good sunday evening, everyone. craig melvin here. it is 6:00 on the east coast now. and right now, the white house coronavirus task force is meeting behind closed doors in the situation room, we're told. we just learned moments ago, we will be getting a live briefing from that task force, roughly an hour from now, 7:00 eastern. the team, the coronavirus task force team, now warning they are especially concerned about colorado, washington, d.c., and pennsylvania, over the next two weeks, i'll talk to the mayor of pittsburgh about how he is

getting his city ready, especially as of right now, more than 330,000 of our neighbors and family members have tested positive for coronavirus in the united states. the virus has killed more than 9,460 americans, today the u.s. surge general warning it is going to be a hard week, and he said this coming week will be a pearl harbor, or our 9/11 moment. let's bring in the pa"washingto post" correspondent and msnbc contributor and health and human services, nasa and the white house. ann i will start you with. we will hear from the task force, roughly 59 minutes from now, something we did not expect, up until a few minutes ago, but like a lot of things at the white house, a tweet from the president seemed to change that. what you are expecting to hear this evening? >> at this point, we do not have

an indication that the president has some very specific new information to share. and you're right, today was supposed to be a day off, the president himself had told some of his aides and family members that he wanted to have palm sunday as sort of a day of rest for everyone, including the task force, and certainly the many white house aides were relieved to hear that. it felt like today was a good day not to be on the air. that did change this afternoon. i believe that the president looking ahead at this week, thought that he really needed to be out there, talking about it, and you mentioned some of the language that members of the administration had used, in the last 24 hours, talking about this will be our pearl harbor, this week will be like our pearl harbor, others have said a national 911 moment. the president is the main

message maker on this issue. and he wants to be the main person talking about things like our 9/11 moment. >> dr. mark, these members of the task force, who are issuing these stark warnings, this is just some of what we've heard over the past 24 hours. >> well, this is going to be a bad week, unfortunately, if you look at the projection of the curves, of the kinetics of the curves, we're going to continue to see an escalation. >> the next week is going to be our pearl harbor moment, it is going to be our 9/11 moment, it is going to be the hardest moment for many americans in their entire lives. >> are hospitals, dr. mark, are health centers in many parts of this country, they are already strapped, and what happens when they start to see even more patients? >> as we know, the numbers are climbing and there is certainly a concern over whether you have ppe, whether you have your supplies and whether you have your health teams.

what ends up happening is you begin triaging very carefully who will get the beds and what extraordinary measures will be taken for particular patients and the other is you want to try to maintain infection control as tight as possible so those who work in the hospitals don't get infected and become ill. we're at a crisis moment, we have been seeing the numbers climbing and there is such an urgency to try to get the ppe on board so we can be prepared. >> and as we enter this week, one of the things that continues to strike me is how the president's tone seems to have shifted a bit. from it's like the flu, to we could see 100,000 to 200,000

deaths. >> that there are a number of shifts. that's one. there has also been a shift between back and forth we as a country have to take this incredibly seriously, more seriously than we're taking it, follow doctor's advice, to yesterday, he was back on, we have to get our country open, and america wasn't built to be closed, and he does kind of vacillate, particularly on that last point, and you can hear it in his voice, when he really wants to do, he wants to say reassuring things about the economy and we're going to be getting back to work and the economy is going to bounce back very quickly, that is something that he believe, and he feels is crucial to say, from the presidential podium. it can sound disordcordant, as happened yesterday, you have dr. birx, and dr. fauci coming to the same podium to say what we're doing is working, keep doing it, the risk of not doing it is enormous, keep up your social distance, and then 30

seconds later, the president says, yes, and we have to get back to work, i do not know whether we're going to hear another shift on that today, but certainly, dr. fauci and dr. birx and others who are attending that meeting today have been in the president's ear, urging him to urge the country to stay home. >> dr. mark, i have to step out to the gross, the grocery store today, and i wore my mask and struck by the number of people in the grocery store who were also wearing these mask, in accordance with the cdc guidelines that were issued on friday, and any evidence at this point that the mask wearing in public is working? >> we look at models that have taken place overseas. for example, our asian counterparts have been wearing marches for years, they started doing it well before us, sars, and you can see how effective it can be. what we know is it tends not to

