News from the holy oaks home. On sunday night, Lieutenant Governor, secretary and i first learned of the tragic situation that was unfolding at the holy oaks home. As of today, there are 13 confirmed deaths at the facility with at least six attributed to covid19. Someone who visited this amazing place on multiple occasions and found it to be a source of joy and grace and comfort and kindness for the residents their families and the staff that works there this episode is a gutwrenching loss that is nothing short of devastating to all of us. Our hearts go out to the families and the loved ones and the staff who have been so horribly impacted by this series of events. We have Public Health experts on the ground conducting thorough review of the Health Status of all the residents and staff there. We spoke to several members new team on the ground there this morning. Immediate steps have been taken such as implementing clinical command team and testing all patients and staff at the facility. Were also deploying wide variety of available resources to help them. This includes the National Guard, resources from the state personal protective equipment supply and medical professionals from other state facilities. I want to extend on behalf all of us our deepest sympathies to the members of the holy oaks home and their community. There are many of our states finest all of whom served our country and all of whom who sacrificed on our behalf. I will need to say this in advance. Our primary focus is going to be on stabilizing and supporting the health and safety of the residents and their families and we will get to the bottom of what happened and when and by who. As we continue in this battle againstagainst covid19, we had to take unprecedented measures to stop the spread of the virus. About a week ago as many you know, i issued an emergency order requiring closure of nonessential businesses that was in effect until tuesday april 7th. I directed department of Public Health to issue stayathome advisory for all residents in the commonwealth. This weekend, the federal government announced an extension to the White House Coronavirus social distancing guidelines that would be in effect until april 30th. As they state the peak surge of the virus to come nationally some time in the next two weeks. They stated that by extending the distancing guidelines through april, their hope is to mitigate the spread of virus and reduce amount of people across the country that could potentially contract the disease. Here in massachusetts, weve taken some of the earliest and most aggressive steps. In the country to slow the spread of this virus. We must continue to be aggressive in our pursuit. Today, im announcing an extension of the time line for nonessential businesses to keep their physical workplaces and facility closed to all workers customers and the public until may 4th. This new designation services will take Effect Tomorrow april 1st at noon. This order also extends the 10person limit on social gatherings until may 40. 4th. Were issuing updated of list and organizations that provide essential services and workforces related to covid19 that will continue to operate during this time period. Ill get into more detail what this entails in a minute. I want everybody to know that we appreciate the huge impact on our economy and our daily lives that these decisions have and they have not been made lightly. Based on the fact on the ground, our department of Public Health guidance to extend the stayathome advisory outlining selfisolation and social distancing protocols needs to remain in effect through may 4th as well. I know this is difficult to hear. We need everyone to continue to go without being around many of your family and most of your friends for your own health and safety and for the health and safety of your family, your friends and others. Most of you know my weekly visits with my 91yearold father, are phone calls. As i said previously, neither one of us are very good at that. I miss him. Thats just the way it is. Its the way it should be. Its the way all of us need to be as purposeful as we can be in dealing with the contagious nature of this virus. For State Government workers were also issuing an extension of the guidance to the executive branch employees regarding working from home that we put in place previously and that will also be extended until may 4th. As we get ready to face what were printing to predicting to be surge here in massachusetts these actions will improve our ability to mitigate the spread of covid19 and the impact the surge has on our Healthcare System. We know that for many businesses and individuals, the measures that have been put in place have come at a very high cost. This includes the many local and home grown Small Businesses in massachusetts that we are so proud of. For them and for many others, it is not been an easy time. We respect that. We know that todays news wont make it any easier. I know i speak for me and the Lieutenant Governor when you say weve had many conversations with businesses across the commonwealth that were deem nonessential. Its concerning that is to them, with respect to the ongoing nature and potentially the future of their operations, they understand why were doing it and why its an important step to ensure the health and safety of them and their employees and others here in the commonwealth. If we can limit face to face, persontoperson contact now. We can slow the spread and get back to work as soon as and safely as possibly can. Last week most people know, we posted a specific list of business categories that we considered to be essential supporting the commonwealth through this emergency. As a result, weve updated the categories and some of these changes include, clarity around the supply chain, that supports other essential services, adding Healthcare Providers like optometrist and chiropractors. Expanding types of workers providing disinfectant and sanitation services. Based on the new