hmm. that does it for this hour. "mtp daily" with my colleague chuck todd starts right now. welcome to tuesday. it is "meet the press daily" and good evening. inam chuck todd, continuing msnbc's special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. at this hour, we are waiting an update from the white house's coronavirus task force, which is scheduled to start in roughly 40 minutes. we weren't sure we were going to get a briefing from the task force because of the president's town hall, but apparently we are now. it will be interesting to see if the president himself participates. we have not seen the seal, so that tells us maybe not. we'll keep a close eye on that, for what nicole mentioned, we want to see if dr. fauci is there, because we expect the medical experts to be pressed on president trump's assessment rather rosy timeline that the country will be back open by

easter. even though, so far, the number of cases in the u.s. shows no signs of slowing. confirmed cases have now surged above 50,000. and they continue to double every few days. more than 600 have died, 130 so far today alone, which is already seven times more than at the same time a week ago. case loads are growing across the country, but the situation is clearly most dire in the new york area. for some perspective, vice president pence today said 4,000 ventilators are being sent to new york from the national stockpile. that's supposed to be good news, right? new york says it needs 30,000. so, that's a start, but a lot more. today governor andrew cuomo said they are still two to three weeks from the peak of the outbreak there, and he warned that other states may get hit just as hard. >> new york is the canary in the coal mine. new york is going first. we have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. what happens to new york is going to wind up happening to

california and it's just a matter of time. >> we are just the test case. we are just the test case. and that's how the nation should look at it. look at us today. where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. we are your future. >> in stark contrast to governor cuomo's dire warnings today was president trump's optimism that this would basically be behind us in roughly two weeks. >> i would love to have it open by easter, okay? i would love to have it open by easter. i will tell you that right now, i would love to have that -- it's such an important day for other reasons, but i'll make it an important day for this, too. i would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by easter.

>> that's 19 days from now. >> okay. >> is that true? is that possible? >> i think it's possible. why isn't it? we have to get our country back to work. our country wants to be back at work. this cure is worse than the problem. again, people -- many people, in my opinion, more people are going to die if we allow this to continue. we have to go back to work. our people want to go work. >> it's hard to make complete sense out of those remarks, not just because they seem to be a combination of hopefulness and recklessness, but that the white house sought to quickly amend what he said almost immediately. another reminder that you cannot take the president's comments at face value. that's been a norm for his entire presidency, but this is a huge problem. at a time like this. but if you're a local or state or federal official parsing the president's words, it's probably a less-effective use of your time. trying to get more ventilators

to the front lines in new york city. all of this president's happy talk gets in the way of the president himself. we do know that the next few weeks are going to be very difficult for this country. the world health organization today warned that the u.s. has the potential to overtake italy by sadly becoming the global epicenter of this pandemic. italy, meanwhile, has locked down the entire country for more than two weeks, with restrictions far greater than ours, and their death rate remains near record highs. as of midday, more than 700 people had died in the previous 24 hours alone. around the world, 1.3 billion people are now locked down, by the way, in the country of india. the uk just instituted extreme restrictions s and cases globa have now surpassed 400,000. it makes that easter projection really, really hard to fathom. joining me now with the latest from the white house is my nbc news colleague, hans nichols. also with us, dr. tom inglesby, the director for health security at the john hopkins' school of

public health, and dr. megan ranny, an associate professor at brown university, also founder of the website getusppe.org which is trying to get masks and other basic protective equipment to doctors and nurses on the front lines. let me go to the white house first. hans, anymore clarification from where easter came from? is there any data that supports the easter idea of opening up the country or is this just a date on the calendar he picked? >> maybe a little bit of both. and let me walk you through what we know, chuck. the data that they're really focusing on is the number of counties that are affected. and they're saying that 50% of the counties aren't affected. that's one basket of data that they're looking at. the other basket they're looking at is what's coming in not just in this country, but from health ministries all across europe. and that appears to be telling the white house, again, this is their take on it, that younger people, and there's a demographic component to this. when you compare those two and where the u.s. thinks they're on

