Tests, bringing our statewide total to 8,825. Have lostn, we another 27 precious souls of our fellow new jersey population to covid19related complications. Have now lost a total of 108 precious lives. We mourn with these families and with our entire state, every precious life that has been lost. God rest their souls. Usual, judy will be giving you more color and the details of these both positive cases as informationral about the lives that we have lost. Indeed our and thoughts are also with the women hospitals working valiantly to save lives and i can only imagine the emotional on them, as well, when they lose a patient. Fact, it isnt easy on any of us. These arent abstract numbers. Are our neighbors, our family, our friends, all of us. This together and we together. But i reiterate, we have expected, with a very heavy heart, that this would take an increasing toll on our state. Terms of the lives lost, theyre lost, we cant bring is as stark athat reality as any of us have to face. And that obviously strikes all of us, particularly those closest to the folks who have been lost, deeply. Weve have also said and expected all along the testing results that we are seeing. Been preparing for this since january, literally weeks think, many weeks, i about a month, almost a month we had ourbefore first positive case. Before i speak more about testing, i want to announce that i have authorized the advanced of more than 140 million to our healthcare to ready them for covid19related expenses including from our active efforts to significantly and expand their capacity. Viabilitysure their to meet the challenge this. Mergencies has imposed now, on testing. Much of our chances ending thisin emergency relies on expanded testing. We have the lab capacity in new jersey and we have taken ourrete steps to increase specimen collection capacity and allhandsondeck federalfrom our partners, our local health departments, Healthcare Systems and private sector labs. The metric that we have been on from day one and that everyone must be focused on is positive tests among symptomatic individuals. A perfectkly, in world, i suppose would do it but right, experts to my quite frankly, attempting to test every Single Person would us data that in the context of fighting a pandemic and particularly given limited capacity would be useless. To know were testing the right people and not wasting tests. Testing the worried well, the and thed worried well asymptomatic would be an our testinge use of supplies and unnecessary stress on our labs and on our notthcare workers and would provide us with the Critical Data that we need to get out in and to stay out in front. Our best metric and judy and ed get into this shortly, our best metric for ensuring that are beingg resources properly dispersed and that our greater medical resources are to their best and highest use, especially our Healthcare Workers, comes from right people, those are systematic symptomatic. We have among the highest Positivity Rates is a good thing and it shows us that using our limited resources to their highest and best use. Wonderingyone is whether or not we have aggressively expanded our testing, this is a list of where can get tested in the state right now in new jersey. You can see, theres about ando 25 different locations options but again, who are we most important variable here and we have decided from moment one, thanks to my input from the team right, that testing symptomatic most important cohort and secondly, allows us understandance to the dimensions of this virus and dorefore what were going to to break the back of it. That has been our commitment from day one. Ill put our aggressive testing symptomatic individuals up thisst any other place in country if not this world. And while i am on the issue of i want to remind everybody that tomorrow, and pat will correct the record if i get wrong, tomorrow, saturday, march 28, both the bergen site and thelege p. N. C. Bank arts center be reservedite will for symptomatic healthcare responders rst e. M. S. With and valid credentials only and i think after judy speaks, pat, there will be a couple of things id love for you to address what this means in terms of the credentials that will be accepted. Tomorrowes will open at 8 00 a. M. The general public will not be siteso access these tomorrow. Starting next week, these sites will reopen for the general and Begin Operating on a staggered schedule. Sunday, pardon me, on sunday, march 29, the day after bergenw, only the Community College site will be open and it will be able to test people starting at 8 00 a. M. , 500 symptomatic at 8 00 a. M. And then on monday, march 30, only center siteank arts will be open, again, at tests, forfor 500 folks who are symptomatic. These briefings to remind everyone of which site will be open the following day and well also make this Information Available online at website,n covid19. Nj. Gov. Through that portal you can take selftest for symptoms of covid19. Exhibiting symptoms will be tested. In the meantime, i continue to urge everyone, in the strongest to continuems, practicing social distancing and to stay at home as much as possible. Know we are coming into spring and the weather is really nice. Was beautiful outside coming in here so its the to get outside. Who can blame you, for a walk run, but even as you do, it is essential that you practice social distancing. Doing healthy activities, you could still spread coronavirus. Sixfootg that distance is crucial and be mindful of that so i hate to break the news here, this is not the time for a pickup game of basketball, for example. Youre outside, stick to activities that allow you to distance crucial between you and others. Asay and i will hold this up another exhibit, with your logo judy, were going to be providing all essential retail guidances with further for ensuring social distancing within their stores while they remain open. Ask all essential Retail Businesses to review this 19. Nj. Gov, andvid apply these practices in your establishments. I exchanged notes earlier today with mark peron. Already in his name a prior session the leader of union, one of the largest if not the largest country. Ions in the an again, mark expressed important point which weve raised here before which youve Healthcare Workers and First Responders and not terribly far got folks doing the essential work in and pharmacies into contact with folks and have