guidance, we directed the department of Public Health to issue order for hotellens and motels and shortterm rentals like airbnb. They should be used with limited purpose only. For example, as housing, for front line healthcare workers or massachusetts residents who have been otherwise displaced from their homes or to house workers who are part of our essential Business Community. The point here is to reserve these spaces for people who need them as a result of circumstances that relate to or caused by covid19 or other emergencies. Hotels in shortterm rentals like airbnb, may no longer be booked for vacation or leisure purposes. People should really be using common sense on this one. Should not be going on vacation right now. As weve said in our advisory and as many other Public Officials at the state, federal and local level have said, people should be staying at home. As weve stated before, essential businesses need to and will continue to operate. Restaurants and other businesses may continue to offer food for takeout and delivery if they follow the social distancing measures that weve put in place. Were extremely grateful for the many Grocery Store workers, gas station attendant, farmers, local, state and federal Government Employee and others who continue to go to work and provide these necessary essential services to the residents of the commonwealth. This updated list will be published later today at www. Www. Mass. Gov covid19. Our dialogue with the Business Community has been very productive and some ways supportive of many of the initiatives that we pursued with respect to finding essential workers and businesses. Theres confusion out there. As we all know this is an unprecedented situation. Employee with question should review the covid19 essential Services Frequently Asked questions, created by the executive office of housing and Economic Development which well update to reflect the revised list of essential services were talking about today. Theres a way for businesses to contact and engage with Economic Development on their website and over the course of the past several weeks there have been thousands of back and forth between our team and folks in the Business Community about clarification and engagement. We would urge people to begin by reading through all the information first before they reach out. I like to take a minute to once again thank everyone, especially those at home for their diligence in adhering to this stayathome advisory. People are doing the right thing and theyre not going to work and theyre not going to school. People are pushing off life events like weddings and family reunions and hardest of all, people are missing out on important time spent with loved ones. We weve asked lot of people. Theres more that must be done. Everyone should continue to avoid unnecessary close contact with others and when you go to the Grocery Store or pharmacy stay 6 feet away from the person nearest you. Go outside, go for a walk and go to the park but dont do it in big groups. Dont play basketball just because you can. Or sit on the beach all day with your friends. We cannot have big groups at our parks. Were considering taking some steps. Everyone else need to do their part too. Please continue to do what you can to avoid big groups. We know this is difficult. If these next few weeks will be critical to mitigating the spread of the disease and ensuring our Healthcare System is prepared for what is yet to come. As i mentioned earlier, were extenting the guidance that we issued to executive branch employees to make sure were keeping State Government running and providing key services to those who need it. While still protecting the health and safety of our workforce and the public. All employees performing what weve called functions are able to work remotely should continue to do so until may 4th. Excuse me the closure of school and nonemergency child care programs for may 4th. Executive branch employees that have been required to report to work and need alternative child care arrangements are encouraged to review the list of exempt emergency child care providers. I remind folks many of the Services Offered about the commonwealth that are public or customer facing are provided in person. People should use online tools if they can and many of the other ones are available by appointment only. Yesterday we talked about some of the ways our covid19 Response Command Center is working to establish extensions to the state existing hospital capacity. The command senior begun working with longterm care facilities to establish dedicated still nursing facilities to care for individuals affected we covid19. Individual who are stable, still need medical care can be transferred to recover relieving pressure on hospitals. As we plan for the surge, we requested and received approval for field medical station through fema that will provide additional medical care capacity. This facility is intended to lower acuity care needs that increases local healthcare capacity during largescale emergencies. The commonly wealth has requested three of these stations. This week we received preview from the federal government to deploy 250bed facility at the dcu interest in wooster. It will be used to treat lower acuity patients who still need monitoring. The facility will be stood up starting tomorrow when three tractortrailers will arrive in wooster with the necessary gear and equipment. As far as how grateful we are umass memorial in wooster to step up to staff the facility for the commonwealth. They will lead the daytoday running of the facility once its up. Will support from state and local partners. This facility is another important Building Block and our effort to expand existing healthcare capacity. Were identifying other site and partners to two other facility locations. Let me close by saying this. The next couple of weeks will be critical in this battle. Everyone needs to play their part. People need to stay home as much as possible. Follow