the curve right now, you're starting to hear this idea of when you open it up. now, here's what we can't quite figure out. and that is, how much of this is aspirational and how much of this is actually operational and how much of it will be data dependent. when you talk to the president's officials, the president's advisers, they seem to suggest that this is still very much data dependent. and you have to follow the data. but when you listen to the president in the rose garden in the fox news town hall, and in the interview, it's clear that he has a certain date in mind for symbolic reasons. now, when you add it all up, and if you say the president is going to lift these stop the spread guidelines, basically, social distancing, ten people or less, that gets you to 26 days, if you back that out to easter. so we'll see if they do it slightly before that or if that's really the starting point. one line we just heard is, don't think of this as a green light/red light or red light/green light situation,

think of this as more gradual and there being a transition involved, taking account for e demographics and geography. >> that sounds like a staffer trying to smooth out what the president said there, and i have an idea of which staffer is trying to put a little bit more -- a little more formality around something that is clearly informal. i've got to ask you about something the president did today. he had a call with the president of south korea. and according to the south koreans, the president made an ask for medical equipment and some other things and the south korean president said "yes," we're happy to, but the fda needs to change its guidelines. what equipment specifically did the white house ask the south koreans for? and to me, it's a bit of a tell, the president publicly saying we're about to open up, privately asking other countries for help. >> and the white house version of the readout of that call didn't have anything about any sort of ask for medical equipment. according to south koreans, it's for ventilators. and maybe some other activities, as well, or other equipment, as

well. you always get slightly different readouts when you have two leaders talk. it's dish mean, most of the time, and you know this from your time over here, readouts are usually terribly boring, right? very rarely do you get someone to say. you almost have to parse it. there's a frank and robust discussion of use, which almost means they're yelling at each other. the south koreans are clearly offering help. and we'll see whether or not the president, if he comes out and talks -- this is another question for him, what does he need internationally and how is he willing to change rules to accept it? >> and we shall see if we see him, hans. let me let you get back into that room so you can get socially distanced positions for the right questions to ask. thank you. let me go to my doctors today. dr. i thinnglesby, let me play another clip from the president about his goals of easter in turning the economy back on and get you to react to it. here's what he said about an

hour ago. >> look, easter is very special day for me. and i see it sort of in that timeline that i'm thinking about. and i say, wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full? so i think easter sunday and you'll have packed churches all over our country. i think it would be a beautiful time. and it's just about the timeline that i think is right >> the president says it's the timeline he thinks is right. what does the science say, dr. inglesby? >> i think the science says that we are still on the rise in this epidemic. the rapid rise of cases and deaths. we still don't really have a full understanding of where the disease is, because of limits and diagnostic testing. and we have shortages of mask, gowns, and gloves at hospitals around the country, so we are not at our best prepared to manage this rise that's coming.

so, i think, picking a date at this point really is just too soon. we haven't seen the full impact of social distancing measures yet. in other places in the world, it's taken as long as three weeks to see social distancing turn things around. to begin to turn things around. >> what would be -- >> for example -- >> dr. inglesby -- >> go ahead. >> -- what would be a good metric that you're looking for that would tell you, okay, now you can start thinking about opening up parts of the country? >> i think we need to get past our peak and to begin to drive numbers down substantially, before we can really responsibly think about letting up on social distancing. i think we should also have a much better prepared health care system before we think about it. we owe that to doctors and nurses who are, you know, scrambling to try and create their own masks because of

shortages. we should have at least a sense of when more ventilators are coming. we should have better diagnostic testing available at sites, in hospitals, in clinics. we need a lot of things in place to be ready for the possibility of more cases. and we're not there yet. >> dr. megan ranny, you were talking about like if the order is lifted too soon, then we are going to have this situation where hospitals can't deal with appendicit appendicitis. can't deal with minor heart attacks. can't deal with stents. because all of a sudden, we're -- you know, they're overrun with coronavirus. and people are going to end up dying of other things. >> yeah, figure it this way. up until about four months ago, there is virtually no human being on the planet that had ever been exposed to this virus. even now, the vast majority of

us have never been exposed. so as opposed to the flu, where most of us have seen it before, we have almost no natural immunity, no built-up immunity to covid-19. that means that every one of us when we're exposed to the virus for the first time are at risk of getting sick. we have no vaccines, no proven treatments outside of standard clinical measures. and what we're seeing in new york, even if we mobilized the entire national stockpile of ventilators, gloves, gowns, and masks, we would pretty much deplete that in order to supply what new york is projecting it will need over the next few weeks. if this spreads across the country the way that we're predicting it will, if we don't put these social distancing measures into effect and really follow them, then our emergency departments and hospitals across the country are going to be overwhelmed, medical professionals are going to be getting sick, because we're not using proper protective equipment, and we are simply not going to have the folks there to

