>> thanks at home for joining us this hour as well. i am very grateful you are here tonight. we are going to have speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, joining us live here in just one moment. you know, in -- in times like these, if we are lucky, somebody steps forward. unifying figure. somebody who brings us all together. reminds us what we all have in common, despite any other differences that might have kept us apart in the past. today, it was a republican congressman from kentucky. a man named thomas massie who

played that role. he proved that everyone, democrat and republican, could come together, even in washington, in common purpose. the common purpose of being absolutely furious with congressman thomas massie because there really was no suspense today about whether the house of representatives was going to pass this $2 trillion relief package, meant to prop up the economy, which has, more or less, shut down during this pandemic. the senate passed this 96-0, unanimously, democrats and republicans. by all accounts, the vast, vast, vast majority of members of the house supported this thing as well. the suspense was not whether it would get passed. the suspense was about how the house bill would get passed and how much danger members of congress would have to put themselves into to cast their votes. very not conducive to social distancing. all right. americans are supposed to avoid gatherings of numerous people right now.

well, there are 435 people in the house of representatives. when they vote, they physically turn up, all in the same room, to cast their votes. another thing everybody's supposed to avoid right now is travel. as of yesterday, capitol hill -- capitol hill sources told us that only a few dozen members of congress were even in washington. members who wanted to travel to washington, many of them, couldn't even if they wanted to. even if they had designs to. as of today, four members of the house of representatives have tested positive for covid-19. more than a dozen others are in quarantine because they were in contact with either those members or others who tested positive. so how are they going to cast this vote? how on both sides of the aisle and came together and decided what they would do is they would pass this thing by voice vote. and that would mean that not everybody would have to physically be there to do it. but, then, republican

congressman thomas massie started letting everybody know that he planned to make all the members of congress to come to the capitol, to be there, physically, to pass the thing. he planned to object to holding a voice vote. he wanted to require at least half the members of congress to be there, in person. 216 people. everybody had to be there, together. here was a -- a -- a sort of snapshot, a kind of reaction that he got. this was from his fellow republican congressman -- new york congressman peter king. quote, heading to washington to vote on pandemic legislation because of one member of congress refusing to allow emergency action. entire congress must be called back to vote in house. risk of infection and risk of legislation being delayed. disgraceful. irresponsible. again, from his fellow republican member of congress. i mean, and this was not some abstract thing. this was not an inconvenience that thomas massie was causing

here. right? you're going to make hundreds of lawmakers crowd into a room right now. i mean, the house physician, the attending physician at the capitol, the sergeant at arms, put out a joint, very stark memo yesterday advising members of congress that if, and when, they came to the capitol today, they, you know, shouldn't use the elevators together. they should all take the stairs instead. if they entered the house chamber, they would be required to use hand sanitizer on the way in and out. and they would -- there would be an attempt to keep them apart from one another, even within the house chamber. honestly, the attending physician and the sergeant at arms told members of congress, bluntly, that they should just not come to the capitol if they didn't have to. quote, members should make extreme care and determination. the physician continues to recommend teleworking. but they had to come today to make sure this $2 trillion bill

got passed because thomas massie personally insisted they needed to physically show up to do so. so here was the unprecedented scene today. members of congress scattered across both the house floor and the balconies where the spectators usually sit so enough members could be present to block thomas massie's stunt, while putting each other's lives in as little danger as possible. house speaker nancy pelosi, seen here, diligently disinfecting the microphone in the lectern before speaking. this is how it went down. >> mr. speaker. >> does the gentleman recognize? >> i object on the basis that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. >> the chair will count for a quorum. counted for a quorum, the quorum is present. the motion is adopted.

