Good afternoon Um I am honored to be joined today as I am I believe every single day by the woman who needs no introduction to my right Commissioner Department of Health Judy Purse Achille to her right Department of Health Communicable Disease Service Medical director Dr Ed Lifshitz Another guy you've seen a lot of lately Nice to have you with us Head far left State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan Pat as always director of the Department of Homeland Security Prepared This chair of Maples is with us Jared Nice to see you and the man to my immediate left The Department of Education Commissioner Dr Lamont Rep Elect Nice to have you with us Lamont I've asked Commissioner Rep elect to join us to provide an update on the situation with regard to our schools which I had previewed over the past number of days As has been our practice of late we will open with the reports we have received over the past 24 hours First we're announcing another 3361 positive test results 3361 Which moves are statewide Total toe 44,000 416 44,416 And sadly this is with the heaviest of hearts We have also lost him This is sadly our highest toll to date We have lost another 232 of our precious fellow New Jerseyans to covet 19 related complications Our state has now lost 1232 precious lives at this time Judy if I'm wrong about this you'll correct me Three previously reported deaths have been removed from our count and Judy will be able to speak not only to that but to give you some color on the positive tests as well as the blessed souls we have lost It's almost unfathomable folks when you think about that 1000 232 lost lives I would like to mention two of the tremendous individuals in particular who we have lost First is Dr James Wilson who passed away on Monday night at the age of 93 There he is with his son said they'll come back to sit in a moment He had lived in Bergen County for the past 50 years Born in the Dominican Republic He was a pioneering physician In the 19 sixties he became one of the very first Dominican physicians to open a clinic in the United States in New York City's Washington Heights where he tended to patients for more than 40 years He and his wife Nilda recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary along with their six Children and extended family and friends And as I say in this photo he's with his son Sid who is a dear friend We send our condolences to everybody who knew him obviously most importantly his family to sit and his fellow family members What a life we also lost Diana Tenet of my County Monmouth County There is Diana She worked for many years at the Fulfill Food Bank of Mama and Ocean counties helping to feed countless families She was a leader within the Latino Coalition of New Jersey was a past chair of the Latino Festival Festival that I've been to several times of Mom of County She is remembered by her friends is someone who always had time toe lend a hand Diana was on Lee 51 years old and had so much more to give We also send our condolences prayers to her family and friends at this time These are just two stories of the many many more we could tell of those who we have lost every single one of them has made our New Jersey family what it is and we honor their legacies as we grieve with their families None of them You have my word none of them will be for gotten and for them and for their families We need to continue doing all we can to keep slowing the spread of Corona virus We don't need to nor do we want to in any way lose any more members of our family The best way we could protect this New Jersey family is by social distancing Yesterday we noted that we're beginning to see and I say I don't want to overstate this in any way The very first potential signs that the curve maybe finally flattening And if you look at the positives today and you put the denominator of the positives that we've already had you'll see a little bit more of that evidence But we cannot be happy with Onley reaching a plateau We need to keep strong and keep determined to see that curve begin toe fall and ultimately get to zero That's gonna require many more weeks at the least of our being smart and staying at least at all times six feet apart This morning I spoke with Governor Cuomo and exchange notes with Governor Lamont I reached out to Governor Wolf Well we're not there yet I repeat we're not there yet We all agree that Justus We had a regional approach to dealing with the upside of the curve and still do We discussed a general in a general sense a regional approach to the things like testing tracking in the re opening slowly and responsibly whenever that moment comes of businesses and schools and potentially a regional approach from mobilizing Resource is when Corona virus comes back as many predict it will or for the next pandemic to come No one wants to see our state get back up and running as much as I do or anyone up here wants to It's the singular goal that we're all working toward but we need everyone in this with us We can't do it alone and it's not just for the five of us to do our Our other colleagues were here Parable of guard by the way from counsel's office is with us Parimal Thanks for being here It's not just for us to do It's for all nine million of us to do so Keep practicing Your social distancing even went outside and even when wearing a face covering remember a face covering And we've all worn them coming in this morning and we're wearing them now regularly if that constantly A face covering Judy my right does not trump social distancing Social distancing is the king face Face covering is important but it is not more important than social distancing Stay indoors state your home unless you absolutely need to go out Or unless you're one of the essential workers we need out there to help us get through this Keep washing your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and if you feel like you're under the weather that's OK But don't even think of going out or getting near anybody There's gonna be plenty of sunshine and summer to come in The sooner we can flatten that curve and come down the other side of that curve the faster we can all enjoy it Switching gears for a couple of announcements If I may tomorrow morning I will be touring Pat I believe with you with Colonel Callahan I believe Senator Cory Booker the field medical station being set up right now at the New Jersey convention in Exposition Center in Edison We will be joined I believe by both Major General Geoffrey Mill Horn in Lieutenant Colonel David Park of the U S Army Corps of Engineers And we'll also be joined by Major General John King from the Department of Defense and just up from the great state of Georgia on in Our Rock as we speak Um as you know folks this is our second field Medical station will also be our largest largest duty of 500 beds Right We remained immensely appreciative of the partnership from the Army Corps and of the federal administration in helping us bring these much needed beds online Next today I am signing not one not two not three but four executive orders That is not a typical day by any stretch number one I am extending by 30 days The public health emergency I initially declared on March 9th These declarations unless extended actually expire after 30 days So this insurers will continue on our current war footing for at least another 30 days Second I am signing an order and I don't do this lightly and I don't do it with any joy to close all state and county parks in the state of New Jersey We have seen far too many instances where people are gathering in groups in our parks erroneously thinking since that there since they're outside social distancing doesn't matter Nothing could be further from the truth We understand that staying at home is hard We get that and then you need to get some fresh air But you must do this close to home Take a walk or bike ride in your neighborhood or at a park in your town that is open And by the way the decision If unless Param L corrects me of municipal parks to be open or closed is up to the municipality That is a decision that is made locally by the municipality and by