take care of those everyday medical emergencies. on behalf of physicians and nurses and paramedics across the country, we are all determined to do our best for our communities, but it's going to be really tough if we have the number of critically ill patients that new york has seen. >> tell me what the status of ppe today, dr. ranney when it comes to -- and i know we heard the vice president say, they're getting some ventilators. i've heard the president talk about, i guess, 3m is coming online, a few other companies are coming online with personal protective equipment. ford is talking about creating more face masks, which wouldn't normal be n-95 related, but perhaps helpful. what have you -- what are you seeing out there today that tells you we're going to be able to fill this gap or are we just not? >> so, based on experiences across the country, day by day, individual hospitals are running out of their stockpiles of these

protective equipments. and there's a huge variety. like you said, there are ventilators, this critical equipment, there's pharmaceuticals, gloves, gowns, masks of various types, hand sanitizer. there's all of this stuff that's needed and we just don't have the stockpiles out there. i'm so excited to hear that all of these companies are starting to manufacture, but we're also in this situation right now where hospitals are basically bidding against each other to try to get supplies. we really need a national coordination of that effort. >> dr. inglesby -- >> sorry. >> go ahead, i'm sorry, dr. ranney. >> i'm sorry, chuck. i was going to say that that's really where we're looking to try to help with getusppe.org, which is not just me, it is a group of more than a dozen physicians, dozens of software developers are trying to create that matching, but we need a lot more than that to fill the need

that physicians and nurses are facing. >> you know, another thing -- another headline that got lost today in the president's easter comments is the fema director, peter gainer said they're using the defense production act right now when it comes to masks. dr. inglesby, i want to ask you about the northeast corridor. the numbers in new york, new jersey, i mean, in new jersey, i'm going to speak to some local officials in new jersey in a few minutes. i feel like it's like totally gone under the radar that new jersey surpassed washington state as number two for cases. it just shows you this outbreak in the northeast. is there any -- do we rye to seal off the northeast? are you surprised we haven't shut down the airports, the three big ones there, at least? >> i don't think we can shut this off around the country. i think governor cuomo's comments today were right. if we keep going on this

trajectory, if we release social distancing measures that are now being put in place, i think we will begin to see what's happening in new york, new jersey, washington state, california, happen around the country. this disease is not going to follow any state borders or county borders. the idea that we'll have counties that are free of disease or not free of disease, it's too transmissible. and it's transmissible in ways that they don't know they're transmitting. there's asymptomatic transmission going on. so we need -- i completely agree that we need a national approach in that we should presume that there will be spread around the country and if you're lucky enough to not have had spread, that should give you more time to prepare your health care system, to put stronger social distancing measures in place, but i don't think we can cut this off from one part of the country or another. >> dr. inglesby, if you had your druthers, would you want to tighten things up even more? here's the president talking about loosening things up. i've heard other medical professionals saying, florida's

not in a lockdown, other states are not in a lockdown. we need to do more, not less. >> i think the language that people use is different across the country. i think in our state, for example, we're not in a quote, lockdown, but the governor's directions are pretty specific and pretty aggressive. so partly, it's language. but i don't think we should be trying -- we should not be so, so severe that we begin to shut down production lines, make it difficult to move goods around the country. that will compound our problems. but we should all -- in all parts of the country at this point, given the uncertainty, we should be -- schools should be out, gatherings should be canceled, people should be telecommuting. and people should stay at home unless they need to go out for things that they need for their families. >> dr. ranney, would you have opened up liberty university today? would you advise any university to open up and bring students back? >> no. yeah, my own university, brown university, has been shut for little over a week. all of our students are home.

we are actively canceling events across the spring. that close quarters of students, and as dr. inglesby mentioned, the asymptomatic transmission, it's just a little petri dish for transmission of the virus, and then people go and spread it to their parents and grandparents at home. my own governor, governor ra money d ramundo that anyone coming off a plane flight right now has to stay at home and basically quarantine themselves for 14 days. so, no, i wouldn't open up universities right now. >> all right. dr. inglesby and dr. ranney on the front lines, thank you both for sharing your expertise today with our viewers. much appreciated. we are awaiting that 5:30 briefing from the white house coronavirus task force. we'll bring that to you the second it begins. and up ahead, it's not just new york, new jersey is in the hot zone as well. i'll talk with the mayor trying to deal with the outbreak in the garden state. plus, the nat seems to be getting closer and closer to a deal on the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. and when it comes to sports in america, this is about the best