protect the individual who is wearing the mask, but it prevents the individual from projecting droplet, aerosolized particles, which can get into the air and on to surfaces. so indirectly everyone benefits. if someone is wearing a mask, they're protecting you. and if you're wearing a mask, you're protecting them. so i hope as more americans begin to adopt this practice, we will start to see protection for every individual. >> and we're using a term mask, and i've been told that perhaps i should be using facial covering instead. does it matter what we are putting over our nose and our mouth? or just anything, does anything work? >> i think the term facial covering is probably more appropriate. we want to protect our health providers by ensuring that they have n95 masks and that is a little more protective for them, from all of the different size aerosolized particles.

for individuals, whether it is a scarf or face covering, they will still be able to protect the public by not releasing as many particles into the air. >> all right. dr. mark, thank you. and anne gearan, thank you, as well. meanwhile, governor cuomo, the new york governor, says the state of new york has passed 4,000 deaths from the coronavirus. as of now, there are more than 122,000 cases throughout the entire state of new york. want to bring in kathy park, outside the javits center in new york city, it was a massive convention center, and now, it has become a makeshift hospital, it's accepting coronavirus patients, cha what have you seen there on the ground today? >> reporter: hey, craig, good evening to you. yes, originally, when the idea was proposed, to transform this massive convention center into a

temporary hospital, the idea was to put in place a thousand beds and treat non-covid patients only. the goal was to lessen the strain on nearby hospitals, by taking on these noncovid patients. but the city is shut down. so those types of emergencies, we're not seeing those, so this massive convention center sat idle, sat empty for a couple of days, so officials reassessed the purpose of this temporary hospital, reached out to the federal government, got the okay, to start accepting covid-19 positive case, and the cases started to come through friday night. right now, we're still waiting to get an exact number of how many patients they are treating. but we do know that they have expanded the beds to 2500. the u.s. army is taking the lead on the operations inside. and craig, really, the city, the state, they were able to mobilize pretty quickly, in just a matter of days, to get this up

and running, so other cities, are using this, as a model. you mentioned there are other hot spots emerging, colorado, philadelphia, dc, several others popping up all across the country, so they're looking at the javits center as a potential model, as guidance, and transforming convention centers like this one in their own communities. and andrew cuomo, he has been at the forefront of this, offering daily briefings to the public, he had another one today, and offered a glimpse of where we are, as far as the apex goes. take a listen. >> the number of deaths over the past few days has been dropping for the first time. what is the significance of that? it's too early to tell. we are looking at this seriously now, because by the data, we could be either very near the apex, or the apex could be a

plateau, and we could be beyond that plateau right now. >> so, craig, that apex continues to change, because the data continues to change on a regular basis, but he mentioned on several occasions that we are several day, within days of hitting that surge of cases. we also heard from mayor bill deblasio today, earlier in the week, he said that today was a critical day, because we potentially, as a city, could be running out of those critical mellow supplies, but in a bit of good news, craig, he said that they were actually able to secure enough items to last through midweek. craig? >> okay, all right. some good news. we will take that, kathy park, there outside the javits center, thank you. over the pond, british prime minister boris johnson, word came down a short time ago that the prime minister has now been hospitalized for his coronavirus

symptoms. downing street spokesperson says his hospital admission is purely a precautionary measure. it's based on the advice of boris johnson's doctor, it comes ten days after the prime minister by abc news correspondent cal perry. and what do we know? what are the latest updates from the prime minister? >> reporter: yes, we got that very short statement just two paragraphs, you sort of had the first one there, they basically said this is not an emergency admission, that he went for what they're calling some routine tests, they say that he had persistent symptoms, the one that they named is the coughing, and the fever, i'm sorry, it is the fever, not the coughing, and the prime minister, as you said, has been sick for ten days, he was in isolation, he actually put out a video, in which he cited that fever saying he wished key come out of isolation but the symptoms persisted.

