Transcripts For CSPAN South Carolina Gov. McMaster Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

With state officials. Gov. Mcmaster we all thank you for coming. We are trying to be sure that everyone is kept uptodate on the progress of the virus and our efforts to fight that virus without destroying jobs and families, so today, im issuing another order. This is a mandatory order. Weve issued several that contain mandates and others that contain recommendations. Today, most of those recommendations are becoming mandates, becoming orders with criminal penalties attached. Im issuing a mandatory home or work order. That goeswork order into Effect Tomorrow afternoon tuesday at 5 00 p. M. Close of business. Everyone under this order should stay home, unless they are working, visiting family, or recreating outdoors, unless they necessary goods or services, and those are the limits. We are closing no additional businesses. Those businesses have been closed in previous orders. Also. We are requiring mandates of the Retail Stores that are open, and that is, they must limit the customers. We must have social distancing in these stores. That is specifically no more than five customers for every 1000 square feet in a Retail Business or 20 of capacity according to the fire marshal, whichever is less. A violation of any of these mandatory requirements is a misdemeanor, 30 days in jail, and or 100 fine for each day of violation. Why are we doing this now . Why not wait later . Why not have done it earlier . It is time,use according to the data, according to the science, according to the facts, and according to the asert advice and guidance, we have explained before. It is now time to make these recommended actions required. Why is it time . Because too many people, from the statistics, from the facts, from observations, too many people are on the roads. Too many people around the waters. Too many people are in the stores. Too many people are not considering social distancing. Weve asked, we urged, weve suggested, and experts have suggested everyone is aware of what we have the information we have disseminated, but the last week or so has shown that it is not enough. The rate of infection is on the rise and the rate of noncompliance is on the rise. Lets hope that this order today will reduce the rising rate of infection and also reduce the rate of noncompliance, and also reduce the number of people who are losing their jobs because of these necessary orders. Gentlemen,ladies and we had over 200. By the end of this week, we expect over 200,000 people who have applied for Unemployment Insurance in South Carolina. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Each one of those 200,000 people likely represents a family, and we know there will be more. We know there are many more than that who have lost their jobs. Either because of the market, because of steps taken by businesses and services, or by the orders we have issued. To paythose people have bills, have to feed their children, have to say for college. Save are many things for college. There are many things people will not be able to do because of these orders. It will be difficult at the least, so we must be aggressive in going after this virus. We must seek to do as little damage, as little destruction to the homes and businesses and people and the jobs as is possible. Finally, as for the General Assembly, as you know, we have to have a budget. We have to have laws. We have to have Business Done in the General Assembly. I am urging the General Assembly to come back to work on wednesday, as has been planned, and get it done. We have cashiers going to work, we have Police Officers going to work, we have all kind of people going to work. Theres no excuse for the members of the General Assembly not to come to work on wednesday and take care of this vital business. Weally, on easter services, recommend that those services continue, of course, but we urge the churches and others to stream on the internet if they can, to meet outdoors if they can, and if they cant do those, please provide for that social distancing in the church. Easter, with of the chaplain please come forward . Chaplain i want us to remember a few words from the preamble of the constitution. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. If you would, please pray with me if you are a praying person. Great god, you are a god of unity, a god who requires us to love justice and who longs for peace and mercy amongst his people. Help us, we,ime, the people of the United States, continue to love one another, serve each other, and let the spirit of South Carolina and america shine through us all as we patiently obey and pray for the leaders over us, and pray for the Health Care Workers and other servant leaders selflessly tending to our needs. I pray all these things in your mighty name, amen. Thank you, governor. Good afternoon, everyone. We are reporting 183 new cases of covid19 as of today, which brings the total number of people confirmed to have the disease in South Carolina to 2232. We have seen week, an accelerated rate of new andctions in South Carolina an average of 187 new days day in the cases per last week, an increase of 90 infections per day being reported in the week higher. We recognize the hardships that are facing many south carolinians as we continue to respond to this Public Health threat together. I want to reassure the public that we are working hard together as a team from the local, state, and in concert with our National Partners to protect the health and safety of all south carolinians. As of today, we continue to work with Health Care Facilities to stay updated on the availability of acute care beds throughout our