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  • as we come on the air tonight.

  • Much of America shutting down late today.

  • President Trump issuing new nationwide guidelines for Americans across this country in the fight against the Corona virus.

  • The outbreak spreading across the U.

  • S.

  • More than 1300 new cases in just the last 24 hours.

  • And that's without testing fully up to speed.

  • In total, more than 4600 cases in 49 states at least 82 deaths late today.

  • President Trump acknowledging the Corona virus is not under control, urging Americans not to gather in groups larger than 10 and to avoid restaurants and bars.

  • And he said, the U.

  • S could be dealing with this right into the summer.

  • Tonight, a major lock down has been declared in the San Francisco area.

  • Nearly seven million people in several California counties have been ordered to shelter in place to stay at home for weeks and the stock market free fall even after action by the Fed.

  • In a rare Sunday move, the Dow halted shortly after opening today, emergency triggers kicking in and by day's end, dropping nearly 3000 points, its worst point loss ever.

  • Our chief medical editor Dr John Aston and a team of doctors are right here tonight, taking your questions on Twitter.

  • Use the hashtag.

  • Ask ABC 2020 and we'll be checking in with the entire team all night.

  • But we're gonna begin tonight with the remarkable changes occurring at a rapid pace across this country.

  • A reset of American life.

  • I'm sure you saw it for yourself this weekend.

  • You walk into a grocery store somewhat expecting it, but it's still a stunning sight to see the empty shelves.

  • Millions of families worried about what's coming, trying to stock up parents trying to find child care, with schools closing in at least 35 states.

  • And there's also the ongoing struggle for those who fear they have the Corona virus or have been exposed to it.

  • Where and how do they get tested?

  • How quickly will they get The results is what we're seeing in Italy and in Europe about to play out right here in the U.

  • S.

  • I'll ask Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, the nation's top infectious disease expert, that very question in just a moment.

  • But first tonight, the new guidelines for President Trump late today night America shutting down late today.

  • President Trump issuing new nationwide guidelines for the next 15 days, we'd much rather be ahead of the curve than behind it.

  • The president's task force now urging everyone to avoid gatherings of 10 or more people to avoid restaurants and bars.

  • Discretionary travel, encouraging older people and those with underlying conditions to stay home.

  • The administration also telling people not to visit nursing homes and recommending bars and restaurants close in states with community spread.

  • Reporters at the White House today were greeted with signs telling them to sit separate from one another, their temperatures taken before they entered the White House briefing room.

  • The podium cleaned right afterward.

  • If everyone makes this, uh, change or these critical changes and sacrifices now we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus.

  • You're nothing.

  • It's under control, right?

  • I'm not referring to it.

  • Meeting the Yeah, if you're talking about the virus, No, that's not under control for anyplace in the world.

  • And late today, the president warning that the crisis could stretch deep into the summer.

  • People are talking about July August something like that, so it could be right in that period of time where I say washing it washes through.

  • Other people don't like that term, but word washes through tonight with cases across the country climbing several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area issuing a sweeping shelter in place order to stay home for nearly seven million Americans.

  • Residents told to only leave their homes for food, medicine and exercise, and California's governor tonight urging home isolation for all adults over the age of 65.

  • Most important thing again is to protect the most vulnerable more than a dozen states closing bars and restaurants except for takeout and delivery, including New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, who are also closing.

  • Jim's movie theaters, casinos starting tonight.

  • Across this country, at least 35 states now closing public schools, forcing more than 35 million schoolchildren to stay home creates a lot of hardship for people.

  • But um is the right choice, and we have all seen it for ourselves across this country.

  • The empty shelves from Omaha, Nebraska, to the long lines at Costco's from Illinois to Los Angeles, thousands of people are rushing to trying to get into the Costco lines, snaking around the building before dawn, nationwide stores running out of basic items like toilet paper and water.

  • And tonight, this message from the stop and shop grocery chain announcing new early shopping hours for customers 60 and older.

  • And despite major new action by the Fed on Sunday to cut interest rates to near zero, the Dow halted just seconds into trading today, closing down nearly three 1000 points.

  • All of this, as some of America's hospitals and healthcare workers sound the alarm reporting spikes and incoming patients amid a shortage of critical protective gear, setting up tents outside emergency rooms and another critical matter that remains tonight.

  • The testing.

  • Who could get a test?

  • Where and how quickly will they get the results?

  • Workers on the front lines saying There may be more tests, but we need protective gear.

  • And President Trump late today was asked about his own test he took over the weekend.

  • Not something I want to do every day.

  • I can tell you that.

  • It's, you know, it's a little bit of a, uh, it's a little bit of good doctors in the White House, but it's a test.

  • It's a test.

  • It's a medical test.

  • Nothing pleasant about it, the White House saying the president tested negative for the virus.

  • Tonight, the president of France declaring Europe is at war with Corona virus.

  • The UK taking wartime measures, asking companies like Ford and Rolls Royce to manufacture vital equipment like ventilators.

  • And British actor Idris Elba posting this message, saying he has tested positive for Kuroda virus.

