think about the mid definitely country. we don't have any hospitals on the west coast in california or in the northeast but virtually every state in between. >> a lot of places that don't have the big hot spots, right? >> we have only couple hundred covid patients in our hospital. >> wow! >> our biggest risk i believe are us nursing homes. so protecting nursing homes, making sure nursing homes are and we're very careful. >> great job. joe? >> joe, president and ceo of ascension. i represent 165,000 associates in communities across the country. we have 150 hospitals in 20 states. we're proud to be part of this partnership. appreciate your leadership, mr. president. i would like to thank you and vice president pence for everything you're doing. >> appreciate it very much thank you. good job you do too. please? >> president of the american hospital association and thank you, mr. president, for having

us in and want you to know that we appreciate the leadership of you and your team in putting together this dynamic reserve for the ventilators. you already heard there is a little bit of an uneven impact in terms of the disease and battle we're fighting this will allow us to provide an opportunity to flex, so that we can get the equipment to the right places at the right time for those that are really struggling. and this is an innovative approach that we're committed to. the hospital systems around this table have stepped up to the plate to make commitments and you have our commitment at the american hospital association that we will work with the rest of our field to make additional commitments and make this a success. >> so we're also building a very high quality ventilator because you have to make a decision and i was told it makes a big difference. the level of quality of a ventilator what is it, what is the difference? do you find it makes a big difference? they're obviously more

expensive, more detailed, harder to build but i hear they are more effective, quite a bit. do you all consider that to be correct? >> that's correct. >> ventilator is not a ventilator. there is lot of differ versions that have different capabilities. >> we're building the one they say, we're trying to go with a standard that's very high. you think that is worth it? >> we think this project will be well worth it,. >> makes a difference. thank you, great job. please. >> mr. president, warner thomas, ceo of oxford health in new orleans. we're the largest not-for-profit health system in louisiana. we've been caring for about 60 to 65% of the covid patient notice new orleans. over 1/3 of them for the entire state. so we have seen escalation over the past few weeks although we're seeing some flattening of the curve now. we're excited to be part of the program. want to thank you and your administration and our governor helpful getting ventilators to

us. >> got them to him. we sent a lot of ventilators to your state and we've been working very well with your governor and with 2004 two senator. >> we appreciate that. it made a huge difference for our patients. we're excited to be part of this program so we can help other communities that may be in need of ventilators as well. >> we built you a lot of hospitals, hospital beds in particular. we just cut back on them because you didn't need them which is great. you didn't need them. you're seeing a flattening now? >> we're seeing flattening of the curve and hopeful that continues over the next couple weeks and shelter in place has had a major impact in our city. >> fantastic. great job. say hello. >> president, my name is -- chief medical officer at nyu langone. ken sends his regard. we're taking care of patients in manhattan and brooklyn as well as long island. we've been in the heart of this. do really want to thank you for

not only supporting nyu but also the new york hospitals. we've been in the hospital and seeing a flattening and we're continuing and committed to taking care of these patients. once again, thank thank you forl your efforts. >> i spoke to ken yesterday. we'll take care of all the situation. you people really have done a a fantastic job during this crisis. >> i'm president and ceo of cleveland clinic. we have a strong presence in state of ohio and large presence in florida. >> you built a big one, right? >> fortunately in the ohio measured by our governor did very early and we have really not had a surge in number of patients. >> right. >> curve has been flat for almost two weeks. our entire system we employ 60,000 caregivers. we're having only 170 patients in our entire system. the number has been stable. and what i would also like to

echo my colleagues who are thankful for the invitation but i also want to assure we all collaborate among each other and lend a helping hand to those who are in need. >> that's great. you do have a great governor. mike has done a great job. >> he has done a really great job. >> sew we'll talk for a couple minutes. thank you very much, media. >> let's go. press, let's go. >> [inaudible] connell: all right, president trump moments ago at the white house meeting with a group of health care executives including ceos of some of the big hospitals, doing so as market surges higher and closes out on the day. we'll probably see the president in about an hour again at coronavirus daily task force briefing. welcome to the show. good to be with you.