certainly, the government, when you sort of go through the language of that statement, craig, is downplaying this, that he's gone to the hospital, but it's a very difficult and fine line to walk, of course, because people about r-going to ask the obvious question, why couldn't these quote routine tests be carried out at 11 downing street, just next door there to 10 downing street where that office. is tand sno is, it is another sign how hard the coronavirus has hit the government. matt hancock is down and tested positive for the koirnz. and we had an historic speech by the queen, and her son, the future king of england, prince charles, also stricken with the coronavirus. so hitting all of the public officials here, across the country, very hard. craig. >> you know, it was unusual to see and hear from the queen this afternoon, that rare televised statement, how are things there,

where you are in london? >> well, almost 5,000 have died from the virus. and the fear here is that this country is going to follow in the footsteps of italy and of spain, that this is really cracking the health service. the queen's address, she harkened back to memories of world war ii, and you don't have to, to keep calm and carry on slogan that brits here hold so dear, but they also hold dear the national health service and public service, and the army has been called up to deliver food to the elderly, and it is certainly becoming a very difficult situation. i think all the more difficult when you now have the prime minister in the hospital. i think that is really going to wake some people up here, who may have gone out today, to parks, there is talks of shutting down the parks because some people were out today, even though the government continues to urge people to stay home. certainly, a difficult situation. made all the more difficult by

the news that prime minister johnson is in hospital this evening. >> cal perry for us, there in london, cal, thank you. and for a moment here, let's listen to just a bit of the queen's address. she called this pandemic an increasingly challenging time. she thanked the nation's health care workers as well. >> while we have faced challenges before, this one is different. this time, we join with all nations across the globe, in a common endeavor. using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. we will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us. >> we should note that speech was delivered before the news of the british prime minister's hospitalization was announced. tonight, on msnbc, watch an incredible documentary from our partners, sky news, in london,

it is powerful. sky news special correspondent stuart ramsey tames a comprehensive and compelling look at the devastates impact of the coronavirus on the people of the hardest hit city and the hardest hit country in the world in italy. sky news managed to get amazing access to go inside intensive care units and wards, and hear the critical warning those on the front lines want the rest of the world to hear. watch "special report, coronavirus, into the red zone" tonight, 10:00 eastern, only on msnbc. a big push for new action in washington, when what democrats are calling for in the next round of coronavirus relief. including more direct payments into your bank account possibly. first though, a miami-dade firefighter hospitalized, recovering from coronavirus complications, he was, he was

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rough 40 minutes from now, we expect to hear from the coronavirus task force, at the white house, and in the most recent briefing, dr. debra birx says it is time to look ahead to three potential new hot spots in the coming weeks. >> we are watching them because they are starting to go on that upside of the curve. we're hoping and believing that if people mitigate strongly, the work that they did over the last two weeks, will blunt that curve and we won't have the same upward slope and peak that new york, new jersey, connecticut, and part of rhode island are having. so this is a very important, the next two weeks are extraordinarily important. >> i'm joined by the mayor of

the city in one of those potential new hot spots, pittsburgh mayor bill peduto. mayor, thanks for your time. first of all, how is the city of pittsburgh getting ready for these next, next few weeks? >> we've been preparing for several months, going back to the end of january, when we had our first meetings, through the month of february. we were one of the first cities and counties to take on quarantining, even though we didn't see the numbers that were being viewed in new york and washington, we knew that the wave was coming, so as we stand here today, in allegheny county, which has a little over 1.2 million people, we have 150 cases and four fatalities. understanding that we are on the next wave. conversations with mayor kenny, from philadelphia, where philadelphia's hospital system is already feeling that strain,

we know that we will be on that next wave. so we have pursued a lot of additional social distancing programs throughout the city and the state, we've had a great partnership with our governor, governor wolfe, who has taken on early initiatives as well, and we prepare for it by doing it the way that pittsburghers do everything. by working together. >> there are, as you know, now more than 11,000 confirmed cases, statewide, there, in pennsylvania. what kind of support is pittsburgh getting from the state? and the cities and towns near you? how are they working together to stay unified, as you try to stop the spread of this thing? >> we work through the pennsylvania emergency management association and through our state department of health, on all of our public health initiatives. this being no different.

