Staff are onsite today at peramis. With the additional staff theyve received, they are reporting that they are adequately staffed. Additionally, in conversation with the leads that are in association, they have identified a need for improved Infection Control training, improvements in the use of p. P. E. They are developing a communication plan for families that needed to be shored up. And they have noticed that the housekeeping products, they were running low on housekeeping products and they were not following specifically the c. D. C. Disinfection guidances. Additionally, they found, due to the high degree of dementia patients, that they had difficulty cohorting dementia patients that need to be in isolation. That is an issue, a problem, that we have heard from many of our dementia facilities. So theyre working on innovative ways to encourage patients that need to be in isolation to stay behind closed doors. The total census of all of the homes, the veterans homes today, is 741. 183 of those residents have tested positive. And there have been 80 residents that have died. Ho were identified as covid19 positive. Of the 1,331 Staff Members working on those sites, 98 have tested positive. There have been no deaths among the staff. One place is reporting a patient death. In terms of the live reports lab reports, according to the data from this morning, of the labs that are sending us covid19 results, 172,612 individuals have been tested. Ms. Persichilli 76,818 have returned positive, for a Positivity Rate which is pretty much holding at 44. 50 . So that completes my daily report. As always, i should say, i thank you for staying home, maintaining social distancing, staying connected, staying safe and staying healthy. Thank you. Governor murphy thank you for that and for everything. A couple of quick followups. Counties, positive cases, the same six continue to be the big ones. So in order, bergen, hudson, essex, union, poe sake and middle secretary is right behind. I made this point in our visit, pat and judy, in Bergen County today at new bridge. Bergen county, if you would have put up its fatalities of 876 lives lost, would be more than most countries in the world right now. So lets not forget the toll. By the way, essex literally has eclipsedy, just today, bergens toll. So youd say the same thing about essex. Sadly, some of the other counties up there, hudson would be not terribly far behind. Race, just to say im thrilled that im signing that bill, that will allow us its going to require the hospitals to report in with a regular rhythm, with a lot more texture on the not just race clearly, but a lot more democrat graffings demographic information. Race hand been particularly concerning to judy and me and our teams. In the sense that again, explicitly on the fatalities, the africanamerican numbers continue to run consistently 50 higher than the overall representation of the state. I think you began to give us a sense yesterday, at least on testing, that the latino numbers were meaningfully higher than the representation of the state, which started to square a little bit of that circle that we couldnt figure out between new york city and new jersey. May i just add one point to the dementia issue. My mom was like that in a nursing home. She passed sadly in 2008 and so we lived it. But youve not only got its not just the veterans home, i think you made this point, too. Its so many of these longterm care facilities. When you have a High Percentage of blessed souls challenging dementia, alzheimers, etc. , youve got that on a regular day youve got that reality. You add then to this virus, to the mix, not only do you throw gasoline on a health care fire in terms of underlying conditions, but youre operating with a lot less staff than you need because of infections of staff and or selfquarantining. So that combination is turning out sadly, tragically, to be a lethal one in a lot of the longterm care facilities. Not just the veterans homes. So thank you for everything. Pat, over to you with any p. P. E. , infrastructure, capacity updates. Thank you. Thanks. Ill start with the compliance. Overnight newark issued 29 e. O. Violations. A Police Department issued one e. O. Violation and charged somebody with obstruction. In union city, two members were cited for operating a supermarket, they had 50plus people inside the store with no social distancing. Mr. Callaghan in plainfield, subject was cited for operating a car dealership, claiming to be doing curbside auto sales, but in fact had customers inside the building. In bridgeton, a subject who was harassing citizens for money was cited for a violation and arrested and also found to be in possession of a crack pipe. Subject in blackwood was cited for four counts of burglary, had broken into four vehicles. He also was found to be wanted out of camden county. In lakewood, eight subjects were cited for using a closed school in violation of the e. O. As well as nine members in lakewood at a separate event were cited for gathering at a wedding. One other subject in lakewood was just cited for causing a disturbance while the police and Prosecutors Office was trying to conduct their investigation. In fort lee, a bias harassment charge was made against the subject who was harassing a jewish customer within the store. In mars plain, a subject was charged with aggravated attempted aggravated sexual assault, for attempting to meet an 11yearold in a park. Just one thing, and sometimes i dont recognize them enough. I had my weekly phone call with the 21 county o. E. M. Coordinators. Theres probably not a day that goes by that i dont ask them or the state doesnt ask them to do something and thats from sheltering to distributing p. P. E. To assisting with longterm care. I think now testing that were going to ask them to help us survey the