Transcripts For CSPAN Virginia Gov. Northam Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

Governor northam also spoke about the coordination of reopening between himself and leaders of maryland and washington, d. C. Gov. Northam i hope everyone had a nice weekend. To all of the mothers, a belated happy mothers day. I want to talk about Northern Virginias regional pace to ease restrictions, petersburgs water, the dmv and our elections. 9801 testsported yesterday, which is a great step as we work to ramp up testing. That has not shown up on the website yet but it will in the next day or two. Now i want to give virginians an update on where we are with our data metrics. You saw these slides on friday and they are also available on the Virginia Department of health website. This is our confirmed positive cases. The blue bar represents the number of cases and the yellow line is the seven day moving average. While we have seen a slight dip in the past few days, largely these numbers are going up. That is what we expect to see. Manygraph shows us how people are being tested each day in the blue bars. The yellow line represents a sevenday average. As you can see, both the number of tests and the average of tests performed has both been trending upward. There are dips where we have tested fewer people on the day, but overall it shows we are doing more testing. How many ofhows those tests come back positive. The dark blue graph is the number of people tested. The light blue at the bottom is how many were positive. The yellow line shows the average. Want a 14 day downward trend in the present of positivity, and that is what we continue to see on the chart. This slide the blue bars are the numbers of hospitals in the yellow line is the seven day moving average. This is trending downward, this is good news. Its several days since any hospitals reported shortages of p. P. E. And right now even the trend is at zero. Our adequate supply of p. P. E. And swabs are two of the factors allowing us to test more. Might also mention that we have a warehouse here in virginia of p. P. E. And our supply, our stock on hand, is doing well and looking better every day. Were monitoring our Hospital Capacity to take patients. On this chart, the darkest blue at the bottom is how many Covid Patients are in hospital beds. The medium blue is how many other patients are in beds. And the light blue is our staffed bed capacity. The yellow line, the dotted line, at the top, represents surge capacity. As you can see, our hospitals are currently reporting that they have capacity and we will watch that now that hospitals are doing more elective surgeries than in the past. This chart shows us how many people who have covid are hospitalized. The total number is the dark blue bar, while the medium blue represents Covid Patients in the i. C. U. And the light blue is Covid Patients on ventilators. The yellow line is a sevenday average. Our Ventilator Capacity remains adequate at about 20 . As ive said, its important that the commonwealth as a whole meet the metrics we laid out before moving into phase one but i recognize that we live in a diverse commonwealth and different regions face different challenges. Thats why the phase one restrictions are a floor but not a ceiling. While no region may move faster to ease restrictions, were open to some regions moving more slowly. I have been speaking regularly with officials in Northern Virginia about this very issue. I asked them to send us a formal letter outlining that they are unified in requesting a delay. Uniformity across he region is critical to a successful strategy rather than having restrictions piecemeal across towns or counties. Northern virginia localities sent me that letter over the weekend and i appreciate the continued cooperation between our administration and these local governments. We all want a responsible, datadriven healthfocused approach. Northern Virginia Health officials are using the same metrics we are using for the state, percent 30stivity, percent positivity hospitalizations positivity, hospitalizations, testing and tracing capacity, hospital beds and p. P. E. So id like to walk you through the ways those metrics look a bit different in Northern Virginia than they do in the rest of our state. As weve said repeatedly, the number of cases aloan doesnt give us an accurate picture of the disease. We can make some comparisons across regions. And Northern Virginia consistently has a significant portion of our cases statewide. In the past 24 hours, for example, Northern Virginia reported more than 700 cases. The rest of virginia reported fewer than 300. We see similar differences in percent positivity, both Northern Virginia and the rest of the commonwealth are seeing declines in the percent of tests that are positive which is a good thing. But we see big differences in the percentages. On this slide youll see Northern Virginia has about a 25 positivity rate. And on this slide, youll see the rest of the commonwealth is closer to 10 . So again, while the trend of percent positives is come do you think in both Northern Virginia and throughout