the coordination though is happening at a much higher level, working through homeland security, and in our area, region 13. of 13 counties where we're working with our health networks, in order to identify now, not waiting until the crisis hits, the number of beds in icu, the numbers of beds available, the number of personnel. we are at the point where all of our city workers are being tested for a fever as they come to work, as they leave work, and if they have a fever, they're sent home with pay, and they're quarantined for two weeks. our public safety personnel, we had negotiated hotels throughout the city, we could house up to 700 public safety personnel should we be in a situation like that. and we have created simulation around distress, all the way to where 40% of our entire work force would become infected. our goal is to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. right now, being at the early part of this wave, we know it's

going to hit. and we're taking every precaution in order to help the most vulnerable, and those of our neighbors that would need the most assistance. >> you said that pittsburgh, your word was slipped, you said pittsburgh slipped last weekend, when folks were still outside at parks despite the outbreak. has that gotten better? >> it has. this past weekend was not anything like last weekend. last weekend, we saw people returning to the fields, and the courts, and really back all the way, that it was like last year. the height of arrogance was one of our soccer fields, somebody actually put a padlock on it, as they played a game of soccer on that field. we can't have that type of behavior, because even though those folks may not have any symptoms, they will spread it to somebody's grandma who will.

and that is not the way we do things in pittsburgh. so we had a conversation about it last week, we had additional crews out this weekend, to remind people, that now is not the time. we didn't have to cite or arrest or do anything of that nature, but we were able to make sure that social distancing outside was occurring as much as it was happening inside. >> good. mayor peduto, i'm especially interested in what's happening there. i've got family in greensburg, as you know, just outside pittsburgh. >> yes. >> so best of luck to you. best of luck to the effort there. thank you, mayor. a small update here, by the way here, folks, the white house schedule has the coronavirus task force briefing slated for can. president trump just tweeted a short time ago that that is going to happen at 6:45. regardless of the time, we will be watching and listening

closely, and we will take you there as soon as it begin, whether it is 6:45 or 7:00. right now, congressional leaders gearing up for their next big push, another coronavirus relief package, congressional democrats, want a phase four, and they want it to include more money for states, more money for cities, and small businesses, as well. also, expanded unemployment benefits. more money in the pockets of ordinary americans, as well. let's bring in josh letterman, josh is an nbc news national political reporter, josh, take a listen to what speaker of the house nancy pelosi said about phase four of this bill. take a listen. >> i think right now, we need a fourth bipartisan bill. and i think the bill could be very much like this bill we just passed. i don't think that 350 is enough for small business. and i don't think that eight weeks is enough of a time to make a judgment about the viability of the business, and how long they keep on their employers. so i would like to go right back

and say let's look at that bill, let's update it for what some other things that we need, and again, put money in the pockets of the american people. another direct payment. >> josh, how is that landing with congressional republicans? how quickly do you expect congress to move on phase four? >> well, craig, what just about everyone seems to agree on is that congress is going to have to do more, beyond that $2 trillion stimulus. the question is what, and how fast. with republican leaders in both the house and the senate suggesting give it a beat, let's take a moment for this massive stimulus we just passed, the largest bill in u.s. history, to take effect before we decide what more needs to be done. we heard from nancy pelosi yesterday, saying she does want to put a bill on the floor of the house, this month. but the question is, what is that going to involve? she scaled back some of the ambitions she had for a much broader bill that would have

accomplished a lot of longer term democratic priorities instead. suggesting that this should focus on extending a lot of the things the government is already doing on coronavirus. like sending a second round of cash payments to americans, extending the length of those unemployment benefits, that have been added to the current unemployment benefits offered by states, and craig, based on our conversations today and yesterday, with banks that are offering those small business loans, and going very quickly through the $350 billion, that congress is authorized, i think you're going to hear a lost talk in the coming days and weeks about adding even more money to that small business loan program, so that businesses can try to avoid laying off their workers. >> josh, a lot of folks are watching right now, a lot of folks who are listening on the sirius satellite radio, and they have one question. when can they expect to get those first checks? when can they expect to get that first cash payment from the relief package that is already

