Good afternoon everyone Uh happy Earth Day I'm joined by the woman on my right Who needs no introduction The Commissioner of the Department of Health Judy Persa Kelly to her right Someone else who does not need an introduction are states epidemiologist Dr Christina Tan Thank you for being with us ladies and a guy to my left To not Does not need an introduction The Superintendent of State Police Colonel Pat Callaghan Pat Thank you Structure The Office of Homeland Security Preparedness Jared Maples is with us Is paramount here Gonna put an A P B out for parallel ficken Find him Judy and Pat and I among others were honored to be joined earlier today by commanding General Lieutenant General Todd Sema night of the U S Army Corps of Engineers to tour the new bed spaces being constructed at East Orange which you could see here East Orange General Hospital and at Newbridge Medical Center in Paramus You see that Paramus set up and the Army Corps is proved providing tremendous assistance at both And I just want to just give a huge shout out to the core General seven night who you have seen white house briefings Uh we've spoken before about Major General Jeff Bellhorn who is in charge of the region in which New Jersey Sets and Lieutenant Colonel Dave Park who's in the Philadelphia branch Uh and has been leading the efforts to build art our capacity Um and truly remarkable I think we'd all agree with that right folks including the field the three field medical stations and in these two instances expanding and establishing in fact wards in areas that didn't have rooms before In fact one of the floors we toured in East Orange was a former sort of general Ah workout room on and you'd never know it today uh on a lot of lot of beds 250 beds were added in East Orange We toward 30 at Newbridge but they're gonna put another 100 in operation in intense I think as early as next week or two weeks from now So that's another 130 on top of 2 50 That's 380 beds Uh will come back to that capacity question in a minute Let's get as we've been doing lately to the numbers early on today we're announcing 3551 new positive test results pushing our to state totals to 95,865 And sadly with the heaviest of hearts this does not get any easier We must also report that 314 additional blessed souls were lost Since we last we're with you Meaning that a total of over 5000 now 5000 and 63 of our fellow New Jerseyans have passed due to covet 19 related complications I said since we were last with you I don't mean that literally We're reporting that however on additional 314 deaths since yesterday we continue to see the look that the curve of new covert 19 cases remains significantly flat and you could see that But again while we consider this a positive step in our fight we're not even close to even considering claiming victory We need this curve to meaningfully start to decline in to do so over a sustained period of time before we can begin considering the implementation of any sort of a reopening strategy And remember this question of this chart pardon me is the number of confirmed positive cases this begs a question as to what element of the total denominator What part of all of us in this state who may be infected are reflected in these numbers again the numbers air now almost 96,000 we must keep our strong social distancing policies in place This will can continue to be the case for the next several weeks at least And by the way will show you in a minute It's working so thank you Keep it up because it is working All of you have taken the steps to heart and are being models for your communities in practising social distancing And those are the reasons we could see progress now on this map And here we go Now don't be alarmed I know the first thought is Well wait a minute We're back Slid It turns out the shading is different because the colors have been changed to reflect longer doubling times and again this is the amount of days it takes to double the rate of infection by county And as of yesterday we had gotten to the point where we couldn't show you any more new once in the colors across counties and today we can So what you see here is in 14 of our counties in that shown in the light sort of pale orange the rate has slowed two doubling that is to between 14 and 30 days And then it is that the darker orange is 7 to 14 days in the seven counties that are slightly darker This matches the progression of covert 19 we anticipated And I think Judy and Pat we spoke about yesterday in which we're seeing we need to push like never before to get every county to be the lightest possible shade And as we mentioned yesterday the progression of field medical stations Secaucus Edison Atlantic City was not by accident It was to it in fact sync up as best we could plan with the reality In terms of the cases as of 10:30 p.m. Last night there were 7210 residents hospitalized for Cove in 19 of whom 1983 require either critical or intensive care There are 1570 ventilators in use and Judy will give you more color on all of this and our field Medical stations are treating 84 patients I think largely Judy and step down of circumstances But you get into that importantly for the 24 hours preceding 10 p.m. Last night our hospitals recorded 745 discharges Now putting these numbers into context let's turn toe three more graphs First the overall number of patients in critical or intensive care remained stable as does the number of ventilators in use As I noted yesterday we need these numbers to begin to decrease before we can move to our next phase But not seeing any significant increases over the past week I think Judy and Christina would agree is a good starting point New hospitalizations dropped yesterday but that just means we had good news for one day in a row Let's hope it stays that way We also need to see this number begin a sustained decrease This is and will remain perhaps our most important measure of progress as the rate of new hospitalizations has a direct correlation to the number of new positive test results And finally we see the number of discharges versus the number of new admittance is today the lines are intersecting again with more discharges then admittance is And that's a good thing These last three charts are all very real numbers They're not estimates or abstract This is the reality that are 71 Hospitals are living right now have come back to the point several times in the past several days This data is invaluable to us because it measures in real terms the ability of our health care system to be able to get ahead of Cove in 19 and then to stay ahead of it And again I want to come back to positive test results And again the women to my right have for gotten more than I'll ever know We're testing I think were the fourth highest tested state in America We are testing Mawr and Mawr each and every day But it is not a definitive answer as to the question and no one knows this right now How many folks in total may be infected We don't know that we can guess but we don't know that we know to the person how many people are hospitalized How many people are in the I C U how maney ventilators air in use and sadly hum How many people are passing because of Cove in 19 those air the hard fast realistic in a time sadly all too often grim numbers Those are really those air riel And that's the basis upon which Judy and team make a lot of the decisions And we do is we look forward to see where this is going to take us as we look toward for instance a reopening strategy which we're working on finalizing now One of the first things we need to be prepared for is the spike in new cases that will surely