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welcome back. while new york is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the united states, neighboring new jersey is becoming more of a hot zone every day. remember, it is among the most densely populated states in the country, if not the most. more than 3,600 people in the state have tested positive for covid-19, surpassing even california's numbers. 831 of those cases were announced today alone. 44 people have died. bergen county in northern new jersey is the epicenter of the state's outbreak. this testing site there reached

capacity before it was scheduled to even open this morning. and tests aren't the only thing in short supply. one doctor at a hospital in teaneck, new jersey, says it, quote, looks like a war zone with supplies running low. and that brings me to my next guest. joining me now is mohammad ahmed madin, the mayor of teaneck, new jersey, which is in bergen county. mr. mayor, thank you for coming on. and i know you are in the middle of this. just tell our viewers what is going on in teaneck, as you guys tackle this virus. >> thank you for having me. we started seeing a spike in cases a week and a half ago. last friday, we went from 9 cases to 18 cases. and that's when we were the first municipality to talk about self-quarantining. we call -- i called for a state of emergency with our township manager last sunday, a full week before the governor has put in his executive orders.

and what we're seeing right now is we knew that this was going to be spreading very quickly. we went from 2 to 6 to 9 to 18. now a week later we have 153 cases and a few fatalities. we're just holding on by strings right now, because i rely on my experience from sandy, which is, you know, governor -- the federal government is a aircraft carrier. and it's going to take a while for it to swing by and come and send help. and we're still waiting for that help. we're waiting for ventilators. we're down to our last two. as you see the article, two of my close friends, dr. cigar and dr. savros wrote about the issues they're facing and the shortages that they're facing. and i was on the call and texting with the governor's office today. it looks like they did release stuff from the stockpile. it is in new jersey, when it comes to masks, but it still hasn't reached teaneck yet. and we are looking at least two

weeks, i would say, before we're fully supplied with the things that we need. and one of the things that we have to realize is that the country is going through three pearl harbor attacks at the same time. the first attacks is on our health care system. and we need supplies and we need to protect our force multipliers, which is our nurses and our doctors. and then we need to make sure that they have the financial resources to go out and get these supplies and go through june. this stimulus bill, they need to parse it out and pass $150 billion for hospitals yesterday, right? argue about the other part later. the second piece, the logistics, while we're all hunkering and getting to this new normal, right, how are we all going to function in a new -- you have to move very quickly to this like remote kind of economy that we're all going to have to be a part of for the at least the next 4 to 8 to 12 weeks, depending on who you talk to. the last piece is the financial piece. if we want people to stay home, there are already people who are being laid off. and the people i see that are

being laid off right away are small businesses, who don't have the financial capacity as large fortune 1,000 companies. that means people who have 30-people law firms, doctor's office, dentist's offices. these are the people that are being laid off and they're support staff. so we need something from the top come in. and when i say that it comes in from the top, that means you don't get to do layoffs. and no executive bonuses. and the other thing that we need to make sure is that the people, the small business owner gets his money fast and he can keep people working. >> yeah. speeding this money out, i think you -- i really hope more lawmakers are watching you talk about the speed with which these resources have to get there. you're in a unique situation. you have a sibling working at a hospital, your sister is at holy name hospital. and i know you told our -- you told my colleague this, so tell me what she's telling you about the needs of just that one

hospital. >> well, you know, i was with the ceo, mike marrin and did this press conference a week ago, i'm in touch with a lot of the doctors there, and my sister is there. holy name hospital is a community hospital that's the largest employer in teaneck. there are a lot of people talking on social media as well as what's going on. but things that are saying, again, is the war zone characteristic are true. they are dealing with supplies. in short, supplies are very, very short. and that's one of the things that, you know, testing will solve, right? i think that because they haven't gotten around to figure out exactly how the testing is, we don't know how to deal with each patient, right? so you have to assume that everybody has it. so if everybody has it, then you don't have enough supplies. and we can't start sharing resources until we have a real number on the testing. i think for me, yes, i worry about my sister, she worries about me. it's a very difficult time, our

mother is immunocompromised, she can't go to the hospital. we can't see her. but, you know, we're doing our duty. we are, you know, standing at our post and doing what we have to do, like all americans are doing. and we are get through this, if we don't turn on each other and if we can do this together. but what the federal government really has to understand, and this is both parties, that now is not the time for bickering, now is the time for action, right? i use pearl harbor for a reason, right? and if we have the president going on the right track and then all of a sudden he switches course and he says, you know, i want to see everybody up in april, by easter, and the doctors, the ones who are making -- who understand this and who have called this before it turned into something, and the policy makers were slow to act, we really have to kind of take a step back and see what we're doing. because i kind of feel like people are talking about acceptable losses, and there is no acceptable loss in my town. >> well put. mr. mayor, well put.

