I am joined by Health Commissioner judy. To the right, dr. Ed lifshitz. Great to have you both. To my left, the superintendent of the state police. The director of the office of Homeland Security and preparedness is in the house, and i suspect he will be joined by chief counsel plotkin at some point. Update, late yesterday afternoon, i received a call from eric hagen, the deputy secretary of the u. S. Department of health and humans services. He informed me that of the 395 hospitals hardest hit nationally by covid19 and which collectively will share 12 billion under the latest distribution of federal funds, 53 of those hospitals are in new jersey. Altogether, these 53 hospitals will be receiving 1. 7 billion directly from the federal government. That is the second largest amount of funding awarded only behind new york. This funding will be deposited automatically, no further paperwork required, with the hospitals in the middle of this upcoming week. Getting more critical Financial Aid to our hospitals and health systems, no one knows this more than judy, to support our Frontline Health care workers has been a constant and central part of our ongoing dialogue with our federal partners. As legislation was being negotiated, we continued to make the case and demanded at the highest levels that the breakdown of funds be needbased and that new jersey receive its fair share. I am incredibly satisfied to see this need being fulfilled, and i thank president trump, secretary azar, and there seems, and i think as well our delegation further efforts. Many of our hospitals have taken , quite simply, a financial beating over the past two months, in addition to the general beating they have taken, as all of their resources have been focused on getting their staffs, everything they need, to be protected and everything covid19. We cannot afford to lose one hospital or frankly even one nurse or doctor from one hospital. This federal funding will certainly help our Health Care Systems remain on a Firm Financial standing, and we will work closely with them to understand how these funds are being used to advance access and treatment for residents. Access is a big deal for us, and we are learning about the hard way through this crisis. Ensuring the health of our Health Care Systems is critical to our getting ourselves on the road back. When we look at metrics, we need to fall in line for us to restart and recover the health of our hospitals, one of the most vital. That is not just about bed capacity or ppe stocks, although it is about that. It is also about the ability of our hospitals to stay open, be fully staffed, and provide the levels of care that we will need for the covid19 cases we know will come as we begin to reopen our economy, our society, our businesses. This 1. 7 billion dollars will certainly help ensure that our entire Health Care System is itself healthy to join us on the road back, and again, i think our federal partners for hearing us on this critical need and for delivery. Now to the latest information on our battle against covid19, we are announcing an additional 2912 positive state results right total of 123,717. They are starting to rise again, but we need to remember we do not have a complete picture of the denominator. Lets go back. Lets remember. These are folks that have been tested, as judy and ed know far better than i, that is a proxy for the folks who may be better affected or the denominator, but it is not the denominator. As we have gone from zero capability to test to having among the most robust testing of any state in america, part of it is due to infection. Certainly another part of an uptick like this is due to the fact that we simply have a lot more access to testing. We can hit the map now. This county map of new jersey continues to get lighter and lighter as the rights of the doubling of new cases continues to slow, and again, our hope is we get as many counties frankly, we want all counties, and that 30 plus day lighter shade. However, we will be watching these start of the coming days to see if the reopening of our parks was successful. The reports from the park personnel, state police, and local police on the ground will be a big determinant of compliance as it relates to social distancing. I dont want to get too far ahead of my skis, but the reports back from these early preliminary anecdotal, so far, so good. But these numbers will also tell a significant story. If we hear more reports of knucklehead behavior at our parks and we see the metrics we need to meet being met over the next couple of days and weeks, then we know that you all have taken to heart your responsibility, continue to take to heart, i might add. You have done and extort an area job so far in helping us mitigate this pandemic. Frankly, knowing new jerseyans, this is what we should expect. We are smart. We have all followed best practices, and together, we are flattening the curves, and we are making progress. But, and i hate to keep saying but, if we hear reports of people either taking not their health or the health of other part lowers park goers seriously, we will not hesitate to close them again. And if those