Transcripts For CSPAN New Jersey Gov. Murphy Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

Murphy gave an update on his states response to the coronavirus, saying the death toll and the number of cases continue to rise. He talks about the backlog in testing and criminal charges for violating social distancing rules. Gov. Murphy good afternoon. Table byd at the head the woman to my right who needs no introduction, the commissioner of the department of health, Judith Persichilli. To her right, the state epidemiologist. Honored to have you both with us. Farleft, the state Police Superintendent patrick callahan, as usual. The director of Homeland Security protected nest. Also joining us today is the department of children and families commissioner. Great to have you. Thanks for being here. Ive asked her to provide an update on the order for of childcare facilities to provide services only to the kids of our frontline responders and essential workers and i should note and i know she will note this, april is also National Child abuse awareness month. In times like these, when there is tremendous uncertainty and stress and anxiety, children can be at risk of abuse. It is a horrible reality, but it exists. The department of children and families has a host of Resources Available to survivors of abuse. Positive test results, bringing our statewide total to 25,590. Positiveat is 3489 test results, bringing our statewide total to 23,590. Judy in her remarks will get into some of the details of those positives, as well as negatives. Additionally, we must report with the heaviest of hearts that we have lost another 182 members of our new jersey family to covid19related complications. Of 537 now lost a total precious souls. Their memories are in our prayers. God rest each and every one of them. Andprayers and thoughts sympathies go out to their family and friends. Some moregive you dimension on this and some more color, but as a headline, as a teaser to when you speak, judy you should not assume that 182 people passed since yesterdays press conference. There is a lag in terms of confirming cause of death in particular. Judy will get into that in detail. Every of these lives is a life lost. Let me be unequivocal about that. These seven of how actually transpired and these blessed folks have left us, i think i would just say as a nonmedical professional, you need to think of this over a span of days. Particularly given the stress we have on the system. That is more true than ever. I think judy will tell us that even in a normal, regular time lageace that there is a associated with this and there is an overwhelming challenge, as you can imagine right now, given the stress we are going through. One of those precious lives lost was kim king smith, an ekg technician at University Hospital in newark. Look at her blessed picture. She worked the night shift and was part of the University Hospital family for 13 years. And i might add, who know when interim basis, Judith Persichilli ran University Hospital and was the head of that organization. We have not spoken about that enough. As the current University Hospital president , a true friend to those of us up here, as he noted, her family is saying her smile was and i quote her family more infectious than the virus that took her life she was a frontline hero. God bless her and god rest her soul. If we had our druthers, we would speak about each and every one of the single lives each and every single one of these lives. We cant, but i want folks to know that that would be our preference if we could. Each one of them is in our hearts and prayers. We also lost a veteran Hudson County sheriffs officer. I had the opportunity there he is god bless that guy. I have the opportunity to speak with his wife and his son also a member of Law Enforcement. Yesterday afternoon. To extend our condolences and appreciation for his 28 years of service. He too was a frontline hero. I also spoke with the Hudson County sheriff and Exchange Notes. This is not abstract for them, not for so many. We also lost an awardwinning musician and songwriter, there is a good shot of adam bless his heart. A Founding Member of fountains of wayne, which not only made its mark, but whose very name memorialize the iconic store on route 3 that he remembered from his youth. He was jersey through and through. And the likes of our arts scene are a little dimmer today. Everyp each of them and single one of these lives in our hearts and our prayers. Again, every Single Member of our great new jersey family who we have lost. May each of their memories provide strength to the families and friends left behind. And as they say in the jewish tradition, may each of their memories be a blessing. Again, i know these numbers are stark. They are certainly sobering. They are shocking and they are indeed sad. Intosaid, judy will get giving you some sense as to how this is really building over a period of days. I want to say this. We can lower these numbers and we will. We can see fewer of our new jersey family pass because of covid19. Is byy we do that aggressively and continually practicing our social distancing, even under the most extreme of circumstances. In fact, i and my team have spoken with and Exchange Notes i literally just exchanged one with them in the last hour with the passaic mayor. There great fire chief and the state fmba president , the passaic fmba president. Onfered a tremendous loss monday with the death from covid19 complications of a young fireman. I mentioned that i had spoken to his widow and spoke to her about his life and their children and how they were doing. They obviously wanted to be part of a proper sendoff for their fallen brother. But as we discussed, this is not an ordinary time. It just simply cant be done. The Passaic Fire Department will pay their respects by driving past the funeral home to let the firefighters family know they are there with them in spirit. Once this emergency ends and it will and we will come through this together they will gather as one to memorialize him. This is leading by example. Even in the most painful times. If you do not need to be out, then we need you to stay at home. Please, god, stayathome. Even when you are at home, keep your distance between yourself and other Family Members. We need to make sure we are doing all we can to support the folks who we need working the front lines in which every central jobs they have i want to give a particular big shout out today to all of our transit workers on both the bus, the rail, the support side, who are helping many a our essential frontline workers actually get to their jobs. By doing so, they are also heroes, they are also at the front lines. Now, i know it is a beautiful day. I know you want to get outside and go for a walk or a run or talk with your neighbors. You can do that. But only at a distance. Keep that critical minimal sixfoot distance between you and anybody else. If you are out for a run, give others you pass a wider birth. As we keep ourselves healthy, we keep others healthy. And we do our best to flatten that curve that we have looked at so often. We are all in this together. Do it for yourself. Do it for your family. Do it for your community. And frankly, do it in memory of the likes of kim and bernard and adam and israel and everyone else we have lost. It is what we need to do. Please. , switching gears, as we often do appear. This morning, colonel pat callahan and i had the opportunity to tour the field medical station, which i believe is the formal station name for what is temporarily a Field Hospital being set up at the meadowlands exposition hospital in secaucus. We were joined on our tour by senator bob menendez and i cannot say enough good things about senator menendez and senator booker and our entire congressional delegation in fighting for our state in washington throughout this emergency. By the way, the fight is not remotely done. I were joined by the commanding general of the u. S. Army corps of engineers north atlantic division, Major General jeffrey mill horn, who has become a good friend, and Lieutenant Colonel david park, who set about where elise and john are sitting today. Give colonelo callahan and the troopers a big shout out for their extraordinary efforts. That site with a minimal, depending on how they can figure it, it is configured for 250 beds right now it is nearly ready to be put into service. I think theyre going to have a soft opening, as they say in the retail business, on monday. I want to thank our partners, the state troopers, and the administration for availing this Necessary Service to us. This is the first of what will such field three medical stations in our state with edison and Atlantic City to follow, which will expand our bed capacity by at least 1000 beds in total. Kelly sioner percy hillis briefing will show, they are coming online at not a moment too soon. It will be 500 beds there with edison together. We will need not only the capacity, but the great flexibility these sites will afford. Our brick and mortar hospitals in the coming weeks. I want to give a shout out at this time to United Health care, which is dedicating two of its senior folks to work with the department of health to assist us in our efforts. We are proud to welcome the Senior Vice President of uniteds Clinical Redesign Team and the president and ceo of clinical redesign. Dr. Brenner is a family position by training. Kathleens career has focused on improving the overall delivery of health care. They will join us for