State emergency that we are all experiencing. I am join today second nate smith as normal. Am also joined by stacy hurst, who will talk shortly about our parks, state park and outside recreational activities. I was previously joined by director a. J. Gary, who had to leave because he has a few other things going, including responding to the tornado in jonesboro. So he has got two crisis on his hands, and i appreciate his work as well. Yesterday as we reported, we had 426 covid19 cases in arkansas. Today we have 473 cases, which is an addition of 47. We have 62 who are hospitalized, and we have one new county, which is arkansas county. We have an additional death to the total. We now have seven deaths as a result of covid19. And again, dr. Smith will provide more details. I am going to turn it over to him for his comments, and then secretary hurst, and i will follow that with two announcements today. Thank you, governor. I want to give a little bit more detail on our numbers. As the governor has mentioned, we did have a jumpup of 47 to a total of 473. The break down between male and emale remains about 60 female , and our racial distribution is about the same, 74 white and 15 africanamerican. We have 17 children aged 18 or adults, 65 er years or older, and 307 aged 1864. We have, as reported yesterday, six pregnant women. We have 37 who have diabetes. That is plus one. Heart disease, 36. That is plus four. Chronic lung disease, 22, that is plus one. We still have ten with chronic kidney disease, and we are plus one to 12 on those with immunocompromising conditions. We have 71 we know were related to domestic travel. That is up two. 73 who are Health Care Workers. That is up six from yesterday. As the governor mentioned, we have 62 hospitalized. That is up 19 from yesterday. That is a substantial jump. Yesterday we had a slight decrease of five. We have 47 in nursing homes. That is up four, and we now have an additional nursing home that has a case. So we are up to a total of five nursing homes. We have 21 who are on ventilators. That is up five from yesterday. The governor mentioned we will have one additional death. This is an individual who is over the age of 65, and this was our first nursing home related death. We have 29 who have recovered. That is up 29. We have one new county, arkansas county. A couple of things i want to mention briefly. The question has come up to me about outside sports activities. Outside sports activities are just fine as long as you can maintain at least a sixfoot distance. Again, if it is a tennis match, for example, that is fine. Before and after, dont start coming so close together that you then spread the sports, other Outdoor Activities are great as long as there is at least a six foot distance between individuals. State parks, the secretary of state will talk more about that. Great place to do something during this time outside, there are plenty of opportunities spread apart, good ventilation, uv radiation from the sun, which inactivates viruses, but be mindful. So close together when you are waiting to go on the trail or whatever. Outofstate travelers, we have states around us that have some hotspots and we have to be mindful. Especially at our state parks, from are enjoyed by people our state and other states, as well. Just be mindful that the people around, you need to do social distancing so you are not at risk of covid19 potentially from an outofstate traveler. There is a question that has come up about the prohibition on social gatherings of more than 10, and i think thats a good rule. Its a directive. And it is designed to protect the people of arkansas from transmission of covid19, but we need to be thoughtful and mindful about how we apply it. 10 or less is not all the same. If there are 10 of your family members who you are around all the time and none of them are sick, thats one thing. If you are standing shouldertoshoulder with 10 people from 10 different states who you dont know, that is a different thing all together. It only takes one person to transmit covid19 to the other nine. So even when you are in smaller groups and outside, still keep that healthy distance, at least six feet to prevent transmission. With that, ill turn it back over to the governor. I kepttchinson listening for the words basketball and i didnt hear it in his comments, but that is very practical counsel Health Advice that you have given. Secretary hearst, i have asked her to be here to talk about our state parks and we have had some concern about congregating in our state parks, people wanting to utilize the outdoors and i ask her to point out the actions that have been taken. Governorst thank you, hutchinson and secretary smith. Parks are currently open. But we have taken pretty extensive measures to reduce the risk for our visitors and our staff. A couple of examples, all of this is listed on our state parks website. But a couple of examples for you today. We have closed lodges. We have limited camping to rvs, selfcontained r. V. Units only. Ande closed bath houses Visitor Centers at state parks are largely closed. Museums and exhibits are closed. We have also moved to a contact less checkin system for camping, and so that will reduce the contact between visitors and our staff. We want to continue to provide this valuable resource to the public, but we need everyone to take very seriously the responsibility they have to help flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus. The numberone thing people need to do is practice social distancing. Even though you are outside, you need to avoid congregating in groups and we hope that will not continue to happen. Our state parks team of rangers, interpreters, and the attendance will be diving around and monitoring such activity, such congregating. They will remind you of your responsibility to practice social distancing. Thank you. Gov. Hutchinson thank you, stacy and now, let me make two announcements and give you a little background