reports are followed by spikes in the numbers of new cases and increases in the spread of covid19 over the next couple of weeks, then the action would be justified. I certainly hope it is the first of these two scenarios. I want everyone to enjoy the six ordinary week. The weather is unbelievable. But enjoy it responsible. I know we can to we will be able to move forward. Our Health Care System, as of last nights nights reporting, hospitalizations continue to drop significantly, with 5713 patients, unless you correct me, currently hospitalized for covid19. That is a drop of more than 1000 patients in one week. And across every region of the state, you can see north, central, and south, we continue to see progress with each reporting drops in the number of hospitalizations. Yesterday, you could see the south in, blue had been trending up, has begun to flatten. That is on top of the con downs we have seen come downs we have seen. 51 patients and have treated a total of 393 of our fellow new jerseyans. Stay on that for a second. Letter member, those field medical stations are not just there for this week or last week or next week, but in the likelihood, that this virus comes back and bites us, heavy capacities of beds, ppes, ventilators, Health Care Workers will be very important, and that is something we look for to working with our federal partners on. There were 1715 patients reported in either critical or intensive care, and that has also trended overall downward. Not quite the same steepness of reduction, but a reduction. Ventilator use stands at 1230, and that is a decrease from yesterday. There were 370 eight new hospitalizations yesterday. That is the lowest oneday count since last weekend. And on discharges, 525 live patients were released from our hospitals yesterday, and that is the sort of trend, gap you want to see. All of the important metrics in our hospitals continue to show positive trends. We need to keep seeing these lines moving positive directions before we can put new jersey on the road back and before we are able to responsibly restart our economy. Remember, we are operating under two very simple ideasls. First, Public Health creates economic health. You can have the confidence that you need as it begins. Second, data determines dates. That means as we discussed as we see the numbers unfold, we can see a better idea of a specific timetable for our restart and again, this can never and must never be only about numbers. These are precious lives we have lost to our infected or who are hospitalized, but the numbers do lead us, whether we like that are not, in either bad, less constructive directions, or of late in much more positive directions. We are the biggest determinants on that. And by the way, because the data determines dates, that is why this weekend and how we all respond is so important. So, unfortunately come even with the positive trends we are seeing, we continue to lose too many of our precious brothers, sisters, residents to covid19, and with the heaviest of hearts, we report 205 additional lives lost from among our new jersey family. Our statewide total is now 7742. Unfathomable. Lets remember a few of them right now. These are dennis and his brother james or jim cricket traverso, two on separable brothers from neptune. They passed away from covid19 roughly one week apart. They were renowned in neptune in monmouth county. They formed a shared love for antiques and classic cars and then in adulthood settled their families only blocks away from each other, continuing their tight bond. Jim was a model train enthusiast and craftsman and was also considered nothing short of a craftsman when it came to cars. He had a daughter, tracy, and a grandson. And that is jim cricket on the right. Dennis, on the left, had a love of history and made that his secondary location, as a dealer in collectibles and as a recognized specialist in antique glass. He leaves his two daughters, denise and margaret, with whom i had the honor of speaking yesterday afternoon and heard so much about their dad and their uncle. He also leaves behind six grandchildren and one great grandchild. This was a bond between two brothers that even death cannot break. We wish them and their families peace. God bless them both. Look at those two guys. Bless them. Speaking of a couple, heres another one, charles and Elizabeth Mylod from oradell. Charlie and betty. They were married for 55 years and passed within 48 hours of each other charlie was an army veteran and a programmer for ibm. He was also a lifelong baseball fan, first of the brooklyn dodgers, and then, unspeakably, of the giants. And as we know, the dodgers were the first ones to leave brooklyn for california, that was kept quiet while the giants formed their deal, because Major League Baseball needed two teams out there, i only wish i could speak with charlie and understand how he migrated from the dodgers to the giants. Betty, a nurse for 50 years, by the way, was a yankee stalwart. They were both from new york but settled where they raised their three sons, charlie, junior, with whom i had the honor of speaking yesterday, eddie, and john, and the