passed? >> that is the big question. we know that for people who filed their tax returns and got their refunds, by direct deposit, last year, they can expect payments through direct deposit, starting in about a week. mid april. people who are on social security, will start to get more money sent to them, about a week later. and then for people who maybe don't have a bank account, but the irs doesn't have their bank account, they're going to start sending out paper checks, the first week in may. but craig, because the government can only send out so many checks on paper per week, it could take up to 20 weeks, that's august of this year, to get all of that money out the door. >> august? the government can't get the checks out sooner than that? >> that's right. they can cut five million checks per week. so depending on how many they have to send out on paper, as opposed to through direct deposit, the government has been estimating in its conversations

with conference that it could take up until august to get all of that money out. >> okay. not welcome news to a lot of folks but josh, thank you, sir. again, president trump expected to join the coronavirus task force briefing here, either 15 minutes from now or 30 minutes from now. when it happens we will of course take you there. meanwhile, once in a lifetime moments, birth of a child, death of a loved one, and now thousands of americans are having to go through those moment, go through those memories alone. we're going to talk about the isolation of this pandemic and the toll that it is taking on our humanity. one family knows firsthand how difficult that isolation can be. but they just got a reunion that couldn't have come at a better time. 84-year-old jerry lindell's facility, locked down to protect the patients from coronavirus like a lot of facilities and his

wife of 63 years could no longer visit him. that is, until her own 84th birthday. their daughter knew her father was wrapping up rehab, got him out, drove him home just in time to say happy birthday in person. . >> well, hi, honey. i can hardly believe it. >> why can't you? >> happy birthday, mom. >> happym hello son, i think it's time you join the family business.

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our lives are largely defined by big events, births, deaths, anniversaries, weddings, memorial services, moments that we should be able to celebrate with the people that we love most, but this pandemic has made that impossible.

my colleague talked to a first-time expecting mother named victoria, about how she's coping with the changes that she's having to make. >> you know, i think i'm still grieving the fact that i'm not going to have my mother there, which is really, it was really devastating to me, as of like last week, and even that small little thing that i had planned in my head is not going to happen, you know, so it's pretty upsetting. >> germane joins me now. this is all part of your "into america" podcast. tell us what you learned through your conversations. >> i'll tell you what, craig, you kind of framed it really well in the very beginning. those times where we celebrate, where we wrap our arms around each other and get close, and the celebration of birth, and mourning, when we're burying a loved one, and this coronavirus has complicated all of that. putting so much space in between ourselves, and our loved ones, and speaking to victoria,

especially, she has a high risk pregnancy because she had zibts, a , diabetes, because of the restrictions at the hospital, she had to whittle down those who could be with her, from a number of three or four, to two, and now just one. she to choose between her mother being in the room or her partner. and you and i are both husband and fathers and can you imagine, that moment, when your child is being born, especially your first child, and not being able to be surrounded by friends and family in the hospital, but also, once she gets home, but beyond, you know, birth, think about what it is like to mourn now in the era of covid-19. i spoke to a friend of many of ours, eric, an msnbc contributor, and his mother passed away, not of covid-19, she had taken a bad fall, and was, you know, weakened from cancer treatment, but he finally made it to the hospital, and was able to spend a day or so with his mother, and then because of hospital restrictions, he couldn't be there for four days, craig, as his mother slowly

withered away. he was finally able to join her on that last day, when she died, but after that, and starting to make funeral arrangements in the age of covid-19, and at the funeral home, the regulations stipulate they can only have ten people at the funeral. ten. and that includes the funeral home staff. so we had to say goodbye, he had to say goodbye to his mother, who was a member of a church in gary indiana, for 60 years, a bee everybodiloved member of th church community and couldn't have church community members and let alone her ex tended family and to adapt during this time is so tough for so many people, craig. >> i can't imagine. i cannot imagine. thank you for shining a light on part of this story that really hasn't gotten perhaps as much attention as it should. this has changed our lives in so many ways. large and small. by the way, you can listen and subscribe, subscribe to the podcast "into america," for

free, wherever you get your podcasts. i can tell you that it is a solid podcast. i've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. thank you. coming up again, roughly 15 minutes from now, we expect to hear from the president, and his coronavirus task force. there's a white house briefing scheduled for 6:45 at last check. when that happen, we will of course bring it to you live and today is palm sunday, easter passover, ramadan, all coming up but they won't be the same this year. i'll talk to a catholic nun about how she and her sisters are serving people around the globe this holy week. ta-d did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance 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.