the way don't travel to somebody If you hear your town's parks are closed on the next towns there Open Please don't travel to someone else's parks We need 100% compliance to flatten the curve And unfortunately that now requires us to take this step And again Don't think that I take this action lightly Some of my fondest memories with my own Children and Tammy are beautiful spring days and parks playing soccer going for a run enjoying our family But my focus and our focus Our sole mission right now is the health of every New Jersey family and we must not just flatten this curve We must crush this curve My final to war orders pertained our public schools Charlie I hope you're listening wherever you are I am signing in order to extend certain deadlines for boards of education that still operate on April election time frame Because their elections that you heard a couple of weeks ago have now been postponed until May 12th there are only a few more than a dozen district's statewide which still hold to the April time frame in my order will ensure that they have enough time to sort of certify their budgets and make staffing decisions for the following year My final water follows by directives last month indefinitely closing our public schools and canceling our statewide assessments First I am waving the student assessment requirement for graduation this year including the portfolio appeal process This means that the 13,000 current high school seniors who have not yet satisfied the student assessment requirement will no longer have to submit a portfolio appeal in order to graduate This order also waves the use of student testing data for educator evaluations which was not feasible anyway Given that we have canceled this year's standardized tests I think the man to my left Dr Rep letting his team for his work with among others the N J A Lawmakers and stakeholders on this and for the work to come on a process for properly evaluating our educators Without this data A couple of announcements on testing First Tomorrow April 8th The PNC Bank Art Center drive thru site will be open at 8 a.m. And remain open until either four PM or when it hits its capacity of 500 tests The Bergen Community College site will be closed tomorrow but it will reopen on Thursday April 9th Additionally and This is a little bit of a switch Both of these sites will be open Saturday April 11th for 500 tests of peace and they will both be closed for Easter Sunday Separately Gloucester County will open a testing site tomorrow at Rohan College of South Jersey This site will operate for Gloucester County residents on Lee and is by appointment only To receive a test you must be pre screened for symptoms again In a world of scarce resource is we must focus and continue to focus on symptomatic folks You could be pre screened for the Gloucester County site by calling 856 to 184142856 to 18 for one for two As I mentioned yesterday there are now more than a dozen publicly accessible testing sites Who's information can be found by visiting our online portal in Cove in 19 dot NJ dot gov slash testing again Kobe 19 dot NJ dot gov slash testing However there are many more sites being run by hospitals or other private sector partners that are not listed If you believe you are showing Corona virus symptoms please call your primary care practitioner right away and they can assess you And if you meet the standard for testing they can direct you Where to go to get a test And Brady I believe it Our last count We had 50 at least 50 sites around the state onto donations and p p e I want to start by giving a huge thank you to Hilton and American Express which in partnership with Hilton's ownership community are donating upto one million hotel room nights across the nation and through the end of May 2 Doctors nurses e empties paramedics and other frontline medical workers who need a place to sleep or recharge or to isolate from their families We know that there will be front line responders in our state including many of the volunteer medical responders where you're bringing in who will need a place to stay throughout this emergency And we cannot think Hilton in American Express enough Next on peopIe We continue to pursue every possible avenue for P p e On our own and I know in addition pat to your compliance report you'll want to come in on any developments there whether that's on the open market or via the Strategic National Stockpile and from the stockpile our latest accounting shows that were brought in and distributed more than 1.1 million pieces of PEOPIE But goodness knows we still need more I want to give a big shout out to be a S F which is donating 1000 gallons of hand sanitizer that is producing right here in ST at their facility in Washington Borrow in Warren County were greatly appreciative of their efforts from Mom of Johnny We learned that Hatteras Press in Tinton Falls created 7000 protective face shields for health care providers and first responders that have been distributed across the state Owner Bill Door reported that he is planning to create another 10,000 day over the next two weeks We cannot thank Bill and Hatteras Press enough and notably Bristol Myers Squibb is donating $345,000 worth of PEOPIE to New Jersey Some of these supplies are already at their facility in Princeton and will be delivered immediately to medical facilities in need and an additional shipment is expected to arrive in the coming weeks Be a mess You may have seen this also announced this morning I believe that it is expanding its patients Support program to provide free medicines to those who have lost their health insurance due to this emergency and its impact I spoke this morning and I want to thank him publicly to CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb Giovanni CAF Oreo is a good friend for all the BMS is doing and I must might also add in addition toe Giovanni in the BMS team His wife is running a food bank in Princeton that is feeding it up upwards of 400 families a day We thank her in the entire BMS family If you have peopIe to donate or the means to produce it we're still believe me and will be for a long time accepting your donations Please reach out to his a cove in 19 dot NJ dot gov slash peopie Donations and Colonel Callahan's team will be in touch with you to accept your donation and in advance We thank each and every one of you for both the small slugs and the big ones and everyone in between It's so we'll keep doing what we're doing and you keep donating and together we can get what our public health and safety responders need and they are heroes today and every day first before I close I want to give a huge collective thanks to the communities across the state who are getting creative in celebrating their friends and neighbors Major milestones while practicing social distancing Tammy and I had a call with members of our team this morning with faith leaders and thank them particularly in this with Pat Passover beginning tomorrow We're in the midst of Holy Week Easter on Sunday Ramadan not too far down the road All of us have the inclination to want to come together and we can't We must resist that at all costs And there's been enormous cooperation around the state both by committee community leaders and faith leaders and the creativity is extraordinary So folks are getting creative In particular Is as they say is they celebrate their friends and neighbors major milestone sadly including funerals and memorials while at the same time practicing social distancing thanks to the news reports into all of you tweeting us at hashtag NJ Thanks you We've learned of countless stories of friends standing across the street with happy birthday or just married signs posting signs of support for our heroic essential workers on their front doors or residents organizing online fund raisers to support our public health and safety responders This is precisely the community spirit we need right now to get us through This time We can't be physically together but what you are doing to ensure that your community knows that everyone is being thought off and everyone is being celebrated That's how we do it