assistant Coach Little League baseball. Both were active in the life of st. Josephs church in oradell. As a couple, they leave their sons and seven grandchildren. Charlie leaves behind eight brothers and sisters, and that he leaves a brother. They also leave so many friends. This is a tremendous love story. To charlie, jr. , eddie, and john and their families, to lose charlie and betty in such close proximity together is indescribable. May god bless them and each and every member of the family. And finally, this is inglewoods leonard trugman, sitting with his wife of 55 years, reva, with whom i had the honor of speaking yesterday, who, by the way, is also being treated for covid19. I am knocking on wood, so far, so good, and bless her. Leonard was a writer and worked in business before settling into a teaching career, first at the city college of new york where he also studied engineer. Leonard would earn an mba from Fairleigh Dickinson and was even halfway through a phd at the Stevens Institute of technology, where he, by the way, also taught. He was a lifelong member of the temple of israel in ridgewood, a fixture of shabbat services, and he love the state of israel, visiting 17 times during his lifetime. He was also a veteran sports fan. In addition to his beloved reva, we also keep in our prayers, he leaves his son jonathan and daughter robin and their families, including five grandchildren. He also leaves behind his sister barbara. May his memory be a blessing to all. The family, friends, and neighbors who we have lost are the reason why we cannot rush our restart. We have lost so many already to covid19, and we know, sadly, tragically, we are going to lose more, but if we are reckless, we will lose not just more but many more beyond that. We know that will happen if we are not smart and if we are not responsible. We have to learn from everything we report here, day to day. We have to learn from the data and from the trendlines that are pushing us in a good direction at the moment, but we also have to learn from the thousands of lives that we have lost. We have to learn that covid19 is real, it is verlander, and it is indiscriminate and who it takes from us, so lets keep doing this together. We can keep pushing these curves down, and when we do, we know we will have fewer and you were lives to have fewer lives to have to remember, because we will keep more of our family with us. Lets do this and make this weekend the point at which we realize we were ready to begin the process of our recovery. As i have said here before from time to time, and we all know this, you will know this, life goes on in this state. Births, deaths, other developments that have come in many cases, nothing whatsoever with covid19. As allconsuming as this is, we also know there is a life, and we lost two lives of people i knew over the last couple of days, and i want to acknowledge them briefly. First, union beach mayor paul smith. Paul was a really good guy. I spoke with his wife, sharon, yesterday, and she said, i agree, i am not too far from union beach down a middle team, he was union beach. He not only was the mayor, he was union beach. He was a friend. He won his election, i recall, by 71 and 61 , i forget which order. He was gracious as we hosted a Sandy Memorial event with our two great senators, senator menendez and senator booker, and mayor smith hosted those he passed, unrelated to covid19. And gloria lindy, she was a giant, even though she was only four foot 11, as her husband reminded me. She was incredibly passionate about jewish causes, about causes related to the state of israel. A speech i gave at the u. N. A few years ago. She was president of the new jersey poetry society, and most importantly, she was a wife, a mom, a grandmother, and a greatgrandmother. God bless each of them and all of the lives we have lost. I have one quick announcement. Today i have signed extending the order of statutory guidelines that will be difficult to meet due to the pandemic. Under normal circumstances, the department of Environmental Protection is required to act on construction permits, including development in coastal areas and wetlands within 90 days, or the permit is deemed approved. This order will assure that dep has the necessary time to get the information it needs to make fully formed informed, rather, decisions. Before i turn things over to judy, i want to highlight a couple of people in our state who deserve a shout out. First up, 13yearold, there he is, James Freeman of monro township and middlesex county. Like many kids his age, his parents give him an allowance for doing his chores around the house, and certainly there has been no lack of those with everyone staying at home, but instead of pocketing his allowance money, james has been using a to buy filament for his 3d printer, which has been turning out your guards to make wearing a mask more comfortable, and he has so far made and donated 500 of them to Health Care Workers, First Responders, and essential workers. And james has even turned down offers to turn down money. He is doing this all by himself, one chore at a time. So to you, james, new jersey thanks you, and