Restrictions in his day to allow businesses to reopen that are this month. He talked about the phased approach and other issues related to the coronavirus at a News Conference and a richmond. G]ameras shutterin gov. Northam good afternoon and thanks again for joining us today. I hope that everybody had a nice weekend. Before we talk about the past four, i want to remind everyone of where we have been. Virginia saw its first covid positive case on march 7. Just shy of two months ago. Our lives have changed drastically since then. At that time across the country, americans feared that hospitals would be overwhelmed. We worried we would not have enough icu beds or ventilators. We knew we did not have enough ppe or testing supplies. So here in virginia, we asked you to stay home. We issued restrictions on businesses and gatherings. Urged houses of worship to give sermons online. And moved restaurants to take out and home delivery. Businesses moved to telework and online meetings. We put a hold on elective surgeries. And we all learned a new term, actually two terms, social distancing and physical distancing. We put these restrictions into place, and we waited to see if we were able to flatten the curve. And while we waited, our team monitored data, built new ppe supply chains, strengthened our unemployment system, planned for alternative care facilities, and a strengthened testing system, among other steps. And everyone in virginia made sacrifices. But everything you have done has truly made a difference. We flattened the curve, and our hospitals have not been overwhelmed. Im keenly aware that it has come with a tremendous cost. Now we can start to move into a new phase of our response. But at the same time, i want to make it very clear. This virus is still here. It has not gone away, and it will not go away until we have a vaccination. And that may be hopefully at the end of this year, for another year or two. So all of our efforts have slowed its spread, but they have not cured the disease. We must figure out a path forward, but we must always be aware that this virus is still with us. Even when we ease some restrictions, we must continue to behave more cautiously than before. We must not relax our vigilance, or think that the risk has passed, especially for our most vulnerable populations, the elderly, and those with underlying medical conditions. To be clear, we are not entering phase one today, nor this week. Based on the data, i expect that we may be able to enter it as soon as next week. Today, im going to outline what our phased approach of easing the restrictions will look like, and when that will happen. We will have three phases. You will still be safer at home. Large gatherings are still a bad idea. It means continued social distancing, teleworking, and face coverings. But it also means that we are moving forward. Phase one includes guidelines for all businesses to enhance physical distancing, do more cleaning, and disinfecting, and promote Workplace Safety. So, lets look at each of these. To promote physical distancing, companies should establish policies to keep coworkers and customers physically separated, with clear signs to communicate the rules. It means limited gatherings, like conferences and tradeshows, and keeping those as short as possible when they do need to happen. And it may mean wearing face coverings at work. More cleaning and this infecting means practicing routine cleaning and disinfection of hard surfaces. To protect our workers, it means setting schedules that allow for short breaks so workers can wash their hands frequently, and making sure there is a safe place for them to do so. And Workplace Safety is critical. Measures like these are important for all businesses. In addition, we will be publishing additional guidelines for specific industries, including restaurants, retail, fitness, personal care, and grooming, as well as entertainment. But heres the bottom line. Youll be able to get your hair cut, but you will need an appointment, and youll see Safety Measures in the salon. It means you can go out to eat again, but restaurants will use less of their seating so to spread people out more. Employees will wear face coverings, and they will do more cleaning. Phase one means more retail establishments can be open, but they will have to operate at lower capacity. You can go to the gym, but with fewer people and more requirements for cleaning. Farmers markets will have more flexibility with foot traffic and prepared foods. Our farmers markets are important, as we really get into the growing season. We will accommodate the needs of churches and houses of worship to gather in person, but social distancing still matters, even at church. We anticipate phase one could last about three weeks, consistent with cdc guidelines. Phase two and three would also last about three weeks each, as long as our health data continues to support it. In phase two, we will continue to ease restrictions if we see our numbers trend downward. Continue downward trend of our positive tests, continued downward trend of our hospitalizations, stable capacity of hospital bed and intensive care, stable supply of ppe, and continued robust testing and Contact Tracing. To move to phase three, we are looking for no evidence of rebound for a period of time. Lets talk about timing. I will extend executive order 53, which restricted Certain Services and banned gatherings of more than 10 people, through next thursday night, may 14. We will adjust the current stayathome order as well, emphasizing safer at home