I want to share another idea before I turn things over to Judy that was sent to my way by my dear friend Bill Lavon Bill is the former president of the state Fireman's Mutual Bennett Benevolent Association or F M B A He's a retired Elizabeth firefighter Today he founded any runs where Angels Play Foundation which builds playgrounds for kids who need a safe place to be kids in memory by the way of fallen kids And it has a global reach Recently built team lost a long time volunteer to Cove in 19 They couldn't gather with her family to mourn her passing but they wanted to do something to let them show how much she meant So they took up a collection and they purchased gift certificates to that volunteers favorite restaurants which they then gave to her family In doing so they were supporting a small business that really needs a helping hand right now And once this emergency ends the family will be able to gather and eat it A place that was so special to the love one that they lost I think that's a good place It and my formal remarks today we will get through this unequivocally we will be able to be together is a family as one family again But to do so we must continue to keep what we're doing right now and have been for the past many weeks Toe flatten the curve break the back of that curve and then get to that better place where we could all be better We all could be close and be together again We can do this It will not be easy And I know it isn't easy right now and you have our enormous thanks and respect It won't be fun We know that we're not out of the woods yet We're not close to that And that more residents sadly will fall in And some will not be with us when we get to the other side But we have to do this to make sure that those numbers are as low as we could make them and certainly is low is the otherwise would be We get there together folks as one extraordinary New Jersey family keep doing what you're doing keeps staying home keeps staying a distance from each other And if you do that we will get there We're all in this together will only come out of this if we stay together by ironically right now Staying apart with that please allow me to turn things over to the woman who needs no introduction The commissioner of the Department of Health Judy Person killing Thank you Governor Good afternoon As I've mentioned before we are being vigilant about all of the residents in New Jersey especially the most vulnerable those in mental health facilities long term care facilities pediatric long term care and state and county jails We know these individuals are at risk because of the congregate settings within which they reside As I've shared with you our long term care facilities continue to be severely impacted Right now Ah 188 of our long term care facilities in the state have at least one Kobe 19 case On Saturday I spoke with the head of the Long Term Care Association and I advised him that if the facilities weren't complying with state law to ah notify staff residents and families about their outbreaks that we will release their names of those who are not in compliance We're still contacting each and every facility Ah to make sure that they're releasing the information into received documentation of that A majority of them are telling us that they're complying But what we are learning is somewhat more disturbing They have also shared with us that they feel they don't have sufficient resources or sufficient staff to take care of their patients So we decided to this morning the the team of Department of Health that we have to develop a statewide plan to assist assist the nursing homes that are experiencing outbreaks and also shortage of staff and equipment This will be a whole of government approach It will cover from North Jersey to South Jersey It will require in some cases for patients to be moved around and that's extremely disturbing toe elderly individuals But for those that have not been exposed we want to keep them safe And for those that have been exposed or perhaps diagnosed positively we want to make sure that they get cared for The department has also been closely monitoring our four state psychiatric hospitals Currently there are 46 staff members and 34 patients who have tested positive for Covert 19 So we're working with the hospitals to conduct surveillance and implement the infection control protocol protocols to reduce exposure The Department of Human Resource is human Service is excuse Me has reported 24 positive cases including one death among the 1200 individuals that they serve At our deep are developmental centers in the state The Department of Corrections has reported a total of 67 employees five inmates and three individuals in their residential communities that have tested positive for Covert 19 the Department of Corrections website It identifies those numbers and are broken down by facilitate The department is in close combat communication Uh the Department of Health is enclosed a communication with all of our sister agencies on these impacted populations Currently as of this morning there are 7017 hospitalizations which include Cove in 19 positive patients and Paige A Persons under investigation 1651 individuals are in critical care and 94% of those individuals 1540 are on ventilators you may recall than our worst case predictive modeling We shared that we may have 8000 critical care cases with 7000 on ventilator I want to assure you that our plans are moving in the direction to be able to accommodate these patients but we still need ventilators I want to take a moment to go over some of the department's cove in 19 guidance for health care providers Current deep current department guidance does not allow for healthcare providers to return to work while they are still symptomatic with the understanding that some have mild symptoms such as a slight cough that may persist for long periods of time that is not considered to be exclusionary Our guidance which follows the general CDC guidance recommends that symptomatic health care workers who have tested positive for covert 19 may return to work seven days after the symptoms first developed and 72 hours or three days after fever has resolved without the use of fever Reducing medications with a significant improvement in symptoms which ever period is longer Although it's not recommended that those without symptoms get tested Should an asymptomatic healthcare professional test positive they should continue home isolation for seven days after their first Positive cove in 19 test provided that they remain asymptomatic and out of an abundance of caution They should also be massed while at work If a kn individual has no symptoms test positive they can discontinue isolation when it least seven days have passed since the date of their first positive Kobe 19 test Please go to the Department of Health website or the CDC website for more information on this guidance it is important to follow these recommendations to limit the spread of Cove in 19 in our state as the governor mentioned we are reporting 3361 new cases for a total of 44,416 cases in the state and yes sadly 232 new deaths have been reported to the department of which 33 were residents of long term care facilities So there are now 1232 fatalities in our state Ah as the governor mentioned three of the desk reported yesterday were removed from our account These numbers change occasionally because after further investigation we find more details that could lead to the individual being removed from our count such as death being reported in New Jersey But turns out the individual may not be a New Jersey resident We're not meeting the criteria to be classified as a death due to Cove it 19 of the deaths totally weak The trend continues 60% male 40% female 11 1% under the age of 30 or 11 cases 5% 30 to 49 years of age uh 17% 50 to 64 32% 65 to 79 and 45% over 80 years 60% or 435 of our cases are reported as individuals who report is white 24% or 1 75 as black or African American 5% reported as Asian and 11% as other and ATT This 0.44% have documented underlying conditions However there 670 cases that are still under investigation Ah