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

Entrant, new jersey, Governor Phil Murphy announce an extended grace period for payments of health, dental, home, and Life Insurance policies. He also provided an update on confirmed covid19 cases in new jersey and answer questions about social distancing for Health Questions public use of face masks. Good afternoon, everyone. Im honored to be joined other woman on my right, who needs no introduction, commissioner of the department of health. To her right, state Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program coordinator dr. Lisa mccue. Great to have you back. To my farleft, colonel pat callahan. Im particularly honored to be joined by the guy to my left, of whom i moving van, congressman andy kim. Has been a leader fighting for what New Jerseyans need from the federal government. I know we can count on his voice as we continue our push for mush muchneeded and significant federal assistance. Andy, great to happy with us, looking well, by the way. Lets start, as we have done of late, with the numbers. Since yesterdays briefing, we 3748 received another positive test, pushing our state total to 51,027. Additionally, today, and judy will give more color on this, as she usually cleans up after me, starting today, we will begin giving updated information regarding current hospitalizations, including the total number of people currently hospitalized and the number in intensive care, on ventilators, and the number of those released the day before. This has been added to the Information Available on the department of healths live covid19 dashboard. Nj. Gov. Visit covid19. Visit that portal for all the information you need. As of the latest available numbers, to that end, 7363 residents are hospitalized and 1523 are requiring intensive care. A total of 1551 are in ventilators, and over the past 24 hours, 471 New Jerseyans were discharged and returned home. Assuming we are comfortable with the data and where are completely confident in the data, we will begin releasing these daily. Tomorrow, again, we are together early and out of respect for good friday, so we will be together at 10 30 a. M. Tomorrow in this very room. Im not sure we will necessarily have these numbers by 10 30 in the morning, but if we do, we will have them for you. You can see the numbers in front of you, and judy will give you more color. Sadly, while 471 New Jerseyans were discharged and returned home, we know, however, there are those who will not return home. Since yesterday, we are reporting an additional 198 deaths, and with adjustments, given further investigations, our state law total of debts is now 1700. Again, 198 deaths were announced since yesterday, for cumulative total of 1700 deaths. This is well north of two times thefor talent to use fatalities we suffered in new jersey on 9 11. Know that this number is the worst of all to report to you, and i have to tell you, it does not get any easier on us or any of you to speak these numbers or to hear them. These are not numbers, by the way, these are people. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, neighbors, coworkers, friends. And even if they are complete strangers, they are our fellow New Jerseyans, and let us never, ever, ever, get abstract. These are real live human beings, members of our families, blessed souls who we have lost. Allow me to briefly, and i wish we could do this for all 198 today, and 1700 since the beginning of this crisis, but allow me to briefly commemorate three of those we learned we have lost. The reverend h jean sykes was the pastor of Friendship Baptist church in bayonne. What a guy. Born in florida, he would make new jersey his lifetime, longtime home alongside his wife and their children. God bless him, and we send our prayers to ms. Is sykes and their children. He was an air force veteran, so we thank him for his service to our country. He worked in the private sector before making the ministry his fulltime calling. He served as vice chairman of the board of commissioners of the Bayonne Housing Authority and was Vice President of the Bayonne Branch of the naacp. His loss leaves a hole in the fabric of bayonne, certainly in the heart of his family, and we mourn with his family and that entire city. Leyba, he was an emt at saint claires hospital. A patterson native, he and his wife called Compton Lakes home. Kevin was only 24 years old. Bless him, we thank him for his service, for an extraordinary lifetime, for his service to our state and to our families. We are with his family and friends in prayer and we will not forget him. Kevin is a stark, reallife example of the fact that this hits disproportionately in older communities. None of us are immune from this, and let us never forget that. God bless kevin. South jersey lost a True Community leader yesterday with the passing of stephen raddatz. Business,his familys operating five markets across the region. But steve will perhaps be best remembered for his many philanthropic pursuits and his longtime support for Community Nonprofits and other organizations which counted into the millions, literally millions of dollars. We know that his legacy will be carried on by his family. God bless you, steve. It is for these three, and for everyone, lets remember this, that we must continue to practice social distancing. Because social distancing is our best weapon to prevent the spread of coronavirus that took their lives in the lives of now 1700 members of our new jersey family. I know and we know, the congressman knows, all of us know that it is not fun. We know it can be inconvenient. But this cannot be a time of convenience. We have said this many times. This is no time to panic, but it is equally so no time for business as usual. This is the fight of our lives. This is a fight to protect our families, our friends, and our neighbors. It is a fight for literally the heart and soul and future of our state. ,e need you to stay home period, and certainly whenever possible, we need you to wear a Face Covering, even a homemade one, when you are going to the supermarket. I have a friend who came in late to our press briefing yesterday and left before the end of it. We were all wearing some form of face mask or Face Covering all the time. We only take these off because otherwise im not sure you would be able to understand us. The fact of the matter is, i will put this on before i leave. Julie, andy, pat, we all will. We will keep them on for the balance of any time we are remotely near anybody. And we have to be that way. So again, whether you are wearing it to the supermarket, whether you are in a room like this, everybody has got to adhere to that. Remember, this is a war with two fronts. And i want to keep harkening , never have so few done so much for so many. In this particular war, it works two ways. Curve, so that we have a lower amount of people who are infected, which leads to a lower amount of hospitalizations, a lower amount of folks who are in Critical Care situations, lower amounts who need ventilators. Exactlyally passes through that curve. We need to smash that curve down. Over here, that many of us, while the few, the First Responders, the essential retail folks, the longshoremen, the transit folks, the warehouse folks, while the few over here, particularly our Health Care Workers, frantically building out one foot in front of the other, our health care capacity. Beds, ventilators, personal protective equipment, medicines we need to run those ventilators. The actual ranks of the Healthcare Workers ourselves. Themselves. Our hope is that those curves meet in acceptable level that allows art system to digest the cases we have in the very best way possible, keeping as few people as we can sick and infected, and please, god, the least amount of fatalities can possibly have as we come through this. God bless you all for everything you are doing, for the Health Care Workers, as heroic as they are, and for everyone else who is in this fight. I want to pull up a map right now. We showed you this the other day. This is progress. We are not over the hump by any means. This is a map by county of the new cases we are seeing. You can see, our social distancing is, in fact, getting to show effect here. So there is light here. There is the earlystage, that we are in the early stage of progress. It is beginning to slow the rate at which the numbers of folks who are getting infected, in this case, how quickly folks the number of cases by county are doubling. This last week, we only had one yellow county, which was my county. Yellow means you are doubling the amount of affected folks every 57 days. The orange is every 35 days. There was only one yellow and there were several red. Red was doubling within three days. We have no red at the moment. South, the numbers were small, but the rate of infections was steep. This is real progress. Are we spiking any footballs . No way. We are not near the end zone. It is still going up. The curve of the line looks like it is beginning to flatten and positive cases, but we are still having more positive cases. We have to get to a plateau and then begin to go down as fast as we can on the others. We cannot do that alone. This isnt about you or me, it is about all 9 million of us. As we have said before, this is not a time for selfishness. This is a time for selflessness. So many millions of you are doing the right thing. God bless you, thank you, please keep it up. Many of our communities of faith have taken this to heart, especially given the season. ,here have been online seders and many churches will be offering online easter services. Tos will be a time for us come together, even though ironically we are having to stay apart. Our face teach us, or what it will look compliance toer move up have to say given that last night was the first night , i want to give a shout out because we have been backandforth with the so pat will give more details of what it looked like overnight. Drivethrough sites , of the two will be the one that is open. That will remain open for at least 500 total test. To be tested you must be a new jersey resident and have the symptoms of an illness. And sides will be open Organ Community college will be open for the public and the teensy artan are will be open for