Has the 10th lowest claims per force in our country. N saturday, we launched the pandemic unemployment assistance program. 50,000 virginians have50,000 vie successfully filed under that program and they should see benefits by the end of next week. While i understand many people frustrated by website difficulties and wait times, one. Nia has been most innovative states in amping up the ability to respond in the sudden large increase of people filing for unemployment. Worked with microsoft and Virginia Interactive to launch a portal with mobile and texting capabilities and v. E. C. Has been a National Leader in helping virginians receive these as possible. Uickly many have already begun checks. G their as i said, having half a million eople unemployed is very unfortunate and so i want to talk about how were planning to move virginia forward. I know everyone is eager to move forward. I know that i am. Extended the ban on elective surgeries through may 1 closure of d. M. V. Offices through may 11. While these steps because we are working toward a time ease some of these were not yet. Were moving that direction. To talk how to ease restrictions. And especially for the hearing impaired, we words that e describe these slides in full etail for you after our presentation. First, i want to talk about why then well talk about where were going tomorrow. Since the beginning of this situation, we have taken action. Ve e closed schools, restricted businesses and directed people to stay at home. And thethat this worked sacrifices of virginians are delivering results. Slowed the have spread of this virus. Our hospitals have not been according to at east one model, we may have seen our case count peak today. But we mustis true, continue to work to keep counts low. To watch the data. Our daily case numbers are still rising, as can see from this line looking at the blue on the top. But our growth rate is slowly. We see that our case count was three ly doubling every days, now its taking nine days to double. Growth rate is slower. Hospitalization rates remain flat. The yellow line at the top is beds available. The orange line shows that those hospitalized with covid19 remain flat. News is that 1,600 1,600 patients with covid19 in virginia have been successfully and discharged. Pipeline is. Flowing. We also have ordered three large decontamination systems to commonwealth the masks. Ed that can clean well keep buying p. P. E. Until businesses in virginia will how to manufacture it. We will keep doing what were doing and we need to plan for next phase. Our metrics for phase one is very clear. To see the percentage a number e tests and of hospitalizations both tracked 14 days. Over we need to make sure we have capacity in our hospital beds and intensive care units sustain our o p. P. E. Supply. We will get back to work by increasing our testing. Tracing the contacts of people who test positive and notating these individuals, everyone in virginia, that is the key to moving forward. Going to step aside for just dr. Kevin d let garnett explain how were going to wrap up testing. Testing task our force. So as we washing, the most first, t thing to say testing is driven by in terms of and trategy, the Governor Public Health leaders behind me decide where were going to test test. Ow were going to what this is looking at the different steps we need to take. We have moved from step one into step two. Any of you who have followed the numbers know we have done 4,000 tests a day in the last days. Were moving fromming just prior one group to expanding to people who are high means with people disease, pregnant woman and the uninsured and underinsured. Looking forspake ways to test. E move to the third group, we continue to look at innovative differentt testing to committees, lark scale testing of the work of the Health Department as they do northam talked disease in. The the rough statements, we can make this happen. Four, were able to do large scale testing across the state. At will include looking e who are asystem asymptomatic. Amount of disease to identify and isolate. It back i will turn over. Moving forward, we will maintain the strategy, ospitals, providers, medical volunteers and front line workers have the p. P. E. They safe and well monitor our use of ventilators, i. C. U. Beds and medical staffing. When we see these metrics ive just outlined, fewer positive cases, more testing and tracing, more ppe, and steady use of hospital beds, then we can move to phase one of easing these restrictions. Phase one will still have heightened restrictions in place. Social distancing, for example, will continue. Teleworking will be encouraged and will also continue. We will still recommend face coverings in the public. For business to resume, both customers and employees must feel safe. To create our forward virginia blueprint for phase one, we have been meeting with stakeholders, local governments, and business leaders. We have put together a small work group of representatives from businesses, large and small, in every corner of our state. It includes barbershops, theaters, hotels, and campgrounds. Were talking to manufacturers, like volvo trucks, restaurants like mama js, right here in richmond, and Entertainment Venues like Kings Dominion and the barter theatre. Faith leaders will also be part of our work group. We want them to tell us, what is the right way to ease restrictions . What will that look like on the ground . What is practical in real life, and what is not . We will use their input, as well as input from dozens of zoom meetings weve had with local government officials, business associations, hospitals, and health associations, and other groups, to develop two sets of guidance. Well have overarching rules for our businesses, as well as industry specific guidance for sectors like restaurants and nonessential retail. This