metrics of those 73 sites. So i just wanted to recognize them. Because 24 hours, theres they always open up their emails and see another request coming from state o. E. M. On behalf of all of us to try and coordinate this effort. And day in and day out, all of them step up and do their job to support this effort. So i just didnt want to do to go by without mentioning them. Governor murphy thank you. Amen to that. Its a group of folks who i have met virtually, overwhelmingly until two months ago, based on bad weather. This is a group of folks that i would find myself invariably having contact either directly with them on a conference call, of which there havent been many, but some, or more often than not, through you with the war room and the rock, typically dealing with snow, ice, storms and what not. But theyve done just hats off to everybody. The word i would use to describe judys team exemplifies this, state police, the whole of government, the word would be nimble. In addition to incredibly long hours, incredible professionalism, bravely, heroism by our Health Care Workers and First Responders and other retail, longshoremen, transit operators, whatever, points at the folks at the point of attack, there were folks who were doing something over here and they find themselves theyve picked up a new side profession over there and no ones complaining. Theyre just doing it. And this group is a good example of it. They werent in the p. P. E. Acquisition or distribution business two months ago ever. And now theyre theyre up to their eye balls. So if you all could keep this these to just a shorthandful of questions, that would be a big help for us. If you dont mind. And, john, well start with you. Reporter you have made changes to the two public Testing Centers in bergen and homedale, allowing nonsymptomatic people to go there . Governor murphy we just hit that one before we went on. The answer is no. It turns out, where we wanted to or not, we need a federal h. H. S. Waiver because of fema as our partner. We may have given an impression of that, that was innocently not what the facts are. But i will repeat what i said yesterday. The entire testing regime with an eye down the road toward what it needs to look fu like for reopening is something were reviewing from top to bottom. Sorry. I meant to say it earlier. I forgot. Reporter on the Nursing Homes and the numbers that youre now giving for that. Can you talk to the families and some of the residents that see these numbers and say that they dont connect with what theyre seeing in their homes, theres some confusion there. Can you speak to what people should be taking away from these numbers . And on hospital discharges, where are the people going . Are they going home . Are they going to other facilities . Are they going to hospice . Are they going to hospice in the same Hospital Systems . Governor murphy is that it . John, bless you. Setting a great example. Do we not dan or matt, do we have a page in terms of specific to i dont mean complaints per se, but probably complaints as it relates to longterm care . Have we added that feature to the website . Were working on that . Thats one thing ive been meaning to say for a couple of days. Lets accelerate that if we could. We wanted one place for folks to be able to go to. Judy and i have talked about ,hat and we want to get that up that partly answers where i would hope folks could go. But there is judy, theres no question theres an unevenness and that would be charitable. Charitable of communication to loved ones, next of kin, about the state of play. Weve heard far too many stories, right . I called and no one picked up or i asked and didnt get an answer. Some operators are doing the right thing and playing ball. But some still are not. Its extremely not just frustrating for us, but its crushing for a loved one. Judey, please. Ms. Persichilli first, on the discharge disposition, i do not have statistics on that. Except for the ones that come to the field, medical services. But we can probably get that. Ill work with hospital association. Because every patient who leaves the hospital, discharge disposition has to go on their chart. We might be able to get that for you. Governor murphy that might include stepdown. Ms. Persichilli stepdown, skilled nursing, nursing home skilled nursing, rehab, hospice, all of the ones that you identified. So its a good question. Just have to see where we can get that information. Because it is collected. As far as the data on longterm care, what were hearing is that there was a it was a problem with addition. Positive employees were also counted with positive residents. So the number looked higher. Then there was the suggestion that that happened with the mortalities as well. We really have to sort through that because we do not have a significant reporting of employee mortalities. Thats where i have heard the issues being tina has been all over this as well. We will reconcile it. But directionally, i said it yesterday, ill say it again today, its correct. Governor murphy let me ask you, i have a friend whose sister just got out, a health care worker. Reporter she went straight home but shes got intensive physical therapy, a nurses aide. How would we characterize that . Would you characterize that as having gone home or would you characterize that as ms. Persichilli that would be a discharge with community nursing. Governor murphy because thats the case i assume ms. Persichilli i would bet most people when they recover, if they have been in i. C. U. , if they have been on a ventilator, usually need some followup care. Were looking at that pretty critically. Because the damage to the lungs more e kidneys seem to be than was originally expected. So we have checked with the Renal Dialysis Centers to make sure that they have adequate p. P. E. , to