Health Care Workers and responders. For both sides, to get a test, you must be symptomatic and i want to repeat that both the bergen Community College and park center will be closed. Give others a huge shout out for their help in ensuring we have femas partnership in operating these sites because their work will be with our federal partners and thank you for your leadership and for your colleagues. State, there are 18 additional publicly run and accessible testing sites. These can be found by going on covid19. Nj. Gov testing. However, there are many more sites run by hospitals or other private sector partners that are not listed at last count. Brady oconnor tells me there are at least 57 in total. If you believe you are showing coronavirus symptoms, please call your primary Care Practitioner right away and they can assess you. And if you meet the standard for testing, they could direct you as to where you should go to get a test. And again, we have a symptom selfassessment at covid19. Nj. Gov, and that selfassessment also gives us valuable data as to where we may be seeing the first wisps of smoke from a potential hotspot. So we encourage you to take our Self Assessment just as nearly as 220,000 others have because it allows us, not only does it give you peace of mind or give you a way forward, but it allows us to make smarter decisions Going Forward as to where valuable, for instance, personal protective equipment and other supplies may go. Switching gears yet again, thats, again, thats the site where youd want to go and check out frankly a whole range of comprehensive answers for your questions, including to do that symptom selfassessment. Switching gears for a couple of thoughts and announcements. Ive taken a lot of feedback on closing state parks and county parks. Far more of it is supportive and some folks who are saying, gosh, golly, i was out jogging in my neighborhood and there are a lot of people on the streets walking or jogging. And have you thought about the cost benefit of folks being out on a street as opposed to in the confines of a park . Park . And the answer is we have. So i want to make sure folks understand a couple of things very clearly here, and it brings me no personal joy by the way. And this is not a life sentence. This is not going to last forever, and the more we stay at home and the more social distancing we exercise at home or when were outside of our home, and hopefully youre only going out if you have to, the faster well get through this. But here are the facts. In the first good weather weekend of the spring, the evidence from state park police and other observations up and down the state was unequivocally an enormous amount of gathering in close proximity of individuals at both state parks and county parks. Additionally, an uncomfortably high number of out of state license plates. So as we have, from moment one, beginning of january, made every decision we have made based on facts, science, and data, we didnt just wake up on a whim and decide to close state and county parks. We did this because of congregations. By the way, our state park police and other First Responders as pat can expand upon. By the way, were putting them in harms way when they go in and have to break up congregations of folks. So we didnt take this lightly. We did it based on the facts as we saw them. Again, im hoping as much as anybody, its not a life sentence that we get through this as fast as humanly possible and we will if we flatten that curve, and we all stay home and only go out when its absolutely essential. By the way, to the very rightful questions of, hey, what about im out jogging on a street or taking a walk on a street. Be careful. We accept that that is an outcome here, not unintended, we understood that that is a consequence of this action. Please be careful. This cant be either or. It has to be and both. We had to shut these parks, and we need you to be careful. To those who say, gosh, golly, were more rural. How about just how about our heres the problem. The entirety of the rest of the state of new jersey will be on your doorstep in your park and or beyond new jersey, folks from out of state in the region who will want to be in that park. We have some of the nicest parks, forget the northeast, in the entire United States of america. So, again, i say this not to be a jerk, not to be argumentative. We did this based on the facts and we will continue to keep this posture until we are through this. And again, if youre out there walking or jogging, please, please be careful. We learned this morning that nearly 214,000 more New Jerseyans filed for Unemployment Insurance benefits last week. This is another record. Its one we dont like breaking by any means. But as we have said before, we know that many of you are having difficulty accessing your benefits because of long wait times or online lags. We know this. Were working as hard as possible to make it easier given the age of our systems and the unprecedented stress they are under, as labor commissioner rabasario angelo noted when he was here on saturday. First, remember what weve said before, but this is important. No one will be denied one penny of their unemployment benefits. Second, as the commissioner recommended, try accessing the Online System either late at night or early in the morning when volumes are lowest. Please be patient. We understand your frustrations, believe me, but would ask you to please be patient. If youre calling on the phone, when you do get through, please remember that the person on the other end is there to help, and is probably also dealing with the strain of making sure their own families are protected during this time. Lets all be kind to an understanding of one another because were all leaning on one another. And for those of you who want to keep working and help us get through this emergency, the jobs portal at covid19. Nj. Gov, that website contains more than 50,000 active job listings, rather, from more than 630 employers across an array of essential industries. So if youve lost your job due to this emergency, there may be another one waiting for you. Join the more than 470,000 individual users who have already clicked the jobs portal link at covid19. Nj. Gov or who have gone directly to jobs. Covid19. Nj. Gov. To jobs. Covid19. Nj. Gov. Next, today, i am signing an executive order extending the grace period for residents who may be finding themselves unable to pay their Insurance Premiums because of a loss of income or other impacts from this emergency. My order will require a minimum 60 day grace period for health and dental insurance policies and 90 days grace for home and auto insurance, renters insurance, Life Insurance, and for Insurance Premium financing arrangements among others. I got asked by this by some friends of mine at the Breakfast Club on 105. 1 charlemagne, and dj envy, angela yee the other day and this was in the works and we didnt have a definitive answer, so i want to give them a shout out for helping us give us a little even more impetus to get this done sooner than later. Additionally, this order makes it clear that all claims covered by the insurance policy must be paid out to those who are within these grace periods, and also that insurers cant demand repayment of unpaid premiums in a lump sum at the end of the grace period, but rather they must spread these back payments out over the remainder of the insurance term. This is akin to the sort of methodology that we expect Mortgage Bankers to deal with your payments when their 90 day grace period is up. It cant just be 90 days and then you face a big lump sum payment. Its got to be in that case, hopefully tacked onto the end of your mortgage and the insurance case smoothed out over the life of your premium payments. And insurers will be required to provide each policy holder with an easily readable written description of the terms of the extended grace period. Not only should no new jerseyan lose their insurance during this emergency, but we cannot leave them in a weaker position once it ends. Were all in this together and thats the only way we will also be able to come out of this together. Its that spirit we continue to see from our Business Community as well. So i want to give a quick shout out and thanks to marriott, who informed us yesterday that they will be providing rooms at the marriott courtyard newark free to the nurses and doctors working long hours and who may need a place to stay to reenergize and prepare for the next shift. This is part of marriotts nationwide rooms for Responders Initiative to provide 10 million in free rooms to our Healthcare Providers who are doing heroic things every day. So to marriott, we say thank you and to the woman at my right who in a prior life was a nurse, i know this will be greeted with great joy by our First Line Health care providers. And we continue to also thank the many of you across the state who continue to inspire us with your generosity and your willingness to do things within your communities that are carrying us through this emergency and lifting our spirits. We are overwhelmed by the number of stories you are sharing on social media using that hashtag njthanksyou, and ive enjoyed retweeting several of them myself. Here are a couple of other Great Stories that id love to share. At rowan university, joshua meyer, kunj parmar, and Colton Jacobucci working with their Mechanical Engineering professor, and there he is on the left, dr. Dr. Francis haas have taken to making polycarbonate intubation boxes that they are donating to help protect our frontline Healthcare Providers across south jersey. A huge shout out to each of them. And heres one that brings a special amount of joy to me and i know also to colonel Pat Callaghan and to commissioner judy persa kelly. Heres a picture of dr. Jim pruden. Hes an er doctor at st. Josephs Medical Center in patterson. Kevin slaven was with us a few weeks ago, my first day back, in fact, and spoke about jims struggle with covid19. Hes also worked alongside our search and rescue team as a volunteer physician. Alongside our search and rescue team is a volunteer physician. In late march, as i mentioned, he contracted covid19, and for awhile there, it was touch and go. But yesterday, and this is a picture from yesterday, dr. Pruden