the rest of the commonwealth, the percent positives is much higher in Northern Virginia at 25 than it is at the rest of the commonwealth at 10 . Again, the same can be said about hospitalizations. In Northern Virginia, Covid Patients make up a significantly larger portion of the Regions Hospital bed capacity, as youll see in this slide. Covid hospitalizations are the darkest blue area at the bottom. And this slide, of course, shows covid hospitalizations in the rest of the state. Again, the dark blue area at the bottom. We will continue to work with those officials on a slower phase one and we expect that some local officials will join us for this briefing on wednesday to explain how this will work. The key to all of this is testing. This weekend, testing went on in a variety of localities. As you can see from the pictures and these slides. In these slides. For example, there were drive through testing sites in the new river valley. As well as Community Testing on the Eastern Shore. And we are targeting testing at our atrisk neighborhoods. Im going to ask dr. Janice underwood our diversity officer, to talk about testing and provide masks, Hand Sanitizer and information in underserved communities. Dr. Underwood, welcome. Dr. Underwood thank you, governor. Hello, everyone. My name is janis underwood, i am governor northams chief diversity officer. The Health Diversity task force the Health Equity task force provides unified command to the working group which was established at the onsoast virginias covid19 response on march 11. the purpose of the task force and working group is to serve as the commonwealths first ever coalition during an Emergency Response to unapologetically ensure Health Equity lens is applied to all Decision Making within virginias response. The task force meets twice every day and the working group meets every tuesday to review policy, provide realtime learning opportunity, review communication campaigns, and to ensure small women and minority businesses are leveraged in the response and recovery. I lead the Health Equity Leadership Task force and sable k. Nelson, acting director of the office of Health Equity, serves as chair of the Health Equity working group which is a combination of several state agencies and private Human Service agencies, state leaders and community leaders. One of the priorities of the Equity Task Force is to collaborate with local governments to provide support for vulnerable communities because we know that everyone does not enjoy the same privileges for social or physical distancing or receive information the same way. There were the task force provides localities access to Health Equity training for all City Employees and volunteers, personal protective equipment or p. P. E. , culturally appropriate educational materials to support diverse communities, and those materials are in all languages identified as being needed and support in identifying neighborhoods at elevated risk with mapping technology. The Health Equity Leadership Task force is comprised of myself, dr. Curtis brown and dr. Lauren powell, sable k. Nelson, as i mentioned from the Virginia Department of health, and ms. Alacia blackhackett from my office. The Health Equity working group is a larger body, as i mentioned, comprised of all the Community Stake holders such as state agencies, private Human Service agencies and safe and faith leaders and community leaders. What we know for sure is that local and National Data indicate covid19 is exerting a disproportionate impact on communities of color and africanamerican, hispanic, latino or latinx and indigenous communities in particular. So in order to mitigate the projected dehabilitating outcomes on the Africanamerican Community and other communities who are at elevated risk, weve made 20,000 masks, 20,000 bottles of Hand Sanitizers available to Richmond City for distribution to its most underresourced communities. Social distancing doesnt mean forgetting our need for community engagement, community relationship, and community connection. So the richmond pilot is only the first of many initiatives that the Equity Task Force aims to lead throughout the commonwealth. We recognize the pilot will not address all the needs of the communities weve identified, but we are hopeful that this is a model to ensure other resources make it to their doorstep as well. Thank you. Gov. Northam dr. Underwood and to the Health Equity task force, thanks in great work youre doing on behalf of virginia, we appreciate it. We continue to increase testing capacity, as youre seeing. I expect to have some announcements, really exciting announcements about testing partnerships in the coming days so stay tuned for that. What were going to talk about is our ability to work with some of the Retail Stores across virginia to have a lot more Community Testing, not only in metropolitan areas but throughout virginia and all of our zip codes. I think thats something that well really be able to look forward to. Last week we talked about the fact that petersburg has some residents whose water had been shut off. I said then that it is unacceptable