less personal Protection Equipment at their disposal, et cetera. Directive from judy and her colleagues walks through including keeping retailes at these operations as low as possible, distancehe six foot mandated and make sure theres hyperhygiene, hand hygiene, surfaces, et cetera. In addition, while there has broadcom pliance with my executive orders, were hearing of essentialrts businesses failing to implement distancing, too many reports. This is especially crucial for manufacturingand personnel. Again, like our retail brothers and sisters, who are on the of our supply chains and these businesses must do everything they can to provide protections against the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing is especially important for them and no one workd be expected to go to if they are sick. If you see a nonessential continueshich operating in violation of my orders, please reach out to us, again, at the same general website. You can see it behind me, covid19. Nj. Gov violation. Theird everybody to do part to slow the spread of coronavirus. Pat, not now, but if you wouldnt mind, again, after judy you to would love weve had largely, broadly speaking, good compliance with no gatherings but weve still if youew exceptions and wouldnt mind after judy going through a couple of things. Of overnight data and some of the stuff you guys are doing to push book that. Switching gears, a couple of quick highlights here. Again, our corporate citizens have stepped up in a big way and do so. E to merck theme mention other day, a couple of hundred n95 masks. Frasier, newnk ken foreign icon. Our friends at u. B. S. , a huge at weehawken, stepping n95s, thank you to that team. Johnson and johnsons stepping ofwith 10,000 pairs healthcare goggles that we need. Ately alex gorski and i were back and forth. Huge iconic new Jersey Institution and great leader. Stepped uphs has again, theyve come across with n95s for a0 n95s and5,000 theyre scouring their client system to see if they can unearth any ventilators and by the way, john, since your question, weve got no evidence of anybody in new jersey right now making ventilators, not that we would not like that to happen. Mike jersey industries, rene, sent me a note this morning stepping up in their cash to both relief funds as well as directly to needrofit hospitals who the Financial Support now more than ever. I want to thank mike and the jersey colleagues. Lots of great examples of this. Thats a recent list. We last saw you, a couple of group calls. I mightcase with judy, add, among others. Yesterday, i think we had 119 of 120 legislators on a call both sides of the aisle. Very good chance for judy and and others to get our sort of bring the speed. Ture up to theyve been great, by the way. I just exchanged calls with in here. Eney coming both sides of the aisle and they had a lot of really good questions and really good suggestions. Judy and i, this morning, along Human Services commissioner, carol johnson, did a call with by theiranized leadership. Ill raise my hand and say that member. And i was told there were 15,000 people on that call this morning so to our seniors who were on are call and or who watching now, we have your backs ad we know this is particularly anxiety provoking time for you all. Good note a really from kevin slaven who as you may c. E. O. Oft just the st. Josephs hospital but also jersey hospital chairman of the new jersey sometal association and really good news. His colleague who he mentioned pruden,s ago today, jim is on the road to recovery. Hes been off the ventilators few days and he gave me permission to say that. Thats really good news to hear. Well keep switching gears here. As weve discussed over the past workingdays were also with our level one Hospital Systems and the u. S. Army corps up threeers to stand field medical stations at the Exhibition Center in secaucus, the convention from in the Atlantic City convention center. Ande Police PersonnelExposition Center staff and Union Contractors i believe are unloading the first 250 bed field medical station as we speak. Is happening quickly. Having said all of that, i want to it. My voice we are mindful of the need for Trained Medical personnel to ensure Proper Staffing as we build out the new capacity. To have state blessed countless dedicated and committed Healthcare Workers, doctors and nurses and everyone in between and they have enough plates and we know we experienced for backup. Today i am putting out a call for volunteers with qualified training and experience who wish to join our fight against coronavirus. For new jersey residents, either. Were looking across our nation for help. Retired nurses or doctors, nursing and medical students, e. M. T. s, former members of our Armed Services medical corps. Above, all of the above. If you have training, we need you. Ouroure willing to join fight, please go to covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. See that behind me. Covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. To sign up. Our office is working directly Business Partners regarding possible transportation and lodging arrangements for those coming from outside our area. So stay tuned for more on that. I repeat. If you have medical experience wish to pitch in to help us get through this emergencies, please sign up i cannot thank you enough in advance. Additionally, we continued to accept personal protective equipment or ppe for prep frontline safety responders. They desperately need this. This includes the n95 masks and Everything Else in between. Please reach out to us again through our onestop portal, covid19. Nj. Gov ppedonations. Covid19. Nj. Gov ppedonations. And a reminder to all businesses and nonhospital Healthcare Facilities, in possession of ppes, this is not a nasca, this is in order, if youre not using the ppe for Critical Healthcare services, you have until 5 00 p. M. Today to submit information to us regarding your inventories. This reporting was ordered and i expect full compliance. Again, this is for businesses and all nonhospital healthcare sitting on ppe. We needed to report your inventories to us by 5 00 p. M. Today. And again you can see businesses lining up on their own voluntary compliance after that we will never forget. The Healthcare Facilities particularly those, judy has reminded us that wouldve otherwise been doing elective surgeries which has as of tonight we are suspending