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

Cspan. Org coronavirus. And now new Jersey Governor Phil Murphy gives an update on his states response to the coronavirus. New jersey has the secondhighest number of confirmed cases in the nation. This is 90 minutes. Gov. Murphy good afternoon, everybody. Just to remind folks what our plan is for the next couple of days, obviously, we are together right now and as i mentioned, unless there is a very meaningful material development, in which case we will change plans, tomorrow will be an email, paper release in terms of the overnight numbers and any other news we have to report. Because of the white house vtc on monday, we will do a press conference at 2 00 instead of the usual 1 00 timeframe here. So, i am honored to be joined today, as i am every day, by the woman to my right who needs no introduction. The commissioner of the department of health. Judy persichilli. To her right, another name well known to most, the state epidemiologist. Great to have the two of you here with us. To my far left, the state police superintendent. And to my immediate left representative the department of workforce development, the commissioner. I mentioned yesterday that i asked rob to give us an update on the department of labor efforts to ensure every new jerseyan in need of Unemployment Insurance relief can file a claim and receive benefits. Folks are dealing with an unprecedented crush of people trying to reach them. We understand it can get frustrating. When the website gets bogged down, or if you are stuck on hold on your telephone. But also know that these people are working harder than ever while also worrying about your own families. I have a rob. I have asked rob. Thank you for helping us understand a little better his teams efforts and where we go from here. So thank you. And so, as weve been doing, lets get to the numbers early in our discussion. They are particularly sobering today. Since yesterday, weve been notified another 4331 residents have tested positive for coronavirus. That brings our statewide total to 34,124. Again, 4331 overnight positive tests, for a total of 34,124. As usual, judy will give you more color. In addition, with the heaviest of hearts, we are today reporting another 200 residents have passed due to covid19 complications. Our state total now sits at 846 precious lives lost. Let me put this in a proper yet very sobering context. We have now lost nearly 100 more of our fellow New Jerseyans to covid19 than we did in the september 11 attacks. Please let that sink in for a moment. This pandemic is writing one of the greatest tragedies in our states history. And just as we have committed to never forgetting those lost on 9 11, we must commit to never forgetting those we are losing to this pandemic. We wont do this every day and we certainly wont do it often, even though those numbers will continue to climb, but im going to pause right now for a moment of silence. Allow me to mention some of those, a very few sadly of the many we have lost, the precious lives we lost. Fugal ofolonel samuel eatontown, in my home county. And theres samuel on one of our recent memorial days with me, admiring one of the wreaths we placed in honor of our fallen veterans. And sam has now fallen himself. He served for more than 37 years. He was awarded a bronze medal for his service in iraq in 2006 and 2007, and he also received the new Jersey Distinguished Service medal with oak leaf cluster. He also led the monmouth chapter of the association of the United States army. Our state lost him yesterday. We thank him for his life of service, as we do every single one of our proud veterans. His memory and his family are in our prayers. I want to thank my friend for making sure that i knew sadly that we had lost him. Another one, jesus, was a patient transport worker at Holy Name Medical Center in teaneck, where he had worked for 27 years. His coworkers remember the time he won the 5050 raffle, and instead of keeping it for himself, he shared it with his colleagues. He was 75 years old. We join his family and everyone he touched in mourning his passing. Teaneck, which has been particularly hardhit, lost another great member of its community, perry rosenstein. Perry was the uncle of cwas new jersey director, who so many of us in trenton know so well. Perry founded the Puffin Foundation in teaneck to support the arts, and the Abraham Lincoln brigade archives to chronicle the american fighters who stood against spanish fascism during the franco regime, among so much more. All of us send our condolences to the entire rosenstein family and friends and teaneckers who perry touched. I learned last night a dear friend in morris county, my dear friend scott carlson, lost his dad, gerald, who was going to turn 88 in two weeks. We was a lifelong new jerseyan, was a lifelong design draftsman who worked on both the shuttle columbia and challenger. Were keeping scott and his family and his dads memory in our prayers. He was the proud grandfather of haley and evan. To each and every one of them and the many more we are not mentioning by name today, god rest their souls. Today, as i mentioned yesterday, our flags are flying at halfstaff in their memories and the memory of all who have been lost and for all the families who have been impacted by covid19. We have to remind everyone, who are not able to fully gather properly for a funeral, or a memorial. The flags will continue to fly at halfstaff throughout the duration of this pandemic. No family, whether in new jersey or anywhere, will be forgotten. I know that staying apart is really hard, whether for a funeral or a religious rite we long to attend. But right now, we have no choice. It is what we need to do and what we must do. I spoke yesterday by telephone with a great leader in our state, cardinal joe tobin. The cardinal made it clear Everyone Needs to stay home, including, and i say this and he says this with profound gravity, including not taking communion, whether it is tomorrow for palm sunday or any day. I know it is not easy for him or for catholics around the state, as this especially is the beginning of holy week. To all our Christian Brothers and sisters, we acknowledge the beginning of the week tomorrow but plead with you to stay home and stay away from each other. Cardinal tobin spoke, as hehomeh other. Cardinal tobin spoke, as he volunteered to do, with each of the archbishops in this state. That was the conversation i had. I know he speaks for all. I want to give a shout out to my bishop from the archdiocese of Trenton Bishop oconnell. ,i thank not just the catholic leadership but leaders across all of our faith communities who are coming together to help meet the spiritual needs of their congregations while also ensuring the social distancing that is so critical to flattening the curve and getting us through this emergency, especially in this season, when you have holy week leading up to easter, you have passover starting on wednesday and not far behind ramadan, the three big religious holidays among so many other celebrations and festivals that are fast approaching. Our desire clearly is to come together. Thats only natural. We are humans. But our need and our mandate is to find a way to observe and celebrate separately. I know it is a challenge, but it is a challenge we are more than up to meeting. Keep practicing your social distancing. As we note in this map, and ill come to it in a second, consider it as father jim would say social solidarity. By being apart, we are working together. This graphic from the New York Times shows the impact and how vital social distancing is to slow the spread. Lets stay with this for a second. This is colorcoded for all 21 counties. By the way, theres no amount of football spiking we should attach to this graph, but it gives you some sense. This has changed meaningfully over the past several days. The darker colors are where the amount of folks who are infected is doubling at a faster rate. And so while the cases in salem and Cape May County to pick two in the south are quite low i , think the total positives in cape may are 50, and in salem county 25, so between them only 25 positive cases that have been tested, by the way, just folks who have been tested. So it is a low number, but the curve is steep, so the folks there need to get ahead of this as fast as they can. The orange color is where cases are doubling at a much slower rate. The yellow color which happens , to include my home county of monmouth where they are doubling at an even slower rate. Another color better than means, which basically you have broken the back. , i dont know what that color is, but i look forward to seeing it sooner rather than later. We can show you a national map, which we remind you we showed yesterday. The deeper the red, the more traveling there is going on and the grayer the gray, the more social distancing and less travel that is going on. We showed this yesterday. I dont think this has changed meaningfully since yesterday, but the good news is that you