i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis this is "after the bell." major averages closing up 2%. nasdaq officially exiting bear market territory. fox team coverage. blake burman has the latest from the white house, lauren simonetti is watching the markets and edward lawrence is in washington. let's start with lauren. lauren: what a day on wall street. stocks surging on signs that the coronavirus is easing. president will soon announce guidelines to open the economy back up. that outweighed sharply lower profits by jpmorgan chase and wells fargo. each bank setting aside billions of dollars expecting a deluge of billions of loan default, americans are out of work, right? dow is up four of the past six days. the nasdaq higher four days in a row now. it is actually the last of the three major averages exiting bear market territory. as you noted, melissa, investors still nervous here.

we saw gold gain. saw yield on 10-year treasury rise. a lot of strength from tech, amazon. take a look, closing at all-time high, with a market valuation now first time ever topping $1.1 trillion. walmart, also a winner, finishing the green, in record territory. the only dow stock to do so since february. as you know walmart and amazon have taken a vital role during the pandemic, using massive footprint, the supply infrastructure to provide for americans. dow components apple and johnson & johnson also boosting the blue-chip average today, helping outweigh significant losses that we saw by boeing after it lost hundreds of plane orders including for the 737 max t was a great day. stocks closing near the highs of the session. melissa, connell, back to you. melissa: all right. we'll take it. thanks, lauren. the white house is forming an advisory group to reopen the economy. let's check in with our own blake burman with the latest on

this. break? reporter: hi, there, melissa. a day after president trump said he quote, urn quote total authority over the states as when to potentially reopen the economy the president seemingly took both sides of that issue going to twitter earlier today and calling out the democratic governors in the northeast that are banding together saying they will set their own guidelines or at least act on those own guidelines. the president specifically singling out new york's andrew cuomo at one point, writing the following, saying, quote, bottom of the tweet. i got it all done for him, speaking of cuomo and everyone else and now he seems to want independence. that won't happen. but, this afternoon when he met with coronavirus survivors, the president also said he would work in concert with governors as it relates to reopening the economy and said a decision is coming soon. >> i'm going to be making a decision pretty quickly and it is being done in conjunction with governors. we have tremendous support from governors, and what i do is

going to be done in conjunction with governors. reporter: also today, labor secretary eugene scalia acknowledged no matter what decisions public officials make business owners will eventually have their say as well. >> obviously business leaders have a key role here. it's their companies. they need to get to the point where they and their workers are comfortable resuming and we want to work with them on that. reporter: once again we'll be back over toward the white house this upcoming hour as we'll hear from president trump and members of the coronavirus task force as the president will announce advisors he will seek guidance from the economic side, reopening of the economy. connell, melissa, there had been some talk in recent days this would be a parallel task force to run parallel it the health task force. however what i've been told

speaking with white house officials throughout the day, this isn't necessarily going to be a task force per se. the president will be seeking guidance, advice from others. there is a few reasons why here. one of them includes legal complexities with including non-government outside advisors and bringing them into the task force that necessarily won't happen. but we will hear from the president, who he will lean on coming up later in the rose garden. he said it will be from members all across industries. back to you. melissa: americans ready to get back to work, blake, thank you. connell? connell: all right. melissa you heard new york mentioned there in blake's reporting. let's get the very latest on the ground. fox's david lee miller back live from mount sinai hospital in new york city, david? >> connell, the death toll here in new york state has increased yet again. in a span of just 24 hours 778 new yorkers lost their lives to this invisible killer.

the, that was the second highest number of fatalities since the virus struck but there was some good news today. the number of people admitted to hospitals is down. now during his daily briefing new york positive andrew cuomo, again rejected president trump's assertion he as president has total authority reopening the economy. calling the claim factually wrong. cuomo who set up a task force of nearby states, said governors should decide the time is right to reopen business. como mentioned the president's tweet, likening governors to mutineers, responding with an olive branch of sort. >> i put my hand out in total partnership and cooperation with the president. if he wants a fight he will not get it from me, period. this is going to take us working together. reporter: new york city meanwhile the epicenter of the pandemic, will increase local

production of personal protective equipment. multiple firms will soon make more than 400,000 facemasks and 100,000 surgical gowns a week! the city is also building a new supply chain to build weekly supply of 50,000 coronavirus test kits. more than 6,000 new york city resident have now died from the coronavirus. janet mendez is not one of them. after spending three weeks in mount sinai hospital, including 10 days on a ventilator she has now returned home. her recovery very inspiring at a time that this city and really the rest of the country needs something special to believe in. back to you. connell: certainly do, david. we can all use a story like that. david lee miller live from the streets of manhattan. thank you, sir. melissa. melissa: here now is bill mcgurn, columnist for "the wall street journal." he is also a fox news contributor.