for underlying conditions and as reported 10% from long term care facilities So of course we offer our sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones And as in the past and now in this most spiritually of times in our calendar I remind you to stay connected support one another reach out to those your relatives and friends who are alone or with you may be fearful and remember Be careful Be safe be healthy and stay home Thank you Judy Thank you You may have said it positivity rate on the testing You Did you say that I did not Let me just find that the positivity rate is tracking the same over 40% forties mid forties Um also top five counties In total cases this is stayed about the same although Hudson is it has really shown over the past several days Unfortunately it's closed in uh closer to Essex So you've got Bergen Number one s six Number two Hudson three Union four in Passaic Five of those continue to be the five counties with the most cases Now for seven or 10 days on the positivity rate we have tested 89,911 Um the positivity rate is 43.77% That's 39,000 353 testing positive And again we'll remind everybody a couple of things Uh number one these air overwhelmingly symptomatic people So they're gonna be unless you disagree they're going to be on average less healthy than the average New Jersey resident Uh and secondly we're getting these You know I'm not sure what we think our current delays but these air specimens that were announced today that were collected 12 maybe is 10 to 14 days to going tthe e commercial lobster roll overloaded as well And then we continue And it's early and uh proud of the fact that were added it But again it's think Judy and I both agree it's in perfect but you're beginning to get some sense of race of of the fatalities Bless them all bless their souls in one of the things that we're focused on and many are focused on Is that not that That's the only metric by which one control conclusions But it is overwhelmingly the case that even in peace times never mind in times of war such as the one we're in now that uh communities that are uh usually left behind are further left behind and it doesn't correlate entirely to communities of color But invariably that's the reality that we're dealing with it So the more we is Judy and team go through this And with each passing day the better handle we have on the the profile of these blessed fatalities that better will be able to react and respond to the community work that's going to need to be done to pick up the pieces going forward Long term care facilities again Judy You mentioned 100 and 188 100 needy and that's almost exactly half of the long term care facilities in the state There's 375 long term care facilities and another probably 200 assisted living um types dementia homes So put it all together It's a number that were so concerned about it So this is going to be an area that you mentioned with the state plan That's something we're going to be coming back to folks just to give them more color on what that looks like over the days ahead Um Pat with your blessing I'm gonna turn the Lamont next and then we'll have you back cleanup Is that okay with you again Great To have the commissioner's Department of Education with is one of the most dramatic steps We've taken this to shut schools in this state period public private religious all um and it's something that we've never done before And as we said at the time we wanted to do as good a job as we could to get out ahead of what we thought Some of the challenges would be the ability toe learn remote period But also for the for the big chunks of our state which don't have ready access to devices to be ableto feed kids when they're most reliable meal every days from the school um the general challenge of remote learning on all of the extraordinary work that our educators and moms and dads uh are doing And so we thought it made sense to give folks a quick sense of where we think things are maybe a little bit on where they're headed and I'm honored that the boss is with us Please help me Welcome the Commissioner of the Department of Education Dr Lamont Rep Elect Thank you Commissioner and Colonel for your leadership These extraordinary circumstances calling all of us me and my colleagues in the Department of Education superintendents principals teachers power professionals and support staff food service directors and workers child study team members parents to reach for new heights of innovation collaboration and mutual support We have been this been in this now for 20 days 20 days ago All of New Jersey schools water too close And ask that the education community give itself some grease Adjusting to these unprecedented times requires unprecedented acts of leadership in humanity I'm extremely proud of and impressed by the education community and parents were meeting these complex challenges Today's executive orders are designed to allow to keep uninterrupted focus what matters most our community's basic educational needs We recognize that this time completed a portfolio pills process will be an unwelcome and counterproductive burden for our students and our district's We recognize that we must provide some flexibility from typical educate evaluation procedures to allow districts to engage meaningful E with the teachers students and leaders These adjustments are necessary to allow districts to continue The important work of providing critical educational service is toe all of our students and light of the complex challenges we face I like to highlight some of that word Governor Instruction of technology As schools and districts began preparing to carry out closures the department strove to provide every flexible available to empower school leaders to continue providing instruction to students That was phase one of departments covert preparing his work meeting the needs of students in meeting the 180 day requirement in Phase two we have been gathering feedback and data from districts in their success successes and challenges in implementing their instruction To make good on our commitment to equity of access to instruction the department had to better understand the digital divide and how the state can go about bridging that divide A survey distributed to every district helps us better understand this landscape and all going challenges 7% of districts have reported at least 90% of their students have access to the Internet at home but to help fill gaps Districts across the state are actively helping families connect to the Internet at home through activities such as connecting eligible families with free Internet service is providing donated a purchase hot spots launching public private partnerships to boot and boost Internet access and working with local public libraries to Lynn Hot Spots to families Ah last report indicated that even with the help of innovative measures like these of the New Jersey is 1.4 million public school students about 100 and 10,000 cannot access the Internet at home and nearly 155,000 students need oneto one devices We continue to work with districts and provide any resource is and flexibility we can to help drive those numbers as low as we can for our students with special needs We were proud last week when the state board adopted temporary regulations that allow school districts and educational agencies to deliver special education and related service sister students with disabilities through the use of tele practice We're hopeful that this flexibility will help school districts and educational agencies ensure that students with disabilities receive the service is that entitled to them and for our school and for our students School districts around the state are using the nurses counselors and other health professionals to increase mental health service and emotional supports assists with wellness checks and provide targeting systems for students identified as most at risk my staff has We're working with social and emotional learning associations to collect research and resource and how schools can manage the emotional impact of this pandemic on their students Food It is impossible to