welcome, everyone, for "weekends with alex witt." on the rise, the latest numbers on the coronavirus spread, and the doctors and. >> announcer: -- nurses facing it head-on. >> it's like a war zone with very limited resources. every time i leave for a shift, i cry. every shift i have worked, i've had cried. because of the pain and suffering. long lines, big worries, the anxiety that many americans are experiencing right now. the about-face on face mask. maybe they offer protection after all. but we have this breaking news here, in fact, today the number of cases in the united states reaching a new high surfacing 100,000 that number more than any other country in the world.

the president on friday sirened $2 trillion economic relief package fork cussed on providing aid for workers and businesses. the bill passed with bipartisan support in both the house, and andrew cuomo will be giving a press briefing. new york has become the epicenter of the pandemic here in the u.s. we have a team of correspondents and analysts joining us this hour. we're bringing you the laters. let's go first to ron allen, who is in new york city, the epicenter of this u.s. outbreak. i know you're at elmhurst hospitals, not real long lines. people are being allowed to wait until tents. we can't see them, which is a good thing. we don't want people chilled,

perhaps adding insouth to injury, but it appears to be ground zero here in new york. >> reporter: the hospital is not saying much. we're getting some adeck dotal information from doctors and other medical staff who are speaking out. they want the world to know what's happeningthey feel here,e extent there's been some relief. it's still relentless, still just in a dire situation, but there has been some relief. the city has been swarming supplies here, more staff has arrived in recent days, as more han learned about what's going on here. you see the ambulances going behind me. they're going back and forth, because they're transfer a lot of patients out of the elmhurst to other hops who are non-coronavirus patients.

this hospital is becoming almost 100% dedicated to treating patients with the virus. you see the center up there. there are some people who have shown up. it's raining outside, so they're getting in out of the weather. we understand there's a very high percentage of people who are testing positive who are showing up. it's a big concern, obviously, because it just overwhelms the system, but speaks to -- it's an immigrant community, very densely populated. there's a lot of illness, a lot of sickness in this community. they're seeing that as well. they're getting more supplies, but vent it's just relentless. i understand that at the emergency room entrance there are doctors there waiting for people walking up and walking in. they're trying to screen them and see how ill, how sick they are. unfortunately there's a number of people being turned away because the doctors are so overwhelmed by what's going on

in the e.r. and iicu. the numbers of hospitalizations are rising at a slow rate. >> hey, let me ask you, ron, ivan around parts of these networks for a long time. can you put this into perspective how this crisis compares to other u.s. disasters you have witnessed? what is so stunnic and shocking, this is happens in new york city. yell when you walk up here, you see what looks like a third-world country, a war zone

it's a tragic situation. it's really bad out here. it's almost -- i've been saying it's like a disaster unfolding in slow motion, because people, space themselves out, and they -- they're desperate to be tested. it's on and on every day, alex. >> ron allen, thank you very much for that perspective. joining me right now is dr. gene nobel, the director of the covid-19 response. dr. noble, when you see what's happening around here, you see sick people, waiting in line for hours, what we were just talking about throughout this week at elmhurst, what you go they your find. did you ever think this could be possible here in the united states? >> no, i did not. my heart goes out to my

colleagues and all the people of new york. i never thought we would see this kind of epidemic, this kind of response here in the united states. i've done a gloat of global health work arounded world and frankly i thought the united states as an industrialized country would be somewhat immune to this type of response and the scarceities. >> what it's like for you and your colleagues, patients with coronavirus, they are coming through those doors. do youo do you feel like you have enough protective gear? the proper treatment to treat, identify and isolate? >> so from the beginning we've had scarcities, so the roll-out was delays and slow.

>> we're still not completely out of the woods, though the last several days we've been performing more than 100 tests a day. so we're getting there. but we are months into the epidemic. that's a late arrival. regarding ppe, we are continually facing shortages. we now perhaps have a month's supply. that's great news for us. many of our neighbors institutions are not so lucky. we continue to have shortages in other areas, though the powered air respirator device, really the highest protection, when we're intubating and putting them on vents lators, we are a limited supply of shields. we have a gown shortage as we have. we have moved to washable gowns.

each provider has an average of two gowns per shift. we are doing better than a lot of institutions. our community is rallies. we have donation centers that are open. we're doing all that we can, but ppe scarcity we're facing at ucsf just like everyone else. >> i like at least the silver lining nugget, that you guys at least have masks for 30 days. it's a bright spot comparatively to what we have heard elsewhere. dr. jean nobel, we are a grateful nation. thank you. a lot of us have looked to this man, new york gierschor andrew cuomo. let's take a listen in. >> you know how i know today is saturday? because my alarm clock set saturday when i woke up this morning saturday is the day that

the traffic is lighter, but the traffic was lighter yesterday. so it's literally one day blending into the other. just as a matter of perspective, a matter of context, it feels like it's been going on forever, but it really hasn't. new york state had its first case of covid just 27 days ago. new york schools closed only ten days ago. the new rochelle cluster, which was the highest cluster in the united states which thanks to the good work of our health department, has now come down, that was 18 days ago whether we started the school closings in new rochelle and we started the testing and the drive-thrus. is the overall shutdown was only

eight days ago. it feels like a lifetime. perspective, how long does this go on? how long do we expect it? china, which was the first test case, right? first case was 12 weeks ago. that's when it started in china. south korea started nine weeks ago. italy about eight weeks ago, so all -- keep it all in perspective during this disorienting time when one day is just blurring into the next. a lot of people ask me why is there so much talk about ventilators, i never heard about a ventilator before. you're not alone. i never really heard about a ventilator before either, but every emergency situation is unique, and every emergency situation winds up focusing on an issue you would have never

thought of before we've been through superstorm sandy where we needed 1,000 portable generators immediately whoever heard of needing portable generato generators. we had flooding in the north part of -- we needed 700 miles of sandbags? whoever heard of needs -- so there's always a particular circumstance that winds up that winds up developing that you could never really anticipate. in this situation, it's about a ventilator. it's all the same. it's a respiratory illness, their lungs are damaged.

they're having trouble breathing, they have a cough, and they all need a ventilator. that's the peculiarity of this situation. compounding it is -- usually when we equip a health care system, people are usually on a vitt lators for three, four days. with co-vit, they're on for much longer. people are on then longer, so you need even more. that increases the problem. i think the president was right to use the defense production act. what it basically says is i'm not going to ask private companies to help out. but it giving the federal

government it significant leverage to say i need think produces and i need these produced by x date. the federal government still pays an nicked cost, but it gives the federal government the ability to do that. when cit comes to ventilators, these are the necessity. basically i ask people who know, the experts, a lot of questios.s >> what do we do if we don't use ventilators, then you use bag valve masks. what is that?

