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welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press" daily and i'm chuck todd continuing msnbc special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. at any moment now we're expecting an update from the white house's coronavirus task force as congress worked out the final details of a massive $2 trillion rescue bill. it is more of a rescue bill than a stimulus package. the largest emergency aid package in american history. and before the stimulus is voted on, there is already talk on capitol hill about the next one. call it phase four. that should give you a sense of the sheer size and scope of the crisis facing this country. the epicenter is new york. more than 5,000 new cases were announced today alone across the state bringing the total to

roughly 31,000, half of all cases nationwide. new york city alone had about a hundred deaths yesterday, due to the coronavirus complications in the united states. the city is readying a makeshift morgue in case of a surge and city officials are sounding the ala alarm about a spike in 911 calls overwhelming the fdny. but there are signs of emerging hot spots in other areas of the country starting down south. in louisiana the number of cases are rising at an alarming pace with new orleans squarely at the center of an emerging outbreak. the governor there said they have more cases per capita than any other state besides new york and washington. and a stud from the university of louisiana lafayette the growth rate may be the largest in the world. in atlanta, they are at full

capacity. we'll speak to the mayor of atlanta in a few minutes about how she's handling thing. in miami, residents have been ordered to shelter in place and ron desantis is taking pressure to take similar action statewide. in west virginia, the last state in america to report a confirmed case of a coronavirus infected person, that governor today jim justice said their numbers have jumped dramatically. you could even add rural iowa to the list of states declaring major disaster declarations in order to get federal government reimbursements that have been approved by the president. nationwide, as of this afternoon, the number of confirmed races has surged past 60,000. it bears repeating that those numbers are probably low balling the actual case load because of the testing shortages and backlogs. more grimly there were more than 225 deaths yesterday alone compared to just 18 last tuesday. and let me give you another grim picture. it was march 17th that we

recorded our 100th death. tomorrow, nine days from now, nine days from march 17th we're likely to record the 1,000th death in our country. it took us 18 days to go from zero to one and it might take nine days to go from 100 to 1,000. this nation is shut down by the virus and the grim numbers for a president who wants it reopened by easter. the ohio governor said the state won't see its peak until may. joining me hans nicolles at the white house where we are waiting to hear from the task force. rehema ellis is in new york city, blayne alexander is in new orleans which is seeing a concerning size of coronavirus cases there. rehema, i want to start with you in new york city. what we know today and i know we're getting the fdny came out with new protocols for when you should make an emergency 911

call. this is scary stuff for residents. if you're sitting here kind of wondering, am i sick enough to call for help. >> reporter: well one of the things that the health officials are saying to us here, if you have a fever, that is one of the tell-tale signs you might need to call for help. but people here, i have to tell you, chuck, are on edge about being in their homes for over a week now. so many of them with children. so many others who can't go out to restaurants, can't go to gyms, can't go to bars. can't go to the movies. it is one of the reasons that this city is feeling the desperate need to make certain that it is prepared. i'm standing in front of the javits center already taking in supplies in order to begin a 1,000-bed capacity here for field hospital, if you will. this place that is 1.8 million square feet of convention space normally for boat shows and auto

shows is not go -- is going to be a makeshift hospital. a thousand beds. but the governor said they need 140,000 beds here in new york. we only have 53,000. >> the javits center beds, are those for coronavirus patients or actually for noncoronavirus patients? >> reporter: well, it could be a mixture. but this is n tpeople. they want those folks to be in hospitals, on respirators or ventilators but these are so sick they cannot stay home but need to be cared for by medical staff of which they'll have 300 medical staff here in this facility once it gets up and running. and they hope it will be ready by next week. >> sounds like they may need to. let me go to blayne alexander down in louisiana. and there is a lot of focus and for obvious reasons on the new