come When we do reopen we will continue to be data driven as we prepare for what's to come Our number one mission remains unchanged to save lives period So this data isn't just invaluable in letting us and you know where things are today It's also invaluable in telling us where we're headed in the future However as I noted that future will come with fewer members of our New Jersey family with us and we mourn with everyone who has lost a loved one due to cove it 19 I'd like to remember three more of those we've lost John Karachi A There's John He was born in New York City but called the Ford section of Woodbridge Township home for the past 40 years For three decades John worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at Newark Airport and the World Trade Center retiring his operations supervisor in human services Since his retirement he remained active and was serving as the chief of the Woodbridge Township ambulance and rescue squad John was also active in the life of ST James Roman Catholic Church in Woodbridge He's being remembered by his family friends and colleagues as Quote a leader teacher and mentor John was 74 years old He leaves behind a big incredible family two daughters Tony and Roseanne in a son John with whom I had the honor of speaking yesterday afternoon and it turned their families He was blessed with 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren He is also survived by Sister Pattern her family and his former wife Rosanne and we keep all of them in our thoughts and prayers God bless you John The next one guy is known to many Kevin Cardella Kevin was born in New York Ah high school football standout at East Side High earning all county all city and all state honors He turned down the opportunity to go elsewhere for college ball and attended Rutgers University And in his four years the Scarlet Knights would go 32 13 and Kevin Water on her ticket to the Rutgers Hall of Fame He was an undrafted sign e with the New York football giants in 1981 But injuries shelved his NFL career and Kevin went toe work with the production team at the Star Ledger And according to one former colleague he never missed a day of work He leaves his wife of 35 years Lynn of wife of 35 years Lin with whom I spoke yesterday and and you could only imagine in his daughter's Jennifer and Samantha And they're all there before us among so many others His daughter Jennifer summed up her dad this way and I quote her His laughter integrity and entire presence were larger than life and he will be deeply missed God bless you Kevin retired Paterson fire captain and member of Wayne Fire Company number three John Farrell Ola John Farrah Rela I was by the way I asked this family I want to make sure I get this pronunciation right and they said Think Cinderella S O Farrell rela John There he is right there He was 70 years old when we lost him one week ago A Paterson native he had called Wayne home for the past 20 years A member of Patterson's John F Kennedy High School Class of 1968 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served our country during the Vietnam War earning an honorable discharge In 1975 he would join the Paterson Fire Department and play a role in developing the city's CMS system and would later service the Mt Basic Programme Coordinator at Passaic County Community College and as an instructor at the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute Right up to the end literally John remained active as an empty for the New Jersey Sports an exposition authority to his wife Patricia with whom again I had the honor of speaking and their three Children John Matthew and Justin and Justin answered the phone and I didn't realize it was just until it was too late So Justin I apologize And their families and loved ones you're all in our thoughts And we thank John for his years of service to our state and to our nation We remember them as we do every person we have lost Two Cove in 19 and our flags remain in half staff In their collective honor and our collective grief We remember them all God bless each and every one of them And let us never ever allow this to become abstract Yes we talk about charts and numbers and models and trends and we must You want us to do that We have to make decisions based on the date of the science The facts as best we can But each and every one of these individuals was an extraordinary precious life lost in our New Jersey family Let us never forget not just the toll in total but the toll by name Each and every one of these individuals God bless them all Turning to a couple of other topics We got a good leadership meeting with our senior staff's last night with Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Coughlin covered a whole range of topics It was a good catch up Meaning would be meeting pretty regularly speaking by phone or meeting regularly over the past number of weeks This morning I spoke with Governor Andrew Cuomo and as we continue both our regional partnership with the seven states and I'll come back to that in a second and our tri state partnership with New York and Connecticut in particular are three states are working on a contact tracing program that includes not just necessary human components but also a technological one as well This discussion I might I might add before we get a lot of questions is in its very early stages But we all recognize that robust contact tracing in addition to that testing protocol is vital to any serious reopening efforts And again New York and Connecticut governors Cuomo and Lemon I want to give them a shout out for consistently being with with us in New Jersey with me personally as we have shut our states down and they'll be with us as we reopened But I mentioned the broader regional council of seven states and again that's New Jersey New York Connecticut but also Pennsylvania Delaware Rhode Island and Massachusetts We established that regional council over the past couple of weeks Each state contributed three members Chiefs of Staff plus two designees We're honored to have Rich Besser and Jay Johnson along with George Hell may be our representatives that regional council just met this morning for the first time So you have been asking me about that They had their maiden meeting this morning And importantly this is really I'll give you one metric to describe how real this is That regional council will meet twice a week for the foreseeable future And in addition of that the chiefs of staff for those seven states are now meeting virtually obviously twice a meat So we need it is as it relates to doing things first and foremost for New Jersey But secondly in coordination with our regional partners and thirdly with a strong robust federal role alongside it every step of the way on testing A list of more than two dozen publicly accessible testing sites is available at Cove in 19 dot NJ dot gov slash testing as you see and there are many more that your primary care practitioner can point you to a swell we have a total now of 86 testing sites statewide As they say we started as a nation with both arms tied behind our backs A fraction of the resource is we needed And we have cobbled it together in New Jersey to become the fourth most tested state in America behind three states that have a lot more people by the way California Florida in New York But we're still not remotely where we need to be or will have to be in order to have that healthcare infrastructure in place and that confidence that we're gonna need to get the state reopen Yesterday the Office of Emergency Management received a shipment of 500 ventilators that the state purchased and