this is a bag valve mask. this is what you do if you have a person who needs a ventilator, and you don't have a ventilator. the way this works is that it's basically a manual ventilator. and someone squeezes the ventilator, the bag, continuously. this looks easy i guarantee if you do this for any length of time eel see how difficult it winds up being. this is the alternative if you don't have the ventilator. we are actually buys these t we've been bought about 3,000. we've ordered about an additional 4,000 we're even talking about training national

guard people to how to operate this division, which is relatively several to operate, but you need a lot of people to operate this 24 hours a day they're the alternative. the short answer is, no thank you. if we have to turn to this device on any large-case base that's not an acceptable situation, so we go back to finding the ventilators. even the medical experts can't tell you what you need here at

the high point. they do numerical projections, and then you plan based on the projection, you plan based on the data the data says at that high point of need, you could need 30,000 ventilators. so we're planning for that, quote/unquote, worst-case scenario, which the models predict. maybe we flatten the curve, and we're working on that day and night, you hit that apex, make sure you're ready for the apex. that's where the 30,000 ventilators come in.

i have no desire to procure more ventilators than we need on a practical basis, the state is buying the ventilators. they cost between $25,000 to $40,000 each. they're very expensive, and you're that you coulding about a state government that frankly is already from a position of revenues in a terrible position. i don't want to buy any more than we need on a parochial basis. i don't want to pay for them. after this is over, we'll have a great stockpile of ventilators whatever we do, but the state has no interests in inflating the number of ventilators that we actually need. something interesting about the

price of ventilators. when we started buying them, they were about $25,000. now they're about $45,000? why? because they're in such demand and there's such competition to buy the ventilators, which i'll touch in a mom. those are not currently innee. what we are doing is we're planning for we're planning for the critical need, and make sure we have the equipment to staff the beds for that critical need. >> we're days away from the apex. when that curve hits the highest

point, it is too late to try to acquire what you need. acquire what you need now, that's the process of a stockpile. that's what we're going through now. do everything there's an old express, you go to warrick with what you have, not with what you need. until you're in that situation, do whatever you need to do to prepare for it. if they tell you you're going to war in 14 to 21 days, so spend

the next 14 to 21 days getting everything you need to be ready. for us the war would fully engage if we hit that apex, so everything we're doing is in anticipation. gourd forbid the apex haps, but make sure we have what we need for that moment. a few updates, they still forecast the apex tore 14 to 21 days. again that changes on the modeling. every time the caseload goes up or down a bit, that affects the calculation on the apex. what do you need at the apex? 140,000 beds, that's hospital beds, dormitory beds, we're working on that every day and we're getting closer and closer

to we're still talking to the federal government about acquiring more ppe. there's still a concern among health care professionals, because the cdc guidelines suggest a different protocol for ppe and masks, depending on the condition, and parent there is a crisis that the cdc sets forth, and the cdc has put those crisis guidelines in place, and many

health care property felt always are concerns that the guidelines do not adequately protect the nurses, doctors, health care staff that are working on this issue. dr. zucker is are looking at though. if we believe the cdc guidelines don't protect the professionals, we'll put our own guidelines in place. we're working on bringing in more reserve staffing excise in place, that's going very much, back to our favorite -- or ventilator quest s word to the local health systems, we need the local health systems to think more holistically. in other words, you'll have a

regional health system, western new york, central new york, new york city -- and they'll have a number of hospitals. you can have a single hospital gets overwhelmed within that system. you can have the staff get overwhelmed. the local health systems have to change their orientation where it's not hospital by hospital, which is the normal culture. every hospital is freestanding on its own, and is it its own entity. i need the local health system to change their orientation, and operate and plan as if that system is one. if you see a local hospital getting overwhelmed, shift to an adjoining hospital.

unfortunate public and private hospitals, we have to stop operating as individual hospitals, and they have to operate as a system. i need the local officials to do that. so patients can and should be moved among those local hospitals as the need requires. staff can and should be moved as circumstances require. state department of health has not only advised that, but has mandated that. it's not the normal operating culture, but it is a necessity in this situation.

depending on where you have hospitals getting overwhelmed. maybe there's no other hospitals around that area, or it's a cluster zone, that hospital gets overwhelmed. shift, cooperate, plan as a local health system. there may come a point where the state steps in and actually allocates among local health systems sudden may have patients from downstate new york to being move to upstate new york. why? because if the entire local health system in downstate new york gets overwhelmed or the local health system gets overwhelmed, and the lodge island health system says to me, look, we have allocated, we have eight hospitals. we have allocated everything we

can among or eight hospitals. we're still overwhelmed. well, then we'll you shift the bird to a different health system. ref asked the pharmacies to cooperate above and beyond and do free home delivery. there are long lines at pharmacies right now. that's not good for anyone. i will be speaking with some of the major pharmacy chains to ask if they would be cooperative i understand it's a hardship on the pharmacies to provide home delivery. i'm asking them to do it free of charge, but it would make a very big difference. also the department of health is monitoring the density and activity in the new york city parks, specifically on the playgrounds this has been a

problem. the new york city mayor de blasio and the speaker corey johnson have spoken to this. they gave us a plan. we accepted the plan. the plan is premised on the fact that people will reduce the density in playgrounds. no basketball, no contact sports, social distancing. there have been reports that that is not happening speaker johns everyone has made this point. if the voluntary compliance is not working, we can get to a point where we will close those playgrounds, so i again ask the people in new york city, especially young people, please take this seriously for yourself and for others, and let's do it on a voluntary basis. we're also now administer 1100

tests of the hydroxy chlohoquine. we will be getting results soon. javits will open soon. it is amazing what the on army corps of engineers did in a short time, about one week. the progress they made is extraordinary. i want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. the army corps of engineers, the national guard, which is our work force that we call out in all these organizations. i have worked with many of them, and know them after so many situations together, but they showed up and they have done a great job. this should open on monday.

the "usns comfort" will be on its way, i'm told. the president will be seeing it off. it should be here on monday. that will bring 1,000 beds, it also brings medical personnel, which frankly are more important than the beds in this case, and is it has operating rooms, et cetera. we'll use this to backfill and take pressure off a hospital, so a hospital can backfill onto this 1,000-bed facility. i hope it gets here monday, and i will greet it with open arms. i spoke to the president this morning, actually just before i came in today. i apologize for being a few minutes late. the president approved four new sites for emergency medical facilities, one in brooklyn at the port authority cruise ship

terminal. it's call one in queens, one in aqueduct racetrack, one in staten island, one in the bronx at the expo center. i went and toured the sites yesterday, they are perfect -- well, none of this is perfect. they are appropriate and suitable to bring in large-scale medical facilities, the 100,000 square feed, 120,000 square feet. they're open, they have electric. they have climate control, et cetera. so this is going to be big advantage. this will at another 4,000 beds, and there's one in every borough in new york city, which was important to me. every borough knows that they have a facility and they're getting the same treatment that everyone else is getting.

