good afternoon I'm Andy Cohen I'm the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for North Carolina In this afternoon I'm joined by director Mike Sparing Berry and Brian Tipton and Nicole Fox are American sign language interpreters and working behind the scenes is our Spanish language Interpreters are Jackie and Jasmine Motive here as always I'll start with a run down of our numbers for North Carolina As of this morning there were 9142 laboratory confirmed cases in 95 counties We have 473 people who are currently hospitalized and sadly there have been 306 deaths We report these data regularly on our Cove in 19 Dashboard That's at N C DHHS dot gov slash cove in 19 Excuse me Throughout our response to the pandemic we have sought to expand the information we share Today we launched two new additions First in order to standardize reporting we're postponing a new were posting a new report on our cove in 19 outbreaks in congregate living settings The report will include names of facilities where there is an outbreak That's two or more cases as well as a number of positive cases at that facility The report will be updated twice per week As this pandemic evolves we will continue to assess the appropriateness of data reporting to balance transparency public health and individual privacy Second we now have North Carolina's Cove in 19 key metrics to stay ahead of the curve available on our dashboard As Governor Cooper shared last week We're looking to make progress on testing Tracing and trends did guide The states plan to slowly lift restrictions There's a new metrics Key metrics tab on the dashboard for the combination of the metrics were following as a reminder Therefore of them the first is Covad likes him Drama cases second lab confirmed cases third positive tests as a percentage of total tests and hospitalizations The dashboard will also share where we are on our testing and tracing capacity including our supply of personal protective equipment number of tests per day and staffing for contact tracing We also have some progress to share on that front Today I'm pleased to announce the formation of the Carolina Community Tracing Collaborative a new partnership with Community Care of North Carolina and the North Carolina area health education centers to expand contact Tracing Our local health departments are North Carolina's expert in this essential detective work North Carolina has a significant advantage over many other states doing this work because we have that that strong public health infrastructure the new collaborative will hire and train local staff that will support local health departments Contact tracing efforts This will allow us to meet the goal we shared last week to double the number of contact tracers we have in the state to 500 Contact Tracing is is the process of supporting patients and notifying contacts of exposure in order to stop the chain of transmission of the virus This also health North Carolina understand the spread of disease and more rapidly identify people who may have had cove in recruitment for contact Tracers will start immediately today Anyone interested in applying may visit the community care of North Carolina website Special consideration will be given to those who are unemployed have community engagement experience and live in the communities that they will serve before I wrap up I also want to share new information shared by the CDC this weekend The CDC has expanded the list of symptoms that may be associated with Cove in 19 We've been talking for a long time about fever and cough and shortness of breath But the CDC also added some additional symptoms for you to be aware of They include chills repeated shaking with chills muscle pain headache sore throat and a new loss of taste or smell These symptoms may appear to toe 14 days after exposure to the virus Very important for everyone to know It's not just cough and fever anymore We want to be folks to be looking for chills muscle pain headache sore throat or a new loss of taste or smell As always please practice social distancing and wash your hands to prevent the spread of the virus Thank you Thank you for staying home to save lives On With that I will turn it over to director Spray Berry for his update Thank you Madam Secretary This is Day 49 of the State Emergency Operations centers Activation for the Cove in 19 response This morning I made a trip to the Sandhills Regional Medical Center in Hamlet North Carolina which is being prepared and supplied for possible use as a medical support shelter during the Cove in 19 pandemic response If the state's hospitals need additional bed capacity the Sandhills facility could be activated as a medical shelter toe house and tree non cove in 19 low acuity patients to free up beds at other hospitals Sandhills could house about 50 patients if needed The Office of Emergency Medical Services in the National Guard have been working to clean equipped the facility for possible use It would be staffed by state medical response system personnel and a North Carolina National Guard medical team including physicians physician assistants nurses medics and support staff Our local partners in Richmond County and Hamlet have also been key to our efforts at Sandhills and we're very grateful for their support We may not need it but if we do the facility will be ramped up and ready to go Our mission to find and obtained personal protective equipment continues Last week Governor Cooper laid out a requirement for a 30 day supply of PPE to support testing is one of the metrics to meet before we can begin to relax the stay at home order We currently have more than 100 day supply of gloves more than a 60 day supply of surgical mask and more than a 35 day supply of face shields in our warehouses These numbers change daily but the gowns and in 95 mask remained very hard to get and we have less than a week supply of those we have placed orders for more than 10 million gowns and 27 million in 95 mask shipments of about 800,000 in 95 mask are expected in the next week along with a about 25,000 gowns We're continuingly toe work aggressively to source and acquire these items I also want to take this opportunity today to note that over the past 27 days our great partners in the North Carolina wing of the Civil Air Patrol have executed the most extensive ground based mission in their history During the Wings Cove in 19 Mission more than 60 different drivers that put over 40,000 miles on their vehicles making over 500 deliveries of supplies and equipment to every county in the state Almost 100 North Carolina's Civil Air Patrol members have participated in this