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the white house coronavirus task force briefing could start any moment now, nbc news political reporter monica alba is at the white house. monica, at first there was no briefing scheduled today, now we've got one, do we know why the change? and do we know what we can expect to hear? >> yes, really unusual circumstances here at the white house, craig, we had what's called a lead earlier in the day before noon which is a signal not to expect the president for the rest of the day, but that changed just a couple of hours ago, when the president himself made the news, saying there would be an in-person coronavirus task force meeting here in the situation room, and that he may or may not hold a presser afterwards, depending on whether, in his words will is

new information. shortly after that, we saw a lot of activity, vice president mike pence came, we saw dr. fauci show up, and originally on this palm sunday they were supposed to be meeting remotely, there was going to be a conference call led by the vice president, so we don't yet know what shifted all of that. and we aren't sure either about this potential new information the president signaled some promising guidelines, or guidance, that might be coming tonight, but we don't know what that is. it's rare because in the last few weeks, we have had these daily briefings but we got a sort of signal from aides here earlier in the day that they were going to take this day remotely, a little bit more of a family day, the president had indicated he was going to be watching a church service earlier, so we are a little bit surprised by this. they kind of had to bring all of the reporters back who thought that they were done for the day. so in that sense, this is something that doesn't occur very often. but we will be ready for it. we're told that the president will be coming out, making some announcement, and appearing with other members of the coronavirus task force, in the next few minutes here. craig?

>> okay. so something clearly has changed there. monica for us, at the white house, thank you. coronavirus has dramatically changed the way people around the world are celebrating palm sunday. it will likely affect the way that people celebrate upcoming holidays like easter, like passover, like ramadan, as well. as leaders and as officials enforce social distancing, and hand washing, to slow the spread of coronavirus, a refugee organization is teaming up with nuns, to help prepare and prevent against the virus globally. and i'm joined now by daniel woodsworth, the president and ceo of alliance, sister irene, the founder and directors of sisters rising worldwide. daniel, i'll start you with. just tell us a little bit more about the new initiative that started today, as i understand, it and how you linked up with sisters rising worldwide. >> right, so when we think about the covid epidemic, often we forget there are places throughout africa, asia, latin

america, that are particularly vulnerable, and they don't have the systems in place to protect their populations. so that's the areas where we work, refugee camps, the people affected by conflicts, and some of the poorest countries in the world, places like somalia, congo, inside el salvador, and we're trying to help prepare those communities for this pandemic and make sure they can protect themselves and survive this. and when we were thinking about, how are we going to reach these millions of people and get them ready, and we had already had this partnership with catholic sisters and the way i think about the catholic sisters, they're like a mcdonald's of doing good. they're on every corner in the world. they are living in every single neighborhood, and they are doing roarkab remarkable work, so what we wanted to do is come alongside them, and prepare them and unleash them in the communities in a way that they are already unleashed but actually in a way

that would help prepare themselves, protect themselves and protect communities from the covid-19 pandemic and that's why we reached out to the sisters and sister irene is the leader. >> sister irene, your group has more than 700,000 sisters all over the world. how important has it been to communicate that the best ways to prevent this virus, with them, and the people, and the refugee camps, where they work? >> well, actually, it's been a matter of life and death, because the sisters themselves have been on front lines of like the flu epidemic, in 1918, and what they do, is when there's trouble, they go right to where it is, and so it has been really important for us to make sure that they're safe, so that they can get the message out to the people that they're serving. of course, they're working on the edges of society there. and with people who are most vulnerable. and messages don't get through

to them, you know, or they're in crowds, they're with the home on the, homeless on the streets or in shelters. and this message to important. we are so blessed to be working with alight. they're helping us protect our community and the people we're serving. >> sister irene, again, we are on this palm sunday, a week from easter, a significant milestone for us as christians. what would you say to people who are watching, who are listening, who are justifiably anxious and nervous, who are struggling right now with their faith? what would you tell them to provide some sort of comfort and solace? >> well, i really think that --

li we do it for all people. all creeds, all faiths, all races. it's all people all times. it's not just in holy week. we do it year round and we think that that's what jesus was teaching us, too, was love your neighbor without distinction, and to reach out in compassion and stay safe and stay home. we find our sisters in some parts of the world where they are in lockdown, believe it or not. when the lights go down at night, they put a candle in the window so that the people that are out there know that they're still with them and thinking of them. and so i think there's a lot you can do with your heart and just care for people in compassion. i think that's what jesus was teaching us. >> amen, sister, thank you. thank you both. again, ladies and gentlemen, we

are watching the white house very closely. that coronavirus task force expected to start the briefing any moment. when it happens, we will take you there live.