see new jersey among the cohort of very gray states, which means, folks, thank you. What you are doing is making a difference. That ultimately will give us the best weapon we have to deal with this and break the back of that curve and flatten it. We still have a ways to go, by the way. I wish this would be an overnight, next week, two weeks from now phenomenon. It isnt. But you also can see why we are concerned about other places that are still traveling who have gotten to the stay at home status much more slowly than we have in new jersey and neighboring states. We will have to be very, very careful when we slowly, whenever it is, begin to responsibly reopen our economy and our state and our society. We have to be very careful, particularly judy and your team will remind me of Contact Tracing and being aggressive and quarantining and isolating anybody down the road. As i have said many times, were going through hell together and i will be darned if we do that more than once. We have to be sure. This will be longer than any of us wants, but we have to not only crack the back of the reality here, but as we begin to open things up again we do not inadvertently put gasoline back on the fire. Again, back to our communities of faith, regardless of your faith, we need you to remember we are all in this together, and that we must find ways to stay at home. We mandate stay at home, and exercise your faith, practice your faith, social distance, even from your fellow family members but at home. I thank you for that. There are a number of other different points ill make before i turn things to judy. We have had a number of conversations at the most senior levels of the administration this morning. I had a good conversation with mike pence at whole range of critical asks on our behalf. You will not be surprised that ventilators was at the top of the conversation. We have a remaining outstanding ask of 1650 from the feds. We spoke in these conversations also with jared kushner, with the admiral. We spoke about fema activities in the state. We spoke about ppe. I reexpressed to the Vice President how extraordinarily important it is that the Treasury Department be as flexible as they can be when they take the money from the cares act signed last week and apply it to states. We are in a world of hurt. Not only are our expenses exploding, our revenues have fallen off the table and thats additional to what you are going through as individuals, whether it is filing for unemployment or Small Businesses, nonprofits, the arts community. We are all in a world of hurt and i wanted to make sure the Vice President heard again that the more flexibly we apply to that, the better we will be. Themes repeated with jared, as it relates to ventilators and ppe in particular. We also went back and forth to make sure we had the flexibility we needed for the field medical stations, field hospitals as i call them, that are beginning to populate themselves. Judy can give you an update on secaucus. A whole range of conversations. Lawncare longterm care facilities is something judy is going to hit and that has been a topic of other conversations that i know we have been having as a team. I was on with the Senate President last night on some particular concerns he had. I just got off the phone with john dolan, who heads the association. We talk about 375 longterm care facilities and theres another 230 assisted Living Properties so really over 600 in the broader community. I reiterated not only our thanks for their help, but also a couple things judy will go over. The fact we need the workers at all these facilities who may be inadvertently bringing the virus to be fully amassed in their work as judy articulated already. That if there is any positive testing in any facility, it is the obligation, mandated obligation, of the operators of the facility to let next of kin know that has happened. I know you stressed that. That will give you some sense of conversations. I was on with president clinton this morning talking about supply chains. Brainstorming ways we may be able to get at shortages we continue to have. We continue to be short ventilators, ppe, beds, healthcare workers, which i know that judy will talk about, our heroes at the front lines. We are trying to do everything we can to stay ahead of all the above, but i dont have to say this, when you lose 200 people, not necessarily overnight, i say that but this is another day where the 200 includes a lot of folks who did pass yesterday and this morning but also folks who cumulatively have passed recently. God rest their souls. Were doing every thing we can to keep the amount of folks, of lives we lose as low as possible, and separately, i think keep the number of folks who get this virus as low as possible. As cases continue to surge as we expect them to, were adding Hospital Capacity as quickly as we can. Under judy and pats leadership and alongside the u. S. Army corps of engineers, were working with all of our hospitals to rapidly and significantly increase bed capacity. Were building new wings and bringing vacated buildings back online and we are building out our field medical stations as i mentioned a minute ago. We expect to have our second location in edison ready i believe early next week. The 14th. Were also working to expand capacity by utilizing hotels and dormitories, particularly those located in hotspot areas or in close proximity to hospitals which are nearing capacity. This is an enormous effort to bring thousands of new beds online, which also requires us to plan for medical and administrative staffing, providing wraparound services, and meeting as i mentioned our equipment and supply needs. At every level, this is a datadriven, moneyball process. We know where we expect numbers to go in the coming weeks and we have to do the difficult things to prepare for that. I previewed this already the past couple of days. We will speak to this in more detail on monday. Switching gears again. Earlier this week, federal authorities broke up a significant ppe hoarding situation in brooklyn and seized hundreds of thousands of pieces of ppe, precisely the equipment that is in short supply. Yesterday, we learned from the fbi and the u. S. Attorneys office that new jersey will be one of the beneficiaries of the distribution of those hoarded supplies. We will be receiving more than 70,000 n95 masks and 5000 gloves among other ppe from this seizure. Id like to thank especially the u. S. Attorney and newark fbi special agent in charge for their efforts in seeing our frontline workers get this gear. And that gives me a chance to give a shout out to jared maples, our director of homeland security. Today, director callahan will be signing an order giving municipalities and counties ability to prohibit all rentals to transient guests or seasonal tenants for the duration of the emergency, including hotels and motels. Weve heard too many stories especially from our shore communities of people trying to relocate for the time being into their towns from impacted areas. This is not how social distancing works. No one should be leaving their primary residences, especially for the shore communities that do not have the infrastructure, especially the health and First Responder infrastructure in place, particularly offseason, to accommodate an influx of residents. Meanwhile, we are still seeing individuals and members of our Business Community stepping up to help our entire family get through this. Yesterday, by example, we were contacted by uber eats, the food delivery service, which is donating 14,000 meals totaling 350,000 dollars to frontline workers at four Hospital Systems across the state. We are incredibly grateful to them and of course, we are incredibly grateful to the heroic workers who will be receiving these meals. Of course, we are still looking for many more people to join the thousands of retired or student healthcare workers and others with previous medical experience who have already signed up to volunteer to help us on the front lines. Please visit covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer to add your name and have your experience matched with our emergent needs. Judy will likely address this, but it is fair to say that with all the challenges we have on ventilators, where we are short ppe, beds, where we are short in some cases, the gating factor is healthcare workers. With folks who are unsurprisingly out sick, social distancing, selfquarantining, we need all the help we can get, so please keep raising your hand and add your name to the many thousands who have come forward to say they are willing to help. If i may switch gears again, on the topic of testing. Tomorrow, april 5, the Community College testing site will be operating again in partnership with fema. We will be open from 8 00 a. M. That will remain open until it reaches its 500test capacity. To be tested, you must be a new jersey resident and you must be showing symptoms of a respiratory illness. Please, asymptomatic folks, i dont blame you for being worried, we understand