was released from the hospital, st. Joes, the same place he works. I think hes gone into some sort of rehab as i recall, right . His strength and his perseverance in the face of everything should be all we need to find our inner strength to power through this emergency and come out stronger and ready for the next day, just as dr. Jim pruden has. God bless him. Thats the message i ask you to hold close. We are going to get through this unequivocally. Yes, we are going to see bad days. How can you not acknowledge that when you have 198 of our blessed brothers and sisters in this state who have lost their lives . Again, yes, were going to learn of more members, of our unique and diverse family who we will lose. But we are going to get through this, and were going to get through this together. Lets live the words of the pioneering german doctor, dr. Albert schweitzer, whose belief that we are all one family led him to found a hospital in west africa that saved countless lives. And i quote dr. Schweitzer, one who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Yes, there are a lot of obstacles before us. For us here, its our work to find more ppe, and to source more ventilators, and have more beds, and to have more than we need, and make sure our Healthcare Workers get the relief they need. For all of us, you may have the inability to get to work, or the fact that you cant be with your friends at school. Its the disruption of your routines. Its even having to wear a covering on your face while at the supermarket. I get that. We get that. We all do. But the nine million of us can play and are playing a huge role in getting ourselves out of this faster with fewer infections, fewer hospitalizations, and please, god, fewer fatalities. Every day we get stronger. Every day we are more prepared to see ourselves through this. This is the spirit we all need to muster now and for the weeks ahead. So on this holiest of thursdays in passover season, remember, this is new jersey, and we can do anything. With that, it is my great honor to introduce a fierce representative of our state, of his district, a guy who goes to bat for us every single day. Please help me welcome congressman andy kim. Thank you, governor. I appreciate so much your leadership, and your team, and everything that youre doing to shepherd us through this crisis right now. Thank you for letting me join you here today for this conference. I wanted to just start by talking to those and wishing everyone that is listening and watching that i hope you are safe. I hope that you are healthy. I hope your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. If you need help in any way, i hope that youre getting it. If you are not, please reach out. To me, to the governor, to others that are stepping up to try to make sure that you have a voice and you have what you need. Were not just talking about the health concerns, about the coronavirus, or about financial concerns that i know are on the minds of so many of you. But making sure that were thinking about our own Mental Health, thinking about what it is that we can look out for each other and our neighbors. I talked to people who are down on their last dime, and theyre hungry and theyre concerned. If that is you, please reach out to somebody as we, together, are going to get through this. My office and myself, were fielding thousands of calls throughout Burlington County and ocean county. I wanted to share some of what were hearing. The first and foremost question that were getting from people are the concerns that they have. Are they healthy . Are their parents healthy . Are their children healthy . Are their wives, their husbands healthy . Their lack of knowledge in so many fronts, worries them greatly. I know thats something that ive felt and experienced firsthand as i was exposed early on to someone who was tested positive and had to quarantine myself, wondering whether or not that was something that i may have passed along to my parents or to my family. That hangs with you, it stays with you. I know so many others are experiencing this at such a deeper level. I think we want to make sure that we have that type of clarity. Is why myself, the governor, the new jersey congressional delegation across both parties all recognize the importance of increased testing. Theres really nothing else that we can do more important than understanding where this virus is in order to be able to slow the spread of this and ultimately be able to beat it. We wont be able to just think about this on a Public Health side, but we know that our economy is not going to be open. Were not going to be able to reopen our Small Businesses until we have an understanding of how to turn the corner on this Public Health crisis. Our state and our counties have been working as hard as they can on this, and were grateful for the help in having fema ramp up with two testing sites in north jersey. But we need a third fema site, a federally backed site in south jersey. We need it right now. Especially at a time where were seeing the numbers continue to climb exponentially. Ive stood alongside my colleagues to call for this third testing site, and had been joined by every Single Member in this bipartisan delegation. Ill continue to call for this site until we get it. Even then, i will continue to push for every single federal dollar we can get to support new jersey through this crisis. I appreciate the governors request in helping us push forward for this third fema site. As we have a full head delegation, we had a full congressional delegation and bipartisan and bicameral way, submitted a letter to the fema on march 27. Today is 14 days later, and we have heard no response and we are in a pandemic. We need quick decisions and we need a strategic response. Fourteen days ago, the number of positive cases in ocean county was 484. As of yesterday, and im sure the numbers will go up as we hear them, yesterday it was 2,856. In Burlington County 14 days ago was 88. Just yesterday, we heard those numbers at 801. Due to the limits of testing capabilities, were left to wonder, is this just the tip of the iceberg . Is there something more that should we expect . And what will the next 14 days bring . We have one of the largest Senior Communities in the country. We have retirement communities, longterm care facilities. Just on my way up to trenton, i was hearing a report that the white house is now warning that philadelphia may very well emerge as another hotspot with cases starting to spike. We need to get ahead of this now. I pressed the head of fema for our region on a phone call the other day, and congressman norcross, congressman pascrell, congresswoman Bonnie Watson coleman among others have all cited this as a top priority for our state. I want to make sure that as many people in this state in new jersey have access to the tests and the access to the medical equipment that is necessary. We understand that testing isnt just important for us to understand the spread of the virus and the concerns on the Public Health front, but its critically important to understand how were going to be able to move forward and get our economy up and running responsibly. This is how we are able to keep watch. If we dont have a coordinated and sustained testing regime, were not going to be able to keep watch on the virus as we start to restart our economy. Additional testing, not just for who has been tested positive, but also testing for antibodies to be able to understand who might have immunity to this, will be important aspects of this Going Forward in terms of how we open our economy safely and responsibly. The second major question that i hear from people is what help can they get financially . Even before this crisis, we lived in a time when 40 of americans couldnt handle a 400 emergency. I had personally repeated that statistic thousands of times to highlight the fragility that so Many Americans lived in. I had heard those stories specifically in Burlington County and ocean county. Now we see that fragile reality put to a test. The greatest test that we have faced, with regards to everyone in this country facing it together. Everyone is impacted by this crisis. Im glad that we were able to highlight these stories, both of those that have survived, but its so important to highlight those that have passed. The tragic stories of those amongst us. I heard from someone yesterday told me about their first time attending a funeral by zoom. Yesterday, i heard from a woman who was filled with anxiety about her struggles getting groceries and being able to go outside. We had a telephone town hall where we had so many people, hundreds of people telling their stories about their jobs that they lost and the work that they lost. We need to be doing everything we can to be able to help New Jerseyans that are suffering right now. The cares act, increased unemployment support, and as we pass direct payments to be able to help people through this crisis. Ive been pressing to make sure that the federal government is getting our state everything that we need on passing this help to the people. Most important thing is getting people help right now. Weve also been making sure that our Small Businesses can stay afloat. Im on the Small Business committee. Im the only member of congress on the Small Business committee in congress. Ive been pressing on this as a top priority. Ill be honest with you, ive been disappointed with some of the rollout of the paycheck protection program. We need to be doing better. Small Business Owners are struggling to keep people on their payrolls, and their doors open. Ive been pushing the sba and treasury to get the guidance out as soon as possible in a coordinated way rather than the piecemeal way that weve seen so far, to be able to make sure the support gets to our Small Business owners immediately. These are tough times, but New Jerseyans are tough and were going to get through this together. Ive been inspired by these acts of heroism that i see every day in our neighbors just doing their jobs. Our doctors, our nurses, ems personnel, Grocery Store workers, and so many others that are putting themselves in harms way. We owe all of them a debt of gratitude in our efforts to put this crisis to an end. I want to end by just