the next 90 days and we do welcome them. We are proud to welcome them to our team and we know they will hit the ground running. I exchanged a nice note yesterday with United Health ceo and thanked him personally for the assist, which is big. Of course, we continue our work to get the equipment and supplies of all of our Health Care Providers and workers need from all possible sources, including the federal government, our federal government partners, our state supply caches, individual and corporate donors, as well as private sector procurement. Today, im signing, to that end, and executive order formally authorizing colonel pat callahan to commandeer medical supplies that are necessary for our covid19 response. This may run the gamut from n95 masks and of the personal protective equipment to ventilators and everything in between. While we look forward to these facilities cooperating with us in providing us equipment as needed, this order gives pat the express authority to requisition it for distribution to our acutecare hospitals and other health care facilities. Needless to say, they badly need the equipment. But we also all certainly hope that pat does not have to use this authority. We would hope that folks would step forward and do the right thing, but if need be, we will use this authority. Speaking of people stepping forward, additionally on the topic of ppe, we learned that horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield has committed to donating a 500,000 n95 masks and 81,000 face shields to our response efforts. That is more than 2. 3 million worth of supplies. The supplies will be delivered throughout the month of april. Is also also making both a 100,000 donation to the Community Food bank of anation new jersey and 60,000 donation to the service of cape may. It is not just our Frontline Health care workers and First Responders certainly and other essential workers who need our help, but that there are also countless everyday new jerseyans and their families we can forget. I think horizon for remembering that our entire new jersey family needs help. I mentioned that article in the new york times, quoting one source that 70 of the people pulling up to food banks in that certain area were doing so for the first time in their lives. Horizon has told us this all amounts to the largest single donation the company has made in its 88 years. To kevin conlon and their entire team, bless you and thank you. If you have any ppe to donate, please get in touch with us through our onestop online portal and had to ppedonations. V we will gladly accept your donation no matter large or small. Every little bit counts. I also cited that administrative order permitting blood drives to continue to ensure we can meet the critical medical needs of our residents. Judy spoke eloquently to this a most mustgo and undertake appropriate mitigation efforts to prevent the spread of covid19, incorporating social distancing where practicable. Switching gears again for a quick note on testing. Partnered public drivethrough sites, a reminder , one willrow, april 3 be open. The pnc site will be closed. Testing at Bergen Community college will begin at 8 00 a. M. And you must be a new jersey resident and exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness. Do not meet either of these requirements, you will not be tested. Let me repeat this. In a perfect world, i would love to be south korea. I would love to have unlimited supplies from the feds that which we need to collect the specimens. I would love to have unlimited personal protective equipment. I would love to have unlimited supply of Health Care Workers to be able to test everybody and care for those who are sick. We dont live in that world. We live in a world of limited resources, particularly coming out of the federal side. We are grateful for what weve got, but it is a fraction of what we need. We made a decision from the getgo that we needed to test those exhibiting symptoms. For the obvious reasons that these folks are sick, whether or not they have covid19 to be determined. It turns out six in 10 do not have it, approximately. That is an important point to make. For the folks who do have it, we can be much more aggressive treating their symptoms. As im reminded, even if they dont have covid19, they are sick. They are not superman or superwoman, they have to take care of themselves. But that also gives our Health Care Professionals a highquality trove of data that we need. I know folks would like to say, wouldnt it be nice if you had a spread between symptomatic. Asymptomatic . In a perfect world, yes. We dont live in a perfect world. Additionally, i think this is places at3 different a minimum. The Mercer County is now appointmentonly testing site in Lawrence Township for county residents. This is open weekdays 8 00 a. M. Until 4 00 p. M. To receive an appointment, your doctor must send notification to the site that you meet testing requirements and are symptomatic. You have to be symptomatic. Those who show up without an appointment will not be tested. If you live in Mercer County and you are symptomatic, please contact your primary care provider. We have a comprehensive list of all publicly available testing sites, not just what i holed up in my hand. It is online at our onestop portal. Scroll down for the covid19 testing information or go direct v testing. 9. Nj. Go it is a little bit of an eyechart, but it is at the bottom. Again, for all testing coming you must be symptomatic. Switching gears again. Please, if you could bear with me. Highlighting a couple of announcements from elsewhere in our administration. Department of labor reported that over the past week more than 206,000 new claims for unemployment were filed, meaning that in just the past two weeks alone, more than 362,000 residents have filed for unemployment. You no doubt saw the national numbers. Also recordsetting. We are also very cognizant that there are delays and backups in the system and we urge everyone to please have patience and that your claim will be taken care of and you will not lose one penny of your benefits. But on the other hand, we do have literally thousands of opportunities for employment. At the central workplace listed online. If you want to work and help us as part of our response team, please visit again covid19. Nj. Gov and click on the link for jobs portal on the search bar or go directly to jobs. Covid 19. Nj. Gov. We think the 500 employers who have worked with us to put their available jobs online. I dont know what the number looks like today, but yesterday i believe it was 44,000 job offerings on that website. It was multiple tens of thousands of job openings. Next. The department of education. Njtv and the new Jersey Education Association have partnered to begin learning live , and new Public Television Program Featuring lessons taught by new jerseys tremendous educators. Best in the nation, best in the world. Starting on monday, each hourlong Weekday Program will offer programs for grades three through six and will cover subjects including english Language Arts math, science, social studies and will also include art, music, and physical education. Thirdgrade instruction will begin at 9 00 a. M. , fourth grade at 10 00 a. M. , fifth grade at 11 a. M. , and sixth grade at noon. Third grade at 9 00 a. M. , fourth grade at 10 00 a. M. , fifth grade at 11 00 a. M. , sixth grade at noon. All will be aired at njtv. I cannot think enough njtv and njea for working with our commissioner and his team at the department of education and especially again a huge shout out to all of our extraordinary educators up and down the state. Switching gears again. Office hasnerals made public what i would like to refer to as the first members of knucklehead row, six individuals who have been criminally charged for assaulting Law Enforcement officers by spitting or coughing in them while claiming to have covid19. Let me be clear. We are taking a zero tolerance policy against anyone who asked puts others in danger or makes them fear for their health. Slaps on the wrist. If you engage in such behavior, you will face 5,000 or up to 10,000 and up to 18 months in jail. Im proud of the work are women and men in blue, our county prosecutors, and the attorney general do on these cases each and every day. Before we go to questions, in a few minutes, would you mind giving us an overnight compliance report, pap . I think this is as good a point of any to wrap up. Before i turn things over to judy, i know there, but i would like to highlight some of the good news across our state. Ofi know there was a lot serious news, but i would like to highlight some of the good news across our state. I would like to give a shout out to to one of the many true frontline heroes among us. I believe nikki is the third from the right in that picture in the white shirt. She is one of the terrific nurses at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in north bergen. She is gathered with a group of colleagues, along with my wife. Nurse,a Recovery Room who has stepped up to the plate and is now working in critical care, treating covidpositive patients, all of whom are on ventilators. She is a 33your nursing veteran and i know that she is putting that tremendous work. Stu work. To her and everybody at palisades medical and that every single one of our hospitals, you are our superheroes. She is just one example of thousands of others doing the right thing to help us get through this and emerge stronger. Some are nurses. Some are