  • This is serious, you know, now's the time to really think about social distance in washing your hands, he says.

  • He feels okay and is now in self isolation with his wife, who hasn't yet been tested.

  • And here in the U.

  • S.

  • And N B.

  • A player with the Utah Jazz, Donovan Mitchell and his own message, he is isolated after testing positive for Corona virus to, and his case highlights the need for more testing.

  • I keep making the joking people, ask said.

  • If you were to tell me I'm not playing a seven game series tomorrow, I'll be ready to lace up.

  • That's really something.

  • Donovan Mitchell, testing positive but saying he has no symptoms, which, of course, begs the question.

  • How many Americans have this without even knowing?

  • And when will the testing finally be up to speed our health care workers on the front lines.

  • Ready?

  • Do they have the protective gear they need?

  • Are there enough ventilators in this country?

  • I spoke with Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, just before we came on the air tonight.

  • Dr.

  • Fauci, thank you for joining us here tonight.

  • You have been sounding the alarm for weeks now, and we heard the president late today.

  • Issued those new guidelines.

  • No restaurants, no bars.

  • We heard the president acknowledged.

  • Current virus is bad, is not under control.

  • Can you tell the American people watching tonight who have seen what's happening in Italy and elsewhere as best you can, What we're about to see here in the U.

  • S.

  • Well, we're about to see David, is that things are definitely going to get worse before they get better.

  • If you look at the pattern of the outbreak as it hit different countries and different cities within countries.

  • And I talk specifically about China about South Korea and most recently, Italy, what happens is that you put her along with cases a few, and then you reach a point of inflection where it takes off.

  • And if you look back at the history of outbreaks, you get this big big peak, and then it starts to come down.

  • If you leave the virus to its own devices without trying to interfere with it, we have the opportunity now, even though we will still continue to see an acceleration of cases, we have the opportunity to blunt that peak and essentially make it more of a mound, which would mean less sick people and less death.

  • But that's not gonna happen spontaneously.

  • Doctor Fat.

  • You have to ask you what viewers have been asking us, and they commonly ask about the tests in this country.

  • We've heard promises from the administration of a 1,000,000 corner virus tests and then the promise of four million tests.

  • You've already called it a failing in your words, so I don't want to go over it all over again how it began.

  • But we're now weeks into this.

  • So bottom line tonight, if you're an American who meets the criteria on the CDC guidance, we've been saying if you have a fever of 100.4 orm or to call your doctor.

  • But bottom line, how soon can you get a test if you need one?

  • And how soon will you get the results back?

  • Well, the situation has really changed dramatically, David.

  • Again, we admit, and I have been publicly saying that a little bit ago it wasn't nearly adequate to meet the needs right now that has been a major embracing of the private sector, which is, you know, calling upon the forces of what America does best private industry and get those companies in those labs involved.

  • And we're told in discussions with CEOs of those labs and with the state and other government, that the test that air going out there literally now as we speak tomorrow, the next day, the next week are going to take that riveting up.

  • So you get to the point where there will be millions of tests for several weeks over a period of between now and the next few weeks.

  • I tend to mean you speak of the CEOs there, and we certainly hope that that's true.

  • But we heard from health care workers on the ground just today who said, You know, we have the test, but we don't have the protective gear, and we heard from workers in some of these labs who say they're also concerned that they don't have the gear, that they need the protective gear to actually process these tests.

  • That's a very good point, David, and that and I would have gone to that.

  • But you're right, and I appreciate your bringing it up.

  • It's not just the test.

  • That's how you can actually deliver them and the people who are involved now in making this happen.

  • But when you start something up, David, it doesn't go from nothing to 100% effective right away.

  • What we're going to start seeing is that there will always be people who are not getting the test of the results exactly when they wanted.

  • But that's gonna be changing rapidly over the days and weeks.

  • You know, when Americans see what they have seen with these tests, they're gonna be concerned about equipment supplies, the adequate number of health care workers on the front line.

  • You know, we heard what the president told the nation's governors today that don't wait for the federal government for the White House on ventilators.

  • Go get them on your own.

  • Do we have enough ventilators in this country for what's coming?

  • Well, it depends on what you mean, David, by what's coming there.

  • About 12,700 ventilators in the strategic national stockpile and the ability to backfill with several 1000.

  • I mean, if you have a situation like they have in Italy, I don't think any country are up Any preparation in the world.

  • We'll be able to be adequate toe.

  • Have the equipment that you need, what we're trying to do at propose.

  • What I just told you a few moments ago is too blunt that response that we be able to handle it with the equipment we have.

  • But when you're dealing with a fluid situation like this, you really racing against the virus, trying to get out of control as you're trying to keep it on the control, the more you keep it under control.

  • And that's where the mitigation and the containment comes in, the less you'll be in risk of running out of that vital equipment that you need.

  • Doctor, can you assure the American people that what they witnessed in those images from Italy and from those hospitals won't happen here?

  • You know, David, I'm always trying to be as cold and honest.

  • I don't want to scare anybody.

  • There's no guarantee of anything.