i hope your Community Spirit never, ever, ever dims. And second, we are going to head to passaic county, where the spirit of giving back, celebration during the holy month of ramadan, is fueling the work of smile for charity in the Islamic Center of passaic county, among many other partners, i want to give a shout out to you the Islamic Center and all of their brothers and sisters. Together, smiles for charity have been putting together food packages for 500 homes across the area, more than four times the usual need, helping to make sure that no family goes hungry. So to smile for charitys cofounder, passaic city councilman and friend salin p atel and all of the countless volunteers keeping families fed, new jersey thanks you. And again, to all of you who are doing the right thing, and there are millions of you, i also thank you. Again, on this beautiful godgiven day we have got, lets make sure we have a good weekend and a safe weekend. Lets make sure we can keep our parks open for us to enjoy and that we can take the other steps we will need to take to responsibly reopen our state sooner than later. With that, please help me welcome the woman who needs no introduction, the commissioner of the department of health, judy persichilli. Commr. Persichilli thank you, governor, and good afternoon. We have seen a decrease in hospitalizations with a decrease of 4 of the daily rate. Since the peak, we have seen a 41 decrease in hospitalizations in that region. Over that same period, we saw a 26 percent decrease in hospitalizations in the Central Region. However, we continue to see increasing hospitalizations in the south, with some leveling off over the past two days. Hospitals are starting to transition from what we call crisis standards of care to standard operations. Crisis standards of care are situations where clinicians practice in extreme circumstances with scarce resources, like staffing, personal protective equipment, and ventilators. As hospitalizations decreased and intensive care beds and medical surgical beds have capacity, our hospitals are returning to standard procedures. Despite the increase in patients with covid19, our hospitals have treated almost 60,000 noncovid patients during this timeframe, since april 1. 90 of them returned home safely. 8 went to an alternative care setting, and 1 expired. Through all of this, our hospitals remain true to their mission, to safely care for all who come through their doors. There are, however, as i reported, reports from across the country and here in new jersey that people are delaying care, specifically emergency care. That is why the new Jersey Hospital Association president , kathy bennett, and i have done a Public Service announcement you will be seeing on social media over the next week. It will be telling new jersey residents not to risk their health by delaying emergency care, specifically for things like stroke and heart attack. Last evening, our hospitals reported 5737. Only two of our hospitals in the Central Region it was for Psychiatric Services only. There are approximately 1715 cases and critical care. Of those cases, 1270 are on ventilators. That if they decline overall of 2 , and we currently have a little over 70 of our patients on ventilators. Today, we are reporting 2912 new cases and 205 additional deaths. The breakdown of deaths by race and ethnicity is as follows. White, 52. 4 . Black, 19. 6 . Hispanic, 17. 2 . Asian, 5. 3 . And other, 5. 4 . There are now 505 longterm care facilities and assisted living facilities in the state reporting covid19 positive residents. At the state veteran homes, 793 residents, there have been 358 residents that have tested positive for covid19, and they are reporting two additional deaths today, for a total of 114 deaths of our veterans due to covid19. At our state psychiatric hospitals, with a current census of 1250, 163 of their patients have tested positive, and they are reporting one additional death today. I believe that was at trenton psychiatric. This morning, covid19 results, 16,835 tests were performed. 6749 positive, for a Positivity Rate of 40. 9 . That includes my daily report on the statistics. Again, please continue to follow social distancing guidelines. It is making a difference. Stay connected, stay safe, and stay healthy. And i hope you all realize the impact that you are having and saving lives in new jersey. Thank you. Gov. Murphy judy, thank you for that. Thank you for the report. Top six counties remain the same in terms of overall positive cases. The new cases we are reporting today, generally in the same category, but in terms of order, passaic, followed by middlesex, essex, hudson, and union, which is a little bit of a shift, and again, we are seeing that shift over the past week or so. The Positivity Rate of 40. 9 is the lowest we have seen, i think, since we started this. Commr. Persichilli i want to make a correction, governor, if i may. That was from the mass testing sites. The overall testing sites we have performed 234,577 total tests, 95,982 have tested positive, for a Positivity Rate overall of 40. 