indefinitely. There are ppe in those locations and additionally there are ventilators, we need all of that to be registered by today. Again this reporting should be done through our Online Platform and by going directly this case, covid19. Nj. Gov ppereport. Thank you for that. As you can see, we have a lot of information that we are trying to get out. Were also trying to get a lot of information in. And this is why we have created covid19. Nj. Gov to be a single point of reference for everyone throughout the crisis. Putting the site together has been a whole of government approach and its also a lot of this to form great partnerships as i mentioned with the private sector partners as well. Quarterbacking this process has been the office of innovation. Led by chief innovation officer beth novak and her tremendous te. Additionally, we have received a generous grant, from another corporate citizen, google. That will allow us to more readily and proactively push essential information out to new jersey through googles search platform. This means we will be able to reach exponentially more people and not just those who are coming to the covid19. Nj. Gov portal. I am going to ask in fact, novak to join us in the future briefing if that is ok with you madam commissioner. To give us a little more on how the office of innovations is working to keep jerseyans and informed and i think her and her entire team. And again i urge everyone with questions to go to that website, to make us portal their very first stop in questions , concerns, comments. Covid19. Nj. Gov. I know there were many new jerseyans worried switching gears by the way, many new jerseyans worried about being able to make their mortgage payments next week. I and my team understand and fully appreciate your concerns and women speaking directly with mortgage lenders and many others about solutions and we are working tirelessly on this and look forward to having a full announcement on this tomorrow and speaking of which, a program note for each of you here and everyone watching at home, tomorrow our briefing will be live, not on the telephone at 1 00 p. M. Here in person at the memorial. And as of now, on sunday, there will be know in person briefing but we will report out our testing results and other information to you all electronically and i commend to you, personally if we are for whatever reason there is something material that happens, between saturdays briefing and when we would otherwise give you the readout of the information on sunday that is material, i will personally likely get on the phone. But at the moment we will keep sunday june electronic distribution of the date on test results. Please god, but we do expect fatalities and that will be done electronically. One other program note. Starting on monday, we will be memorial daily at the beginning at 1 00 p. M. So we will move assuming we would run into the president or the Vice President video calls. We will move our press briefings daily from 2 00 p. M. Until 21 00 until 1 00 p. M. Beginning i guess tomorrow. Theoretically we will be here at 1 00 p. M. Tomorrow. We will also in the weekdays, move to 1 00 p. M. Before i turn to judy, so other things that struck me particularly today. I read that if you have not read it, theres a fascinating piece by david brooks in the New York Times that talks about the severity, the fatality, the loneliness of what we are facing, not just as a state but a nation right now. And all that goes with that. The weight that is on everyones shoulders. That knot in your stomach. All of us would like to know more than we do right now. How long is this headed . How long will it last . Live directly impact me or a Family Member or a friend . This is emblematic of something i have been feeling and ive said in a couple interviews over the past 24 hours. At the same time, it also feels like this great moment is reaching deep into our souls and better selves. Even if it is a bird virtual way, those examples of singing from balconies, the meet ups that folks are having through social media, the virtual connections that we are making. It is also calling out our better angels. In a way, it is beginning to make some of the big fights weve had over the past number of years if not decades look trivial by comparison. Something, as grave as this is, as tragic as the loss of life is, there is something cathartic about that. There is something that is uplifting about that. So i would say that we understand that. We understand both the anxiety but also the fact that we are coming together like never before. I would just say as a practical matter, particularly to somebody oneknow is literally alone, thing we could all do today, lets do it each day over the weekend, to touch somebody we have not been touching lately. Email, a wavean through a window. Keep the social distancing. We cant violate that. To find a way to touch somebody who is alone, who has been by themselves. To make sure that they know that you are here for them. Second, we spoke with 15,000 members of aarp at of which i am a member. Butnt readily admit that it is true. I mentioned at the end of my remarks, this is a war. We all know what the ingredients are two winning a war. I referred to world war ii. As i was saying that to this particular group and i think i acknowledged it, we are speaking to folks, if they were 85 years old or older, and we have a lot of them in new jersey thank god, this was in at wasnt abstract. They lived it. They might have been on the young side but they lived it. I was born at 57. I know this from my dad, my uncles, my ons, my grandparents. But we have a lot of folks in the state, they were there and saw with their own eyes what it takes to win a war. It does not take panic. It is the last thing we need. Just as equally so, is not business as usual. We are in a war footing. If it takes being smart and aggressive and proactive, lots of courage, and incredible work ethic. Stick to it if this and understanding that world war ii wasnt a sprint and neither is this war. We will be at this for a while. Please god, not the length of time of world war ii. We are at this for a while. They know because they lived it and we all know by reflection from their experience, we also have to stick together. We cannot ever turn on each other. We rise and fall as one. As i have said here before, new jersey is the most extraordinary because we are the