to have residents without access to Running Water when protection against this virus relies heavily on the ability to wash hands and other surfaces. So yesterday, dr. Norm oliver, our health commissioner, issued a Public Health certification that prevents the city of petersburg from shutting off Water Service to any occupied dwelling and requires the city to restore service to 46 homes. Restoring Water Service will help protect those households as well as the community. Now moving to the department of motor vehicles. We closed our public facing d. M. V. Offices early in this pandemic, im extending that closure for at least the next week. Online Services Remain open. And i would remind virginians that this is a difficult time for our graduating seniors. They are not being able to enjoy a lot of the things that all of us have enjoyed. There are also some High School Students who have met all the requirements to obtain their drivers license and i remember how much i looked forward to getting my drivers license when i was 16. So i would just ask all of you to be patient. We are working through this. We will get our d. M. V. s up and running as soon as we can and be able to get your drivers license to you. I appreciate your patience. And finally, more than 50 of our localities have local elections coming up on may 19. Tomorrow, may 12, tomorrow, may 12, is the last day for voters to request an absentee ballot be mailed to you. I strongly encourage everyone to vote absentee by mail. You cap mark reason 2a, also will have beside it, my disability or illness on the form. Voting by mail is secure. And its the safest way to vote at this time. We will continue working to make sure physical polling places and poll workers are as safe as possible for those who do go out to vote in person. Now well hear an update from dr. Oliver and then well be glad to take your questions. Dr. Oliver, thank you. Welcome. Dr. Oliver a quick update on the numbers that appeared on the v. D. H. Website earlier today. We now stand at a total number of cases of 25,070 cases. That is 989 new cases in the last 24 hour reporting period. Deaths now stand at 850. Thats an increase of 11. We have total tests of 167,758 tests. That represents as the governor said 9,801 tests in the last reporting period. So thats a good thing that thats been increasing. The number of cases in the Africanamerican Community continues to be disproportionately high, about 24 of the cases we reported, 4,119 cases in the last 24 hour period. Thats the total now. The total for the Latinx Community stands at 6,894 which again as i reported last week is about 40 of the cases. I believe thats because of the outbreaks we have seen in a bunch of the poultry plants in the region. Those outbreaks have been trending down, the number of cases has been coming down as weve put a lot of attention into dealing with those. And were also looking at the Community Spread in those areas with big tests in both the harrisonburg area and on the Eastern Shore where weve collected thousands of tests in the last couple of days. Thank you. Gov. Northam be glad to take your questions. Hi, governor. Dr. Remley was brought in three weeks ago to try to ramp up the testing rate. I keep checking the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center to see where we rank compared to other states. Were still at the bottom. So im wondering why that is, a lot of our viewers keep reaching out, wanting to know why is our testing rate so low compared to other states . Gov. Northam i think we tried to explain that in a number of press conferences. I will tell you that, i dont have the slide in front of us today but i dont know if you remember the slide that showed the five stages and they told you that as quickly as we can we would get up to 10,000. Today we were at 9,801. Which is 199 tests from 10,000. So im very pleased with the progress were making. I know a lot of folks compare to other states. There are perhaps some variables, different factors. But the team has been working hard. Ill let dr. Remley address the question as well. But i think youll see that with the adequate p. P. E. That we have now, the adequate testing supplies, particularly the swabs that both of which governors have really been having short supply and competing for. Theres been not a whole lot of guidance coming from washington in that regard. But weve been able to ramp up those supplies and thats allowed us to do a significant amount more testing. And then i think youll hear in the coming days days as i just said that we have some great working relationships with our retailers across virginia. And we will be making some announcements of how well have not only testing where people can walk up and have the test but also drive through testing as well. Again, i make no excuses for virginia. I think were in a good place. And as we move forward, one of the abilities to go into phase one, youve heard me say this a number of times before as well, is that we need to have adequate p. P. E. , we need to have adequate testing capability and it gets better every day. Thats one of the thing thats