determine whether theyre seeing a significant increase in the patients that theyre seeing. And they shared with us two days ago that things are pretty cool there. They have not reported any significant uptick or issues. But were keeping a close eye on that. Governor murphy this is one thing that i know a lot of folks out there are living this. I ask my friend, how would you describe her and he said, incredibly weak. Incredibly weak. Ms. Persichilli were keeping an eye on oxygenation. Thats the lungs are getting affected. Ts a covid pneumonia. Posthospital care is going to be as important as inhospital care. Governor murphy john, your question leads to a very good point. Very few people are walking out scottfree, skipping out of the hospital, right . Youve been knicked up here. Thank you. [indiscernible] a lot of people asked questions about recoveries. There are some that are thinking the recovery number is confirmed cases versus deaths. Obviously we know thats not the case. I read the c. D. C. Definition and part of it seems to have to do with swabs. Two negative swabs after, is that part of the issue . Why were not reporting recoveries . Because we dont have enough swabs to do that . Or noul governor murphy anything else . Reporter no, thats it. Governor murphy thank you for that. Judy . R christina. The definition of recovered is a squish request squishy term in general. There sst a Case Definition for recovered. Thats something that c. D. C. Might be looking at to standardize because as the commissioner has mentioned in previous weeks, whenever we get this question, its really, you know, how exactly would you define that . Dr. Tan we have many individuals who are never hospitalized. The reference related to the swabs, relates to potential strategies to consider continuing isolation. There are two different strategies. A testbased versus a nontestbased strategy. Thats more for the purpose of releasing individuals from isolation from a health care facility. Governor murphy matt, if you could move one way or another. I want to put you on the spot. Youre a good example of this in the sense that it was youre a good example of this in the sense that it was both a number of days but also of rigor, getting two negative tests, is that fair to say . Thats correct. Governor murphy thank you for that. Good to have you back, by the way. Sir. Reporter hello. I have one from john mooney. The administration reported at the start of this that more than 100,000 students were without Necessary Technology for remote instruction. Do you have an update on that figure and, either way, what can you say with confidence about the situation in schools regarding Technology Access and concerned that concerns that large numbers of students dont have the same Educational Opportunities as their peers . Governor murphy is that it . Thank you for that. That was from john. Is john ok, by the way . Ok. Because john was here as a regular. John was here every day until we closed the schools. I havent seen him since. It occurred to me the other day. So i think we need in fairness, i need to get back to you nerms of a more datadriven answer. Dan, can you help me out there . I want to go to the department of education. So the standard answer, first of all, its very hard to bat 1,000. Anyone who is a kid right now who is remote learn something living that. Learning is living that. It also terms on the grade the kid is in. But the standard concern that we had, that we spoke, to again, remember, Food Security was a big one. Secondly was access to devices per johns question. And so there was a paperheavy answer to that in the districts where we had a disproportionate amount of kids who didnt have access to devices. And i know it was raised in trenton. At least early days. There was uneven innocence that respect. Unevenness in that respect. The answer to that was preprinting packages. I think they said 30e6r days, as i recall. Preprinting to get these packages to the kids. Thats the generic answer. Thats the hopefor answer, that thats working. I think for the most part it is. But if you could bear with us or tell john to bear with us, well have someone give you an update on that. Down in the ront here. Reporter could you clarify for us the two fema sites not now testing asymptomatic people, but is that the plan . Do you feel that is important . You mentioned for the first time yesterday, i believe, that we will need to test asymptomatic people and that is part of the whole relook at the testing. How significant is that . Beyond the reopening which everybody is excited about that idea and we know its weeks away, but could you talk a little more about the spikes in the future, because that obviously is concern even beyond the reopening and will we continue to maintain the Field Hospitals . What kind of future do you envision . And then on the comments by Mitch Mcconnell, how do you really feel, governor . Any further comments that you would like to make with regard to the president s position on this and why you feel its unamerican to take the kind of position apparently that senator mcconnell is taking. Governor murphy is that it. If i get this wrong im going to have you answer the Mitch Mcconnell question, judy. I have no words. Governor murphy the two fema sites by direction from h. H. S. Are for symptomatic folks. And that is a fact. And i think we need to get a waiver if we pursue that otherwise. I think and that will continue to be the case. The number and christina can give you how she analyzes the overwhelming number of tests which is why the positives, which has stabilized and went down a couple of a tenths of a percent, overwhelming of ea symptomatic people. T has to stay symptomatic. They have a strong edict that ea symptomatic folks have to step aside and let symptomatic folks get tested