businesspeople. Some are just everyday new jerseyans. Some are working at nj transit or in retail, essential retail, like supermarkets or pharmacies. But each and every one of them deserve our thanks. And i encourage you, by the way, if you could, to tell us their stories. When you meet one of these so we, use njthanksyou, can share them with our state and spread some hope and optimism and perhaps some good humor at a time when we are all desperately in need of it. I will highlight some of them in the days ahead. Remember, folks, we are not at the beginning of the end. Im afraid to say, we are not even at the end of the beginning. We have a tough road ahead of us and it has already proven to be a tough road. Look at the hundreds of lives lost. The numbers are going to keep going up. Sadly, fatalities. And certainly, positive test results. The positive test results to give us a window into how best we can manage this. It is more important than ever before that we all hang in this together as one new jersey family. Extraordinarily, even in these moments of social distancing and staying at home, of isolation, there is a bond we have begun to develop unlike any time ever before. Lets theyll at that continue to flourish lets let that continue to flourish and remind each other that we are all in this together. On the one hand, we are the most ever state in america and yet no state rises and falls as one family more than new jersey. We are all in this together. As ive said to you, this is war. You dont win a war by panicking. You also dont win a war by going business as usual. You win a war like world war ii, like other words that were won over the centuries, by being smart, aggressive, proactive, straight with each other not kidding around about the facts and the normandy of the task before us by acting as one and never turning on each other, by working harder than anybody else, by showing courage more than anyone else. That is new jersey. That is not just American Values , it is jersey values. If we all do our share, each and every one of the 9 million of us and our families, we will not only get through this unscathed not without mistakes, but we will get through this, whenever that is, stronger and more united as one family in new jersey than ever before. With that, please help me welcome a woman who needs no introduction, the commissioner of the public health, judy persichilli. Comm. Persichilli thank you, governor. See the pressure on our , we are systems tilting preparing to stand up alternative care sites. The fieldecting medical station in secaucus to be available early next week for what the governor has appropriately called the soft opening. This site will take individuals with lower acuity from the surrounding hospitals. So these hospitals have more space to care for the critically ill. The field medical side to being set up for noncovid19 patients. The staff working will be prepared to care for individuals who may develop covid19 while at the field station. Thehat outlined previously, state is separated into three regions with the lever one Trauma Centers organizing resources and need for the hospitals in their specific regions. The level one Trauma Centers are wellpositioned for this role, as these are the hospitals that have the ability to transfer individuals by ground and also by air and medical transport. The level one Trauma Centers will work with hospitals. Those with decant lower acuity of care and can be placed safely in the medical care station. We are working closely with University Hospital in the Northern Region who will coordinate the transfer to secaucus. Medical station, which can accommodate up to 250 patients will be led by a chief medical officer and a chief nursing officer. The staff complement will , registeredicians nurses, physician assistants, respiratory therapists, Behavioral Health workers, and social workers. Tapping was obtained primarily through our volunteer portal, as well as her temporary agencies, and the national guard. It would be everything you would see in an acute care hospital. Meet not full team to just the medical needs, but all the Mental Health needs, the discharge planning needs of the individuals who will be there as patients. It will be a valuable resource for our northern new jersey hospitals who are already experiencing increased demand for care. , the nightyesterday before, seven hospitals. Last evening, only four work on divert. They were different than the ones the night before. As hospitals are managing their volume, they are moving patients along appropriately. As ive said, we expect this pressure on our Health Care Resources to continue as we see the increasing number of cases in the state. As the governor mentioned, we are reporting 3489 new cases for cases in the,590 state of new jersey. Reported, 182 new deaths have occurred. However, in order to meet in order to report the most accurate statistics, our Communicable Disease service is now including data from ever electronic death Certificate Service. Includes 124 from our Communicable Disease service and 58 deaths from the electronic death Certificate Service that have occurred over a number of days. Deaths werenew associated with a longterm care facility. , 45 were fromths bergen county, 30 from sx, 21 from middlesex, 15 each from hudson and ocean counties. , seven Monmouth County from passaic county, five from union county, three each from burlington and camden county, two from somerset, and one each from atlantic, mercer, and sussex. We are still gathering county of residence from for individuals who have passed. Our thoughts and prayers are with these families who have lost their loved ones. Are reporting 530 seven deaths, 59 are male, 41 female. Ofpercent are over the age 80. Documented underlying conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic lung disease. , associateddeaths overall with longterm care facilities. The county breakdown of the new cases is as follows. Atlantic, nine, bergen, 300, bowing 10, 39, camden, 56. Cape may, 12. Cumberland, numeral four. Essex, 205. Gloucester, 19. Hudson, 220. Hundred income of 14. Mercer, 47. Middlesex, 223. Monmouth, 118. Morris, 90. Ocean, 97. Passaic, 128. Salem, 3. Somerset, 47. Sussex, 16. Union, 152. Warren, 15. We are still gathering more details on 1600 75 these new cases. Point, 110 of our longterm care facilities in the onee have reported at least covid19 case. , we ared previously concerned for our most vulnerable populations and longterm care facilities, psychiatric hospitals, gross home group homes, and prisons. We continue to monitor these areas closely and on a regular basis. Along with the governor, i want to thank all the new jersey residents who are following the guidance to stay at home. Social distancing is the best spread have two slow the of this illness. The importance of social by ancing was underscored cbc Study Released yesterday that demonstrated that also insion can occur the absence of symptoms. We know the pressure on the Health Care System will escalate us cases increase and that is why we are urging the public to take personal responsibility to reduce the spread of covid19 by staying home. Together and this we must take steps to protect one another. Thank you. Gov. Murphy judy, thank you for everything you and your team are doing. Extraordinary work. A couple things to make sure i got this right. One hundred 10 longterm care facilities have at least one positive. The denominator is 375 for folks watching, so that as i guess about a 30 ratio. I know you are watching that. You are watching homes for the developmentally disabled, psychiatric hospitals, prison communities, etc. , where youve got an intense and correct me if im wrong, but the reality of asymptomatic folks coming into or facilities of high concern is a particular concern weve got in terms of masking . Comm. Persichilli yes. Gov. Murphy complete masking at longterm care facilities, by example . Top five counties in total cases, i wont go through the numbers, but this is that list, bergen continues to be number ,ne, essex, hudson, union middlesex, and passaic is right behind at number six in terms of total cases. Again, the reality in the blessed lost lives is you got a mix of folks really come again, i dont want to say this incorrectly, but you have a mix of folks who we know passed at a certain moment of time from a certain cause, but then you have others who you are bringing in overtime ever get is that fair to say . Is that timeframe and number of days . It really depends. The electronic death certificate send information the issue is the challenge of sometimes there might be some errors in the deficit or forget data. We get toinformation the Communicable Disease takes a little bit farther to follow up on. Have set i as we believe almost everyone of these gatherings, just one of the thing on the positives. Did you mention the positive ratio . Comm. Persichilli i did not. Gov. Murphy i give approximations, but you have the exact number. Comm. Persichilli of the total number of tests performed, over 56,000. For antested positive overall percent positivity of 41. 