address the health of our students however without addressing food security The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has been doing the critical work of ensuring that school districts have the tools to continue providing school mills I would like to thank Secretary Fisher and his team for their collaboration The deal We is partnered with local Office of Emergency Management to help ensure food is safely distributed We have visited over 100 food distribution sites and continue to provide assistance on safety protocols such as establishing grab and go distribution models and using social distancing best practices We know that more work remains remains to be done We know that district face particular difficulties with the youngest learners on what the readiness of the workforce to shift to a remote instructional environment With this date in hand phase three of our plan will be to boast the targeted individualize supports through our boots on the ground filled service efforts We also hope to synthesize the many lessons we learned an after action report on school closure to ensure our state is prepared Should God forbid governing we ever confront a chance like this again Thank you again to the entire education community for rising to these complex challenges and continuously centering the needs of all of our students and educators is an honor to partner with you in this critical work Thank you Lamont Thank you Ah a couple of things before he turned to pat to bat cleanup Here um I want to give a big shout out someone I was on a lot with today I just want to reiterate Andy Slavitt has been a huge resource for our state and for our team Uh and I can't overstate that enough And part of the reason I raise that is he and I were in a conversation this morning and we're gonna have a massive postmortem Uh when whenever it is the dust settles as a nation for sure and I hope that it is It emulates at the national level as well as at the state level We in New Jersey will need to do a big postmortem I hope it emulates the leadership that Governor Kaine showed along with Congressman Lee Hamilton for the 9 11 commission We need to do that as a nation and we certainly need to do that as a state whether it's health care matters and certainly educational matters when you do something you've never done before And as you said Lamont God forbid we never have to do it again But in the off chance we d'oh uh we'd better darn learn those lessons As they say if you don't learn the lessons of history you are destined to repeat it Um so thank you for that one other comment before Pat jumps in I think Judy and I would both want to say this Ah lot A life lost is a life lost so sadly the numbers are what they are And by the way of the of the total fatalities in our state almost 1000 of them have been in the past week so the 1232 lives precious lives lost just under 1000 have been in the past week Think about that for a second But it's also fair to say Judy I think this is a national phenomenon not just a New Jersey phenomenon The weekend skews when the data comes in the fatalities of fatality Sadly we can't bring these people back but but the up and down on the numbers just we wanted to mention again We've said this before These don't all literally They didn't all happen since two o'clock yesterday afternoon Is that fair to say so It's a It's a multiple day reality that comes to and reporting during the weekends has been noted nationally that it's not as accurate So you average if you smooth this out the average it out It's still we don't like the numbers but um it's about 130 a day Saturday Sunday and a life lost is a life lost Not that we could do tow bring them back are our job Collectively all nine million of us by the way is to lose his few lives and have his few people sick as as possible Uh so thank you for that Dr Lamont Rep Elect Thank you for your leadership Your remarks I'm sure folks will have questions Uh Colonel Callahan as usual of that cleanup on compliance on PEOPIE Any other matters Department of Defense Uh update Great to have you And thank you for your leadership Thanks Governor Very quickly on PEOPIE In addition to the tens of millions of orders we have from the state for PEOPIE we do have a request into FEMA for 4.5 1,000,095 masks for the 5.7 million surgical mass for 6.8 million gloves for 3.9 million gowns as well as 3.8 million face shields We have more than 1000 medical beds on order for the up fitting of that hospital capacity relief team that's out there trying to up fit wings and mothballed hospitals on I think one of the greater stories which I don't even know if it's been reported yet was last night We received word from the state of California on the emergency Management Assistance compact iMac mission California knowing what New Jersey and New York of going through The Department of Defense is flying 100 ventilators out to us today and they will land today with the understanding that in three weeks or so they're probably going to be needing them and hitting their surge and peak So that's the type of I think that collective effort understanding We're being hit now But as this thing moves its way across that return of the favor I think is what We'll be in the position hopefully to do that Um when we get to the other side of the curb So just Ah good good story and an indication of the team effort that's happening across state boundaries with regards to compliance I just want to lead with story from the attorney general's office in conjunction with the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control If you recall last week I had reported a pub up in Blair's town was cited twice with the attorney general Attorney General Grey Wall and Director Graziano from the division of Alcoholic Beverage Control are seeking to revoke the liquor license of that establishment in an indication that not only will the violation of the executive orders um not be not be tolerated and zero compliance but that the attorney general as well as a division of consumer affairs and all the licensees and the regulatory functions they oversee including division of alcohol beverage control that they have that authority to to go after those lights and season and revoke them So I think I think the attorney general for his action and leadership in that regard just a few On the overnight Elizabeth there was a domestic violence stabbing incident on that subject while being taken into custody coughed and spit on the officer's indicating screaming that he had cove it Newark issued 38 executive order of violations summonses and didn't have to close any businesses last night Governor So that was good Trenton Police Department reported enforcing to executive off executive order violations and closed one business in rums And if you can recall the party that the governor spoke to uh after further investigation and additional subject of 46 year old male was charged with disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace Another subject in Mama's Beach was arrested for being on at a closed pavilion in violation of the executive order in order to smoke controlled dangerous substance And in Camden a large gathering of 20 and more people who are arguing was broken up in a woman who refused to comply with the officers Orders to disperse was also charged That's a lap Governor Colonel Thank you Um and again I meant to give this shadow earlier to Governor Newsome Uh all I could say is I hope that we have a uh Lafayette We are here moment and we can say that it may take some time but we will return the favor a soon as we can run responsibly Do so um so thank you for all that And again we're going toe We're gonna win force way we reserve the right is We've said today again with mixed emotions But there's no question we have to do it closing state and county parks So we reserve the right to take further action But in most respects it's going to be whether or not all nine million of us are adhering to the actions that have already taken And uh thanks to Colonel Callahan the Attorney General and toe law enforcement up and down the ladder and up and down the state Uh