most diverse state in america. At the same time, we are as together as any of the state in america as one family. Let me conclude by saying what i have said before, not just for those blessed seniors but for everybody. Unequivocably we will get through this. It wont be tomorrow, i wish it were. I wont be unscathed. Weve already seen over 100 precious lives lost. It will not be without mistakes. Im sure we will make them. But we will come together and all 9 million of us will do our part. We will come through this unequivocably as one family, stronger than ever before. With that, please help me welcome the commissioner of the department of health. Thank you. Good afternoon. As part of our planning , the department has been modeling the peak of covid19 cases will hit our state. This type of modeling is a projection based on available data at the time and from some assumptions, such as the percentage of population and adhering to the social distancing strategies that we have been stressing. It helps us plan for bed capacity distribution and use of resources such as ventilators. It relies on several assumptions that actually change daily. The impact of social distancing implemented in stages across the state. The number of positive cases reported daily. The number of cases in our hospitals and the length of stay by Critical Care and medical surgical beds along with the number of positive cases in the hospital and cases under investigation. What do we know right now . We know today in the state we have run 24843 tests. With 8296 tests reported as positive. For an overall Positivity Rate of 33. 4 . We also know, that as of yesterday, 1080 patients in our hospitals have tested positive for coronavirus. And an additional 1872 patients are awaiting results. The backlog of testing, due to the overwhelming volume of request to test, is being reported as high as seven days. That is the time between having the test, specimens collected, getting a result. We are giving positive test right now from individuals tested almost a week ago. So it has not taken into account our social distancing interventions. So therefore any projection at this point in time is suffering from the lack of that information. Right now, we are really relying on those at the bedside. To help us understand the needs of the patients. At this point, we are to working with hospitals to understand Critical Care capacity especially in the northern part of the state. Given the limited information that we have, our expectation is that by mid april we will be seeing an increasing demand and in Critical Care beds. We looked at what effect social distancing can have on flattening the curve. We are still looking at that. When we look at projections if we do nothing, versus taking aggressive social distancing steps the governor has implemented, we can see a real difference in the need for hospital beds and equipment. Social distancing is the only tool we have in our toolkit , reduces the transmission of the disease and it reduces the rise in cases and flattens out the number of hospitalizations at any one time. Flattening the curve will protect vital health resources, such as beds, personal protective equipment, and medical devices. It will also reduce the impact overall of covid19 on our residents. As the governor mentioned, today we are reporting 1982 new cases. A total of 8825 cases in the state. And sadly, 27 cases for deaths have been reported to the department. They are in the following counties. Seven deaths from bergen county. Four from middlesex, three from somerset, three from essex, three from ocean, two for morris county, one in hudson, and one death was associated with lawn a longterm care facility. 55 longterm care facilities reporting at least one covid 19 positive case. We offer our thoughts and prayers and condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. The county breakdown overall of new cases is as follows. Atlantic, five. Bergen, 265. Burlington, 24. Cape may, one. Cumberland, five. Sx, 181. Gloucester, seven. Hudson, 140. Mercer, 18. Middlesex, 127. Marmots, 126. Mars, 44. Ocean, 81. Somerset, 34. Union, 48. We are still gathering more detail on about 739 of these cases. Reminder, as the governor shared, the suspension of all elective surgeries and invasive procedures performed on adults goes into effect at 5 00 today. Given the shortfall and personal protective equipment, its imperative we work with our partners in health care to strategically preserve supplies and equipment for emergency purposes only. We know its concerning that cases are rising in our state. As weve said repeatedly, this was expected. Our goal is to slow this increase. Again, we need your help. Distancingow social guidelines. This is what you can do, this is your contribution, your donation, so to speak, to actually saving lives. I cannot think of a better calling. It is vital that we Work Together now to lessen the impact on our state. Thank you. Gov. Murphy judy thank you. Im sure we will hear a lot more from you. May i make a couple of observations . Tell me where i got this wrong. And feel free to come in. It got about one third positive, two thirds negatives. These are overwhelmingly but not entirely symptomatic individuals. Again, that is the most valuable cohort right now for obvious reasons and one level because theyre sick. And another level gives these folks and the epidemiologist the weapons that they need to do everything we can to get our arms around this. You said and i want to make sure everyone hears it, because of the delays now in the testing laboratories, even the commercials that are scaled up and have high speed and skill, these are tests that we are reporting today that could be from as much as a week ago. Yes. And while we have been aggressive on social distancing , probably as aggressive as anything, we really shut the garage door six days ago so he went to zero. As a nonmedical expert, a week from today will be interesting and a window into what happens. Total cases, bergen continues to be the top of the heap of 1505, essex second 826 and middlesex 40. Hudson at 594. Judy, you mentioned positive cases in 55 longterm care facilities. The denominator is 375. A couple of days ago that was in the high teens and went to the 40s yesterday and now 55. That is something we are particularly focused on that. Because weve seen in other states, Washington State in particular, that was