thanking, once again, governor murphy and my colleagues throughout this state for engaging in this collective effort as were trying to get the job done. Thank you. Andy, thank you. In the category of it takes a village, no matter how good a job we do as a state, we need help. That includes local, county, faith leaders, nonprofits. Boy, it sure does include our federal government. I thank you and your colleagues on both sides of the aisle who represent us so fiercely and so well in washington. Were going to need, as you rightfully point out, whether youve lost your job, youre a Small Business, or frankly the state of new jersey with expenses that look like this and revenues that look like this, we need all the help we can get right now more than ever before. I want to thank you for all of that. Great to have you with us today. Switching gears to my right, to the woman who needs no introduction. Please help me welcome the commissioner of the department of health, Judy Persichilli. Thank you, governor. Good afternoon. As you know, the covid19 outbreak has impacted our entire state. Our local Health Departments are working around the clock to protect their communities and respond to this outbreak. As we know, given the increasing cases and spread of the virus in the state, they need additional support. Understanding the importance of our frontline Public Health workforce. The department of health is allocating 5 million in federal funding that the state has received to support our local Health Departments statewide. The funding will support critical local Public Health efforts, such as Contact Tracing, providing guidance to longterm care facilities, assisting Community Testing sites, supporting individuals who need a safe place to quarantine, and much other needed covid19 related activities. The allocation will be based on the population size of the communities they serve. New jerseys 96 local Health Departments are the Public Health boots on the ground. We realize the enormity of this outbreak has put an enormous strain on their operations. We certainly hope this funding will support them during an extremely challenging time. I want to also report that i visited our federal medical station at secaucus this morning. I had the privilege to meet with the Extraordinary Team from the state police, the national guard, and our volunteer corps of nurses and physicians. They had two patients admitted there yesterday. It went well. Theyre expecting five more this afternoon. Pharmacare is providing full pharmacy services, and labcorp is providing full testing services. According to the data reported from our hospitals, there are 7,363 hospitalizations of individuals testing positive for covid19 or persons under investigation. 1,523 individuals are in what we would call Critical Care or licensed Critical Care. And 1,551 of those individuals are on ventilators. Wed been predicting a 1 1 ratio of Critical Care to ventilators. We have also told you that our hospitals are increasing their Critical Care capacity. As you can see, with 1,523 individuals identified in Critical Care, more of them are in the hospital family on ventilators. We continue to work on a plan to address challenges in our longterm care facilities. This is a statewide as well as a national problem. Weve also received reports that some of our veteran homes have been severely impacted by covid19. Specifically, the home in paramus. The home in paramus has 40 confirmed cases. Five are hospitalized. Since the beginning of march, they have reported 34 deaths. However, only 10 are related to covid19. We have three Veterans Memorial homes in new jersey. To date collectively, they report 58 covid positive residents and 14 deaths directly related to covid19. The director of these facilities reports that they have had staffing issues. The guard has sent 40 combat medics to paramus, excuse me, and 35 to the menlo park facility. In addition, the department of health located through our in addition, the department of health located through our volunteer corps, five licensed practical nurses and four registered nurses who will report to the veteran homes on the 13th. As ive said, well continue to work on a statewide plan to assist our longterm care facilities that do not have the sufficient physical space to be able to cohort covid positive patients on a separate floor or a separate wing. Again, were looking at this regionally. Ive been in contact with several facilities who are preparing to accept covid positive patients only in locations in the north, central, and southern regions. Right now, 262 of our facilities report at least one covid19 case. Overall, there are 3,388 residents in our longterm care, assisted living, and dementia facilities testing positive for covid19. The overall population of these facilities is slightly over 75,000. Were concerned about several of them that have increasing cases and outbreaks. Our inspection teams have been in contact with all of them, and some of them can expect a visit. Sadly, 198 new deaths have been reported to the department. 20 of these new deaths were residents of longterm care facilities. As ive stated before, theres 262 longterm care facilities in the state reporting at least one covid positive case. These case numbers include reports from longterm care nursing facilities, approximately 200 assisted living facilities, and other settings such as residential memory care housing. All in, there are approximately 110,000 residents of new jersey in our specialized homes. There are now 1,700 fatalities in our state. The racial breakdown for the deaths that we have reported are white, 61 , black or African American, 22 , asian, 6 , native hawaiian or other pacific islander, less than 1 , and we are still investigating 11 of the deaths. All of these families, these individuals are in our thoughts and prayers. According to the data from this morning of the seven laboratories sending us covid19 results, which is over 95 of the tests performed in new jersey, 100,478 tests have been performed. 43,313 have returned positive for a Positivity Rate of 44. As cases rise and we put into effect more social distancing requirements, we of course know that people are anxious and concerned. This anxiousness coupled with being separated from loved ones takes an emotional toll. We understand that. I want to share the Mental Health cares number again for those who need emotional support during the covid19 outbreak. Behavioral care specialists can help you or someone you love at 1866202help, help. 18662024357. For individuals that have general questions, please call 211, or text njcovid to 898211. This is a difficult time for all of us, so please be kind to one another, be patient, and take time to take care of yourselves and your loved ones. We are all in this together, and we must take steps to protect one another. Thank you. Judy, thank you. A couple of followup items if i may. This last point, weve said this, weve got an overwhelming amount of folks in this state who in this extraordinary moment even while social distancing, we are all coming together in one cause. Theres a bonding going on that is completely at odds with the physical reality. But and importantly and particularly at times of spiritual and holy seasons, weve also got members of our state and our community who are alone and feeling that loneliness, and folks who have already extant Mental Health challenges, or dependencies, or addictions and other challenges. We must not forget that we are one big nine million member family. While most of us or the majority of us may be coming together, thats not working for everybody. So i want to just underscore your last point. Counties again, the top five total cases continue to be the same five. In order, bergen, essex, hudson, union, passaic. Judy, youve been talking about a 1 1 ratio of Critical Care beds and ventilators. If the math is right, were even north of 1 1 right now. Is that fair . Any color as to how you get there . These are folks who are not in Critical Care, but still requiring a ventilator . Well, what weve asked all of the hospitals to do, as you recall, is to increase their Critical Care capacity by 100 . So we had 2,000 licensed beds. Im sitting here before you today to assure you that every hospital has done that. So we have about 4,000 beds that can accommodate Critical Care patients. Thats where you see the increase in the ventilators. But we still need our ventilators. You bet. I mean, just to repeat the Public Service announcement that i think we make at every gathering, that were going to need more ventilators, more personal protective equipment, more beds, more Healthcare Workers, more medicines that support all of the above. Weve made progress on all fronts, and hats off to the folks who are working tirelessly to make that progress. But were not remotely home yet, and we have to continue to remind ourselves that we are still relative to where we think were headed, short on all the above. Thats not withstanding extraordinary. For instance, we talked about yesterday, extraordinary creativity on the part of our hospitals and healthcare systems. The extraordinary daily efforts from our Healthcare Workers. The field medical station you reviewed today, great example of cooperation with our federal partners. But we have a ways still to go. Just acknowledging on the racial data. Again, the African American number of 22 , that is relative. Lets not forget this, folks, relative to about 14 or 15 representation in the general population in new jersey. Thats something were seeing elsewhere in the country. Thats something that were very focused on. You mentioned also the asian community. That is also north of its representation in the general population. And it gives me a chance to say, andy, are you the first korean american ever to be voted for congress . I know you are from new jersey. Second ever in the country. First Asian American from new jersey elected to federal office. Bless you and thank you for leading in so many respects, including being a role model for gobs of young people in the state who look up to you. Look, and the concerns arent just on the health side. We need to make sure that we understand that we got to fight against any type of discrimination against the Asian American community in this