that but , you have to step aside and let let the folks who are symptomatic step forward and be tested. The Pnc Bank Arts Center site, which is only serving healthcare workers and First Responders, will be closed to the public tomorrow. Please remember, these are only two sites, which are being operated directly from the department of health. There are many, many other county run and testing sites across the state. You can find one near you by visiting covid19. Nj. Gov testing. Covid19. Nj. Gov testing. By last count, we had at least 45 separate testing sites across the state. By the way, the number of tests that have been completed in the state, new jersey with the 11th largest population in america ranked number in america only four behind new york, florida which has many more people than we do, and the state of washington where this all first evidenced itself. If you believe you are showing symptoms, you can also take a selfassessment at covid19. Nj. Gov and go on the symptoms page. If you feel sick, call your primary Care Practitioner to see if you meet the requirements for testing. Before i close, id like to take a moment to once again highlight and applaud some of the folks around our state who are truly living our jersey values by helping their community. One of them is someone i know and love, the executive director of lunch break in red bank, in my county. Is keeping the doors there open to continue disturbing meals and serving the needs of those across Monmouth County who need a helping hand, especially at this time. So to gwen and her team, i say thank you. How about this guy . This is jim hoffman, a science and Technology Educator at Newton High School in sussex county, where he coaches by the way the robotics team. His son justin is a resident doctor at University Hospital in newark. He used to work for you, judy. Jim is using both his personal 3d printer and the two at Newton High School to produce protective face shields for doctors and nurses who need them. Jim, we cant thank you enough. Gwen and jim are just two of what we know are thousands of ordinary New Jerseyans who are doing extraordinary things to help us pull through this emergency. Whether it is by keeping a community of fed or making sure our Health Care Workers have the care they need to stay safe on the job, or i should note the work of the Many Community pharmacists, and other group i want to give a shout out to you who kept their doors open to preserve their communitys health and wellness. We have heroes up and down the state, beginning with our healthcare workers, our First Responders, Community Pharmacists i just mentioned. The folks working in essential retail. The nj transit bus and rail folks. The supply chain folks in warehouses. The longshoreman i mentioned yesterday. The list is incredibly impressive, and they are collectively our heroes and many more. We want to hear more stories s so keep tweeting use njthanksyou, and we will keep sharing them. Please, everybody, keep doing what you are doing to slow the spread in flatten the curve. That is also heroism. That is everyday heroism. 100 years from now, when they write the memorials about what you did, that will be prominent among your life achievements, that you were there when we were needed the most. Keep up with social distancing. Keep staying indoors at home unless you absolutely need to go out, or unless you are part of our frontline response in whichever way you are serving, because we need you. Keep doing the little things. Washing your hands with soap and water. Keep smart. Keep remembering we will get through this, and we will get through this faster and stronger if we all do our parts. And before i introduce judy, lets all remember again. This is war. We are in a war. How do you win wars . You dont panic, and you dont go business as usual. We win it by being smart aggressive, proactive shooting , straight with each other, being honest about the toll that is both before us and will continue to grow. Lets not kid each other. You win wars not by turning on each other but to the contrary coming together. , this extraordinarily diverse state coming together as one family. You win a war because you show courage, as we are seeing every single day up and down this state. From our frontline Health Care Workers to every single one of the 9 million of us, including folks right now at home by themselves doing exactly what we need them to do. Every single one of us is a hero right now. Every single mono every single one of us must do our part if we are to flatten the curve of this virus, allow our Health Care System to deal with it properly, and emerge from the other side. And unequivocally may i say if we all do our part, there is no question in my mind we will win this war and emerge from this stronger as one new jersey family, more together than ever before. With that, help me welcome a woman who needs no introduction, the commissioner for the department of health. Good afternoon. Yesterday, the cdc recommended the use of cloth Face Coverings in Community Settings to help reduce the spread of covid19. There is a growing body of evidence that asymptomatic or what they call presymptomatic individuals can spread the virus. The cdc is recommending a simple cloth covering over the nose and mouth. Cloth Face Coverings can be made at home from common materials like scarves or bandanas. And remember, a Face Covering lowers your chance of spreading the virus to others and is not a failsafe measure to prevent you from getting sick. Everyone can do their part to slow the spread of the virus. If you wear a mask, you are protecting others, and if others wear masks, they are protecting you. The cloth Face Coverings recommended are not surgical masks or medical grade n95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other First Responders who are caring for the sick. As the governor said yesterday, social distancing is by far our best preventative measure. Wearing a simple cloth Face Covering when you are out is not in any way a replacement for social distancing to flatten the curve. You must continue to keep at least six feet distance apart from others. Keep regularly washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Practice safe respiratory hygiene, and if you feel under the weather, even if you are convinced it is just your allergies acting up, stay indoors and away from others. I also want to return to another concern we talked about yesterday, the growing distress and fear of family members who have loved ones in longterm care settings. Family members have expressed growing concern about the lack of communication in some facilities when there is a resident who is confirmed with covid19. Families are frustrated, they cant get someone on the phone in these facilities and they want to know if there is an outbreak in a facility where their loved one has residents. Has residence. On a letter was sent to all march 26, Nursing Homes and assisted living residences, comprehensive health care homes, Residential Health care facilities and Dementia Care homes, reminding them of their responsibility under the law to have an outbreak response plan, including clear policies for the notification of residents, families, visitors and staff when at least one covid19 case has been confirmed in a resident or staff member at the facility. Today, i will be sending up a followup notification to all of our longterm care facilities with specific guidance as to how to notify people. It must be in person and in writing to all residents. In person and in writing to all staff members. Notification via telephone, email or other method of communication the facility using notify the philly member or designate a person during this time of restricted visitation must be followed up in writing within three days. This morning, i also spoke as the governor did to the ceo of the longterm Care Association to inform him we are not notified that if we are not notified by the close of business on monday, these directives are taking place we , will release the names of longterm care facilities with at least one covid19 case. Regarding our hospitals in the northern part of the state, we predicted we would see a surge beginning mid, second week of april, going through the end of april and into may. However, we believe part of that surge is just starting. Last night, we had nine hospitals on defer primarily because of staffing issues and critical bed capacity. Three hospitals were on divert for Critical Care. Divert primarily due to staff issues. We need volunteers to assist us in this effort. If you can volunteer, covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. We are sending out today a crisis alert for more volunteers. If you can volunteer, please visit covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. We need you. Our hospitals are reporting over 4000 confirmed positive Covid Patients in our hospitals as of last evening. Additional over 2000 persons under investigation awaiting test results. 