the essential business orders weve put in place. Use good personal hygiene and follow the social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread. It will make a huge difference in this fight to everyone here in the commonwealth. At the same time, we understand just how much weve been asking of all of you. Weve asked to stay home to not go to work, to not go to school, to skip weddings, skip funerals, skip going to the houses of worship for many people that are critical to their spiritual development. Weve asked you to miss out on important precious time spent with family traineds. We know we are asking a lot. I want to conclude the same way i started. By pointing out how important it is how purposeful it is that we all take seriously these issues associated with distance. It is in many respects our single biggest weapon in battling covid19. On behalf of Lieutenant Governor and myself and rest of us working on this issue everyday i want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to the nurses and doctors and front line medical workers and First Responders for all that they do. I want to say thank you to our National Guard for getting out there every single day and providing support to our men and women in Public Safety and fire and ems. To the Public Sector workers at the state, federal and local level, i want to thank you all for showing up and serving. To all those essential workers who work with essential businesses that do very important things to keep people in massachusetts healthy and safe, god bless and thank you for all you do as well. The state is filled with remarkable people and remarkable communities. Time and again, we have watched them rise together, to fight, to battle and to win. We are about to enter what will be perhaps the most difficult Period Associated with this particular virus and theres no doubt in my mind Lieutenant Governors mind or anybody elses around here, you will all perform above and beyond. Thank you. I will turn it over to secretary sutter. Thank you Lieutenant Governor, good afternoon. Starting late sunday night, and through monday, a series of actions were taken to ensure a safe environment for our residents at hoya soldiers home and staff. As you know, we quickly acted with the nurse who has served with distinction as the chief executive officer of western mass hospital to assume immediate responsibility for the administration of the hoya oak soldier home. We immediately put together a clinical command team who is on site and who has been on site since monday morning and responsible for Rapid Response to the outbreak of covid19. Also, on site today is the National Guard. The command center command Team Includes people who do not know her. Shes a registered nurse and Healthcare Executive where she served with the distinction for. Six years at western mass hospital and she previously served as coo there for six years. Shes been supervise, hospice nurse and rn in the icu. Joining her is lisa columbo who is doctor of nurseing. Joining them includes cheryl poppy whod the current superintendent of the soldiers home and was four months the acting superintendent of holy oaks soldier home. Along with Mohammed Darr and practice internal medicine in west roxbury. Two nurses one who was fema Incident Commander and also joining is the new director of nursing at the holy oaks soldiers home. We continue to add staff to the team. Our priority is ensure that the home is stabilized. There are 13 deaths as you heard, 6 are covid positive, five pending one negative and one known. 100 of facility veterans and staff are tested for covid19. We rolled out our mobile testing team for Nursing Homes. We started it today in holy oaks. Weve created a family hotline at 413 5524764 its a dedicated line to check on your Family Members and staff by social workers. Its available monday through saturday. Were obviously working with the unions and the staff to ensure everyone is safe. Today, we rolled out weve been planning to do this end of last wook, weve been finalizing. We understand how difficult the social distancing and restrictions that have been in place in Nursing Homes assisted living residents and other Senior Housing facilities. We are asking for public and families who are understandably concerned about their love one, to please redouble their effort to maintain vigilance to social distancing and the visitation restrictions. Reach out regularly by phone or other communication means please do not visit. Managers of thee types of Senior Housing facilities are doing everything were asking them to keep our older residents safe but they need to continue help from the public and families can ensure spread of the virus. As you know we continue to expand testing capacities so massachusetts can continue to isolate positive cases and prevent further spread. Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable. We need to provide expedited testing and treatment to identify appropriately care for them. Today we implemented a Pilot Project that allows for safe on site testing of residents of Nursing Homes with a quick turn around. The pilot is operateed under the massachusetts National Guard in partnership with the department of Public Health and institute of cambridge. The pilot allows for safe on site Sample Collection by Trained Personnel from the massachusetts National Guard. The program tests systematic residents in the homes or wherever they are living with a quick turn around. Elder populations in high density environments, such as the facilities are some of the most vulnerable. The National Guard is mobilized operationallized. They are operationize today. Well have seven mobile teams around the state. We expect to have seven teams in response to Nursing Homes, the sample collected from the resident will be transported to our state Public Health lab and prioritized testing by the brody institute which expect them to be turned around in 24 to 48 hours. Prior to the launch, only way for nursing