state and across the country as well. I was speaking to somebody, speaking of which, someone from asia who was helping us. We literally are running a worldwide phone Banking System right now to find personal protective equipment. Pats been right in the middle of that. He knows that i was speaking to somebody from asia today. He said, listen, if were able to get this to you, could you please remind folks that this is no time to be splitting along us versus them lines . Its no time to be splitting along us versus them lines, in particular for our asian brothers and sisters, and i i promised i would. Too early to announce that we have success on this particular front, but when we do, i promise to repeat that. Pat, anything you got on compliance, ppe capacity, or other matters of importance, and great to have you with us as always. Thank you, governor and thank you, congressman, too, for always being accessible and answering on the first ring. I appreciate that. As far as compliance goes, overnight, and these are all executive order violations, so ill go through them quickly. Subject charged with theft. He was stealing a refrigerator from a recycling center in randolph. In newark, they issued 34 summonses and closed two businesses. I think its important to point out when we talk about the, it takes a village, that more than 700 citizens in newark since the executive order was signed have called the Newark Police department to ask for them to come break up gatherings and cite folks. More than 700 people have engaged in that effort as well because they know how seriously the social distancing is. In brick township, subject charged for having a barbershop and salon open. In clinton township, the subject charged for having offensive signs and using obscene gestures on route 22. In union city, a large gathering was broken up whereas a subject was cited. A woman who was engaged in an altercation spit on a victim claiming she had covid. A subject down in camden was admitted for a drug overdose. He did test positive and was to be isolated in a hotel that was being paid for by the county. He refused to stay at the hotel, cited some obscene things, and ultimately was admitted for psychiatric testing. In lyndon wall, a subject was charged for refusing to leave and disperse from a Basketball Court that was closed. In patterson, a tavern, was cited for remaining open for business. In elizabeth, a liquor store was cited for having not only a large gathering in front but having a back room filled with people consuming alcohol. The alcoholic Beverage Control division did shut that business down. To the governors point, i think he opened up with it with regard to last night being the first night of passover in lakewood that the amount of appreciation for the compliance and the adherence to the executive order go a long way just to show how serious were taking this. On a time when i know that passover and holy week is a time when we do want to get together, thats certainly greatly appreciated. Very quickly on the ventilators. We are in the process of delivering 120 of those today from our warehouse. I believe tomorrow over 240 ventilators will be distributed. I had submitted a request for fema to support our noncongregate sheltering on april 6th, and today being april 9th, in three days, they have approved that this morning, which is huge for us. Thats to support vulnerable populations that need to be isolated as well as our health care and First Responders that need to be isolated as well so they dont go home and contaminate and infect their families. To the congressmans point about the third testing, we are pushing fema hard for that and hope that your support and the entire delegations support, as well as oems ask of fema, have that third site stood up hopefully in the near future. Thats all i have, governor. Pat. I would just add to your comment, not just about lakewood, which i had mentioned earlier in, and we thank the leadership there, but up and down the state, with one of the most significant and largest jewish communities of any american state, second largest per capita, i think fourth largest overall, for folks to have kicked that sacred holiday off in as compliant fashion as possible. Particularly given, we mentioned this yesterday, ive participated myself as a murphy in countless seders particularly given how communal and how familyoriented and how much of a gathering, holy period passover is particularly on that first night. Its quite gratifying, so i want to say a particular thanks up and down the state to our jewish brothers and sisters. With that, lets take some questions. I got matt on this side after he stretched and hes got john up first to bat. Did we get a age and gender for the deaths . I know weve gotten it before. I hear that today. Sorry if i did that. Can you discuss, governor, your chief counsel, his positive test. How did he get a test if he was not symptomatic . You have said in the past you havent been tested. Does that change your decision on getting tested . And, on the hospital data, can we get an idea of how complete this data is . How many hospitals are reporting in and how often its going to be updated . Is it a daily . Throughout the day . Theres some definitions that were asking for. What exactly is Something Like bed capacity expansion potential mean . But, the biggest question on that is what should we do with these numbers . What should people looking at this, how to read these charts, what do you want people to take away from those numbers . And, governor, on the shopping restrictions that you announced yesterday, you indicated that the number, 50 of capacity, would go down or theres a potential for that go down. What are the measures that youre looking at to tighten limits . What metrics do you want to see before you ratchet things down again . Was there anything specific that prompted the decision to limit retail . Judy, ill jump in first. Is that all right . Then you should come in and maybe, pat, you may want to add a word. Actually, real quick, age and gender of the deaths. Do you mind doing that one real quick . Sure. Do you want me to do it now . Yeah, sure. I think you just shut yourself off. The range is 20 to 103 years. 1 , or 13, are under the age of 30. 4 , or 75, between the ages of 30 and 49. 17 , 288, between the ages of 50 and 64. 33 , 572, between the ages of 65 and 79. And, 44 , or 748, are over the age of 80. There are still 1,122 cases, or 66 that we are still looking into. No, im going to correct that. Of 1,122, 66 we know the race. Sorry for confusing that. Gender, sorry. Did you hit gender . Gender continues to be about 58 male and 41 female. The race is based on 1,122 cases, and its 683, or 61 , white. 242, or 22 , black or African American. And 6 , or 68, asian. And less than 1 is native hawaiian or other pacific islander. 47 are now reporting as having underlying conditions. As it relates to matt platkin, and i know matt whos obviously not here, matt would want me to say that on a day that we announced 198 deaths and there are 1700 folks who have lost their lives, he appreciates everyone reaching out to him, but hes doing fine. Matt, as i understand it, i dont want to get this as a personal situation for him, but as i understand it, he came in contact with a number of people who it turned out had tested positive. Even though he didnt have symptoms, he felt it was the right thing to do. Now, why does he get a free pass to do that . Because literally every single executive order that ive written since ive been governor and certainly this period had had been written by peramo, matt, and their colleagues. We need this guy. Ive been on the phone with him on four different calls this morning. He was never in this room with any knowledge that he may have. So the minute he took the test or suspected he had been around people, again he was not symptomatic, and thank god remains not so. He has been selfisolating at home. Again, ive been on the phone with him constantly, probably much to his annoyance. Secondly, it hasnt changed my metric for two simple reasons. One is i dont have any symptoms. I hope it stays that way. And secondly, including matt, i just dont go near people. This is the closest im near folks. I havent been with matt in a whole bunch of days. Even when we were in the same building, we were 20, and i keep it that way with basically everybody, 20 feet or more apart. If theres anything to report on that, i promise well come back. Ill finish my part of this. Was there any one thing on limiting retail . No, john, there wasnt any one thing, but we heard one too many stories of good and bad actors in the sense that, hey, this place is really doing it right. Pat, youve heard these. Theyre calling you when to come in when your prescription is ready or theyre limiting the amount of people inside the supermarket. Great. We heard too many over here and so we decided to get more explicit. What well look to on the 50 go down, im not sure this matt, hold on one sec im not sure theres a specific moment that well look at, but i go back to the state park comment i made earlier when we had such an overwhelming amount of evidence that people were gathering in clusters. We reserve the right for that number to go down. Lets let judy answer and then ill come back if youve got any quick followup. We want to keep moving today. Judy, you got one on hospital data. How frequently . We hope to do that every day, i guess, right . The bigger question, what does it mean . The hospitals report, and im happy to report, that they all report at the end of every day. Its as accurate as it is at that moment in time. Weve gotten reports as early as 4 00 p. M. But most of the reports are around 10 00 p. M. The level of activity in a hospital, particularly at a time like this, the in and the out, and its certainly evolving, so we get it at a point in time. So, what do we look at . Well, the first thing we look at is the total number of hospitalizations related to covid positive, definite covid positive cases, and persons under investigation. Thats the 7,363 as of 10 00 p. M. Last night. Then we look at the doubling time. What that is, is the number of days for the hospitalizations to double at the current rate. The doubling time, we want to see that increase because that means theres fewer hospitalizations. As of last evening, the doubling time was 28. 