rather than stay at home. That gives us an additional two weeks to watch the data and determine that we are meeting the metrics we need to see to enter phase one. Now i would like to talk briefly about that data, and what metrics we are using to make these decisions. Ive said from the beginning of this pandemic that our decisions will be made based on science and data. Earlier today, we held a data briefing for the press, and i think you saw how complex it is. I want to thank the press for being available for that briefing, and also the individuals that prepared the briefing as well. I want to show the public some of what we are looking at. We are looking at the following measures taken together. As you can see, our cases continue to rise. This number will continue to go up, in part because we are doing more testing. Robust testing and tracing are critical to this entire effort. We get a better idea of the spread by looking at how many tests come up positive. On this side, the dark blue lines are the number of people tested. The light blue i believe we need to move to a different slide. There we go. I think that was correct. Go back to that one, please. Yes, thank you. On this particular slide, the dark blue lines are the number of people tested. The light blue towards the bottom is the number of those tests that are positive. And the yellow line represents the seven day average of the percent of tests that are positive. This slide also shows you the percent of those tests that come back positive. We want to see a downward trend in that percentage over 14 days. Also, we are planning to deploy 1000 people to work as contact tracers. As you can see from this slide, we are increasing our testing capacity. Over the weekend, we tested more than 6000 people per day. In mid april we were testing fewer than 3000. We want to see a downward trend in the percent of cases that are hospitalized over 14 days. And we are monitoring that we continue to have enough hospital beds and icu capacity. We will watch this especially closely over the next several weeks, as hospitals resume elective surgeries. All of this depends on us having a good supply of ppe, which we now feel that we have. As you can see, every day we monitor a wide range of health data. We are evaluating that data constantly, looking at metrics by day, and by rolling average. We are using that to determine the spread of the virus, whether it seems to be stabilizing, and whether our hospitals have the capacity to meet the need. I have another update on ppe. Last friday, i announced that virginia is receiving three ppe decontamination units. The first of those is now up and running in blackspur. We anticipate Additional Units will be in richmond and newport news this week. I also want to thank our Virginia National guard. They have been helping move supplies and doing logistics for the past two months. And now they are helping us do testing, primarily in congregate congregate settings. They tested 1310 inmates at sussex to prison just yesterday, and wrapped up a Testing Pilot Program in harrisonburg yesterday. No one should be alarmed by seeing the National Guard out and about in our communities. They are here to help us. I continue to be concerned about the rising number of cases in our poultry processing facilities, especially on the Eastern Shore. The Eastern Shore Health Strict now reports more than 260 cases associated with the two plants in accomack county. Since i joined governors hogan and carney in sending a letter to the president just over a week ago, teams of specialists from the cdc have come to each of our three states to help. This week, our local health district, the cdc, and the Poultry Companies are working together to do testing of plant workers and members of the community. We are also still tracking closely cases in the shenandoah valley, which has a large number of plants. Cases have increased as well, but the increase is smaller and could be leveling off. Our focus right now remains on the shore. We will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure that the plants are instituting Safety Measures to protect workers health, and that workers can Access Health care as needed. Finally, today marks the start of two weeks. Teacher appreciation week, and virginias first resilience week. Our teachers always do wonderful work, but they have stepped up to meet enormous challenges as we turn to virtual education. I suspect that many parents who are now helping their children learn at home have gained an increased appreciation for our teachers. Resilience is how well we adapt to in the face of tragedy, trauma, or other sources of stress. This week i encourage you to visit grscan. Com. Thats grscan. Com. To find virtual events, trainings, activities for children, and other resources. Its a particularly good time to think about resilience, because we all are dealing with some level of stress from covid19. And for some, it is trauma. It is also important for our children to learn this skill so they are better able to adapt to adverse situations as adults. I know virginia is a resilient commonwealth. I am proud of virginians for how you are handling this situation, and for how people have stepped up to take care of themselves and other people at this time. Now we hear from Virginia Health commissioner dr. Norman oliver, and then we will be glad to take your questions. Thank you. Dr. Oliver thank you, governor. Good afternoon. I just want to give an update on the numbers on cases and some of the breakdown of those cases. We now have a