enforcement is going to be the is gonna be the name of the game So thank you for that for every day I think with that Matt we're gonna I don't want you to pull a hamstring So to give you a second to get over there we'll start with Brent and we'll sweep from my left too right Just while you're doing that tomorrow I think a 10 15 We're touring the field medical station in Edison and I'll be there for a brief with the colonel And as we mentioned I hope Senator Booker and some representatives from um our military army corps and then we'll be here tomorrow unless you're otherwise at 1 p.m. Uh Thursday is always subject to whether not there's a White House vtc and assuming we can get the data And so bear with us on this in respect of folks who observed Good Friday and I would be on that list were likely going to be here but earlier than normal on Friday trying to finish before noon if we can So we'll give you more details Ma and we'll let you know right We'll start with you All right So I have a few because I'm reporting for other people One that the public health of urgency That's the state of emergency ordered on March 9th that's been extended to um I miss the racial breakdowns And it was that for total cases or just the new ones keep going Three How many total cases active and inactive Would we be expecting at the peak whenever we're expected to peak Um are you aware of a standard policy of issuing one surgical mask and face shield per employee per week Is this acceptable Are we really that bad off How does this policy not spread infection Should candidates not be campaigning in person or door to door How many police officers have tested positive and how many You're quarantined New Jersey has the fifth highest number of legal immigrants with health care backgrounds who are not working in the health care industry because they hold degrees from foreign universities Um are these among people you're asking to volunteer to help cope with the virus Um you mentioned coordinating to restart the economy This is from politico You mentioned how you're coordinating regional approach to restarting the economy Do you anticipate this will rely on widespread testing in each state And how long do you just want to ask Do you think we should Maybe we'll just roll into tomorrow's briefing Uh I shall Where do you have Bad Come on How long do you think it will take the scale of testing to that level I could go all days way Love you But we can't let you go all day Uh do you have a microphone Parimal the public emergency health emergency from a month ago Just if you real quick answer that Brett's first question short said the questions started yesterday so I think that was his first question Today's order is just extending the public health emergency The state of emergency that we declared on March 9th is indefinite so that didn't need to be extended But the public health emergency pursuant to the law the legislature passed has to be renewed every 30 days Well orders are That was I was executive order number one of three 103 Thank you for that Judy One more time on racial breakdown Do you have that handy Do you have your Michael Uh yeah Uh this is thes air obviously Excuse me Not all of the cases of the 729 Excuse me Known cases against this is 7 29 cumulative You You'll note that there's another almost 500 or perhaps more than 500 that we take a word we don't know yet Right Uh 60% or 4 35 are white 24% or 1 75 black or African American 5% or 36 Asian and 11% or 80 Fearless 83 listed as other I would just say this That that is a I meant to say this earlier when I made the comments about as in perfect as it is Getting the racial breakdown is something that we all feel is important just without knowing what the what's in the other category The number that jumps out is theatrical American number as it relates to the overall population That is a meaningful a higher percentage at least of that court than it is in the state of New Jersey Judy Total cases as I remember these total cases at peak uh according to the last model believe it was 37,000 I've got 36 Some of the same neighborhood again This is remember the Laxmi model we showed you yesterday head as the runaway freight train number of folks who are infected as just about three million Uh good news and bad news Good news is based on the evidence that we have in This isn't This is ah you know we're in the second or third inning Maybe it most But based on what we now know um we brought that number down the range for that number down meaningfully In terms of total persons infected the lack should be modeling again I'm not referring to chime with Laxmi models Worst case is 509,000 As I recall over 500 over for over 500 1000 infected And from that 35,000 folks would require 35 or 6000 require hospitalization again What May I just say this Those air still huge numbers in the 36,000 hospitalizations No matter all the heroic efforts that are being put in to expand capacity that is outside of any realistic ability of us to withstand that So the social distancing must continue We have no choice Um one surgical mask per person per week I've not heard that Is that what type of workers we talked about It's a question from one of my colleagues sent me So I'm not I'm not aware that you know I'm not aware of that that either We are looking at what hospitals are currently doing in New Jersey coast Some hospitals are determining their own guidance and we're looking at what's going on nationally Um making sure that we have the appropriate masks for the clinical staff We are looking at putting out guidance for masking Um as after we finish um finding out what the rest of the nation's doing I'm not sure who you may have in mind Brent I'm not running for anything right now but my personal opinion is people should not be going door to door campaigning period that that that's not what we need right now Stay at home Pick up the telephone sent an e mail send a text unless I get any disagreement from right Police officers The number of infected did you have I'm sorry A number of the police officers who have tested positive And how many your quarantine I got that Okay As of today as of this morning it was 562 statewide Tested positive And right now 2941 are self quarantining Thank you Pat Do you have any I should know this What's the denominator Total law enforcement I think it's 36,000 I take 35 cents Just seems to be a convenient number by the way 35 36,000 Just looking at looking at How many quarantine Again Apartment Almost 3000 Almost 3000 So we had to give you an idea Within the next 48 hours 111 will be back to work So we are We're on a daily Cole with cycling through just always making sure that we're able to uh provide law enforcement This is another reason I mean we've talked about the heroic health care workers the first responders who have to go in and enforce what we're talking about They're putting themselves in harm's harm's way and they're doing this at less than capacity Bret you're illegal immigrants Question You said we're not gonna need This is again from colleagues Get like 30 colleagues Send me questions No problem in New Jersey has the fifth highest number of legal immigrants in health care who are not working in the health care industry because they hold degrees from foreign universities or do not speak English Well are these among the people you're asking to volunteer to help cope with the Corona virus The answer is yes we were We were pretty definitive about the fact that my friend Felix Row Okay and West New York was pounding away on this point for many days in the answer's yes but they've got to go through a process right So they're gonna sign up in the regular way to sign up and volunteer It's the volunteer page on the cove in 19 dot NJ dot gov And then you were saying your last one was uh uh this is from politico the regional approach to restarting the economy Ah well that rely on widespread testing in each state And how long do you think it will take to scale up to that testing I would say too early to tell Uh perhaps uh other governors would have more color on that But I mean the house is still on fire and we're