a source for an enormous amount of illness and death. And lastly, completely unrelated. I think i left off ralph lauren, their ceo reached out to me. Ralph lauren made a huge move in new jersey. They opened up their offices several months ago. He came to me today and we are tracking the stats. They are prepared to step up in a big way. So list of corporate citizens who have been doing the share, i dont think i mentioned ralph lauren earlier. Any comments . At the pnc inverted community tomorrow, Healthcare Worker and First Responders show their proper id. Anything on the Field Hospital that your team is helping could construct, anything on the overnight compliance. The chief counsel may have something to add on that as well. Thank you. With regard to the sites, bergen Community College and bmc tomorrow, that is for symptomatic and i stress that again, i spoke with over 760 Police Officers on a Conference Call today and stress that again to them the Union Leadership is aware of that. Symptomatic Healthcare Workers and First Responders, please ems with, fire, and valid credentials of the proof that your jersey residence and any identification that indicates what hospital you work at. Any employee id which i think is standard now and has been the 10 or 20 years quite frankly. The same for any police, fire, ems. Those personal are properly credentialed. I stress that symptomatic pieces as well. As i spoke a few days ago, that entire Hospital Capacity relief , that is underway. We use the words in short order. So, we within a week or will see that first site in the meadowlands, erected and as far as of the overnight goes, weve had throughout the course of 12 counties, weve had 26 compliance checks resulting in five actual charges ranging from creating false public alarm, criminal mischief, as well as obstruction. As the governor stated, a vast majority of everybody in the state is doing their part as it pertains to the aspects of what is outlined in the executive orders. I think i need to stress about the phone call i had earlier today. Up a fewions come times with regard to ocean county in particularly wev. Had the it particular. The attorney general and i stressed to them, we agreed and can report to you knowing that 99. 9 of the residents of lakewood are complying with the aspects of this. Lakewood is a city of 110,000. The chief of police was on as was the ocean county prosecutor. It was the most valuable 45 minutes we spent. Not only did i assure them that today we would talk about how compliant they are. The incident that happened the other night was one not of somebody completely disregarding. It was one of education, thinking he was able to spread attendees at a wedding across three backyards, trying to keep a tenant under. It was an education thing. That was a lesson for those on the call today. We have to make sure that we have the messaging there. Thats why im saying this. That iti assured them will not be tolerated that anything, whether lakewood or thatommunity or anyone gets discriminated against, whether that is bias, harassment , if this feels any type of antisemitic behavior, whether on social media or graffiti or verbal harassment, that will not be tolerated. The attorney general assured them that those people, if caught, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by local law. Thank you. Point, there is a lot of education which we accept. There are some people who are willfully flaunting the rules. There arent many of them. That number has to go to zero. Pat has been explicit with this. We will be unwavering in enforcing that. There is some amount of education. I hope that also goes to zero very quickly. Tolerate onennot iota, one spec of blaming this community or that community for this or that. Completely unacceptable. Not tolerated. Will not be tolerated. It will be enforced aggressively. Thank you for that. As per usual, is there any update on how many people have been hospitalized for this or have had recovered at all . Range or on age specific locations . Testingy is it necessarily up to what other states have been doing . What needs to be done with that . Complying,ss isnt they are staying open and on the nonessential list, what charges will they face . Have you given out any charges for that . Is that it . Ok. I will be as clear as a bell. Thats assuming that per capita testing is your way of figuring out. Us thatrts will remind the most important data point we get our positives among symptomatic individuals. We have stressed every step of the way, i dont know if its 99 but i will guess it is 99 of the tests we have done in the state. We have a few exceptions. There wont be many. That is folks were symptomatic. I will put our testing approach up against anybodys. The notion that per capita, lets get everyone tested, i guess if we had unlimited supplies i would be signed up for that. We dont. Thats the most important data point these folks need. We dont have unlimited supplies. Im unequivocal about where we are on testing. I think you addressed the hospitalization, judy. Pat, we will come back. At and goes online says, my business isnt compliant. What happens at that point . Can you hit hospitals . I talked about the hospitalizations currently. You are asking over time. How many people have been hospitalized over time and how many have recovered . I could probably figure it out. Maybe i will have it for monday. I only have at a point in time. I get it at the end of every week. Starting monday at 11 00 a. M. Will bey, the rock getting updated information. We will have a better picture of what it looks like. You have to make an assumption death, everyone else is recovering. Or on the road to recovery. 1080 you had positive cases. In a hospital bed. Additionally, many more. Points is an important for a person under investigation. As opposed to other stuff. 