5 . Gov. Murphy well said. And as ed reminds us, that is the cumulative number. The spot number overnight is going to be, god willing, meaningfully lower. These will be historically overwhelmingly symptomatic folks. We had our road to recovery presentation on monday. There were six guideposts. Four of them were health. One was economic recovery. The other was resiliency. Your comment, judy, of stepping down from crisis mode to normal mode was up on our charts on monday, and, you know, that is a very Important Note we have to add. We would love to turn to colonel Patrick Callahan for an update on compliance. Again, i think pat will be the first to say anything so far this morning or up through now as anecdotal, but anything overnight, you have got ppe, other infrastructure, any other matters. Thank you, pat. Col. Callahan yes, sir. Thank you, governor. A relatively quiet night, if i can use the q word in law enforcement. 71 violations enclosed two nonessential businesses. One subject was cited for being on a closed boardwalk. And patrick, one violation for failure to disperse, and in union city, a barber shop owner cited for remaining open. To the governors point, as of walking in here at 1 00, it was a generally quiet, up to and including our Marine Service state police stations, because we are even asking on a water, i know on a day like today, i have been on the lake myself, byron cove, tied up with 20 other boats myself, but we still need to practice social distancing on the border. In my last to come as the governor says, shout outs, our graduate nursing students have stepped up phenomenally to be a part of this response, between the education and their boards. I think i said a couple of weeks ago, troopers and nurses get along, and 196 recruits of our state police class that was in and postpone, they have the option to opt out, and they did not, and they are staffing various functions from north to south in that capacity, so once again, you have nursing students and hopefully trooperstobe out there in that response, and i thought that was great, governor. Gov. Murphy thanks, pat. Heres to troopers and to nurses and you have gotten both under your roof. Thank you. Housekeeping, we have got, number one, which is not something we have talked about yet publicly, we have our First Commission meeting on monday morning. Matt plotkin has joined us. Matt, good to see you. That will be an important kickoff for the recovery and restart commission that we have established. Very excited to get that going. There is a lot of preparation for that, we mentioned that august group. Secondly, we had a second call this morning with a range of leadership in the general assembly, designated by speaker coughlin, and it was a very good discussion. In each the senate and assembly, they have got their own teams working at steps that they think are prudent, and we agreed, as we did with our senate colleagues, to have a high degree of communication and operation, and that is great. The Regional Council continues to meet regularly, and so i know there was a call last night among matt and george, jeh johnson, but the several states have been meeting with the three representatives on a pretty regular basis, and that proceeds well, so we need all of us. In new jersey, we need our neighbors, the federal government, and we need all of that, and we landed on monday, due to a white house meeting, we will meet you here, unless you hear otherwise, at noon. Do i have that right . It is a little bit of a calm k today, but we will be back, willing to see you here on monday. Otherwise if you do not hear from us, you will hear from us electronically, otherwise you will hear from us at noon. Martelli has been here every single day. Lets start with you. Brent, lets try to do this quickly. What kind of reports are you getting from parks . Any violations so far . At the sure, there are already outofstate plates. New federal data from the Marshall Project shows new jersey has the highest coronavirus death rate in the nation. Is there any among prisons . Is there anything else the state can do before mass testing . People continue to be incredibly angry about problems filing unemployment. Readers are telling us today that the on employment site has been down all morning. People were told to check back at 4 00 p. M. What happened, and when can we expect this to start to get better . And how many people died from Nursing Homes and other longterm care facilities . Can you share where those facilities are from, new jersey, south jersey, over the last 24 hours . Gov. Murphy the reports are anecdotal and preliminary. I do not believe there is anything really more color on that. We will give you more. Believe me, we are out there at all levels. We will give you a more robust report after the weekend. In terms of our corrections facilities, cohoarding the process of releasing folks, ramping up testing, using the space to our maximum abilities, it is a combination of steps. Do you want to add to that . As of last night, we were up to 36 furlough with many more pending release, and they are continuing to go through that, in addition to the other steps that the governor mentioned. Gov. Murphy i have got no insight, brent, on