1 . Gov. Murphy again, just something that judy and i have been pounding away. One, that means approximately six out of 10 people who got tested tested negative. Sick, so you are still take care of yourself. Thirdly, it is overwhelmingly symptomatic people. Slice ofot an average the current state of the state. These are folks, youve got to be symptomatic. We cant say that is the case in every in every test, but that is the case. We are now 12 days removed from the last, most aggressive steps we have taken in terms of shutting the state down. Aree test results that we announcing today are probably somewhere in the seven day to 12 day ago specimen collection, is that fair to say . Yes. Gov. Murphy so we are still a week or so away from knowing what that last set of actions that we took, what impact that. As on the positives comm. Persichilli absolutely correct. People have been tested and are waiting 10, 12, sometimes up to 14 days for the results because all the labs are overwhelmed at this point. Gov. Murphy i got accused of being rosy i do not think this is rosy in any way, shape, or form. But one of the statements you heard me say a week or so ago was the scarce resources where it week or 10 days ago, it was not the testing labs. That reality has changed. Now, all of the above are scarce resources. The materials we need to collect the specimens, their ppe to protect the workers, the healthcare workers who are facing forks and the road all the time between testing and care. And i think cnn reported last aght was a request that had backlog of 20,000 at one lab alone. Limited resources and or constraints on the entire system in america. Thank you for everything. Anyre we go to christine, quick words either on compliance, deal hospitals Field Hospitals . Callahan just overnight, 15 people were charged with violations, one generally charged with disorderly persons and him during an investigation. In edison, a to have the coronavirus and coughed on the arresting officer. 150 separate violations enclosed four businesses. A jersey trooper responding to an accident, the driver of that car was found to be wanted and, while arresting her, she drooled and spit on him, claiming to also have the coronavirus. There was a party of social gathering in maysan, where a subject was charged with violating the executive order. Lastly, a dispute at a tow yard, where the suspect arguing with the tow truck operator claimed to have the coronavirus and was going to spit on the door handles of his vehicle. See what the to attorney general did in his and that that is not disorderly conduct, that it will be treated as aggravated assault, if warranted. So i appreciate that. Is an as ppe goes, that ongoing conversation. Donations are greatly appreciated. A lot of things in the pipeline. A few things back ordered. It is an hourly conversation. As you said, just a phenomenal effort to watch that medical station go up and six or seven effort. Uly a phenomenal gov. Murphy again, the vast majority i think you can back me up here the vast majority of folks are doing the right thing, and we are internally grateful internally eternally grateful for that. The vast majority of complete knuckleheads the sort of behavior youre talking about, and it goes from the more benign hello, you cannot have a gathering to the awful the heavier of spitting on people and threatening them, we have to eradicate all of that. We need 100 compliance. I would not bet on any other state to achieve that other than this state. I am looking forward to a compliance we have and pat says we have a goose egg. Wargaming,e are working on plans, on all the alleys, where we have got challenges as this builds to a crescendo, whenever that may the. We are grateful for all that we have gotten, whether from the federal government, from private donations we are grateful for the folks volunteering to serve. But again, ventilators, personal affective equipment, beds, Health Care Workers were not in any of those places where we need to be. Again, we are trying to wargame that and stay ahead of it as best we can. Everybodyeing done by judy deserves the biggest shut out, but pat and the whole team, to figure out how we solve these huge challenges, we cannot say enough good things about them. Call too rehit the arms. Go to covid19. Nj. Gov, if you want to volunteer to get in the fight and augment our extraordinary heroes among our Health Workers on my please go on that website must sign up. And there is a process i am using the phrase matchmaking, but that is kind of what is going on. You are looking at folks with the need over here with a particular specialties and licenses on where we get a match. We will continue to do that, and it is happening in realtime time. But again, i want everyone to realize we are not where we need to be on those fronts. Iswe have said all along, it a whole of government challenge, and it is a whole of government, frankly whole of society, response that will allow us to get there. I mentioned day care, child care for essential workers. We mention this is now child abuse month. Please help me welcome the commissioner of the department of children and families. Thank you. I would like to thank you and working so hard for the estate and working so hard to help save lives. I would also like to offer my sincere thanks and appreciation to those on the front lines, Health Care Workers, firefighters, and our own team at dcf, as well as everyday heroes keeping new jersey functioning at this time Grocery Store clerks, gas station attendants, childcare providers, and more. Have beento nothing short of heroic deal we all have a role to play, each and every day, to keep new jerseys families and children safe, healthy, and connected. We are seeing that play out during this crisis in the work being done through government, private, and nonprofit channels to support families in need. I have to say, witnessing the talent, drive, thoughtfulness, and ingenuity of the team at dcf and our network of Service Providers across every community in the state, i couldnt be prouder to be working in Public Service and leading this extraordinary department. We know there are very difficult times ahead for new jersey as a state, and for each of the its families individually. We are working around the clock and across State Government to support families at this time, particularly families of workers performing essential services for new jersey during this pandemic. I am here to share Additional Details about the partnership announced last week between dcf, the department of Human Services, and the department of education to roll out childcare operations for the states essential workforce individuals working in the public and private sectors determined to be essential for the continued optioning of the state under governor murphys executive orders 107 and 110. Know that, if this were a perfect world, all employees across the state would be deemed essential. Earlier this week, our team within the dcf office of licensing certified nearly 600 agencies statewide to provide care to the children of essential employees. Today, we are announcing the launch of an Emergency Childcare assistance program, which is being administered by the department of Human Services division of Family Development to help support Childcare Costs is an parent or guardian essential employee, regardless of family income. In order to have access to childcare, families will have two register with the resource and referral agency. Register, such employees will then have access to Emergency Childcare assistance support to offset the cost of childcare. Are details and guidance the Emergency Childcare program for essential employees, including eligibility requirements around who is , have beenessential posted to the dcf corona website childcarenj. Gov. We know that families and children who are struggling before may become even more vulnerable during this time of elevated stress and social distancing. Research shows that, during natural disasters or national emergencies, like what we are experiencing now, families are subject to greater levels of exciting, heightened just at the same time parents and children are isolated from usual forms of support, like times of family and community and events increase in stress, coupled with decrease and support like this, can lead to an increase in treatment and family violence, including child abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. As we look at data across the country and across the world, in terms of the impact of the covid19 pandemic, states are already seeing an increase in incidence of child abuse and intimate Partner Violence could at the same time, in new jersey, as in other jurisdictions, we are seeing fewer referrals to our hotlines and help lines. Social isolation is hard. Every one of us who is a parent knows that every parent needs the support of friends, family, and community. Now, we are all less able to connect to natural support. Families are less able to connect to the formal help they in light is social distancing means many of those who serve as sentinels for children and families, teachers, coaches, counselors, pediatricians, and primary Health Care Professionals do not have the same level of contact with children and families and communities. So as new jersey residents abide socialpractice safe distancing practices that are absolutely necessary, the challenge becomes that the individuals and the professionals who may have otherwise supported families or connected them to help in their community are restricted in their facetoface interactions. In new jersey, we are already seeing these effects. 