york tri-state area but i heard the governor sound the alarm, how concerned are local officials in new orleans about what is happening there with the virus? >> reporter: very concerned, chuck. you talked about that alarming growth rate. let me give you numbers to make this thing real. so just in 24 hours, we have seen an increase in cases here in louisiana. 407 more cases today than this time yesterday. and an increase of 19 deaths. so, chuck, that is on track with what we're seeing in spain, and italy. and the governor is sounding the alarm and saying, look, if we don't get federal help in the state of louisiana fast, then new orleans is going to run out of hospital beds within two weeks. it is not necessarily a prediction, he said but that is what is going to happen. so we're seeing the cases spiking at an alarming rate. and experts are pointing to one big reason. so i'm standing right here on bourbon street. you recognize it as bourbon street but you don't see it this

empty. it is practically a ghost down because the state is under a shelter in place warning but mardi gras one month ago today that you saw nearly a million people packed in here in close proximity sharing beads and drinks and unfortunately sharing the coronavirus is what experts are saying. so they say that because we saw all of that close contact a month ago and that is why we're seeing the spike in numbers here today. >> it makes a lot of sense and it is still scary to think about it because that means a lot of people regionally the gulf coast could be a hot spot when people may not have thought that would be a hot spot. blaine, thank you very much. let me go to hans. what kind of briefing should we expect today and the reason i ask that of the task force because a few minutes ago the president seemed to tweet out something that seemed political, very crass if you will. let me put the tweet up.

the lame-stream media wants to get to keep the government closed. the real people want to get back to work asap. we'll be stronger than ever before. that doesn't sound like a president that is worrying about what is going on in the country. that sounds like a president worried about his reelection. is this going to be a productive press conference today? do they have information to share or is this -- is he just trying to bait the press into a fight so that he could have some twitter love? >> reporter: well potentially, the president's likes to counter punch and to have a foil. that may be the press here. the morning started off with the president almost going out of his way to say nice things about governor cuomo on twitter and now more in his grievance mode. just quick housekeeping, that briefing has been delayed until 5:30. a delay means we're more certain to see the president so it syncs up with his schedule so he's

come out five of the last six times or something close. he's been making a point of coming out. the key metrics that i'm looking at in terms of what we're going to get from the dr. fauci and dr. birx, is the number of countries where they're seeing infection rates. that is the metric that both dr. birx and fauci are settling upon as an indication they need to have geographical disparities in this. and when you look at what they said yesterday, it was around 50% saw no rates of infection. so i think that is one key metric to look at. i also think, chuck, and you know this as well as anyone, when the president doesn't say anything, that is also highly significant. and he hasn't really weighed in today at least on this $2 trillion package. >> i was just about to ask you that. >> reporter: and silence could be telling. now mnuchin said the president is behind this and officials telling me that privately and

stephanie grishom was on fox talking about that and yet we haven't had the public embrace from the president and that to me is telling. so we'll see if he does come out and what he has to say and what the numbers are now in just a little bit. chuck. >> boy, between some republican senators and andrew cuomo not happy, some on the left not happy, this thing could -- this is getting a bunch of cuts there. any way, hans nicoles, these great nbc reporters on duty out in the streets, thank you for being out in the streets for us to bring this story a little bit closer to folks. joining me now to try to get a better handle on how things are going in the southern part of the country, atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms with me. mayor, you've talked about being -- that your icu beds are become overwhelmed. tell me about your situation right now in atlanta. >> um, we are watching new york very closely.