those have been inventoried and are now ready for distribution and use by our hospitals We procured these ventilators to ensure to the very best of our ability that every New Jersey and who needs a ventilator has one This is this also however puts us in position to be better prepared for potential spikes as we look to reopen and for spikes that many predict may continue through fall or into winter And I want to take a quick time out here and ad lib And Judy and Christina will correct the record as I'm sure Pat will First of all you've asked on a number of occasions Have you been able to find ventilators other than from the strategic stockpile Um and and or from states that contributed to was And again I want to give California and New York a huge shout out through the strategic stockpile This is the first day I could say definitively there in the house we bought him They're ours and we're not We have to give them back Um and we've been scrapping at this literally every single day So this is an important day importantly though the point that I referred when I looked to Judy on and we discussed this Lieutenant General Sema night And I discussed this specifically this morning and we've discussed it with you and some of our prior sessions Are we gonna need the east orange beds next month I hope not We might but I hope not We're gonna need any of these ventilators over the next weeks or months We may again I hope not We've got a monitor This thing is it's sort of travels through our statement And again this is largely upto us folks The extent to which we keep that map those new colors with those days that it takes to double and those numbers go up in terms of days That means the likelihood of using those beds where those ventilators goes down Ah Newbridge Today we were applauding the extraordinary health care workers who were waving to me in tow us through the windows They need relief from the bullpen The extent to which they'll get that relief not only is dependent on the amount of volunteers over 20 some 1000 at this point Judy right but also up to us if we keep the curve flat the infection stay low Hospitalizations stay low I see you Unit hospitalizations stay low Health demand on our health care Heroic healthcare workers stay low But here's what we're all all also worried about is what if this thing comes back in the folks the experts the to to my right in particular obviously not just Judy but the state's epidemiologist Christina Tan will tell you that this is that sort of virus where the likelihood of it coming back is is pretty high We don't know that But if you look at the h one n one experience if you look at the Spanish influenza experience on this is what I was discussing with Lieutenant General Seminar today is we may need the capacities that we are preparing for whether it's beds ventilators surging in health care workers We may need them even if we do everything right and we get it exactly right we may need this down the road So not only might we need this in the current surge but we may well need it say in the fall or winter of next year And we want to make sure we are as prepared as humanly possible for that eventuality Switching gears Today I will be signing legislation requiring our hospitals to report to the Department of Health Demographic and Racial Data for all individuals who have tested positive for Cove in 19 who have been admitted and who have died as well as the number who have tried to get tested but were unsuccessful This information will include age ethnicity gender and race for each of these individuals The data once we start getting it will be publicly reported daily by the department And we have already updated our online dashboard to reflect this This information will be critical for us to fully understand the impact that Cove in 19 is head on our diverse communities As we could already tell from the preliminary data that the Commissioner reports that this emergency has had an outsized impact on our communities of color I wish to thank explicitly the main sponsors Senator Ron Rice and Assemblyman Ben Benji Wimberly for their sponsorship of this bill They're both dear friends and equally fierce advocates Next as you likely know Congress is preparing for final passage of another cove it 19 support package this one totally nearing nearly $500 billion while we are grateful and we are for the additional relief and assistance that this bill will provide for our small businesses in our hospitals and for the support it will give for building up are testing regimes all of which is good I cannot overlook the fact that it is absent of any direct assistance to the state or any state There is talk that this direct state assistance will be part of the next federal bill But I will not let up in advocating forcefully often directly for this until we see that bill on the president's desk and in fact signed by the president I also cannot be clearer that the choices we will have to make absent federal assistance are dire for our state and our recovery We're dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis that will be followed by an unprecedented fiscal crisis one that experts believe will dwarf the great recession without substantial and direct financial assistance from the federal government Along the lines by the way of what Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Cassidy of Louisiana have proposed in bipartisan legislation the programs that we care deeply about and which we will lean on will be at risk We cannot do this alone We're Fighting Cove in 19 every day on the front lines and have taken unprecedented action to slow its spread We cannot have this fight lead to an an inevitable set of draconian cuts that will hurt our ability to help get our people back up off the mat We need the federal government's help to avoid this fate and by the way This is not just a New Jersey matter This is a near universal reality from my fellow governors Democrats and Republicans alike at the risk of sounding partisan And I'm not saying this to be partisan In fact if the if the words were spoken by a Democrat I would be equally is forceful But I'm John Drug I'm taking a bath move back My breath is taken away I have almost nothing to say to what I read That Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said earlier today that in fact it wouldn't be necessarily a bad idea for states to go bankrupt I'm paraphrasing him but this is in fact what he said It's actually worked out pretty well for some cities over time Really this is the time in the in a moment of crisis unlike any our country has faced in at least 100 years to suggest it's a good thing for states to go bankrupt I would say two things in reaction Ah Senator and I'm not sure you're watching I suspect you're not number one Come on man that is completely and utterly irresponsible There's no level of responsibility associated with that and I don't care what party you're in encouraging engendering explicitly almost hoping for bankruptcies of American states in the midst of the biggest health care crisis this country has ever faced is completely and utterly irresponsible Secondly as usual he's dead wrong Because that won't happen We won't go bankrupt You have my word We won't go bankrupt But you know what will happen We will gut the living daylights in every state in America Out of the service is the exact services that are citizens need Right now We will just cut cut cut and cut We won't go bankrupt Senator But we will leave our citizens in the lurch at at their most profound hour of need We will leave people on the beach alone helpless That is what will