Economic Relief Funding
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Later this evening, we expect the House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act. I’m grateful that Congress is answering my call to deliver these additional $320 billion in relief for the American worker and for small businesses.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “The bill also includes $30 billion to support small lending institutions serving distressed communities, helping countless African American and Hispanic-American small businesses.”
Signs of Progress
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “As we continue our battle against the virus, the data and facts on the ground suggest we’re making great progress. In 23 states, new cases have declined in the peak week. 40% of American counties have also seen a rapid decline in new cases. 46 states report a drop in patients showing coronavirus-like symptoms. That’s a big number.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “A safe and phased reopening of our economy is very exciting, but does not mean that we are letting down our guard at all, in any way. On the contrary, continued diligence is an essential part of our strategy to get our country back to work and take our country back.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “The Task Force received, today, our first report on state reopening plans. At the present moment, 16 states have released formal reopening plans. 13 of those were actually released since you unveiled the Opening Up America guidelines to our governors and to the nation last week.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “Our Task Force actually believe, Mr. President, that if we continue these mitigation efforts in the days ahead, as states implement their policies, including phased reopening that will preserve those gains, we do believe by early summer we could be in a much better place as a nation, with much of this coronavirus epidemic behind us.”
New Data on Virus
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “With each passing day, we’re learning more and more about this enemy. The scientists at DHS have released a report offering a number of insights about how the virus reacts in different temperatures, climates, and surfaces. The findings confirm that the virus survives better in colder and drier environments and does less well in warmer and more humid environments.”
ACTING DHS UNDERSECRETARY BRYAN: “If you look at the coronavirus and as a chain with many links, what we’ve done through our study is we’ve identified some of the weak links in that chain that the transmission of the virus depends upon. We identified that heat and humidity – there’s a weakness in that chain. We’ve identified that sunlight, solar light, UV rays – there’s a weakness in that chain.”
ACTING DHS UNDERSECRETARY BRYAN: “That doesn’t take away the other activities, the guidance from the White House, the guidance from the CDC, and others on the actions and steps that people need to take to protect themselves. This is just another tool in our tool belt, right? Another weapon in the fight that we can add to it. And in the summer, we know the summerlike conditions are going to create an environment where the transmission can be decreased. And that’s an opportunity for us to get ahead.”
Innovative Research on Therapeutics
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “U.S. trials of the covid-19 have been going on and have been approved in the United States, Germany, UK, and China. That’s big news and we’re — a lot of trials are going on and we have a lot of great, brilliant minds working on this both from the standpoint of a vaccine and therapeutics.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “As we continue to develop potential therapies, the FDA has recently begun a national effort to expand access to convalescent plasma donated from the blood of those who have recovered from the virus. The blood of these donors contains antibodies that can potentially reduce the severity of the illness in those who are sick … Nearly 3,000 patients are now enrolled in the expanded access program receiving transfusions nationwide.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Convalescent plasma will also be used to manufacture a concentrated antibody treatment that does not have to be matched with a particular blood type. This concentrated antibody treatment could be used as a preventative measure to keep healthcare workers and other high-risk populations from contracting the virus in the first place.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “My administration has also partnered with leading – and we have really been establishing some great partnerships – with leading technology companies and scientific journals to create a database of 52,000 scholarly articles on the virus that can be analyzed by artificial intelligence. Top AI experts are now using this wealth of data to gain insights into potential therapies. And we’re collaborating with tech firms, universities, and our national labs to harness American supercomputers in the search for treatments and vaccines.”
Medical Supplies and Assistance
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “My administration continues to leverage the Defense Production Act to dramatically increase the manufacture and delivery of critical medical supplies. We finalized three contracts to produce 39 million more N-95 masks in 90 days.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “In addition to ramping up our domestic assembly lines, we also have airlifted nearly 750 million pieces of personal protective equipment into the United States through our Project Air Bridge, which has been an incredible thing to watch.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “The Vice President is now providing each governor with an exhaustive county-by-county breakdown of the privately distributed personal protection.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “As of today, FEMA reports that 35,000 National Guard have been deployed across the country to aid in our coronavirus response.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “Along with the National Guard, at the President’s direction, today more than 4,500 active-duty military doctors, nurses, and medical assistants have been deployed across the country. Yesterday, 1,013 medical professionals in our military were actually deployed to 19 hospitals in seven states to support those amazing health care workers.”
Testing
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “On the subject of testing, at the present moment we have reports of 4.93 million tests having been performed across America.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “And encouraging news, as states have been engaging commercial labs at a higher level across the country, yesterday our commercial lab system did more than 100,000 tests in a single day.”
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: “Tomorrow, at the President’s direction, our Task Force will convene a conference call with all of the nation’s governors to talk about their progress that they are making on testing. And we’re going to hear from governors about the practices and methods that they are employing to significantly increase testing following our briefing about capacity and laboratories this past Monday.”