home residents to be tested was to go to a hospital or physician office. Questions . [indiscernible] two things, one is the order is not exactly like the order in vermont. Its a lot like the order in vermont. The platforms like airbnb actually put out guidance to their customers and to their operators saying these are the terms, these are the conditions associated with the order that was put in place. We expect them to do the same thing here in massachusetts. Local officials will have the ability to shut these down if they find them. I fully expect there will be place where is this will be a big deal. The biggest one is the cape. Certainly bircher county too. [indiscernible] there have been some. Most of that has been done at the local level. Im looking at the Lieutenant Governor, she get these calls. I dont remember a local government that wanted to shut down nonessential business that have trouble doing so. For the most part, if the locals say, youre not an essential business, its pretty hard for them to stay hope if we dont believe they are and theyre not on our list. [indiscernible] i get little nervous about speculating too much about this. Its never happened before. Its a tough thing to draw a lot of experience or conclusions about. I think what i can say is that much of the work that weve done over the course of the past several weeks in terms of the shutdown and the Economic Impact of that and the work thats being done by the command center builds out additional capacity been about reducing size of the summer and spreading it out over a longer period of time. If you look at the data people had from massachusetts three week ago and the data now, it has moved. The surge has moved back with respect to where people thought it was going to be. Were currently in the process of dealing with gear that personnel and what i would describe geographic recognition of where we anticipate and expect were going to need to put lot of that stuff to ensure that we have the resources in place to serve the need. Im not really going to speculate on what happens after that. Its very hard to tell first of all how long it might be. Secondly im expecting that we will get lot of guidance from Public Health experts and others based on what actually happens and what the facts look like. There have been i read three papers that have been published on sort of life after the surge. They have some commonality to them. They have some differences in them. I think the best i would say, at this point, our view is, lets do all the things we can to get through the surge now and then well deal with what comes through the other side. Were having constant conversations with folks in the Business Community, gathering ideas, collecting information. I dont think we should be speculating about this until we get to the other side. [indiscernible] what i can tell you now, the conversation that the Lieutenant Governor, secretary and i had with the mayor on sunday night was the first time we were made aware of this. We do not want we will deal with that. In the shortterm, our goal was to put as many as secretary said, our goal in the shortterm was to put many qualified resources at holy oaks home as we could and start doing the work of dealing with the health and safety issues with the resident and staff. I want to go back to what i said before at the holy oaks home. It is a really special place. I cant tell you how different this story is than the reality of what that place has been like day for day for literally decades. It is a happy joyous, fun graceful and kind place. Filled withthose kind of people. You spend time with the residents and their Family Members who are visiting, the thing you hear over and over again, from it Family Members, i wouldnt want my Family Member any place outside of here. This the best place we could have dreamed of putting them. They are our First Priority at this point. I asked if she could go out to holy oaks she knows the facility well and served as acting superintendent for four month. I wanted to ensure that doing that did not create that. Shes a very strong management team. Shes very strong second deputy. She felt quite comfortable in going to holy oak for couple of days to help us stabilize the place. [indiscernible] as governor said this was to us late sunday night and immediately went into action of stabilizing, putting Different Administration in place for monday. I cant actually answer the detail of your question. That is one of the things that we need to understand, when the individual died, when were they tested who is notified if their family. Thats part of what we need to really understand. Also in terms of notification of the chain. Heres a critical reporting process in health and Human Services and these were not reported. [indiscernible] i believe theres been two. Let me confirm back to you how many confirm the cases there were. No deaths. [indiscernible] first of all im not privy to what happened in court today. What i can tell you we on the doc Side Department of corrections side, we had an incident at Bridgewater State hospital. Theres some debate about whether people were up front with respect to their physical status. As a result, we have a number of cases there. They have been isolated in the facility. We do not have any cases inside the rest of the doc system. We have several guards, Correctional Officers who tested positive. They are isolated and quarantining at home. Weve had conversations with the folks in the county correctional system about this. I think we all feel that this is not unless theres instances where a medical parole that can go some place that make sense or parole that has lined up a place to go in the community with support services. This is a very difficult time to be putting people into the community. Unless you really believe thats going to be better for them and better for the community. I think our view is we dont buy as a matter of law fact or policy, that the argument thats being made