1494 of those patients of confirmed positive are in Critical Care and over 85 of 85 or 1263 are on ventilators. Also, our first field medical station in secaucus will open on monday. This morning as we speak, there is a Training Session being held for individuals who are volunteering to staff that site. As the governor mentioned, we are reporting 4331 new cases in the state that will continue to grow. We need the volunteers and we need the Field Operations up and running. Again, sadly, 200 new deaths have been reported. Of the new deaths reported, 47 were from bergen county. 37 from essex. 21 from ocean. Eight each from mercer and morris. Sex from monmouth. Four from passaic. Three from warren. One each from burlington, camden, Cumberland Somerset and , sussex. Nine of these new deaths were residents of longterm care facilities. So we now have 846 fatalities in our state. We join with the governor and offer condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. The county breakdown of new cases is as follows atlantic, 28, bergen, 607, burlington, 98, camden, 74, cape may, seven, cumberland, five, essex, 409, gloucester 41, mercer, 89, middlesex, 400, monmouth, 301. Ocean, 268. Passaic, 489. None in salem. Somerset, 108. Sussex, 21. Union, 287. Warren, 30. We are still gathering more details on 348 of these new cases. At this point, longterm care 148 facilities in the state are reporting at least one covid19 case, and as the governor shared, we have 375 longterm care nursing facilities and approximately 200 assisted living facilities and other settings such as residential memory care housing. I do want to share the breakdown of the 846 reported fatalities. 61 are male. 39 are female. As far as the age range, there are six cases, or 1 under the age of 30. 47 or 6 between 3039. 16 or 136 between 5064. 32 or 268 individuals between the ages of 65 and 79. 46 , 389, over the age of 80. We have documented Underlying Health conditions for 300 of our cases at this point, or 35 . We have four cases identified as not having an Underlying Health condition. Only four. Otherwise, 540 two still under investigation, so we expect those with Underlying Health conditions to increase. Again, about 9 associated with longterm care. So you may not feel sick but it is possible you could transmit covid19 to someone more vulnerable. We ask you to be careful, we ask you to follow the cdc guidelines. Cdc guidelines when you leave your residence. For more information, i ask you to call 211 or visit our website. They are great resources for the public to get information. Thank you. Thank you for that, and a couple of points if amy if i may follow. Again, top five counties are staying about the same in terms of positive cases. I will read them in order. Bergen continue number one, essex number two, essex three, union four. Its that same cluster of northeast counties. The cloth Face Covering as a the recommendation from cdc. An extraordinary feat in terms of getting it up and running and getting staff and in a couple of days being able to handle patients. Hats off and obviously edison in Atlantic City are not far behind. They dont even have enough. Never mind expanding it out to the other categories of people we want to expand into. Again, please dont compound a challenge that we already have. There with me. The notification on longterm care facilities, need that. If the facilities dont do the proper print proper communication by monday, we will communicate directly to you in this forum or some other form ourselves. Enough on that volunteers. Please go to the main website. Goodness knows we need you. I saw a great picture of the goingroup of volunteers through their training. It was really heartening to see. It will be up and open for business on monday. It is admixed her in her feet in terms of getting it up and running and very soon within a couple of days, we will be able to handle patients. Hats off. Obviously, edison and Atlantic City are not too far behind. Rob, a thingr from left on compliance . Bed construction or other topics . Thank you. I had Atlantic City and edison confused. The edison field medical station is about 75 complete. That should be rape it ready by april 8. Not the 14th. It is the Atlantic City Convention Center that the targeted date is april 14. I wanted to clarify. Secaucus open for patients on monday, slowly but surely. Edison by thursday is likely to be in the shape we saw secaucus last thursday. A week from tuesday for Atlantic City. That is correct. As far as the overnight, generally quiet. There was a subject charged with the executive order violation for facilitating and pulling together a youth basketball game with six juveniles. He was cited. A subject was arrested for Domestic Violence and brought to the Monmouth County jail. During his processing he claimed to have the coronavirus and spit on the officers trying to process him. Newark last night issued 122 summonses and closed seven businesses. I spoke with director ambrose this morning to thank him for his continued efforts, and to offer our condolences on the loss of an officer that passed away as a result of covid19. Thank you, governor. God rest his soul and all of the others whose lives are lost. The knucklehead hall of shame astounds me, that somebody would do what that guy did in monmouth. The great news is overwhelmingly, everyone in new jersey is doing exactly what we need you to do. But we need everybody to do that. So please, no gatherings, no stupid behaviors certainly. But please, everybody, stayathome. Clearly this is a time of her for so many. Look at the lives lost, the precious souls, their families and friends and communities, the folks dealing with covid19 right now as we speak. But lets also remember at the top of the list is a historic amount of people who have lost their jobs in this state and this country at levels that i literally said yesterday, 10 times, tens of times more than any normal period, and even relative to other spikes in our past. I know a lot of folks are out there clamoring, and who could blame you, to get the security of having the connection made, whether it is online or on the telephone, you know youll get the Unemployment Insurance and the great news from the bill signed by the president a week ago yesterday. There is more federal help and that is a big deal. I have said before and i will say it again as i introduce rob, everybody please bear with us. We have some extraordinary folks led by this guy and his team, doing everything they can to answer your calls and to respond and make sure you get the comfort you need. Just know it is an unprecedented level and you wont lose one penny of support. If it takes a little bit longer, i promise you that. We have a group that is in extorting ordinary group of folks doing everything they camp your everything they can. Thank you governor. And gout for the shout out to the noon robotics team. Judy, thank you for your strong leadership during these times and i really appreciated. Over the prior two weeks, we saw more than 362,000 people apply for unemployment as a result of this Public Health emergency. A crush of layoffs and furloughs have overwhelmed agencies nationwide and new jersey is no exception. We are seeing calls exponentially higher than in history. I dont like correcting the boss, but not 10 times, we saw 1600 increase in a single week. Im not here to talk about the strain our system has been under the last few weeks, but to talk about what is really important, our action plan to serve the public at this difficult time. There is nothing i want more than to put your hard earned benefits and your Family Budget sooner. We have made no secret about our desperate desire to receive and act on more of your phone calls. We feel your frustration and are with you. This is our number one priority. We hear it from our own family members, friends, friends of friends, all making similar pleas for help. This pandemic has impacted everyone. As one family we have been affected together and i am confident we will get through this together. I want to thank my colleague and our i. T. Staff, who have been working nonstop to make our 40 yearold mainframe systems continue to perform under such atypical circumstances, and all of our ui division who have become economic First Responders for much of the state. Here is what we have done and what we are doing to better serve our customers. We are increasing capacity to ensure more calls and more applications get through at one time. In recent years, we have incorporated pocket solutions and changes to on a point at systems that have allowed 92 of claims to come and online, taking stress off of phone lines. By comparison, after superstorm sandy, the peak of Online Filing was just 70 . That is a big difference. We have pinpointed places claims are getting stuck and we have used our resources to reroute the claim so we can pay them a soon as possible. We are adding phone lines and have trained employees from other divisions to help us field calls. We have procured hundreds of additional laptops so more staff can work remotely. We are continuously updating