state, and currently, we are at 51 capacity. A total of 21,384 tests have been performed by the Public Health lab and private lands on south carolinians in our state, of which 2232 or approximately 10 have been positive. While our state Public Health laboratory has no delay in testing, private laboratories around the nation have significant delays, which would indicate an even higher number of cases yet to be reported, and we should also include individuals who may not be tested. Are working to avoid the problems that the most impacted areas are seeing related to the stress on the Health Care System including hospitalization rates, ventilator availability, and others. We are doing this by prioritizing our limited resources. Our current data shows us that social distancing is staying helped combat the spread of the disease and ultimately saved lives. However, while these hardhit areas of the country are continuing to have significant daily mortality, it puts us in the best position if we plan for the worst. Some ofy case count in those areas is improving due to strong mitigation efforts, and we worked in consultation with the governor to implement effective measures to slow the spread of the virus. Combat the spread of the disease will depend on the actions each of us takes. This is a historic and unprecedented event, and how we respond as individuals, a will bey, and a state remembered for generations to come and we ask for your continued support for following the guidance of Public Health professionals so that we can can prevent continue to provide on your behalf. Lees do your part. Stay at home and limit close contact with others. As always, for the latest information, please visit our web page. Thank you. Thank you, governor. Ill briefly cover a few items that will be posted on our website later today, both an explanation and a video. Earlier this weekend, the cdc released information regarding the use of cloth masks and face coverings. While these measures are optional, they may help reduce the spread of the virus. They are not intended to replace social distancing or handwashing or other recommendations to protect health. South carolina residents should not run out and buy masks. As a reminder, the cdc has warned this is a historic and unprecedented outbreak and supplies are limited. It is important that we save the manufactured masks, be it respirators for First Responders and doctors who may need the most. Homemade masks may reduce the amount of virus one breeds out and may prevent one from touching the nose or the mouth. This measure is recommended to be used in situations or social distancing where social distancing may be difficult to maintain such as grocery stores, pharmacies. It is intended to protect others from those who may be infected and able tous spread it but not showing symptoms. People wearing a mask should not feel a false sense of security. That means the mask should be want to help protect others. It is important to understand these recommendations do not allow for someone to go out in public if they are ill. You still need to practice social distancing stayathome. Individuals with symptoms should continue to isolate at home but may consider a homemade mask when leaving to get medical items if a homemade might mask is only have. We will post on our website instructions and a video for making a homemade mask. It is quite simple. All you need is a piece of fabric. You can take the fabric, fold the fabric so it fits over your mouth and nose, on one end of the fabric, insert cover a rubber band to inches from the end of the fabric, do the same on the other end of the fabric about two inches down. You then overlap the fabric on either end, grab the rubber over thed then pull it nose and mouth. Will besimilar to that posted on our website as well as written instructions as to how to make a homemade mask. Thank you. Gov. Mcmaster thank you. Thank you, governor. Since the announcement of the executive order issued march 17, South Carolina National Guard has been working with a inong coalition of personnel various state and federal agencies and Health Officials in the state of South Carolina to determine the possible impact the current covid19 response our healthhave on care system in the state. Weve implemented a scalable, ilorable, tiered response to operate a medical facility. I would like to discuss what our analysis has revealed and the fundamental aspects of this plan. Iss tiered Response Plan intended to operate within the existing hospital Health Care System in the state. It merely expands the hospital footprint outside of existing hospital facilities. Id like to recognize some of our participants who have been a part of this process. South carolina mercy management division, South Carolina department of health and environmental control, South Carolina National Guard, South Carolina Hospital Association, South Carolina labor, licensing, and regulations, our Regional Health care providers, South Carolina department of transportation, South Carolina parks and recreation and tourism, South Carolina department of the administration, all of those in addition to others to include the army corps of engineers have been a part of developing this plan that we are to begin implementing as of now. Reportsve heard from from dr. Bell and others over the last couple of weeks, this pandemic is a never moving target. When i said an ever moving target. When i say that, the numbers we are looking at have changed and we anticipate they will continue to change, but for planning our additional plan, which is, again scalable and tailored to the needs we may have, our early projections have it that we would have approximately 3500 potential Covid Patients in South