before the court is the correct one. We believe the correct position is for us to continue to do the things were doing to keep people inside the system safe. Thats going to be the way we play this one. If the courts make a ruling thats different, were going to read it and incorporate it in the way we make decisions. We do not believe that the advocate representation of the facts or the policies or whats best for inmates or for the communities is the right one. [indiscernible] pardon me . [indiscernible] i believe the way this works, there was a special master who wrote up an agreement, potential settlement agreement, which was rejected by both sides. Which is why theres hearing in front of the court now. [indiscernible] weve said several things about this issue. The first is, to bang a drum that i bang every time im here, telehealth is a covered benefit in massachusetts. People should be using it. Its the best, easiest most effective way to keep somebody whos systematic and clinician operated from each other but able to engage in a covered benefit, conversation and discussion to determine what should happen next. Point number one, recovery benefit, telehealth, you should use it. If you are systematic, call your clinician and engage them in a conversation video chat. That stuff is covered. If systematic, go to buoy. Org that has millions and millions of data points that have been collected over the course of the past five years to get guidance. If the guidance you should talk to a provider, using telehealth, that system can send you to a provider. The thing we can do to encourage people to engage in a conversation about their health and their Health Status without necessarily put facetoface things to do. Second thing with respect to the guidance that guidance is consistent with the guidance issued by lot of other states and by lot of Public Health authorities. The third thing i would say, we are continuing to chase ppe. Personal protective equipment for First Responders, Healthcare Providers and nurses and doctors. Im hoping well have more positive information to share ton that later this week. We do agree, they need more gear. Weve said that for two weeks. Engaged in lot of really interesting conversations with our colleagues a the federal level about that. [indiscernible] were waiting for the legislature to act on that one. We both tend to be optimistic about this sort of thing. Weve had several conversations at the leadership. They know this is an issue. They know its a problem. They know it needs to get fixed. Clock is ticking obviously. I havent talked to commissioner reilly or secretary pizer about this. We should probably engage. We would like to be able to have the legislate adventure legislature to make this possible. We would like to see the flexibility with respect to the mcas test kit get put in place. Those are the things we got commitment from the legislature to act on. We would like to see that happen. It creates uncertainty and confusion. We get that. I think they have the ability to sort of provide some cushion on this. Law is in effect and School District said to us things were sort of business as usual. District said to us, we need 10 days. They would say fine. I think the game plan here is hope that some time in the future the legislature can get us a bill without putting the district and the administration in a bad place with respect to something everybody aagrees thats important. Especially for the districts that are required to file those District Improvement plans. [indiscernible] this is source of constant conversation between Lieutenant Governor, local officials myself, the secretary, the folks at the command center. Whats the right amount of effort and the right amount of guidance thats associated with some of these issues. What i would say to you, we believe, based on the conversations we have and what we see ourselves that most people are taking these issues with respect to distancing and staying at home and recognizing and understanding the importance of reducing eliminateing persontoperson contact seriously. The decision we made to close down the bars and the restaurants came after a lot of the behavior we saw the weekend before st. Patricks day. It was very clear at that point nobody was there were lot of people who werent paying attention to the guidance that we put out at that point in time. With respect to the parks some other issues, every tool in the tool box is there. Well use them if we need them. We try to make those decisions based on what we see happening. [indiscernible] well, keep in mind when two weeks ago, we had a 50person call center working in the department, division of unemployment assistance. An established call center in the hurley building. We have 500person remote call center. They scaled up by 10 to enhance their ability to both take incoming calls and to call people back calling with questions. I said couple of things here before that i think are worth repeating. One of them is, when someone fills out that application, if someone part of the unemployment system, if theyre not, they are not contract employees or selfemployed, they contribute to the unemployment system. This is the way the Unemployment Insurance system works. For the most parters the people who qualify are are the people who pay in. The people who pay in are people who work for businesses where they contribute to the system. If youre in that system, if your employer is in that system you need to put the name of your business or the business you work for exactly as it appears on your w2 on to the application. If you dont get that right, the application will kick. Thats one of the main issues associated with applications that dont pass the first time. If your application passes the first time, your Social Security number check, address checks, all that stuff checks, you typically get paid 7 to 10 days. First time you get paid. They are working to process a lot of the stuff thats come through thats kicked out