and what we know is that our largest hospital in the city right now is 90% at capacity with its icu beds. what our public health professionals are telling us is that by may 3rd we will be beyond capacity. and so it is a reason that i took the extraordinary step in our state to close our city down. because we know that we have to stop the spread and the only way we can do that is to get people to stay at home. and i could say thankfully people are watching msnbc and watching national news and they see where this will go. and we've not have any issues with people complying with this. and it really is our hope that the worst does not happen here. >> do you think you're going to need sort of an excess capacity, you've had a hospital that had its own unique accident in december. your largest hospital, grady hospital, i believe it was that

made sort of parts of the hospital unusable, wouldn't be brought back online, parts until the fall. are you going to need a sort of makeshift hospital like they're creating in new york at the javits center and places like that to deal with your capacity issues given the extra hit your largest hospital took in december? >> they're already anticipating and planning for that. so the state is expecting that we will at some point exceed our capacity. so we are making plans to expand the footprints of our hospitals. but, again, it is why as a capital city we are trying to slow the spread while we can. we have over a thousand people who already tested positive in our state. but we're only testing a few hundred people aday. we don't have the capability to test 5,000 people aday so we know there are so many more people who are infected and what is happening in atlanta and i imagine in cities across the

south just as in new york where you know people who are testing positive and you know people who are dying. that is beginning to happen here. and it is increasing by the day. so we anticipate that our hospitals will go beyond capacity at some point and we are to be as best prepared as atlanta city can be for a pandemic. >> you have executed a shelter in place order. not everyone of the area counties has, i know gwinnett has not done that yet and dekalb is shelter in place as much as possible. do you feel as if you are acting as one enough or are the different orders state by county, by city, is that creating confusion? >> i think it does create confusion. and it would be my hope that it -- that it were done

throughout our state. but i understand that our governor is balancing different constituencies and different needs in different areas of the tate. i spoke with him directly before i issued the stay-at-home order in atlanta and i expressed my concerns about our high asthma rates in our city. i have four children who are asthmatic. we that is an underlying condition that could make the coronavirus worse. we know that there are unique health things that face our populations whether it be high blood pressure, diabetes, et cetera. that is not the case throughout the state so i understand that the governor needed to balance that. but i felt for the density and the unique concerns in our city that it was important that we issue a shelter in place and what we we've seen is that some neighboring cities and jurisdictions have followed suit but there is no consistency. and in a metro wide area of 6

million people, it can be quite confusing. even as i walk out of my -- literally across the street is a different city with different rules. >> i am curious, there is an old joke that says you really can't go anywhere sometimes in life or death without having to change planes in atlanta. so the atlanta airport, what is being done there and do you feel confident authorities are -- are making it so that given how much commerce and how many people go in and out of atlanta, that that doesn't turn atlanta into a hot spot. >> well, we have three tsa agents who already tested positive. and some others who had to be quarantined because of their contact with these tsa agents. but just from an economic standpoint, our airport is our largest job in our state with 26,000 employees. so we tried to be proactive in working with delta airlines, our

major hometown carrier here. we tried to do some things contractually to change when landing fees are due, we're working with our concessionaires to pass on some type of relief that they could pass on to their hourly employees. and we're doing this hoping that the federal government will step up and stand in the gap for our employers but just have a health standpoint, we are as concerned about where we are with our airport and the number of people who come in and out of our airport as we are as any other place in our city. and i think as many procautions as can be taken are being taken at the airport. but we've seen such a tremendous decrease in the traffic at the airport. it's nothing like you would see on a normal day. >> i'm sure. i'm sure that is the case anyway. madam mayor keisha lance bottoms, stay healthy and good luck out there and we'll be back

in touch. >> thank you. we are awaiting that briefing from the white house coronavirus task force. which you just heard from hans has been pushed to 5:30. once that begins, we'll of course bring it to you live. also ahead, the growing crisis inside of hospitals across the country, far too many patients and far too little equipment. we're going to talk to a doctor on the front lines of this fight. heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. outbaso now, you can enjoyure great steaks here...r, big game platters here... and date night essentials here.