8 days. The day before it was 14. 6. The day before that it was 12. 4. Additionally, we look at the daily growth rate based on the last two days. Last evening it was 2 . The day before it was 5 , and the day before that, 6 . We want the daily growth rate to decrease. We want the doubling time to increase. Then we keep an eye on intensive care or Critical Care patients because we know that in a surge we may need 4,000 to 5,000 Critical Care beds and ventilators. So, we are constantly monitoring that. This should never become abstract, and this is never mathematical. These are human lives were talking about. But there is, judy, a certain amount of math that is derived in terms of predicting. The map i put up earlier wasnt hospitalizations, but it was how frequently youre doubling infections. But that does ultimately lead to the question of the total number of infections and how rapid that that comes down into whos going to as judy as reminded us, up to 85 of folks will have mild to moderate symptoms. But, that last 15 , theyre going to need much more of an intensive Healthcare Experience including hospitalizations and ultimately Critical Care. Sadly, well lose some of those folks. There was one other question you asked. I want to make sure did you hit this, bed capacity expansion . I didnt answer that. We know that every single hospital has expanded their bed capacity and their Critical Care capacity has been expanded into their step down units. Really what that means is that they have the physical space to be able to put the equipment necessary around the bed thats required by the patient and then have a ratio of caregivers to patient at a higher level than a typical medical surgical ratio. Thats the biggest challenge we have because the Healthcare Workforce is dwindling as people leave to go on quarantine themselves and then come back, so were working very aggressively with a staffing solution. Which is why that matchmaking process you and i talked about matters so much. Youve got the folks who have raised their hand over here and youve got the needs over here and the needs are growing as folks get quarantined themselves. John, anything else you got . Youve mentioned theres intensive care and you say sometimes Critical Care. Its the same thing. Intensive care and Critical Care are the same. Thats me. Thats me butchering. Nonmedical person probably butchering medical terms. Ill say one thing is youre wearing a mask and we wear masks. The other thing in my answer to myself and others around us, were all heavy Face Covering masks these days, and we have been and well stay that way. Thank you. Elise, speaking of face covers, i think thats you. Yes. How does new jersey have more patients on ventilators than it has in the icu . Does that indicate that some patients are on ventilators as a matter of course, reliant on them, say the way the late Christopher Reeve was, and the vent is considered a chronic condition and not an emergency type situation . Also, at this point, when are you expecting the peak of hospitalizations . And finally, im curious about the impact on the state budget. For instance, do you expect to be so generous after all with school aid and do you intend to bring the state treasurer to these briefings at some point to answer our budget questions . Ill start with the nonmedical. May i do that and turn it to you for the im intrigued by the idea of the state treasurer. We should take that under consideration. Its a good thought. Are we likely to have the commissioner of the department of corrections tomorrow . We will. So thats one thing i meant to say earlier. Many of you have asked us questions about the corrections system. Judys been communicating nonstop with marcus hicks, but weve indicated, i think, for several days that wed like to get him here and he will be our guest tomorrow. I should have said that earlier. The impact on the state budget is significant. Theres no other way to put it. Weve been crushed with expenses that are skyrocketing as we deal on the front lines with people who are sick, people who have lost their jobs, Small Businesses, you name it. Its too early to tell the impact on specifics as it relates to school budgets. Please bear with us on that, which is why it may make sense i love the idea of the treasurer being here and shes extraordinary, but it might make sense to wait a little bit until we have a better sense of the landscape. Its also why andys role and his colleagues in the house and our two senators matter so much. We need, let me repeat, direct cash assistance right to the state and we need it in size and we need it such that we can as liberally as possible interpret how its used because were getting crushed right now. Theres no other way to put it. But more on the specifics of the budget, elise, if thats okay. Judy, do you mind going through the medical questions . Yeah. The Critical Care on our spreadsheet, our dashboard, is based on licensed Critical Care beds, but we know that theyve enhanced their ability to move out the Critical Care capacity. Theyre probably just outside of the Critical Care unit, but in a unit where theyve increased capacity to handle critical patients. How about thoughts on a peak . We know that the Innovation Center has identified that a peak could occur in two to three days and could result in 14,400 hospitalizations and 2,880 Critical Care cases. Thats from last evening. We look at this every day. It changes every day. Its 14,400 hospitalizations and 2, 880 Critical Care cases. They said the peak could happen as soon as two to three days. Last evening, i believe we had three hospitals on divert. Most of them on divert because of workforce issues. I want to say this. Thank you, judy, for that, and well go back. Elise, you okay . Well go back up here if we could, matt. I want to thank congressman kim. I meant to say this up front. He told me hes stacked up here so hes got to jump. I want to thank andy for being here, for being a great friend, a great representative, and advocate on behalf of two of our most important counties, burlington and ocean county. By doing so, making new jersey and every county stronger and better. So, thank you, man. Great to have you. Please. Governor, were seeing reports that the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this friday. In a few places those sites will close as a result. Is this true . If so, will this impact new jersey testing sites . Weve also seen that hud is moving quickly to make over 82 million of covid19 relief funding available to communities across new jersey. What are the states plans for this money and what kind of transparency will be put in place so taxpayers can be sure that money is being spent wisely and for its intended purpose . Finally, Senate Leaders today announced the creation of a task force to monitor njs Public Education system during this closure, including around whether students are receiving the supports they need. Do you support the creation of this task force and how would you assess how schools have done so far, especially around the issues of equity . These are all me for a change, so you can put your feet up here for a few minutes, judy and pat. Actually, pat may want to weigh in on the first one. There was a moment in time and it lasted several days where we were hearing that fema may be pulling out of our two testing sites this friday. We collectively appealed to fema and i personally appealed to pete gaynor who runs it and Vice President pence. Im happy to say as of monday, so this is now three days ago, they committed to stay in with us until the end of may. Our commitment in new jersey from fema for those two sites is through may 31st. I cant speak to whether or not thats different in other states, but they are going to stay in with us today. Was on with Sheila Oliver earlier and she continues to do extraordinary job running not just as Lieutenant Governor but running the department of community affairs. We had a brief discussion about the hud money. Too early to tell, but she and her team are on it. So when we have news on that front, mahan, could you remind me and keep me an honest man on that front . Well give you a readout as soon as i get any more specific. I hadnt seen the senate establishing that task force. I think in every timeout weve said, we welcome any other good ideas folks have from other branches of government or other parts of the state. So, bless them and if theyve got some ideas that come out of this, we welcome them. This is an experiment that weve never done before. Weve never gone through this before. The commissioner, dr. Repollet, was with us the other day. How can i assess . How do i assess what were doing . You never can say youre batting a thousand. You heard lack of access to devices, challenges, remote learning. We heard some early stages. Pat was really good early on and continues to be really good on getting a readout of food and secure kids in communities and families. You know, thats always something you want, as best you can bat a thousand, but youre always trying to get that perfection. I think were doing probably as good a job as any american state. We entered this with the strongest number one rated Public Education system in america. Thats a good place to start. Great educators. The best in america if not the world. Great, smart kids and families. But again, you go into that also with an unevenness about this. Access to devices, your best, most reliable hot meal of the day through your school. Those are realities for hundreds of thousands of kids. Were going to do, like everything else, as i mentioned, were going to do a im sure the world, america, and new jersey will do big postmortems on how we did and where we can be better Going Forward. You good . Dave, how are you . You switched seats with elise today, so i was a little bit you threw me off, but its good to see you both. Good to see you, governor, again. Yes, i am totally discombobulated by the change, but im trying to deal with it. Couple of questions. Weve heard a lot about the benefits of Rapid Testing and how that could help us in terms of reopening the economy, preserving ppe, et cetera, et cetera. Do we have any idea, will we start to see this