total of 19,492 cases of covid19 across the commonwealth. That represents 821 new cases in the last 24 hour period. Total deaths now number 684. Thats 24 new deaths in the last reporting period. We have a total number of tests that we have recorded at 122,788. And that number continues to rise. Outbreaks in the state are at 239. The majority of those outbreaks are in longterm care facilities. And as before, the percent of cases that are in communities of color continue to be disproportionately high. Africanamerican cases is 3469 out of the 13,433 for which we have race and ethnicity data. That is about 26 . Out of that same 13,433, for about 34 of that number. Deaths, africanamerican deaths number 157 out of the 585 for which we have race and ethnicity data, for about 27 of the deaths. For the latinx community, 49 deaths, for a percentage of about 7 . Thank you. Reporter have you been coordinating with Governor Hogan and the mayor about plans to reopen on the 15th . Gov. Northam the question is have we been coordinating with Governor Hogan and mayor bowser, and also to the south is north carolina. The answer is, we have. Each state has their own situation, their own challenges. As you know, maryland, washington and specifically Northern Virginia are in very densely populated areas. And so we do communicate. We are probably not going to do everything on the exact day, but we are working as close as we can. As i have said in the past week, we want to be as consistent as we can with our neighboring states and not allow for any more confusion than is absolutely possible. The question will be from greg. Reporter governor, as far as the timeline over the next two weeks, as businesses are trying to prepare for eventually having the opportunity to reopen, do you expect that if you have to change that date from may 14, that businesses will know later this week, early next week, if that is not going to be the beginning of phase one at the end of next week . Are you going to be able to let Business Owners and employees know in advance that there will be a change to that date . Gov. Northam that is a great question, i appreciate the question. The question is as we anticipate moving into phase one on may 15, if things change, will we be able to give some advance notice . Certainly i will do everything i can to give as much notice as possible. But i think as we look at the trends, especially with our number of cases and our percent positives, as we look at our hospital capacity, as we look at our supply of ppe, our ability to test, continuing to monitor this as we move forward, i anticipate moving into phase one on the 15th, which will be a week from this friday. Reporter a couple of questions. I was wondering first, is there any one metric that you are considering more heavily than others when making these decisions . I have also heard from doctors in the private setting that there is still a major shortage of swabs that is precluding more widespread testing. Does the state have a plan to mitigate that . And do you think that because of those limits, you are catching enough cases to really know and avoid a spike once businesses reopen . Gov. Northam it is a twopart question. The first part of the question was, any particular metric that i follow. I appreciate the question. Every morning when i come to work, which is fairly early, i look at the number of new cases and i look at the number of deaths. And that is very powerful. And we continue to see an increased number of positive cases and our deaths vary from 24 to 40. And that is still something that we see every day. So that is probably the most powerful piece of data to me. Every life is important, but when we see 25 to 40 additional deaths each day, that gets my attention in the morning. Obviously i think you all had access to all the data that we use, the different curves, the percent positives, the number of new cases per day, the hospitalizations, the number of individuals in icus, the number of ventilators being used. All of these things are taken into account. But the answer to your question, the most powerful metric to me is the number of deaths. As your governor and certainly as a doctor, i am here to keep virginians safe, and also to prevent any deaths that we possibly can. As far as the swabs, we have put in an order through fema. We are also working with the private labs, with the hospitals, with universities and colleges. And while we do not have as many swabs as we would like, we anticipate the number of swabs going up as the demand goes up. So, as you have heard doctor remley talk, a week or so ago we were at 2000 tests a day. We are now up to 6000, plus or minus, depending on what day it is and whether it is the weekend. Our goal is to get to 10,000 tests a day, and we are confident. Theres no guarantees, but we are confident with our supply chain that we will have the swabs necessary to move to that goal. The next question will be from alan with the associated press. Reporter where are you in terms of opening some of the more rural parts, where republicans have been very vocal about reopening in parts where there is not a lot of cases . Gov. Northam the question i believe from alan was regarding the regional approach, and whether some areas of virginia could be opened prior to others. A couple comments i would make, alan. We have had a great group of Business Leaders across virginia, some of whom are from rural areas. And the overwhelming advice coming from them is to do this as a commonwealth, rather than by region. And just well, ill give