2019,ar ago, in march, there were 7501 referrals made to our state central registry, which is our 24 7 child abuse and neglect hotline for either Child Protective Services or Child Welfare services. S year, there were 5120 5117 reductions, and march is typically one of our higher referral months. The reduction does not mean that children are expanding less abuse and neglect, but rather that it is not being seen or heard, and so, no response is being taken. It is not being reported. This is the other reason why i am here today. April is National Child abuse prevention month. But our commitment to prevent child abuse cannot only happen during april or during times of national emergency. I am urging all new jersey residents to do your part to help us prevent child nontreatment and domestic violence. I am asking each of you to be extra vigilant for those children and families who might be having a hard time right now. If you have a Family Member or friend with small children, call them, check in daily, see how they are coping, ask them if you can do anything to help relieve their stress. Sometimes, just being able to talk it through is enough. Other times, dropping off a meal or offering to help navigate unemployment or other benefits can be the best way to help. If you know a family caring for a child with special needs, this is the time to be the best friend, neighbor, or Church Community member that you can be. Reach out. Let them know it is ok to feel overwhelmed and that you care about them. And if there is anything you can do to help. If you know parents who are challenged by Substance Use disorders or struggle with maintaining good Mental Health, please get in touch. Ask them how they are handling the stress. And, if they need to be connected to a counselor, help is still available. Offer whatever help you karen. At the end of the day, we are all in this together. It is only together that we can get through these difficult and challenging times. Through the department of children and families, we are rolling out a campaign to let people know that social distancing should not mean social isolation. The connections you make with your friends, your neighbors, your Family Members, and your community, they are absolutely vital and can help us bridge the social connection cap during the covid19 pandemic. Ourre partnering with sister state agencies, communitybased prevention organizations, several trade organizations, such as the new Jersey Association of counties, the American Academy of pediatrics in new jersey, the school districts, and more, in pushing out messaging on social media challenges channels to advance this call to action. If you or anyone you know are having a hard time coping, text nj to 741741. Trained counselors are available around the clock. If you suspect someone is getting hurt in a family you know, please report it. You can call their new jersey child abuse hotline at 1. 877. N jabuse. To report domestic violence, call 1800572safe. All of these resources are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Working together, we can all make a difference for families in need and help them get through this crisis. Thank you. On behalf of the department of children and families, stay safe, healthy, and connected. Gov. Murphy thank you. Thank you for what you do every day and our administration but particularly at this time. I was struck, in particular, by the reduction of reported incidences in march, and the big take away ive i suspect many of us have had is because a lot of those instances get uncovered by a teacher, a coach, a nurse, a member of Law Enforcement, and the kids are not seeing most, if any of the above, right now because of the lockdown we are in. And so, this is not just timely at particularly poignant this moment, in this month in particular. Thank you for everything and thanks for your leadership. Before we go to questions, i got an enormous amount of feedback on how we were spending our time as a family, personally. I got a lot of questions about if i was favoring one james bond actor or another, once it is jason bournes over another. My kids want me to remind you, for soccer fans, you can get on social media seven minute to 10 minute summaries about any great game ever played, so i will give you my 3 the semifinal between england and germany, the Champions League final between juventas, and the semifinal for the Confederations Cup in france between italy and brazil. Those are three we have watched lately and have enjoyed in the midst of this extraordinarily challenging time. Hold on. The 1986 world series is my favorite game. Gov. Murphy i was there, so i appreciate that. Nice. There is a shortage of tests, but can you explain the thinking behind why you are having people who were symptomatically at tested rather than conducting randomized tests truee model reflects the infection rate of each county. Other questions. How many people have been hospitalized and discharged . And we South Los Angeles mayor urge people to wear masks when they go in public. Is new jersey considering any other kind of thought of that . Gov. Murphy can i see a couple of quick things and then turned to you . A perfect world, that is something we would be doing. I leave it to the experts. But we have to play the hand we have been dealt a man this is the hand we have been dealt. Over hospitals asian rates, which judy can speak to. There is a fair amount of movement over masks, including from the cdc and their guidance remember, we do not have enough masks. We are already bemoaning the fact that healthcare workers, First Responders, our retail brothers and sisters at supermarkets and pharmacies and other essential laces, what about bus drivers and rail operators at nj transit, what longtermrs at facilities we are already in the rings of need in terms of personal protective equipment. Beyond that, both in terms of the testing protocol as well as hospitalization rates and masks. Dr. Tan i will talk about hospitalization rates. We do not have that yet, but they are coming in. Once someone is discharged, the charges analyzed, coded, and entered into a system that also allows for billing and for medical record statistics. So we should be getting them here they should be coming out. Once we have that, i commit that we will share them. We just do not have it now. There is always a delay in getting that discharge data. Gov. Murphy how about masks . Any comment on masks . Comm. Persichilli we did mandate universal masking for employees going into longterm care facilities. Based on the experience at Washington State and, as i reported, i spoke with the department of health at Washington State, and they identified the spread of covid19 coming into the facility by the employees. Samelieve that is the situation here in new jersey, so to protect that most vulnerable population we have, we are mandating that the employees mask when they come into the facility. Nothing for the general public yet . Comm. Persichilli not for the general public yet. Gov. Murphy and also we are short ventilators, ppe, beds, workers. If we flipped the switch and said general public, you need to wear masks we do not have the masks. Reality. Federal you have seen articles today saying the federal stockpile is about diminishing with an x ordinary outpouring of donations and manufacturing, but fair to say we are not remotely close to being able to mask everybody. Is it a bad idea for people to do that, they can use a scarf or Something Else . Comm. Persichilli i will let we have tobout understand that if you are taking care of a covid19 patient, you should be wearing an n95. They are in very, very short supply. Masks are generally to protect people from you, not necessarily to protect you from what is around you. It does not take the place of social distancing. It does not take the place of staying at home. The mask protects other individuals. There is some level of protection. In can read about that general newspapers, but, at the end of the day, it is more to and can be cloth or flat faced, surgical. Dr. Tan related to the masks, the commissioner is a spot on. It is the issue of source control, because we want to protect the most vulnerable from becoming ill. Onas a commissioner kept emphasizing, especially in these longterm care facilities, we want to protect those vulnerable populations, the residents of these facilities, from exposures coming into the facility itself. Also, we have to remind everybody that the biggest message is social distancing. Lets not have a false sense of security about what the mask may offer to protect yourself versus the source control aspect that we are trying to emphasize for the most vulnerable populations. With regard to the testing, there are two aspects to consider. One is the reason why we have had a lot of focus on symptomatically individuals and prioritizing individuals or the testing and contacts of what the governor had mentioned a little earlier about backlogs in testing and such is that we really run want to ensure we get testing done on those people where it will really make a difference, for example, in those longterm care facilities, for healthcare workers and the like. The second aspect is related specifically to the characteristics of the test itself. We know that, when you test individuals who are symptomatically, the likelihood of your picking up an infection is higher when youre symptomatically when there is more virus that you can actually capture in your clinical sample. Hadn, to what the governor earlier, we cannot say every single one of our test reflect a test that we have done and someone symptomatically but we know the vast majority are. That is why we have a high Positivity Rate and we are able to pick up on those cases. Gov. Murphy to human nature we go to dave next. Two human nature points. One