On Sunday, I announced that this campaign will be extended until April 30th.

In a few moments, Dr Burkes will explain the data that formed the basis for a decision to extend the guidelines.

And Dr Fauci will explain why it's absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days.

It's a matter of life and death.

Frankly, it's a matter of life and death.

I know our citizens will rise to the occasion and they already have sacrificed a lot.

We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, where the greatest economy in the world, we had the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers that we've ever had by far.

And in one instant we said we have no choice but close it up.

Justus.

Americans I have always done.

They will do a job like few have seen before and they're proud to do it and I see that there's a great pride going on right now.

Before we hear from our experts.

We have a few other announcements.

A Today, the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration announced for the details on the paycheck protection program, which was made possible by the $2 trillion relief bill I signed into law last week.

Nearly $350 billion in loans will soon be available through lending partners to help small businesses meet payroll and other expenses for up to two months.

These loans will be forgiven as long as businesses keep paying their workers.

This includes sole proprietors and independent contractors.

Applications will be accepted starting this Friday, April 3rd.

So on Friday, April 3rd, that's what it begins.

Earlier today, I spoke with leading Internet and phone providers who are doing a tremendous job of keeping our Internet lines of communication flowing under very strongly increased strain.

The businesses more than anybody has seen before because everyone's inside, they're all making calls among the leaders.

I spoke to our Hans Vestberg of Verizon Communications, Randall Stephenson of T and T.

Mike Seaver of T Mobile, Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, Brian Roberts of Comcast, John Malone of Liberty Media, Dexter Goi of all teas, Michael Calms of Sprint in a Riah bark off of Lion Tree.

Also, Pat Esser of Cox Communications and Jeffrey Story of Centurylink.

They're doing an incredible job if you look at other continents, if you look at Europe, they went a different route than we did and much different route.

We were talking about that just a little while ago and they're having tremendous problems.

Other countries air, having problems, other continents are having problems.

But with business at a level that nobody's seen it before on the Internet, it's holding up incredibly well.

And they expect that to continue no matter what happened.

And no matter how much more gains, which, if it can gain more than it already is, I don't know because they're setting records.

Let me also update you on the distribution of urgency needed.

Resource is and supplies and we have a lot of numbers.

I'm gonna let Mike Pence speak to that in a little while, but we're giving massive amounts of medical equipment and supplies to the 50 states.

We also or holding back quite a bit.

We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go.

We have to hold him back because the surge is coming and it's coming pretty strong and we want to be able to immediately move it into place without going and taking it.

So we're ready to go, and we've also distributed.

I just spoke with Governor of Michigan, had a great conversation, and, uh, we said a large number of ventilators to Michigan.

We're sending them to Louisiana.

We send additional ventilators to New York, additional ventilators to New Jersey, and I will say, in New York, FEMA is supplying 250 ambulances and 500 MTs to help respond to the increasing caseload.

That's a lot of ambulances In California, the Army Corps of Engineers is developing eight facilities to expand hospital capacity up to 50,000 beds.

50,000 and had a great conversation last night with Gavin Newsom he's doing.

He's doing a really good job.

We were in constant communications.

The U.

S s Mercy Hospital ship is now operational.

It's in Los Angeles and receiving patients and New York is, you know, the comfort.

Everybody watched that it's in place and will be a very short while receiving large numbers of patients, over 1000 rooms and 12 operating rooms.

FEMA's also provided the 100 travel trailers to assist with housing needs and we're ordering hundreds more in Michigan, FEMA will soon deliver.

In addition to the event, letters 250 Bed Field Hospital in Army Corps of Engineers is evaluating locations to build alternate care facilities.

So we're doing a field hospital in Michigan of 250 beds that we may be doubling it up.

So depending on the need, they're doing a good job with with beds in Michigan.

But they may need more than the 250.

So FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers were prepared to go there quickly and get it done in Louisiana.

Were delivering to field hospitals to provide 500 new hospital beds.

