James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
April 4, 2020
4:15 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: It's a busy time. Very busy time. And let me begin by again expressing our support, solidarity, and love for the people of our great country. We're fighting for you and we're enduring all of this together. And we will soon prevail together. We're making a lot of progress.
We appreciate all of the great assistance from the governors and people within the states. The relationships have been, really, very good. I spoke with Governor Cuomo. We're working very hard to get additional things to New York as quickly as possible.
We — as you know, we took care of the hospital, including personnel — the 2,500 beds that we build just recently at Javits, including personnel. And we opened it up to COVID, and that's something that we also did in Louisiana, and we're doing it in Dallas.
So we have a lot of not only hospitals being built, but now we're manning the hospitals because states are, in many cases, unable to get additional people to work. It's — it's just an incredible situation. There's never been anything like this.
One of the most important issues in battling this pandemic is coordinating the delivery of the crucial supplies throughout the nation based upon the most accurate information available. And we've got the best healthcare and disaster experts anywhere in the world, and everybody will tell you that, and we're dealing with big parts of the world on helping them also through this horrible situation where 151 — still, 151 nations are going through it.
We're working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when they're needed, and in some cases, we're telling governors we can't go there because we don't think you need it and we think someplace else needs it. And pretty much, so far, we've been right about that. And we'll continue to do it.
As it really gets — this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there'll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn't done. But there will be death.
We're looking for an obvious focus in the hardest-hit regions. Some of them are obvious and some aren't so obvious. They spring up. They come and they — they hit you like you got hit by a club, an area that wasn't at all bothered. You look at what's going on in New Jersey — the governor is doing an excellent job, by the way — but how that sprang up.
