouble getting out especially because they are more vulnerable. but you find that this is, the help you're providing across various ages were does attend to be the senior community? >> so it started off on the older end but we have seen more and more peoplebecause i think everyone needs me to ranging from come you know, let's say 42 upwards of 80s and 90s. definitely more concentrated on the older side. >> after couple of weeks of helping your neighbors, how has this particular crisis impacted the way you understand community? >> i've always thought of our community a lot in terms of shared intest, or where went to school, or my job. but now i think a lot more critically about it in terms of my neighborhoodl and my lo area, and how together, we are

dealing with this crisis, and for better or for worse, it becomes a lot more in tune to how to support one another through shared experiences. >> talk to me about how you're using technology to match those> needs? t started off very manual. anything from google forums, a spreadsheet, and mo or less a lot of that is still the process that we are using, but as we expect more requests that,,e will be aling our efforts and how we use other forms of technology aswell, whether that is some sort of support matching technology or whether that is come you know, we start using, according to ler volunteers. goaps to help map out the different areas. >> some who may need help may not be quite as tech savvy, how are you reaching those folks? >> definitely. i think one of our biggest areas is how do we meet people

where they are. both on the volunteer site and the support side, so adin tion to starting off individually with forms and such we dohave been g a ton of efforts, we have asked people to email us as well as phone numbers, so if you are somebody whtnesses a fire but may not know the best way to navigate the internet, there is a number you can call, there is some other things that we in are explright now as well, such as community partnerships, grocery stores, things like that. >> how are you all making sure that you are staying safe? as you ar doing thwork? and helping each other? >> definitely very top of mind for us, so we have talked to a handful of health professionals and have seen or other organizations are doing. and we have created some guidelines for volunteers to adhere to. so we are keeping safety very top of mind and first priority. >>thank you so much for being with us today, eci apted.

>> thank you so much. if you need help, or wants to help your neighbors in safr cisco with essential tasks, visit sf community support network. you can find more on veour ge at kqed.org/ newsroom. thank you for joining us. stay safe.

robert: president trump and congress face the test or off times. >> a fig has arrived at our shores. we did not seek it. did not want it. but now, we're going to win it. >> we're very proud of the product. the bill will be a large infusion of funds for hospitals, health systems and state and local governments. robert: congress mesorward with the $2 trillion rescue bill to address falloutrom the coronavirus pandemic. bute tensions conti as states ramble to handle a health crisis. >> the president said it's a war. it is a war. well, then act like it's a war. >>sident keeps pushing to open the enomy. but top officials are urging caution. >> you don't make the time line. the v