you one example and i have told you this before. If we open certain areas of the commonwealth and close others, people from the closed areas may travel, probably will travel to the open areas, and not only bring new cases from hotspots, if you will, in virginia, but also potentially bring in cases from other states. And so, we do not want that to happen. The other thing that we would be doing, we would be picking winners and losers in virginia. And something that has been very important to me as a governor is to see virginia as a commonwealth. Perhaps some people have made more sacrifices than others, but we have all sacrificed. And when we have made the decision to close down i did this as a commonwealth. When we reopen, when we go into phase one, i want to do that as a commonwealth as well. Because one of the things that i have seen, which i commend virginia this has brought virginians together. What i worry about if we do one region open rather than another, it just is a tremendous potential for more division. And the last thing that we need in this state, the last thing we need in this country right now, is division. So for a number of reasons, i have made the decision to go into phase one, unless something drastically changes next friday. And we will do that together. Reporter this is a followup to that. Will any of the restrictions on businesses and the guidelines they have to follow be tailored regionally . And a second question to that is just, do you think we will reach 10,000 tests per day by may 14 . Gov. Northam the two questions, its not fair to me when you all ask all these questions at one time, but we will do the best we can. The second part is how we are doing on our goal of 10,000. I will let doctor remley answer that one. As far as the guidelines that we are using regionally, they will not be different. One of the things i will not go into all the details, but we have talked about going into phase one, whether that be phase one a, phase one b, and it gets very complicated. So our team is doing everything we can to keep this as consistent and straightforward as we can as we move forward. Doctor remley . Thanks. Dr. Remley i think what i will say is we are working very closely with the entire Clinical Community to make sure it is not just swabs, but swabs, ppe, feeling comfortable that you understand how to get the test, feeling comfortable to know where the test goes, and what to do with the results when it comes back. This week we will have surveys we have done with the free clinics, with the health centers, and doctors offices around the state, to understand where those gaps are. In addition on friday we will have a webinar for all physicians to be able to understand what you can do for patients clinically if you learn to have covid, so you can take better care of them, but also to understand, again, walk you through how to test. If you do not think your office will test, where you can go to get tested. Making sure all those loops in the process are closed, and also helping to make sure our doctors can sometimes be our first part of Contact Tracing. So, if im a physician and i have a patient who has a positive cobra test and i called to talk to them, i will not only talk to them about how they are doing clinically, but i will ask who else is in their home, who have you been around the last couple weeks, write it all down. It is important we start to isolate, so we start the Public Health intervention at the time the doctor is involved. We know for each of the groups we talked about, the barriers are different and they change week to week. We are trying to meet doctors where they are, but also meet people where they are so the opportunity to get tested is as diverse as it can be, and there are no barriers. For anyone who is symptomatic, asymptomatic, or close contact with someone who has covid, that they can find somewhere to be tested. I encourage you to go look at the website. When we talked about it first it had close to 100 sites. We now have over 160 and they are all over the commonwealth. They are publicly available to anyone who comes forward who wants to be tested. The next question is from sherry hamilton with the gloucester matthews gazette journal. Reporter thank you for taking my call, governor. There appears to be some confusion about when campgrounds are allowed to resume normal operations again. Given the extension of executive order 53, it will allow them to reopen recreational facilities on may 14, while 55 prohibits overnight stays of less than 14 days through june 10. And we have heard that some campgrounds opened this past friday. In addition, i understand it is up to local Law Enforcement to enforce the order, but i wonder who is held responsible. Is it the campground or the camper . Gov. Northam the question is regarding campgrounds. And i anticipated coming into this press conference and a lot of questions about what about this, what about that. And we will certainly clarify those guidelines as we move through this week. But our intentions and it will be some guidelines will be to reopen our campgrounds, both private campgrounds and also our state campgrounds. Again, we wont have people staying more than 14 days. There will be spacing guidelines. We have people on our Business Advisory that own campgrounds in virginia, and they have been very forthcoming and provided great recommendations. So, i would say to the guideline specifically for the campgrounds, or the hair salons, or the bowling alleys, i know everybody has their own situation, and i get that. I