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welcome back, doctors nurses and health care workers are at the front line of the fight against the coronavirus and as anyone who has been watching the news knows, hospitals are looking for personal protection equipment to get it from anywhere they can. and talk about unexpected today, a stone mason at the washington cathedral stumbled upon 5,000 forgotten n-95 masks in the church's crypts and once they got approval they were okay they shipped them off to hospitals.

around the country and the world any little bit helps in the fight. joining me now is dr. amish adela from the center for health security focusing on emerging disease and pandemic preparedness and actively treating patients now. doctor, it is good to have you on. let me start with this grim number we're going to hit tomorrow. again, we recorded our first death february 29th, the 100th death march 17th and it looks like march 26th will be the 1,000th death and what does that tell you about this pandemic. >> that is only beginning. that we're going to see more cases, we're going to hear about more deaths. we're going to hear more sad stories and hear about hospitals coping with a surge of patients in parts of the country and really fearing for their own health care workers because of issues with personal protective equipment and still hear about

problems with diagnostic testing because that is the theme of the day for me. >> well, it's interesting, there was a great analysis in the atlantic about all of the different ways that officials for years have done scenarios about how the united states could prepare for a pandemic but in every scenario they never simulated failure to test at the beginning. every simulation assumed that we get the testing part right and we would be able to map this virus. i guess it's a reminder that you can't simulate everything. >> exactly. so i've been part of this pandemic preparedness work for several years. basically since i was a training infectious disease physician and we never assumed that diagnostics would be the weakest link. we knew we would have problems with icu and ventilators and e. r. crowding but never thought we could diagnose individuals an behind the eight ball and flying blind not knowing where this is

and where it isn't and who has it and who doesn't have it. we should be able to test rapidly because it is disrupting care in not knowing who has it and who doesn't. >> and do we still need to get this capacity to essentially be able to test anybody we need to test. >> we need to get this done very quickly and not have the delay. so today i'm been approving and disapproving tests based on what i think will be necessary for this patient. and it is been actually delaying care because somebody might come in with, for example, another type of infection and have some symptoms that cross over and people are afraid to do something because it is coronavirus and maybe it is something else and there is delay of care because we don't know that it is not coronavirus and that is the unseen problem that we're having with diagnostic testing, what isn't getting done or delayed because people are nervous about coronavirus. >> do you have any sense that this -- we've seen a fast track, this supposed 45-minute test, is that the game-changer that could

finally get us to a point where we can at least gps this virus in a couple of weeks. >> i think something results in 45 minutes where hospitals could do it at the point of care and not send it out, that will make thinks much easier to identify parents and risk strategy and reduce the risk. we have people who want to be tested but may not need to be tested because they have a mild illness and that is clogging the system. so we have problems with diagnostic testing that are stymying the whole approach of how we fought the outbreak and when the story is written it is a story of diagnostic failure that led the united states to the position we're in today. >> all right. so we've talked about the testing issue. now you have the other issue that hospitals need, the other equipment issues. everything that i've come across today today, doctor, it is lord of the flies when it comes to trying to get supplies. hospitals feel like they're on

their own or state governments act on their own or city governments act on their own. the federal government isn't playing the role of sort of, okay, we're going to inventory all of this and we're going to distribute all of this. is that what needs to happen? >> we definitely need to have some kind of central authority that is helping us decide where personal protective equipment should go and where it shouldn't go and who has enough and who doesn't have enough and have a real-time look at this. because some hospitals, the ones i've been practicing in have not had equipment problems but there are other hospitals that do we need to have some kind of way of centralizing that to get resources to hospitals that are hit hard and prepare for places where the cases are not there yet. and this is something that is also essential because health care workers in order to care for patients they have to be secure in the fact they know they will not get infected because they have the best equipment, the type that is required and not skimp or improvise or use home-made

masks, and i think that is another failure that will be written when we look at this pandemic in the future. >> you just volunteered that you participated in the simulations. have we not simulated the national inventory need necessary right now by fema when it comes to hospital equipment. i get that they never believed we would mess up testing. okay, fine. that turned out to be a mistake in the simulations but the other issues would you assume was covered in the assimilation. is there no sort of best practices that was discovered on how to deal with this on a national level? >> we knew that there were going to be problems with personal protective equipment because there are gloves that get manufactured in one part of the world and we worriyed if there is a supply shock. it is kind of different when it is actually happening in real life and you're seeing it play out. and it is something that we could have anticipated and some