still fighting the fire But we acknowledge and that was the basis when I was on last night with the Center for American Progress We talked I mentioned Andy Slavitt earlier That was the basis of a lot of the part of my conversation with Governor Cuomo It's certainly Judy and Ed Tell me if you see this simile that the notion of contact tracing is gonna have to be a big part of making sure that the house doesn't catch on fire again there's gonna need to be infrastructure you know What's a restaurant look like Uh you know do you have somebody with a temperature gun at the outside And one of the protocol is gonna be for servers and capacity and distance I think too early to tell But we can't do know this We can't wait x weeks or a couple of months to begin to be We have to start that which now And we think that if we do it on a regional basis Justus we did when we closed the economy on we closed Our states will be a lot better off for that And you want to Yes What The governor said basically you know right now when we're hopefully moving towards the top of the curve and we have 44,000 cases and that sort of thing contact tracing and all those people is just not possible as the Riggins and slide down the curve as the number of cases decrease then yes certainly Beginning to go back to that That basic epidemiological response where you try to find those people you tried ice like the missing as possible becomes extremely important Thank you for that I think we're going to Dave next Dave Good afternoon I um So governor as you are I'm sure are aware um high school graduation is a big deal not only for the kids but their families relatives and so forth And it seems extremely obvious at this point even in the best case scenario we're not gonna have large gatherings for high school graduations at the end of May or June Um question for you and the commissioner If there has not been any specific plan made in terms of delaying those ceremonies possibly um as the commissioner has indicated to me before the press conference started What would your advice be to families in terms of had a look at this issue Would it be possible that we may have bigger kinds of celebrations later in the year that the individual schools might suggest Um is there gonna be a virtual graduation when kids graduate at the end of the school year which presumably is not going to start again And so forth Another question for the commissioner You had mentioned that um 110,000 kids I believe in New Jersey did not have any access to the Internet So that's like 10% of the states Children What How are they learning What are they doing in simple terms Are they getting any lessons Or is there I mean what if anything is being done with regards to trying to help those kids at least have some kind of structure and assistance and learning and so forth And the final question for the woman who needs no introduction Ah you had mentioned the plan by the state to try to help a long term care facilities and separate those patients who may be a symptomatic or We don't believe our sick now but as we know this could be tricky because they may appear to be asymptomatic What Obviously this is a plan in influx and you're just starting to put this together But can you talk a little bit about how this is going to be handled Would they If they're moved would they be in a quarantine situation Is everybody gonna have to wear masks Um you know where they're gonna go Is it going to be in the same region of the state Are etcetera etcetera I'll start with the 1st 1 Dave on the graduations and then maybe turned a Lamont for anything on that he wants to Ada's Well a CE How are the kids learning You know we had talked earlier about pre printing materials one month at a time I'm sure that's part of it And then Geo to you on the long term care I'm not trying to be flippant but I wouldn't put any non refundable checks down on your on your celebrations right now I mean it's hard to say otherwise Um I hope I'm wrong Uh but I fear that I am not again We're gonna get through This is there's no question about it innit Notwithstanding what Judy and I have said about the fatality bless each of those souls The numbers moving around the testing numbers are beginning to look like there's a trend And I hope I'm right about that So you know slowly but surely assuming we keep keep our foot on the gas where we are going to get there Um but I think you would be uh you wouldn't be You know in my shoes you wouldn't be dealing with the facts if I were to say publicly right now that you should feel okay about a late May early June graduation celebration I just personally don't see it I hope I'm wrong whether or not we could come back and figure out something creative I hope we can And my suspicion is that will be up to the district or to the private school or the religious school to do something creative on their own just like we're seeing Sadly funerals in Memorial's weddings births bar mitzvahs confirmations in a very unique creative way My guess is you'll see something similar applied to graduations any thoughts and graduations and also importantly on remote worrying You actually correct the governor's correct Yes I am sir Graduation is a local decision So whatever has been an activity plan we just hope that they follow the health guidelines for social distancing and things of that nature and will provide whatever support necessary for those districts that shows to go a graduation But when it comes to that at that time and regards to of the tool online online learning just one tool the gold for us the objective was to provide continuous instruction continues Destruction could look like many ways In some districts we have as the governor's that pen and pad pen and paper packets go home every month Kids get them back they have their books they have book reports So its various tools that you could actually use online is just one too And it is popular right now because a lot of technology however there are districts that go back to just dependent paper traditional But I just ask a follow up Commissioner are you getting reaction feedback from you're different school districts Is that working our kids doing what they're supposed to be doing Are they getting encouragement are is learning taking place the way you envision that it would and should come I'm very pleased with where we are I mean in 20 days we asked them to go from a brick and more school to a virtual learning school So you know there's gonna be challenges I talked about earlier about the digital divide And you see right now we're addressing those issues districts have taken upon themselves to address those issues Well so we're very pleased with that Some of the challenge you're gonna have is younger salons that indicated earlier How do you know parents at home working with these with these younger students that no we have one on one of our professionals so we're seeing some of those challenges But we're also looking some innovative approaches that our district they're doing Whether is looking at YouTube whether it's the partnership that the state has with Department of Education and J T V And also n g et to provide educational programming So it's an individual localized situation But our job is to support them every which way we can Whether support for professional development profession learning which is one way whether it's just providing guidance across the board So right now we're in the position We're very please What were we going right now I would just add a couple of quick things and Judy should address the asymptomatic Question is it relates the long term care facilities Um you can't bat 1000 We've never done this before Uh we've got per capita more school districts than any state in America We've got more of school districts that we have townships So you've also got a question of execution with local level with strong state leadership and state guidance And then you've got the other realities Um and Christine Norbert buyer referred to this when she was with us last week We have to also remember um that things like you know we saw that very sobering chart of lesser child abuse