will help make sure that everyone knows the rules of how they must operate when it is safe to do so. As we go forward, we will fill in the details of the phase one blueprint and develop plans for phases two and three. I am as eager as anyone to move into the time where we can ease some of these restrictions. But we must do so in a safe manner, one that seeks to avoid causing a spike in cases or a surge our hospitals cannot handle. In cases or a surge our hospitals cannot handle. As ive said before, we cannot and will not lift restrictions, the way switch. On a light we will do it responsibly and deliberately, and it has to be grounded in data. We will move forward, but in a way that prioritizes Public Health and creates public confidence. Easing too much too soon could jeopardize Public Health and consumer confidence. One step forward and two steps back is no way to move ahead. We will need everyone to continue taking actions to keep themselves and others safe. When you cover your face in public, or stay six feet away from others, you arent just protecting yourself, youre protecting other people. And that is the most important part of these efforts. None of us is in this alone. All of our decisions impact other people, other virginiaans. I continue to be grateful to our medical professionals, our frontline workers from hospitals to grocery stores, and everyone in virginia who is staying home and making sacrifices to help us get through this together. As you have heard me say many times, we are in the middle of a Health Crisis as well as an economic crisis. And as soon as we, together, can get this Health Crisis under control, as soon as we can put this Health Crisis behind us, we will be able to get our economy up and running again. So i thank all of you for your cooperation. Now, well hear from Virginia Health commissioner, dr. Norm oliver. And then we will be glad to take questions. Dr. Oliver, welcome. Dr. Norm oliveer thank you, governor. Good afternoon, just an update on the cases that we have of covid19 in the commonwealth. As of the last reporting period, e now have 11,594 cases. That represents 596 new cases in the last reporting period. We have a total number of deaths of 410. That is an increase of 38. I have been giving, periodically, some numbers on the breakdown for race in these cases. And i have to apologize for the fact that i hadnt been breaking it down by ethnicity. Well start doing that in the coming weeks, beginning on monday. And then we will also include that, race and ethnicity breakdown, on our website. Overall, the numbers still are tracking about the same, with africanamerican cases numbering about 28 . 28 . And so around among the latinx population, the deaths are numbering at 5 , and the cases are numbering at 26 . Thank you. Gov. Northam thanks, dr. Oliver. Ill be glad to take your questions. Speaker 1 hi, governor. Do you have any idea of when you think you might be able to get to that benchmark of 10,000 tests per day, in order to reopen the economy in the state . Gov. Northam well, i think, as dr. Remley explained, the answer to your question, we dont have an exact date, but 10,000 is certainly our goal. Were doing this in a stepwise fashion as fast as we can. But just to kind of go back in istory, six weeks ago we had our first case in virginia, it was on march 7th. And at that time, the testing that we were doing in virginia was sent to atlanta, to cdc. And so that process has evolved to include our state lab here in virginia, vcu, uva had developed testing, private labs, to include labcorp and quest, and then, finally, the hospitals, the healthcare systems, themselves. And so weve gone from just a few tests capability, to now, where were testing 2,000 to 3,000. Today weve tested over 4,000. Again, thats taken six weeks to get to where we are today. I dont expect it to take another six weeks. Really wonderful work is going on, dr. Remley has been organizing, kind of collaborating. And, i guess, one of the challenges that weve had was supplies, obviously, and were oing better with our supplies. But the other challenge, quite frankly, was that the tests were so cumbersome that a lot of providers in virginia were just choosing not to do it. So, we wrote a letter to our providers and have encouraged them. Rather than the last mile, its really the first mile, getting the patient, having the testing availability there, and getting our providers to do that test. Nd so availability there and getting our providers to do that test and so i would hope again that this will be ramped up in the next couple of weeks, but as far as an exact date of 10,000, i dont have that. But as soon as we can get there, we will. Kate yeah. Following up on that governor, dr. Remley, when you say that the tests were too cumbersome, the doctors werent doing that, what exactly does that mean and has the state pinpointed any other reasons why testing isnt at the level that wed like . Gov. Northam yeah, kate, when i say cumbersome one, not having the supplies in your office. Doctors obviously just like everybody, theyre very busy. So in order to get a test kit in their office was difficult, thats become a lot easier, a lot more efficient now. The other, when i say cumbersome, the other drawback was as you remember when we were talking about this earlier, some of the results were taking five, seven, nine days in order to get those results back. And so again, its kind of like, well if i dont know if im going to even get the test results back for nine days, why do the test. And so now its become much more efficient. The turnaround time is much shorter. And i think what youll see as we have collaborated with the labs, with the supply chains, with the providers that the testing will get up and running in a much more efficient manner. Kate and whats the capability at the state lab currently . Is the plan to build capacity hrough relying on more private labs or through boosting capacity at the state lab . Gov. Northam kate, i dont have the exact answer but i have someone that may be able to help us out. So dr. Tony, thank you. Dr. Tony so the question was what is the capacity at the state lab . And we have definitely increased our Testing Capacity and we are now able to test in the range of four to 500 tests a day. But we are also working in collaboration with hospital laboratories, both uva, vcu and Virginia Tech and trying to coordinate our efforts to expand testing across the commonwealth so that as dr. Remley mentioned, we can meet that benchmark of 10,000 tests across the commonwealth. But that will also include some of the private commercial laboratories as well. Gov. Northam and dr. Remley is going to expand on some of the comments i made as well, dr. Remley. R. Remley so i think whats really important is the Clinical Community has done exactly what theyve been asked to do. Theyre continuing to see patients by telemedicine. Theyre trying to decrease the amount of patients who come into their office. But the other thing to remember is the Gold Standard first test with something we call a nasal pharyngeal swab. And you probably have heard people talk about it. Its a skinny little swab that goes all the way back in your nose. If youre a pediatric er doctor like me or a pediatrician, you do them every winter when kids are sick for rsv, respiratory syncytial virus. If youre a cardiologist, you may have never done that before. So we are involved in a very collaborative but very aggressive turn time to really make sure all of our clinicians understand how to do this safely, how to do it accurately, and to be able to use the private labs that are out there to get these tests done out in the community. Speaker 2 hi, my question is for governor northam, so youve talked about coordinating with maryland and dc about when to llow for nonessential businesses to reopen. Theres much of virginia is not experiencing the same infection rates as Northern Virginia. Would you consider lifting restrictions earlier in other regions of the state and what factors play into making that decision . Gov. Northam the question is that some, obviously some parts of our commonwealth are more dense than others. Theyve had larger numbers of positive tests, larger numbers of hospitalizations, but weve seen spotty cases throughout irginia. And so the question was do we plan on opening up some parts of virginia before others . And i have really as best i can try to be consistent and doing this as the name of our virginia is a commonwealth. So our plans to date as of today are to not open up one region before the other. Gov. Northam what wed really like to see, ive given the guidelines of when we plan to ease these restrictions, we are hopeful that we have hit our peak. As you know, businesses have been asked to close through may the 8th, which is two weeks by the way from today. Hospitals will be allowed to do elective surgeries a week from the day, which is may the 1st. If our numbers will continue, if we can get a little bit of help out there with our numbers, i would really like to see us be able to go into to phase one as soon as may the 8th, but certainly no sooner than that. Speaker 3 yes, thank you. Governor northam, candidates running in municipal elections in november are currently being forced to either go out and get voter signatures during the stay at home order to meet that may 9th deadline, june 9th deadline, excuse me. Other states have extended filing deadlines or move to allowing electronic signatures and i just want to know if your administration has any plans to ddress the issue of qualifying for the ballot during the stay at home order . Gov. Northam thats a good question. Im going to let our secretary of administration, secretary conner answer that. Hanks. Secretary conner yes, thank you for the question. We are aware that candidates who are running for the November Ballot as an independent have a june 9th deadline to turn in all of their petitions as well as their declaration of candidacy. We are exploring a number of options. Unfortunately, we do not have the Technology Today to allow for electronic petition signatures. We are hoping that as some restrictions are lifted that candidates will be able to meet that deadline. I will also say that some candidates have sought relief from the courts to lower the number of petitions that they have to submit and that is also always an option for candidates to pursue. Gov. Northam thank you. Speaker 4 virginias gop sent out a letter today asking for you to reconsider your decision, particularly surrounding some of these nonessential businesses as were calling them. Obviously were seeing some states move forward without the data matching as far as this 14 day decline. So can you speak a little bit more to that decision and why youre so adamant about those numbers matching up before you progress forward . Gov. Northam so i believe the question was that some individuals in virginia have sent a letter, is that speaker 4 yeah, the gop. Gov. Northam or put out a statement that we should look at easing the restrictions outside of the guidelines that we have presented. Is that speaker 4 surrounding nonessential businesses specifically. Gov. Northam well, the first thing i would say is that the guidelines that were using come from the cdc and they were announced by our president a week ago yesterday. And so while there have been some mixed messages coming out of washington, that is a message that i think the governors across our country have tried to abide by. Bviously nothing is written in stone, but we have really been trying to make our decisions with data and following the science. And the cdc i think is a good source of guidelines. And so the guidelines