hospitals have been very good at their own preparedness and have warehouses full of personal protective equipment and they're the ones that are better prepared but not every hospital prepares that way and it is the scattering across the united states, about 5,000 hospitals, the bigger ones tend to be much more prepared for the rural hospitals that may not be prepared at all. so we see this mixed picture and it is something that we recognize would happen. but, again, we didn't think there could be this much difficulty during the midst of a pandemic. >> but i do want to emphasize and what you did at the beginning, the initial mistake in the diagnostic testing is why we're so blind today economically, health care preparedness, you name it. anyway, dr. adela, thank you for coming on again and i think i'm going to have you around i hope in around the coronavirus briefing itself. but thank you for now. we are just moments away from that briefing from the white house coronavirus task force. we're going to bring it to you live the second it begins. and up ahend, the pentagon just

ordered no troop movements for 60 days. we'll talk about the impact of the coronavirus on our troops next. i'm happy to give you the tour, i love doing it. hey jay. jay? charlotte! oh hi. he helped me set up my watch lists. oh, he's terrific. excellent tennis player. bye-bye. i recognize that voice. annie? yeah! she helped me find the right bonds for my income strategy. you're very popular around here. there's a birthday going on. karl! he took care of my 401k rollover. wow, you call a lot. yeah, well it's my money we're talking about here. joining us for karaoke later?

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all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen. well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. so they've got other things to do now, bigfoot. wait, what'd you just call me? bigfoot? ♪ my name is daryl. the white house coronavirus task force is holding a briefing. should be holing a briefing any second now. and we will -- as soon as it begins we'll go to it.

but in the meantime, it is easy to lose track of what day it is during this crisis. but today is a day to honor those americans who risked their lives to protect all of us. today is national medal of honor day. a day in which we recognize the 3500 men and women country in the uniform to receive the honor. they are not immune to the coronavirus. 227 active service duty members have tested positive up from 133 on monday and a short time ago the pent took further action to protect troops freezing all troop movement overseas for 60 days or if you are ordered to go overseas you're staying in place. service members will not be coming home from overseas or vice versa. with me now to talk about medal of honor day a bit is a medal of honor recipient himself our friend retired army colonel jack jacobs, an msnbc military

analyst and a familiar face around here. i want to talk first about the coronavirus impact on the troops. uch -- you've been concerned and general millie expressing some concern about troop ready i yns. he thinks it won't have that much of an impact if this is short. tell me about your concerns on this. >> well, i'm mostly concerned about the effect on readiness. we have people deployed overseas in areas that are significant and important to our national defense where we have curtailed and in some cases canceled joint and combined tactical operations and strategic operations because of the virus and this is really important because it reduces our capability to train and operate with our allies, to test out our systems, our intelligence and communication systems and so on. and the longer we can't do that,

the less ready we'll become. there is also a problem that could develop over a longer term in the navy and the air force in particular that are equipment centric. most of these systems, ship systems and air systems, depend heavily on critical military operation specialties and if the people in the specialties who are few in number come down with the virus, others can't be trained. there is no movement to replace them. then those systems, naval systems and air systems in particular, it becomes much more difficult for us to project our power and particularly in those areas like the western pacific and the baltic, chuck. >> so, colonel jacobs, would you assume that commanders are essentially doing what many companies have done, okay, we need team a., can't mingle with team b. so if anybody gets