a letter sheds some new light on the life of the first federal inmate to die of coronavirus, who wrote the letter just months before he died. he wrote it to his judge hoping for a sentence reduction through the first step act.

the judge denied his request. just 22 days before he died, his name was patrick jones. he had been locked up for nearly 13 years on a non-violent drug charge. he says he hasn't seen his youngest son since the boy was a toddler. jones wrote, quote, i feel that my conviction and sentence was also a punishment that my child has had to endure also, and there are no words for how remorseful i am. years of "i am sorry" don't seem to justify the absence of a father or the chance of having purpose in life by raising my child. his former attorney said he spent the last 12 years contesting the sentence that ultimately killed him. adding, quote, ironically, it seems it is his death that might finally bring his case some attention. according to the federal bureau of prisons, at least 138 inmates and 59 staff members from

prisons all over this country have tested positive for covid-19. we are again, of course, watching closely the white house for that coronavirus task force briefing to begin. we see dr. birx there. she's taken her place. we're waiting on a number of other folks to assume their positions at the podium there. we should also point out for our viewers and listeners on sirius satellite radio kasie hunt is standing by on the backside of this briefing to do what we have bog prone to do here at msnbc over the past few weeks. we'll be fact checking this briefing as well. we'll do that on the other side. but right now nbc news political reporter monica alba standing by for us at the white house. and monica, we see dr. birx here. we always take some comfort in seeing dr. fauci and hearing from him. do we know who we are going to be seeing and hearing from when this briefing starts any moment? >> reporter: yes, and actually,

craig, i can tell you dr. fauci is in the room. he's just off to the side sitting in some of those seats they put in reserve for some of the top aides and that's really in keeping with the social distancing that they have been trying to exemplify on the stage. you know, we didn't see that early on in these briefings when you saw as many as five to six top officials cram there in front of the lectern. now they have been taking it a lot more seriously. and it comes after a very somber tone from dr. fauci this morning, really warning that the pandemic is not at all under control. if somebody were to ask him, is that the case right now, has the outbreak been controlled, he said, no, that would be a false statement. and the administration is, in fact, struggling with containing the pandemic. and i think that's going to be one of the questions that might be posed to the president here because, of course, a few weeks ago he had hinted or indicated that it would be under control and that's clearly not the case now. and you see dr. birx there. yesterday she gave that very stark warning, telling all

americans, but really those in hot spots to not even go to the grocery store or the pharmacy if they can avoid it. and i see here president trump is now stepping to the lectern, craig. >> it will be very, very hard today, i'll tell you. for a long time they've been working. but before i begin, i want to stress our nation's well wishes to prime minister boris johnson as he wages his own personal fight with the virus. all americans are praying for him. he's a friend of mine. he's a great gentl you know, he was brought to the hospital today, but i'm hopeful and sure that he's going to be fine. he's strong man, strong person. today every patriotic american heart beats in solidarity with the incredible people of new york and new jersey. they've really become a very hot zone, but some very good things are happening in new york. the first time where the deaths were less from the previous day,

that's the first drop so far. so maybe that's a good sign. could be -- and the hospital levels are starting to perhaps decrease. it's been very short, but perhaps decrease. so we wish governor cuomo and all of the people in new york great and new jersey, you governors are doing a great job. he's doing a great job in new jersey. they got hit very hard. i just want to say that the full power of the american government and american enterprise, it really is -- this is an all-out military operation that we've waged, and especially over the last number of weeks. 50 states and territories have now been approved for major disaster declarations, which is very unusual. thanks to the army corps of engineers, new york city's javits center is one of the largest hospitals in the united states. it's designated for treatment of the