happen in New Jersey And I might add Senator without having spoken to your governor that will happen in Kentucky You have my word So watch your words sir This is no time for bankruptcies and wishing bankruptcies This is the time for the federal government And I was encouraged by what President Trump tweeted yesterday And we're gonna hold the federal government to this This is the time to stand up on a bipartisan basis and be there for the states in America not just for the state's sake but for the American people Please God changing gears before I turn things back over the Judy Good luck following that Judy Once again I want to give some shout outs to the people in communities who are coming together to help us all Get through this as one Unlike the irresponsible words that I just referred to overwhelmingly people of all stripes of all parties of all walks of life have come together in our state to do the right thing And God bless you for doing it First I want to recognize New Jersey strong and growing Chinese American community United Chinese Americans has donated more than 10,000 and 95 masks 10,000 surgical masks 80,000 medical gloves 2700 protective goggles and 400 protective gowns for our front line health care workers And I want to give a special shout out toe West Windsor Councilman Yingchao or Y Z Chung who was instrumental in organizing this equipment Dr Hats off to your Y Z from Metuchen Laurie Esa who was behind the camera I I see Lorries taking I apologize I was gonna say that sounded camera She's taking the picture with her mother Law Haifa and her sister in law Amal have put their sewing machines to use to produce cloth face coverings that they're donating to JFK Hospital and throughout the community The three women are spending up to 12 hours a day on this project and so far have made and distributed close to 4000 pieces And just so you know that these are coming from good hands Haifa teaches sewing classes at Edison's machine Awali Right then on several occasions So Lori Haifa and a mile thank you and keep up the great work and not too far down the road in neighbouring Woodbridge 11 friends I think they're all there from Colonia High School abandoned together to create Colonia Cares through their website They're selling yard signs and T shirts with all the proceeds being turned into gift cards from local businesses which are then being donated to a local food bank as well as toe Woodbridge Social Services Now get this They only started on Saturday and I believe today's Wednesday is that correct You okay And already they've sold 500 pieces from their website Wow So the crew at Colonia Cares Harrison Brenly Emily Christie Jordan Derkach me a cruise Hman Carrie Lee shek Nate Memento e Emily Melendez Victor Perot See Antonia Pierce Jack Riley and Jose Riberio We salute you These were just three of the many many good news stories across our state So please continue sharing them with every new Jerseyan through our social media Hashtag n j Thanks you Finally one last plug I encourage everyone to tune in at seven PM tonight for the Jersey for Jersey fundraiser for the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund As I said Jersey for Jersey will feature some of our states global talents and I mean global Bruce Springsteen Jon Bon Jovi Tony Bennett Jon Stewart Whoopi Goldberg Charlie Poof CISA Danny DeVito Halsey Chris Rock Kelly Ripa Chelsea Handler and say Kwan Barkley among others But I'm also touched to mention that the surviving members of Fountains of Wayne will be performing with Sharon Van Etten herself by the way a Belleville native and graduate of North 100 regional high School in a special tribute to ban co founder and Montclair Ian Adam Schlessinger who we lost Two Cove in 19 It will all be broadcast live on I think virtually every single local television station and on radios up and down the state in streamed online And the best part is 100% of the proceeds will go to help those impacted by Cove in 19 And by the way while I'm at it another way to support New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund is tonight's nine PM jersey Take over on H Q Trivia featuring Onley in New Jersey trivia questions Pat get ready So download the APP and play along for every player during the jersey take over $1 will be donated to the fund so everybody tune in seven PM for the extraordinary fundraiser and nine PM for H Q trivia And before I turn things over to Judy Person Kelly in a very small way been in a very specific way Not only do we talk about discharges but people who had it got sick and got better Or folks who had mild symptoms on who get back in the saddle and are able to pick themselves up It is a particular treat for me that our general counsel matte black in is back in the house with us today With that please help me welcome the person who needs no introduction The Commissioner of the Department of Health Judy Person Kelly Thank you Governor Good afternoon As the governor shared today we visited two additional alternative care sites See Starnes General and Newbridge Medical Center Those sites will help alleviate pressures on our hospitals Last night I'm pleased to report that the Secaucus Field Medical Station that was the first site that we put up ah served its 2/100 patient to date they've discharged 135 of those individuals that have been at the site They are recovered individuals All of them had Cove in 19 I want to thank all the staff there and those working at the other sites They're providing a tremendous service not only to patients and to the hospitals right now but we are convinced that we will need them in the fall as well Today's report our hospitals reported 7210 hospitalizations last night remaining flat with the prior 34 days There are 1983 individuals in critical care and 1570 of those individuals or are on ventilators That is 79% of the ice you patients are on ventilators That is the lowest percentage we have had in over four weeks Six hospitals reported that they were on divert last evening Four of them were in the central region And as I shared yesterday and the day before we're seeing the increase in the cases in the central region and a flattening of the cases in the northern region I resist yesterday about the map What what are regions where they entail Ah the northern region in includes the following counties Sussex Passaic Bergen Warren as six Union Mars and 100 in the central region is Somerset Middlesex Mercer Mama and Ocean and the southern region is Burlington Camden Gloucester Salem Atlantic Cumberland and Kim Kate May today were also reporting 3551 new cases for a total of 95,865 positive cases in the state Sadly 314 new deaths are reported today by the department for a total of 5000 and 63 fatalities In New Jersey the breakdown of deaths by race and ethnicity is as follows White 49.3% black 22% Hispanic 17.2% Asian 5.4% Other non Hispanic 6.1% Underlying conditions remain the same Cardiovascular disease It's 59.7% Diabetes mellitus 41.5 other chronic diseases 30.8% Chronic lung disease asthma emphysema COPD 19.9% Chronic renal 15.7 Nora Logic disability 15.3 other 13.7 and cancer 11% I resist the other day about whether we were continuing services for our cancer patients and all of the centers that we contacted have continued to take care of cancer patients for their continuing services and screenings particularly for breast and cervical cancer There are 438 long term care facilities in our state Ah Reporting Cove in 19 cases for a total of 11,608 on 2000 of our cove it 19 deaths 2050 have been reported from these facilities As I reported yesterday we are reconcile ing