1080 persons who have tested positive are in a hospital bed as of last night or the yesterday afternoon. That is out of a total, not a perfect relationship. Keep in mind, you heard from judy. Each data point that is relevant is filling in a piece of a puzzle. What they know tomorrow will allow them to project into different ways than what they know today. I will compare to data points. Person in ae hospital bed as of yesterday afternoon. The total number of positive cases that have been tested of 8885. Thats a comparison, those are two numbers that are worth at least acknowledging. , business is not compliant to what we do . We did not realize the volume that we would get when we set up that phone number. What people me to realize is that when they file those complaints, that is not a 911 dispatch center. Depending upon the nature of that, that would either be a ,awenforcement response depending upon the nature of it. Thats how quickly we go out there and inspect that. We have to verify and take the appropriate action to charge them for violating the terms of the executive order. Are they being charged with certain crimes . We have not gotten to that point. The crimes im reporting at this juncture are the ones of the gatherings that are intentionally disregarding it. Conduct,he disorderly creating false public alarm, obstruction of justice. Theres that guidance that the attorney general put out to Law Enforcement that give you that menu in concert with the assistant prosecutor designated to help with that charge depending upon the nature of the crime. Are you still investigating businesses if there is no charges yet . To my knowledge, no. Are you aware of any charges . Is that microphone working . [inaudible] one suggestion im not sure what day is the appropriate day to do this. Early to mid week, lets give folkshere, lets give amount of complaints come in nature of complaints that have come through the website. We are in the strongest possible terms, im not sure what the actual will be in each case. There will be action if folks dont apply. This is both work from home as well the social distancing within the workplace. Thank you. The have something . Do you have something . These are more questions. From the viewers. One of our viewers is a lawyer. Some of her clients have their licenses suspended. Now they would like to seek testing for the coronavirus. Is there any way they can get even license restored though the offices are closed to the public . We have a couple other questions. The normal asking if treatment for stayathome, vitamin c and zinc, is effective against covid19 . Do we have further data on ibuprofen making the virus worse . Not everyone has the luxury of a primary care physician. If they are in that position, what is their plan of action . Excuse me, i got another question. What number of patients do they predict will need Critical Care by mid april . Ok. Lets start with the top one. If you are a lawyer and your drivers license is suspended . The lawyer has clients who have had their licenses suspended by the court. She has no answers for her clients besides going to the nbc office. This is a drivers license . Correct. I will say this. Let me make sure that i repeat what has been said. The more important question is, are they systematic . I dont know that. If they are, all bets are off. They can show up and explain the situation. I dont know that will be the majority of folks were dealing with. My advice is, if you are some somatic, get a test. I have nothing to add on vitamin c or think, at phil zinc, advil. At a minimum, please. Virusid is a respiratory similar to other respiratory viruses that people are familiar with. People get cold every year. For most people, this is treated the same way. Supportive care. That means staying home. We dont want you infecting other people. Stay away from other people. As far as taking care of yourself, all the things we would say if you are sick to me you should be doing. Your mother probably told you to do them. Rest, fluid, those things. , im not aware c of studies that suggest they have an effect in low quantities. They are unlikely to harm. If people want to try them, i would be fine with that. The question came up about ibuprofen. Thats a class of medication that include other medicines such as a leave aleve. There been suggestions that these medicines could conceivably worsen the course of covid as anonymous. At this point, it is way to early to say that for sure. If anything, the effect is mild. I would not be deeply concerned. People can switch to a different class of medicines that include acetaminophen instead. I dont have a primary care physician. What do i do . Qualifiedur local health center. How about Critical Care beds . All of oursking hospitals to look at their current capacity and try to increase it by 100 . If you have 10 Critical Care beds, were asking you to have 20. We are guiding them through the process. I met with three of the leaders of our major systems this morning. That all of their hospitals have either completed the process or started it. Our hospitals, as i have said in the past karma past, are extremely efficient in that regard. We will go to the back and come back to the front. We received calls from landlords who were trying to do the right thing by their tenants who are not working during this crisis by not collecting rent. Yet they still have property tax bills, mortgage payments. Is there any relief for those landlords doing the right thing . I mentioned this earlier. I believe we will be in a position tomorrow to talk to you about explicit plans as it relates to the mortgage relief. Ill want to make sure applaud the landlords were trying to do the right thing. It is a metric. If you get relief over here, you are able to provide relief over there. Shell oliver is doing an incredible job, department of community affairs. We just got another slug of hud money for vouchers for lowincome renters. Renters are more complicated. We wont have as crisp an answer for you on that tomorrow. We will on the mortgage side. Thats a big piece of this. Renting,s, if they are are renting from somebody will have a mortgage. It is either direct mortgage relief. I own a house and have a more just mortgage, i need relief. More on that tomorrow. Thank you. Come on down to the front. Thank you for the opportunity, governor. Weekend,t to say last i have a son named charlie. I was going to remember your name. Thank you. Last week when i asked you about whether you think the board of education members terms should be extended in the cases were you delayed the election. Im waiting to hear back. I want to hear about another question in the same vein. Recommendations to delay the county Committee Elections by an entire year. Was silly, given the changes you made to relax the petition requirements. Now, democrats have taken advantage of this epidemic and are canceling the elections entirely. They are telling voters they wont get to vote for this