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

Here. Hope he is ok gov. Murphy i dont see dave here. I hope he is ok. Good afternoon. Im joined by the woman to my right who needs no introduction, the commissioner of the department of health, judith persichilli. To her right, the state epidemiologist. Thank you. To my left, the superintendent of the state police, colonel pat callahan. To my left, the superit of the state police, colonel pat callahan. Lets get right to the numbers as we have been doing. Newre reporting today 3215 positive test results, which brings the cumulative total of New Jerseyans who have not tested positive to 78,467. Cases, whichew brings the total of 78,467. According to our online dashboard, and judy will correct me if i get this wrong, accessible through covid19. Nj. G ov, as of 10 p. M. Last evening, 8011 residents were reported hospitalized, of whom 1961 were listed in critical or intensive care. 1594 ventilators were in use. At one of oure field medical stations. For a 24 hour period ending at 10 p. M. Last evening, 787 residents were discharged from our hospitals and that is good news. This is not good news with a heaviest of hearts, we also report the loss of another 323 blessed New Jerseyans, brothers and sisters, due to covid19 related complications. Our statewide total of fatalities now sits at 3840. This is now more than five times the number of New Jerseyans we lost on 9 11. We continue to mourn to keep the souls we lost on 9 11 in our thoughts and prayers and thoughts. We now have 3840 more lost souls with whom to do the same. We mourn with each family who has been directly impacted in the worst way by this pandemic. We are incredibly grateful to those who allow us to remember their loved ones here in this platform. Telling these stories is never easy, but i do hope by sharing them and putting human faces to the numbers, we can all gain a little extra perspective on why we have been so aggressive in our actions to halt the spread of covid19. Few more lives for us to reflect upon. Bycia syker she went alice. Look at that. She came to this country in 1981 from poland without knowing one word of english. Her story is the american story. It is the new jersey story. She got her first job on the night shift at a Dunkin Donuts in kearny while her first husband looked after their three children, including a son with special needs. Eventually, she was hired as a bank teller. The aluminum able to help the polish speaking customers and soon became an advocate and resource for the polish Community Across wellington, passaic, and garfield. She rose up the letter to become a bank manager. And after becoming suddenly widowed at the age of 42, she went back to school and became a certified Tax Collector and worked for the borough of wellington for five years. And then as Tax Collector, chief financial officer, and school treasurer. Alice suffered a stroke in 2011 and fought her way back to keep working, but her light was forever dimmed by covid19 on monday. She leaves her husband marion, her three children and three grandchildren, and a fort on the way. More on that in a moment. She has passed along for belief in Public Services as two of her children early work is a Public Schools speech therapist and assistant prosecutor, respectively. I spoke with her daughter, maggie. We reminisced about her mom. Maggie is the one who is pregnant. Shes got a son due on august 15, which i reminded her is the catholic holy day of obligation. I think that was only appropriate and just. God bless you , alice. You will be missed by her family for sure and buy the rest of us new jersey. Robert weber, there is. God bless him. A 15 year veteran firefighter with the Port Monmouth fire company in my hometown of middletown in monmouth county. He did more than just fight fires though. Also served as a member of both the middletown firstaid and rescue squad and the middletown Fire Departments air unit. It probably was not a surprise he chose this line of work as robs family has retold their memories of him as a child chasing after firetrucks. Not everyone gets to live their dream, but rob obviously did his. To honor him the only way they could at this time, local responders organized a motor per last night that headed out from the Port Monmouth fire department. To his wife, danielle, which i spoke with this morning and needless to say she is incredibly brokenhearted, and the entire webber family and the middletown firefighting family and the broader middletown family which i am a member, i think robert for his service to his community. His soul and memories are in our thoughts and prayers. We will not forget him. Weast. E is quentin when this photo was taken last fathers day, quentin was only 106 years old. When covid19 took him earlier this week, he had reached 107. He was born on october 29, 1912, only a couple of months before my dad was born. Yes, he survived the flu pandemic of 1918. He earned a degree in engineering from the George Washington university in washington, d. C. , and embarked on a career that would see him rise to the rank in the Telecommunications Industry with the western electric company, the manufacturing side of the former Bell Telephone system. Along the way, he married his wife of 56 years, myrtle, with whom he is now reunited. They lived all over the country, but settled in ridgewood in 1975 and he called new jersey home for the rest of his life. He was among other things an expert bridge player, even garnering a mention in the new york times. He was an avid bowler and played golf up until age 100. I suspect he would not have been happy with the fact the golf courses are still shut. He volunteered for the red cross and a local nursing home. He is survived by his and myrtles three children, yrtylele, paula,m and son quentin. I spoke to him earlier today and talked about his dad. Pretty xer extraordinary. Two greatgrandchildren with another on the way who is undoubtedly going to learn great stories. Young quentin, that is him in this photo with his own son, quentin and