what may have happened this morning with the site, and we will try to if you could followup, we will get you that information. Again, i do not blame people for being frustrated, and we do not begrudge that for one second. This is a next ordinary crisis. And extraordinary crisis. But we have chop through, and our friends at the department of labor have talked through an enormous amount of claims, but they aree trying to stay above water. These are coming in attics that at extraordinary coming in at extraordinary levels. The fact that we are doing better than other states is, at one level, a point of pride. I am sure gives nobody one speck of satisfaction. We know independent contractors have been a particular challenge, although we broke the logjam on that today. I would ask, perhaps on monday, lets put that on the chart, i know matt has reminded me that federal guidelines limit us to certain things only come out on a thursday, but we can at least update you on more tactical developments. Longterm fatalities longterm care facility fatalities. There about 67,000 residents. Right now, 505 of those facilities are reporting 20,284 positive cases. 3670 deaths. [inaudible] i dont have the last i give me a minute. Maybe i dont. Wait a minute. Employment insurance, you will gov. Murphy one more thing about employment insurance, you will not lose one penny of what is coming at you, regardless of the delays or how long or how frustrating this might be, this will not have any impact on the amount of benefit that you get. We will come back to you. Commr. Persichilli 83. 83 in the last 24 hours, and the number of deaths associated with longterm care clusters or outbreaks. Gov. Murphy thank you. Charlie, good afternoon. Good afternoon. When was the Central Region peak . Is there an exact date for that . You signed an executive order to allow renters to use their security deposits to pay rent, that is at most a month and a half. We are two months into the crisis. A lot of people are so a lot of work in coping with this. Do fore you planning to renters for the next month, as this continues . I wanted to follow up on the Democratic Organization trying to cancel their Party Elections until 2023. Do you have any comment on that . And finally, the executive order 111 data, can you comment on that . Thanks. Gov. Murphy ok. Bear with me. Judy, i will say a couple of words, and then turn to you for the Central Region question. I would say, as it relates to renters, mortgage payers, drivers licenses, insurance, we have created windows, and we have to see where the road takes us right now, in terms of whether or not any of those windows, any other steps we need to take to extend those windows. Too early to tell. Fair point. Security deposits only cover so much. To be determined. It will be somewhat dictated by the extent of which we remain hunkered down versus our ability to get on our feet. No update on middlesex or 111. Apologies for that. Judy, back over to you on Central Region peeking. Commissioner persichilli i cant guarantee that this is all hospitals reporting. But for the ones that reported, 2256 cases. 13, governor murphy that is central . Commissioner persichilli yes. Governor murphy thank you. Reporter i have been talking to educators and teachers, and we know the decision is coming. They are concerned about what the future holds. Can you give me an idea on what we are looking at timewise, and help with their concerns . Meernor murphy we will give that guidance on monday. We want to make sure we are as complete and our guidance on steps as we have in the other steps we have taken in education. And theird colleagues have a huge amount of input into any decision on education, or frankly, any other element of our society. The health proponents are overwhelmingly the most important, in addition, by the way, to the fact that we wear, as a badge of honor, the number one Education System in america, among the best private schools in america. We care deeply about that. We care about our educators, kids, our parents, and want to make sure you get this right. Their health, all of their health, is our concern, number one. We will back to you and give you guidance with the most virtual certainty on monday, as to what next steps are. Thank you. You have nothing, sir . Please. Then we will come back to you. Reporter pine barons tribune newspaper. Report, 142 People Associated with the new Lisbon Development Center test positive for covid tested positive for covid19, including 103 clients, by far the highest of any state developmental center. A Burlington County spokesman told me thursday that the county has elevated their concerns ppet the center, including not being given to First Responders responding to it, and high burn rates, to multiple individuals and departments at the state. Had a few folks contact us, one an employee of the center who said that they are stressed to the max and six, there are few of them, not enough of them, and they have not had a break. As she goes on to describe a very dire situation at that facility, and that they need help. Is help on the way to the new Lisbon Developmental Center . And what steps of