so we are coming up on this meeting with the president and his advisory panel. what do you expect to hear from them? >> well i think, i think the large question we're going to hear, what is the way forward? how do we get to reopening? even the governors, that is the conversation. we don't have a path a clear path laid out but i would assume that is what they're going to be discussing. we've got about two weeks left of the original orders. so people will want to know what comes next. melissa: yeah. i mean the bottom line, the government is talking about all the ppp loans they have given out. that they might run out of money as soon as this weekend. doesn't matter how much money support the government puts out if there is not a lot of customers to pick up the ball. i talk to restaurant owners, or salon owners, what is the point to give me a loan to bring employees back if no one is to

serve. waiters, waitresses can't do take-out. they can't do tips. you can't open a salon, you pay a stylist so there is no customers. it is not helpful until there is customers. that is what we need to know, right, bill? >> that's right. one of the biggest priorities how to help small business, how to help workers. how to help people retired is simply reopening the economy. doesn't mean we have to do it all at once or so forth. here i think, that this clash between the federal government and the states one, unnecessary, and two kind of silly in a way because i think what we need most from the federal government are not directives where they tell you, everyone in america is going to wear a mask, or everyone is going to do this. or everyone is going to remain closed. i think the most helpful thing we can do from the federal government, they have a wider reach and look. they have more experts to tell us information. and i mean, for reopenings,

specific information. for example, who are the most vulnerable people and who are the least vulnerable? seems to me obvious, people with the antibodies they should go to work with no problem. people who are 70 or over, have some preexisting like heart condition or diabetes, they obviously need to be protected. but we need to start ranking things. what are the easiest ways to get covid-19 and what are the more difficult ways? what should we be prioritizing? i think the more information the federal government can give us from what it has learned i think the application, how to apply those rules, that's really more for the states and localities. governor cuomo hinted at this the other day. he pointed out, even within new york, you know the same rules can't really apply everywhere. someone in manhattan is in a very different circumstance from someone in the suburbs and someone in a rural part of new york. so i would like to see the

application of guidelines left up to the local and state, to use discussion and discretion to see what can work. i dubious of one size fits all programs, that is what we have with lockdowns and it is very inefficient. melissa: it is makes more sense by industry, these types of businesses can reopen? or is it by individual, you say you have to have had some sort of a test and you're free to go back out into the workforce? if it is the test one i don't know how soon we'll have technology in place. we've been hearing about antibody tests and these instant tests so long i have yet to see one? >> i expect it is a little bit of both. we shouldn't be deciding these in the abstract. we should be looking around the world. for example, taiwan and hong kong managed to keep their economies largely open and keep deaths down. so that, ought to give us some

ideas, because they practice a lot of social distancing at work and their culture there now, in hong kong, big buildings, they have fever temperatures, walk through a body scan, hand sanitizer in the cab, everything. it will be a little bit of both. we need information to act on to make sensible decisions. i think just one size fits all -- give you one example. in new jersey we're required to pair h wear masks inside of grocery stores. that edict went out one night with no appropriation. we have a shortage much masks for hospitals and medical areas. now putting whole civilian population requiring it? i don't think a lot of these things are thought through. melissa: yeah, no. writing things down, a lot of good ideas there. we could follow models of other places where it worked. bill, great stuff. >> thank you, melissa.

stay safe. connell: all right, melissa around bill. bring the judge in, pick up on all of this in terms of who makes the call when to reopen our economy. judge andrew napolitano, fox news senior judicial analyst. let's get the legal question out of the way first. bill is talk about ideas as melissa says, great ideas in terms how we proceed, but when the president comes out as he did last night he has the total authority to make the call reopening the economy, that true in any way? >> no, in fact the whole constitutional jurisprudence, history and even modern interpretations of the constitution are 100% on the side of governor cuomo. as the president himself said two weeks ago the problems in midtown manhattan, bill mcgurn mentioned this so nicely a few moments ago with melissa, the problems in midtown manhattan are vastly different than the problems in des moines, iowa, and local officials, state officials, know how to address those problems far better than the federal government can.