mission putting in around 303,800 volunteer hours They've also assisted with staffing to North Carolina Emergency Management Field warehouses We give a tip of the wing to our Civil Air Patrol teammates as they continue to work behind the scenes to keep North Carolinians safe We also thank you at home for following the stay at home and social distancing guidelines We ask that you continue to do this Your actions are flattening the curve and keeping this event manageable for the state's medical system You can do this enclosing Don't forget to look out for your friends and neighbors and call your loved ones daily guarantee they'll appreciate it with your help will get through this together is one team one mission and one family Thank you Madam Secretary I turned over to you Thank you so much Director Spray Berry And with that we will turn it over to your questions If you can identify yourself and your news outlet when you ask your question first question are able to get our first question while we're waiting Why don't I say a bit more about what we've done related to long term care information I think folks have known that we've been trying to always strike the balance of transparency and getting good data to folks Um protecting public health Ah and protecting individual privacy It was really important as we go through this unprecedented pandemic to make sure that we're coming back to revisit policies That's why today we're moving forward with releasing additional information We want to make sure that that information is standardized We saw a patchwork quilt of of information released across the state We hope this will be helpful to folks as we go forward Let's try again for our question The first question is from Michael Highland's with CBS 17 Great Okay Michael their first that you're able to hear me Okay way we can hear you now Go ahead How great Thank you Wanted to follow up on the additional information that came out today regarding the uh nursing and rehabilitation centres Will this prompt you all to take any further action regarding any kind of requirements that these facilities must take now that we're all publicly seeing all of this information And then secondly you also plan to release information regarding outbreaks at any food processing facilities especially now that we're seeing concerns about the supply chain there Thanks The question Michael So obviously we have we have known about the outbreaks we've been sharing the county uhm and the the outbreaks eso we've been putting together guidance to to date that have reflected our understanding of of the virus spreading to our long term care facilities Obviously we've been very concerned from the beginning about um our ability to keep the virus out or won it once it in one of our nursing homes or other ah congregate living settings We know that this virus moves quickly We've put a lot of aggressive work in place and in fact I got a number of phone calls over the last week from colleagues around the country asking for our guidance and our tool kit that we can share with others which is great We're always happy um to be sharing the information that we have put together for our facilities obviously continue to work with the federal government for additional guidelines we're going to continue to assess This is always going to be a new evolving situation There may be new things we learn about infection control or how we should go about things And we're always gonna continue to try to update and incorporate those things into our our work going forward And as far as other data work we're going to continue to be as transparent as we can to put data up making sure we're balancing accuracy of that information Um with the with getting that information out to the public So stay tuned We hope to have more data all the time posted on our on our website Next question But our next question is from Chandler Morgan with wbtv I was a Tanner Morgan from W B T B So could you explain a little bit more on if North Carolina is prepared or doing any things in terms of outbreaks and food supply and chain interruption when it comes to these uh for these local farmers in the animal's ability specifically did you speak more Too bad Sure thanks Chandler says You know the food processing industry is highly regulated by our Department of Agriculture They already have a lot of rules around protocols that they they put in place our team in public health both at the local level and the state level has been involved to help them put in in place Um some of the appropriate guidelines to continue to protect their workers as they go through this As you know these are essential businesses They're important to our food chain We want to make sure that that they're able to keep running And that's why our teams have been working together to make sure that they're following guidelines I've spoken to many of the leaders of these organizations myself just to make sure they feel supported by our teams But many are are doing all of the guidance and had been because they had learned lessons in other states that they were actually able to bring here to North Carolina So it's been a collaborative process We've done a lot of testing on site for these plans That again that is a collaboration between our local public health department and some of our federally qualified health centers or other hospital systems Just to make sure that they're supported because these businesses are so important to our food chain Um and to making sure that we are protecting our workers around the state Thank you Our next question is from Tyler Harden and B E T I t v and you burn Yes Good afternoon Secretary Mrs Tyler Hardin with the least et I news channel 12 I just want to ask you about the situation with Biden Health and the more than 120 incorrect lab results into you all What Explain exactly how this happened on your end and then what officials are doing to prevent this from happening again Thanks Tyler for that question Yes it once on Saturday Vita and two returned They submit lab results to us Elektronik Lee Our team noticed that all of those tests were positive Um and rightly picked up the phone and called to confirm and it was identified that the that was not correct Invited immediately corrected the information It is important to note that the patients and the doctors got the right results So there were no patients who were told that they had a positive result when there was supposed to be negative So that's a good thing This is just about reporting data from bite into the state quickly identified They fixed that problem and we've been able to correct it on make