quarantined you have a back-up team ready to run a system if -- so that you're not having everybody who runs the same system in the quote/unquote same go team. >> in the military one of the things we learned in all of the wars we fought, including the one in which i fought and the most recent ones is that cross training is vitally important. because you are going to lose people. and the capability of the people who we lose has to be picked up by somebody else. the trouble is that if there is a surge in the number of cases, and a significant number of people in uniform are put out of commission, then even the cross training won't help. which is why the military is deciding that we're not going to move anybody at the moment. we're going to reduce the contact that military people have with others and with our allies to reduce the possibility that there will be a

contamination and some of our people who are on -- in critical specialties will be lost to the virus. that means that we won't be able to do our job at all in a very difficult national security environment. so cross training vitally important. we learned it in the past and we're doing it again now. >> i want to go to the reason why i invited you on and we planned to do something on the medal of honor museum which i think it is trying to -- i believe it is a ground breaking happening in dallas some time soon and that is a great way for people to learn about medal of honor recipients but i want to read the mission state colonel jack because it may apply to a lot of americans today. the medal of honor is awarded by the president in the name of congress to a member of the armed forces distinguished by galantry and intrepidity risking loss of life above and beyond the call of duty. a lot of medical professionals risking the loss of life right now. if we don't have one, we may want to come up with a civilian

award for what we're going through and seeing already with doctors and nurses all over the country. >> well, a medal of honor society each year awards valorous awards to civilians who have distinguished themselves in circumstances just like the ones you're talking about. it's really important that we remember right now that the people who are on the front lines are first responders, medical professionals, and the national guard and reserves who are all over the place trying to keep -- keep people from getting too close to one another, patrolling areas. you could see them in large cities, particularly in new york and washington and seattle all of the time. those are the people in uniform and out who are on the front lines and they all deserve not only our respect but our thanks and our accolades as well. >> well, you deserve our respect

and accolades and there is not many living medal of honor recipients and it is an honor to know you and i encourage folks as a way do that, get to know people that have been awarded this highest honor. read about their stories. they're unbelievable stories. aren't they colonel jack? even one is heroism beyond sometimes what you could comprehend. >> well all of us recipients tell you the same thing, we don't wear the award we wear it for those who can't and think about all those who have served and performed valently and nobody saw it and people did see it and they were killed, there was nobody left to witness it and that is why there are only 71 of us alive. when i was decorated there were five times as many. we all say the same thing, we wear it not for ourselves but for those who can't wear it. >> there you go. it is always nice to honor americans who worry about others before they worry about

themselves. colonel jack jacobs, thank you for your service on medal of honor day. get to know a medal of honor resir recipient. >> spain is reaching a grim milestone now as well. and somet, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

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joining italy in surpassing the number of deaths reported during the outbreak in china. we emphasize the word reported. the video is from madrid. it is an ice skating rink and turned into a morgue for virus victims. italy's case load remains higher than spain at more than 74,000 cases compared to spain's 48,000 cases but both have had extremely high daily death rates. spain recording 738 deaths if the past 24 hours. we were hopeful that the italian death rate was beginning to slow after peaking at 800 over the weekend. unfortunately the number is trending back up with 683 new deaths today bringing the total deaths there to over 7,500 during the third week of a nationwide lockdown. while spain is only on the second. the spain government is planning to extend that lockdown until april 11th. right now italy is slated to go

until april 3rd but it could go further if the deaths don't slow down. joining me now is matt bradley on the ground in italy for the past two weeks, i don't think he thought this assignment was going to be as what it was. so kudos to you being on the front lines there. tell me what you've seen from the beginning to where it is today in italy, tell us here in america what you've seen. >> reporter: well, you know, it is like i feel like americans need to pay attention to what is going on here in italy and i've been banging on this point for the last two weeks since i got here. italy is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the coronavirus, in terms of transmission and this lockdown. you mentioned it is a two-week lockdown here nationwide in italy. that is really voided the streets of people. this should be filled with people right now. and there is really no one on the streets. but it is a month in northern italy in lombardi where the