some of the data This is self reported in many not many Some of the long term care facilities have shared with us that their death reporting seems to be not correct So we are giving them an opportunity to reconcile their reporting That'll go through communicable disease service And we will uh make sure by death certificate that we are counting all of the deaths Appropriately the CMS surveyors are still at and over Uh they will be writing their report and then they post their report once um that the full report is finalized The department continues to work with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veteran Affairs to support their response to the outbreaks that are concerning in our veteran homes 43 staff are on site today at Perama Promise And ah with the additional staff they've received they are reporting that they are adequately staffed Additionally in conversation with the leads that are at the Veterans Association they have identified a need for improved infection control training improvements in the use of PPE Ah they are developing a communication plan for families that needed uh to be short up and they have noticed that the housekeeping products they were running low on housekeeping products and they were not following specifically the CDC Disinfection guidances Um Additionally they found due to the high degree of dementia patients that they had difficulty cohort ing dementia patients that need to be in isolation That is a issue a problem that we have heard from many of our dementia facilities Eso They're working on innovative ways to encourage the patients that need to be in isolation to stay behind closed doors The total senses of all of the homes the veterans homes today is 741 183 of those residents have tested positive and there have been 80 residents that have died uh who were identified as Cove it 19 positive Of the 1331 staff members working on those sites 98 have tested positive There have been no deaths among the staff Um and Cora are one of our psychiatric hospitals is reporting their first death today of a patient from Cove in 19 In terms of the lab reports according to the data from this morning of the labs that are sending us Cove in 19 results Ah 172,612 individuals have been tested 76,818 have returned positive for a positivity rate which is pretty much holding at 44.50% So that completes my daily report asses Also as always I should say I thank you for staying home maintaining social distancing saying connected staying safe and staying healthy Thank you Judy Thank you for that and for everything A couple of quick follow ups Um just County's positive cases the same six continue to be the big ones So in order Bergen Hudson Essex Union Passaic and Middlesex right behind I made this point in our visit patent Judy in uh in Bergen County today at Newbridge Bergen County If you would have put up its fatalities of 876 lives lost would be more than most countries in the world right now So let's not forget the toll And by the way SX literally has now Barely just today eclipsed Bergen's toll So you'd say the same thing about Essex and sadly some of the other counties up there Hudson would be not terribly far behind um race Just to say I'm thrilled that I'm signing that bill It'll allow us It's gonna require the hospitals to report in uh with the regular rhythm with a lot more texture on the not just race clearly but a lot more demographic information And again race has been particular concerning to Judy and me and our teams in the sense again it's explicitly on the fatalities The African American American numbers continue to run consistently 50% higher in the overall representation of the state And I think you began to give us a sense yesterday at least on testing that the Latino numbers were meaningfully higher than the representation of the state which started to square a little bit of that circle that we couldn't figure out between New York City and New Jersey Um may I just add 1.2 The dementia issue My mom was like that in a nursing home She passed sadly in 2000 and eight and so what We lived We lived it But you've not only got and it's not just the veteran somebody you made this point right in so many of these loan term care facilities when you've got a high percentage of blessed souls challenging dementia Alzheimer's etcetera you've got that on a regular day You've got that reality you add then to this virus to the mix Not only do you throw gasoline on a health care fire in terms of underlying conditions but you're operating with a lot less staff than you need because of infections of staff and work self quarantining So that combination is turning out sadly tragically to be a lethal one in a lot of the long term care facilities not just the veterans home So thank you for everything pat over to you with any PP infrastructure capacity updates Yes appliances always Thank you Thanks Governor I'll start with the compliance overnight Norc issued 29 e o violations Metuchen Police Department issued one EO violation and charge somebody with obstruction In Union City two members were cited for operating a supermarket They had 50 plus people inside the store with no social distancing In Plainfield the subject was cited for operating a car dealership claiming to be doing curbside auto sales but in fact had customers inside the building and bridged in ah subject who was harassing citizens for Money was site cited for a violation and arrested and also found to be in possession of a crack pipe subject in Blackwood was cited for four counts of burglary had broken into four vehicles He also was found to be wanted out of Camden County in Lakewood Eight subjects were cited for using a close school in violation of the EO as well as nine members in Lakewood At a separate event were cited for gathering at a wedding Uh one other subject in Lakewood was just cited for causing a disturbance While the police and prosecutor's office was trying Teoh conduct their investigation In Fort Lee a bias harassment charge was made against the subject Who was harassing a Jewish customer within the store In Morris Plane a subject was charged with aggravated attempted aggravated sexual assault for attempting to meet on 11 year old in a park in Morris Plains Just one thing and it sometimes I don't recognize them enough I had my weekly phone call to 21 County Oh am coordinators Uh and there's probably not a day goes by that I don't ask him where the state doesn't ask them to do something and that's from sheltering to distributing PPE to assisting with long term care I think now testing that we're gonna ask them to help us survey the metrics of those 73 sites So I just wanted to recognize them because 24 hours there's there's they always open up their emails and see another request coming from state Oh am on behalf of all of us to try and coordinate this effort and day in and day out All of them step up and do their job to support this effort So I just didn't want today to go by without mentioning them Governor Thank you Amen to that pat And by the way it's a group of folks who I have met virtually overwhelmingly until two months ago based on bad weather This is a group of folks that I would find myself invariably having contact either directly with them on a conference call of which there haven't been many but about on some or more often than not for you in the war room with rock typically dealing with snow ice storms of what not but they've done That's just it Hats off to everybody The a word I would use to describe Judy's team exemplifies this state police the whole of government The word would be nimble In addition toe incredibly long hours