office until 2022. Will you take a stand against this disenfranchisement . I will ask matt to weighin. I have nothing new for you. I will try to have something by next week. I thought we would leave it up to the counties. Am i right about that . , itt is up to the counties is a county party election. It is their jurisdiction. Im not sure that i have anything to add to that. It is your party. It is my party as well. Do you have a position on delaying the elections in entire year or canceling them . Im the titular head of the party but im not running for any counties. This is a county jurisdiction question. I think we showed with the decisions we made on both loosening the petition requirements, going to vote by mail, and moving the march and april elections and to make, we are acknowledging the reality of what is before us as well as making sure that democracy proceeds. That is where i would be. We will come back if you have anything else. For questions. What is the progress at the fema hospital sites . In my understanding correctly that meadowlands will open first . When do we expect to have patience and beds there . Will they be virus related patience only . Ppe that yous and have asked for, what has come in and what is outstanding . The have any expected delivery dates on any outstanding ventilators . Timeline onis the the relief release of the bioethics guidelines . Can you explain the changes in the testing sites operating hours . That is the fema run testing sites. Was this the plan all along, as other states were opening, that you will cut back . Or is it more a matter of limited test can kits available and lab capacity . Let me jump in. Here from pat or judy. Meadowlands is the first one that is going up. Its in a matter of a week, right right . A week or so. Ventilators are asked of the fed. I said 2500. 4. 5 million and 95s. Those were the two big items. Weve had no assurances yet. Nothing back from that ask. As you heard from the corporate donations and other things that we are doing including buying , we are not waiting just for the feds. We do need them. Judy can address bioethics. Let me repeat what i said yesterday. We are, all of us and all of our teams, committed to saving every single life we can in this state. This is an example of something where we would be aggregating our responsibilities not to prepare for that awful potentiality. We are going to do everything we can to save every life that we can. In terms of changes on the sites, we have always felt strongly that Health Care Workers and First Responders, by the nature of their jobs and heroism, deserve a window into this. Erroneously when the Community College site was opening up. That we would commit to that. We are committing to it. Offerms of the one day, one , that is in it knowledge meant of the Raw Materials that we have from the feds. Both the specimen collection ,iece as well as ppe as well as we only have somebody Health Care Workers. Why i made my plea to expand. We will meet a fork in a road absence of an influx of workers or equipment or some great innovations that come to fruition. We will have that balance between going to testing to going to care. Whenu heard what i said, they are open, they will be at 500 tests per day. That is basically going one day off, one day on. Being smarter about manpower. Accomplishing the same amount of tests. They are at around 250 or 300 per day. We will do 500, same amount. We will do it at one location on a monday and a different one on a tuesday. Thats a lot easier for us on both manpower and Raw Materials. Anything you want to add on patients in the Field Hospitals or bioethics . The meadowlands Field Hospital will be a general hospital. It will not be covered only. Covid only. The other one will have full negative pressure. Dr. Bioethics, youve met eddie business who was formerly a state epidemiologist. He has cannot of her time it to step up with us. He put together a medical professional advisory committee. Members of that committee will have a number of guidances to review. One will be the ethical decisionmaking model that the subcommittee from the medical society has put together. The other will look at overall evident evidencebased care. Patients, thex of hospitals are telling me they are concerned about the quality of care and the standards of care. We want to make sure that no matter what we do, we give safe care. They will be helping us with all of that. Thank you. Two things. Today marks the eighth day in a row that those fema testing sites have been up. Some of those folks are driving two hours. Thats eight days in a row of 18 hour days. Of thegovernors point relief on that step, the commissioner and i both agreed we need to keep those folks protected. Hashe sites, the team that is that meadowlands texted me and say they expect that to be open next friday barring any issues. You are hearing it right from the expert teams. John . Can we talk about this april surge . Cases come peak of in mid april cases, in mid april . Will you have enough intensive care beds . If it is not the peak, when will it hit . New york city is talking about moving some of its patients to other hospitals in the region. Will any of them becoming to new jersey . At some point, the number of ventilators the senator says he requested for a 500 and were given for. Four. 0 and were given construction isnt accepted is an exempted business right now. Is there any thought to changing that and ending construction as a permitted use . Hospital construction will remain essential. Surge and peak are two different things. Surge is when we expect to see an influx at a point in time into the hospital. Because when we expect to see the peak of all cases of positive covid. Finelieve we are moving handling the Critical Care , as i shared. E three of our ceos of the largest systems are prepared for that. Hopefully will be in a couple of weeks. And see howwith it all of our plans are working. We believe they will be fine. Ventilators are another story. , wee discussed yesterday believe right now we have enough ventilators. Surge results and more individuals needing more ventilators than our projections, we certainly need to get ventilators in reserve. Thats what we are working on with the 2300 request. We will push that. It is what we need. We have 2000 icu beds. We need one been to later prevent. Ventilator per bed. We need to increase our Critical Care beds to 