kelley o'donnell at the white house for us, kelley, i understand we've had a two-minute warning. >> reporter're down to less than that now. with members of the task force are here, we expect the president, vice president coming any moment now. this is of great interest, because we want to know what the latest developments include. peter navarro, the trade representative, dr. anthony fauci, who has been a part of so many briefings, hud secretary and so forth. i'm going to take my seat as to now about he in the way. >>> we have to pause for the nbc network to join our coverage. please stand by. >> announcer: this is an nbc news special report. here's alex witt. >>> hello, everyone. welcome as we await the start of is the coronavirus task force briefing there in the white house briefing room. we are expected to get under way at any time now, we've gotten that two-minute warning. it appears right on time as you're seeing the president come through the door followed by the vice president. let's take a listen to president trump. >> thank you very much. a lot of things going on, and we're going to

. >> now we're talking 1929, so let's take you to the white house where kelley o'donnell is standing by. kelly, the president says he wants to send check to say people who are struggling, but here's the thing, we have no idea how long this is going to go on. is he looking to pay people indefinitely? >> reporter: we don't know about indefinitely, but the urgency the white house says the president recognizes along with both presidents and democrats, is trying to get checks within the next month. the secretary of treasury said perhaps as quickly as two weeks, though that mechanism seems to be hard to identify where they could get a cash payment to individuals, means tested to some degree. we're waiting for the thresholds, and what ham. congress will have to ultimately finalize the package. the president would have to sign it into law, but looking at ways to trigger, perhaps through the i.r.s., some in many cases has people's direct deposit information, things like that, to infuse american families with some money. does this replace everyone's income? no. it's not intended to do that, bu

that's the white house briefing room, where we find kelley o'donnell as well, who awaits the vice president's arrival. kelly, do we have any time frame -- our e.p. said a couple minutes? >> reporter: yeah, we were just given the two-minute warning. we're here in the briefing room. one of the big developments is we were greeted by the white house medical's office and we each had our temperature taken. it is not social distancing by any imagination, though it is sparsely filled today, in all years i've been covering white houses, it's the fewest that i've seen for a principal like a vice president. the president was in attendance at the meeting this morning. we don't know if he will choose to take part. the vice president is expected here to give us an update, where things stand, i certainly would expect discussion of the house bill passed overnight and where that stands as it moves to the senate. as everyone is trying to grapple with our changing lifestyle as we deal with preparations and the reality of the coronavirus and what it means for families, people working. obviously those patients wh