i'm a new york city outer borough person. you don't know that classification also you're from new york city. everyone is being treated the same. we're adding to that be capacity to get to the 140,000 beds. we'ves added 695 additional beds. south beach is opening up. the westchester square is opening up. so you see, again, we're trying to have facilities all around the geographic location that's experiencing the increase. we're making another shift to

covid-only hospitals, where people in those hospitals will only have the virus. so the staff that is there is working with one type of issue as opposed to a normal hospital setting. it's smarter to keep the co-vid statements separate. this is smart and we're going to isolate 600 beds for just this treatment. south beach again, westchester square and susuny downstate. shows you the coverage we'll have when it's all said and done. it's equally distributed, and

it's significant, and in truth many locations have been constructed, adapted, modified, and it's been done in a very short period of time. again, all this in contemplation of the apex. if we're lucky, the apex never happens. the new york state department of health has gotten approval by the fda to start a new test, which is an antibody test, where we can test individuals to see if they were in fact infected by the virus, resolve and now have the antibodies so they have an immunity to the virus. this is being done here. it's managed by our health department, the fda has given us approval. the department of health is working with private hospitals to actually enact this now, so this is happening now. this could be a big breakthrough

if that happens. on the theory of risk/reward, we're supposed to have a presidential primary election that's coming up on april 28th. i don't think it's wise to be bringing a lot of people to one location to vote. a lot of people touching one door knob, a lot of people touching one pen, whatever you call the device on the ballots. so we are going to delay that and link it to an election that was previously scheduled on june 23rd. the june 23rd date is for state legislative races and congressional races. we'll move the presidential election to that date. ironically i had advocated that it be on that date all along anyway so there's one election and people only needed to come out once. everybody wants to vote. everybody wants to do their civic duty, but don't make me

come out and vote 11 times. put the elections together so i can go to the ballot once, and this will actually do that. we are also extending the tax filing deadline to july 15th. this is good news for individuals, for businesses. you don't have to file your state tax return. you file it with the federal tax return on july 15th. it's bad news for the state of new york on a parochial level. that means we receive no revenue coming in until july 15th. this is the increase in the trajectory of the number of cases. you see it goes up again, we tested 17,000 people yesterday. we're testing more than any state in the country and more than china and korea ever tested. total is up to 155,000, number

of new cases 7681. you see the state getting more and more covered. just a handful of counties that have not reported positive tests. this is the summary. 1700 icu patients, 2700 patients discharged. that's up 681. remember, people going to the hospital, people get treated, people leave. remember, most people never go into the hospital, 80% they self-resolve. most impacted states, the state of new york, 52,000, next is our neighbor new jersey, 8,000, then california 4,000, but you see the reports nationwide that other states are finding it, other cities are finding it. i believe you will see more and more of that.

but, again, in comparison, you think california 4,000 cases, compared that to the sit wise we're in with 52,000 cases. people say i advocate for more health for new york with the federal government, and i ask for more things than other states are asking for. yes. respond to the need. respond to the need. we have 52,000 cases. california has 4,000 cases. i want california to have all the help they need, but i want to make sure the distribution of need is proportionate to the number of cases. if you're looking for good news today on the numbers this is good news. i wroont put tremendous stock in it, but it's good news. we're watching the trends, right? because we're trying to gauge

if/when there's an apex. the number of daily icu admissions, that means people who need ventilators. ventilators are what's in short supply. the icu admissions went down only 172, compared to 374 the day before. you see the overall line is still up. the 374 was very troubling, because that was a gigantic leap. the 172 may be a correction from the 374, i don't like to look at the data on any one night. we average they're or four nights to get a more consistent track, but this is good news on a one-day number. the number of icu admissions

dropped as did the number of new hospitalizations dropped. there's a correlation that affirms, both? it affirms the icu number and the hospitalization number, but again, i wouldn't put too much stock in any one number. you see the overall trend is still up. you can't argument that the trend is slowing. i say don't argue, follow the numbers, get more numbers, whatever the number say, the numbers drive the policy. we'll track it every day and see where we go. the worst news, the news that is most depressing to me, and i'm sure, number of deaths is up to 728. of that 728, what's happening is people are on ventilators

longer, you saw that average length of stay on a ventilator. the longer you are on a ventilator, the less chance you are coming off that ventilator. that has always been true. it's more dramatic in this situation since this has been going on a period of time, you're having more and more people now who are on ventilators for a longer and longer period of time, and those are the people were losing. they tend to be people who came in with underlying illnesses, underlying respiratory illnesses, compromised immunity system, not all of them, but most of them, but that doesn't make you feel nick better, right? these are still people who we lost. we lost because of this virus, if they didn't have this virus,

they would be with us today. i don't september the concept that these were people who are old and death is inevitable. yes, death is inevitable for all of us. just not today, right? that's the point. again, total perspective. this is not just a new situation. this started in china. they have all the data since china, and you have a very broad database to call from. again on perspective -- don't forget the basics. i know people feel like it's been going on for so long. wash your hands -- washing your hands, by the way, just as effective as hand sanitizer. wash your hands, don't touch your face. i'm a big face toucher for some

reason, my own face, not somebody else's face. stay six feet away from other people, and don't get complacent. these rules are not just important in the beginning, you have to do this every day. you have to stay disciplined about it. general comments as to where we are, rule one in any -- almost any situation in life, certainly in government, certainly in an emergency situation is to plan forward. plan forward. plan the next step. don't be reactive, be proactive. don't wait to find out what the virus is going to do to you. anticipate what's going to happen and plan for the step ahead. we have been behind this virus from day one.

we have been in a reactive posture from day one. the virus makes another move, and then we respond. no, you don't win on defense. you win on offense. you have to get ahead of this, anticipate what's going to happen, and create that reality now. that's what we're doing with the apex preparation, right? so, yes, i'm creating a preparation -- i'm not waiting unit day 13 that my gosh, we need 30,000 ventilators.

so get ahead of it. beyond just new york, we have to get ahead of this. in two areas. on purchasing. you can't have a situation where 50 states are competing with each other to buy the same material. that is what is happening. when i showed you the price of ventilators, we bid 25,000, california says i'll give you 30,000, illinois says i'll give you 35,000, florida says 40,000. we're literally bitting up the prices ourselves. no one is doing anything wrong. i'm here to protect new york. that's what i get paid to do.

i don't mean too take them from other states but whether you have a system that you say to the states, okay, you go out and buy what you need to guy, we ought need to buy the same thing we all need to buy ventilators, so we're all shopping the same distributors, the same group and it's not even legally price gouging. i was attorney general, i don't even think you have a price gouging case. this is just private market competition. my daughter cara is working on the purchases team. they change the prices. going up literally during the course of the day. so if the states organize among themselves, because you can't have the states competing

against the states and by the way, then when the federal government goes out to buy the same equipment for their stockpile, now it's 50 states competing against the states and the federal government competing against the states. this is not the way to do business. we need a nationwide buying consortium. either the federal government should say i'm the purchasing agent for the nation, i will distribute by need, or the states, which is hard to organize 50 states. i'm vice charm of the national association of governors, i will talk to them. maybe the states could come up with a voluntary buying concourtium and then we distribute by need. this is something that has to be worked out not just for this, but for the future. this can't happen again. also, we have to plan forward on testing.