  • But I can tell you we're going to try our very best with all of the resource is all of the forced all of our might to make sure that doesn't happen.

  • But, David, it is going to require the cooperation of the American people because the reason why we made the announcement this evening about don't go to bars don't go to restaurants.

  • If you're an elderly person, shelter in, stay at home, don't go out.

  • It's gonna take every community in this country I wanted to ask you before you go about the reports out of France over the weekend of the hundreds in critical condition.

  • Potentially, they reported half could be under 60.

  • What does that tell you?

  • And perhaps more importantly, what do you know right now about who has this right now in the U.

  • S.

  • What the demographics are.

  • What are you seeing in Americans right now?

  • Well, it's not.

  • The number in America is still low, but we're seeing the patterns that we saw in China that we saw in South Korea, which is that if you look at the people who get into trouble, they are overwhelmingly weighted towards individuals who are elderly and individuals who have underlying conditions that compromise their ability to fight the infection, like heart disease and lung disease.

  • You will always see out liars of individuals who are otherwise young and, well, who wind up getting into trouble, getting seriously ill and even dying.

  • I'm very interested in that.

  • We want to follow up on those reports from France that say that there are several people.

  • When I heard that, I called up some of my colleagues, some of whom I trained years ago in my own group in Italy and I said, I'm hearing this about France, Are you?

  • What are you seeing in Italy and any admitted?

  • We are seeing a few people, Ah, minor proportion, but they certainly are there of younger people in their forties and fifties who are getting seriously ill.

  • But he confirmed that the overwhelming majority of the people who get into trouble, the average age of the people who really get sick and die is 80 something years old.

  • But of course, we all just want to make sure that there isn't a false sense of security out there as well, Which I'm sure.

  • Oh, you share that concern, David.

  • Let me be on the record and be very, very vocal about this.

  • We don't have a full sense of security about anything.

  • We take everything seriously.

  • Yes, of course.

  • When you look at the numbers, younger people do much, much, much better.

  • The overwhelming majority of them do well when we start hearing reports of people who are forties and fifties and sixties were getting into trouble.

  • You have to pay attention that at and find that a is it riel.

  • And it is really Why is it happening when we didn't see it in other countries?

  • So nothing is taken for granted?

  • No full sense of security.

  • Dr.

  • Fauci, thanks so much for being here tonight.

  • We appreciate the work you're doing.

  • That's good to be with you, David.

  • So let's take this over to Dr John Aston now in the medical team who, by the way, will be taking your questions as we're on the air here tonight.

  • But Dr Jen, first, the news that Dr Fauci just made there.

  • We talked to him about the headline from France that of the hundreds of patients in critical condition, there were reports that about half of them potentially could be 60 or younger.

  • And even, Dr Fauci said, I got on the phone.

  • I wanted to know more about that, and that's why it's so important for us to test more and to release our clinical data from the United States patients.

  • We need to know what our average age is here.

  • How many are serious, how many are critical, what pre existing conditions they had.

  • We don't have that data out yet, and you heard him acknowledge that again today, saying that hasn't been adequate in this country.

  • In fact, he said, has been inadequate to meet the needs of testing so far.

  • But that's what's so important here.

  • It's not just to tell an individual whether or not they have Corona virus, but it's what it could tell the medical community about where it is in the country and who's being hit the hardest 100% and we're expecting some early results, possibly out of the Seattle cases on the rest of our US cases any day now.

  • But right now we haven't had that, and we're seeing already a burdening of our health care system.

  • We need that information to help us make our decisions.

  • Data drives decisions in medicine.

  • A lot of people at home have been asking us about the supplies on the front line, in particular ventilators, which we've heard a lot about he talked about.

  • In addition to the 62,000 we haven't hospitals around the country, 12,700 that have been stockpiled.

  • But he also acknowledged that if we were to have coronavirus hit the way it's hidden Italy, he said, no amount of preparedness could would be enough.

  • Right?

  • And when you look at our critical surge capacity David, it's based on space staff, supplies and systems.

  • Ventilators don't run themselves.

  • They need respiratory therapists and critical care nurses.

  • We have a shortage of that type of personnel, but that is partially why we're hearing.

  • As recently as a few days ago, the American College of Surgeons saying postpone all elective surgery and procedures because those things use valuable resource is like ventilators and masks, and we need those.

  • That's a really important point just to drive this home that we heard from President Trump late today.

  • These new guidelines to avoid restaurants and to avoid bars, a lot of people might be asking, Is this a step too far?

  • But Dr Fauci and I know you would say this is exactly what we need to do because Dr Fauci was talking about flattening the curve again so that the ventilators, the medical workers in the front lines that are supplies can keep up.

  • And if you can keep the number of cases lower over, perhaps for a longer period of time, it gives our medical staff around this country better chance 100%.

  • And Dr Fauci himself said, When you're trying to contain or respond to an infectious disease outbreak, you're always behind.

  • So we need to take those aggressive steps now.

  • Hi, everyone.

  • George Stephanopoulos here.

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as we come on the air tonight.

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