the tenth amendment of constitution without getting too into the weeds, connell, reserves to the states power to regulate for health, safety, welfare, morality. the feds have no ability to regulate there but the feds do have assets and they have cash and the feds know how to bend the states to their will by dangling cash in front of them. a president can't do that on his own t would require an appropriation from the congress. so if, for example, the congress were to say to governor cuomo, you have 250 million-dollar shortfall in your tax revenue this quarter. we'll make up for the short fall but you have to open up yankee stadium and broadway theaters and new york restaurants and bars. he might be so tempted to take the cash or might say forget it. science is against it but the choice is his. connell: understood. judge, we have to run unfortunately so much going on today. we'll get back into this. there will be time. may hear from the president top of the next hour.

the judge from home with us today, andrew napolitano. thank you, sir. we appreciate it. sorry we had to run early. melissa. melissa: small businesses keep applying for aid but officials are starting to worry that the $350 billion allocated for the program will run out before congress agrees on more funding. edward lawrence has details on that one. so we're running out of money, edward. reporter: yeah, melissa, isn't that always the case? and especially nowadays when you have so much demand for the program. one thing both republicans and democrats agree upon is the payroll protection program. both sides see the need to add more money. the question how to get it there. that is the issue. look at numbers this program is putting up. 1,131,000 loans have been written for small businesses with forgivable loans valued at more than $363 billion. that is good news and bad news. the good news that the program helped tens of millions of

employees for those small businesses. the bad news as you said it is almost out of money. white house economic advisor larry kudlow says talks are ongoing right now. >> we have requested an extra 250 billion on top of the original 350. at the present run rate we'll be out of money for the small businesses assistance plan. reporter: you know that is the key out of money by the end of the week is what kudlow is saying. now the problem, how to get it there. there's a stalemate between republicans and democrats but the goal to get it done as quickly as possible. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says the senate is out until may 4th. he released this statement, saying this, quote, all members will receive at least 24 hour notice if this changes. this bipartisan decision reflects consultation with leader schumer and my colleagues in senate leadership. he is preparing senators to fly back to washington d.c., should there be an agreement on both

sides getting money into this program. now democrats and republicans would like just to change the number in the cares act, do nothing else. democrats want to add, expand more programs around it, add other things into it in order to get things done. specifically house speaker nancy pelosi also wanting to designate some of the $250 billion added to this program to be only funded through community banks because she believes the big banks have been slow to come to the table with this process. back to you. melissa: yeah. i heard that from a lot of people. thanks, edward. connell? connell: all right. melissa, we'll talk a little presidential politics here as we continue, upending of the 2020 playbook. how the nationwide shutdown and a key endorsement may be shaking things up in the race for the white house. that is coming up next. restaurants across the country trying something a little different while fill agroing gap. some creative ways to boost

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connell: former president barack obama officially entering the 2020 fray, endorsing the man who served as his vice president, joe biden. take a listen. >> this crisis has reminded us that government matters. it reminded us that good government matters. that facts and science matter. that the rule of law matters. but having leaders who are informed and honest and seek to bring people together rather than drive them apart. those kind of leaders matter. connell: joined by robert wolf, former economic advisor to former president obama. these days he is a fox news contributor. seems clear, robert, he didn't

mention president trump by name, former president obama is speaking clearly about president trump, right? is that kind of setting up the fall campaign and terms he thinks that we should be arguing on, or debating on? >> well we know it is going to be a clear choice. you have president trump and you have vice president biden. it couldn't be a more sterning choice between the two. and i think the president, the president obama framed it incredibly well today. and number of viewers were just crazy. i think he has 115 million twitter followers. president trump may have 75 million. but i think youtube has four million views like the first, i don't know, the first hour or something. connell: right. >> so it did what joe needed it to do. got president obama engaged in a major way. connell: did it? i mean the question about these two always has been whether president obama really supports former vice president biden. there are all these reports in