sure doesn't happen I think this was the you know the process Working as it does our team is constantly doing quality assurance off the data when some something doesn't quite ah add up we pick up the phone and try to make sure that we understand it and that the information is this high qualities we can put out that we're always trying to check the accuracy of that as we go forward Thanks Our next question is from Travis Spain with W r E o Thank you Trump staying here with Debbie R E l So we don't really know about seasonality with the virus at this point Uh and as we're kind of heading it through these reopening phases there's no real guarantee I don't think that we won't see another spike in cases So what is the difference between starting the reopening in a few weeks versus starting it Now if things are trending down due to social distancing won't train back up when we ease those restrictions regardless of when we do it Thanks to question Travis you know what we think We were trying to take the guidance that came out of the White House that does um ah recommend to in order to restart the phases of reopening it wants to see trends downward Um and so now we are in a different position in North Carolina as I talked about last week Um and that's we have not seen a spike or a surge and thus may not see the same kind of decline that maybe other states would see And that's why we've said we're going to make a modification to those White House guidance So we're not going to just wait for a decline We may see a sustained leveling and now we're just at the beginning of that leveling I do want to see a sustained period of time where we can say things are level and not continuing to go up What we don't want to see is cases go up our surveillance system indicating Cove it is going up Um so are hospitalizations going rapidly up right that we don't want to see But I think a sustained levelling is is reasonable for North Carolina to consider as we think about reopening but we need to see that sustained period of time And I think looking at our data this week and next week will allow us to understand Are we in that time period where we're seeing that sustain leveling war Was it just a few days Um and then we see a trend either up or down Down would be preferable Um and then we would want to see that downward trend for us to move forward And what I would say is the better position North Carolina is when we reopen the more likely we are to be successful moving through the phases If we reopen when we might be in the midst of an upswing we actually put ourselves at more risk of being needing to come all the way back and potentially need to go back Teoh stay at home again and that's what we're trying to prevent We want to move through these phases and we want to move through them quickly And so we're trying to do it in the best data driven approach that we can but one that also allows us to move through those phases and not have to revert backwards on your point around seasonality I think that is right We do not know if there is going to be a decline in this virus over the summer I think we all hope that there will be a decline And that would be wonderful if we can coincide a decline in the activity of the virus when we are ramping up our opening of things that will be that we wonderful though Obviously we can't plan for that That is our our hope But we have never seen this virus make it through a a a full uh annual cycle yet And so we're going to stay looking at the numbers and um focused on the trends that we laid out last week Thank you The next question is from Michael Falero with W f A He has had a secretary Cohen Michael forward to the S E question about the contact tracing effort with the partnership you just announced What is the timeline to get to the goal of 500 just clarify that up from the 2 50 in public staff But the state has already thanks Michael for that question yes So we're starting already ahead of where other states are We have 250 folks who are working on this work throughout our local health departments We actually did a survey of our local health departments to understand um where they needed additional capacity And the good news is that 70% of them already felt like they were able to handle the workload with their current staff And that's good thing Um and so what we are are looking at is wanting to build up another 250 at least over the course of the month of May So we want to bring folks on starting today right So we're asking for folks to t two if they're interested in potentially taking on a role as ah contact tracer of their detail oriented and have work experience with their community We encourage them to go to the community care of North Carolina website and check in and see if there is Ah there is a ability for them to apply for the job today So I encourage folks to go look that look at that and then over the course of May we will be hiring up to 250 new folks and then we will have to see where we are Obviously we're going to continue to adjust to the needs of North Carolina If we see that we are having hot spots in some of our places in in the state and we need more workers we obviously will Will will expand it That's how we've set up this partnership for it to be flexible to the needs of of our state as we go forward here Thank you The next question is Kate Martin from Carolina Public Hi Secretary Cohen This was Kate Martin with Carolina Public presses might actually be a question for Mike Spray Berry but I'm wondering what the reality is of obtaining the PPE that we need to actually reopen the state because that's one of the metrics that I believe you All said we needed was a 30 day supply The website says the state has zero days worth of gowns on hand and about a week's worth of N 95 respirators I guess you know what What are you hearing about the future availability of these products And when do you expect the state will actually have 30 days worth of all of the PP that we need Thanks for that question Kate I'm gonna turn it over to directors bravery and then I'd be happy to share as well Thanks Kate And so we're continuing as I mentioned to aggressively purchase PPE And as I said Well you have Ah great shorter's of gowns And in 95 although we do expect to have ah Maurin 90 fives in this week and some gowns coming in as well So I think what we're seeing is the supply chain begin to open up a little bit and we're getting more and mawr supplies of PPE in um throughout really every day And so we're going to continue buying just like we have been We've got more Resource is now we're working very closely with There are some more purchasers