that i have outlined today that weve been talking about every day for that matter, come from the cdc and well continue to follow those. Speaker 5 thank you very much governor. Prior to the suspension of the utility cutoffs, there were many people, especially in our area and in the lower income communities who had previously had their Water Services shut down prior to the suspension and they were working on trying to get them reinstated when everything happened and they are finding themselves without water and some of the other utilities. And without the water, theyre unable to follow some of the cdc protocols, such things as washing their hands. Is there anything the state can do to work with some of the more local utilities like water and sewer to make sure that these people who are working to try to get the access. Speaker 6 to making sure that these people who are working to try to get the access turned back on will have that access during the crisis . Gov. Northam if i heard the question correctly, it sounded like some folks have had their utilities, their water turned off. And i regret that being the ase. I dont have any reason to doubt what youre saying. But i would say that, if there are families out there that are having those difficulties, please direct them to our website. And we will do everything that we can, not only to help the families but also to deal or discuss this with the utilities and forgive them for not being able to pay their bills during this difficult time. So, please refer those to our office. And well do everything that we can to remedy the situation. Elaine henry. Henry governor, what are businesses saying about phase one guidelines and if theyre going to be able to actually meet those guidelines when we do get back to reopening . Gov. Northam thats a great question. Angela, do you want to talk . Angela navarro has been communicating with our businesses on a daily basis. Thank you. Angela navarro so, angela navarro, deputy secretary of ommerce and trade. Your question is, what has the Business Response been relative to Guideline Development . So, were working with businesses, both through the Business Task force that the governor announced earlier today, as well as with Business Community members outside of that task force. Were really seeking their guidance and their recommendations as were developing these guidelines. Were, of course, working with the Virginia Department of ealth. And all of the guidelines are really focused on ensuring Public Health and security of individuals as they enter the workforce and as they go into these public facing businesses. Weve had a really strong and positive response from businesses. They want consistency and they want clarity from government as were putting out these guidelines. And thats what were hoping to provide in developing this process is that consistency and that clarity. Thank you. Gov. Northam and henry, just to follow up on that, as ive mentioned earlier in my comments, this recovery, this economic recovery is really going to be driven by our businesses and by our consumers. And so, this is the reason weve reached out to businesses. Because they have to be in a position, whether it be a barbershop or a hospital, to make sure that the consumers are comfortable coming back into their place of business. And so, i say, theyve really, i think, been creative and innovative and certainly part of the solution. And weve really been pleased by the response so far. Elaine the next question will be from mike murillo of wtop. Mike murillo governor, thank you so much for taking my question. I know youve touched on this a bit, but with many virginians, frequent commuters into d. C. And maryland, how might the decision to ease restrictions in the Northern Virginia region be impacted by whats happening in maryland and d. C. . Could a lot of case activity, say in maryland or in d. C. , potentially delay an easing of restrictions in the Northern Virginia area . Gov. Northam the question, i think, deals with the consistency, as we move forward with easing these restrictions. And im in frequent communication with the mayor of washington and the governor of aryland. Were neighbors, especially in the Northern Virginia area, just separated literally by the potomac river. And while its not going to be an exact easing of guidelines, we are doing everything that we can to Work Together to be as consistent so that we will decrease any confusion moving forward. So again, every state, every city has a little bit of a different situation. And thats certainly the case between maryland, virginia, and washington. But, as best we can, were going to try to be consistent as we move forward. Speaker 7 can you talk more about Contact Tracing and what the states goals are for that . I know its a pretty labor intensive effort. I also know that dr. Carrie has talked about the use of maybe phone apps or Something Like that to track people and their risk. Can you expand on what the state is planning for tracing . Gov. Northam does one of you want to say . Speaker 8 yeah. I think dr. Oliver first. Dr. Oliver the question was to please expand upon Contact Tracing and how we propose to do that as we step up to prepare for phase one and going into phase one of recovery. As you pointed out, Contact Tracing is a very labor intensive thing. For every one person who has covid19, you have to track down all the people that theyve come into contact with. We understand that, as we begin to move toward decreasing social distancing, we will have to increase our ability to do Contact Tracing because the cases will start to rise again. And we want to try to contain that as best we can. So part of what were doing is not only ramping up on our testing capabilities, but looking to ramp up our medical workforce, utilizing our medical reserve corps, utilizing furloughed