theodore. Four generations in that photo. Young quentin with whom i spoke shared this summation and i quote him. When it came to life, he left nothing on the table. A remarkable life and a remarkable man. Amen. Just coming in here, i learned friend i read that my benji wimberleys cousin passed. I realized it was councilwoman rubi kottens husband ed who also passed. I spoke with rubi on the phone just before coming over here. I want to give her and her late out from us shout to say that they, his memory, she and the whole family are in our prayers and will remain so. Was alife we mourn remarkable person. We have only been able to bring a few of their stories forward, but each one leaves a legacy worth celebrating and protecting. And protecting them we will by continuing to wage our war against this disease that took these tremendous people from us. And in that, we must all come together, Stay Together and keep working together. Every day, i share this map get it up there. It shows how far we have come in slowing the spread of covid19. Again, the lighter the color of this map, the better. That means it is taking longer for the virus to spread. The darker it is, the worse it is. Just a few weeks back, the number of cases in each county were doubling within only a couple of short days. It was deep red and dark orange. But because we come and i mean all of us have been aggressive in social distancing and making the tough decisions we have had to make to cancel public gatherings, close nonessential businesses, close our schools and require all of us to wear face coverings we all do that. We only take them off when we are speaking to you. Among all the other steps we have taken, those rates of increase have dropped dramatically. This is what we have been working towards and what we must keep doing. I know it is hard. I know it is not fun. I know it is going to be a few for a few more weeks at least. If you want to be mad at me or find someone to blame, go ahead. But my number one goal, my entire focus is on defeating this virus and getting our state back to where we can responsibly reopen it. I gave an interview the other night to a dear friend of mine who reached out and said you are missing something here. You talk about you close the state. I quote my friend. Covid19 close to the state, you just organize it. He said ask any restaurant tour how business was for the two weeks before we officially closed. Ask a Theater Owner how sales were. New york city restaurants, it was announced before new york city closed down that restaurants could not go over 50 capacity. There were that literally zero people coming to those restaurants and the restaurateurs laughed at this edict because they cannot even get to 20 because people were scared literally to death. Im coding my friend. Zero people would come to the restaurant tomorrow if you allow them to go out. His point is a very good point. We need to have confidence that we have broken the back of this virus. That we have Health Care Infrastructure in place as we begin to open our state backup. That will give people the confidence to say, you know what, it is ok to get back in. It is ok to go out again. It is ok to do the things that are being allowed. Again, we will not back off of breaking the back of this virus. Again, that is the order of events. Break the back of the virus, have as close to a full Health Care Recovery as possible, and only on the back of that could we have economic recovery we desperately want, including yours truly. I take solace and guidance in the words of one of my heroes, Vice President and senator Hubert Humphrey. I quote him. The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children. Those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly. And those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. Those are words that guide us indeed. Want to give my dear friend lou a shout out. He and i are cochairs of the Hubert Humphrey fan club in new jersey. This is a moral test for us all. The last thing we can do is relax and get complacent. If we do, that map before us will get bright red once again. And if that happens, our health care system, no matter how great a job judy and christine and their team do, the system will be swamped and countless people will die. It is really as simple as that. We found that infection curve down, we pound down the number of hospitalizations, we pound to the number of folks who require intensive care and thank god, we pound down the number of fatalities. Switching gears before we turn things over to judy we had a good videoconference with the president and Vice President and their teams yesterday, talking about how they are seeing the reopening of the american economy. There is an enormous amount of responsibility given to governors and latitude given to governors. We are still sort of parsing through the recommendations and steps they have put forward. I spoke privately with the president after that video call. The president and Vice President , secretary mnuchin also joined us. Again, we will continue with the order of events that we have laid out and continue to take advice in the best guidance we can for best practices around the country and around the world. Announceam proud to the Attorney Generals Office through the division of Consumer Affairs will begin issuing temporary emergency licenses to foreign licensed physicians. Doing this, new jersey is the first state to fully tap the tremendous wealth of International Knowledge and experience to help us on our own frontlines. It is entirely fitting that we are the first state to do this. This is a state where the immigrant experience is writ large in our collective history. This is a state where people from all over the world have come to build a new life and to live the american dream. Look at alices story if you need any examples. These are tremendous and often unheralded members of our unique, diverse and strong new jersey family. This family is now coming together as it has a few times before in our common history. And every member