incredible professionalism bravery heroism by our health care workers and first responders and other retail longshoremen NJ TRANSIT UPPER What folks who are at the point of attack It's folks who historically we're doing something over here and they find themselves they're doing picked up a new aside uh advocation or profession over there and no one come No one's complaining that just doing it and that this group is a good example of it They weren't in the PP acquisition or distribution business two months ago ever and now they're it's they're up to their eyeballs So if you all could keep this these two just a short handful of questions that would be a a big help for us if you don't mind and John will start with you Have you made changes to the to public testing centers in Bergen and Paramus Bergen Home Del allowing non symptomatic people to get to go there We just hit that one before we go on the answer's no And it turns out whether we wanted to or not We actually need a federal HHS waver because of FEMA's our partner We we may have given an impression of that That was innocently not what the facts are But I will repeat what I said yesterday The entire testing regime with it with an eye down the road toward what it needs to look like for reopening is something that we're reviewing from top to board bottom So sorry I meant to seal Resi answer I meant to say it earlier I forgot So on the nursing homes and the numbers that we're now giving for that Can you talk to the families and some of the residents that see these numbers and say they don't connect with what they're seeing in their homes or some confusion there Can you speak to what people should be taking away from these numbers Um and on hospital discharges where the people going are they going home or they're going to other facilities Are they going to hospice where they're going to hospice in the same hospital systems Senate John bless you Sending a great example Um do we not Dan Ormat Do we have a page up in terms of specific to I don't mean complaints per se but probably complaints as it relates to a long term care Have we added that feature to the website We're working We're working on that May I just say That's one thing I've been meaning to say for a couple of days Just let's accelerate that if we could we wanted one place for folks to be able to go to Judy and I have talked about that and we we we want to get that up Um in that partly and partly answers where I would hope folks could go But But there is a this Judy There's no question there's an unevenness and that will be charitable charitable of communication toe love ones Next of kin about the state of play with were we've heard far too many stories right Didn't I called and no one picked up right Didn't I asked It didn't get an answer and some play with some some operators air doing the right thing and playing ball But some still are not And it's extremely not just frustrating for us but it's crushing for ah love one But Judy please First on the discharge disposition I do not have statistics on that uh except for the ones that come to the field medical services But we can probably get that work with hospital association because every discharge every patient that leaves the hospital discharge disposition has to go on their chart So we might be able to get that for you That would include to some of the step down We'll be stepped down Skilled nursing nursing home skilled nursing rehab hospice all of the ones that you identify John So it's a good question We just have to see where we can get that information because it is collected as's faras the data on long term care What we're hearing is that there was a um it was ah problem with addition Positive employees were also counted with positive residents so the number look tire And then there was a suggestion that that happened with the mortalities Who's well we really have to sort through that because we do not have a significant reporting of employees mortalities So there That's that's where I have heard the issues being would Tina has been all over this as well but we will reconcile it But directionally I've said it yesterday I'll say it again today It's it's in the It's correct Judy let me ask you I have a friend whose sister just got out A health care worker She went straight home but she's got intensive physical therapy A nurse's aide How how would we characterize that Would you would you characterize that as having gone home Where would you characterize that as a different Discharged with community How communities are saying Because that's the case I assume for some But why would that most people are when they recover If they have been a nice to you if they have been on a ventilator usually needs some follow up care and we're looking at that pretty critically Um because the damage to the lungs and the kidneys seem to be ah more than was originally expected So we have checked with the renal dialysis centers to make sure that they have adequate PPE to determine whether they're seeing a significant increase in the patients that they're seeing And they shared with us two days ago that things are pretty cool there They have not reported any significant uptick or issues but we're keeping a close eye on that This is one thing that I know a lot of folks out there are living this I asked my friend what How would you describe her And he said Incredibly weak incredibly weak And we're keeping an eye on oxygenation That's the That's the The lungs were getting affected It za Covic pneumonia and that post hospital care is going to be as important as in hospital John your questions lead The A very good point is that you don't Very few people are walking out scot free skipping out of the hospital right You've been nicked up here Thank you Hey man Hi Stephanie Phoning from tapping to Born again Where Town Well I'm 70 Sorry What happened to born to get where Tim Ah Ah Lot of people ask questions about recoveries There are some that are thinking the recovery number is confirmed cases versus deaths And obviously we know that's not the case I read the CDC definition and part of it seems to have to do with swabs uh to negative swabs after Is that part of the issue Why we're not reporting recoveries because we don't have enough swaps to do that Or and any ulcers know that Thank you for that We'll go We'll go back Thank you for that Judy or Christina You talk about swabs No Um so the definition of recovered is actually a very squishy term In general there isn't a case definition case definition for recovered and that's actually something that CDC might be looking at to standardize because it's the commissioner has mentioned previous weeks Whenever we get this question it's really um you know how exactly would you define that You know we have many individuals who are never hospitalized You know what the reference related to the swabs relates Teoh potential strategies to consider discontinuing isolation They're two different strategies a test based versus a non test based strategy And that's you know more for the purpose of releasing individuals from isolation from a health care facility I'll give you mad if you could move one way or the other matte black and I won't put you on the spot But you're good Good example of this in the sense that it was both If you don't mind both a number of days but also rigor and taking Getting too negative tests Is that fair to say Uh that's correct Yep So that would back Thank you for that Good to have you back by the way sir Hello Governor I have run from John Mooney and NJ Spotlight He said your administration reported at the start of this that more than 100,000 students were without necessary technology for remote instruction Do you have an update on that figure And either way what can you say with confidence about the situation in schools regarding technology access and concerns that large numbers of students still don't have the same educational opportunities their peers I said it Thank you for that thing I think that was from John Um is John okay by the way Okay because John was here is a regular John was here every day till we close the schools I haven't seen him since it occurred to me the other day Um so I think we need in fairness I need to get back to you in terms of ah more data driven Answer Dan can you help me out there I want to go to the department of education So the standard answer First of all it's very hard to bat 1000 Anyone who was a kid right now who's remote learning is living that uh and it depends also on the age of the kid in the grade that they're in in terms of the relative richness of the experience But the standard concern that we had that we spoke to again remember Food security was a big one Secondly was access to devices per John's question And so there was a paper heavy answer to that in the districts where we had a disproportionate amount of kids who didn't have access to devices And I know it was raised in Trenton at least early days There was unevenness in that respect and the answer to that was pre printing packages I think they said every 30 days as I recall pre printing to get these packages to the kids That's the that's the generic answer That's the hope for answer that that's working I think for the most part it is But if you could bear with us or get tell John to bear with us it will have someone give you an update on it Thank you You're good in the back You good sir Day we're down to you in the front here Well im that's coming around here Um let's see Could you clarify for us Governor the to FEMA sites are not now testing asymptomatic people But is that the plan Do you feel that's important You know it was interesting you mentioned for the first time yesterday I believe that um we will need to test asymptomatic people and that's part of the whole relook at at the testing So how significant is that Um beyond the reopening which is Everybody of course is sort of excited about that idea And of course we know it's weeks away but could you talk a little more about the spikes in the future Because um you know that obviously is a concern even beyond the reopening And um will we continue to maintain the field hospitals What kind of future do you envision And then on the comments by Mitch McConnell How do you really feel Governor Um any further comments that you'd like to make with regard to the president's ah position on this and why you feel it's un American to take the kind of position apparently that Senator McConnell has taken Okay Is that it Um I mean if I get this wrong I'm gonna say a couple things and internal have you answer the Mitch McConnell question Judy Um I have no words Um the two FEMA sites uh bye bye Direction from HHS are for symptomatic folks Um and that that is a fact And I think we need to get a waiver Madam I right if we pursue that otherwise I think probably mawr And that will continue to be the case And so that therefore the number and Kristina could give you the how she analyzes this the overwhelming number of of of tests that we've done Which is why the positives Judy's referred to which is really stabilized by the way In fact that even went down a couple of 10th of a percent in 44 a half percent at this point is overwhelmingly of symptomatic people So the technical answer is it's got to stay symptomatic They have ah strong edict that asymptomatic folks have to step aside Let's symptomatic folks get in and get tested And we've been sympathetic and supportive to that But having said that and again this is where Kristina will need to come in and correct the record Um we have to be able to test a broader population not just symptomatic folks and it needs to be a rapid return test So it's not just its two dimensions It's not just the amount of tests you're doing it's getting them back a lot faster Then historically we've been able to get them back by the way not just in New Jersey anywhere in the country I let Kristina and and Judy come in on that spikes in the future again I think we will again I'll let the science should be the guide but that that relates to your field hospital question As I mentioned earlier Even if we bat 1000 based on everything I've been told that we've looked at the chances are likely if not highly likely this comes back again So what are we going to do to make sure that we're prepared for that and having those capacities of ventilators Per today's news and pat Thank you for the lift there hospital beds and getting HHS to grant us the money that we need to keep that fresh whether it's a field medical station you know in General Sema Night said to me today Javits If you get the economy back up and running it may be hard to keep Javits or the exposition center in the metal lands completely field If you've got finally on economy getting back on its feet we may have to weave a want to But you certainly could do that in East Orange General which is what we saw today which is a single purpose health care facility Again I let the folks who the experts come in but our hope is a We don't need this capacity in the near term although we've got it if we do need it But as importantly we have it for the medium or longer term and I don't think I called him on American Um if I did I'm not sure I take it back but uh I don't think I call that It's just completely irresponsible and it's not how it will play out It's what I've said is in the other thing is and by the way I'm not on the ballot This year But a lot of people are I might add including him You're not only gonna leave people on the street in the lurch with no services you're gonna probably double unemployment in the country Because the only reason unemployment is a double what it is is because for the most part state and municipal workers by the way we need government more than ever before This just in for a little headline Look at the amount of people who are laying it out every day Department of Health State Police These folks could not be working harder if they tried How about Department of Labor Trying to feel all these unemployment uh claims requests just to pick several examples So in addition toe leaving people in the lurch you're gonna double unemployment and that number is off the top my head But I'm probably about right for that The last thing we should be doing is leaving States in the lurch The good news again I he tweeted this yesterday and I take him on its word and I had a private conversation a private confirmation rather not with me although I raised it with the president as well and he didn't say no toe It is I believe the president is in a better place on this and he's gonna have to be because it's not optional The states if we are going to continue to serve folks who are unemployed small businesses that air bust folks who are sick or God forbid dying there's no other way around that We have got to be there for them and the federal government has got to give us the wherewithal to allow us to continue to do that Um on the non McConnell related stuff Judy or Christina um the famous sites and or pat spikes in the future testing a symptomatic folks Christina etcetera related to the asymptomatic testing as we've always been saying for the last four weeks that there's always some limitations with the asymptomatic testing because of the issue of potentially