heart of the virus outbreak is and there still has been numbers creeping up and up and up. what i've been seeing here is disappointment. disappointment that this unprecedented lockdown hasn't yielded anything in terms of the numbers. there was some optimism over the last couple of days. it looks like the rate of increase was slowing. you keep hearing this term bandied about, flatten the curve. it looked like italy was starting to flatten the curve. but every time everybody gets their hopes up that the curve is starting to flatten then the numbers spike once again. and not just the numbers in death but in transmission. there should be a lag in the effect on the number of deaths because somebody could have contracted the illness two weeks ago before the quarantine started and then they would die two weeks later, summock finally to their illness. but with the transmissions, that is still rising and that is a big problem and that is why we keep hearing policymakers coming up with new methods that keep increasing the penalties. now you could get fined as much

as 3,000 euros for the crime of walking around in the street. that is a lot of money. you could get five years in jail if the police show that you have coronavirus. >> do they think this is the issue, that it's just a two to 5% of the population not listening to social distancing order or is this thing just so spread out into the country that it -- the social distancing was too late? >> reporter: yeah, i'm not going to lie, chuck, i don't know the people that i've spoken to, they don't know. they're trying to figure it out. they're wondering because there is a lot of questions here. one big question is why is it that lombardi, one of the wealthiest regions in italy had such a massive outbreak in places like where i am, rome, probably has less than anywhere else in the world -- it is quite a normal outbreak, actually. here despite the fact that we

have this massive lockdown, the infection rate and the death rate isn't remarkably that high. they've managed still to contain the outbreak in the north where it is really quite fierce and spreading quite quickly and killing a lot people. ones that people aren't mentioning is italy has the second oldest population in the world and that is why this is taken such a toll on this country because this is such an elderly population, particularly up north. and they were blindsided by this. but one of the things that i talked to officials up north, one of the things they keep saying is that just because you're young, it doesn't mean you're not going to be infected. there are 1,800 people who are age 30 just in the city of lombardi alone who are now in intensive care. and they are needing a lot of treatment. and they're quite healthy. most of them don't have pre-existing conditions. 1,800 of them, much younger than you or i and they are not safe from this virus. so those people who say if you're young, you'll be fine,

you'll just a cold or a slight flu, that is not the case here. this is a real outbreak and a real concern for just about everybody whether you're selfish and young or older, this is an equalizing kind of outbreak, chuck. >> matt bradley on the front lines in rome for us. and i'm going to emphasize it, you said it twice, 1,800 people younger than matt and i in intensive care in lombardi up there in northern italy. keep that in mind. anybody who is watching right now. all right, thank you, mats. up next, we're going to take to you capitol hill where lawmakers hash out a deal for this pandemic bailout. life isn't a straight line. and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. a partner who makes sure every step is clear, unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr?

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we are awaiting today's coronavirus briefing, as you see there. obviously they're going to talk about the deal that's been cut

on capitol hill. how do i think i know that? because the treasury secretary steve mnuchin is already in place. anthony fauci is socially distanced away from him, and dr. birx is socially -- i don't know if that's six feet. 4 1/2 feet. but since i just brought up the deal, i got our two capitol hill reporters with me now, kasie hunt and garrett haake. and kasie, it does seem as if in a normal time, is this $2 trillion bill about to get death by a thousand cuts? but mnuchin being out there, what is all this noise between lindsey graham, bernie sanders? is this just noise or is this real? >> chuck, we've been reporting this out all afternoon. and it seems like at this point it's just noise. it may be something that affects timing. it may be something where you see an amendment vote on the floor or some other hiccup. but i will say that the folks in

charge are trying really hard to push this through no matter what. i think i've never -- none of us have ever been here before, right? and i've never seen the kind of urgency that we're feeling from everyone across the board. >> got to cut you off, kasie. >> to get this written and pulled together. sorry, chuck. all you. >> no worries. got to cut you off. it's the potus time, and here he is. >> so, nice to be with you. america continues to gain ground in the war against the virus. i want to thank the american peor answering the call following our guidelines and making the sacrifices required to overcome this terrible threat. more aggressively we commit to social distancing, so important. social distancing, such an important phrase. and we do it right now, the more lives we can save, and the sooner we can eventually get