your administration taken to protect against the virus ravaging Developmental Centers . Governor murphy this is a concern. By the way, this is my fault, because i couldnt hear you. This is on me. Could you wipe down the mic . That is on me, not you. As a general matter, this is one of the vulnerable populations we have spoken about regularly. I am going to give you a general answer. I suspect we will come back to you with some specifics. I will defer to judy on this particular center, but this is a population, as a general matter of grave concern for us. , i think we have said that repeatedly. This is part of the reason why when we think about deploying a , new wave of testing capability, this is exactly the population, both the patients themselves, clients, as well as employees that we want to prioritize and we will prioritize. Have, to some extent already, including with rutgers. Judy, do you have any specific comments . Otherwise we will come back. Commissioner persichilli we will come back. We will definitely look into it. The centers are being tested, along with the department of Human Services and records, but i will look specifically into new lisbon. Thank you for bringing it up. Governor murphy we will come back to you, if you can bear with us on that. Thank you very much. And again, these are just awful situations, and bless them all. Please this is my fault, but keep your mask on. Reporter thank you, governor. The longterm care data on positive cases, has that all been reconciled yet . Because some families are still being told that the data includes Staff Members and residents at their facilities. And then number two, the medical director for several longterm care facilities in the Mercer County area, he has written letters and opeds, he has called on the state to send in the National Guard to several private longterm care , facilities. What is your response to that . Are you considering that, why or why not . And what is your response to the National Guards role in general. Governor murphy judy, i will give a general comment. I can almost say that the data is more than directionally accurate. I cant speak to it being accurate, personally, for any particular operator, but it is more than directionally accurate. And it was well overdue coming from the operators that we would , get that information. And again, the communication as a general matter has left more than a little bit to be desired. The National Guard notion as an option has come up. It is certainly something we have as an ongoing consideration. That has happened in other states, and that is something that we will continue to consider in new jersey. I dont want to speak for my colleagues. And by the way, our challenges in the longterm care reality are dire, and they are not unique in america right now. We look at the devastation in our veterans homes. By the way, in the week where we will acknowledge the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii, to lose some of these veterans to this thing, after all they did for our country is just particularly wrenching. But no decision has been taken. That remains an option. Judy, anything you want to add to that . Commissioner persichilli yes, on longterm care, we put in a request, and the initial request was, i dont want to say denied, the National Guard was diverted to another area. I think we are putting in another one. I have received dr. Burrows letter, it is the second letter. I totally appreciate his concern. We are working as hard as we can, and we are going to be looking at student nurses to call them up to go to longterm care. The difficulty is, we might be able to get people to clean, we might be able to get people to feed it is very difficult to get , people to do the handson activities of daily living, and that is what we are working on. We have sent over 1000 names from our volunteer portal to the Nursing Homes, and when they call us to see if people can come to volunteer, not all of them are very anxious to do the work that we need. So we are working really hard on it. Thank you. Governor murphy i want to mask up here. I see that these allow me to do one of two notches here, which is a particularly positive feature that a lot of the other masks do not allow you to. Again, we will be with you, we hope at noon on monday, electronically tomorrow. I want to say this is the end, you know, this has been as tough a week as it relates to fatalities as we have had, and it is sobering, to say the very least. It has also been a week where we have gotten a disproportionate amount by the way, proportionate to the challenges we have faced, but disproportionate to what we have gotten prior. We had a big week in terms of federal assistance, an enormous amount of supplies to help us more aggressively test, and we will be coming back to you with more robust specifics on testing. An enormous amount of ppe being sent directly from the federal government to longterm care 1. 