2016 he encouraged him not to run. former vice president's son died shortly before the race. he said that is why he didn't get into the race. you know both of them. you spent decent amount of time with both of them. do you think he really wants joe biden to be president? >> yes. connell, let's not compare 2015 and 2016 to today. as you know i'm very close with both and back then when i met with the vice president in 2015 and 2016, wasn't ready to run. his son beau passed away. he didn't have his heart in it. that was very different time for the vice president this is also a very different time. i think bringing someone that can unify the country to the forefront, someone who is pa good, decent person, i think it is the right time for the vice president, or former vice president and i think president obama has been, you know, waiting to engage now that

bernie sanders exited the race yesterday, it made the president available to kind of really lean in. i know he is going to in a big way. connell: you say it is a different time and agreed that it is but the one similarity here between certainly 08 and then 09 when president trump took office and now, we're going to be going through a tough economic period. that is the hand president obama was dealt. in fact when he spoke about the fact that he put vice president biden in charge of the recovery act. you know implementing that and all. critics will say though that that recovery from the crisis in '08 and '09 was a slow recovery. so the economic question i guess, robert, if the same team essentially is in place this time, do we risk another slow recovery with skim -- similar policies. >> there is a few ways to frame it. i would obviously dispute that. but after bush 41, kind of put the economy into, into the tubes

we had clinton come in. when bush 43 you know, kind of once again got us, brought us into the great recession, we had obama come in and you know, we can debate what is going to happen with this coming year, with the possibility of another recession. some people are also saying even a depression who would be the best person, we will debate though. i think president obama framed it differently, i think he was very clear with the recovery act. jeff biden was for the auto bailout. president trump was not for the auto bailout which is very surprise tag, which is very surprising because the federal government is bailing out the entire country. we'll see what plays better at that point in michigan, ohio. i think certainly president obama said certain things about climate change, about the pandemic, about the auto bailout, about the recovery. but more importantly he also made sure this wasn't his election. you know you have to think about

what bernie sanders brought tote table and progressive base that he has. i think that this is a very different election than 08 or 12. it will be won very differently. connell: okay. we'll have plenty of time to talk about it, robert. we'll have -- >> got a feel we'll be talking about it often. connell: i'm sure we will. i'm sure vice president biden hopes his former boss helps him raise money from people like you, thank you, sir. melissa. melissa: coronavirus impacting 2020 fund-raising. with just over 200 days left to the presidential election, president trump and joe biden, facing possibility of campaign contributions dwindling now. here is discuss, mercedes schlapp, 2020 trump senior campaign advisor. in the first quarter, president raised $212 million. i am wondering is that promised money or money actually handed over and put in the bank?

>> at this point it is machine any put over in the bank and we're excited to know that we have so many, many of these are small dollar donors who are, who are committed to the president's cause, that are focused on getting the president reelected this is in contrast to joe biden, who doesn't even have a good small dollar online program. biden's money that is big money. those are people writing big, big checks. we're talking about when it comes to president trump that he is able to raise these small dollar numbers that are very significant. it is why you have seen that in the month of march, it is the second best month we had in terms of fund-raising. melissa: i guess, mercedes, when i look around at people, their money has disappeared whether they're rich or poor. this coronavirus thing and shutting down of america has made funds really tight for everybody. if everybody had to go with what

they have today, in the past they said both sides are fired up, they will have plenty of money to deal with. i don't believe that anymore. i think what you have is what you're going to have. are you guys way ahead of joe biden in terms of money you already collected that people can't claw back from you? >> yeah. i mean, i have to say we are at a huge advantage because our fund-raising numbers have been so strong even prior to the coronavirus crisis. obviously we also moved into a virtual campaign where we are staying connected with our voters, we're staying connected with the grassroots activists. you're talking since march 13th alone since when the crisis started, we signed up over 2 73,000 volunteers. that is significant. these individuals are at home. they want to stay connected. they want to help out. they want to make calls.

