Foul reported.

George Stuff.

Good afternoon.

Coming on the air now with breaking news in the Corona virus emergency.

That is the scene on Wall Street right now.

You see the Dow Jones down almost 6% now at 23,575.

That is officially a bear market.

Now it comes with new news today on the Corona virus cart crisis.

Seriousness News World Health Organization has said that the cove in 19 spread can now be characterized as a pandemic.

And listen to this.

They say we're deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread in severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.

And these maps of the market is just about to close.

Right now down, almost 6% show how much this controlled by just spread around the world.

More than 121,000 cases, more than 4000 deaths here in the United States, more than 1000 cases now in 39 states, at least 32 deaths.

I want to go to Jen Ashton to start a softly and cover all the angles of this right now, but let's begin with that characterization from the World Health Organization.

A pandemic.

It comes as Dr Anthony Fauci, leading infectious disease expert here in the United States, says.

This situation is going to get worse and worse and worse.

Right, And he is one of the premier infectious disease experts in the world.

George.

He did represent a shift, I think, in the focus now between attempting to stop and rather slow or mitigate the impact of Corona virus in the United States.

But it's important to remember that the one in the director of the World Health Organization recognizes this outbreak as a pandemic.

They are emphasizing it can be stopped, but it will take aggressive measures.

And they put out a statement today, George, that it is time to prioritize care and activate triage procedures and scale up Serge plans for health facilities.

What this means.

Toe hospitals will be different than what it means to communities.

So in the community we should expect to possibly Seymour social distancing measures, more school closures, more cancellations of large events that does a very important thing in an outbreak.

George.

What it does is it flattens the curve.

It slows the spread and it buys us time.

So I think we can expect to see more of that here.

Yeah, we've We've seen some of those measures, Jim, we've seen here the city of New Rochelle here in your say, basically on a partial lock down a moderate, moderate, locked down State of Washington has said that there should be no events of larger and 250 people.

We should expect to see more states taking measures like that.

I think so.

And that's not only to mitigate the impact on a state by state or community by community level, but to be clear.

While we think that about 80% of clinical cases are mild right now, just here in New York State, about 15% of confirmed cases are requiring hospitalization.

So make no mistake for most people.

Yes, this could be mild, but for some it can and will be severe.

And I think the recognition of this as a pandemic on the part of the W.

H.

O is really a call to action that they are concerned.

They have seen sustained community to community spread and transmission of this novel Corona virus in multiple countries.

and they do also look for severity.

And in some countries, that has been more of an impact than in others.

But that's what they're concerned about, Jim.

Thanks.

So let's talk more about the economic impact right now.

You just saw the Dow down almost 6%.

Rebecca Jarvis is here with me right now.

That means the market for is now in a bear market, down 20% 20% from the record highs that it hit last month.

And Wall Street really paid close attention to the words from the W.

H.

O today and everything that Jen just mentioned that really focused on what we're hearing from companies in so many different industries.

United, for example, has talked about the toll this has taken on their business.

They say worse than nine Levin, two times as bad as 9 11 sales, looking like they're down on domestic flights, 70%.

Boeing, which had issues because of the 7 37 max, are now facing increased issues because the airlines air not ordering planes, they're canceling orders for planes.

You're also hearing it from small businesses.

Georgia hear it every day, and we're seeing more and more companies take these drastic measures, telling their employees to stay home, and that has a lot to do with flattening the curve.

Keeping sick people away from the masses is going to keep the spread of this disease from going much deeper.

But there's also those who can't stay home and continue to get paid.

Companies like Starbucks today stepping up and saying their employees who need to stay home sick will still get paid for that sick leave.

And that's a big question when it comes to the fiscal measures in the stimulus.

That's what I get to.

We saw the market rise yesterday on hopes that the washing would come together on some kind of stimulus package that is much more uncertain now.

Part of the reason for the fall today, absolutely.

And the question is, if their stimulus, what kind of stimulus will it be?

There's the initial issues here.

You have a number of businesses that are facing riel, serious hardships, but you also have a number of individuals who you don't want to incentivize them to go to work sick.

So for anybody who's a service worker who needs to be physically at their job, to get paid paid sick leave is the kind of measure that would keep them from going into work on a day when they're not feeling seems to be bipartisan.

Consensus on getting some kind of paid sick.

Leave the president calling for this payroll tax cut there was that had a bit of a rocky reception again, much rocky reception.

And part of it, too, is when you think about the economic effects of something like a payroll tax cut those air longer term.

That isn't an immediate thing when people are already hunkering down and trying to stay inside.

The last thing that most people are looking for right now is extra in their pay cheque to go out and spend.

That's something that in the longer run and certainly is going to help.

And certainly there are people who are trying to plan and prepare for this at home, and they need that right now in order to take care of that.

But at the same time, the biggest thing is that paid sick leave, George people shouldn't be going to work if they're sick and you want to incentivize them to stay home so they're more questions about what White with White House is gonna do what Congress is gonna do, Want to bring into City of Vega from the White House Right now, we're learning now that the president intends to make a statement to the nation tonight.

Yet George, the details are just coming in because the reporters who were just in the room with the president during a spray here with the photographers and the reporters in there have just come out.

So we're just getting word As I'm speaking to you, the president says this will probably be around eight o'clock tonight, He says he'll be discussing economic health and related announcements, health of economic and health related announcements.

Excuse me.

Also, it appears that he's going to be talking about what the country should be doing to deal with this Corona virus outbreak, he was asked during this discussion with reporters.

He's in there, I should note with with Wall Street banking executives.

That was what this meeting was about.

Reporters asked the president if he's considering a national declaring a national emergency or in any travel restrictions.

He would not answer those questions.

But George, obviously, this issue is front of mine here at the White House for the president and this administration.

He has been tweeting about it all day, including one tweet that I think left some heads.

The had some head scratching, he said.

I am fully prepared to use the full power of the federal government to deal with our current challenge of the Corona virus.

It's unclear exactly what he intends to do.

Perhaps that is something he will be talking about tonight.

But as I mentioned, he was in this meeting just a few minutes ago, here at the White House, in the Cabinet room with Wall Street executives.

He is promising economic relief exactly what you were talking about that payroll tax cut, particularly that has received such a lukewarm reception there on Capitol Hill.

But he made he made it very clear the president.

Right now, he said, George, our number one priority is the health of the country.

So we will be watching tonight, hear more about what he has to say will be watching to see it.

Thanks very much again.

For now, we're gonna return to our regular program, the Dow Jones, down with 6% today, now officially in a bear market.

As the World Health Organization recognizes the spread of this novel, Corona virus is a pandemic.

Our coverage continues now on ABC News Live, and we'll have a full report tonight on World News Tonight with David Muir.

I'm George Stephanopoulos in New York.

Have a good afternoon.

This has been a special report from ABC.