Carolina that could need hospitalization in the early part of may. Again, we will, each and every day, look at the projections. We will look at those numbers, and we will adjust the plan as necessary to be sure that we are capable of handling the Response Plans that we will discuss here. Based on todays numbers, you can see the hospital bed space capacity in the state by region, the upstate, the midlands, and the low country. You can see the numbers that are currently beds that are used and the current beds that have been made available, and we have noted in the past that the elective have reduced surgeries and other procedures to allow the capacity to be there, and we appreciate their efforts to do that. In addition, if we look at it, you can see the number of intensive Care Capacity we have, the beds that are currently being used for icu patients and those that are available and the number of ventilators that are being used and those that are available. Numbers will change potentially on a daily basis and we will always monitor those to ensure our plan accommodates those. As of today, we have 5944 hospital beds available here in South Carolina. What our plan will allow us to do is to add an additional 3000 beds to give us an approximate number of 9000 beds no later than may 5 of this year. From a planning projection standpoint in our first phase by april 28, we will add 1500 beds in either a tier one or tier two capacity and we will speak a little more to that detail to identify what a tier one and tier two facility will be comprised of. By may 5, we will add another 1500 beds that will give us that 3000bed capacity above and beyond what we currently have available. Some Key Takeaways from this. I just want to say that this is a contingency plan. This is a plane we will have in place ready to go if those needs develop. If the plan that is built around Hospital System in the state, in the upstate, midlands, low lands, npd throughout the state. It is a plan that has been vetted by the South Carolina Hospital Association and by the office of rural health, where they have talked to all the leadership in every hospital in the state. The members of the leadership have indicated that they believe thehe plan, plan is workable, and they support the plan, which i think is very important. Have dr. Eric osman speak to how he tiered plan will be implemented. He is the vice chair of the department of emergency medicine and Emergency Management with prisma health. At this time, doctor . Thank you, adjutant general. What i wanted to do was build on what the general has said about the tiered Response Plan. When we envisioned this plan, it was really to extend the capacity of our existing Health Care System. We are not making anything new or novel. These are simply extensions of the existing systems so over the last three weeks, we have been working with the South Carolina guard, Emergency Management division, with the South Carolina Hospital Association and our clinical partners throughout the state to come up with a workable system that is going to get us the bed capacity we could potentially need. This is a threetiered system, and as im sure you are familiar with, the tier three hospitals are your traditional hospitals. They are the hospitals where we provide Critical Care services. They are the hospitals where we are able to provide management to patients that are very sick, and the role of these hospitals is not going to change. These are going to be the facility that will care for folks that are sick from covid19, but they will also continue to care for people that have all of the regular illnesses and injuries that people in South Carolina will encounter. When we look at the additional expansion, we are really talking about here one and tier two hospitals, so the idea behind these hospitals is that we will use them to provide treatment within their scope, so we are going to be in the tier two hospitals providing care that is appropriate for those patients. He will not be as intense as we providing tier three, but it will be professional, high quality care on the level that softer lenience will expect. South carolinians will expect. Pier 1, we are really using for quarantine and isolation folks. People are19, isolated from all others when they are ill and people that are highrisk contact our quarantined and away from others when they are potentially infectious. When we talk about these medical surge facilities, what were really talking about is opening some of the shuttered hospitals, creating tear to facilities in and alsos and arenas, creating tent hospitals, if needed. All of these are options on the table for the tier two facilities. But youre one facilities are really designed for people that are going to be pride able to provide selfcare. They will not require intense medical treatment. And will require selfcare, we will have a light medical footprint at the 21 facilities to assist and monitor those patients. Should they become worse, they will be transferred to a regular tier three hospital for evaluation and treatment. We believe the steering of our resources will allow us to increase capacity and serve patients safely and appropriately during the covid19 pandemic. Thank you. I would now like and hishe ceo at m usc president here as vice of Health Affairs or he will discuss the staffing challenges to build the were surge plan. Thank you, general, governor. Plan, on behalf of all South Carolina hospitals, i want to briefly state that we feel we are ready. To support what dr. Ossmann said, all hospitals have been surveyed in the past few days and everyone of those hospitals is supportive of this plan. It is easy to support because this is a mere extension of what our