reporting uh love to think it's because less of that's going on And please God that is But it's much more likely that there is less interaction with teachers coaches nurses who would otherwise have seen that So that's another part I know of not just Lemont's focus but also the other state agencies and departments Judy I'm sure um the direction that I've given to the team is to look at a statewide plan but with a regional approach And there will be an algorithm Where will identify patients for example a symptomatic No exposure Ah symptomatic exposure in an organization where either the employees or the other residents Ah that there's a significant cluster or outbreak symptomatic but tests negative symptomatic and test positive Uh and I'm sure there might be more iterations of that And then we'll identify uh the most appropriate location for the resident to be in ER And within the locations there will be all infection control precautions taken along with co hoarding of the residents and also co hoarding of the staff we have we have found that staff going from facility to facility and then within facilities have uh lend itself to some of the problems that we're seeing So the algorithm is gonna be a little deep but we think we can do it and I actually we must do it Thank you Dave Thank you Judy Do you have something sir Governor A couple questions for the reporters at N J T v news Um so as long as we've been getting together like this we've been talking about people who aren't listening or adhering to your social distance distancing guidelines Is there a tipping point where you implement a full lock down Is that on the horizon Uh bus riders on NJ Transit complain that there's not enough distance between because of service cuts Edgy transit is saying it's only a few bus routes that are affected by this and they don't have enough manpower to add more service But riders that have no choice but to take the bus don't feel safe Do you have a comment on that And finally in business can you update us on how the process for collecting unemployment is going since there's so many people who are trying to get unemployment and just see can't seem to get through So I'll uh I think the's air largely on me But anyone would like to come in Please feel free to jump in Uh you know I think is you've seen today with state and county parks which is a big step Uh we are the question of a full lock down There's not much left that we haven't bolted to the floor at this point Um we are still looking at a few other I mean Judy's just been in answer to Dave's question You know long term care facilities It is an area where we know that we need to even drill down even further We've talked about corrections I think our commissioner is gonna be with us at the end of the week Um homes for the developmentally disabled psychiatric hospitals or certain pockets of of our state of communities of our state Will we know we need to be a sharper's We can be um but where were you know there are other steps that we're considering but we've taken most of the big ones that we think we both need to take and at the same time allow the state to reasonably and responsibly get on its feet Uh in a reasonable time frame um on on NJ transit And damn Brian is here Who spent a lot of time there You've got you know we want to know if folks are having that experience Go on our website and let us know explicitly which route that was NJ Transit's got the challenge right now not absolving a a bus that's overcrowded but diminished service there Ridership is Dominic 93% They've also got men power challenges which are really And when we hear these stories you want to make sure we run him down And there there's still a lot of particularly essential a sexual folks who are using buses in particular to get to the health care worker by example Get to a hospital So I'm not going to say we're batting 1000 But we do want to know those experiences and I can't throw a rocket NJ Transit because I know the ridership is way down Service has to come out somehow Approximate that got real manpower issues Um business uh unemployment Pardon me I don't have an update for you today I promise you Mahan or Dan will get you one in terms of what their numbers look like in terms of Earl Early week Rob Rob Acero Angelo talked about I forget what day it was with us but they had processed 33,000 claims Well we'll come back to give you a sense of how many claims they're processing per day right now and give a sense maybe what the backlog looks like I don't have a specific answer but again we're on it And if you by the way if you are having trouble getting through again there's a page on Cove in 19 Done NJ dot gov If you are If you've lost your job and you want advice you want to know where you need to go to get help Unemployment insurance etcetera Try Yes thank you Governor Just one question Maybe a follow up today it's for Dr Rep Let uM about Long Range Facility's plans for District's The New Brunswick Board of Education submitted an amendment to their long range facilities plan that is controversial to say the least I for one have not been able to obtain the language of this amendment because the Board of Education has stopped responding to open Public records Act requests And I know other community members are still waiting on records request that would show the extent of contamination at sites where school constructions proposed So in light of that Mr Commissioner will you wait to make a final decision on this very significant proposal until the state of emergency's over and the public can obtain the information that they need to give your team intelligent and informed input and make their voices heard anything else Or is that it Uh that's all Just maybe a follow up depending on the answer depending on what your answers Okay but there's a process right now We're in the midst of ensuring we have continues instruction however have Colleen Schultz a deputy assistant commissioner right there get the information and regard so we can try to track down and find out Exactly the long range facility planet you're actually talking about is that sits in officer finance What Make sure we get back to you on that Okay Thank you And just in case you do uh move forward with that process you know how would you advise parents and taxpayers and other stakeholders to either protest the plan or provide comments or input I'm sure they could have a gathering outside your office but the governor and the state police probably wouldn't look too kindly Yeah I would say back to you Asked me about protest in the day Don't Don't don't Protesters a group We respect folks who wanna protest find some other way to do it virtually online whatever it might be And secondly we're gonna get back to you with a more specific answer on this in particular That's okay Thank you Do you have a question sir You're good back here Police How are you Come on down That I'm good Thanks for asking So we'll make sure Can someone get back Make sure with Lamont's office we get back to try Thank you Ah what's the status of any ventilator Ethics guidelines that state was considering a nursing home operator Care one reportedly had five Corona virus deaths at its new murders New Milford location in Bergen County Care one issued a statement saying it was imprudent for it to update the public daily on Corona virus in its nursing homes What information exactly Have you told nursing homes to make available and to whom What is the deadline How much information does the state have from nursing homes on hand Are there penalties for noncompliance and his care One responded to this state's request for information about New Milford and its other locations And finally a FEMA question You've had a lot of praise for FEMA's work in New Jersey Other states aren't so happy Does New Jersey have a special relationship with FEMA because of Sandy In other words did that disaster help ease operations for this one Also some states and even a hospital system here in New Jersey have said that the federal government has seized some equipment shipments Do you know whether any of that has been redistributed for use in