our website, adding information in easy, plain anguish to walk our customers through the application process. We know this is new for a lot of people and we are trying to make our clunky, old applications as userfriendly as possible. Our websites provide great resources for first time filers, including faqs. We have put a helpful guide so customers can feel secure in applying for the right program, which also speeds their processing. We are working to make sure customers have the information they need from us, to understand what is happening every step of the way, so they wont have to worry about their benefit application, amount, or waste time trying to get through on the phone. We have staff working overtime, late hours and on weekends peer the number of new unemployment claims moving through without issue is about 50 , which is no different than before the pandemic. Have the resident to file for unemployment begin receiving benefits within two or three weeks. When filing online, their recent acclaim might not be processed immediately and need a claim examiner to review it. A person might be filing for the first time and not provide all of the required information or have an old account in the system. A person might be temporarily furloughed and feel confused about the federally mandated at mandated questions, or they are independent contractors told to apply while we wait for guidelines for this unique population. These are not uncommon issues for our staff but require verifying Important Information and walking through the process with claimants one at a time. Imagine a stadium with 10,000 seats there are one Million People to get in. There are only somebody who can get through the gates at one time. To reduce the number of claims that need intervention, just last night, maybe as early as this morning, we posted a new faq of 45 additional covid specific filing questions. I cant stress enough how much we empathize with the frustration, fear and Economic Uncertainty that comes with suddenly being unemployed. Due to the high volume of things being filed, there might be a delay in processing backpay, but they will be paid for each week they are eligible for benefits no matter when the claim gets process. We also suggest applying online during off hours like first thing in the morning or later in the evening when traffic is lightest. We recognize it is small consolation when the bills are due today but we are working on getting you help as fast as we can. Thats why we are also grateful for the Additional Support from the federal government providing to businesses in the forms of grants, loans and payroll tax credits for keeping people on the payrolls paired the federal on the payrolls. The federal cares act will expand unemployment eligibility and provide an additional 600 per week for four months on top of what our programs pay, and open up benefits to those not traditionally eligible, such as the selfemployed and independent contractors. However, we still have to wait for federal guidance before this can begin, but relief is coming. This is the first week claimants are eligible for an additional 600 benefit and new jersey residents will receive this just a few days after they received a regular on employment check next week. They dont have to do anything else to get this additional funding. We are awaiting guidance from the u. S. Department of labor on how and when to administer the 13 week extension of Unemployment Benefits known as pandemic emergency compensation, and we will share the information far and wide as soon as we have it. In closing, i want everyone watching to know our department is working harder than ever before to address the hardships many of you are facing due to this pandemic. Our staff is in our office or at home working remotely right now because this is the biggest emergency our department has ever and hopefully will ever face. I joined the governors governorsn the sentiments that together we will not only beat this unprecedented threat to our health and welfare emerge on the other side stronger and more united. Our workers and businesses have paid into the system precisely for this moment and now it is here for you. We will get everyone of you the help you deserve. Thank you. Thank you and thank you for your leadership every day, but certainly these days. Rob, first of all he is an organized labor family guy, secondly he has deep estate he has deep connections and we are incredibly honored and glad to have you at the home during this crisis. This will be of no solace to somebody trying to get through, and i am not intending it to be any solace, but as we look at other states and compare notes, which we do all the time, i would say we are meaningfully it will not make you feel any better, but we are in a better position than most folks we are talking to. We are all in this together and the norms are the numbers are ginormous compared to what we have ever dealt with. Our list of volunteers, we need Health Care Workers, but we should add a page for cobalt computer skills because thats what we are dealing with in these legacy systems. Chris is doing a heckuva job but we have systems that are over 40 years old. There will be lots of postmortems and one of them is how did we get here when we literally needed cobalt programmers . So thank you, rob. We are going to start over here and go at a pretty good pace today. Brent, we will start with you. So do you have any more information on where the basketball game was . It was raritan township. It was again, a gentleman organizing a game of six juveniles. Ok. More pressing link, some Corrections Officers dont believe they are offered enough protection behind bars and have raised concerns about a lack of ppe and reports that inmates are being transferred between facilities in the northern parts of the state. Some have asked you to look down state prisons and all transfers. Are you open to those requests . And two more, can i ask which doors and hotels are used for patients . The transient order, does that mean all hotels and motels around the state are being asked to not accept people anymore and will now be used for hospital space . And the last one, from my colleague, you issued guidance this week that described sick Health Care Workers back to work, based on cdc guidance, but it did not include that the guidance can be set aside if there is a Staffing Shortage. It would allow guidance to be set aside if there is a Staffing Shortage. Our hospitals are bringing sick workers back before they recover. Did you leave a loophole out intentionally and what do you want the hospitals to do . A number of things. Is daniel well . I think he is fine. Tell everyone who is giving you these, and i know there are others, tell them we are thinking of them. So we have Corrections Officers who dont have enough ppe. I dont think theres any category in the state that has enough ppe. I can say that definitively. That doesnt mean we are not taking it seriously. But that is a fact. Judy can come on corrections in a minute because you been back in forth a lot with our commissioner. Norms and hotels dorms and hotels are a priority when theyre near hospitals, right . Yes. At this juncture they are for the medical staff, were trying to have them close not only to the secaucus field medical station, but we are talking about records New Brunswick and rikers in rutgers to house the medical staff so we have them in close proximity to where we need them. I just want a little more detail, the administrative order, what does it do . And is a combination, i think the governor made the point, we dont want people traveling down there. Dont think at this juncture that those Smaller Hotels i would defer to matt, standing at the back there. Let me get judy and we will come back and ask matt to talk about the Staffing Shortage question visavis the cdc guidelines as well as the order on hotel and transit. Judy, corrections. We have been back and forth over the last 24 hours. Weve also touched in with a doctor and we are starting and all of the correctional, the state correctional institutions, the same guidance we gave the longterm care institutions, that employees should be screened on the way in, they should be wearing protective masks to protect the inmates from the employees, because we had a number of employees testing positive. Additionally, to the degree possible, all communal dining is stopped. I dont want to say will be stopped, is stopped. If that is an impossibility, they are arranging the Dining Facility so everyone is six feet apart. I know dr. Tam reviewed a guidance. I dont know if it was last night or this morning it was both. Nothing more to add about corrections but regarding the comments about the alignment with cdc guidance for healthcare workers, im going to read specifically from our guidance, which is completely aligned with cdc guidance. We have on our website guidance for covid19 diagnose or expose exposedosed or healthcare personnel, and regarding the particular question, symptomatic Health Care Workers have tested