and we are supportive of that. And christina will need to correct the record, we have to be able to test a broader population, not just symptomatic folks and it needs to be a rapid return test. It is two dimensions. Not just the amount of tests you are doing but getting back a lot faster than historically we have been able to get them back, not just in new jersey but anywhere in the country and i will let christina and judy come in on that. Spikes ill let the science should be the guide, but that relates to a Field Hospital question. As i mentioned earlier, even if we bat 1,000 based on everything i have been told and looked at, the chances are highly likely this comes back again. What are we going to do to make sure we are prepared for that and having the capacity of veapts for todays news and pat, thank you for the lift there hospital beds and getting h. H. S. To grant us the money to keep it fresh, whether it is a field medical situation. T may be hard to keep javits and the meadowlands if you have an economy getting back on its feet. But you can do that at east orange general, which is a singlepurpose health care facility. Ill let the experts come in. But our hope is, a, we dont need this capacity in the near term, although we have it if we do need it, but we have it for the medium or longer term. I dont think i called him unamerican. I take it back. I dont think i called that. That is completely irresponse i will and not how it will play out. What i have said is and by the way, im not on the ballot this year but a lot of people are including him, you are not only going to leave people on the street with no services but probably double unemployment in the country. The only reason unemployment isnt double what it is because we need government more than ever before, this just in for a little headline. Look at the people laying it out every day. State police. They couldnt be working harder. Department of labor trying to field all these unemployment claims requests just to pick several examples. In addition to leaving people in the lurch, you are going to double unemployment. Im probably about right for that. The last thing we should be doing is leaving states in the lunch. The good news again he tweeted this yesterday and i take him on his word ap i had a private confirmation, not with me, although i raised it with the president as well and he didnt say no to it, is i believe the president is in a better place on this. And he has to be because its not optional. The states if we are going to continue to serve folks who are unemployed, Small Businesses that are bust, folks that are sick or god forbid dying, there is no other way around it. The federal government has to give us the wherewithal for us to continue to do that. On the nonmcconnellrelated stuff. The fema stuff, spikes in the future, testinga symptomatic folks, christina, et cetera. As we have been saying for the last four weeks, there has been limitations with thea symptomatic testing because of the issue of potentially not capturing an individual when they might be intubating. With that sad, we are thinking about where opportunities where testing might be valuable in expanded settings. The efforts with the longterm care facilities in the south. Might represent an opportunity where testing results especially in those less impacted facilities might make a difference because ultimately, it ties back everyone is focused on the testing but what you do with the information so you can take action on it. And that is the approach we are taking. Down in south is also from a National Level that many other less impacted areas, less impacted longterm care facilities opportunities arise. As far as spikes in illness are concerned, we tend to look at trends and dont look at daytoday because we recognize there could be some dramatic artifcacts in the daytoday data. There mate be a weekend or holiday that might delay some reporting. In onitor just in general normal times. In precovid times we would monitor that to make sure we have an understanding of what that baseline is and we would expect to continue to do that moving forward in the future as well. Governor murphy i still want to , d the page that covid19 longterm care facility omplaints go on nj. Gov health. Thats our basic Health Website hotline. Alth that will still be available even if we do add a page here but i would like to add a page herement. Elise. O to reporter speaking of unemployment, all of my questions are related to the unemployment system. Can you update us on claims processing . Have there been improvements to the bottlenext, have you hired programmers . Do you have any idea how many claims are waiting to be processed . A reader sent me a question about the pandemic assistance for independent contractors. He applied on march 29 and he hasnt received payment yet and is there any particular tieup with that program . And thats it. Governor murphy we have to come back with you on this. But there has been improvement. If you are still on the phone and cant get through or log on and cant get in and you are frustrated, i dont blame you. Just because the general numbers are better, but they are better, no question about it. Either in this forum or the leadership meeting, matt, i recall a couple of things. 