that we got from our DHHS partners to help a source And so we're looking at doing some long long term contracts and also we're seeing more vendors come into play as well So we think that probably over the next 4 to 6 weeks we're going to see um our ability to source more peopie eat Teoh be better So we're headed in the right direction Thank great And Kate if I could add just a note to say that as we look at whether it's the four trend metrics or some of our capabilities there things we have to look at together as a package eso it we It was not one thing in isolation so it won't be if we don't have 30 day supply of gowns Does that mean the whole plan is off And what I would say that is not accurate We have to look at it in totality It is a factor right We need gowns in order to do a lot of the work are particularly are health care workers need to dio um and as we think about ramping up testing so PP is certainly a major component But again we have to look at all of these factors as a total package and then we have to also take into account There's a lot of inputs that go into the decision understanding where things are with the business community The governor is going to continue to take in all of that input So again this this has to be a a broad way of thinking about it But we wanted to be transparent with you So you knew what we were looking at every day in trump terms of assessing where we are as a state in terms of our ability to have the PP we needed or not Our next question is from Alex Chabad with WCNC TV My secretary Cohen Italics Robot WCNC Charlotte I just wanted to see what you think the most important steps a nursing home should be taking once they've identified an outbreak And what resource is that Is the state providing or guidance Is the state offering to those nursing homes that have had an outbreak thanks to the question Alex So first we should make sure that all workers in and out are wearing masks at all times again We know that the virus is likely getting into the um into a nursing home because ah worker may have asymptomatic being asymptomatic carrier The other thing is then to test right We wanted not just test the patients with symptoms but also test patients that may have come into contact with one of the workers who is now positive And so where possible to even test the entire facility So I think testing and tracing just like it would be for our community I'm testing and tracing is really important So PPE testing in tracing and then isolation that there are protocols that we put in place to make sure that we're separating the folks who are Cove in 19 positive from those who aren't to have staff work just with cove in 19 patients and not go between cove in 19 patients and not to their number of ah guidelines that we have put out We've worked closely with the nursing home associations and others on these guidelines there set out in our tool kit that is on our website Um and so those are the kinds of things if we hear of a new outbreak and again outbreak is just two or more cases we want to jump on that quickly We have our local health departments work closely Um with these nursing homes helped them through the guidance Um and make sure that they they understand how to do these best practices so that we can We can control the spread of the virus Thank you Our last question today will be Richard Craver from the Winston Salem Journal Yes this is Victory crab with Sadam capital I was We've had a significant increase of the last few days side county in cases including 25 inside of the Sunday Now I want to see you're looking for down with friend But is there a period or the point where you have to take to reset that um a 14 day period basically back to square one if you do have a significant number of cases Hi Richard Thanks for that question And so I think at a little trouble hearing But I think what you said is that there's been an increase in number of cases in a particular county And does that mean they kind of go back and re set on the 14 day period Um and so one of the reasons we're trying to look at a state wide is because you know things in counties bounce around pretty quickly They go up a couple of cases maybe 10 20 cases and then we see for a couple days Maybe they don't have any And so at the county level there's so much variation That's why it's really hard to make any of these decisions about reopening at the county level Um And that's why we are looking to these um trends at a statewide perspective that that gives us the ability to say Here's the floor we're going to set for the state It speaks to the your question of if we trend the wrong way would we have to make different decisions And I think the answer is yes We need to be driven by the data and what the science is telling us here I hope that that won't be the case I think we've done an excellent job in North Carolina of staying at home and really slowing the spread of the virus I know that we can keep those trends going What we not only want to do is is is um you know follow the data and open at the right times but we want to make sure that we're simulating ah low amount of viral spread so we want to simulate the kinds of activities that would would keep the virus from spreading So it's all the things we keep talking about but that are so important about the social distancing about hand washing using face covering if you can't be ah six feet apart all those things are going to continue to be really important Use physical barriers between you know a cashier in yourself if that is part of your business So those are the kinds of guidance that our team is working with the business community with restaurant tours with others on right now to say How do we open Not just at the right time but open in the in the in the safest way possible so that we can simulate this low level of viral spread and keep it that way because we know this virus is going to be with us It's going to be with us until we have a vaccine And so how how do we live and work and play with this virus amongst us but still protect the people of North Carolina There is a way to do that If we can follow these good guidance weaken both reopen the state and we can make sure this virus doesn't spread But it's going to take a lot of work for us to do that together And that's what's what's ahead of us over the next number of weeks All right with that thanks for all you're doing to stay home right now to slow the spread of the virus Remember the better we can do right now sets us up for a phased reopening in the month of May So thanks for staying home to save lives And we'll be back with you again tomorrow Thank you