i wanted to give you this time to basic, i hope, talk directly to washington. i hope people are listening. i know our viewers are. mr. mayor, good luck out there. thanks for keeping the faith and hopefully someone's listening. hang tough. >> thank you, chuck. up ahead, the senate appears to be close to a deal. lawmakers are nearing an agreement on a stimulus plan after days of deadlock. you just heard from a mayor there that i hope makes all of those senators feel ridiculous about their fighting. i'll talk to one of the senators at the negotiating table, that's next. moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪

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today, the senate has a chance to get back on track. today, we can make all of the washington drama fade away. if we act today, what americans will remember and what history will record is that the senate did the right thing. >> at this point, of the few outstanding issues, i don't see any that can't be overcome within the next few hours. >> the trick in washington, when you're stuck on capitol hill, usually, is make the bill bigger. and boy, have they made it bigger. we're looking at a $2 trillion bill. so guess what, this morning, senators mcconnell and schumer are both sounding an optimistic tone that the stimulus package is imminent and narcotics reflected that optimism, up more than 10% on the news of a potential deal. you ready nor? it's the dow's biggest one-day percentage gain since 1933.

now, you never want to be comparing it to the depression era, because it means, that's just volatility stuff, but still, that is some record. but there's still some sticking points for negotiators to work through. let me, with the latest details on this, go to one of our capitol hill correspondents, garrett haake. so, garrett, are we going to get a vote tonight? and then the little game of trying to get the house to unanimously consent to the bill on their end? put it this way, are we going to see checks go out on april 1st or 2nd? >> i try to stay out of the prediction business, chuck, but it's looking like if there is a vote tonight, it will be very late tonight. they're still working to iron out a couple of details in here. i'm told some of the sticking points include money for the airlines and exactly how that will be structured and what qualifies as an airline employee who might be able to get it, whether it's a contractor or how far down the chain that that goes. and questions about how state and local governments will get the money that will be partitioned out to them. some of this is also just the

sheer matter of putting together a bill of this massive scope. you know, a bunch of senators can agree to something in principle, but only one person can sit down and type out the legislative language, which then has to look something like what everyone else agreed to. and when you're talking about a $2 trillion bill, that will likely come in over 1,000 pages, that's a pretty complex process. and that's where we are. senators are flung out across the capitol region, those who are here at all. so even when the bat signal goes up that this thing is ready to be voted on, it will take a little while logistically to get that done. and then comes the process you alluded to, how does this get through the house? nancy pelosi telegraphed earlier today that she wants to do it through unanimous consent. politically, that's smart, it keeps them out of washington and allows her to jam up anybody that might try to shove one last thing into this package before it gets out to american people. chuck? >> yeah, no, we'll see if they pull that off. garrett, thank you. maryland democratic senator ben cardin has been in on the negotiations for this package. he joins me now.

senator cardin, i'm going to try to keep this less about washington speak and more about, let's think about the average person who thinks they may get laid off or may have already been laid off. let's start with number one, senator. when do they get their first check? >> well, chuck, we open that we'll pass a bill as early as tonight. the unemployment benefit increases are going to go out immediately to help the small businesses. we hope it will go out in a matter of days, not weeks. we want to see this money out quickly. we want see workers retained. this is all about protecting workers. we want to see the marshal plan for our health care system go out immediately to our hospitals, to our first responders, to get the equipment in place. so we're hopeful that the money will get to the hospitals immediately, will get to the workers immediately, so businesses can retain workers. those who are laid off will get improved unemployment benefits. we want to get this money out in our economy immediately and