I've been talking with the governor, John Bel Edwards, and the Army Corps of Engineers has been really doing incredible work establishing 3000 bed alternate care site at the New Orleans Convention Center, which will be operational, believe it or not, this week.

So we're doing the 3000 bed alternate care site, and we're also doing a 500 bed new hospital, and that's in Louisiana, which really got hit.

It started off very late and it was looking good, and then all of a sudden it just reared up, came from nowhere.

In addition to the supplies were delivering, we're also giving hospitals the flexibility to use new facilities, including surgical care centers, to care for hospital patients who are not infected.

For example, I know that many expected mothers are understandably concerned about exposing the newborn babies to the virus.

Then they should be with our action yesterday.

Hospitals now have the authority to create special areas for mothers to deliver their babies in a very safe and healthy environment.

Totally separate.

Over the past two months, the U.

S State Department has organized one of the largest and most complex international evacuation operations in American history.

Mike Pompeo has been working around the clock along with Ambassador O'Brien.

Since January 29th we have successfully repatriated over 25,000 Americans for more than 50 countries where they were literally stuck in some cases locked in.

And I salute the incredible public servants at the Department of State as well as their counterparts at D.

H s and HHS who have played such an important role in doing this.

You probably read about the young people in Peru and young people in Brazil and they were absolutely stuck.

And we got him out.

Got him.

Almost everybody is out now, back home with their parents, their wives, their husbands.

I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead.

We're gonna go through a very tough two weeks and then hopefully is the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting after having studied it so hard, I'm gonna start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel.

But this is gonna be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks when you look and see at night the kind of death that's been caused by this invisible enemy.

It's it's incredible.

I was watching last night.

Governor Murphy of New Jersey say 29 people died today meaning yesterday and others talking about numbers far greater.

But you get to know estate.

I know New Jersey so well and 29 people and hundreds and other locations, hundreds in other states.

And this is gonna be a rough two week period.

As a nation, we face a difficult few weeks as we approach that that really important day when we're going to see things get better all of a sudden, and it's going to be like a burst of light.

I really think and I hope strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried.

But America will answer with love and courage and ironclad resolve.

This is the time for all Americans to come together and do our part.

I appreciate a lot of the media.

We've had a lot of really good things, said.

I think only good things can be said when you look at the job that's been done.

I just spoke with Franklin.

Graham was an extraordinary person, and, uh, Samaritans purse has been like so many others.

Just been amazing and so fast they did itself fast.

He's been doing that for a long time, but I think people are really seeing what they have done.

Franklin Graham very special family.

As we said, planeloads of masks, gloves and supplies to the communities battling the plague and that's what it is, is a plague.

We also send our prayers.

We pray for the doctors and the nurses for the paramedics and the truck drivers and the police officers of the sanitation workers and above all the people fighting for their lives in New York and all across our land.

I watched as doctors and nurses went into a certain hospital in Elmhurst this morning.

I know Elmhurst, Queens.

That's I grew up right next to it.

I know the hospital very well.

I'm saying it all my life, my young life.

And I will tell you that, uh, to seethe scenes of trailers out there and what they're doing with those trailers, their freezers, and nobody could even believe it.

And I spoke to some of my friends.

They can't believe what they're seeing.

And I watched the doctors and the nurses walking into that hospital this morning.

It's like military people going into battle going into war.

The bravery is incredible.

And I just have to take my hat.

I would take my head of our where I had a grip that had off so fast that I would say you people are just incredible.

They really are.

They're very brave.

They're going in and they don't know you have.

You have lots of things flying around in the air, you know?

I know what you're touching.

Is it safe?

And you also see where you have friends.

They're going to the hospital and you say How how is he doing?

Two days later, they say Siri's unconscious, where is in a coma?

So things were happening that we've never seen before in this country, and with all of that being said, the country's come together like I've never seen it before and we will prevail, We will win and hopefully it will be in a relatively short period of time.