of our new jersey family has a role to play. Even as we begin issuing these licenses, we continue to look for experienced volunteers to work alongside our Current Health care teams in fighting covid19. In particular, and judy will correct me if i get this wrong, we have a need for anyone with qualifications as a respiratory therapist and for physicians, nurses and emergency medical technicians. If you have Prior Experience in any of these fields, please go our team9. Nj. Gov and will work to match you with a location and need that can use you. Already more than 22,000 of you have raised your hands and many have already been set out to help, but this army could always use more reinforcements. Today, we launched a new page for all of you who are not medical professionals, but wish to volunteer your time and efforts in other ways. Sibley go to covid19. Nj. Gov help and click on volunteer in your community. Our most immediate needs are for people who help deliver meals to elderly or otherwise vulnerable residents, and to assist us in our food pantries. Forank the governors volunteerism within the department of state, the new jersey voluntary organizations active in disaster, and the office of Emergency Management for the partnership and identifying these opportunities. State,ing across the there are now 70 sites in which you could receive a covid19 test if you are exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illnesses. Two dozen of them are publicly accessible. You can find a complete list. But, there are many more privately run sites that your primary Care Practitioner can direct you to if you need to be tested. On this, we continue to pursue every possible avenue for expanding on testing capabilities, getting this in place is a key component for our future decisionmaking. Once we get through this emergency, our charge will be to aggressively attack any future cases to prevent another outbreak. I want to also acknowledge the director of the department of Homeland Security and preparedness, jared maples. Thank you for being with us. Before i had things over to judy, i want to highlight as we have been doing over the past couple of weeks the tremendous work that ordinary New Jerseyans have taken to help get us through these extraordinary times. You have shared many of the stories online by using that hashtag. Each one has been a little bright spot during our days. Please keep sharing your stories, keep forwarding them. First, i want to give a shout out to to the montclair drifters, and especial special credit to my partner in government, the extraordinary Lieutenant Governor Shelley Oliver for sending us this story. The montclair drifters first formed in 1964. For 56 years, this group of dynamic and service driven africanamerican women has dedicated itself to bettering their community. This week, they got together to donate 40 hot meals for the frontline medical team in montclair. You can see some of the team members. A huge shout out to the montclair drifters who continue to build upon their already tremendous 50 plus year history and legacy. Then, back down in my county, monmouth county, there is Georgetown University freshman William Marshall liam marshall from siegert. He is always the back home from hilltop and wanted to help out in between his online classes. He had the idea to begin an Online Campaign to support feed the frontline which is providing meals for the Health Care Workers at monmouth countys area hospitals. Liam used his social Media Presence to ask people to donate 15 in exchange for a yard sign to show there is one of them to show support for every Frontline Health care worker working hard. To producehad close to 800 signs. Obviously, this got bigger than just liam so he enlisted his parents and brother and a whole squad of friends to help him deliver signs to front lawns all over the monmouth shore area. Liam is a business major. Something tells me he has a tremendous future ahead of him. To you, liam, and your family i know you are watching. I hope you never give up your spirit of giving back. Kudos to you. Even though i didnt go to georgetown, i say hoya i think this is a positive way, leftillanova grad to my has some mixed emotions about that chant. I think this is a positive way to end today. To the millions of New Jerseyans who are with us in channeling our deep new jersey values to defeat covid19, keep up the good work. I know it has not been easy, it has not been fun and it is not going to get any more fun, but it is absolutely essential to our success. We have come a long way already. We are flattening the curve, there is no doubt about it. But we cannot let up until we have read the curve down the other side. We can do this. After all, we are new jersey. There is nothing else that needs to be said. With that, please help me welcome the woman who needs no introduction, the commissioner of the department of health, judy persichilli. Thank you, good afternoon. As you know, we have seen extreme vulnerability of longterm care facilities in new jersey and nationally with the pandemic, covid19. We continue to be vigilant and do everything in our power to assist these facilities from shipping personal protective equipping to connecting facilities with staffing report, to replace certified nursing assistants who are either ill or have not reported to work. There are 384 longterm care facilities in the state reporting covid19 cases, for a total of 9094 cases. Testsally, 1530 covid19 have been deaths have been reported in these facilities. Today, i am going to give you a breakdown by county and this will be added to the department of Health Dashboard later today. In atlantic county, eight of their longterm care facilities casesporting 53 covid19 an dsid six deaths. In bergen county, 51 facilities are affected, reporting 1831 cases at 352 deaths. In burlington county, 15 facilities are affected, reporting 310 cases and 32 deaths. In camden county, 14 facilities are affected, reporting 281 cases and 48 deaths. In cape may county, four facilities are affected, reporting 30 cases and two deaths. In cumberland county, two facilities are reporting three cases and no deaths. In essex county, 38 facilities cases and 204969 deaths. Sevenucester county, facilities reporting 47 cases and eight deaths. In hudson county, 12 facilities are reporting 361 cases and 57 deaths. Fourndred and county, facilities are reporting 143 cases and 20 deaths. Mercer county, 19 facilities reporting 344 cases and 38 deaths. In middlesex county, 35 facilities reporting 832 cases and 152 deaths. Monmouth county, 40 facilities reporting 782 cases and 114 deaths. 