am a Business Owner as well. We want those answers. And so those guidelines in the next few days, we will be forthcoming. But the message today is that we will reopen virginia next friday. And another reason, another purpose for the week extension, we really want the business is to be able to do everything they can to make sure consumers feel safe, that they feel comfortable coming back into these places of business. And so again, i realize that it is one week of extension, but i think it will really give us all time. It will allow us to provide the guidelines to these businesses. And when we do open, which hopefully will be next friday, we will be able to do it as smoothly as possible, and as safely as possible for all virginia. Reporter as we move through the transition of reopening, obviously there are a lot of people eager to get back to work. But i imagine there might be some people who might be hesitant or even afraid based on their underlying condition or their age. So as we move forward into that reopening, what are the options for employees . Can those employees who are not ready to return to work still receive unemployment, for example . Gov. Northam great question. Dr. Megan healy, i am going to let her step up to the podium and address that question. Dr. Healy thank you so much. The question is about workplaces and if people are not ready to go back to work because it might be unsafe. Our top priority is Workplace Safety. We talked to businesses and they are eager to work with the health department, cdc guidelines, to make sure those workplaces are safe, not just for the consumer but important for the workers, because they want them to show up. We are waiting for guidance on unemployment insurance. Unemployment is from the u. S. Department of labor, and they give us guidance on what we can do. We are still waiting for what that might look like. What are the different eligibility for unemployment, and what they need to do if they feel unsafe. Reporter [inaudible] dr. Healy yes. We have heard some guides but not written. If they are unsafe, do they have to quit their job. Usually the person goes to the adjudication process to appeal, then they could repeal through that process. Then we are looking at what is a good cause and what is not. Reporter not just anybody can say i do not feel like going to work. Dr. Healy yes, there will be criteria. Because a lot of people might say they do not want to go back to work. You next question will be from whitney. Reporter hi, governor. I was hoping you could tell us a little bit more about the process for hiring 1000 were contact tracers. Who should be applying and how . Gov. Northam im not sure i heard the question. You heard it . Dr. Oliver the question is, the governor mentioned in his remarks that we were going to be hiring 1000 contact tracers. As we begin to reopen, one of the things that will happen is we will continue to see cases rise. And reopening means that we have to take a very serious approach towards identifying new cases, identifying anyone who has been exposed to that new case, and isolating those folks, putting them in quarantine if necessary. To do that will require a new workforce. We have already begun hiring case identifiers in the health department. We will hire several hundred of them. We are in the process of also beginning the setting up to hire some 1000 contact tracers that we believe will be necessary to effectively do that kind of containment strategy. And we are quite confident that we will be able to ramp this up quickly over the next week or two, and be ready to do serious, serious increasing amount of contract Contact Tracing that we do. Next up is Bill Atkinson with the progress index. Reporter governor, you mentioned earlier about the farmers markets opening. Some markets such as the one in petersburg have reopened physically already, just basically switching to online ordering and curbside pickup, and allowing walkup business as long as they maintain social distancing. How close do you anticipate the farmers markets and other open air markets need to be regular did . Will that be different than other Retail Businesses . Will the state have regulators circulating around the market, or relying on selfregulation and local Law Enforcement to maintain the order . Gov. Northam great question. Growing up on a farm, there was nothing more important than being able to get our products to consumers. And so, the farmers markets have been a great avenue for doing that in virginia. We want to make sure that people have access to that as we go into phase one. I have the secretary of agriculture with us, bettina ring, if you would like to come in on that. Sec. Ring thank you, governor. Just to elaborate on what the governor said, we realize how critical and important are farmers markets are in virginia. So we are looking forward to open things up a bit more. They had been fantastic and stepping up, integrating best practices, and having one point of contact in many of those farmers market. Now we will be able to ensure browsing safely, everyone wearing a mask, and we have proposed guidelines we will be finalizing in the coming week. We have more information to share, but we are excited about the opportunity as our farmers markets are moving into spring and summer, which is a really important time for our farmers, as well as our markets across the state. Thank you for the question. Reporter governor, first, for some of the stopgap measures he put in place during the pandemic, the one that springs to mind is allowing mixed