7 billion to our hospitals. So some weeks i have been up here, pounding the table that we need x or y or more, our caseload, our fatality rate, our hospitalization rate all merit a higher consideration, as it relates to federal help. This week, we saw three very significant examples of that. We continue to need an enormous amount of cash assistance. That is to be determined. We look forward to the interpretation of the c. A. R. E. S. Act on monday, again, financially, but i want to acknowledge that there were several very big, important steps taken in partnership with the federal government this week that will have real, tangible benefits. I want to thank judy and ed and their teams, pat, you and yours, jared, matt, and others. Again, enjoy this weekend, but please enjoy it responsibly. The weather is extraordinary. Get some fresh air, but social distance. Please wear something over your face. Dont congregate. A successful weekend really allows us a lot more degrees of freedom across a whole number of fronts, and we have been succes and the george w. Bush president ial center released a video narrated by the former president on the coronavirus. It appeared on his twitter page. This is a challenging and solemn time in the life of our nation and the world. Remorseless, invisible enemy threatens the elderly and the vulnerable among us. A disease that can quickly take breath and life. Medical professionals are risking their own health for the health of others. And we are deeply grateful. Officials at every level are setting out the requirements of Public Health that protect us all. And we all need to do our part. The disease also threatens broader damage. Harm to our sense of safety, security, and community. The larger challenge we share is to confront an outbreak of fear and loneliness and it is frustrating that many of the normal pools of compassion, a hug and a touch can bring the opposite of the good we intend. In this case, we serve our neighbor by separating from them. We cannot allow physical separation to become emotional isolation. Onlyrequires us to be not compassionate but creative in our outreach. And people across the nation are using the tools of technology in the cause of solidarity. In this time of testing, we need to remember a few things. First, let us remember we faced times of testing before. Halloween 9 11 i saw a great nation rise as one to honor the brave, grieve with it grieving and embrace unavoidable new duties. And i have no doubt that the spirit of service and sacrifice is alive and well in america. Second, let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are a essential, powerful tools of national recovery. At an appropriate social distance, we can provide ways to be present in the lives of others, to ease their anxiety and share their burdens. Let us remember that the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly. In the days to come, it will be especially important to care in practical ways for the elderly, the bill, and the unemployed. Finally, let us remember our how small our differences are in the shared threat. We are not partisan combatants but human beings equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of god. We rise or fall together and we are determined to rise. God bless you all. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. With white house briefings, updates from governors and congress and our daily callin program, washington journal. Hearing your thoughts about the Coronavirus Crisis and if you have missed any of our live coverage watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Yay, o yay, all persons having business before the honorable the Supreme Court of the United States and modest to draw near and give their attention. For the first time in history, here the u. S. Supreme court live. This month, due to the pandemic, the court is hearing oral arguments in 10 cases by teleconference. Cspan will provide live coverage of eve of each of these sessions. 10 00, the case of u. S. Patent and Trademark Office versus booking. Com. The case concerns the travel Companies Fight to trademark its website. The a part of history and listen to the Supreme Court oral arguments as they are heard by the justices live monday at 10 a clock a. M. Eastern on demand at the freeg or listen on cspan radio app. Immediately following the lives of bring court session, join Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution center leading a live discussion with scholars. This morning, beth cameron, former National SecurityCouncil Member during the Obama Administration talks about a longterm response to the coronavirus. And later, howard means discusses his book on the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. We will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter on twitter. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. The numbers and the heartbreak continue. Now more than 66,000 americans have died as a result of covid19. In fact, in the month of april, coronavirus was the number one cause of death in the United States. It is sunday, may 3, and as this pandemic is a back drop for a president ial election the november election is six months away. So many uncertainties between now and then, but at this point we want to hear from you. Who is your candidate . President trump, former Vice President joe biden . 202 is the area code