remove the fear that workers have today. >> senator, the back and forth on this bill, because it's so big, i understand. is this sort of a structure now that if we decide that we need more money to people, it's going to be another six weeks, so, boy, that's another round of payments, how do you anticipate -- does this bill sort of the structure, and then everything will be sort of like, all right, turns out we need more for airlines, turns out we need more for the individual, and we'll use the same structure that this bill is trying to create? >> chuck, i think that's exactly right. we hope that this will be enough. if it's not, we'll have to replenish it. our first priority is the health care of the people of this country. so we are providing tremendously more funds to deal with our hospitals and to deal with the health care needs of america. we hope that's enough. if it's not, we have to do everything we can to keep people safe. in the small business arena, which i have been directly involved with, we are providing

eight weeks of payroll health to small businesses around the country. plus more. we don't know if that's going to be enough or not, but it certainly gets us through this media period. we're also providing additional help through forgiving loans, the small business administration loans, and by making emergency grants to those small businesses who have a hard time making it today. so there are a lot of tools out there, we hope it will be enough, we have to replenish it, we'll we plentyish it. >> one thing that wasn't in there that some thought you guys should fight harder for on the democratic side of the aisle was funding, basically, to make it so that all 50 states got their all mail balloting program, which it was possible that they could do it if necessary. that wasn't in here. what does that mean for the election? >> well, you're exactly right about that. there are things that we wanted to get into this bill that are not going to be in this bill.

this is a compromise. i must tell you that in the last 48 hours, there's been tremendous improvements for workers in the unemployment, in providing protection for workers and big companies. so we got a lot of major improvements into this bill. on election security and on dealing with the fact that we're going to do more and more elections by mail, we need to get greater resources out to our states, to realize the reality of where we are in regards to this virus. >> is there any way that that doesn't become a partisan issue " ? it feels like some on the right thinks that all-mail balloting helps democrats and that's why you're pushing it and that's why they're against it. how do we cut through that issue? >> i would hope that getting everyone the opportunity to cast a ballot would not become a partisan issue. this is a democracy. we want everyone to vote. so i would hope that we could find common grounds on that issue. and i do think that the

republicans and the democrats are working together. i know on the committee of jurisdiction, they're doing that to provide the wherewithal that everyone has the right to vote. mail-in ballots are going to become more and more of a reality when we try to avoid crowds at election polls. >> you're practicing social distance with this tv interview. we're clearly using various programs to do this. let me ask you this, are you concerned about physically going into the well of the senate chamber? >> i think it's the wrong thing to do? i think we should be voting remotely. that technology is clearly here. i think it's not only the wrong thing to do from the point of view of public health, i think it sends the wrong message to the american people. we should be leaders and we should be doing as much as we can to avoid contact with other people. >> senator ben cardin, democrat from maryland, well put it. very succinct, as well. thank you, sir. stay healthy and good luck out

there. we are awaiting that briefing from the white house coronavirus task force. it is slow moving. we'll see if it happens by the top of the hour. we're going to bring you that, though, the second it begins. up ahead, the frantic efforts to curb the coronavirus in italy. we're going to go live to rome for the very latest on the conditions there. that's next. do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. it's got all my favorite shows. i wish my trading platform worked like that. have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable. now this is what i'm talking about. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪ >> tech: don't wait for a chip like this to crack your whole windshield. with safelite's exclusive resin, you get a strong repair that you can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. >> customer: really?!

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well, we went from not sure when it was going to start to now it has begun. here's the president. >> we're all working very hard to make that a reality. we'll be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done. easter is a very special day for many reasons. for me, for a lot of -- a lot of our friends, that's a very special day. and what a great timeline this would be, easter as our timeline. what a great timeline that would be. my first priority is always the health and safety of the

american people. and i want everyone to understand that we are continuing to evaluate the data. we're working with the task force and making decisions based on what is best for the interest of our fantastic country. in order to defeat the virus, we must continue to be very strong. your resilience and spirit has been inspiring to everyone. right now this virus is attacking 149 countries, but everybody looks to us and they're watching us and i'm very proud to be your president. i can tell you that. there's tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. stay focused and stay strong and my administration and myself will deliver for you, as we have in the past. let me provide you an update on critical preparations and

supplies in our war on the virus. through fema, the federal government is distributing more than 8 million n-95 respirators, 14 million surgical masks and many, many millions more are under order and they'll be arriving soon. 2.4 million face shields, 1.9 million surgical gowns, 13.5 million gloves. and more than 4,000 ventilators to the areas of greatest need have already been sent and we have 4,000 being delivered to new york. the federal government is using every resource at its disposal to acquire and distribute critical medical supplies. the core element of this strategy is my executive order authorizing the use of the defense production act, which has, as you know, already been activa activated, actually, a long time ago. quite a long time ago. private companies are heeding