normal Emergency Operations plans are. In normal Emergency Operations, we are ready to surge. This one may be a little deeper or greater of a surge than usual, but we are ready. Ive seen a lot of work across South Carolina hospitals over the past four weeks, and i am confident that we will be ready. We know thismusc, is going to be tough. This is not going to be easy. We have a hospital that normally has about 800 patients in it. We are ready to surge that hospital another 150 beds. To go beyond that into the second level facility, we are going to use our Fitness Center about a block away from the hospital to surge another 250 beds, if needed. Once again, this will not be easy. This will require a different level of personnel and how they are used, but we think we are ready. Weve been planning and planning hard. This is going to take our nurses, our frontline doctors, our residents, our fellows. This is going to take an entire team to take care of these patients, but i feel confident that we are ready. He will be a tough month. The surge is likely to last a while. It will go away right away, but we can pull it together and i am confident based on what i am hearing across all of our South Carolina hospitals that those hospitals will be ready to work individually as well as together. Once again, i think the messages we are ready. It is not going to be easy, but i think we are ready to deal with this when it comes. Thank you. I would like to ask regulations to come up and discuss the role with us. At the South Carolina department of labor licensing and regulation, we are prepared to support the hospitals in this ofn through the licensing qualified Health Care Workers to build staffing capacity when and where it may be needed. Since the beginning of South Carolinas First Response to the pandemic, the agency and its licensing boards have been working tirelessly to take measures and responses and adopt incremental flux abilities to ensure South Carolina has the resources to combat the virus while still ensuring its citizens are provided with appropriate care and benefit from these flex abilities so for example, in conjunction with the agency waived state licensure requirements for doctors, nurses, respiratory care practitioners, and physicians assistants lysed in another state licensed in another state. This serves to expand the use of telemedicine to serve our citizens. Sohave relaxed regulations providers from neighboring states can continue treating South Carolina patients via telemedicine. The board of medical examiners has relaxed regulations related alth to expand medical hair. This has allowed doctors, assistants, and physicians to write schedule to an schedule three medications by telemedicine without approval from the medical board. It has allowed hospice providers to conduct telecommunication telemedicine examinations in lieu of in person and examinations of patients within 14 days of prescribing medicine for them. It has expanded the use of telemedicine to treat individuals with opioid use disorder, with medication assisted treatment. Weve also expanded access to health care through telemedicine by expanding telehealth to other professions such as optometry, dental, speech, link which cap elegy, physical and occupational therapy, and telecounseling for counselors and therapists, to name a few. Emergency inited state licensure for the board of nursing and the board of medical examiners. Takenency has also measures to help the licensees themselves that are out there on the front lines to help us combat this virus. Many continuing education requirements require professionals are now allowed online. Extended any renewal or continuing education requirements through september 30, 2020, giving Nursing Schools discretion to allow requirements be done by stimulation simulation so students can graduate. We fracks other School Requirements to allow students to earn a professional license. Weve also issued practice guidance to licenses from the boards that are provided through links on the website, on the agencys website to help those practitioners practice safely. All of these measures are available on our website, ll r. Sd. Gov. There is an alert on top of the page one can see for actions done by any board or any agency to help with the agency. That link is updated every day as new measures are taken to combat this pandemic. Thank you. Thank you,er general. Thank you, miss marfarr. We have the full field of public and private. I want to thank staff, nurses, physicians, all of those on the front line. It is much like a war. They are on the front line. Law enforcement, same goes for them. They are rusting in a situation that could be very dangerous to their health. Represented here today and displayed is a large part of the effort we are making in Public Health, but also unrepresented today are some of you heard from before, the department of employment and workforce as well as the Commerce Department as well as the department of Mental Health. Isknow the isolation fostered by these orders and the pandemic are going to exacerbate existing problems and create more. Again, i repeat that we are going to have more and more people that are out of work for various reasons. We are working around the clock to see that all of the resources ,vailable to soften the blow that economic blow and protect those families, protect those jobs, and get people back to work when the time comes are being taken. We are taking measured, deliberate steps. Kevin you have seen here so far has been part of a plan that is working and expanding and there will be more steps taken in the future. Are there any questions from anyone . Yes maam. Said you your office would question the constitutionality