drinks to be sold for pickup. How long do you consider those things to be continued to be allowed . And also any response to the lawsuit from the church challenging the executive order and the doj filing that statement of interest . Gov. Northam i am going to take the first question, then im going to let someone that practices law handled the second one. As far as the mixed drinks, its a good question, how long we will continue those who order from restaurants takeout and delivery. I have not addressed that specifically the abc, but its certainly something that we can talk about. But just in general, as long as restaurants are not at their full capacity and having to rely on takeout and home delivery, i would anticipate that policy stay in effect throughout that time. Rita, if you would like to address the second part about the case on the Eastern Shore regarding the place of worship. Ms. Davis thank you, governor. Rita davis, counsel for the governor. As i understand, the administrations response to the chicopee lawsuit. Many of you may know about the Lighthouse Fellowship Church sued the governor about a week ago, alleging First Amendment violations under the u. S. Constitution, and acting on his executive actions 53 and 55. They started to luminary injunction and a temporary restraining order. On friday the Eastern District of virginia denied those claims in a 30 page opinion. Since that time the claimants have appealed, and the department of justice has entered a statement of interest on behalf of the church. The statement of interest essentially says while not question any governors underlying authority, it does suggest to the court that the emergency executive actions creates some disparity between religious institutions and secular businesses. While the administration applauds and encourages the department of justice for standing up for virginias civil liberties, we continue believe that the Governors Authority was both prudent, necessary, and constitutional, and we look forward to the Fourth Circuit affirming. Thank you. Reporter governor, when it comes to those who see you make these orders, if you will, and they are frustrated, how would you respond to those who do not understand, and as your counsel mentioned, think you are not following the constitution . Also the president mentioned that he met with governors, and he said only one governor said they needed any kind of supplies. You mentioned the swamps and ppe. Were you on that call with the president . He said that none of you governors except for one asked for any additional items. Do virginians really have everything that we need . Gov. Northam the second part of your question as far as supplies, im not going to go through the whole history of dealing with this pandemic. But we have since early in march been fighting a biological war here in not only virginia, but in this country and in this world. And having been in the army, while i was trained in biological war, but i was never in a biological war, but i was in a conflict. Essentially what we have been asked to do as governors is fight this war without any supplies. It is like sending your army or your navy off with no weapons, no ammunition. And so we started from ground zero, competing for ppe. You have heard us talk about that every day. Competing for, believe it or not, the swabs to be able to do these tests. And so in the last couple of weeks, i commend what is going on in washington, because finally fema has stepped up and has communicated with governors, not only with supplies, but also financial resources. As you know, we had the cares act. So we are in a much better place today regarding whats coming from washington, but we started basically two months behind because we had to really go out and do this on our own. So, while i listen, i dont always ask questions personally of the president , but i listen to the phone calls, and also hear the other governors request. And what the other governors are requesting is not unique to their state, it is what we are all dealing with. But i would commend the leadership in washington over the last couple of weeks. Because not only the financial resources, but the ppe, and the testing supplies that we need to increase our capacity, they have been helpful in that regard. I think the first part of your question was also interesting. And how have my decisions affected virginians, how have they affected businesses, and have they been constitutional. And starting with the constitutionality, everything that we do is based on our constitution. As you know, some of it has been questioned. We have prevailed in most cases. So we try to abide, do everything we can to abide by our constitution. Also, my decisions are made to protect virginians. To keep virginians healthy and safe, and to prevent deaths. I understand people have made sacrifices, i understand people are upset that our decisions, but i am not standing up here to punish people. I am standing up here representing 8. 5 million virginians, and doing what is in the best interest of them to keep them safe, to get this Health Crisis behind us, and to get our economy up and running again. That is what i come to work to do every day, and that is what i will continue to do for the next 1. 