Trump has now started talking about the coronavirus, which he calls "a tough one." He says "unfortunately one person passed away overnight." He says she was "a wonderful woman" and "a medically high-risk person." He says four other US patients are "very ill."
Trump says additional US cases are "likely," but "healthy individuals should be able to fully recover. And we think that will be a statement we can make with great surety now that we've gotten familiar with this problem. They should be able to recover."
Unlike the last coronavirus press conference, Trump is mostly on-script so far this time. He's saying some of the same things, touting his decision to have imposed travel restrictions on China and boasting that the US has fewer cases than countries with "much less travel."
Trump says "we have 43 million masks." He says he met with the coronavirus task force "and we came up with some ideas, recommendations and frankly some pretty strict edicts that we're going to be going by." He says Pence will explain. He says this group is "so talented."
Trump: "Our country is prepared for any circumstance. We hope it's not going to be a major circumstance, it'll be a smaller circumstance."
Trump "respectfully" asks the media and politicians to not "incite a panic."
Pence begins by expressing condolences over the death of the woman in Washington state, then starts with his usual Trump-hailing: "From the moment that this country learned of the spread of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump took decisive action."