of a governors ability to tell people to stay home. What do you think of that now, and how has your thinking on that evolved . Gov. Mcmaster i think the same of the constitutionality of such orders that restrict the liberty and rights of people who that are protected by the United States constitution. They are there for a reason and they are there for situations such as this, so we dont forget. You know, of course, personally, ive been a lawyer practicing attorney for 45 years. Attorneyears as u. S. And several years as attorney general. What you can do under the law, what the government can do, we are doing that in this situation. We want to be sure that what we are doing is within the framework of the constitution and the law, and that is to protect the people having full regard for due process and the rights of assembly and the right to travel, but to stay within the parameters and guardrails that are set up by the constitution. We have a South Carolina constitution, as well. Theres a right to privacy. We are limiting the impact of what we are doing as much as we can in order to protect the health of the people, that we know is protecting their Health Without going beyond that and destroying more than we are protecting wild still sticking with the mandates of the constitution. The evidence and facts that have been referred to today, that is the rising noncompliance, the rising infection rate, such things as the cdc now in the last few days recommending face masks, such things as about a o ago, Domestic Travel advisories in certain states. All of those things are leading to a point to where it is within the constitution to use limited dont go any farther than necessary, to protect the liberties of the people without depriving them of their rights and that is what we are doing today. Tom cotton what we are doing today is legal constitution and protect all protecting people without destroying families. Why not call it a stayathome order . Gov. Mcmaster weve been urging people to stay at home from the beginning. The highways, i think weve said that. This is a stayathome order. Call it what you like, but it says stay at home. Work and home, home and work. Those are the places, those are the best places to be. There are certain other exceptions that are good for the health of the people. Things we have been espousing and promoting from the very beginning. Yes maam . Reporter you encouraged churches to do services online. A church in charleston had a service of more than 100 people. Constitutional right to stay open until the governor says otherwise. Are you going to stop it or arent you . I cant speak for other governors, but this governor is not going to intrude on the first amendment. That is an absolute right. We are encouraging pastors and others in any house of worship, any congregation of any kind to use social distancing. That is go online. It is a little different because you dont have the whole choir onlyng, and there are three or four people in this big church, but it works. But do it that way or have the service outside with social distancing, or if you must have a congregation under a roof, then use that social that first but amendment right is very important just like the others and we are respecting that. Reporter governor, how are you all expecting to enforce this new mandate . Gov. Mcmaster it is a crime to violate it. It is a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail up to 100 for every day of violation. Any Law Enforcement officer can enforce it, just as any Law Enforcement officer can enforce the three or more rule. That is, if there are three or more people congregating in one way or another or violating endangering Public Health or the public order, they can be arrested and go to jail and pay a fine. Every time they do it. Had in the last weekend, we the department of Natural Resources out in force on our waterways, which i mentioned earlier. I believeusted up, over 2500 votes on the water and give a number of citations, as well. Ladies and gentlemen, we got to follow the rules. Do you know what the rules are. They are clear. The orders weve issued are clear. What you heard today is clear. We have to do it. If people do not comply, we will take the next step after that if necessary to protect the people. That is what we will do. We will not violate constitutional rights, but we will certainly protect people within the limits of power and resources that we have. Reporter governor, what level do you want to see motor traffic what percentage of normal out . The mcmaster you can get percentages of what has happened in the last weekend from the department of transportation. That was part of our consideration for today. Highways,aces, some not interstate highways, but other highways, traffic actually went up over what is usual. Went up 25 in some places. That tells us there is a level of noncompliance. People are traveling. They are moving around. Those kinds of things added to incidence ofd reports and those are just the ones we know about. It doesnt count the cases out there that we dont know about. All of those things added together to say we have to do something. There is no precise percentage, but we want to see it go down. We dont want to see it go up. We want to see people reducing interaction with those and a chance of contacting the spread of the disease to go down and that is what must happen if we are going to stop this virus. It is easy to do. All you have to do is follow the rules we have laid out, follow the rules we have discussed every time weve been here, including stayathome. Stayathome as a mandate punishable by law under the rules we are announcing today. If everyone will do that, be serious about this and do that, the rate of infection will be reduced. Perhaps we wont get to the worstcase scenarios we talking about unprepared for. We have been preparing for this for weeks. This is a part of our plan. A. B. We wont get there. We dont get there, but if people dont take this seriously, we will get there. In the back. Reporter arenas were mentioned as possible search hospitals. Search hospitals. Surge hospitals. Gov. Mcmaster everyone has been considered. The plan that has been announced, i dont know if this includes any arenas at this point. We have looked at those. 