positive for covid19 may return to work, and again, this is what we were saying before, they may return to work seven days after symptoms first developed and 72 hours after fever has resolved without the use of fever reducing medication, with significant improvement in symptoms, whichever period is longer. And in recognition of possible staffing issues, Health Care Providers who have tested positive for covid19 shall be masked at work until symptoms have completely resolved or until 14 days after illness onset or positive test, whatever is longer. And they should be restricted. This is good, commonsense measures, restricted from caring for severely immunocompromised patients, which includes for example patients who have been recently transplanted or are cancer patients, until 14 days after illness onset or positive tests. Allignedompletely with the cdc guidance. Thank you. Matt, can you add some on the executive order regarding hotels and transit . The administrative order is actually an addendum to an executive order, 108, which as we talked about before, gives a few limited exceptions to the broader executive order on mitigation that allows towns and other jurisdictions to make their own policies. This will give them if they choose, it is not mandatory and is not a statewide policy, but some towns might want to close shortterm rentals, hotels, motels within their jurisdiction. They cannot interfere, even if they do that, they cannot interfere with statewide housing plans, they cannot restrict Health Care Workers and they cannot restrict temporary housing or other housing assistance. We will put the order out later. You also asked about moving prisoners around and the answer is we have not made a decision on that but it is on a long list of considerations we reserve the right to get back to. Come on down front. Right here. I am retired from cbs. I am claiming unemployment right now. I have a question for robert angela. Robert angelo. What should a person do when theyre filing for unemployment and they get the bad request and they cant get through in the count is yet to be created . Thats a good question. Part of the problem with this is it is hard to answer questions about specific cases here at a press conference, or online or anywhere else. I do want folks to know, if you are getting messages like that online or are told the call during the normal course of business, we have teams going through manually afterwards and hand fixing these claims. A good way to put it is the folks who are complaining and freaking out at the beginning of last week, must of those folks most of those folks have already been updated in the system and will get benefit payments. I know it is small solace now because you want to make sure your claim is cure it, essentially, but thats all i can say. We have folks on the backend going through manually and fixing those claims, and if they need to they will reach out to you. In the past, we have the ability to call them and if they could get through easily, they would do it on the phone or online. We are just doing it ourselves in as many large batches as possible. Thank you. Good luck, we are with you. Charlie. I do want to ask the commissioner of health, how prepared was our healthcare care system for this type of thing and what lessons have we learned to become more prepared in case Something Like this happens again . I know it was a long time ago but im curious if anyone has looked into the 1918 pandemic and the lessons new jersey can take from that. Finally, i want to ask the governor how you view your prohibition on gatherings in terms of public protest. There are a number of controversial things still moving forward. Toll hikes, for instance, and what would you say to people who want to make their voices heard and do it in a responsible way . What do you think is the best way for them to do that . Good questions. If joe or lisa were here, i would Say Something wiseguyish like joe was therefore the 1918 pandemic. But joe is not here so i wont. I mentioned the particularly relevant period in world war ii, particularly the brits with the u. S. Not yet in the war and germany having conquered the entirety of the conference, including france, and the challenges to churchill and his team, and his citizens to prepare for something awful and unknown as well as keep an optimism that this was winnable. That is in many respects what we are dealing with. This is something none of us have dealt with before at all levels, including yours truly and every one of us. At the same time, we have to remind ourselves that somehow, someway we will win this thing and get through it. I am not being short on this, but i dont think churchill was doing a lot of, in may of 1940, a lot of how did we get into this position postmortems yet. I will be all for a postmortem as to how we got to where we are. I think particular at the federal level, particular based on these conversations, which are all constructive, with the white house and others, but the facts are what they are. We are going to do our own postmortem in terms of where we prepared or not prepared, and i dont know how that will take shape but i promise you we will do that. Judy can add color in a second. One of the big lessons from the 1918 pandemic is it is quite clear that immunities that aggressively shut down first or most were communities with less of a toll. There is no question about it. That is more complicated on one level and less complicated on another today because we have a lot more travel than we did 102 years ago, that is the bad news. The good news is we have technology we did not have 102 years ago that allows us to virtually travel. That to me is the one big judy can jump in and add her two cents. I think it is pretty stark the ones that shut down first and shut down hardest, they were the ones who had less of a toll. I would say on gatherings, protests or otherwise, including the toll hearings, democracy has to continue, but we have to do it in a smarter way. I think in particular it will have to be things like virtual participation. I dont see any way around that. I was at a Board Meeting this morning, and it was all done on zoom and telephone. As i mentioned, the toll hearings will have to be i cant condone them unless they are done virtually come on the telephone. There is an 800number for someone to call, there is an extended comment period, but we cannot gather right now. The most tragic, for obvious reasons, but the one that hurts the most is funerals and wakes and Memorial Services where we have hundreds of precious lives and families and friends that spidered in a network out from there, you have many thousands of people who are mourning deeply and want to come together and cannot. You have many thousands of people who are mourning deeply and want to come together and cannot. It is not just the protests or hearings, it is gatherings of any type. As i mentioned earlier, particularly on the cusp of three of the busiest biggest faith celebrations at any time of year. Judy, any comments on how prepared were we and any lessons from other pandemics . Judy yes, first of all the fact that we are sitting here and all of the departments within State Government not only had plans they dusted off from the shelf and updated, but people are getting fed, the shelters are so far continuing to take care of the most vulnerable people. Wic is still up and running and mothers and children are still getting, if not differently, the same level of service they got before the complete shut down. To me, being new in this position, that is an extraordinary testament to how prepared, once the Coronavirus Task force was put into place, how prepared people were. On the other hand, it is interesting to me. My grandmother died in the 1918 flu epidemic, and the same thing that would have saved her life is what we are asking everyone to do today. Social distancing. Nontechnology interventions that can save lives. To me, that is an amazing comparison and a lesson learned. As the governor said, thats what stopped that pandemic from claiming more lives than it did. We have done some things extraordinarily well, and on the other hand, we have asked every department to have an after action plan, to write down every day what could be better. I have a whole list in front of me. At the end of every day, i add to it. And there are a lot of things that i think we can address to be even more prepared going into the future. A little too early to reveal all of that now, not because it is a secret, because of the comparisons between and amongst departments that should take place. But we will have an after action plan. Where did your grandmother live . Judy New Brunswick, new jersey. God rest her soul. Let there be no doubt, we will do a rigorous and fully transparent postmortem. We have no choice and we will make sure of that, you have my commitment. And i please, god, ask we do one nationally as well. No politics, bipartisan, just the facts, like the 9 11 commission that one of my mentors shared. That is what we need as a