our call to produce medical equipment and supplies, because they know that we will not hesitate to invoke the dpa in order to get them to do what they have to do. it's called leverage. you don't have to use it from the standpoint of actually, it's been activate, but you don't have to use it, but the threat of it being there is great leverage. and companies are doing as we ask. and companies are actually even better than that. they're coming through and they're calling us and it's been really something to see. this morning, ford, 3m, general electric health care are making tremendous numbers. they've already started, of respirators, ventilators, and face shields. they're working together. we didn't have to exercise or utilize the dpa in any way. the fact that we have it helps, but we didn't have to. and for the most part, we won't have to.

we're receiving full cooperation from companies with the understanding that the federal government stands ready to compel cooperation if need be. we haven't found that to be the case. it's been really amazing to see these big, strong, powerful, and in some cases, very small companies, family-owned companies, step up and make a lot of great product for what we're going through and what we will continue to be going through for a while. the army corps of engineers and the national guard are building four hospital facilities in new york city at the javits center, which will be operational very soon. they've already started. in addition, they're building four separate medical facilities in different parts of the state. we're dealing with governor cuomo on that. so you're going to have four hospitals and four medical facilities at the highest level, two really incredible facilities. temporary, but incredible.

we're also deploying the u.s. navy hospital ship, and that will be arriving in new york harbor in the not-too-distant future. it's finishing it maintenance. they are doing a very big maintenance and what we did is we condensed it very seriously. and as you know, the other hospital ship, and these are incredible ships, it's already on its way to los angeles. so we're in frequent contact with state and local officials and getting a lot of work done. we're likewise building hospitals in los angeles. we are working also, the state of washington. we're working with the governor of the state of new jersey, building a medical facility, a hospital facility. and doing a lot of work. i want to thank the people from fema. the great people from fema and also the army corps of engineers. secretary mnuchin and the members of my administration continue to work closely with congress. i'm pleased to report that we

are working to pass the biggest and boldest financial relief package in american history. senators will soon, hopefully, vote on a $2 trillion bill that will deliver direct cash payments payments to struggling americans, no fault of their own. this came out of nowhere. nobody can imagine this even happened. but it's not their fault. we want to protect and we will all of the things that a person needs protected and a family needs protected. we're working on job retention loans for small businesses and extended unemployment insurance for laid off workers. the legislation will also include billions of dollars for additional resources for our and really heroic, these are incredible doctors, nurse, brave, and hospitals as well as support for hard-hit industries such as the airline industry and the cruise ship industry which

employee tremendous amounts of people, and obviously serve very important functions beyond that. with very tough protections for the american taxpayer. the loans will be very secure, and they will be very profitable, and at the same time, they'll bridge -- they call them bridge loans in many cases. they'll be bridging these companies back into very good health. and some of them are very important companies that four weeks ago didn't have a problem. i'm also confident that the democrats will do the right thing. i feel very confident. they're working very hard together right now, republicans and democrats. and they're getting very close to a fair deal and the great people of our country. today, as you probably saw, the dow surged over 2001 points, the all-time record history of the exchange. this is very encouraging, and i think part of the reason is they are looking at what is close to

being passed. and i think a very big part of it is they see we want to get our country open as soon as possible. they see we're working very hard on that. that's a very big factor in today's historic gain. the legislation developed in the senate is the first step to restoring confidence and stability to america's economy, as we look ahead to the time when we can carefully and responsibly reopen our country for business. and we hope that's going to be very soon. and i want to reassure americans that we have a team of public health experts. we've gotten to know them as well as i know them. they're great people. incredible, talented. they love our country. also, economists and others professionals working to develop a sophisticated plan to reopen the economy. as soon as the time is right. one based on the best science, the best modeling and the best medical research there is anywhere on earth. our great people have been

especially when it comes to our public health experts and officials have been helping other countries, dealing with other countries, constant touch with other countries, helping them out. because many of them have ever seen anything like what's happening. but our decision will be based on hard facts and data as to the opening. i'm also hopeful to have americans working again by that easter, that beautiful easter day. but rest assured every decision we make is grounded solely in the health, safety and well-being of our citizens. this is a medical crisis. this isn't a financial crisis, but it's a thing that nobody has seen for many, many decades, nothing like this. marshalling our economic strength is a key feature of defeating the virus, producing the material, supplies and equipment we need, and they're doing a really fantastic job. we're helping the governors.