829acilities reporting cases and 150 deaths. Ocean county, 32 facilities reporting 543 cases and 43 deaths. Facilitiesnty, 18 reporting 460 cases and 76 deaths. 18em county, two facilities, cases and one death. Somerset county, 24 facilities with 456 cases and 58 deaths. Sussex county, five facilities reporting 161 cases and 45 deaths. Union county, 26 facilities reporting 472 cases and 91 deaths. Warren county reporting six facilities affected, reporting 169 cases and 23 deaths. I have received calls and have talked with a number of elected officials of these counties and municipalities as they are responding to the concern of their constituents. In andover asrs reported yesterday, as well as our state surveyor, and our state surveyor are making site visits to several longterm care facilities. They will be working today and through the weekend visiting selected facilities based on the reporting of their statistics. The new jersey veterans is 782. 145 of our veterans have tested positive for covid19. 32 are hospitalized. They are reporting 57 deaths. 1331, 70staff of employees have tested positive. Our stateside hospitals are reporting an additional death today for a total of seven deaths from their population of 1400. Currently, 100 11 of our longterm care facilities reported they are no longer admitting residents because they are unable to cohort and appropriately care for more individuals. As the governor shared last evening, our hospitals reported 1011 hospitalizations, which include patients of covid19 and persons under investigation. This is a 2 decrease from our daily growth rate of the past two days. 1961 individuals in critical care. 1594 are on ventilators. That is 81 of our intensive care patients. Significantly down from a high of 97 within the past week. I got a call from kevin slaven, ceo of st. Joseph, and also the head of the board of the new jersey hospital association. He shared with me that the ceo of pandora health in colorado is a new jersey fellow. I worked with him at st. Peters in new brunswick. Kevin hired him at st. Joseph many years ago. Nurses to new25 jersey to work at st. Josephs, st. Peters, and trinitys. Shadow to him, a new jersey fellow. As the governor mentioned, our field has a census of 90. Edison has 26. Additionally, 17 individuals are being served at the marriott. Haven, 168 individuals been served at these sites. 79 have been successfully discharged home. 3250 new are reporting 78,467. R a total of deaths have been reported. 3840is a total of fatalities in our state. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. According to the data from this morning of the laboratory sending us covid19 results, 143,450 tests have been performed. Positiveve returned for a Positivity Rate holding at about 44. 9 . I want to thank all of you for staying home. I know as time goes on, gets tougher, but the best way to protect yourself and others is by staying home, staying safe, and staying connected. Each one of us are making a difference in helping to stop the spread of this virus. Thank you. Thank you for that. I wrote a note to myself to call peter and how much we appreciate that. Counties, the top six remain the counties with the most amount of cases. That really hasnt shifted in weeks. Hudson, union, passaic, and middlesex. Veterans, is it still the case i dont have that info in front of me. The fatalities god bless our veterans, period. God bless those who have passed due to covid19. His it still at zero . These are all fatalities . Comorbidities, do you mind hitting that . Cases that we have investigated, 50. 3 are black, 16. 6 are hispanic, 5. 4 asian nonhispanic, 5. 4 other. Underlying conditions are holding about the same, 60. 8 cardiovascular disease, 39. 1 diabetes, 29. 6 other chronic diseases, 20. 5 chronic lung disease, like asthma, emphysema, 15 chronic renal disease, neurologic disability, 13. 3 other, and 11 cancer. As we have said before, a couple of things, even yesterday and the day before, if you add up all of the comorbidities, you get about 200 . The reason is you have folks with more than one condition. Secondly, the africanamerican representation in the fatalities continues to concern us. In and around 50 above the representation of the Africanamerican Community and Broader Society of new jersey. Thirdly, this is something we have not said in a few days. The deaths we are reporting are probably folks who were infected , could be as long as several weeks ago at this point. A deaths are considered lagging indicator. A lot of times, individuals their onset of illness is several days, could be weeks before they potentially die. And the positive test results, we had a backandforth during a white house call. You think the labs have partly caught up with these, still five to seven days . For everybody out there wondering what the timing is on this, i will go over my skis, but i want to reiterate this. There is nothing behind this other than the obvious point. We had the opportunity when we announced the balance of the school year, the extent to which this was going to continue to be Remote Learning and how long. Do we do this for a number of weeks versus the entirety of the balance of the school year . We deliberately picked what is now four weeks from today. That was the input from judy, christina, and their team. The administer of education. Expertshis team, other working at our best guess as to data and science. That was done deliberately. I want to not just say for the folks impacted