country, and im sure we will have some version of that for our state. Please. Anybody in the back . Who are you with again . New brunswick today. You guys are the same operation . We are limiting to one per organ. So help us out. Wanted to ask what type of aid is being offered to low income families, immigrant families left out of work with kids at home. And also, in the jails, why havent the quarantined jails been tested . Anything else . That is all. Thank you. Matt can talk about the former but we have a whole series of things the department of Human Services largely that are directed at communities that are typically, in a normal time, being left behind, never mind at a time of crisis. I dont want to go through and list the whole set of programs for you i dont know that i have it off the top of my head but we are an immigrant nation and this state is the immigrant state and we wear that as a badge of honor. I think, like any community, judy, we are testing symptomatic folks regardless of where you are in the state. I think the only time we have set aside a particular category, its either because certain counties ask just residents be tested at their testing sites, and we along with fema have designated days like today where we have sent healthcare workers and First Responders. Am i right in terms of the corrections population . Judy exactly. Anything you want to add in terms of the immigrant communities . Lets get back with Carol Johnson and we will give you a more specific rundown of the programs we have running for our immigrant brothers and sisters. Come down, please. Folks in north jersey and the surge happening there, i remember from an earlier press conference there was concerns about capacity in the south as well. I am curious how you will manage other supplies when the south seas its surge while the north is coming off of its peak. Secondly, a lot of reports in the last week in the National Media about problems with test results, false negatives coming back. I think the suggestion is Something Like 30 of Covid Patients are testing negative. You have any thoughts about that generally and how it might affect the use of ppe . Ive heard some complaints about it is important to figure out who is negative so you are not burning supplies on those patients. The third one, you mentioned the importance of flexibility from the government. Based on your conversations, and you Election Officials will provide you with that flex ability . The last one is easier, you mentioned sourcing ppe and other materials from outside the u. S. I wanted to see how those efforts were going. Thank you very much. My pleasure, thank you for coming. Im going to give some general comments, madame commissioner, and then over to you, is that all right . And pat, you should not hesitate to come in here as well. A couple of things on the regional pieces. The south, while there are certain counties i showed on the heat map that are hotter but lower numbers, other counties have meaningful numbers. Camden has just under 500 positive, they have lost eight lives. Burlington has just under 500 positive and have lost 10 lives. Etc. Gloucester, 215 positives and three lost lives. It is in every county. Judy, to her credit, has regionalized the response to this, and that will allow us to be much broader in the way we deal with a particular part of the state. Clearly we are in a world of hurt up north. We are in a close world of hurt in the central part. It isnt that level yet in the south. Kevin odowd, the ceo of coopers, he is our point person in the south, working with folks in terms of the popup Atlantic City due to be ready to go on the 14th. You rightfully point out that we go into this with a smaller population clearly in the south, but still with less than Adequate Health care infrastructure in the south even for that population. I will let judy add to that. Testing results, this is in terms of how long it takes to get it back, or positives that were negative and negatives that were positive. It had to do with false negatives. There are worries about the accuracy of the tests themselves. Ok. I will let the experts answer that. I havent heard a lot about that , but i think it is fair to say that just because you tested negative a week ago monday doesnt mean you will stay negative forever. Thats not a false negative, it shows the fact that this is a movie and not a snapshot. Block grants, it is too early to tell. We have strong assurances at senior levels of the administration, i will leave the details to themselves. We let our concerns be known as this bill was being hatched, to the highest levels of both chambers of congress as well as the administration. It is too early to tell. We need maximum flexibility or we cannot continue to do the job we are doing. That is to be determined. Listen, a big chunk of my conversation with president clinton today was how are you thinking about sourcing, in particular not just around the country but around the world. If we were fishing i would say we have a lot of lines in the water right now. We have purchased now over 10 million items costing tens and tens of millions of dollars. As the state of new jersey. This is a line of business we were not in six weeks ago. We are now a huge player, but we are talking morning, noon and night. I was exchanging notes this morning with folks in taiwan. Over the past 48 hours, the prc as well as germany. China feels to me outside of the u. S. The deepest pond, to use the fishing analogy, in which we are fishing. We are getting hits here and there, but we will stay at it. If we have big news on that front, we will let you know. Judy . Judy we have tested over 72,000 people and a Positivity Rate is about 42 . I dont know what the false negative or false negative rate is, so i will send it to dr. Tam. Dr. Tam these tests are really good at picking up disease if you have disease. The way the test works is they pick up small amounts of genetic material from the virus. Because there has been a focus on testing individuals who have been symptomatic, there is definitely a much greater chance that you will be picking up individuals with disease. Thats why we have had a high Positivity Rate in general. And again, getting back to the issue of sensitivity, the ability to pick up infection when it is there, it is considered to be very high in this particular test. Judy and in terms of how we are organizing the state, the governor hit upon some of this, we have separated the state into the north, central and south region. Level ones are what we call collaborating agencies. The reason for that is so we have the capacity to transport not only equipment and supplies in an expedient manner, but also to be able to transport patients so they get the appropriate level of care. The level 1s have ground and air transportation. In might be we have to transport someone from the northern part of the state who is in Critical Condition who has to go to an appropriate bed in the southern part of the state. So far, we have moved a few things around, ventilators being the one that comes top of mind, because we have had to do that. It is too early to tell how Much Movement we will have, because every hospital, and we are confirming all of this, has increased their actual bed capacity, putting beds and stretchers in areas that have never been used before, but have the appropriate ability to take care of patients. So for example, post anesthesia, recovery rooms, are being used as patient care areas because we are not doing elective surgery. We know that one hospital has set up a portion of their cafeteria with beds to be able to take care of patients. We also know almost every hospital, particularly in the north right now, is increasing their Critical Care capacity because they have to. We had projected 2. 