first. Previously, the state allocated 30 million to acquire protective equipment for those on the front line, doctors, nurses, medical professionals, Health Care Workers, and first responders. That 30 million has allowed us to move forward on the supply chain to lock in some of the supply delivery dates so we should be receiving those fairly shortly as well as what we have received from the national stockpile. Based upon the demand and the need thats out there and projecting the future, that 30 Million Investment in protective equipment is not going to be sufficient to last us through this crisis and thats very clear. So based upon what the legislature did in creating a covid19 rainy day fund, im announcing the approval of 45 million in additional funds to go toward purchase of the personal protective equipment in addition, the purchase of ventilators as they become available in the marketplace. We have to allocate those funds in advance in order to get in the supply chain and we are looking at just not what we need tomorrow and 30 days, but we are having to look at what we need 60 days down the road. And i want to thank the General Assembly, particularly speaker shepherd and the speaker for setting up this fund and for their Quick Response in approving this emergency measure. And so thats 45 million in additional funds to go to those the protective equipment that is needed by those on the front line. Secondly, let me give you more background of our challenge here. I was on a call with the president earlier today as well as other governors and the vice president. Clearly, their focus is on the hot spots from new york city to california to new orleans. And so as they are devoting an enormous amount of resources to those venues, it makes most it makes it even more challenging for states like arkansas to get in that supply chain. We could place an order and the department of defense might come in and say well, we need that. Or it might be new york offering a premium. So we are having to compete in a very difficult marketplace. I spoke with one supplier today and said his demand is 64 more than his capacity to produce. And thats a sellers market. They dictate the price and dictate the terms to a certain extent. So we are having to work in that environment and we are doing it by the state being engaged in larger purchasers so we can compete with the others that are around the country and internationally looking at the acquisition of same things we are trying to acquire. The second announcepment i wanted to make today that under the cares act, the federal legislation that congress passed, the state will receive federal funds to meet the needs of this crisis. This is a significant amount of money that will be coming into arkansas. You can see the significant need because i just recited 75 million just in shortterm acquisition of protective equipment. And so, we are going to have a significant amount of federal funds coming in between now and the end of the year, actually come in sooner than that but will have to be allocated between now and the end of the year. Today, i signed an executive order setting up a 15member Steering Committee made up of my administration and members of six members of the General Assembly to guide and make recommendations on the use of the federal money as they come in. This will be a Steering Committee that will work between now and december 30. Their duties will expire because that funding at that point will expire, as well. The members of the General Assembly were appointed based upon recommendations of the speaker and senate pro tem, and i look forward to that Steering Group to guide as we allocate funding in the future for the emerging needs we have. With that, i will be happy to take any questions. Reporter for the calendar year . Gov. Hutchinson the calendar year. The funds should be available from the feds within the next 30 days, but it has to be spent between march 1 and december 30, calendar year. Reporter how much in federal funds. Gov. Hutchinson we anticipate 1. 25 million in federal funds. Can the fund can be used to fill budget holes . Gov. Hutchinson no. It states it will be used for costs relating to the covid19 crisis and we are looking for further interpretations, but i do not anticipate that can be used for filling the holes in the budget, even though the postponement of the tax deadline and filing deadline as a result of the covid19 crisis. We are looking for clear guidance on that, but i do not anticipate that. Reporter what kind of things do you think that might be spent on . Gov. Hutchinson it is going to be used for the acquisition of hospital beds that might be needed, the ventilators, respirators. The equipment that i have identified and the length of the acquisitions is undetermined because we could have this summer, this spring issue with covid19 and we dont know whats going to happen next year with it, so part of it could be the Current Crisis in meeting the needs and costs, but it also could be looking to the future with how we deal with this might be with us next year and what we need to do in preparation for that. Reporter are you looking into doing anything for emt workers . Ambulances and those kind of guys . Gov. Hutchinson yes, ill let dr. Smith articulate where they are on the priorities. We are mindful and we know they need this equipment as well. Do you want to address that more clearly . Dr. Smith e. M. T. s and Emergency Medical Services are part of our priority system. Asiously, we have not had much ppe as we want and we need, but they are definitely a priority, there. Since we license where we are in close communication with them, but we can give specifics, i dont have those numbers. I can get specifics come about. Reporter in terms of the s . Censure dr. Smith in terms of licensures, in our state, we have a lot of people who are licensed as e. M. T. s who are not actually working as e. M. T. s, so i think we have a good pool of people to draw upon, but im not sure