by our decision on schools, and in particular to sports ors who play other activities, the seniors who want to find some way to acknowledge and commemorate their graduation. We know youre probably the most impacted of the school communities, including your folks and families. We also did that deliberately because we hope to know a lot more as we now know, versus four weeks ago, we hope to know a lot more as we round into may 15. If we keep doing what we are doing, there is a potential for it to be meaningfully more positive. Keep at it. Please keep at it. I know its not fun, i know people are stir crazy. I dont blame you, i get it, but we are cracking the back of a once a century killer. This is the fight of our lives, and we are winning it, but we have to stay at it. Gut tells me the news gets better, and it gets better over that fourweek period we are talking about. Compliance,tes on ppe, other infrastructure, i just got a note while i was making a note to thank peter, i got a note from General Mills horn saying hes looking forward to see us next week. With that come over to you. Itcompliance, especially as pertains to the large gatherings, has been phenomenal over the past few nights. A few outliers, which i will go through. In patterson, a subject was cited for operating a car wash. New york issued 90 violations and closed seven businesses. In moorestown, three subjects were charged with violation. They were fighting during a small social gathering. In south brunswick, a woman was cited for driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of small children. She had children in the car. She was a. 26 bac. In elizabeth, seven were cited, having been warned to disperse. In upper township, a subject was cited for driving under the influence with a. 33 bloodalcohol concentration. With regards to ppe, i wanted to note that since this began a few weeks back, as a state, we have ordered and or received over 53. 3 million items as it pertains mostly about ppe, but it runs from hospital beds, thermometers, mostly in the ppe world. With regard to the two fema supported sites, once today ends, they will have completed over 12,000 tests since march 20. It hasnt even been up and running one month. Over 12,000 tests alone. With regard to the National Ambulance contract i speak of now and again, they just increased their hours to 24 seven. We are bringing an additional 75 personnel. It was only a six hour gap they were not operating, but will be able to operate 24 seven in those 100 additional ambulances. And 50c life support advanced life support are due to be in jersey monday morning. Thank you for that. We will start with charlie to my right. Start, just to say on testing, to repeat, i think we are number four in the country, in terms of total tests. The largest state population wise. At one level, we punched above our weight. We have not had the materials and the scale in testing that we would remotely need to do a universal regime. We are going to need something that looks a lot more like that before we can responsibly and with confidence, forget about what i think or we think, if you think you feel you are ready to go out and have dinner or see a movie, or go to a ballgame, whatever it is, you will want, and we understand this, you will want to have confidence that we have a Health Care Structure in place that is doing everything it can to identify any reignition of this virus. It is infrastructure that it can deal aggressively and quickly with any potential reignition that is what we are going to need. Theres a lot of promise with a lot of development. Rutgers saliva test is one example we have been using. The notion of being able to not just make it easier to submit your tests with a lot less reliance on Health Care Workers, ppe, etc. , but you get an answer back very quickly. Thats what we need. We then need Contact Tracing. Doubly a combination probably a combination of humans. We are trying to figure out what that might look like. Once we can track down if a person has tested positive, the people they were in touch with, what is the plan . What is the quarantine, the isolation plan . Have they had that completely vetted . That will give us all the confidence we need to begin turning that dimmer up on the light switch. It will not be a flip, it will be bringing the dimmer up on a light. Testing 12,000 at those sites alone, im not sure there are sites combined that have done 12,000 in the past couple of months. But we are going to need that quick turnaround testing reality. And we are working hard on that. That was a discussion explicitly with the white house yesterday. The it was my part of program, it was focused on getting federal money to help us, which is an old theme we have been hitting that we need. Secondly, working with the white house and the administration, overwhelmingly interested in doing to further that reality of a testing approach in our state that will allow us the confidence we will need to get that dimmer on the light switch up. Charlie . Good afternoon, governor. I just want to make sure we have no required dental work by the make distance today. Thank you. I have been asked to pass along a few questions from the Associated Press for you. What is your reaction to the reopening booklet issued by the white house . Is there anything in it youre pushing back on . How close is new jersey to starting phase one . I wanted to ask for some clarification on your order about essential versus nonessential construction. In new brunswick, we have some developers of private, expensive housing that are moving forward using item 2g as a loophole that says any construction involving lease where there is a for somebody to occupy it can continue. Even though there is a huge building, theres a few leases so they want to keep going, and the city allows that to go on. I want your clarification on whether that was your intent for those type of projects to be essential . How about the srl pipeline . That has been self described as a transmission redundancy project. How on earth can that be essential