5 years as long as im governor. Reporter when you are on the phone with the president , why not say, mr. President , we need more ppe, we need more swabs . Gov. Northam we have. Yes. Yes, thank you all again for being here. I think some really Important Information that goes out to virginia today. What i wanted to just comment in closing, is any time theres a crisis, any time theres a tragedy, an unfortunate situation, we must, as a society, look at trying to bring some good from it. What is the silverlining from all of this, and how can we learn, and how can we do better the next day . How can we prepare if this ever happens again . So there are some really hopeful things going on. I just wanted to mention a few of them. I am sure you are aware of some of them. Number one is that there are pharmaceutical companies, there are colleges and universities that are working just as fast as they can to find treatments for viral pandemics like the one we are experiencing. And as you all heard, remdesivir is an antiviral agent, kind of like an antibiotic that treats bacteria, an antiviral agent treats viruses. The studies done thus far are very promising for remdesivir. Now the fda has approved that. That is good news for people that contract covid19. The second part of the good news is that companies, researchers, are working literally around the clock to find the vaccination to this. And that is really the Silver Bullet that will put this pandemic, that will put this Health Crisis behind us. And so, whether that will happen at the end of this year, or it is going to take another 1. 5 years or whatever, we are not sure about that. But just the fact that our researchers are working as hard as they can to find this vaccination, that is encouraging to me, and it should be encouraging to all of you. The last thing i wanted to just mention is to thank all of those, kinda back to your question, that have made sacrifices during this pandemic. This is not been easy on anybody. And so i have seen our doctors, our nurses, our hospital staff, i have seen our First Responders, Law Enforcement, individuals who work at the grocery store. And what happens when these individuals are on the front line and going to work day in and day out, without a day off. It provides for stress in their lives. And we lost a very prominent and just excellent emergency physician. She worked in new york city. She paid the ultimate sacrifice for what she was doing, and she has deep, deep roots here in the commonwealth of virginia. And something that really touched to this weekend was when individuals reached out to me and said, you know what, she was a wonderful person, a wonderful emergency room doctor. And how can we bring good from this . And so we had a fairly lengthy discussion, and it will not end this weekend, but we are going to Work Together and make sure that we have support systems here in virginia for individuals like our First Responders and our health care providers, because i think the perception is that the doctor or the nurse, they are always strong and they do not let the stress get to them. But i will tell you that we are all human. And i think the example of the emergency room doctor is a great example of that. So that means that we as a society need to find ways to come together, and to find support groups, and let these individuals know, you know what, it is ok if you have a bad day, or if you are experiencing undue stress, that we have help for you. So, just looking at the good things that we have is encouraging to me, and that is what provides hope to me, and that is what gets me up every day and wanting to do the job that i am doing. And so for all of you who have been part of the solution to this pandemic, on behalf of the commonwealth of virginia, i say thank you. Keep up the good work. As long as we continue to Work Together, we will get through this. And as i have said so often, we came in as virginians strong to covid19, and we will put this in our Rearview Mirror and come out of it even stronger. So thank you all, and i look forward to being with you on wednesday. Thank you. Center today for cspans newsletter, word for word, providing news of states news updates daily from Task Force Briefings and important updates from congress. Sign up today, it is easy. Go to cspan. Org and enter your email in the word for word sign up box. Our live look at coverage on tuesday. The second day in a row, the Supreme Court will hear Court Hearings via teleconference. That is live at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Afterward, the National Constitution center reviews the case with legal scholars. In the afternoon, the Senate Banking committee holds a confirmation hearing for pending nominations including the treasury departments there is also a confirmation hearing on cspan two at 9 30 a. M. Eastern for John Ratcliffe who has been picked to serve as the next director of national intelligence. At 11 00 a. M. , the senate is back to consider the nomination to be the head of the National Counterintelligence and security center. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year, we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all Public Affairs programming online or listen on our free radio app. You can be part of the conversation through the General Program washington journal program. As a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. At todays briefing, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo outlines parameters for reopening his state. He says it will happen by region, starting with areas of by area ofates and room in hospitals. This is 50 minutes. Good to be with you. Gov. Cuomo good morning. Thank you all for being here. Let me introduce who i have with me and acknowledged some special friends. To my right is gareth rose
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