18 facilities around the state and these facilities have either been the owners were those who operate the facilities have come forward and said these facilities would be available or facilities the state has some operational control over. Facilities ande have to vet it against criteria, we are utilizing the army corps of engineers, we are utilizing guidelines they have in place. We are using engineers from the department of transportation, National Guard, state guard. The facilities generally have to be ada compliant, have adequate restroom and shower facilities. We can put those in place if necessary. They must have appropriate Fire Suppression systems, be free from lead and discuss those contamination asbestos contamination. All hotels we looked at built after 1990 me that and they have to have emergency backup power. We can contract and have that type of resource made available. We are working throughout the state. We are looking to have in each of those areas identified of one tiernimum of one facility and one tier two facility but we will expand as needed to a common what we believe maybe spikes in surges, but we will look to see where we need those facilities built. We have at our disposal basically hospital tents that are available to us. A 100bed hospital tent and others that can expand the capacity. That is a fairly quick turnaround we can identify an area that may need immediate assistance and we can have a operational fairly quickly. Any fixed facilities, we will work with the corps of engineers and those will take the greatest lead time. We will work quickly to determine where those will be and get started on those facilities. Gov. Mcmaster does that answer your question . I dont. Van mccarty know specifically of colonial, but we have had a number offered up and we will have a study to determine what our needs are, the capabilities based on compliance. To the followup shuttered hospitals that may reopen, which hospitals and will that be solely for the tier one selfcare . Bothgen. Van mccarty facilities were recently shut over the last few years. Two of those facilities were not going to be available to us either due to having been repurposed or we found unacceptable levels of molding one. The other two will be looked at and no final decision has been made. Reporter which two . Maj. Gen. Van mccarty fairfield and the marlborough are still on the table. Reporter two is going to staff these hospitals when they open up . Maj. Gen. Van mccarty all of this will be done within the framework of the current Hospital System. Maysupport type needs that be necessary to build up these assets suchilities as the National Guard will be available to help with that. You can contract some of those capabilities as needed. Within thek framework, primarily of the existing Hospital Systems for the actual care itself. Those support systems that are necessary to run a facility may be brought on by other capacities, the guard or contracted. Reporter worstcase scenario for the state . Maj. Gen. Van mccarty that is a midrange projection and we will continue to look at projections everyday as we look at that and and our system is scalable if you look at that number, based on the current availability of hospital beds, we are confident we can meet that, but we want to have that contingency available in case those numbers do exceed what we are planning and working against. Reporter you mentioned the 9000 beds by may 5. That is when threetiered program will go into effect . Maj. Gen. Van mccarty we had theted that now, when doctor mentioned what had happened at musc, cap process has started. Facilities across the state have been working to enhance their capability to expand within their current footprint. Ive talked with the hospital. Ssociation and with dr. Adams i want to point out, this is not an unusual operation that hospitals do. In the past five years with the hurricanes weve had, this type of plan has been used before. Well we are doing different now is using some additional facilities to help expand on that footprint. , weplanning for purposes like to have the tiered facilities within a reasonable geographic space of the primary and for planning purpose, we use five miles but that number was arbitrary to get us started. Certainly as the needs may exist and what the hospital is better capable of supporting, we will adjust our plan to suit those needs. Gov. Mcmaster any more questions for the general . A joint question. We are talking about needing a lot more medical staff and gearing up, yet we are being told hospitals are laying nurses and other people off. How are we going to staff these cured up facilities geared up facilities . I can speak on behalf of musc only at this point. It is true, this covid19 is affecting entire economy, hospitals and Health Systems in two ways. In one way, significant financial challenges and in another, a large surge of patients coming. Not what we are doing, the adjustment we are going through will not affect frontline nurses or doctors. What we are doing to make that adjustment is particularly support staff. At this point in time, we feel, dont need to be part of that those are the stack