if it is redundant . I wanted to also ask for your statement on the bill you signed for giving civil and criminal immunity to Certain Health care professionals, facilities, what is your response to the people who voted against that and the concerns that have been raised . What would you say to families who are concerned that their loved ones may be victims of malpractice and will lose their ability to challenge that and have Legal Recourse in civil and criminal court . With the apgin questions. I thought it was a good discussion with the white house. We are trying to go through the booklet. I dont have it with me. I thought it was a good discussion. The most gratifying part is they are basically saying governors are the ones who determine a lot of this. And we agree with that. I dont say that as a hostile statement, i think it is a reality. I think there were three rings of responsibility. Is we have to do what is right for the 9 million folks inside new jersey, job number one. Second, do that in a very tightly coordinated way with our neighbors. We did that well as we were closing. Lets do that as we are reopening. Including some of the Health Care Infrastructure that i talked about. It is as good as it comes when it relates to health care abilities. Hes one of our representatives. We couldnt have a better person alongside jeh johnson. Thirdly, cooperation with the white house. It has to work for us, our neighbors, and there is nothing to replace the existential reality of the federal government. I thought it was a decent discussion. Was there anything i would be pushing back on . The only thing i would push back on is if there was a requirement on timing, and there was not. Thats a good thing, because we are not ready. Dont confuse my extreme desire to want to open things up. Based on the data and input we have, my assessment at the moment on whether or not we are ready for that. I think i have gotten into the other pieces of that. We need to break the back of the virus, testing, Contact Tracing, then you can begin to put your rules not just in place, but in action. What is a restaurant going to look like, a retail shop, warehouse or manufacturing floor . Anything you would add to that . It was a good discussion. The one thing we want to recoil on was you must do this by this date, because we are not there. This will slightly, and i want to say im taking a shot at myself, this will slightly understate the depth of my knowledge about item 2g when i say i know it follows 2f. With that, can you talk about nonessential and essential construction, including the one that charlie described in new brunswick, as well as anything you want to say on the pipeline . The provision you referenced in paragraph 2g, particular units for which a tenant has at least two move in by a particular date. That is designed to ensure tenants who have to vacate their current residence and have to move somewhere else have a place to go. But that construction should be limited to those units. Pipeline, our executive order takes abe approach not based on particular projects. Pipelines are part of the utility exception. Anything you want to add on the bill related to civil and criminal immunity . The civil immunity provisions in that bill only apply to simple negligence. The types of malpractice youre referencing that includes willful conduct or gross misconduct would not be covered in the immunity provisions. The only apply to situations in where there is a shortage of ventilators and hospitals have to make decisions involving triage. Judy, anything you want to add . It doesnt take a way a persons right to assert a claim if they feel they have been wronged in some way. It will be adjudicated in the courts. Am i right . We are good. 2g is that new construction, or buildings that are just renovating a unit . It does apply to both new construction and existing construction of those units. Anyone in the back . Good afternoon. Did the white house say to st ates they must acquire their own test kits . What did the white house say is their Testing Solution . Were you promised any test kits . How will new jersey and the other states make good on this testing and tracing idea . You mentioned a secaucus marriott. Are patients being treated there . Our workers staying there . When workers return to school, do you expect they will have to wear a mask . When kids return to school . When students return to school, will they have to wear masks . On testing, i dont know there was a big discussion as to who is getting what in terms of testing. We are in constant communication with the white house on trying to work with them to get the right testing infrastructure regime in place. Do you recall any discussion . Clarity,ave a lot of in terms of are we ok . There we go. All i can say is we are aggressively taking the lead and hoping to do that in some concert. The depth of that concert i cant tell you yet, because it is not knowable. I want to do that as much with the white house and federal government. I mentioned one example. Theres a lot of tire kicking with the rutgers saliva test as one example that we talked about most. This, regardless of how we do it or where we get them, we will not be reopening unless there is confidence by the group of us up here and our teams that we got a testing regime in place that meets the standards we will need in a Contact Tracing regime in place that means the standards we are going to need. Lastoing to skip to the one and give you my personal opinion, then i will defer to the experts on what will go on with the caucus and masks. I would bet the answer is yes, kids will be masked when they go back to school. Judy, over to you. About secaucus. That is for individuals in convalescent care. For instance, very little or actual care, but need to sit out of pouring teenage period of time sit out of quarantine a period of time. And additionally, there is room set aside for healthcare workers doing shifts upon shifts and want to crash for a while or if they have tested positive and are in quarantine and do not