we had a conference call the other day with the governors. and we allowed the press to join us in the call. and the spirit between us and the governors has been really great. we should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival. i think we've learned a lot. we've learned a lot. this crisis has underscored how critical it is to have strong borders and a robust manufacturing sector. for three years we've embarked on a great national project to secure our immigration system and bring back our manufacturing jobs. we've brought back many jobs, record numbers of jobs. and this really shows this experience shows how important borders are. without borders, you don't have a nation. our goal for the future must be to have american medicine for american patients, american

supplies for american hospitals, and american equipment for our great american heroes. now both parties must unite to ensure the united states is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word. energy independence, we've established that. that's something incredible that we've established. we're energy independent. manufacturing independence, economic independence, and territorial independence, enforced by strong sovereign borders. america will never be a supplicant nation. we will be a proud, prosperous, independent and self-reliant nation. we will embrace commerce with all, but we will be dependent on none. above all, we know that the best thing for our economy and the world right now is a very, very powerful victory over the virus.

every day the american people are showing the unity and resolve that is always to find the character of our nation. in new york, citizens are using 3-d printers to make hundreds of face shields. they're making them by the hundreds. in texas, businesses and churches are uniting to collect gloves and thermometers for hospitals. in the selfless actions of our amazing citizens, we're seeing enduring strength of our magnificent nation a spirit that can never be broken and a victorious future that can never be denied. it never will be denied. now what i'd like to do is perhaps ask a person who has really established herself as maybe the world's great expert on what she does. if i could ask deborah to come forward and say a few words. and then i'll ask tony to come up and speak. and then our vice president.

and then we'll take a few questions, and we'll do it quickly. and we'll probably see you again tomorrow. so deborah, please. >> thank you. thank you, mr. president. i think those of you who heard the town hall, we are continuing to accelerate testing at a record rate. we now have 370,000 tests that have been done. the majority of those, over 220,000 in the last eight days, which those of you who have been tracking the south korea numbers, put us equivalent to what they did in eight weeks that we did in eight days. this was made possible because of the hhs team working together, bringing together the strength of the fda with the cdc and under the leadership of secretary azar. we're very proud of those numbers, but we know that we have to do more, and we continue to accelerate in testing to ensure that those who need the test are tested first and have access. as we talked about yesterday, we're working on the ability for

people to take their own sample. that does not home testing. that means taking your own sample in the front of your nose with available swabs into normal saline that can be transported to the laboratories. that will allow and free up all of the drive-throughs to be very sparing on ppe. because you'll be able to do that with gloves rather than the full ppe outfits. this will allow for more of that ppe to be dedicated to our hospitals. i think those of you who are tracking this epidemic closely like i am, you will begin to see that there is encouraging results coming out of italy. we are impressed by the decreases that are seen in mortality, the number of people succumbing to this illness and the number of new cases. our new cases will continue to surge because we're still working on our backlog, although we will be in touch with the laboratories after this press conference to really find out

how many are still in backlog and how many were run in the last 24 hours. until we can get into a 24-hour cycle, we're going to have disproportional number of new cases compared to the actual new cases. and we will let you know when we've reached that equilibrium. finally, and i know dr. fauci will talk about this further, we remain deeply concerned about new york city and the new york metro area. about 56% of all the cases in the united states are coming out of that metro area, and 60% of all the new cases are coming out of the metro new york area. and 31% of the people succumbing to this disease. it means because they still are at the 31% mortality compared to the other regions of the country, that we can have a huge impact if we unite together. this means, as in all places, they have to be following the presidential guidelines that were put out eight or nine days ago. and this will be critical. but to everyone who has left new

york over the last few days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left new york. and i think like governor desantis has put out today, everybody who was in new york should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to make sure the virus doesn't spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether it's florida, north carolina, or out to far reaches of long island. we are starting to see new cases across long island. that suggests people have left the city. so this will be very critical that those individuals do self-quarantine in their homes over these next 14 days to make sure they don't pass the virus to others based on the time they left new york. so if they've already four days out, then it's just ten more days. so thank you if you help get that message out to others. dr.