im understanding your question exactly. Gov. Hutchinson i think it relates to the fact that we expedited the licensors of nurses, physicians. In fact, that number has gone up from what we did with nurses. We will look at those requirements for the emt and if needed, we will try to expedite that. That is something we will measure the need and what we can do to increase capacity for those in the field. Restrictions on casinos expire tomorrow, is that right . Gov. Hutchinson they will be extended. Mike . There haver. Smith, been discussions at the National Levels about deaths. Do you have productions projections of deaths in arkansas . Have any we dont formal projection on deaths for arkansas. There are a lot of things that , and wethat equation are still learning in the u. S. What we should estimate as our case fatality rate. The portion of those infected who ultimately die, probably a more practical ratio is the number of hospitalized individuals who will not make it. I think that is going to be different in the u. S. Than it has in some other countries, so yes, we have been looking at deaths as an estimate, but we dont have a formal projection. Reporter question on testing. The New York Times compiled some data and it showed arkansas was one of the five worst states per capita testing. How do you feel about that . What is keeping us from doing more testing . Gov. Hutchinson well, id like to see that article and that actually surprises me, because we have really worked early in terms of developing our testing expanded. And it has i willing knowledge, as every small state is not new york or california or illinois or new orleans, that every state is not a hotspot. Is struggling to get we have the equipment. It is to get the testing kits that we need to be able to do the testing, and so that is our challenge. That is why i was on the phone with multiple labs today saying to numeral us up in priority in terms of getting those testing kits . We rely on the private sector labs. Developen umss capacity. They are struggling in the same way to get the testing kits and our department of health have to theo manual processing of lab tests because we dont have the kits to do our automation and the faster acceleration of the tests, so yes, we have challenges that some other states dont have because cdc, other vendors have put priority on those hotspots. Wellbelieve that continue to improve that. We can measure a lot of different measure the hospitalizations, measure our different current testing but we do work to increase that capacity. I think i would want to see the numbers on that. We have done quite a few tests, if you count the department of health, uma s, and other labs. There are other states in a far worse situation. One of their state labs completely ran out of reagents. This is a problem that is across multiple states, not just ours, but we are struggling with it. Just because of supply chain issues, but i dont have any evidence it is worse here than it is many other places. This backlog we are hearing about actually analyzing in sebastian county, 13 negative tests and saturday jump to 23 . [inaudible] dr. Smith the backlog is not at the department of health lab or at some of the commercial labs. There were some of the first that announced they would be doing this testing. I think they just got flooded. They operate across the country. I think they got more samples do. They could possibly they had a reagents issues for a request, stopped doing it, now they are back on again. Some of the stronger ones have had pretty good turnaround and we gotten results from them within two days. It is not the same across all the commercial labs, but depending on which lab a hospital or clinic was sending two, they might have significant backlogs with their commercial lab. Beinger as far as tests waited to be analyzed waiting to be analyzed in arkansas . Dr. Smith i have no way of knowing. The tests that have been sent off and have not been analyzed because we found out find out about those at the department of health when the lab results come to us. For the most part, we have an Electronic Laboratory reporting. Basketball . The governor brought it up. Dr. Smith if the governor wants to play basketball by himself and preferably outside, i think that will be perfectly fine. Gov. Hutchinson i want you to know i am doing that, by myself, outside. You can see me practice a little bit. Gamee given up my friday with 10 people, fullcourt basketball, and thats probably well, that is a vacuum in my life, but we give up things and thats important. Reporter the numbers youve seen so far and the model , are youns strengthening your directives, recommendations regarding groups, gatherings . Gov. Hutchinson the measure it everyday day. Dr. Smith and i look at what we need to do based upon the data that we have, and as i said yesterday, our rate of cases are notn accelerating the rate we see in other states. Obviously, we will continue to measure that. We look at everyday and what we need to tighten up, but i think we are doing the right thing right now. I also want to say that we continue to look at our modeling, and i hope that tomorrow, we will have an update on where we are and where we see us going. Reporter on the nursing homes, the residents who test positive . Dr. Smith in terms of details on the nursing homes, we did have a single case at a nursing home in eric holder perrigold, green acres nursing home and we will be testing and have a plan to test all the residents and all the workers there, but so far, we just have the one positive resident. Weve had some additional cases. We had two additional cases at whitehall, and the others have remained the same. Reporter [inaudible] dr. Smith total of six in whitehall. Reporter employees . Dr. Smith we had an additional employee at whitehall, and that is the only additional worker that we have had since last since i reported yesterday. Reporter one employee at whitehall total . Dr. Smith yes. Reporter