people back to work, back to school, and back to normal. and there are large sections of our country probably can go back much sooner than other sections. and we're obviously looking at that also. people are asking is that an alternative? i say absolutely it is an alternative. i have now approved major disaster declarations for new york, california, washington, iowa, louisiana, texas, and florida. that has great significance, as you know, and legal significance. we're in a constant grouping, and i can say this. we have a large grouping of people that does nothing but communicate with the various official, including we've been spending a lot of time with new york officials because that is by far the hottest spot. they've got a number of very tough weeks ahead of them.

the governor is doing a very good job. i spoke to the governor, governor cuomo last night and this morning. and he mentioned in his remarks that he is using the -- that we are using -- i think he feels because he understands negotiation, he thinks we're using very appropriately the defense production act, and we are. we're using it where needed. it's a great point of leverage. it's a great negotiating tool. but i really -- i will tell you this tremendous spirit from people and tremendous spirit respect to these companies, and i don't have to use it very much at all. they want to do it, as you know. general motors is involved. ford is involved. 3m is involved. others are involved. and they're all working very hard to produce product, different, all different products. we had very little product when

we came. numerous hospitals and medical centers throughout certain areas in new york. it's at the convention center, the javitz convention center. we're doing four hospitals and we're doing throughout the state four medical centers there, somewhat different. i want you to know that i'm doing everything in my power to help the city pull through this challenge. i'm working very hard in new york. it's really by far our biggest problem. maybe it will be. maybe it won't be. but there is a lot of good capable people working on it with us, and our teams are working very well with the state representatives. we're also doing some very large tests throughout the country. i told you yesterday that and this is not a knock in any way. i just spoke with president

moon. we had a very good conversation about numerous other things. but they've done a very good job in testing. but we now are doing more testing than anybody by far. we do more in eight days than they do in eight weeks. and we go up on a daily basis exponentially. so it's really good. by the way, while i'm on it, i also spoke with prime minister abe of japan last night. i congratulated him on a wise choice. i think it's going to be a fantastic olympics, 2021. i think it's going to be a fantastic olympics. it was the absolute right decision to delay it for a full year and have a full, beautiful olympics. it's going to be very important because it's probably the first time maybe ever or certainly in a long time that it was on an odd year. it's always on an even year, they tell me. but he is going to have a fantastic success. and now that -- he didn't need any more time. everything was perfectly ready. what a job they've done.

but japan, i want to congratulate japan, the ioc and prime minister abe on a great decision. it's i think it's going to be a fantastic olympics. i told him i'll be there. i'll be there. as we fight to protect american live, we're also protecting american livelihoods. democrats and republicans in the senate are very close to passing an emergency relief bill for american worker, families and businesses. this legislation in addition to the two bills i signed this month that includes as you know sick leave. and we have all sorts of things in for the worker, for families. but we have a tremendous paid sick leave provision for workers at no cost at all to the employers. and that's a big thing. no cost to the employers. we want the get everybody back working. together there is $2.2 trillion legislative package is bigger

than anything i believe ever passed in congress. perhaps relatively speaking, if you go back, look during the fdr new deal days, there was something that if you time value it, you could say it was bigger. i don't know. but this is certainly in terms of dollars, by far and away the biggest ever, ever done. and that's a tremendous thing, because a lot of this money goes to jobs, jobs, jobs, and families, families, families. the senate bill, as you know, includes $350 billion in job retention loans for small businesses, with loan forgiveness available for businesses that continue paying their workers. they continue paying their workers. that's what we want. we want them to keep their workers and pay their workers. this will help keep workers on the payroll and allow our economy to quickly accelerate as

soon as we