on a widespread basis in new jersey . How many rapid tests do we have now . How important do you think this is in terms of moving forward . Second question. You mentioned in your discussion about why the parks and so forth were closed. We are seeing more walkers and joggers in the streets. Not to sound silly, but sometimes it is crowded. Would you anticipate or would you suggest, is there any guidance about wearing a mask while walking or jogging . Is there a protocol people should follow in terms of who gets out of the way . I havent seen it be an issue, but people being people, it might turn into something a little nutty. On the Small Business front, any other plans in place or considerations in terms of helping, especially the small Business Community . I know a lot of them have expressed concerns about being left behind and not being able to cope with the enormity of whats happening. To the commissioner who needs no introduction, you said yesterday that youve been through hiv, aids, ebola, i believe, sars, and youve never seen anything like what were seeing with covid. Could you talk about the reasons why youre saying that . And finally, governor, you just had an operation fairly recently. How are you holding up . How are you finding the strength to deal with this kind of huge crisis . Who are you leaning on . I know youve mentioned winston churchill. Are you leaning on moses, your wife, the beatles . Whats your support system and how are you handling things . Occasionally john dewar sons. Let me say the following. I appreciate your asking. Ill come to that in a second. Rapid testing. I dont know the amounts that we have in the state. Rapid testing, i dont know the amounts that we have in the state. Judy, do you know . I dont know the volume we have. Lisa, do you know the answer to that . Nice to have you with us, by the way. I dont have an exact number of pointofcare testing, those rapid test kits. I do know that because they were recently approved, a lot of the vendors are currently working with many urgent cares hospitals. The one thats coming on the market most recently is whats called a moderately complex, so you do have to have some complexity within your organization to be able to utilize that test. We are trying to work with our state Public Health lab partners and some of our care providers to make sure that were understanding exactly who is offering those tests and certainly the availability of tests and Rapid Testing that can be turned around in a couple of hours is going to be very beneficial. We do hope that they will start flooding the marketplace soon and we hope to actually be able to understand a little bit better about where theyre being rolled out and how theyre going to be best utilized. Dave, in the intermediate term. I hope this is sooner than later, ive had just in the past 24 hours a series of conversations on what sort of Health Infrastructure do you need to have in place to responsibly reopen, as you and i have discussed on a number of occasions with scott gottlieb, whos the former fda commissioner, vivek murthy, who was a former Surgeon General to pick two people. Judy, obviously, and her team and lisa and their colleagues are thinking about this a lot. But everybody comes back to the ability to contact trace. Once youve, whenever it is, and please, god, i hope its sooner than later, once within the four walls in new jersey, we bring this sucker to as close to zero as possible, you want to then have a Healthcare Infrastructure in place. I spoke the other day, as did governor cuomo, about the notion of trying to do something coordinated regionally and the ability, tell me if you disagree with this lisa or judy, the ability at that point for sure to rapid test people so that you could quickly make an assessment, quarantine, if necessary, is going to be hugely important to our success in reopening, as opposed to the alternative where you either do it too soon or you do it ahead of the Healthcare Infrastructure and you throw gasoline on the fire inadvertently. Thats a little bit of an intermediate term. Do we have any sense though, governor, when this might start to roll out in a large scale . We keep hearing soon, and i understand theres no magic way for you to know. In a month . In six months . Yeah. We actually did receive 15 of those abbott machines, david. The issue right now is the cdc has whats called the international reagent reserve and theyre almost like the National Stockpile. The machines are great, but if you dont have the reagent, and i think we only have 125 right now and the cdc is saying if an abbott machine is going to the hospital, that hospital has to deal directly with abbott. Theres a little bit of, to be honest with you, some fingerpointing between abbott and the cdc and that international reagent reserve. Were working through that daily and hope to have that resolved so we can get thousands of pointofcare tests out in the very near future. I would think, by the way, the first time fingerpointing has ever been invoked as it relates to governmentrelated activity. But i dont know whether or not youve got insights in terms of the innovations and how quickly theyll come online. Rutgers, for instance, is talking with great conviction about progress that theyre making. I dont know when it is, but i do know were going to need it sooner than later. I just would say that. Do disagree, either judy or lisa or pat, you cant go into sort of a reopening of your economy and not have the ability to very quickly test folks. Ive said this, maybe a proxy for that is the quick thermometer notion standing out in front of a restaurant. But is it fair to say to be able to test folks quickly and get results back quickly is going to be central to our ability to reopen. Judy, you want to add to that . Or disagree . No, i totally, totally agree, governor. To be able to test people, be able to figure out whether they can get back in the work workforce is going to be key. Its going to be key to our healthcare system. Its going to be key to the basic economic foundation. By the way, wed love all the abbots we could get. By the way, hats off to abbott for picking new jersey as one of their first states. Thats a good thing. But with all the reagents that we need. Theres no protocol that i know of in terms of walkers and joggers, dave, other than be careful. Social distancing, so if youre walking, please keep your six feet or youre jogging. As it relates to masks, the one thing i would say is this, and i would love the Health Experts to, wearing a mask that impairs your ability to see, assuming your social distancing is something i personally think is putting you at risk that you dont need to be at. In other words, we want you to wear masks that does not trump social distancing and certainly doesnt trump the notion that you might not be able to see a car coming around a corner. I dont know if you would agree or disagree with that. You asked me about my, i appreciate your asking, my family, most importantly, my the colleagues dont come near me. They let me come into these sessions last and leave first. Im in a bigger bus, far from the person whos driving, were masked up. I began running yesterday on, albeit on a running machine by myself, but i ran 15 minutes. I promised 5k in april. Im hoping ill be able to deliver the goods. I fear itll be by myself and itll be really slow. But so far, so good. Again, i came back a lot faster than i wanted to, but knock on wood, so far, so good. I appreciate your asking. You had asked judy a question about having lived through sars and other challenges. Im struck by the number of people that require hospitalization and decline very quickly. The hospitals, when youre looking at 1,500 people in Critical Care on any one day, ive never quite seen that. Even though all of the other pandemics that weve seen certainly have a percentage that dont do well at all, as you know, but the amount of people coming into the hospital that immediately need pulmonary support and respiratory ventilation is what ive, ive never quite seen. I dont know, lisa, if youve seen anything like that. Ive been working a long time, ive never seen it. Lisa, anything you want to add . No, i mean, i would agree with the commissioner. I was here working in the department during the pandemic in 2009, h1n1 influenza. Very, very different than what we saw then, even though it was similar. Yeah, i mean, its certainly unprecedented and certainly concerning, but certainly what were working 24 7 to try to help our healthcare and Public Health accomplish doing good things and trying to bring down that curve. Real quick, dave, i realize nothing really new to report on Small Business administration. As you know, the eda has put out a program and theyve been overwhelmed with demand for grants and loans. Tim sullivan, the ceo, gave me a quick update this morning. There was some hope that maybe we might be able to get a little bit more, find some more funds to make that a little bit more robust, but thats too early to report. I think andy referred to this, the sba piece of the federal, the cares act, is a much bigger chunk of money and we need to get that on the street as fast as possible. Last point on jogging and walking, and again please, god, this does not last forever here, were talking about some period of time, as Pat Callaghan reminds me, the combination of more people perhaps jogging or walking on the streets, maybe wearing a mask which doesnt impair their vision, so id be careful about impairing the vision, probably not a good time to have the earbuds in with the music cracked at 12 on a scale of 10, would be another sort of personal health, hygiene piece of advice wed throw. Thank you. Matt, hold on one sec. Hi there, governor and commissioner. Thanks. On testing, were seeing about the same number of new positives and negatives each day. Im curious if that means that were sort of hitting a Testing Capacity . Also curious, Health Officials in the hardest hit parts of north jersey, are we still doing Contract Tracing or is that just something that we dont have the capacity to do . Finally, were hearing of occupational and physical therapist in Nursing Homes who are still going room to room to provide services for patients. Because theres fear that these folks could be spreading