can you tell us about any of the infected versus werent wearing protective gear . Or any Health Care Workers . Dr. Smith i dont have any information on that come on the i know all the places that the workers are have been trained and provided what they need to protect themselves, but these exposures likely occurred before the first case was identified. Reporter of the recovery, do we know how many people were on ventilators at one point . Dr. Smith in terms of total iat have been on ventilators, have that information but i dont have it with me. Point. Me at this i will come back with that information later. Reporter any special emphasis womenice, suggestions for who are carrying or whose delivery may be imminent . Fortunately, we havent seen worse outcomes in pregnant women who were infected with covid19, nor have we seen at particular risk to their babies, but we are watching that very carefully. We dont have a lot of experience with that. Abouts been some press what women coming in who are pregnant and then not being covid19, butr that later test positive and that can occur really with anyone. Someone can come into the hospital without symptoms, but actually be incubating infection. At this point, we have not seen correlation between covid19 and adverse pregnancy outcomes, but we are watching that very carefully. Reporter information if someone high positive from a contact area like a Walmart Grocery store, gas station . Dr. Smith absolutely. Our contact investigation suggests a large exposure, then we will take whatever appropriate actions are. If it is a situation where we can directly contact the individuals who have been exposed, we do that because that is the most effective way. If it is a setting where we cant, then we would put out a press release so that those who did have the exposure could come forward. Reporter any update on the unemployment claims that have been filed today . How is that system still working . Gov. Hutchinson we had over 30,000 claims that were filed and processed up until this weekend and so i dont know what the latest number is today, but is still anat there accessed in and in terms of being able to get through our telephone lines and again, we are calling on people to be patient. Weare upgrading our i. T. , brought in next or personnel to process those claims and to answer the calls. We will continue to monitor that. Reporter [inaudible] av. Hutchinson weve got report coming up soon, so our april report will be out in a matter of days. Again, there is no indication that this months collections target because we are one month behind, and so the first month impact will be next month. I anticipate this month that we will be fine. Reporter do you expect we are in unprecedented times. Are you expecting to have a revised fiscal year 2021 budget to present the legislature on the first day of the fiscal session . Gov. Hutchinson i met over the weekend with secretary walter and his budget team, and there will be a need to revise next years budget and let me get my language right. Be a need to revise the revenue forecast. The budget we presented is based upon the Revenue Stabilization act, and that should work fine, even though the revenue forecast might be lowered and it will be lowered to some extent. So we havent gotten exact numbers. Secretary walther will release that when he has that exit action. Reporter will it be before the fiscal session . Gov. Hutchinson they should be before the fiscal session. One last question. On unemployment benefits, we are hearing from a lot of people concerned about the beginning of the month. [inaudible] to prevent addiction notices at this time . Gov. Hutchinson i expect to landlords, bankers to act responsibly and compassionately during this time, and everything i have indicates that they are. If we see problems out there or willr behavior, then we take another look at that, but i think the marketplace is working as it should, with compassion under the circumstances, but we will continue to look at that and see what needs to be done in the future. If we decide we are at the peak at some point, say six weeks down the line, and we start to see a significant dropoff, when do you decide to say that we can go out and about again . Lesson from china or wherever you are getting your ideas . Gov. Hutchinson well, that you dont want to release two quick too quick. That is something based on the guidance of dr. Smith. Him, thee listening to national experts, as well to make those judgments as we need to. Thank you all very much. If you miss any of our live coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus outbreak, watch it any time at fromn. Org coronavirus, daily briefings by the president and the White House Task force to updates from governors of the hardest hit states. It is all there. Use the charts and maps to track the viruss global spread and confirmed cases in the u. S. County by county. Our coronavirus webpages are fast and easy way to watch cspans unfiltered coverage of this pandemic. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago, but our mission continues. To provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year, we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process, and now, the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free visio review at and be part of the conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or our social media feed. Cspan, created by private industry, americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you by your cable provider. Next, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo briefs reporters. New york has the highest number of deaths and positive coronavirus cases in the united states. This is 40 minutes. Gov, cuomo good afternoon. And thank you for taking the time for being here today. To my far right, the new york state director of emergency anagement who is next to raymond shields from the department of military naval affairs. Dr. Howard zucker, commissioner of