60 of the claims as of monday and hope to be at 80 by friday. Thart. Programmers, i believe they have augmented their team, but ill confirm that with you. Numbers waiting to be processed, i dont have that number, but thats whether 60 versus 80. And we heard explicitly yesterday that independent contractors and im not sure i understand why and well get you an answer is a particular challenge. And i dont have a good answer why it is. Malt, do you have any call on that . Well get you the answer. Im not sure i understand why but that is a particular challenge for the system as opposed to the broader issue. You make sure we come back to it . Reporter so leader mcconnell tweeted going back, im proud of Congress Agreement but they shut down for partisan for leverage that never materialized there is back and forth from democrats and republicans and i wanted reaction. Are you committed to working with him on any legislation or anything Going Forward after you made those comments . And what is his reaction to you is negative in terms of what you said in this briefing . Thanks so much. Governor murphy hard to know hey could get more negative. This assymetry in my appetite. If he is implying he wants to bankrupt states, we are constantly open and i said this today and i said it yesterday, look at senator men nen did he dezz hooking up with senator cassidy from louisiana. My guess is its not every day. Its a big step and big statement. And i think most folks have said responsible things and left their partisan affiliations at the door which is why i said i would be saying it about his statement whether he was a democrat, republican, a martian or communist. It is responsible and its wrong. Would i be willing to work with him . 500 billion direct state assistance from the states measured in the formulas. Make sure new jersey gets its fair share and work with him 24 7 to get that passed and signed by the president. Thank you. Reporter we continue to hear from nursing homeworkers and administrators and the state data released on the numbers who died or tested positive does not present an accurate picture. While the commissioner addressed it briefly does the commissioner know why twhrr soap discrepancies in the reporting and curious if you are separately counting Staff Members who tested positive for covid. And wonder if we have an update on the number of Police Officers who tested positive and those in selfisolation. Governor murphy on the first question, we have been pretty clear that the numbers are direction neal accurate even ough there may be some discrepancy. There is an indication that employees that have tested positive and residents that tested positive that that number was combined. So then we asked the same question about deaths. But we have not it has not been reported to us that we have had an overwhelming number or one death from the longterm care employees. That doesnt mean there wasnt any, it means i have not gotten a report of that. I cant imagine that it would skew the reports significantly. They are comparing them with the death certificatetive indicates and trying to get confirmation generally on deaths. Dr. Tan we hope we will be implementing a new type of survey. Again just to reiterate the survey. These are data points we get from the facilities of the local Health Departments get. It is based on what we get. We are going to try a separate strategy to get that information. Governor murphy i dont want to overstate this. People will think we got up on the wrong side of the bed here, but it long time for these operators to put forward the information that we loved ones and others, media, to your credit, have been asking to do that. And secondly, we believe the numbers are overwhelmingly direction neal accurate even though there may be several discrepancies. I forget your second piece. Maybe that was it. We got it, judy . 701 Law Enforcement statewide tested positive and as of this morning, 871 are out statewide quarantine. Governor murphy thank you, commissioner. Dr. Tan, thank you for everything you are doing. Colonel. Jared, matt, great to have you back. As of the moment, there is at least not one that we know of in erms of a white house v. T. C. Tomorrow. We are back together at 1 00 p. M. Tomorrow, is that accurate . And if that changes, well let you know. Not only do i thank you for your patience and coming out every day, i would say to everybody out there, we have clearly come an he normous distance. We are clearly headed in the right direction. Everything overwhelmingly tells us that. But with the same level of conviction and judy will correct me, we are not there yet. We are not there yet. Just because hospitalizations have stabilized and our ventilators have stabilized, we are not there yet. That werent enough to lose 314r blessed souls of our state, is a sobering reminder even when we see those curves start to come down, some folks were infected weeks ago who were losing their lives. Please, god, keep every one of those precious lives, friends and communities in your prayers. Keep doing the right things. Wear your masks. Stay home. Stay away from each other, wash your hands with soap. Keep the faith. Thats important. This is the fight of our lives. Keep the faith. We will win the fight. Not without casualties. But we will get through this. Assuming all nine million will get through this, we will stand together like never before. God bless you all. Ee you tomorrow. Captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and it is all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And world with interactive maps. Atch on demand any time at cspan. Org coronavirus. President trump will hold a briefing with the reporters at the white house. He is expected to be joined by Vice President mike pence and members of his task force. You can watch the president s comments live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Washington journal, prime time, a special evening edition on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our guests, former Republican Senate majority leader, a cochair of the Health Project joins us to discuss Public Health policy and the covid19 pandemic. And van deer built william shatner, professor of Infectious Diseases and Public Health policy. Join the conversation tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. The president s from public ranked by ourts