come on the good side of masks, we hear a lot of anecdotal evidence we do not want you to touch your face. So when folks are out there and they realize i have a mask on, it gives people a second thoughts. But i have to underscore, social distancing trumps the mask in a big way. And we have probably seen this lesson this room, but you have seen folks with masks who start behaving like everything is normal again, and that cannot be the case. Social distancing trumps all. He must have read my mind, because i have many more mask questions. Governor, i understand that we are not in a situation, at this point, to officially suggest but you do masks, see a variety of them, from there is a video out about how to sew a mask. Some of them you can put a filter in. I believe, commissioner, you had said that it can offer some level of protection can you talk a little bit about that, flushed that out . Perhaps dr. Tan can assist with that. We have a lot of people Walking Around who are asymptomatic may be getting giving this to somebody else. If the function of them wearing the mask is to protect other people getting from what you may have, will there be a value in having people wear a cotton made mask or some thing else like that . How do you clean it . Some people have told me they were attempting to spray lysol on an n95 mask. I believe that does not work. Maybe you can comment on that. Of peopleissue Walking Around in new jersey, if they have to go to the supermarket, should they be trying to think about some kind of level of mass protection in some way . Second question, if i may, unrelated gov. Murphy second question . [laughter] second broad category. Gov. Murphy like a doctoral thesis, i think he meant to say. The department of labor mentioned the 600 additional supplement from the federal government. Could you explain there is a little bit of confusion, apparently, with regards to business in addition to the state unemployment, what should people do, how will this help people, and so forth . Gov. Murphy i will just say i will hand them asked question to the team of experts to my right. A different way to ask daves question, not the cleaning piece, is if we had unlimited resources and each of us could easily, free of charge, theoretically have a mask, is that something the cdc would recommend, is that something you all would recommend as a different angle on a similar question . Comm. Persichilli i got more mask questions now then anything. The first thing i want to start with is exact way what you said. If we had unlimited resources, lets look at masks in a different way. Some of what you said is absolutely on target. Andoure not feeling well, mywill be with people recommendation is do not be with people, but if you are finding that you are sneezing, it is allergy season sometimes, you to what is neighbor going on, and you have a mask at cloth that someone made for you and it tightly fits around and you want to wear it i would never tell somebody not to. But i do not think we would put out a recommendation that everybody mask. Other it is to protect people more than you being protected. Dr. Taninfections can talk about droplet infections and the importance of staying your distance and why. Two, and about the issue, also, of cleaning the masks it is a tricky thing. The cdc does have guidance for Health Care Workers as far as how to try to manage some of their ppe, such as masks, in the times of crisis. You do not just lysol a mask, as you said. A nisei be considered and theowed to ensure that a wayng of this ppe and that inadvertently affects you later, just remembering that question from earlier about people asking about how you, for example, take off a glove properly. These are things which are Health Care Workers are very commonly accounts all the time and are trained to deal with, and that is why, again, it gets back to some of the comments about overarching mask again,recognizing that, sometimes, if youre not familiar with how to use a mask, it can potentially create more of an issue than not. Again, to the commissioners point, if you want to use a scarf or homemade mask for your own sense of wellbeing, we would not discourage that. Gov. Murphy i think we will all agree do not use that as an excuse to get closer to people then you should be. That social distancing trumps this. I believe, on your employment the 600 stipend is incremental to state numbers . I believe once you exhaust your state benefits, it is over top of that, but we will get an answer from the department of labor. Gov. Murphy thank you. Got a couple of questions would you do, governor, please talk about your concerns about hearing medical supplies when the federal stockpile is running low and no guarantee that those respirators are in working order through the respirators we receive from the federal stockpile actually work . And to the commissioner, how the you triage patients to new Medical Center at the meadowlands . And governor, following up on the unemployment numbers, we have been trying to access a website and are having trouble getting through, even though we are not unemployed. Is there any help on the horizon for those who are trying to get to the website and cannot . Gov. Murphy yeah, is that it . If you will take more, i will give you more. Gov. Murphy give me one more. Question from a viewer, that they are positive with covid19 yet need groceries. Is there any way that we can ask the business public to make ours specifically for people who are positive, find a way to safely shop, even though they are infected . Gov. Murphy ok. I will not have the answers to all of these, but let me give a reaction to the federal stockpile being low it is of great concern. As i mentioned. While we are grateful for what we have got, we are still light liza leaders, ads, workers. There is a plan, in each of those cases, to do the best we can to stay ahead of it, but that is concerning, when you hear that. Ventilators that have come in, for the most part, have been working for us . Col. Callahan i have not heard of one that has not worked. Gov. Murphy so he read the same article and exchanged thoughts on that, but we have not heard that. Ady, if you do not mind in second doing the triage on the meadowlands. The website, we got an overwhelming amount of demand. The commission is doing everything they can. I think ive said this a couple of times go on this website over mine my Left Shoulder here, covid19. Nj. Gov. That is another way in. In terms of shopping hours, it is a good question. I have not been asked that before. I do not know what guidance, as a health matter, you would give. I know certain retailers are having senior hours, seniors being more impacted by this than not. Which we have encouraged her this is something i would like to come back to you on. It is another fair question. In a perfect world, it seems to me you would have that. We are not in a perfect world, so we do not have that. Comm. Persichilli before i get to the grocery shopping, if someone is in quarantine or isolation, they should not be going out. We have to make arrangements. Most of the stores right now are delivering, particularly for that type of situation. If someone that cannot get nutrition in their home are in quarantine or isolation, go on our website. We have a website where you can put in the question, and we will get back to them. That is an important we do not want anyone home on quarantine or isolation that has to leave to get nutrition. We do not want anyone home not getting nutrition. I just wanted to clarify that. Will be working with local hospitals to identify the individuals who that could be going home in one or two days we can handle oxygen, ivs. There will be the appropriate level of nursing support. Perhaps it just needs a couple more days of antibiotics, because we will have pharmacists on call. A field move safely to hospital. But we will triage that. Theill have criteria for community hospitals, so that they can go through the criteria and, every day, be able to intify i have 2 patients, have 3 patients. Gov. Murphy and we will be built up monday, right . Comm. Persichilli yes, we want to make sure it all works, that transfer works seamlessly. That itphy youll see is a barebones reality. Startedsomething that on a bare, slab, concrete floor that has been built up from nothing. I constantly find myself trying to balance coldblooded if you do not do this we will come after you with compassion, particularly with those who are sick or have lost their lives. I want to retract my answer to the last question. If youre positive, you cannot be doing that. You got to stay home. And i will give a shout out to for, among other reasons, our retail workers who are already screaming out please, give us protection, consider us, wherever you can, essential. We need more production, more antiseptic like dan activities, etc. Judy said. What but having said that, you cannot stay home and starve. You have said stay home, selfquarantine, get better, but make sure you got a way to get your nutrition, and, if all else fails, go on that website to make sure we know who you are and where you are. That fair . Elise, good afternoon. Good afternoon. I have a bunch of russians about hospitalization rates. It seemed that, earlier, you were disclosing those rates. Occasionally, when we asked how werecoronavirus patients hospitalized, you had that data, including how many were on vents. I just want to make sure that we do not have that data now. Also about how many patients have been treated and