so they joined movement of army for trump all being done virtually. i think it just shows the strength of this campaign and the organization that this campaign has put together. melissa: so you really jumped ahead to my next question there because i know one of the things that made the trump campaign and presidency are so different are the rallies that really energize the president but provide you guys with opportunity to connect with people and get their information and get their data and they're volunteering because they're coming out to see you. you say that you have signed up another 200 plus thousand since we were locked inside. is that the plan between now and the fall, if people are stuck inside keep doing it the same way? is that nor or less than you would have brought on board if the president was going out meeting them in person? >> first of all i think one of the things we've done very successfully, we built out seven-day programing, we call it team trump online where we have original content. we're bringing in guests and

talking about a variety of topics. making sure we show the contrast with joe biden and his weak leadership, and his history of being a senator and a vice president. so i think that -- melissa: oh, no. all right. we lost mercedes audio there, but we heard what she was saying. she has that army going online for the president. we will stay on top of that. we'll get her back as soon as possible. connell? connell: technical "gremlins.." melissa, thank you very much. we'll talk about china a moment, under mounting pressure the chinese government facing renewed criticism over the true origins of the coronavirus and we'll have the very latest reporting on that coming up next. we're also waiting for an update from the coronavirus task force live from the white house. any breaking headlines come from there we'll continue as we bring you through the hour.

here is a good one, a virtual celebration for our team here at "after the bell." there is our meeting we always have on zoom these days, right. this morning very happy birthday of one of our terrific producers, the great john car cher celebrating his birthday. some are more creative than me. john, daughter and dog. top screen, top middle. i don't know what medical list is doing. that is a virtual cake. there it is, happy birthday john via zoom. we'll be right back. if you're the spouse of a military veteran,

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♪ melissa: basing intense scrutiny around the world the china is government is reportedly trying to shape the narrative about the origin of the coronavirus. fox news's gillian turner is live from washington with the latest own a very interesting story. what do you have? reporter: so, melissa, for weeks now u.s. lawmakers have been accusing china continuing to hide the real numbers of the coronavirus coming out of wuhan and underreporting the actual number of cases inside of the country. >> the china virus could have been a local problem in wuhan if the chinese communist party had been transparent and honest. reporter: now one policy think tank based here in washington estimates the real number of coronavirus cases inside of china is close to 2.9 million.

the american enterprise institute claims the communist party has deliberately made estimation difficult. outside of wuhan city and hebei province, cases are low by a factor of 100 or more. this comes as "the washington post" reports it has the smoking gun when it comes to the chinese government covering up the true origin of the coronavirus. two state department cables of wuhan infectious diseases lab. the first cable dated january 2018, warns the lab's work on bat coronavirus and potential human transmission represent ad risk of a new sars-like pandemic. the cables note that the labs had insufficient technicians in order to operate safely. so far the state department is not comment on existence of two cables though fox news learned they are essentially marked sensitive but classified, indication they contain national security information. china's foreign ministry insists

day one they have notified the w.h.o. the epidemic. shared the genome and carried out national cooperation and helped affected countries at the earliest time possible. over the past weekend, melissa, the chinese government made a new move to tamp down on information related to the virus. the communist party issued a new directive all research related to the coronavirus has to be vetted before it is published by a chinese government official. melissa. melissa: great reporting, gillian, thank you very much. connell? connell: finding new ways to operate amid a nationwide shutdown. we'll talk to a restaurant owner who is transforming her business in order to attract customers. we'll talk about that the task force will give us an update in a few moments live from the white house with key states saying it reached its peak. we'll see the announcement who

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melissa: "fox business alert." treasury department and u.s. airlines reaching a deal. our own blake burman will have the details shortly.

we wanted to let you know apparently there is a deal. connell? connell: there you go, melissa, we'll talk now about another local business fighting back in its own way with stores struggling to meet demand and dining-in eating shut down across the nation restaurants are finding a way to fill the gap. some are getting creative. we have charlene owner after restaurant in ann arbor, michigan, i believe. you, like some people are hit hard what is happening to the economy right now, when i say get creative, you're selling groceries, paper towels, everything out of the restaurant? tell me what you came up with? >> after a company we realized dine-in business was suspended and grocery stores were running out of what people needed we found the opportunity to help the community and maintain a revenue center for ourselves. the menus were put together