want to sit out that quarantine at home, or isolation out home. It is for both. No actual care. Ive giving you a personal opinion on kids wearing masks. Its an opinion, not a mandate. Secondly, i repeat something i said earlier. We did real early we deliberately bought ourselves for weeks, based on what we all know today. We will see what it looks like when we make other decisions. Schools are Remote Learning at least until may 15. We have not made the decision we are going back to school on the 15th or the 18th. We are remote at least until the 15th. I would think anybody, yes. One guys opinion. Do i have any violent disagreement . Sir in the back, do you have one . Good . Ys are i have a question from colleen at ng spotlight. Multiple part, but related. Can you give us an update on furloughs of inmates from prison . Have they started yet, or when will they start . Do you have a number you are aiming for . When will people be in light will people be eligible for release and they are in a Halfway House without any known cases . Anything for yourself . Thats it. The furlough process is underway the review process part is underway. Of most a tiering at risk patients. Age, another is Underlying Health concerns, another is eligible within a certain window for parole or release. Theres another tier of folks who were denied parole. They are batching these. Been adjudicated, to the best of my knowledge. My guess is this is at least next week for a first batch of those folks. I dont have a number for you yet, because they are going through it as we speak. As it relates to someone with medical issues in a Halfway House, what is your call on the . Those decisions about release and where individuals would be released would be made by the emergency review committee. Including folks from the Halfway House . I believe thats correct. Thank you than peak in caseson or hospitalizations . We havent seen that, right . One month ago is when the lockdown started, on march 17 is when the first wave started. Is that having any effect on numbers, or is it still too soon . Owners are calling for selfserve gas. They sent you a letter. Do you plan on temporary lifting the ban . Nothing new to report on selfservice gas. Really are e im going to give you a couple of thoughts. I have to defer to the experts. That map shows we are making under normas difference. Overwhelmingly, people are playing ball. We will never forget that. That is how we are going to beat this. That would not be the color it is if the lockdown were not having a real impact. Testsrve and the positive are showing that. The than anecdotal, but statistical and anecdotal evidence we are hearing out of the hospital systems, there is the map. On peak, this is within our control. So far, judy and christina are looking at multiple models that have this shape to them. This is the worst case infections which lead to hospitalizations. This is the best case. Lets remember that while we are talking about really Good Progress and signs of really fair to sayt, it is it is within our hands to either keep it that way or, please god dont do this, let your guard down. If we let our guard down, you then have to reassess peak, how bad this is, worstcase versus best case, you potentially swamp the system. We are still in the war. In every war known to man, somebody got killed on the last day. So lets just stay the course. Please stay at home, keep your distance, keep us getting a map that looks lighter every time we pull it up. With that, judy will correct the record. As we look at hospitalizations, we are seeing flattening. We separate out the state into north, central, and south. We are seeing the progression i should say the transmission of the disease, moving down the state. Overall, we are seeing a flattening. That was the consensus of the group this morning that looks at these trends. We are optimistically hopeful. Cautiously. On peak . G new gas . Othing on selfserve i appreciate that. Because ive got nothing new on it. Judy, let me ask you a question. Cautiously optimistic, it is still in our control to either keep it optimistic, or dont let your guard down. When you look at the models i look at, we all look at it, we are in i would define the peak not as a day in time, but a period in time. It still feels we are in the thick of it. April is going to be our toughest period, assuming we keep doing what we are doing. May will be better. I dont know how much better. Please god, if you keep doing what youre doing. We are hoping we can have the Health Care Infrastructure in place and that we can begin to responsibly open things up. We look at three models, best case, worstcase. We expect to be very busy through april and into the beginning of may, depending on what model you look at. It is from now until may 12. That changes every day. Are cautiously optimistic and hopefully optimistic that we are leveling off. We still expect it to be high. I want to be clear so i dont write the wrong thing. We have not seen the peak in hospitalizations or cases . In the north, we have seen the peak. We have not seen it in central and south, and it is coming. Be a brokenhate to record, this is within our control. Best case versus worst, when it comes, what it looks like when it comes, it is up to us. We keep doing what we are doing, this is going in the right direction, no question about it. We let our guard down, all bets are off. So please dont let your guard down. Notow its not fun, it is fun for any of us, trust me. But it is working. Keep at it. Is there ang homes, method for the state or federal government to take over operations like places in places like andover . If operations are deemed so insufficient, can you take over a place like that . Are you considering that . Are you tracking staffing at the nursing homes, particularly nursing care . Help perspective on these nursing home numbers. Testing is not widespread in some of these places, so that might be an undercount of the positive cases, as well as many residents have dnrs and do not intubate orders in place. Would that inflate