100 . We need to thousand federate ventilators and 300 and stand by. Pat and i were talking about wer or not we will do are also trying to uncover every stone. We are trying to buy them. I forget how much they cost. 20,000 . Is that right . I think it is about 20,000 per ventilator. That is something we are looking at. Construction, nothing to report at this time. New york tweaked their construction allowances. We are constantly looking at holesr or not there are in the cheese here that we need to fill. We will continue to evaluate that. If there is anything new to report, we will come back to you. I will have something to say before you ask. Any thing else, john . At twoth care testing fema sites. There any other specific sites for symptomatic Health Care Workers . Do you know of any . Not completely dedicated to it. I know of First Responders and symptomatic health that are getting checked on the list. Could we let folks know at some point, other than what we , is there any other priority given to Health Care Workers and our First Responders . Real quick. The unemployment website reports that it is crashing. People are having great difficulty registering complaints. With unemployment. Any update on that, any ability to beef up the system . I dont. Thats the last thing we want happening right now. We want folks to get can you come back on that . Charlie . Clear. Nt to be does in french disenfranchisement is bipartisan. Republicans have postponed. How does it make sense to move andard with residential primaries for both parties but to cancel small, low level elections . It strikes me as a dangerous precedent. Dont get mad at me. I have nothing to add. Thing with the landlords who are trying to do right by their tenants. You alluded to mortgage forgiveness. What about property tax forgiveness . That, i will say this. The dca is looking at that. We are bleeding money, as you can imagine. I have to be careful. In a perfect world, i would be telling everyone, listen. Holidays for this or that. I have to make sure we keep the lights on. Nothing to report. You good . Following up on modeling and projection, do we have a firm number of what we are expecting the peak of people who will need Critical Care beds to be . I dont have that today. After more experience with our testing and are positive rate and our hospital utilization, we expect to have that. I dont have it today. Theres too many inputs that we need more time. We have gotten reports that casinos, dealers are not encouraged to participate in social distancing while they are on the clock. What would you say to casino workers who are being brought in to work but are not given the supplies and space to do social distancing . They should go on that website and make note of it. Theres no one who should be going to work right now and a firm where there isnt a workathome policy as well as social distancing that is enforced. Period. Mayor of was new york says he has a database of International Medical graduates willing to step in right away with hospitals. But they need to fasttrack their licenses. Is that something you would be willing to do . Felix has reached out to me personally on this. I think it will depend on the specifics of the situation. Im not sure i have expertise in this area. We use the word safe. We want to make sure we have we have waived other states to do that. We will take all the help we can get as long as we can identify the safe care that has to be done. Thank you. Did you have something . Is there something you wanted to say . I have nothing new to add only gun stores. Your brother is here. You are not necessarily a properly credentialed member of the press. I have no issue with the second amendment. I have no issue with your efficacy. Say that upke front. I will give you a chance to ask your question. The press association which i have been working with says i am a credited member of the press. Your personal office has seen my president ial. That is not without dispute. What is your question . Thank you, governor. We know this is not a critical issue for you at this time. People are struggling to buy guns in new jersey. On monday, the attorney general told us that closing new jersey gun stores was consistent with federal guidelines and the guidelines of other states. New jersey is acting in compliance with federal guidelines. We are hearing that there may it be an imminent directive labeling gun stores and manufacturers as essential businesses. Are you going to be consistent and comply with federal directives . Will you defy them . I have nothing to add. I want to thank everybody for being here today, particularly the folks with me. ,he commissioner of health thank you both for extra merry leadership. Colonel pat callahan. ,o everybody out there watching it is a friday. Who would even know its a friday . One day turns into the next. We get it. We are all in this together. Its not fun. But im convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that what we are doing the work. Will work. It will not be as fast as we like. It will not be without a price that we will pay you we have lives. Lost 107 precious we will succeed. , we have been making every decision based on data, science, fax, medical and health input. Us, weing we see tells break the back of the coronavirus together. Largely through social distancing and bolstering our extra merry Health Care System and workers. I wish it were tomorrow or next week. I dont see any scenario where this doesnt bleed meaningfully intimate. I hope im wrong about that. I would be the happiest guy in new jersey if im wrong. I know with certainty that we will win this. We will break the back of the curve. We will break the back of the virus. And then we can responsibly begin to open up our economy and our society, get back on our feet again. Get back to being ourselves as one new jersey family. We are all in this together. Our coronavirus web page is ur way to watch this pandemic. Washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Ming up, the coronavirus pandemics impact on jobs and the u. S. Economy and then politico education reporter talks about how quell education is changing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Watch this morning. Join the discussion. President trump and the Coronavirus Task force held a briefing updating the governments response to the pandemic. Ir. Corrects thank you very much. Do i thank you