not capturing a Nen vivid jewel you know when they might be potentially incubating the illness But that said you know we are thinking about where opportunities where testing might be valuable in expanded setting So for example the efforts with the long term care facilities in the South might represent an opportunity where those testing results especially in those less impacted facilities actually might make a difference because ultimately you know it all ties back to everybody's focus on the testing But it's what you do with the information and what you do with the information so that you can take action on it And that's actually get the approach that we're taking you know down in the South is something that also you know from a national level that you know many other less impacted areas Less impacted long term care facilities are looking at a stopper to Nitties arise And as far as you know spikes and illness are concerned you know we tend to look at trends We don't look at the data day per se because you know we recognize that there always You know there could be some dramatic artifacts in the day to day uh data because for example there might be a weekend or a holiday that might be involved It might delay some reporting So you know we that's why we monitor for respiratory viral illnesses just in general In normal times in pre Kobe times we would monitor that all year around just to make sure that we have an understanding of what that baseline is and we would expect to continue to do that moving forward in the future as well Thank you Do you want anything Judy You're good a dam Brian just reminds me But job back to your question although I still want to add the page at Cove in 19 Done injury duck up If you're grew that Ah long term care facility complaints you could go on NJ dot gov slash health NJ dot gov slash health That's our basic health website or the hotline is 1 807 9297701 807 929770 That will still be available even if we do add a page here But I'd like to add a page if we could hear Thank you for that Let's go toe Elise Then we'll go back and come to madam will wrap it up at least Good afternoon Thanks Dave Good afternoon Speaking of unemployment all of my questions are related to the unemployment system Can you update us on claims processing Have there been improvements to the bottlenecks Have you hired programmers Do you have any stats on how Maney claims air waiting to be processed And a reader sent me a question about the pandemic unemployment assistance for self employed independent contractors He says he applied on March 29 and he hasn't received payment yet And is there any particular tie up with that program And that's it OK I think we're gonna probably have to come back to you on some of the stand Will you help me out with this Um but there has clearly been improvement And if you're still on the phone and you can't get through where you're trying to log on and you can't get in and you're frustrated I don't blame you so just because the general numbers air better but they are better There's no question about it Um I had either in this forum or in the meeting the leadership meeting Matt I recalled a couple things One is they had been through 60% of the claims as of Monday and hoped to be a 80% by Friday Is that sound about right We'll come back to you if that's different Um programmers I believe that they have augmented their team But I'll confirm that with you um numbers waiting to be processed I don't have that number but that's related to whether or not I'm right about the 60 versus 80 And I think I'm approximately right I may be off by the day or two And we heard explicitly uh yesterday that independent contractors and I'm not sure I understand why and I will give you will get you an answer is a particular challenge And I don't have a good answer as to why it is But it is a matter of any color of that We'll get you the answer of the lease Yeah I don't know I'm not sure I understand why but that is a particular challenge for the system as opposed to the product issue Will you make sure we come back to lease Thank you sir Kyle Here Governor Thank you again Um so leader McConnell tweeted going back to him I'm proud of Congress's bipartisan agreement I'm just sorry that Democrats shut down emergency support for Main Street in a search for partisan in quotes leverage that never materialized So there is this back and forth from Democrats and Republicans So I wanted to get your reaction to that Also are you committed to working with him on any legislation or on anything going forward after you made those comments And what if his reaction to you is negative in terms of what you said in this briefing Thanks so much My pleasure Hard to know how they could get more negative So I'm not really this asymmetry here in my risk appetite right now it's hard to go lower than we're going lower If he's implying he wants to bankrupt states we have We are constantly open And I said this today I said it yesterday Look at Senator Menendez hooking up with Senator Cassidy in Louisiana I'm not sure how often they hook up to co sponsor bipartisan legislation My guess is it's not every day and it's a big step and it's a big statement and I think most folks have said responsible things and they've left their partisan affiliations at the door Which is why I said I would be saying this about his statement whether he was a Democrat or Republican on Martian communist Whatever it is it's irresponsible and it's wrong Would I be willing Teoh work with him 100% What would that look like $500 billion Direct state assistance from the federal government Two states measured in the formulas in the right way Six That New Jersey gets its fair share I will work 24 7 with him or anybody else to get that passed and signed by the president Thank you that Hey Governor we continue to hear from nursing home workers and administrators who say the state data released this week on the number of those who have died or tested positive for Cova does not present on accurate picture What earlier Commissioner addressed the issue briefly yesterday Does the department know yet Excuse me Know why there have been so many discrepancies in the reporting and has it been resolved as a matter been resolved Going forward Curious Also if you are separately counting long term care staff members who tested positive for Kobe it and real quick colonel wondering if we have ah an update on the number of police officers who tested positive and those who are in self isolation Matt On the first question I think we've been pretty clear that the numbers are directionally accurate even though there may be some discrepancies Is that fair to say Judy Yeah I think I entered the question that the um there's an indication that uh employees the tested positive and residents that tested positive that that number was combined Uh so then we asked the same question about deaths but we have not It has not been reported towards that We have had an overwhelming number Oh are even one death from the long term care Uh employees That doesn't mean there wasn't any It means I have not gotten a report of that Um but I can't imagine it would skew the death reports significantly Now I know C D s is now taking the reports and comparing them with that The death certificates It's something Yeah it's trying to get confirmation generally on death We hope that you know we're going to be implementing a new type of survey because again just to reiterate the points thes air these air data points that we get from thief facilities that the local health department that department gets So you know it's based on what we get and