and constantly working down through those people who have submitted through whatever reason, their application didnt process the first time. With respect to the people who arent in the unemployment system, community that we spoke to our colleagues its important we do something to make sure that the folks who arent in the unemployment system has some access to something. We support what the federal government is seeking to do here. Which is to create a benefit thats never been done before, for people who arent in the unemployment system. Only information we have on these people for the most part is if they file taxes in massachusetts. Question number one to the feds, this is not just us, this is every state how do you want to frame, how you count what these people make and what they should receive through a secondary unemployment system. Recognizing that you dont currently have, except tax return, any data in your system about what that should be. Should it be 70 of what they filed on their w2 or state tax form. Whats the mechanism to determining what those individuals should be paid. Once we get that guidance from the federal government about how they want us to structure that, well do everything we can to set the thing up and move it quickly as we can. We know how important this is to people. Im glad the federal government recognized that theres a community that worked hard. I said before, were doing lot of things to try to get people to stay at home. We put out a travel advisory that we hand out at the airport. If youre not from massachusetts, we expect you to selfquarantine for 14 days. If you come here. Theres ton of evidence that because massachusetts is one of the few states in the northeast thats legalized Recreational Marijuana, if we make Recreational Marijuana available as an essential business, remember medical marijuana is available as an essential business. If we make Recreational Marijuana available, were going to have to deal that people will come here from all over the place across the northeast and create issues for us with respect to the fundamental issue we are trying to solve here, which is to stop the spread. For that reason, and that reason alone, this is just nonstarter with us. [indiscernible] i dont know if you can do that legally. Its something that some folks have talked about. [indiscernible] do you want to answer that one . There have been public i heard stories about places where there have been public notifications with respect to cases in both Senior Living facilities and Nursing Homes. Many, in fact, hunt i sat here for a minute, i can run off 8 or 10. [indiscernible] i have directed the department of Public Health to figure out what they need to do in order to put that data forward. Just like it took us a little bit of time to start putting out age category, this is like the next iteration what we need to do to put out more transparent data to the public. Absolutely. Thank you everybody. Well have more live coverage of the Coronavirus Response later today with louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on increase of cases his state. Live at 3 30 eastern. At 5 00 a briefing by the White House Coronavirus task force. You can watch all our coverage online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. If you miss any of our live coverage of the government response to the coronavirus outbreak. Watch it any time at cspan. Org coronavirus. From daily briefings by the president and White House Task force to updates from the governors of the hardest hit states. Use the charts and maps to track the viruss global spread and confirm cases in the u. S. County by county. Our coronavirus web page is our fast and easy way to watch cspans unfiltered coverage of this pandemic. Secretary of state mike pompeo held a briefing today with reporters on Coronavirus Response efforts. Secretary pompeo said the state department has repay treeuate, citizens from different countries. Good morning everyone. Great to see you all. I hope everybody keeping healthy. I want to talk about two important topics. The first is the new framework pathway for democracy that were rolling out today with respect to the conflict and crises in venezuela and second i want to talk about the amazing historic work the state department to repatriot americans all across the world in response to the pandemic. First, venezuela. I got abrams here too to help me take questions here. I want to set up the framework for this pathway to democracy. It would put the elected members of the national assembly, create until elections can be held. We hope within 6 to 12 months. The president of the Transitional Government will not be able to run for president in those electronics. We think it presents an opportunity for the venezuelan people. Now turning to the state departments truly heroic efforts to repay treeuate americans. No matter how it turns out, we have given ourselves over to this worthy cause. That mission was completed bringing home more than 800 people from wuhan and it was going. We are going to break away from this discussion to fulfill our 40year commitment to bring you live coverage of the u. S. House. The house gaveling in for a brief session. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned the speaker coverage of the house the house will be proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly in order prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ]. The prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy god of mercy, thank you for giving us another day. Bless the members of the peoples house today. For those who have tested positive, bring them healing. For those in kwaern keep them quarantine, keep them safe. For those working hard here or at home, give success to their efforts to benefit our suffering nation and world. During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other let us yet find ways to be your loving embrace to our neighbors. May we who are merely inconvenienced remembe