discharged. Another question have we patients inn to any new jersey, and if so, where, and how many . There used to be a county data on the Health Department website, the breakdowns of numbers, and i am wondering if those numbers will come back, because i have not been able to find them. Gov. Murphy of positives . Yes. Gov. Murphy regarding the delays yes. And regarding the delays in testing, is the state lab running out of maximum . I could be wrong about this, but i believe that state can process 500 a day, and i believe some of the private lab say they can do 20,000 tests a day, though i am not certain of that number. Where are the data on how many tests the private labs are handling . What is the biggest cause of the backups . Gov. Murphy i will just make a couple of broad comments and then turn to you. One of the things that i think you implied on the data front is we want to make sure that when we speak to data that we have as much as close to perfect certainty on the data that we share with you. I would guess, and you have seen this over time, over the past number of weeks my guess is i do not want to put words in anyone to anyones mouth here, but over the days, we will a much deeper dive into the data, everything from hospitalization rates to testing, outgoings, and everything inbetween. Again, i will not promise you which day or the moment that will happen, but i will just say that is the more time we are with each other, the more time we go through this, the deeper the data, the more certain we will be about the data. Comm. Persichilli what you said is right on. We are working to refine data every single day, and we now , that there new jersey Hospital Organization has had in existence, but we find the data we need to get from the hospital from that portal feeds right into the rock, so we can have a dashboard. When we talk hospitalization rates, when you say rates, you are talking a percentage of something. But i can give you and have given you and will give you is the number of individuals in our hospitals that are covid19 positive and those that are p. U. I. s. Those of the numbers i can give you. Those are absolute numbers. To do a hospitalization rate, you would look at the total number of the population with a certain diagnoses and what percent is in the hospital, but because we do not do mass testing, we really do not know the total number of covid19 patients. We could probably tell you the in theage of those hospital with cardiovascular disease, because we pretty much know that in the general population. We could probably break it down to the percentage of the hospitalization, totally, in the hospital. Absolute numbers, we can absolutely give you, and we will do so. Question onb, the the state lab was how many we could process. And i guess turnaround. Dr. Tan all i can comment on is the number that results the number of results we got today from the state laboratory, that is about 588 that are positives today. The commercialm laboratories, i do not have the denominators. Gov. Murphy so, more to come. You good . Matt . Matt, matt, matt, matt. Right, with elise. In the county data that used to be on the Health Department website, you would click on the total number of cases and moved to a map, is that coming back . Comm. Persichilli it should. I do not know why it is not there. Gov. Murphy i think it is on this website. Comm. Persichilli yes, the interactive map should be back. Gov. Murphy yes, in the back. I have a question about access to testing. A number of these county testing sites require a doctors referral. This can be a barrier, especially for those who find themselves newly unemployed and therefore newly uninsured. Can you speak to those who want to get tested, have symptoms, and may not be able to get a referral . And can we get an updated timetable on the Field Hospitals in edison and Atlantic City . Gov. Murphy again, i will defer testing, whether you have a doctors referral or not. But just to remind folks, the official, statesponsored testing sites, the one at bergen ,ommunity college and pnc which, in each case, are partnered with fema, they do not require a doctors referral, but they require you to be symptomatically. As other counties and other organizations have that testing sites together, in some cases, we have helped as best we could with specimen collection, materials, or ppe, etc. , but those are, overwhelmingly, initiatives that have been sponsored by a county or health care organization. And we are not running those. Just to make sure everyone knows, there may be some becausess, and that is they are different sponsors for this. Back to your question, what if a particular county requires a doctors i think i mentioned mercer as an example requires a Health Care Professional to have given you the go ahead, what about somebody who has got symptoms and does not have that . Comm. Persichilli that is the key. They have symptoms, and i get emails from this. I just got one this week. Has symptoms, we just moved here, my insurance company, we cannot find someone in our, what should we do . And of course if someone has symptoms, you need to get them to some type of organized care, because if they are symptoms and are positive, they will need to be followed up by someone who was responsible, a medical professional, responsible for their care. I advise them to check with their insurance company, make sure that there is if there is no one in network, go to urgent care you have symptoms, you have to be seen. If you have symptoms and you just go for a test, and then you get it back in your hand and it is positive, what do you do with it . You will have to find a doctor or an advanced practice nurse to help you, to follow up with you. Symptomatic individuals need to have, need to be in some type of organized care. Should we address the Field Hospitals again again, 250 beds, depending on the configuration, at secaucus. We have three other, but there really spread, it won in edison, at that exposition center, and the other in Atlantic City. Pat, what is the status of each of those . Col. Callahan the anticipated andt is april 8 at the april 14 at the Atlantic City center, to be up and running. Gov. Murphy and 500 . Col. Callahan correct, we doubled that. Gov. Murphy everyone should understand, we did not lose a Field Hospital. We still have the four we promised. The army corps is working mightily to get these up and running, but the decision was made to double the size of the one in edison. , toi want to acknowledge the enormous credit of those who helped us out, organized labor, our brothers and sisters in labor are deeply involved in getting these up and running. Thank you. John . Ive ate few i have a few. Verify that question about numbers, the executive order a week or so ago requiring hospitals to give data on all beds, i beds, will we be getting that stuff . Comm. Persichilli that started on monday. We are refining that data, but they are reporting. Gov. Murphy again, that is part of the answer i gave earlier we want to make sure it is right before we share it with folks. Got it. Can you clarify instructions given to longterm care administrators, especially the preps longterm care must do for accepting covid positive patients . About namingalk their places in longterm care especially the had multiple cases of positive people and deaths . People are calling us and saying where are these, they are not thereg responses, and is a statewide policy or one being forussed for d. N. R. s patients who die from covid in hospitals . And are you getting any details from the state military bases and installations about the port of defense is not reporting that, but are they reporting it up to the department of health in new jersey . Againor, you once implored people to stay home. Are you considering any extended social distancing measures. Doyou have anything left to legally to require people to stay home and require shutdowns . And one more, apologies. What if people do not have Health Insurance in terms of getting tested and getting care . Gov. Murphy that is quite a list. Comm. Persichilli did you take good notes . [laughter] gov. Murphy i did. Of frate a couple longterm care questions you have got, so one is the protocol , and secondly, whether or not you want us to name places where he had either fatalities or multiple positive. First, on thelli requirement of longterm care theirties to receive back residents who have gone out to a hospital, what we were encountering is that a resident would go to the hospital, be treated, recover, and they would not accept the resident back. At least that was a complaint, that they would not accept the resident back, because the resident had tested positive for covid19. And part of the directive is this is that residents home. We keep forgetting that. This is their home. They should be accepted back, with the appropriate precautions. We did have a Conference Call with all of the owners of longterm care and shared with them that we understand that sometimes the appropriate precautions that is courting patients cohorting that tested positive in an area, wing, floor of the facility, and making sure that the individuals carrying or those residents are not also carrying for other residents in the facility that have not acquired covid19. And we asked them if that was not possible, to give us a call. We may have to move residents around, so that they can get the appropriate postacute care they deserve. Themlso be protected of and others in the facilities. So that is the receiving back of