there's still people who can't get tests, there's other countries developing faster tests, developing home tests, we have a rigorous approval process through the fda, cdc in this country. it's served us well in normal circumstances these are not normal circumstances. i would say a home state and state wants to take responsibility god bless you, because you can't have a situation with a five-day waiting period for a test. that's five days for the person to be out there possibly infects other people. if the goal is to open the country as quickly as you can,

you need a much faster testing process, who has the antibodies? and who is negative and who is positive? so you are going to need a much faster testing process. that's the only way you get up and running. i'll end where i began. you saw the number of days this has been going on. this is not a sprint, my friends this is a marathon. you have to gauge yourself you have to understand this is a long-term situation even though it's so abrupt and so shocking, it's also long term.

each of us have to do our own part to adjust to it it's a shocking new reality. there is no easy answer we're all working our way to it. we all have to figure out a way through it. my gratuitous two cents, see if you can't find a silver lining in all of this. people say extraordinary things to me that i just pick up anecdotally. i was going for a walk yesterday with one of my daughters and captain, my dog. people come up with all these interesting ideas, you know. who's painting their house because they never had time to paint their house before. who's working on a project that they never got to. who's reading a book that they never got to do. who is writing a book.

a few people say i'm writing my journals, my life story. you know, find a way. you have the advance of time here you have the advance of time for communication. i've had conversations with my daughters, hours' long conversations where it's just us. just us talking. no place to go. she doesn't have to go to work. she doesn't have to run out, and they're priceless. they are priceless. i will never get the opportunity in life to do that again, you know. we're going to get through this, and they're going to go off, find a boyfriend and do whatever they do. i've had conversations with ply mother who can't leave the house. she's in the house, so we sort of take turns talking to mom,

and i talked to my mother for hours it's special. it's special. yes, it's terrible. i'm not trying to says it's not terrible. but even in a terrible circumstance, if you look hard enough, you can find the little rays, a few rays of life. people are doing it, and i think we all should. it's going to be a marathon, but we're going through it. and it will be better for it. i believe net in a positive way. tell me questions, comments you have. >> reporter: president trump is a -- quarantine for new york, connecticut, new jersey, he said

so in white house remarks today. he said you also had spoken to him about this. can you comment on that? >> i spoke to the president about the ship coming up and the four sites. i didn't speak to him about any quarantine. >> reporter: had you had any possibility that that's a possibility? >> no, i don't even know what that means. >> mayor de blasio said yesterday that people -- that the apex was going to hit the city. what can they do to prepare for that? gin at this point you only have a couple extra hospital beds that will be set up. >> april 5th? well, look all of the projection, april 5th is earlier than our state projection so dr. zucker will get with the local health commissioner there, but

this -- first it so mayor depalace who has -- and then you have voluntary hospitals, private hospitals let's call them. one hospital gets overwhelm, that we have seen in new york city. you have to immediately from a management point of view be able to use the surrounding hospitals for support. one hospital gets -- this is not how they think or manage or

plan, it's now -- take any analogy school districts, right? there's no thought that make this district would have to cooperate with a neighboring school district. yeah, well, the hospitals do have to. you will have hospitals overwhelmed. once you mac mize your potential, you are still over capacity, then the state can help. either by shift, shift some of those patients to less occupied health systems, or health systems in upstate new york right now are not as occupied as the downstate ones so shift

among health systems or start to use the capacity that we had been creating in that lot. >> reporter: the president said he's looking at some sort of enforcible quarantine for new york, new jersey, parts of the tristate area. is that a sound policy from your perspective, or would you advise against it? >> i don't even know what that means. i don't know how that could be legally enforcible, and from a medical point of view, i don't know what you would be accomplishing. but i can tell you i don't even like the sound of it. >> reporter: there are folks in new rochelle who have been quarantined for 24, 25 days now. there's some confusion about whether the state is following the cdc guidance that says you

have to go x amount of days without being symptomatic, or whether you have the capacity to be let out of that? >> that has been lifted, the quarantine for those individuals, and the cdc's recommendations have been that after -- for those who are positive, after seven days, if they don't have symptoms within a period of 72 hours, then they can be not in quarantine anymore. >> >> reporter: the westchester board of health voted against lifting that quarantine for the people who tested positive until they past a second test. is that -- >> the guidance i have mentioned is seven days after positive, 72 hours without symptoms. all right, everybody we're listening to all the questions that are peppers both the lead health adviser and of course governor cuomo. a lot of information

disseminated from this 45-minute-long or so conference, a daily occurrence, governor cuomo reflecting the concerns of new york state, but that which are under way in many other states. a i'm going to ask a couple questions of dr. patrice harris, the president of the american health association, which has the largest association of physicians here in the united states. the doctor is also a psychiatrist. just a couple questions here. with regard to what you hear governor cuomo say there, he described the fact there seems to be a slowing down of the apex. he said 21 days from now originally. 24 hours later, he said the apex is more of a gentle curve potentially would be 14 to 21 days from now.

are you interpreting this as somewhat good news that we are not going to be in a critical upheaval of sick pakts, but again, we're going from that peak like this to lowering the curve? >> i think we have to listen to the data that they are getting out of new york, and of course that only applies to new york. you heard him also say they had the decrease in the number of patients who are inquire intensive care. i think the key message, the key point we have to take from that is he is making decisions from new york based on the number of patients in icu that's where we need to all go is to lead with the science and have the science dictate or actions.

>> you are a playeding governor cuomo with the way hess's handling. >> he seems to be doing a good job listening to his health experts, and again preparing for the worst, we have to do that. we hope with social distancing -- i like to use the term physical distancing -- but it's cry wall we prepare for the worst. that soo seems that's what they are doing. >> and i know so many first quarter that you are representing are running dangerous low on the po. pes to protect themselves, but let me ask you about the "usns comfort" heading here. we are told in the treat corona -- they won't be treating

coronavirus patients, rather, only the overflow of acute trauma cases, other urgent needs, not pediatric, not ob/gyn deliveries. talk about your thoughts on that, essential creating coronavirus hospitals, if you will, here in new york. that seems an appropriate approach to me. people have will heart attacks, unfortunately people will have strokes. children will need at some point to catch up on their vaccinations. the last thing we need is another infectious disease outbreak. it dso does seem there's an appropriate choice. >> doctor patrice harris, we were happy to have you join us.

i look forward to seeing you against and again. many, many thanks for all of you and all your colleagues are doing to keep us safe. thank you. we're just at the top of the hour here. we have listened to the president who spoke just a short while ago he's heading to send offer the "usns comfort." let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> reporter: is the easter timeline offer the table? >> we have to see what happens. we want our country back to work. the doctors, nurses, first responders, everything doing a phenomenal job. i'm going to, as you know, the great ship "comfort." it's stocked to the gills, right

up to the top. we're going over there -- i guess some of you are coming with me, but we're going to send that to new york four weeks ahead of schedule. i spoke with governor cuomo. he's expecting it on monday. it will take about two days. i'm going to go see the people who did the work. it was supposed to take a good four weeks, and we did it in four days. >> reporter: have you spoken to mark cuban about 3m? >> no, i think 3m has done a good job. i spoke with conditiken langone. he said what a great job they have done. from what everybody has said, they have done an incredible job. >> reporter: mr. president, will we have enough ventilators? we'll have plenty, absolutely. we're going to use we'll use it

again maybe once or dwight. we have a couple -- overall, the private free enterprise is at work like nobody's seen in a long time. it's a beautiful thing to watch. >> reporter: what kinds of supplies might be used again to produce? a few companies, and now all of a said they heard we're going to use it and their rolling out e the. >> i think most of the governor are appreciative. i spoke with governor cuomo and ron desantis. some people would like to say new york quarantine, because it's a hot spot.

we might not have to do it but there's a possibility we'll do a quarantine, short term, two weeks, on new york. probably new jersey, certain parts, and connecticut. >> reporter: restriction of travel from those places? >> restrict travel. they're having problems down in florida, a lot of new yorkers going to florida. we don't want that. heavily infected. we're having a good dialogue with governor cuomo. we supplied him with a lot of things. we're giving him extra medical centers, tents, beyond what we have already given. we're giving to new jersey this would be an enforceable quarantine. >> i would rather not do it. i will see you over at the ship.

>> the president again as he was leaving the white house, i will tell you he boarded marine one, went to the joint base andrews talks for a very brief time that were assembled he is now on his way, as he said for the launch of the "usns comfort." ali vitaly is also where the president will arrive any moment now. what do we expect to see? will the president be going on board? do you know what the setup will be? he is on his way to nor fox, virginia, to see off the "usns comfort. your past guests made a good point. this ship is not going to be taking on patients infected with

coronavirus. instead the 1,000 beds will be used for other traumas and medical activities that need to be taken care of, the thinking being it could free up beds in new york city hospitals and also medical personnel to treat coronavirus patients there in the epicenter of new york city of course a lot of intrigue about how thisship will be arrives? listen to what governor cuomo said just a few minutes ago about the ship coming into new york on monday. >> the "usns comfort" will be on its way as of today, i'm told. the president will be seeing it off. it should be here on monday. it also brings medical personnel, which frankly are more important than the beds in this case it has operating rooms, et cetera.

he hayes continued to say it's stacked to the gills, ahead of schedule, that's something we're ahead on the base. of course president trump saying good-bye to it, he wanted to kit it farewell. it's not the first time this ship has made domestic relief efforts. it went to new york after 9/11 and helped out with hurricane katrina in 2005, and of course in puerto rico. as it begins to take its leave too go up to new york with presidents seeing it off.

it will be a very welcome sight for so many. >> thank you, ali. in louisiana one study is estimated to have the fastest rates of infection not only in this country, but in the world. right now more than 2700 have tested positive. it's the city of new orleans that is suffering the most. let's go to blaine alexander i've got to tell you, blayne, i have seen you do different shots here. it's been remarkable. so much different from mardi gras time. >> reporter: that's the juxtaposition they're looking at, looking at the fact that a little over a month ago you had more than a million people packing the streets of new

orleans. let's look back at what things looked like when we talked about coronavirus back in february. back then it was a problem mainly being talked about as something in china and europe. there were only a handful of cases in the u.s. and wand delivered a pandemic. so the may yore said it there was no case to have it called off. what you have now, more than a month later is one of the fastest-growing rates in the world. so that's concerns the officials so much. we're talking about a number of deaths that keep climbing by the day. now we're seeing the city has just opened up calling for a city-wide ppe, calling to people in tattoo salons, dental offices, people who may have some masks in the back or

gloves, to drop them off at locations, because they are just that pressed for equipment. i spoke with the mayor of new orleans earlier this week, here's a little of what she had to say. >> leadership matters, and how leadership responds at the national level impacts how we respond at the state level, impacts how we respond at the local level. so of course covid-19 was at the forfront of our minds and our thoughts as we prepared to most hardi grau, interacting with the health care professionals hearing there was no reason for us to not move forward, and listening to your health care professionals and those experts on the ground. that's who i listen to. at that particular time, we are notch instructed aany level that

mardi gras was not something that should go on you ivgs. >> the mayor says nobody raised the red flag about a month ago what you see is the effects of so many people crowded in the governor in texas and florida taking precaulkses that any travelers have to self-quarantine if they come into the states. >> thank you so much, blaine. guys, good to see you both. what we heard blaine describing, it seems like the spiking cases, it can happen suddenly.

why is that? >> yeah, dr. fauci said the same thing in a presser a few days ago it sort of smolders along. there's asymptomatic transition, and then suddenly you see this boom in cases. it appears to happen almost every single place that becomes an epicenter. while there might not have been red flags leading up to mardi gras, i don't think this mistake will happen in other parts of the country. it's probably only a matter of people before hot spots -- >> do you think there's a lot of

them are young, college age, healthy, do you think for many of them the reason we didn't see anything coming necessarily from them, you were dealing with previously healthy people. >> sure. i think that's been part of the narrative, as we've been getting more data on the percentage of hospitalizations and icu admissions that have been made up of that population of younger adults, this is emerging information and data, whereas in the beginning we were saying 80% and that the vast majority are in much higher age group, but we can't forget that significant number that are making up the large portion that's incredibly

important data. incredibly important was something he said -- we hearty about the possibility of trying to -- new york, new jersey and parts of connecticut as a possible quarantine. he walked that back a bit and said we're going to look at that. you may have heard governor cuomo, who was asked a question about that. he spoke with the president earlier today, there was only discussion about the usns comfort, no mention of quantity tee. i think hess quote was, i don't even know what that means, i don't know how that could be legally enforceable, and i don't like the sound of it, and the last quick whether that is medically sound. is that medically sound? i don't understand exactly what

that means overall from making it enforceable, you know, that's kind of what we saw in china happening. so if it's more of a loose quarantine, a couple things they tend to collect more and they get more six, in which it says 81,000 deaths in the u.s. by july. if the country stays on lockdown. give mea your thoughts on both of those concepts. these are mathematical model, at

the same time it's possible, if we don't do the things we know we need to do. wash your hands, count touch your face, stay six feel apart from each other. sooner rather than later we'll be cleared from all of this. beaching where should where people are gathering. then we meeting extend it to the summer. as a whole does, not necessarily states, notes necessarily regions, but the entire country. >> all the beaches in my home state of california have been shut down. doctor natalie and dr. john, stick around, because i want you to listen to my next interview, we're going to go to one woman's desperate appeal for help. her husband is now on a ventilator in a new jersey icu. amy is hoping that a blood

plasma transplant from recovered coronavirus patients will help him. it is a new treatment trial, just been approved by the fda, and amy is joining me now from cherry hill, new jersey via skype. first and foremost, how are you doing and how is your husband doing? >> um, i am hanging in there as best as i can he is in critical condition, intubated and on a ventilator. hess is on kidney dialysis. they were overwhelmed by the virus. right now we have been, you know, making a public plea for

donors who have tested positive for coronavirus, and are 14 days symptom free per the fda to donate and we have been having some success in people reaching out to us who fit that criteria to donate to him and to others that are in need but we are a problem to have these donors be able donate. well -- and i just want informed this morning that the blood bank of delmarva will not ship those ample across state lines. i am in panic mode right now. i want him to be able to get this streets that will hopefully give him antibodies to the virus

so he can fight this thing. i'm clinging to our state to our governor and anything that i can to please help us. >> i can hear the desperation you guys are a beautiful couple. has anyone given you or from the state any light at the end of the tunnel with regard to getting this plasma to you? >> when we just received this news. i have family members behind the scenes trying to work and reach out to people in our state to figures out what's going on

there apparently approved sites here for this, even though we were given information. from the fda once then approved this that there were certain center that is people could go to donate the blood, but we're hitting road block after road block. i was listening to governor cuomo saying, you know, that we need to operate as one. we real ly this is road blocks need to be eliminated to people can get the care they need. >> at what point did you know your husband needed to go to the hospital. was it something that you saw slowly and then took a harsh turn? tell me what happened there.

>> he told me two weeks ago that he was not feeling well. he started with a fever on the 16, chills, fatigue. the 17th i took him to urgent care. they tested him for regular flu, which was any tinegative. they did not have any coronavirus tests available at the urgent care. there were no kits, so they examined him, his lungs, his vital signs, everything was stable. they gave him your typical, rest, fluids, take tylenol, motte r motte r motrin. wednesday hess fever seem to break, thursday the fever came back. at that time we received an e-mail from our family physician, the hospital he's in,

coop her health system, that they were opening a drive-thru covid testing site near our home. friday morning the 20th we called and set up an appointment for him to be tested at 2:00 that afternoon. his shortness of breath and fatigue and everything else continued and i took him and asked the nurse when she did the nasal swab what should we do if this worsens. she told us to contact our doctor and potentially he would need to go to the emergency room in if it became severe. by 9:00 that evening, he was not in good shape. i called our doctor, they instructed us to go to the e.r., which i did. i took him there. he had to walk in alone. they would not let me go in with him, and i watched through the window, that they took his information and put him in a

wheelchair and took him back, and i went back to my car to wait. i texted him to let him know i was there, and to, you know, keep me posted about what was happening. he texted me and told me that they took him back to a room, that to go home, and that he loved me. that was the last time i communicated with him. i haven't seen him since. sorry, i'm very emotional right now. it was about an hour and a half of him being in the emergency room. the emergency room doctor called me and told me he was critical, he had double pneumonia in both of his lungs, and they had to n inintubate him. hess's only 50 years old, a healthy guy. this should not have happened.

if i had better information previously and not just thought, oh, this is only going to attack the elderly in such a severe way or people who have underlying medical conditions, i would have taken him to the e.r. on thursday i don't know how much it would have done, but, you know, hindsight is 20/20. i want to get this information out to the public so people of all ages take this seriously, and they're looking for, you know, the signs. >> amy, i'm so grateful to you for sharing your story, as hard as it is to hear, you've got to say, but this is something that's happening all across the country. maybe this plasma will be some sort of life-saving avenue for people. holding out is the very best for you and bret. stay strong. i'm going to talk to two more

doctors. you might want to stick around and willen to this. guys, that is so hard to hear from amy, but the thing is this is happening in homes, in hospitals and communities across this country right now. first of all, amy was saying how she couldn't get it across state lines. it seems like there's a hiccup. should someone be able to dough na donate plasma? give me your thoughts on if this is a viable option? >> there's a couple different prongs, we have hope for the vaccine, antivirals that directly kill the virus. we can dampen or mitigate the

host to the virus, and then we have this concept of convalescent plasma, you take antibodies and infuse that into someone acutely ill. as of yesterday in new york, mt. sinai and albert einstein we're recru recruiting recovered patients, all these emergency use authorizations that are happening for other things like testing, why can't we do this across state lines? that to me seems like an absolute no-brainer, or get these sites up and running in all 50 states. >> john, you want to answer that question and/or your thoughts on this viability? >> i think what we're going up against here is the national policies, state policies, laws

that have been in place for years, and we've never seen a disaster on this scale affecting the whole country. governor cuomo said that. looking forward we need to learn from this. that means more nationalizing things, including laws, policies and procedures, and normally that will eliminate these "i can't send it across state lines" when this convalescent serum, you get it from someone who has recovered, and give it to someone who is ill. there's a lot of asymptomatic patients. yesterday the fda approved a 5 to 15-minute test who can tell us who will be -- yesterday's test was telling us who has the disease right now, but there's a couple tests coming down that will tell us who has been infected. we can look at more asymptomatic, and get more volunteers in there. we can get those antibodies. it's not a cure. it helps them get over the hump,

and like dr. natalie said, once we get the vaccine, we'll be in a much better place. dr. john, can i ask you, we're listening to amy breslow's heartbreaking story, and it seemed like it was five-ish days or so down sliding a bit, but the speed with which he crashed, if you will, he needed to get to the hospital. he was taken immediately into icu, he was having trouble breathing. they had a test that morning. by 9:00 that night they were in the hospital in the icu. is this unique, or does this present to you the kind of situation that many people would kind themselves in? >> it's not unique, ales. what a lot of people describe it is as a slow burn. they'll feel kind of bed, under the weather, the dry cough and fevers for a few days, maybe up to five days or so, and then get to a period where they start

feeling better, 12 to 24 hours, all of a sudden they go downhill, but then they have breathing problems, higher fevers. that tends to happen fairly quickly. it's not unusual to hear this happening, to get to the emergency room. at that point they find out they're a lot worse than anybody thought they were. it can happen very quickly. that's one of the things with coronavirus that's affecting people so much. like she said, you know, for a while we want the elderly are the ones most at risk. now we're wee emphasizing that. regardless of age group, it can affect you like it's affecting him, unfortunately. >> dr. john, dr. natalie, i'm going to ask you to stand by. we know the president will speak momentarily from norfolk, virginia, as he goes to send off the "usns comfort" ship there. let's go to italy. there's breaking news to tell you, as the country of italy has reached a grim milestone today. matt bradley joins us once again from a very darkened and

somewhat desolate rome. what do you know? >> reporter: we just heard now that italy's death toll has topped 10,000. we have more than nearly 900 dead just today here in italy, and yesterday it was a very, very grim milestone, the largest number of deaths in one day, nearly 1,000 deaths in one day. that's the largest for any country in a single day anywhere in the world since this whole thing started. you know, this is a country we have to remember, much, much smaller than china, much, much smaller than the united states, and still it is being ravaged by this disease. the flattening the curve that we keep talking about, so far we're not seeing that, and that's a really big problem, a major curiosity for a lot of scientists. why is it that nearly three weeks into this nationwide lockdown we still haven't seen the results of this lockdown in the figures? the death toll is still very have i high, of course, but

we're also seeing in the number of new transmissions, that hasn't decreased in any statistically significant way. we saw in today's new numbers that there's still, you know thousands and thousands of new test positives. so this is going to be very troubling for a lot of people who are wondering whether or not this lockdown has actually been having an effect at all, even as it ravages the economy and upsets so many people. that's a question for americans when they look here in italy. authorities keep increasing the punishments for people found walking in the streets. we saw videos of mayors scolding their citizens like children, demanding they go home. you know, this is something that is going to start crashing onto american shores as the numbers start to rise and authorities start to scratch their heads. matt bradley, thank you for that. for all of you, i want to let you know, we are awaiting the president's arrival there at

norfolk, virginia, on what is a beautiful day there in that bay where the "usns comfort" will be leaving and the president will launch that come going to new york to the harbor there, where it will be treating those kinds of acute patients -- knotts coronavirus patients, we should make that clear. it has trauma and operating room abilities there. they will not be treating pediatric cases nor ob/gyn cases, but will be looking to relief the burden of cases coming into new york and those that can be treated who are non-coronavirus. about 1,000 beds on blood that ship. there's much needed financial help for americans after the president signed that $2.2 trillion relief bill, including some direct payments to americans. joining me now, minnesota

democrat representative dean phillips. welcome to you, sir. i want to go to a tweet you posted, a picture of a nearly empty plane yesterday. you were on board that plane, because you had to rush back to d.c. to vote on that package. you and many of your fellow members had to vote. give me your response to that whole situation, that the bill has been passed and signed? >> well, first, alex, let me say after watching amy just moments ago tell her heartbreaking stories, i just want to let the entire country know that i represent 435 colleagues who feel the same way, heartbroken for the pain and suffering that so many are feeling, and wishing everybody whose families are affected by this the best wishes, and we're going to get through this. it's going to be a tough number of weeks ago. as for yesterday, alex, it was a

stunt, if anything, posed more risk not just to members of congress, but to their families and the communities to which we all return back to. it was disappointing, i can tell you it was an example of the president and i sharing the exact same perspective. i'm sure some of you saw the tweet that he issued. those times of stunts are deeply troublesome. >> yeah, the president wasted no words, shall we say, going after his fellow republican. you were able to help get some of the release language, and part of it is calling for a congressionally oversight. tell me how that would work, and give me a sense of just how important it is to guarantee the money goes to the right places. >> alex, this is the most significant distribution of taxpayer money in human history, not just our nation's history, but human history. >> wow. >> i think everybody in this

country all want to see their tax dollars used effectively, efficiently, with accountability and oversight. t the bill as religion oy written lacked a -- originally written, a lot of that language was adopted into the final bill, simply establishing a panel, five men, bipartisan, who will provide oversight and an inspector general, the same format we used with t.a.r.p. >> congressman phillips, here is the problem. i know you know it, because the president put out a statement last night that the trump administration does not recognize that congressional oversight as being valid. what's your reaction? >> heads sure wasted no time.

>> what does congress do to make sure -- >> well, congress has abdicated a lot of its response. the president wasted no time dismissing this oversight. i will be a very vocal voice in congress to ensure that the president and the administration and the treasury department does not dismiss the responsibility that we have to provide oversight. you know, this is half a trillion that, without oversight, without controls, without accountability, can be used in any manner the treasury department so desires. that's not effective governance. i will absolutely join my colleagues in ensuring we provide what is necessary and required. congressman, speaker pelosi already talking about pressing

for a fourth relief bill. any idea how those discussion might begin and what it might include? >> i think it's fair to say the first bills were designed to weather the storm, to give people enough resources to get by, and by necessity to allow small business to say keep their doors open, and resourced as much as we possibly can, and then we will assess where we stand relative to the virus, to the epidemic, and then phase four in all likelihood will be a continuation of getting us through, or if we made it through, a stimulus package, and i will make sure that consume es drive what succeeds. i hope we get there sooner rather than later, but rest assured congress has americans' backs right now. i've never seen this much

thoughtfulness, decently and respect as we work our way through this. i'm optimistic. we are listening to our constituents in all 435 districts, all around the country. some of the most heartbreaking stories, we bring them back to washington, rest assured we will act and emerge from this a different country, no question, by i'm optimistic we'll be more compassionate, respectful and wonderful nation. >> dean phillips, i got to tell you, that is exactly the note i want to end this on, very positive, very optimistic, and mower power to you. >> thank you. optimism is just as contagious as fear. keep the faith. >> he agri agree. thank you. we're going to bring you the latest as the president arrives. stay here. f my eye. just a blur when they jumped the median. there was nothing i could do.

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we're giving you a live look there at pier 8, where the naval ship "comfort" will be leaving for new york. it will provide about 1,000 beds for patients who do not have coronavirus. before leaving, the president said he is considering a truthful quarantine for northeastern states. take a listen. >> some people would like to see new york quarantined because

it's a hot spot, new york, new jersey, maybe one oar two other places, certain parts of connecticut quarantined. i'm thinking about that right now. we might not have to do it, but there's a possibility that sometime today we'll do a quarantine, short term, two weeks. >> he may be thinking about it, being a we listened to governor cuomo in the last hour, he said he doesn't even know what that means, doesn't know how that could be legally enforced, doesn't like the sound of it, not even certain that a quarantine would be medically sound. he also announced more than 7,000 new cases in new york today bringing the total statewide, almost 30,000 of which are here in new york city. there are 728 deaths, governor cuomo said he's working with the president to secure four new medical sites in new york city. >> this is going to be a big event. it's just will add another 4,000

be beds, and there's one in every borough in new york city, which was important to me. every borough knows that they have a facility and they're getting the same treatment that everyone else is getting. on that note, the javits center will open lehere in manhattan. the nypd announcing today three members have died. that officer is the first sworn member of the department to die from the virus. he was a 23-year veteran of the force. the president firing back at a reporter asking him about the availability of ventilators, as governors and hospitals are sounding the alarm on the need for more. here's more [ inaudible question ] >> look, don't be a cutie-pie, okay? nobody hayes ever done what we've done. nobody has done like we've been

able to do. >> okay. so joining me now is elise jordan, a contributor to "time," a former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments. don't be a cutie-pie? when you watch scenes like that, elise, how do you feel the president is playing out this act he does occasionally when it flares up. how does it play out in this national crisis? >> donald trump has tluloved throughout his presidency, doing above and beyond any press said orr in attacking the free media. it's not that much of a surprise he lashes out at reporters who are demanding transparency and accountability from the white house. i do think that the act is wearing thing, though, because americans want answers right now.

you look at the countered between donald trump, when he is doing supposedly factual briefing about covid-19, compared to governor andrew cuomo, new york state, and there just is no comparison to the factual accuracy and the information that governor cuomo and his staff give the american public every day. >> can i ask you, with regard to the political nature of all of this, do you think that the covid-19 pandemic is seen through a political prism by many people? or is that number dwindling? >> alex, it was surprising to to me at the beginning of the crisis the contrast just on my facebook page. i'm from mississippi, and you would see how there were some people who believed this was a political tool to get donald trump, and then they were other people who really were

fearful and saw the threat of the looming pandemic. i worry that increasingly this is going to, you know -- donald trump is going to manage to turn this into a culture war, but you look how no one is spared from this virus. just in louisiana, in the deep south, is a big hot spot, because mardi gras went on as planned. you look how that is going to spread from louisiana all through the south, all through middle america. as americans one by one are unfortunately impacted and their friends and family are, i think this sheds a political dimension and becoming a struggle that we americans are all in together. >> yeah. this was most curious, elise. according to abc news, multiple sources say the president spoke to alex rodriguez, a-rod, as he continued outreach across the country, and the president has responded on twitter calling it fake news.

however, the optics of a headline like this, wouldn't americans prefer to see the president having discussions with medical experts? >> i don't think that a-rod is the first person that anyone necessarily thinking of when they want to get advice about a public health crisis, and that was reported by abc news originally, and they have a better track record with facts and accuracy than donald trump. he is known for consulting people who are completely inappropriate to weigh in on such matters of seriousness. when i saw that news report, i couldn't help but to laugh last night. dark laughter, but laugh a bill, because it's so typically for donald trump. >> i've got to tell you, i'm going to call up a-rod for an advice on a fastball or player placement on the field.

coronavirus, he's getting through it just like the rest of us, thank you my friend, elise jordan stay safe and well. >> thank you. i know it's a stuff story and i appreciate the sensitivity you're. sometimes it's hard, but thank you, my friend. we are awaiting the president, as a matter of fact, it looks like the president is dead center to your screen walking to the podium. this is pier 8 in norfolk, virginia. he has arrived, because hess literally wants to send off the qusns comfort" arriving we hope in new york city on monday. let's take a listen to what we're hearing there -- actually -- nope, let's take a listen. >> thank you, mr. president for being here today as the united states naval ship "comfort"

prepares to set sail to new york. on behalf of the men and women of the department of defense, thank you for your leadership during these difficult time. you should know, mr. president that the united states military is all in on this emergency. and the great sale laeat sailor medical professional als are eager to start their important mission. as the nation aggressively responds to the coronavirus pandemic, the department of defense is focused on three priorities. first, protecting our service members, civilians and their families. we are committed to taking all necessary measures to safe guard the well-being of our most important resource, our people. second, he remaining prepared to carry out our core national security missions. and to defend the united states against any threat.

and third, continuing to support president trump's whole of government, whole of nation response to the coronavirus. for several weeks, the department of defense has been surging personnel, capabilities and equipment to help show the spread of the virus. thousands of national guard troops are mobilized across the country, conducting a variety of essential tasks ranging from planning to logistics to medical support. active duty units are moving equipment and personnel to some of the nation's most heavily impacted areas. world class tdoctors and scientists are at the forefront working alongside the private and government sector efforts to produce a vaccine. and now in this great time of need, the president last directed the deployment of our

nation's most powerful symbols, the navy two hospital ship, the "mercy" and "comfort." both have a tremendous history of humanitarian assistance and have provided care for people throughout the world. this exceptional legacy continues as they now take care of their fellow americans. the skilled mem professidical professionals will splay a critical role and i thank them for their commitment to the well-being of the american people. frgs and i thank president trump forss his leadership. your leadership is uniting the american people to defeat this virus. i'm confident that we will get through this together. and we will prevail.

thank you and it is my great honor to welcome the president of the united states and our commander in chief president donald trump. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, mark. you're doing a fantastic job. and our country appreciates it. very much. and thank you everybody for being here today. i'm deeply honored to be at naval station norfolk, largest naval base anywhere in the world and home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas. i just passed the most highly lethal ships that i've ever seen and there are a lot of them. and there are in better shape now than they have been for many, many decades with what we're doing. we're grateful to be joined by commander of the u.s. fleet forces admiral christopher grady

and also vice edadmiral lewis. thank you for being here. as we gather, our country is at war with an invisible enemy. we have scientific, medical and military to vanquish the virus. and we will do that. today i'm here to express my profound gratitude to the dedicated service members who will soon be on the frontlines of this fight. and in a few moments the crew of the navy hospital ship "usns comfort" which is really something will ecmback for new york city where they will join the ranks of tens of thousands of amazing doctors, nurses and medical professionals who are battling to safe americve ameri.

this great ship behind me is a 70,000 ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of new york, a place i know very well. a place i live. we're here for you, fighting for you, and we are with you all the way. and we always will be. you have the unwavering support of the entire nation. the entire government and the entire american people. after being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed, it was supposed to be here for four wiks a four week and they did it in four days. the "comfort" will arrive in mountain monday. its crew will begin treating patients on tuesday. it will be met in new york harbor by governor cuomo who i

just spoke with, he is very excited and they need the help. the skilled sailors and mariners aboard this ship will provide a critical surge capacity for the new york metropolitan area. their mission will be to care for new yorkers who do not have the virus but who require you are ghents care. in other words, they will be used this, people will be coming out of hospitals who don't have the virus. and they will be on the ship with great rating rooms a-- ope rooms and great facilities. and people that have the virus will be on land. so the people with the virus will not be on ship, the ship will be used for people having operations and other things other than that. by serving these emergency patients away from the hospital, beds will be opened up all over

the city for knows wthose who a infected. this ship can handle a lot of people. so it will open capacity all over the city. and it will be ready to address any life threatening medical emergency. it is stocked. it is stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything that you can think of. importantly by treating nonin-effected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt very strongly the transmission of the virus. and the "mercy" arrived head of schedule substantially in port yesterday. governor newsom was thankful for it, they are working very hard in california. it is performing a similar mission for the people of los angeles and the people of california at "usns comfort" gets under way, it is fully loaded with 12 plating rooms and

they are fully equipped. 1,000 hospital bhedbed, a medic ran lab laboratory, pharmacy, cat scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck.an lab laboratory, pharmacy, cat scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck.n lab laboratory, pharmacy, cat scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck. lab laboratory, pharmacy, cat scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck.lab scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck.ab laboratory, pharmacy, cat scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck.lab laboratory, scan, two oxygen producing plants and helicopter deck. fr a and it has a crew of the outstanding members of the navy and i that can them very much. among the sailors departing today are some of the finest doctors, nurses, technicians and true professionals. no one performs better. these are incredible people. we will stop at nothing to protect the health of knockers

and t norkers a new yorkers and the people in our hour of need. and i want to remind everyone about the cdc latest guidance. if i are from new york and you travel elsewhere, you need to self-quarantine for 14 days to shep contain t help contain the spread of the vir virus. and i'm considering and will make a decision shortly a quarantine because it is such a hot area of new york, new jersey and connecticut, we'll be announcing that one way or the other fairly soon. this does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the new york area who are making deliveries or certainliy lily g through. the army of corps of engineers

and fema are racing to build temporary hospitals which are now completed by the way in record time. four hospitals. four medical centers. and in speaking with the governor this morning, we're giving them an additional four large tents which they need very badly. and the emergency medical stations in new york are top of the line, you have them in not only new york but california and illinois. we'll be add something to other states also. i've empowered our nation's governors with the resources to calm the national guard and thosh the actity vagts tivatio reserves. fema has shipped or delivered 11.6 million n95 recent pir ray to , 5.2 million face