quickly and putting them out on facebook and community websites, wherever we can so we can sell groceries. it is really starting to take off. connell: yeah, you know, it's, i have seen some of the bigger chains do it, like panera, they had announcement doing panera grocery and fresh fruit and bread which they sell but how about for you guys, is that challenging, not your business, in terms of getting groceries and how it is working out? >> it is not our business but certainly food is our business and as a company landry's always has been innovative and adaptable to changes. we put it out very, very quickly. we have restaurants across the country selling groceries. all the landry's restaurants are involved. most of us are doing carry-out, curbside carry out for our menu items as well as the grocery

service to -- [inaudible]. connell: so you have that plus you say the curbside service which you say a lot of restaurants are doing. how are your numbers overall? are you still seeing a big decline and reaching out to the government for help? how are you doing overall even with this? >> oh, absolutely. certainly not doing the sales we were doing but we're, definitely, you know, helping the community, staying open, you know, doing, doing some decent volume but not, you know, not what our normal dine-in was, but that is going to be the case until we're able to reopen. connell: yeah. and obviously the timetable on that is a tough thing all of us are having trouble with right now. how long can you keep going like this, do you think? >> oh, i think that it is sustainable as long as guests still want to come out and get the groceries from us and you

know, get the dine-in. easter was extremely successful for many of our locations. i think it is, we need to get back to normal certainly, but it is sustainable. connell: good for you. i mean you know, kind of trying to make the most of it. as you say, as you said at the beginning which is important, helping people too. they need access to these items. all the best charlene, good luck. thanks for coming on, sharing your piece of the story with us. we appreciate it. melissa. melissa: we need to get back to normal. she said it best. all right, bracing for student debt relief, the cares act allowing borrowers to postpone some student payments but what if the loan is not being held by the federal government? we're breaking down the details next. in a few minutes the coronavirus task force will be set to give an update on the pandemic. we'll take you live to the white house briefing as soon as it happens. stick around.

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melissa: fox business alert. the treasury department and u.s. airlines reaching a deal. let's go back to blake berman in washington with the details. reporter: we told you the belief was there would be a deal within hours. now we know it took 24 hours. a statement has just come in from the treasury secretary steve mnuchin. here is the treasury sick terry. alaska airlines, delta airlines, american airlines, united, sky west and southwest told us they plan to participate in the payroll support program. treasury is working to review and approve applications for smaller passenger carriers as quickly as possible and we'll provide further guidance for

cargo carriers soon. we'll work to disburse funds as quickly as possible. they have an agreement on a deal to participate which. yesterday we reported part of the conversation that was had was what would the equity stakes be. the position the treasury department has taken is if something is not a public benefit, if the money that goes to the airlines doesn't save a job or the payroll taxes come in, that money would be considered a grant. other pot, and what the treasury department wants to do with it. and how the equity stake might be between the government and the airlines. what we don't have are the

details. which is why in the statement of steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary said we welcome the news that a number of main airlines plan to participate. treasury and main airlines have come to some sort of agreement about the relief package. now we await the details. they are big details because the u.s. government said they want an equity stake to compensate the taxpayers for putting this money forward. back to you. melissa: blake berman, thank you. connell: the government providing some relief for those with federal student loans. but what if you have privately held loans? gerri willis joins us with the latest. reporter: it seems every college

student is frustrated. >> most students can't afford to be paying for a semester where they glean very little information, especially given that's have massive student loans and are cash strapped. i think they can use this opportunity to cut a lot and tighten their belt with tuition rates. gerri: on top of virtual learning, loans loom large. your paints have been likely pause for six months. but debt holders should be aware this is complicated stuff. perkins loans, some don't qualify, and bank and commercial lender loans. call your lender if you have a commercial loan. ask about economic hardship or

deferment or ask for an income-based repayment plan. back to you. connell: thank you, gerri willis. melissa and i thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here same time. [♪] lou: good evening. president trump will announce new members of his new task force. the task will be advising him on reopening the economy and putting america back to work. president trump you have ad a preview earlier today at the white house. president trump: we'll be making a decision quickly in conjunction with governors. we have tremendous support from governor. -- from governors. a lot of skill will have to be used to get our country back to where it was and we want to do it quickly.