predominantly affected. Once again, ill reemphasize this is not affecting frontline chs, respiratory personnel. The Staff Members have already been affected by this because of the great decreasing hospitalizations, surgeries, ambulatory visits. They typically flex to volume and they have been affected in the number of shifts they may be covering last three weeks has greatly decreased. That may be ok because in the next four to six weeks, they will greatly increase. There has been a period where the number of shifts is typically down, but it will go higher in the next four to six weeks. They be hiredd back after temporary layoffs . Dr. Cawley let me emphasize, we are not laying off at musc, frontline workers. Read not laying off frontline nurses, nursing techs, respiratory therapists, doctors, anyone who works on the frontline taking care of patients. Reporter can you give an example of who is being laid off, then, for those who dont understand what . Dr. Cawley there are often people in the background who work background, maybe quality work or some registries in the background, billing folks, things like that. Things that are often in the background that during Something Like this where we have to prioritize patient care, in an environment in which we must be fiscally responsible, we have to prioritize frontline workers. Gov. Mcmaster any more questions for dr. Cawley at the moment . Reporter where does Asthma Health stand on the backlog . Dr. Ossmann testing is very caught up. As of today, we are working with our internal labs and also with some of the private labs. We feel pretty confident today that we are caught up on the vast majority of the testing. Gov. Mcmaster are there any more questions . In the back. Reporter governor, did South Carolina get the much every thing it asked for out of the stockpile. Is it good to have a friend in high places and why do you think South Carolina got everything it asked for . Gov. Mcmaster weve been asking for a meeting thats available. The way it is sent out by population generally, and also include need. There are factors. The administration, Trump Administration is working overtime to get factories and producers to come online and switch from one thing to another. We have a lot of them right here in South Carolina that will be of people coming over and making masks and faye shields and tests and all sorts of things. It is an acrosstheboard effort, but when we talk to the federal officials everyday. Someone in our group is on the phone every minute during the day talking to several officials making sure they know what our needs are, and they are sending is within their power, but a lot of the things we need, we must get from the private market. Therefore, we are just like everybody else. Just like the hospitals. We dont just get it from the federal government, so i assure you that our team is working roundtheclock to see that whatever we need, we get. A year or so ago, the lab ran out of the reagent that is needed for the test. Needs known and overnight, we got the reagents we need. Our team is alert and every thing available out there, whether it is medical supplies, personal protection equipment, unemployment benefits, loans for Small Businesses, loans for sole proprietors, loans for 1099 or unemployment for those people 1099, Small Businesses and others that are usually not a part of the unemployment scheme, they are now. We are working to be sure the administration and those in charge of the federal agencies and regulations no what we need know what we need here and we are working diligently with our congressional delegation. Senator graham, senator scott, all the others to see that anything that is available, we will get. The orderyouve made to close nonessential businesses, but gun stores have stayed open. Why are they considered essential . Gov. Mcmaster because there is a constitutional right to have an bear arms. Thats the second amendment. Therter are we losing nurses and frontline people to new york and other places that might be paying more now and if so, are we tracking that . Gov. Mcmaster as has been explained, we are not losing, but ill let these general and answer the question. Weve seen some nurses and doctors go. I think they are wanting to go to a place where, at the moment, they are needed. Weve seen some lowlevel, but i would not say a large number at this point. Reporter dr. Ossmann, can you comment on what staffers at present have been furloughed . Prisma have been furloughed . Dr. Ossmann none of our frontline doctors, nurses, people providing care. This is a challenging time for health care, but we are taking that same approach that musc is. Reporter [inaudible] our frontline staff remains in tact, committed to the job and it is not impacting. Reporter governor, when will benefits from the care act be available to folks . Gov. Mcmaster which is the cares act . Reporter where they file for unemployment and get benefits. Gov. Mcmaster the 600 . The coronavirus assistance act, and you have the various acts, but the 600 per person Unemployment Insurance was not available until i think it just started now because of requirements that had not been met in washington for the dispersion of those funds, but that is being met now and that money will be added to everyones unemployment check files for unemployment under the states unemployment system. For others, the 1200 per person, that is automatic from the treasury department. You have to be known as a taxpayer. If you are not a taxpayer, you can file as a taxpayer. You need to hurry up and do it. If you havent done it this year there are extensions this year if you havent filed this year, they would use what was on the books last year and if you have a