residence that you have sent. On the i think you suggested or asked whether we would be r. Oking at a statewide d. N. For covid19 patients unequivocally, no. We have always promoted advanced directives for everyone in new jersey. No matter who you are, your age, or anything else. An advanced directive which desiresecifically, your in certain periods of your health life is the right thing to do. We worked closely with the health care, the quality institute, in their statewide initiative, conversation of a lifetime, and we promote that. But we would never do a statewide d. N. R. As far as testing, when you do not have Health Insurance, that is exactly the type of individual that should be going to the federally qualified Health Center for their care. Did i miss something . Gov. Murphy we got a couple of state and military bases, are you getting information on reporting out of them . Comm. Persichilli no, we are not. Our local Health Departments may have information are secededople who with a base, but we do not necessarily have the information in front of us. Outbreaks at longterm care centers, naming them . Comm. Persichilli we hesitated to do that, because they are residents, but we did invoke a statute that is in existence already that requires the longterm care facility to inform the residence, the employees, and the families of outbreaks in their facilities. So we did send a letter out to them yesterday with those instructions. And that is a requirement in new jersey. Gov. Murphy in terms of other steps, we are constantly looking there are not a whole lot more, but we are constantly looking p1 of the things you are colonel callahan looking. One of the things he heard colonel callahan referred to is we are looking at the consequences of noncompliance we had been asked about nonessential construction. We look at that, both enforcing social distancing but also considerations. And we are constantly looking at this. I cannot say it any other way. We are hoping, again, because we think we have taken steps cumulatively, but especially, as of a week ago saturday, that are about as aggressive as any american state, we are we would like to be datadriven, coming out of that decision, giving time, specimen collection, positive case results, clearly looking at each precious life, and i think that is largely where we are. About thisa meeting question, we constantly think about it. Good . Od you good you if you answered on coventilated and, i missed it, but are any patients in the state being coventilated . Comm. Persichilli no. And one more question. Results, hasf test that been worsening or easing . And when do you expect that the theill be coming results will be coming at a faster rate . Gov. Murphy it is unequivocally worsening. I am not referring to the department of health, but again, i do not know how many days back judy and i, we had this statement that seven to 10 days ago, the gating factors were the specimen collection process, not the back and Testing Process back end Testing Process. Now we have constraints in the entire food chain, including highspeed, high scale testing firms. While some of them are based in new jersey, they are also all national players, so that is part of a national reality, not just a new jersey reality. I cannot tell you when that gets better. A friend of mines son had been over two weeks waiting for a test to come back. It is frustrating. To benot where we want ideally. The one thing we have not spoken about today, and i want to remind folks that we have spoken about it in the past, that abbott labs was the one firm in particular. There does feel like there is inventionstion and at the cusp right now. If any of them come home, and to their credit, new jersey has been as verified as one of abbotts estates they are doing these tests in a couple of locations in bergen county. Again, it is not scaled. The notion of invention and innovation in our midst, not just to be able to do your test or my test, but to be able to do these in scale, the extent to which that happen sooner or later, all bets are off. Then you open it up, and you can go back to whoever asked Nancy Solomons question about, in an ideal world, can you x . The answer is, then you would have a much better shot at doing x. Did some of these labs overpromise, and how much has the administration been going to the labs and said you have got to kick this up . Gov. Murphy i cannot say, in fairness, that they overpromise to. This is an extraordinary time. I am not sure that anybody in that foodchain, necessarily on the spot a couple of weeks ago, could have predictedi suppose yi dont want to tag this with them, but it is a reality that we do not have enough specimen collection or ppe from the feds. We need to make tough decisions about where healthcare workers are going between testing and care, and certainly the undeniable backlog. Testing, governor, most of, i believe, the test sites are drivethrough areas. For people who dont have cars, especially in urban areas or for somebody who does not drive, what should they do . Second, quick question for the the advisory committee, what is it . Gov. Murphy on the testing, if you will covid. Nj. Gov, see all the testing sites. I believe it will show which ones are drivethrough, which ones are not, and lets make sure when we update the website, which we do regularly every day, we will make sure we put that in there. If there any update . Commr. Persichilli you know, i am trying to get members. Gov. Murphy on the bioethics front commr. Persichilli we do not have a bioethics committee. I want to make that clear. We have a committee that is looking at a whole range of things, starting with, first, how to identify guidelines for how you deliver care in a crisis situation, criteria for movement of patients throughout the system, from criticalcare to step down to field, to alternative sites, like hotels. Physicians, pulmonologists, it has the bird presentation from nursing i am trying to go through the participation. Refersquestion i have to, if the push comes to shove in a horrible situation when there are not enough ventilators, who is going to get one . Gov. Murphy as of this moment, we will do what we can to save every single life that we can save, period. We will be aggregating our responsibility, particularly in the health care community, but the fact of the matter is, we battlefield in the to save everyone we can. Pat, anything from you . We get a lot from readers, like, you are only scaring us . Is anything Getting Better from this, you know. Gov. Murphy listen, as a nonhealthcare professional, and judy will correct me here, we have set up to 85 , based on hard facts with this virus, are folks who get mild to moderate symptoms, and they overwhelmingly get better. Been 15 need a much more intensive health care experience. A good chunk of them will need to be hospitalized. Moreof them in criticalcare environments than not, and sadly, we will lose some. We will fight to save every single one of them but there is no question people are Getting Better. Judy is incredibly, and rightfully, careful about this, because we do not want to give you data that we cant hang our hat on. That is an example of something that i think over time we will be able to give a lot more texture on. Is that fair to say . Commr. Persichilli absolutely. Gov. Murphy with that, i want to thank, as i always do, the woman on my right, judy per ischilli, superintendent pat callahan, great to have you here with us, day care for essential workers, it is child abuse month, lets make sure we are looking out for and having the backs of everybody in this state. Thank you so much for being here. Pat callahan, i cannot thank you enough for everything you do. We will be back here tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. , and we will be here on saturday at 1 00 p. M. , and i want to conclude by thanking the media. We have deemed you essential for good reason. We need to make sure we are getting the facts out there, and i want to thank you all for showing up, as religiously and regularly as you do. To everybody watching at home, remember, we are in a war, and it is a war that we can and will win, as long as each of us do our parts from the little things, like social distancing, washing your hands with soap and water, all the way to the Big Decisions we have to make collectively. It wont be unscathed. Sadly, we have lost lives, and we will lose more, sadly. This will be a tough few weeks ahead of us if not more than a stayeeks, but if we together, we dont turn on each this, we will get through stronger than ever before, and we will win this war. God bless you all. Cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates and governors and state officials, trip the spread throughout the world track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world fun interactive maps. Watch any time, unfiltered, at cspan. Org coronavirus. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, dr. Sadr, professor of epidemiology and medicine and icap director at Columbia University discusses the latest responses in the u. S. Coronavirus pandemic. Then, thomas frank discusses how the army corps of engineers are responding to the pandemic. And illinois congressman danny davis on how the coronavirus has affected a chicago district and state wide in illinois. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 this morning. Join the discussion. Russian president Vladimir Putin delivered an address on the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic