The White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, will hold its Sunday press conference at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and it will be live streamed on several platforms. The official White House website will broadcast its own live feed of remarks from Pence and any other of the task force’s two-dozen members. Major media outlets will also be live streaming the March 22 task force announcements from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
Sunday’s briefing comes as members of Congress continue to hash out an economic stimulus relief proposal aimed at giving nearly $2 trillion of federal government cash to small businesses and individuals alike.
As of Sunday afternoon, the latest positive coronavirus case count nationwide has hit 29,666 people in every state including Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories, according to a running New York Times database tracking positive tests. At least 377 patients have died as a result of contracting the virus.
At Saturday’s press briefing, President Donald Trump announced that governors, mayors, businesses, charities and citizens across the country are working with the federal government to save American lives and curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
The president also announced at Saturday’s Task Force press briefing that New York State would be the recipient of major disaster benefits from federal resources as the state has diagnosed nearly 15 times more coronavirus patients than any other state. Health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, praised stricter movement regulations being imposed in the states of California and New York. Trump also announced the suspension of interest on federally owned student loans as the administration’s latest attempt to help keep money in people’s pockets.
Additionally, the White House announced Friday that Americans’ final deadline to file their taxes would be extended from April 15 to July 15. “Americans from every walk of life are coming together,” Trump said. “We are winning and we are going to win this war,” the president declared Saturday.
Trump’s schedule does not list any events for Sunday but he frequently speaks at the Coronavirus Task Force briefings, drawing the ire of many of his critics. Following his Friday remarks at the podium, the Poynter Institute declared: “Trump’s press conference calls out two enemies: coronavirus and the media.”
title: “Coronavirus Task Force Briefing Live Stream How To Watch White House S Latest Covid 19 Announcements” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-23” author: “Margret Hidalgo”
Scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET, interested members of the public can stream the briefing live from the White House’s YouTube channel. Vice President Mike Pence, who is spearheading the task force, is expected to attend, according to his official schedule, but it’s unclear which other members will be taking questions.
On Thursday morning, there were 69,210 cases of a new coronavirus in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, making it the third-largest outbreak in the world. More than 1,000 people have died and officials are grappling with how to balance stemming the outbreak with stabilizing the economy.
States across the country have shuttered non-essential businesses and limited restaurants to take-out and delivery service only. The mitigation measures have resulted in thousands of people being laid off or having hours cut, and President Donald Trump warned that if the country doesn’t resume operations soon, businesses and individuals could go bankrupt.
On Tuesday, he said he hopes to have the country back up and running by Easter, adding that people could return to work while still engaging in social distancing and practicing proper hand hygiene. He later clarified that he was following the advice of experts and that reopening businesses may be done on an area-by-area basis. Places such as New York, where the epicenter of the outbreak is, might not be back to business as normal by April 12.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo noted that he understands the president’s point about the economy and called the current state of businesses “unsustainable.” However, when given the choice between public health and the economy “it’s no contest,” he said, so a “smarter approach” needs to be taken so officials don’t have to choose.
Refining the public health strategy in New York could mean sending people who recovered from the virus and younger people back to work. These individuals could “ramp up” the economy, according to Cuomo, while protecting vulnerable populations.
“So, you’re refining your public health strategy and at the same time you’re restarting your economy,” Cuomo said. “Those two can be consistent if done intelligently.”
The governor warned Wednesday that the state, where there have been more than 33,000 cases, has yet to see the worst of the outbreak. He asked Trump to use a “rolling deployment” of supplies instead of spreading resources out. Under this method, New York would receive a massive delivery of beds and ventilators to help it get the outbreak under control and then pass the supplies along to the next state that’s hit hard.
Pence said in a briefing Wednesday that the federal government would focus resources in areas that are struggling the most with the virus, including New York. He added that he was “inspired” by people across the country who were following guidelines to stop the spread of the virus.