deposit account , it will go directly into your bank account. If you dont have one, they will have to send you a check. All of those things are being handled. There were some restrictions and rules that have not been yet thought out and finalized in the government, the federal government, but if they havent been, they are being and will be soon. Those checks should start flowing immediately. We are working with director healthy at the department of commerce. To see what weng could do ourselves in order to help fill that gap, but now, the checks, the money, the sport supporte coming should be coming and i urge everyone who is interested to go to those websites. The department of commerce, department of employment at work, and look at those. There are also loans coming through private banks. For Small Businesses. Are you still [inaudible] or are those and that could be postponed . Weve postponed anything that can be postponed. We are only doing emergency surgeries and only surgeries that we call urgent less than a week, meaning it is not an emergency but should get done in the next week. We are doing it. What we are also finding, because this has been going on three weeks, we have a third category called urgent less than a month. We are starting to get into that group. We are trying to push that off, but unfortunately, we are starting to see those. Anything over four weeks is elective, we are not doing. Reporter what can we expect in the coming weeks . The Surgeon General has put a grim outlook for the next two to three weeks for our nation. What specifically can we look for in South Carolina . What are the projections . Dr. Bell we have projections, but it is very difficult to answer specifically what to expect. Our projections have already been commented on an based on a variety of models. We are looking at everything from projecting out case reports based on who has been tested. We are looking at projections based on what other countries have experienced in a recovery phase, so our preliminary projections based on one particular model suggests we will see a peek in deaths in the first part of may and from that information, it gives us the ability to estimate hospitalization use, intensive care unit use during that period. That actual number is is hard to define because it is based on a range where there is a worstcase scenario and best case scenario, and as general a rangehas commented, in the middle of that has been selected for this hospital planning. Reporter what is the status of the database . Gov. Mcmaster this will be last question. Reporter the database for Law Enforcement in terms of where covid19 cases are . Davidson willctor take that. Dir. Davidson you are correct, we are working closely with local partners, lawenforcement, Emergency Management partners. We started during this last weekend a process through which we can enroll them electronically, and depending on the type of system, there is not one 911 system around the state. There are many types of 911 systems so some will have access through a queer he method query method. If they are responding to address at a 911 station, they can enter it and say yes, that is a recent covid resident, a covid posited that positive individual or there was not at that address. There is also a model we are pursuing. The rock counties we are working with to pilot this and in addition to the 911 center model, there is a model where a responding unit could do the same thing and provide a query. And there is where the larger with more 911 capabilities would be able to have a system that would more directly integrate with their cadbased 911 system. There are several models we are working simultaneously. Or this week, we will pilot with several counties and as the week bees to a close, we should sharing with all counties that data electronically. In a secure urge, way, so we are not handing anybody a list per se. It would be a query based system need to know. Reporter have you been tested for the virus so far . Gov. Mcmaster i have not. I have not exhibited any symptoms. Im following protocol. I want to thank all of you for coming. Work andiate the please tell the doctors and nurses and all the rest how much we appreciate what they are doing. I also want to remind you that lawenforcement and First Responders are really in a situation where they have to rush into danger not knowing what they are going to find. We are time to solve the problem, as mr. Davidson just mentioned. For the ladies and gentlemens, citizens, the mamas and daddies and children, we are doing all we can. I want to remind people, the elderly, the facts and data show are more susceptible to this. Those older people, particularly with underlying conditions, the highest percentages of those come up in the 90 range, those are succumbing to this illness, beould ask all of you to careful about your mama come your daddy, your older people. Remember the social isolation in this as it increases and we go along, the social isolation has an impact on people and that is why Mental Health community is standing up. I assure you finally that every resource we have in South Carolina is thinking about nothing but the health and safety and the future of the people of South Carolina, and we thank all of you for being here again today. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is all available ondemand watch white house briefings come updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. The book is called the great pandemic. Barry. Us is john appreciate you being with us on cspan. Let me begin with the parallel with your book, your research and what we are dealing with here today in 2020. Ofthere are a lot similarities. They are both respiratory viruses