5 weeks ago that the Critical Care capacity needed to increase by 100 from 2000 licensed beds to 4000. Every hospital is doing what they have to do. The surge, we are in the beginning of it in the north and we may have to have a lot of movement of supplies, equipment and patients so people are taking care of. We monitor that every eight hours. Thank you. Anything on ppe . I would remind the universe we are trying to address its health care, First Responders, corrections, juvenile justice, retail workers, Human Services, children and families, and this morning i spoke to a funeral director because they are at the tail end of this, and whether they are cremating or embalming, they are at risk. When we talk about the procurement efforts underway, we are trying to do that with all hands on deck. With regard to who ever picks up the phone and goes to our website, whether it is a donation, a manufacturer, a distributor who says ive got it, we are tracking down every one of those. We have spent 27 million so far and i anticipate we will be spending a lot more and hopefully we are able to get it in our warehouses and to those who need it as soon as possible. I think you said yesterday, the 27 million is what weve got and it is tens and tens beyond that. This is not cheap. A friend just sent a flyer on facebook, before we get to you, john. By the way, this is what is out here. We have no evidence that any of this is true, and if we have evidence otherwise, we would tell you. Homeland security is preparing to mobilize the national guard, to dispatch them across the u. S. Along with military. They will announce at the end of the weekend. Bear with me stock up on whatever you need to make sure you have a two week supply of everything. Please forward to family and friends. This is complete bs. I am sure it is a nonu. S. , a foreign actor involved in Something Like this. We dont know, a friend of mine just sent this to me and we have no evidence anything like that is being considered, but it is intended to get people to panic and that is the last thing we need. You win wars not because you panic, it is not business as usual, but you are deliberate and smart. You make decisions based on facts and you reach deep for the well of great courage and work ethic that we all need. Jared would want me to say this, none of what i read a moment ago, to the best of my knowledge or any of our knowledge, is true. Those are actors trying to make folks panic and it is the last thing we need right now. John. A couple of quick questions. People who are having problems filing claims and need to call in, can you give guidance to prevent the need for them to call in . Anything they can do to make sure the application is right the first time . Have you hired new staff to help handle this volume, particular have you found new cobol programmers . And people are clamoring for how they can get the federal benefit, the 600. I know you just said that, but any clarity. The longterm care, do you have a sense of how many providers are being noncompliant in terms of notification . Were getting a lot of anecdotal calls, is it widespread, why not just name them now . So that people can know where their loved ones are . Anything else . Rob . Would you tackle the first three on unemployment . The 600, theres nothing anybody has to do once they are eligible and claiming, they will get the 600 additional. As of right now, it is going out as a separate payment. It will come a few days after the regular unemployment payment. This is still a federally administered program, and we are still waiting for guidance. We are good to go, we are good to make the payment, but until the feds say go ahead, we cannot make the payment, but i am hopeful we will be the first state to have that. Our systems are ready to go. How to keep from getting on the phone, i mentioned there is a new faq and it sounds boring, but if you go to the website that was posted last night, a lot of it is to address a lot of those questions. It is hard to talk about specific issues for claimants, but a lot of the things are in the faq posted last night. There are 45 new questions and answers specifically about trying to help people with the things that would make someone need intervention. We are trying to flatten our curve, because we are at the peak of our curve for unemployment filing. As far as hiring staff, i cant hire somebody, my friend here, and say come be our claims examiner. The training and knowledge you need for that is extensive. Ive been commissioner for twoplus years now, and i couldnt come close to be a claims examiner. For the ins and outs of federal law. What were doing is following the lead of other states ahead of us, who had this first. Lake washington state. They have a great program. Theyre having short trainings. All department of labor staff to be able to answer generic basic questions first, and filter them out, the ones that still need specific guidance for their specific claims, send them to the people who are trained u. I. Examiners. Just making sure that we get them posted. Secondly, again, we need the federal help in a big way, right . Youve heard us say that, right . Individuals need it, Small Businesses need it, new jersey needs it, hospitals need it, transit systems need it, etc. This is a little bit of a common theme. It is the guidance and the actual operating instructions on how these programs are dispensed are a little bit slower to come to pass here than we would otherwise like. I think that hurts most importantly individuals, Small Businesses. It works its way through all the industries that are impacted, healthcare obviously, transit two big ones, but it also impacts the guidance that you asked about, block grants as well earlier. Judy, longterm care. Judy yeah. I do not have specific numbers. Its mostly anecdotal. Ive gotten two complaints directly to my email. Ive not been notified of complaints on our hotline. However because of the incidence of disease, the spread were seeing, we are encouraging longterm care, assistedliving, all residences, to carry out their obligation and develop a more open and trustful and transparent relationship with their residents and their families. Were giving them the chance to do that. And not much of a window, we will take action. Anybody else . Real quick, sir. Hold on one second. I just want to praise seabrook, where my parents are residents of. Two residents of 3219 residents. Not one patient, not one resident, came out of there residence for that, not one covid patient has been sick, and not one person ill. By handling doing the protocol, which as you said, lock yourself indoors, spray your clothes, spray any packages that come in, its working. The next two weeks will be hell, but i love my mom and dad and hopefully theyll be back and i can see them in three to four weeks. How old are they . 91 and 87. My dad is a former reagan. Iter for he worked for reagan . He worked for ronald reagan. He was a helluva speechwriter. Yes. Used to write for bill buckley as well. Serious orators. God bless them both. Thank you, sir. Everybody, thank you. I want to thank the commissioner of the department of health, the woman who needs introduction. Tan, thank youna to all your teams extraordinary leadership. Thank you in this hour of need. A couple of reminders. Tomorrow well be on paper, unless theres a meaningful material reason to gather even by telephone, in which case we will reserve that right and let you know. Monday well be back here, doing it at 2 00, unless you hear otherwise. This is as somber a day as weve had, and every one has been somber, but to think that new jerseys toll has passed the toll we suffered on 9 11 takes your breath away. To each and every single one of the lives we lost on 9 11, to each and every one of the single lives weve lost so far, and will lose sadly in this, in our prayers, god rest these souls. We will do everything we can. There is no price too high for us to try to save every single life we can. This is, again, a war. We are in a war. We win these wars not by panicking, but by doing what new jersians do better than anyone in the world. Most importantly, we row the boat together. Right now that means stay at home. Keep social distance. Do the big things and the small things. Remember, as diverse as we are, were an extraordinary family that comes together like no other state or no other place in the world at a time of crisis. This is a time of crisis. Were one new jersey family. We rise and fall and rise again as one family. We will do that in this case and in every case. God bless you all, and thank you. Cspan has roundtheclock coverage to a federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and it is ondemand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch updates and track the spread through the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime unfiltered on cspan. Org coronavirus. Q a, he has been on the front lines is a prominent member of the Coronavirus Task force. When you are dealing in the interface of politics and policy, the thing i have found to be very effective is be consistent, be totally honest, and do not tell people things you think they might want to hear. Tell them the truth that is based on evidence, because even a politicians, be they in administration or congress, may not be happy with what you tell them because it disappoints them, they will respect you if after a while it is clear to them that you are telling them the truth based on scientific evidence. We will profile dr. Anthony fauci. Looking at his personal life, his relationships with past president s, and his career fighting infectious diseases, now thes, h1n1, and coronavirus pandemic. Watch the profile of dr. Fauci tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan q a. Announcer next, Queen Elizabeth of england with a broadcast message on the impact of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and the governments response. The u. K. Has more than 4000 confirmed cases, including prince charles, and more than 4000 deaths. The queen recorded her message at Windsor Castle near london. Queen elizabeth ii im speaking to you at what i know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country. A disruption that has brought grief to some, Financial Difficulties to many, and enormous changesth