without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. pursuant to section 7b of house resolution 891, the house stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on tuesday, march 31st, 2020. >> the house passed that $2 trillion piece of legislation today. president trump signed it this afternoon. he invited no democrats to be there for the signing ceremony. but given the lack of respect for social distancing inside the white house, perhaps that was for the best, in the long run. how soon can americans expect to feel the relief that this bill is meant to bring? how important is it that it pass now? what's going to happen next? joining us now for the interview, i'm proud to say, is the speaker of the house nancy pelosi. madam speaker, it's an honor to have you with us tonight. thank you for taking time to join us. >> thank you. my honor to be with you. thank you for all that you are doing to make sure people know what the challenge is that we

face in this very sad time. thank you, rachel. >> well, thank you for saying so. this is -- this is the single-most expensive piece of legislation ever passed, as far as we can tell, in terms of dollars. i have to ask, big picture, how comfortable you are that what happened today, this vote today, this legislation today, will go the distance that america needs it to go toward holding the economy together and helping us respond as best we can to what's happening? >> legislation that we passed today is a very big down payment. but we have much more to do. just to back up for a moment, the legislation that the republicans passed with their tax scam a couple of years ago approached almost $2 trillion. and giving 83% of the benefits to the top 1% in our country. when the president said, today, i've never signed a $2 trillion bill. well, he nearly did in that giveaway. it didn't create jobs.

only increased the national debt and was a real disservice to our children and their future. so when they talk about this as $2 trillion and all that it does for america's workers and families. it is -- it's the least we could do. and we have much more to do, and i can talk about that if you wish. >> yeah. i want to -- i want to talk about what's in the bill. i want to talk about the president's signing statement. you've just -- your office just put out a statement moments ago on the president using the defense production act. i do feel like, though, i have to ask you about what happened today with congressman thomas massie of kentucky? this republican congressman calling for a recorded vote. this remarkable scene of members of congress, basically, fighting their way back to washington in order to be here because he was going to insist on a recorded vote. you were seen talking to him on the house floor before he raised his objection today. can i just ask you what you said to him? and what your view is on what he did today? >> well, i tried to be respectful of his enthusiasm for

his idea. but i did tell him that it wasn't going to work. that we will have a voice vote. that he was just -- and it wasn't going to hold us up too much. and recommended that he take his enthusiasm to the floor, and speak about why he was unhappy. and let that be his statement instead of making a statement that wasn't going to work. that wasn't even going to register on the clock more than, like, one minute. that we had a plan. that we always knew we would pass this bill. and we would pass it today. and we'd not let any nuisance stand in the way, and that's really what he was. a dangerous nuisance. but later in the day, we saw the president signed the bill. and he was a dangerous president. it was so sad to hear him say, as he signed the bill, just think back 20 days. 20 days ago, everything was great. everything was great. and, now, 20 days later, we have

this challenge. no, 20 days ago, we had nearly 500 cases, 17 deaths. we had a threat that he chose to ignore. and now, we have over -- about 100,000 cases and over 1,500 deaths. and he's still in that state where not doing enough for all of the ppe, the personal protective -- ppe -- personal protective equipment that our brave healthcare workers, first -- first responders and the rest, who risk their lives to save other people's lives, urgently need. >> in terms of the president's personal actions and his personal decisions, i was struck by the fact that he issued a signing statement when he signed this bill today. saying that he would override the provision in this bill that lays out some -- some oversight and the establishment of an inspector general to make sure that some of the business bailout provisions in the bill aren't misused.

the president saying today that he has no interest in that oversight and he'll override that. what's your reaction to that? >> well, of course, it's not a surprise to anyone. but congress will exercise its oversight, and we will have our panel of house -- appointed by the house -- to -- in realtime to make sure we know where those funds are being expended. but let me just say that the president's statement is indicative of -- of the difference between democrats and republicans when it came to this bill. with the bill that was put on the -- forward last saturday by senator mcconnell was a corporation -- corporate-down bill. trickle down, as usual. what it turned into was a bubble-up, workers-first legislation. workers and families first. they never thought they would be supporting the provisions that are in the bill that relate to unemployment insurance and how it has expanded in so many ways. and all that we would be doing for small businesses. that there would be provisions

that would be helpful to families in terms of access to healthcare and the rest. the bill. it was jujitsu. we just took their bill and turned it around. and -- and so they signed it in the white house as if they had some real provenance as to what was in the bill. and, again, we put our conditions on any assistance that was going to industries in our country because we wanted to make sure that workers came first. and they did, in the bill, and they do in the bill. >> i know that there are -- there are provisions in this legislation to provide support to hospitals. to try to get critical medical supplies produced and distributed and to those frontline healthcare workers that you were just praising. i feel like i am -- what i would expect from the federal government in a pandemic, what i would want from the federal

government in terms of their role in a coordinating effort and in a streamlining effort and in a rationalizing effort to make sure that resources got where they were. i don't have any faith that this administration is capable of doing those things, even if they should. even if, in the way we understand our government, they should take on that kind of a role. do you believe that the federal government, basically, will get its act together when it comes to things like personal protective equipment? or do you think that this will be led to the bitter end, just by individual states, individual governors, fighting it out on their own? >> well, let's make a distinction between the congress of the united states and the president of the united states. in our legislation today, we faced the reality of what we have to do. this was the third bill within about three weeks. our first two bills were about addressing the emergency about testing. testing. testing. the first bill. masks. masks. masks. about research for a -- a cure

and a vaccine. all kinds of pieces, provisions, in the bill to address the emergency. the bill, today, was more about mitigation. mitigating for the damage that was done to our economy, and how we can address meeting the needs of america's working families so affected by the -- all of the provisions not to have communal coming together. so it is important to note that we still have to do more in emergency. we still have to do more on mitigation. but our next thrust will be about recovery, and how we can create good-paying jobs so that we can take the country into the future in a very strong way. at the same time, though, we still have to address what you said. today, the president said he was going to ask -- do the defense production act. so that businesses would be producing more ventilators. a little -- very late. he said he sent thousands of ventilators to new york. well, maybe one-tenth of what

they need. 4,000. they probably need ten times that much. issues that relate to other equipment that is just not in the works, and we want the president to expand the defense production act to insist that our industries are making those products. we can't ask people to go into infectious situations, again, to risk their lives to save another life. we should be -- we should be making sure they have the equipment that they need. for example, a ventilator. it's not just a convenience. it's a necessity. and it -- it -- it's a necessity in realtime. people need ventilators, from one moment to the next, to stay alive. and, yet, the president -- i -- i just can't understand how those who are advising him, scientifically, aren't just demanding that he do something more drastic in terms of that equipment. we, also, need much more money for our state and local

governments. just much more money for that. and if he were to think that they should be left to their own devices, well, they should be left with much more money to do so. money that their states have all contributed to the national treasury. in addition to that, these hospitals need much more. when i say hospitals, i mean institutions serving the health needs. whether it's nursing homes, hospitals, other institutions that care for people. the list goes on about the needs. and, actually, there are other needs, too. we need to expand family and medical leave so it covers more people, which they resisted. we need to address pensions. actually, in that case, we had the support of the president. but not mitch mcconnell. he wouldn't do it. he said he'd do it in another bill. so we're setting up for the next bill. we need to address the disservice to the district of columbia, which is appalling in every provision ever, they've always been treated like a

state. then they treated them like a territory to the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the people of the district of columbia as they fight the coronavirus. we also need to have strong osha -- a rule that we've been asking for, for a while, to make sure that -- that these people who are providing care are protected in the -- in the workplace. in addition to having the equipment, which is part of -- which is part of the rule. we want to make sure, when we say that testing was free, that everything that goes with the testing is free. so that people don't get a -- a -- a co-pay that is too high for them to pay. just because they were told that they needed to be testing. the list goes on. there are so many needs that we have in there that are urgent to this health issue. that are specific to the coronavirus. we're not having a wish list for all time. we're having a coronavirus necessity list. associated with that, of course, is more money.

we got $400 million for elections. we need much more so that we can have the elections, first of all, to take place. and to take place in a way that is more open, with more vote by mail and the ability to do so and to help the postal service with resources to enable them to do so. just to name a few. >> just to name a few, indeed. speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, madam speaker. first, i want to say happy birthday. i know you have just had your 80th birthday. i want to thank you for everything you did to get congress back together in this bipartisan work to make sure it was safe for members to come back today. i know it was a real fight. thank you. i hope you can get some rest as congress recesses and be well. >> we're getting ready for the next bill. but i appreciate your birthday wishes, which i will not celebrate until i can hug my grandchildren or my children. what every grandma and mom and dad and parents in the country can do that, as well.

then we'll all be able to celebrate. but thank you, again, for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you about how we see our bill and where we go from here next. thank you, rachel. >> madam speaker, thank you. all right. we've got much more to get to tonight. do stay with us. omizes your care so you only pay for what you need? given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk... my chair... and my phone. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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it's a measure of where we are at that, on a day when congress passed a bill with $2 trillion worth of spending in it

to shore up the american economy, the dow jones responded by just dropping another 900-plus points. but that's where we are. last night, the united states of america became the largest coronavirus epidemic in the world. tonight, the u.s. passed 100,000 known coronavirus cases. that's cases proven by testing. but we have this big asterisk on our case numbers, as a country, because we are the country where we have the worst testing access in the industrialized world. so, yeah, we're at 100,000 cases. but our epidemic is likely many times that size. the one highly populated place in the united states that's doing a ton of testing is new york. of the known 100,000 cases in the united states, more than 25,000 of those cases are in new york city alone. let me show you something about what this week has been like. the first day that we started getting daily, regularly updated numbers on not just cases but the numbers of patients hospitalized in new york city. first day we started getting those numbers regularly was

march 21st, which is this past saturday. on saturday, new york city told us there were 1,450 coronavirus patients in the hospital in new york. sunday, the number rose from 1,450 to 1,800. on monday, it rose to 2,200. more than 2,200. on tuesday, the number was 2,850 patients hospitalized in new york. on wednesday, 3,922. on thursday, yesterday, 4,720 coronavirus patients hospitalized in new york. today, we just got in the new york numbers from new york city as of 6:00 p.m. this evening, 5,250 coronavirus patients in new york city hospital beds right now. and that number may, yet, rise. again, that's as of 6:00 p.m. tonight. it's -- it's remarkable to see that rise, just over the course of this week since they first started reporting these numbers. you plot it on a graph and you can see, not only that daily data but, the upswing. you can see how that curve is pointing up.

this is -- this is the crisis and the first city to be hit with a tidal wave of sick patients, right? the steepness of that upward curve, just over this week. new york governor andrew cuomo addressed members of the national guard today at the javits center, which is the big convention center in manhattan. they're, ult mayly, probably going to have 2,000 hospital beds onsite, which is great. but it's only a start given the tens of thousands of additional beds that are needed in new york city alone. we've also been getting daily updates on the death toll. again, just in new york city, at the beginning of this week, on saturday, the new york city death toll was 60. it's now up to 450. seeing that on a graph, again, also shows you not just the data but the bad upward trend. "the new york times" has now created a special obituary page just for people who have died from coronavirus. today, new yorkers started doing

something that other communities have done in recent weeks and in canada, people staying at home who are doing their part to slow the spread of the virus, nevertheless, coming to their windows or balconies if they have them at 7:00 p.m. local time to clap and cheer and say thank you to doctors and nurses and other frontline health workers. who, after all, are basically the infantry for all of us as the hospitals start to get swamped. especially, here, where our government cannot get it together to supply even the greatest hospitals in our country with adequate protective equipment to keep hospital workers from, themselves, being exposed and having their lives put in danger while they're caring for all of us. and caring for the sick. and caring for the dying. and, you know, the situation in the worst-hit new york hospitals really bears no resemblance whatsoever to the happy talk, we're doing fine nonsense that we are still, daily, hearing from the white house.

>> that you see, they all have covid. the frustrating thing about all of this is it really just feels like it's too little too late. like, we knew. we knew it was coming. today is kind of getting worse and worse. we had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients who are dying. we are, right now, scrambling to die to get a few additional ventilators or even cpap machines. if we could get cpap machines, we could free up ventilators for patients who need them. i don't have the support that i need. and even just the materials that i need, physically, to take care of my patients. and it's -- it's america. and we're supposed to be a first-world country. >> we are seeing a lot of patients who probably had covid but we didn't realize.

ten residents and also many, many of our nurses and a few of the attending physicians got sick. the anxiety of the situation is really overwhelming. you know, all of the doctors, it's hard for us to get tested even if we want to, even if we had symptoms. we're exposed over and over again. we don't have the protective equipment that we should have. i put on one n95 mask in the morning. i need to have that n95 mask on for every patient i see. i don't take it off all day. the n95 mask i wore today is also the n95 mask i wore on friday. >> so many people are saying it's going to be okay. everything's fine. we have what we need. and if this goes on for a month or two or three or five, like it did in china, and we're already this strained. we don't have what we need. i don't really care if i get in

trouble for speaking to the media. i want people to know that this is bad. >> since "the new york times" posted that account from elmhurst hospital in queens and from that doctor, that hospital's reportedly been sent 40 more ventilators and, roughly, 50 more healthcare workers. also, this sign has gone up across the street. thank you. to the people working there. we're going to be talking, in just a moment, with the chair of emergency medicine at the brooklyn hospital center, which is dealing with many of the same challenges. they are, in fact, right now, asking for some of the doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists and other health workers who have volunteered, by the thousands, to be part of a new york medical reserve corps. to, please, come on board. to, please, get assigned to them as their doctors and residents and other workers have already started to fall ill. that interview's coming up next. but i want to tell you it is really not just new york.

the u.s. conference of mayors tonight released a survey of mayors in 213 u.s. cities, over 41 states, nearly 90% of the mayors said they already lack sufficient test kits and face masks and other protective equipment for, not just medical workers but also, emergency responders. 85% of mayors said their hospitals do not have enough ventilators. the governor in the great state of colorado, tonight, gave a briefing on that state's stay-at-home order. saying that, so far, in colorado, on average, each infected person is infecting three to four other people. which is a considerably higher infection rate than it was in china when china was at its worst. govern govern governor polis saying tonight they believe they will need 7,000. here's one other report tonight from southwest georgia. not from atlanta but from rural, southwest georgia. albany, georgia, where the nearest interstate is 40 miles

east. and there's -- there's no reason for local officials to blame it on new york city or blame it on china. or blame it on any other boogieman, foreign influence. quote, the area's lone hospital network at the center of the coronavirus storm. the sudden deluge of critically ill patients quickly overwhelmed albany's hospital. when reports first came out of china late last year, phoebe's ceo said they tried to prepare by building up a six-month store of supplies. that hospital burned through that stockpile in seven days. quote, what we were not prepared for was the sheer numbers. on wednesday, this week, the hospital in albany, georgia, announced that all 38 of its intensive care beds for coronavirus patients were full. the following day, after five other hospitals agreed to take transfers, phoebe had only one bed open. meanwhile, phoebe is working to set up overflow units at a mostly empty branch hospital.

but to staff those units, the ceo says he is going to need about 50 to 75 more nurses, along with more nurses assistants, respiratory therapists, and doctors. to, please, try to find those workers. he also needs workers now to backfill for staffers at that hospital, who have already fallen ill. so far, at least 18 workers at that one georgia hospital have tested positive for covid-19. unable to find replacements -- has told hospital workers that they must report for duty, even if they have tested positive. that's not new york city. that's not king county, seattle, washington. that's not even new orleans, which is 400 miles away from there. that's rural, black-belt georgia. this is a national crisis. this is not the kind of crisis that each state can fix on their own or each town or each hospital can approach on their own. this is a national thing, which

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there are 989 people with coronavirus. the hospital where incidentally, dr. tony fauci was born. the country's top infectious disease expert. that hospital, an independent, historic hospital, is running thin on testing supplies and space and staff, who have increasingly started to fall ill themselves. the president and chief executive of the -- told "the new york times" yesterday, quote, we are in disaster mode. the hospital's chair of emergency medicine is dr.

sylvie. she said if the patient volume increases at the current pace, the emergency room will be out of space by next week. as the hospital's own staff have started to fall ill, they have asked for volunteers from new york's medical reserve corps to, please, come help replenish their ranks. joining us now, dr. desouza, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i know this is probably the last thing you want to be doing. >> thank you for having me. >> can i just start by asking how you are? and how your staff is holding up? >> we're holding up. we are doing the best we can. one day at a time. >> you're in charge of emergency medicine at one of the hospitals that's really at the epicenter of this crisis. what can you tell me and -- and tell the country about the kind of pace and the kind of increase that you've seen. when you started getting your

first patients, and how rapidly the pace started to accelerate and -- and what the pace is like now in terms of new patients? >> when we started screening, on march 3rd, for any patients who would present to the emergency department with influenza-like symptoms. in preparation for what was to come. and, since then, we've seen and screened approximately 950 patients. >> in terms of that kind of -- those kinds of numbers and the capacity of your hospital, i know you're in charge of emergency medicine. we've seen some of the data about the intensive care beds. the number of, for example, ventilators. how -- tell us about the ratio between that kind of influx of patients and what you're capable of managing on a day-to-day basis. how full are you right now? >> right. so this influx of patients, of additional patients is, in

addition to our regular volumes of emergencies that we see on a daily basis. we see approximately 75,000 patients a year. so that comes out to about 200 to 250 patients a day. so these 950 patients are in addition to our regular volume. so you can imagine the challenge. so once we started screening, we quickly realized we needed a mechanism to -- to keep the patients who were the least symptomatic out of the emergency department. and we, actually, installed a tent eight days ago outside of the hospital. so we -- to give us the ability to screen those who could, possibly, be treated at home. and -- and that's what we've been doing for the last eight days. for those who we recognize as having more severe symptoms, we bring into the emergency department. we had to designate an area --

we essentially separated our emergency department into a safe zone. and a zone to evaluate patients who are at risk for coronavirus. we had no other choice in order to protect the other patients, who come in with heart attacks and strokes or regular emergencies and the staff. so, now, our -- our zone where we see the patients suspecting of having coronavirus is completely flooded, overwhelmed, understaffed. we're doing the best we can. we -- essentially, they range from minor symptoms to very critically-ill patients, who require our icu. who require life support. many of them remain in the emergency department because we have no space in the icu to move them up.

>> do you feel like you have access to resources, either to transfer patients, to tap more personnel to come in to bolster your ranks among you and your colleagues? to access more protective equipment, as it -- as it has run thin. to access more expertise, if you need more advice or more people to come in to help you develop these kinds of ad hoc systems, where you're separating off covid patients from other patients. do you feel like you have resources to tap to scale up to do the kinds of things you're describing? >> we do not. we do -- right now, i mean, as of today, we're able to take care of the patients we have currently. and we have had a tremendous outpour of support from the community. since we are a community hospital, we've had multiple donations of protective equipment, which is vetted by our supply chain folks. and, then, put into circulation. so we have been extremely

fortunate in that sense that we have not, yet, run out. but i don't know what tomorrow holds or what next week holds. i can only take it one day at a time. >> dr. sylvie, chair of emergency medicine at brooklyn hospital center. thank you for your time tonight. i feel like i want to thank you on behalf of all of us. i know it doesn't mean much just to hear thank you but everybody in the whole country is pulling for you. >> thank you. thank you for having me. >> all right. much -- much more to get to tonight. stay with us. in america we all count. no matter where we call home, how we worship, or who we love. and the 2020 census is how that great promise is kept. because this is the count that informs where hundreds of billions in funding will go each year for things like education, healthcare, and programs that touch us all. complete the census online, by phone, or by mail. shape your future. start here at 2020census.gov

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to deal with mass casualty events, such as major wars. now, because of the coronavirus pandemic, these hospital ships are being woken up from reserve s status. los angeles and new york, as those cities struggle with the coronavirus crisis. the comfort is set to arrive in new york harbor early next week. the mercy arrived in los angeles today. these are floating hospitals. 12 fully equipped operating rooms. a thousand-bed hospital facility. radiological services. pharmacy. o optometry lab. on the day the mercy arrived in los angeles, a commanding officer on one of those floating miracles, the usns merrcy, join us live from that ship. sir, it is an honor to have you join us tonight. thank you for making time. >> on behalf of the men and women of the usns mercy, it's an

honor to be here with you. >> what can you explain to our audience, to all of us tonight, about what the mercy is capable of? we shorthand it as -- as a floating hospital. we've seen the mercy, and also the comfort, deploy to disaster zones abroad. what should americans expect about the kind of capability you're going to bring to los angeles? >> we offer a very broad range of medical specialties. we have beds. work beds. operating rooms, as you mentioned. so we're a very capable hospital. >> we've been describing your ship as having a thousand beds. and i know that you have a lot more than beds onboard. should californians expect that the mercy would be used specifically for treatment of coronavirus patients? or isolation of patients who have tested positive or are showing symptoms. or do you expect that your ship will be used more for

non-coronavirus, non-covid patients to take on the kind of responsibilities los angeles hospitals may not be able to comfortably provide. >> our specific provide care for non-coronavirus infected patients so that we can relieve the hospitals and enable them to focus their time and resources on patients infected with coronavirus. >> one of the things that i was talking about with my staff today when we found out we were going to be able to speak with you, and we remember from seeing other deployments of your vessel abroad, we were talking about the prospects and the logistics of getting patients on and off the ship. i mean this is not like, you know, pulling a hospital into the central square, downtown l.a. you are going to be at port. how does it work in terms of getting patients on board and off board? how easy is that?

how flexible can you be about that? >> so all of our patients are going to come as interhospital transfers from other local hospitals here in l.a. they're going to come to us by ground transport. they're actually going to come to the cruise ship harbor right now. it's an easy passage up some ramps to get on board from there. >> how much staff are on board the mercy? how many doctors and nurses, and how long do they expect their deployment will be? >> so we have just under 1,000 total staff here. two-thirds of those medical and a third are not medical. as you can imagine, it takes a lot of support personnel to make our hospital run, so we have culinary specialists, information technologists, lodge stishens and many others who support the patient care. in addition, we have 76 who drive the ship, navigate it from place to place. as far as how long we're

supposed to be here, we're seen as the lead agency. we're coordinating with the state of california and local authorities and we'll take our cues from them as long as they decide we should be here, we're happy to be here. >> sir, thank you for taking time to explain to us your mission and thank you to you and all the men and women on board that ship for what you're doing. >> thank you. >> all right. again, the "mercy" has landed, has arrived in los angeles. the "comfort" is due in new york harbor over the next couple of days. each of them about a thousand beds. they do not expect to be treating coronavirus patients. they hope to be, as the commanding officer just said, they hope to be basically a relief valve for non-coronavirus patients to have someplace else to get expert care as hospitals

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i want to finish tonight by checking back in with a story we were first to bring you a week ago from king county, washington, which of course is the original epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in this country. we have been watching efforts in king county to build a new temporary hospital on a local soccer field. this was one of the first of these that we saw starting to go up anywhere in the country. king county officials planned to use that soccer field for a 200-bed hospital, again trying to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed local hospitals, trying to free up room for sicker patients. as we reported a few days ago, king county started in on this on a local soccer field last week. here's an update on how construction is going now.

obviously just incredible progress they've made. they've gone from local field to nearly ready hospital just in a matter of days. and there's some further ad hoc construction that has popped up there too, made by the neighbors. we don't know exactly who put up these improvised welcome signs, but look at this. they say "we're with you" and "welcome neighbors." that's king county, washington, but we are seeing building now all across the country. louisiana, the governor is warning that the hospitals will max out by next week. officials are outfitting the enormous convention center in downtown new orleans to hold over a thousand hospital beds. again they're trying to ease the strain on the city's existing hospitals by offering this other place. they plan on having 120 beds operational in the new orleans convention center by the end of this weekend and then hundreds more beds to come online. in illinois, the mayor of chicago, lori lightfoot, announced plans to reserve at least 1,000 chicago hotel rooms for coronavirus patients who are symptomatic, who have mild or

moderate symptoms and for those who are unable to go home for fear of spreading the virus to their households. that's an important part of controlling these epidemics, right, is to isolate people who are sick away from their households in places they can recover safely. in california, in fresno county, officials announced today they're planning a makeshift hospital on the local fresno fairgrounds with 250 beds. in florida, miami-dade county, construction well under way on a 250-bed field hospital on the fairgrounds there. we reported on that several days ago. officials are expecting construction there to wrap up today. also on the state fairgrounds in oregon, the national guard, oregon national guard is well on their way to opening a makeshift hospital there to handle the surge in hospital patients. we are seeing cities and counties all across the country build out field hospitals in all kinds of places. and as it turns out in some parts of the country you can also sail hospital capacity into port.

once again the u.s. naval ship "mercy" already arrived in los angeles as of today. we just spoke with its commanding officer. the "usns comfort" will be arriving in new york city we believe by monday. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again on monday. be well. hello and a good saturday to you. welcome to msnbc's special coverage of the coronavirus. i'm richard lui in new york at 30 rockefeller center. president trump says he is now considering a federally mandated quarantine of new york, new jersey, and connecticut. this has cases of the coronavirus in the united states still setting daily records as of this hour. across the country, more than 110,000 cases are confirmed. the virus has killed more than 1,900 people. the president is now weighing up whether to