and under utilized healthcare workers through Hospital Systems and private practices, and other volunteers as well. We also are looking at a number of apps to help us in that process. I would point out that, even with those apps, however we will still need that expanded workforce. There will be other work that will require human intervention. And we wont be able to just do it all electronically. Speaker 7 are there any specific applications or companies that are doing this work that youre looking at that you can tell us about today . Dr. Oliver the question is, are there any specific applications . Were looking at a number. Theres none that weve particularly latched onto at his point. Ut there are several interesting possibilities. And many of you probably already know about google and apple working on something that supposedly will be ready sometime in may. Elaine were going to do one more on the phone, and then gov. Northam elaine, were going to have speaker 8 ill simply add to dr. Olivers answers that we are, even this afternoon, after this is a briefing with apple to see what progress theyve made and where that application may be able to fit into the plans that dr. Oliver, dr. Forlano, and dr. Peake can use as they expand that capability. That is human but also with tools. So, that is obviously an emerging field. And were looking broadly to see what are the right tools for virginia. Elaine on the line, david mcgee with the Bristol Herald courier. David mcgee yes. Thank you. Governor, you emphasize absentee voting in your remarks on the election. I just wonder if your order is going to extend the deadline for absentee voting since youre extending the lection . Gov. Northam you want to ddress that . Speaker 9 yes. So, the question is, will the deadline for absentee voting be extended due to the governor postponing the election . And the answer is yes. So, the last day to request an absentee ballot is may 12. And then, the last day to return an absentee ballot is 7 00 p. M. On election day, may 19. Laine laura [inaudible] laura governor. [inaudible] gov. Northam maybe you want to address that. Laura, i was going to give it a try, but im going to let no, no, no. Im going to let dr. Forlano, im going to take off my doctors hat and let a real doctor address it. Dr. Forlano hi, thanks for the question. The question is, is it expected that were seeing case counts continued to rise right now . Is that right . Yeah. O, i think that is expected, particularly as we increase Testing Capacity. Obviously, well detect more cases and those cases will be counted. I think some of the phase recommendations you saw today point to positivity. So, what proportion of tests are positive . So, thats another important measure to look at. Thanks. Elaine great. Gov. Northam well, just in closing, a couple of comments i wanted to offer, and i ppreciate your alls patience. He work that is being done right now to obtain more ppe, to do everything that we can with the guidelines, to flatten the urve, to increase our headlines to flatten the curve, to increase our ability to do more testing across the commonwealth of virginia, is really done now in an attempt to be able to open up our economy and get back to where we were prior to this. And as i answered a little bit earlier to one of the questions, this recovery is going to be business and consumerdriven. And perhaps its not a good analogy or comparison, but we all remember what happened back in 9 11. And after that time, americans were fearful of getting on an airplane and flying, understandably so. So a lot of modifications were made. And in time, people again became comfortable and we got back to as near normal as we could. Thats really what were doing now with all of our efforts. We want to make sure that our businesses are doing everything that they can. And thats why we established this work group to let our consumers, whether again and whether its a barber shop or a Hardware Store or the hospital, we want to make sure that the consumers feel safe and comfortable that when they come into that place of business, theyre safe. And so theres a lot of effort thats going into really working out how we can make that recovery is as efficient and as effective as we can. I wanted to take this opportunity, i know were all going into the weekend, but i wanted to again thank some people because a thank you goes a long way. And to the press, to all the journalists, all the networks that faithfully come to all of our press conferences and write about this on a daily basis, or our broadcast and really work to make sure that virginians are getting accurate and updated information, i say thanks to all of you. To those individuals that are working in our hospitals, in our nursing homes, in our grocery stores, our First Responders, our Law Enforcement agents that literally are working around the clock to keep virginians safe. On behalf of virginia, i sincerely say thank you for all of your dedication and work. And then finally you have heard and seen some very talented people that stand with me every day, and there are a lot that work behind the scenes. And i just want to let you know how hard theyre working seven days a week. A lot of them are working through the night to make sure that we as virginians can recover from this. And so on behalf of the commonwealth of virginia, to all of them, i say thank you. They are what make me proud as a virginian, and hopefully you proud as well. So as i said, a thank you goes a long way. So if you see a First Responder or someone whos working in the hospital or one of our cabinet secretaries or our staffers, just please tell them thank you. And to all of you, its friday. Thats a good thing. I hope you all get some rest this weekend. Have a safe and peaceful weekend, and we look forward to being back with you on monday. Thank you all so much