I would like to begin by announcing some
important developments in our war
against the Chinese virus we'll be
invoking the defense production act just
in case we need it in other words I
think you all know what it is and it can
do a lot of good things if we need it
and we will we will have it all
completed signing it in just a little
while right after I'm finished with this
conference I'll be signing it it's
prepared to go so we will be invoking
the defense production Act last week I
signed an emergency declaration under
the Stafford Act which as you know we
invoked previously and which activated
FEMA's National Response Coordination
Center famer now is fully engaged at the
highest levels today FEMA is activated
in every region we are at level one
level one being the highest level which
we will work with and we've been working
with FEMA I've done a lot of work with
FEMA they're incredible it's always been
on hurricanes or tornados they're right
now in Tennessee a large group working
in Tennessee have been incredible there
was tragic event Alabama last year also
a tornado and then obviously the the
numerous hurricanes and different
locations that were in some cases very
devastating and in every case FEMA came
through this is a very different kind of
a work for FEMA but they will come
through as they always do we have
tremendous people tremendous talent in
FEMA we're sending upon request the two
hospital ships are being prepared right
now they're massive ships they're the
big white ships with the Red Cross on
the sides one is called the mercy and
the other is called the comfort and they
are in tip-top shape they soon will be
there getting ready to come up to New
York I spoke with Governor Cuomo about
it he's excited about it
and I also we haven't made the final
determination as to where it's going to
go on the west coast the comfort is
located now in San Diego and it's going
to be will be picking the destination
fairly shortly so those two ships are
being prepared to go and they can be
launched over the next week or so
depending on need earlier this week the
first clinical trial of the vaccine
candidate for the virus began in
Washington State as you probably know
the genetic sequence of the virus was
first published in January but thanks to
the unprecedented partnership between
the FDA NIH and the private sector we've
reached human trials for the vaccine
just eight weeks later that's a record
by many many months it used to take
years to do this and now we did it just
in a very short while that's the fastest
development in history of what we're
doing with regard to the vaccine making
very very big progress today I can
announce further steps to expand testing
capacity we're working with several
groups to determine if the self swab a
much easier process than the current
process that's not very nice to do I can
tell you because I did it but we have a
current process that's a little bit
difficult if you haven't done the the
groups are working on determining if a
self swab by an individual is as
effective as the other the other is very
effective very accurate but we're going
to see if we can do a self swab which is
would be a lot more popular I can tell
you that so and that would be
administered also by a health official
but it would be a lot easier to do the
the fact is that the health
professionals would it would free it
would free up a lot let me just say if
the self swab is what it is it's a self
swab you do it yourself the other has to
be issued by a
health professional and it's something
that is is quite difficult and we think
it's working out for the self swab and
if it would test positive the people
would go and they would do what they
have to do is but we think that's
probably working out I've asked the FDA
to cut through the red tape and reduce
regulatory barriers we are looking at
some very exciting things and I'm going
to be holding the second news conference
either today we're going to talk about
the FDA some things are happening that
are quite exciting and we're going to be
doing that either later today or
tomorrow fairly early tomorrow so we'll
see what happens but the FDA my
instructions is been working very very
hard on a number of developments and
we'll be discussing them with you later
today or tomorrow and this afternoon
I'll be meeting with nurses on the front
lines of the battle against the virus
they're truly American heroes they want
to get it done they're incredible people
so we're gonna be meeting with nurses
and actually look forward to that very
brave they're taking a lot of risk and
they they have done an incredible job
and they never complained today I'm also
announcing that the Department of
Housing and Urban Development is
providing immediate relief to renters
and homeowners by suspending all
foreclosures and evictions until the end
of April so we're working very closely
with dr. ben Carson and everybody from
HUD every generation of Americans has
been called to make shared sacrifices
for the good of the nation in World War
two young people in their teenage years
volunteered to fight they wanted to
fight so badly because they love our
country workers refused to go home and
slept in factory floors to keep assembly
lines running and you know the numbers
of ships that they built through in
World War two to this day has never
nothing like that has ever been equal
they were doing ships on a literally on
a daily basis nobody's ever seen
anything like it
and to this day nobody's seen anything
like that what they were able to do
during
world war two and now it's our time we
must sacrifice together because we are
all in this together and we'll come
through together it's the invisible
enemy that's always the toughest enemy
the invisible enemy but we're going to
defeat the invisible enemy I think we're
going to do it even faster than we
thought and it will be a complete
victory it'll be a total victory
so we'll have a second conference again
having to do with the FTA and this I
think it's going to be potentially a
very exciting news conference and we
will do it as quickly as we can so
whether it's today or tomorrow and all
with that ask Mike Pence to say a few
words and thank you very much Thank You
mr. president the White House
coronavirus task force met this morning
and now that we have cases in all 50
states we're continuing to move out on
the president's call to bring the full
resources of the federal government a
full partnership with every state and
territory the full power of the American
economy to support businesses and
families as the president says to us and
every day we'll do whatever it takes
we're all in this together
yesterday the president met with the
tourism industry executives and also had
an engaging discussion with all the top
companies in our industrial and medical
supply chain the president as you all
are were also announced today that by
mutual consent the northern border to
Canada will be closed to non-essential
travel this does not include essential
travel or the transit of goods but it
was through a mutual discussion that
took place this morning between the
president and Prime Minister Trudeau and
the Department of Homeland Security will
be effectuating that decision
president spoke with some of the
nation's top business leaders today
again to speak about the supply chain in
the country and for our part we're going
to be conducting a conference call later
today with state and local health
officials to renew a
our ongoing commitment of cooperation
and collaboration as the president said
last week in signing the Stafford Act
he stood up the National Response
Coordination Center and today at the
president's direction
FEMA has gone to level 1 FEMA's mission
is to support disasters that are locally
executed state managed and federally
supported and tomorrow the president
will be hosting all the nation's
governors from a video conference at
FEMA to ensure that they have full
connection to all of the activated
regions for FEMA going forward now with
regard to testing I'm pleased to report
that we're increasing the number of
tests being performed by the thousands
every day thanks to the public-private
partnership that President Trump forge
with commercial laboratories around the
country our health experts tell us to
remind every American it's important to
remember people without symptoms should
not get tested we want to make sure that
the supply of testing is there for those
that need it most or are symptomatic or
in the vulnerable population dr. deborah
birx in a moment we'll address the
progress that we're making on testing
the infection rate our recommendations
to every America as well as some
important new findings about the impact
on youth that we're gaining from data
that's coming in from Europe that'll be
important away from the White House
we've heard from Donald Trump there and
want to take you to the World Health
Organization they're giving their daily
news conference now in Geneva that there
is kapa hazus will be opening the
remarks there and we're expecting the
latest figures Globe