the number of deaths, given the population . Just put those numbers into perspective, especially given the numbers and total deaths in nursing homes. It was good doing the Facebook Live earlier. Thanks for having me. News,d just say the good i dont want to sound like others may have sounded in this crisis, but we have wideranging authority. In this particular case, lets leave it where we have said it, the attorney general is all over this. The feds from cms are all over it. Judys team is overrated. We will leave it at that for the time being, but our authority is significant. Tracking and staffing at s perhaps not ai robust testing regime as possible. It is undercounted on one hand. The dnr point is possible it may be inflated on the other end. Ofon the testing, almost all the longterm care facilities are doing testing. But we are counting positives and puis, assuming they are positive. Thats how we are cohoarding patients. And do track pe. We track staffing. Cohort. Weatherization thats the physical limitations in the staffing limitations. Hats how we know and we expect them to call us if they are having staffing shortages that they are not take care ofto the activities of daily living on the residents that are there feeding, bathing, changing, and making sure the basic needs are taken care of. In names andg leads from our volunteer portal. I will just say a couple of things before we break. We have talked about the national and new jersey postmortem we will have to go through. This is not helping put the fire out right now. But it is quite clear nationally and in our own state that longterm care is going to be a particular focus. Morning, article this i forget what newspaper it was with 150 nursing home patients and two members of staff on duty. This is as sobering as it gets. Both in new jersey, around the country, and around the world. Something i said on your Facebook Live session, and correct me if im wrong if you see this differently, you are in facilities to begin with, in an otherwise nine world for a age, a it is due to particular underlying condition, a disability, or some combination of things. You then add a deadly virus to this mix, meaning that it innites particular that community i have just described. To that, there are expectations of conduct by the operators of these facilities. We had this awful tragedy in october of 2018. We put in place of the requirement. Judy has done an extra ordinary job to make sure these folks have an Emergency Response plan, which they did in most, if not all cases in february. There is a code of conduct, of behavior. So you have a vulnerable population, a deadly virus. If that werent enough, you have folks who are not doing what they need to do or should be doing. Loved oneshere have and are upset about this. We dont blame you. We have the feds, the attorney general, your team and inspectors are out there. The other actors out there, they better be listening to this. We expect them to adhere to the code of conduct you have signed onto. Ofis certainly in the midst an enormous health care crisis, we expect that is a minimum standard of care, communication, etc. We dont hold this against the workers, by the way. Who can blame the workers who are sick trying to not infect others . Go in wavetrying to after wave. It is the operators, in particular, we expect a standard of care and we will not relent on that. You that, thank commissioner, judy, dr. Judy 10, our state epidemiologist, jared, the whole team. A couple of housekeeping matters, we will all put our masks on, as we do. This happened to me earlier today. I will show you what i tried to do in my office. Hy made a fool of myself in public i made a full of myself in public. We will be with you tomorrow in the same room by about 1 00 p. M. Sundays,e the past few we will communicate with you electronically unless there is a reason to be with you telephonically or in person, in which case we will make that decision. Monday, we have a white house vtc. Therefore, we will gather at 2 00 p. M. In this room on monday. Aroundbe moving things tuesday and wednesday. We are looking at potentially visiting the Atlantic City field medical station. That may impact our timing. I think we also want to look at the work that is been done not just at the field medical station, but the work done in places like newbridge or east orange, where there has been capacityp of wings and at existing health care facilities. We may be a little bit on the move next week more than the past couple. God bless you all. Keep doing what you are doing. It is working. Stay at it. Dont relent. We know its not fun, but it is working. Together as one new jersey family, we will win this war, we will beat this virus, and we will be together again. Bless you all. The coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on the congressional schedule. Steny hoyer announced that members would not be back for legislative business until monday, may 4. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell announced the same two weeks after the chamber was scheduled to return. Members have been advised that they will have sufficient notice about returning if legislation was to be considered before may 4. Watch live coverage on cspan and the senate on cspan2. Friday morning on msnbc, Chuck Schumer talked about the interim covid19 relief package saying we are having discussions. Staff, mylosis staff, and secretary mnuchin. We have had constructive talks. They are going to continue to duster the weekend and i dont see why we cannot come to any agreement. Yesterday President Trump and members of the Coronavirus Task force had a briefing on the federal governments response. The president along with sonny perdue announced a 19 billion Relief Program to assist farmers, ranchers, and consumers. Vice president pence provided an update on testing, saying that over three point 7 million tests have been conducted. Pres. Trump thank you very much. I just had a great conversation with the leading faith leaders of our country. It went extremely well. I learnelo