the virus, curious if these services do you think should be suspended . Maybe, commissioner, i think you went back, you talked about this not that long ago, but im curious if these folks are required to wear ppe and if anything has changed . May i say one thing, judy, before you jump in . Dave, i think mahans trying to get your attention. Im not sure if hes going to answer perhaps to one of your questions. The amount of testing goes up every day. Right . Thats a fact. We have more sites that are offering testing. As i said, now 57 as far as we can comp between public and nonpublic. The number, the percentage of positives, two things are not going up a lot happily. Number one, judy, the percentage, the positives percentage, has really only been in the past couple of days creeping a couple of tenths of a percentage each day. Secondly, the curve of the number of positives, just based on the denominator from the day before, has begun to look like the early stages of flattening. Today was a little bit. Today was an 8 increase over yesterday. Yesterday was a 7 increase on the day before. But the number of tests is going up. Thats the only thing i wanted to say. Judy, over to you. Well, im going to let lisa talk about Contact Tracing. Sure. As you can imagine, as the commissioner had already mentioned about local Health Department funding, we have a limited number of staff and sometimes you have to really do significant Contact Tracing. I think when a lot of the social distancing measures went in place, Contact Tracing becomes a lot easier because youre really just Contact Tracing family members and household members, thankfully. Our advice to local Health Departments has really been, in some of those locations that are getting a limited number of new cases each day, to really try to do the best that they can to do as much Contact Tracing as they can and the context that theyre identifying to try to prioritize those that may have touchpoints with some of our most vulnerable populations. If they happen to have a household contact who would be a Healthcare Worker who would have other types of touchpoints with other vulnerable populations, to try to focus on doing the Contact Tracing around those individuals versus you have some kids that maybe in your household that really arent going anywhere. Theyre not going to school, theyre going to be staying in that household. Its very easy to give kind of one message to that entire household. The global message is we are still advising our local Health Departments to try to do Contact Tracing as much as they possibly can with the resources that they have. In some locations, thats really not going to be feasible. In other locations that are getting smaller amounts of new cases each day, theyre still able to maintain that with the staffing that they have. We have not told them to stop doing that. Its just that in some places its just not feasible given the overwhelming numbers. Im just curious, would local folks report information to you, whether or not theyre still Contract Tracing . How does that process work . Im curious. I understand that it comes, the directive is coming, continue to do this. I appreciate the remarks about with fewer cases that seem to make sense, but would they report if they stopped doing this . Theres no real way for them to say daily we can do this, we cant do this. Weve kind of left this to them to manage their own staff that they have and to see what they can particularly do. A lot of them know their communities fairly well. They know where some of these cases are coming from. In some circumstances they can pretty much immediately tell that a new case may be related to an old case and they can kind of lump them together. Were really asking our local Health Departments to do that. They are really working hard in their communities and they know their communities well. Judy, i think matt had a question about occupational and physical therapist. Physical therapy and occupational therapy. If someones in a longtermcare facility and requires what they call the skilledlevel of care, which would be a physical therapy, we encourage that to continue taking place as long as protective personal equipment can be provided for the people coming in. But we also have instructed all longtermcare facilities to do a symptom assessment and Temperature Check on anyone coming into the facility and turning away people if necessary. Its a tough time for longterm care right now. I dont think i need to tell you that. Im sure for those facilities that are able to manage because their staff is still there, they have a lower percentage perhaps of covidpositive patients, those Necessary Services are taking place. But i would not be surprised to hear that they are not in some other facilities where theres staffing concerns. Real quick, dave, what do you got right . This is a couple of questions from mike from the associated press. Was it news to you, governor, that the national ppe stockpile for states is depleted . Was jersey told by fema, hhs, the white house or anybody else in the federal government that the National Stockpile was depleted and that no more distributions would be made from it . If so, when were we told . Given the news, what accommodations and strategies is jersey pursuing to get the ppes and ventilators they need . Californias apparently using its market leverage to suck up a lot of this material and then distribute it to other states in need. Is jersey part of that . Is new jersey forming consortiums to increase purchasing power . Any other strategies to try to acquire this essential gear . Finally, how much has jersey spent to date buying ppes and other ventilators . Youve got to tell mike if hes going to have that many questions, hes got to show up. Ill give you the broad answers. We long ago, i dont know when it was, but long ago, pats going to come in and correct me or judy, probably a couple of weeks ago, realized, at least, this is more than that, that ppe, separate from ventilators, ppe was going to need to be sourced from a whole range of places and folks, providers, including folks who donated as well as folks who were going to buy from. Thats all around new jersey, around the country, around the world. As i mentioned earlier with andy when andy was here, been on the phone myself with asian and back and forth on email i might add with european folks literally this morning. Ventilators, on the other hand, there have been, and, pat, you should, or judy, correct me, its expensive. I think pat said 27 million for what we had received, but i think it was up into 80 million in total. Thats a week old, or a number of days old. This is a huge financial lift. Again, a line of business the state wasnt in six or seven weeks ago. Ventilators on the other hand have been very frustrating to find a viable commercial or other avenue other than the federal stockpile. I want to again give a big shout out to gavin newsom and california for getting a hundred our way. As i said the other day, the extent to which, and as soon as we can raise our hand and say were through this, well be more than happy to return the favor to any other place that is going through as a hotspot. But again, ventilators, were not going to give up asking for ppe from the fed federal strategic stockpile, whether its depleted or not, but ventilators continued to be the most common ask i guess in addition to bed capacity where the army corps has been really good helping us. We are constantly looking at commercial arrangements. Not only are we looking at folks who are prepared to donate, were also scouring the world and the country and our state for commercial arrangements. Wed prefer it to be donated. We particularly appreciate that. But the extent to which we need to establish supply lines that are reliable and theyre commercial and we have to pay for them, were absolutely doing that. Pat, anything you want to add to that . I think were good. You good . Okay, so listen, thank you. I want thank to my right, the commissioner of the department of health, Judy Persichilli whos, speaking of heroes, a hero. Dr. Lisa mchugh, thank you so much for being with us. In absentia, congressman andy kim. The guy to my left whos doing an extraordinary job, superintendent of the state police, colonel pat callahan. Jared maples and his team at homeland security. We will be here at 10 30 tomorrow out of respect for good friday. We hope that well have all the numbers that we normally have for you. Well do our best. I would just say this again, this is the fight of our lives. This is. For folks celebrating passover, bless you and thank you for everything youre doing. To our christian community, this is holy thursday, one of the holiest days of the year. This is the day of the last supper. This is a time for all of us to remember, not just our history and our faiths, but to remember what our responsibilities are right now. Again, for the nine million of us, number one responsibility stay home and stay away from other people. Only go out if you absolutely have to. Thats what the so many are doing. For the so few, our Healthcare Workers, extraordinary heroes, frontline responders, firstline responders right down through the folks who are helping us get through this crisis, bless you and thank you. Together unequivocally, if we each do our part, there is no question we will get through this. Well get through this stronger as one family than weve ever been before. We will see tomorrow at 10 30. Thank you all. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] friday new jersey governor will murphy is an update on the coronavirus. Live coverage begins at 10 30 a. M. On cspan. The Labor Department americans6. 6 million filed for unemployment last week, leading to a growing total. Unprecedented weekation since the President Trump declared a national emergency. The figure includes new reporting from the Labor Department. Pushing the jobless claims up during the weekend. From 6. 6 million. From the update indiana governor in the response in his state. Healthjoined by other officials in his state. This is just under one hour. Hoosiers. Ternoon, thank you for joining us on this thursday afternoon. Medicalhear some updates, testing, case numbers. We will also hear from the commissioner of the department of