thats allowing us to move forward going into phase one. Karen, any additional comments . Dr. Remley Johns Hopkins is a cumulative amount of tests. Well never catch up unless we inappropriately tested everybody in the state which wouldnt give us information that would help Public Health. So if you look at what do we need to know for Public Health . The 10,000 was looking at about 3 of the population. If you look at 2 to 4 , 2 is around 5,500 a day, 4 hkt is a percent is a little more than 1,000. Thats when the best model, the best people that inform dr. Pique and dr. Oliver and the governor say, thats where you get the most information about the state in terms of opening up and where we are. We are, if not today there were there in the next couple of days that will provide a lot more important Public Health information. In addition, were focusing on making sure as the governor said that were taking care of the uninsured and underinsured. The vulnerable populations we dont always see or find. Its through free clinics who care for those people, federally qualified health centers, but also as we have more testing capacity, being able to deploy our medical reserve corps, our guard, our Health Department test kits and capacity are no longer an issue, theyre identifying different groups around the state. Faithbased organizations, community centers, places they can go. They know their communities really well. And test there. In the next coming days, i think well share with you how were doing because its all continuous quality improvement. Right for all of us. How are we doing never district . We know were test manager in Northern Virginia because theres a lot of disease in Northern Virginia. But we want to assure people across the state that were doing enough testing in their zip code, in their district so they can be reasewer reassured that the number of cases represents what the disease looks like in that community. To me thats our end state. If we can reassure everybody in the state that their area, we know how much disease there is there. We know how to take care of that we know what the Health Care System can do, we know what Public Health has to do, then weve reached the right numbers. Will we ever be at the top of the list for Johns Hopkins . I dont think its an obtainable goal or one we should work for. We should be working toward getting the right Public Health information to the governor and health lead source they can make the important decision they need to make. Thank you. This question will be from Max Thornberry with the Northern Virginia daily. I have a question about the context of statistics were seeing. People want to know why youre not talking about statistics in statewide population. Youre talking about number of people tested but not compared to the number of people at the state. And are rates at 1,000,000 per 100,000,000 the best indicaters . And how many people do the state models are positive for every one case we can test early on . I think that number was around 10 people were assumed to be positive for every one person tested positive, has that figure changed . Gov. Northam i asked lori to do it. Statelano was the epidemiologist. Ill try to repeat those questions back, there were several. I believe the first one was about our reporting numbers per 100,000 population, is that correct . Yeah . Yes, curious about numbers being reported in terms of statewide population, and whether the rate per 100,000 are the best way to understand the pervasiveness of the virus in terms of statewide population. Yeah. So, i think that the question to that is that, every state Health Department around the country, were looking at lots of different lenses. That is one good measure of disease burden, we combine that obviously with all the other metrics that were displayed today because its important to look at the whole picture. Not just a case count. Not just the number of persons in a hospital at any given moment. But the trends and the whole picture of data together. So yes, the short answer is yes, that is thats one way we look at this. I needed a pen to write all that down, sorry. Can you repeat the last part of the question again . Yes, sorry about that so early on there were models for every one case that the state could say yes, we have a confirmed case, we think that there are x number of other cases that are also positive. Whats that number right now. Im not sure i know the specifics. The r naugget . No, not the r naugget. Youre asking how many cases every one case represents, im not sure i have the answer to that right now. Can you confirm this if the state is going to bring in mckeen kenn see or another third mckenzie or another Third Party Site to help expand testing the way they expanded p. P. E. . And what theyll be able to deliver that the Testing Task Force cannot . And then, sorry, double question. You also said before that, you know, there were risks if the state was not opened altogether, that folks from hot spots could travel to areas with lower numbers of cases and cause new transmissions. So if Northern Virginia opens later, will there be restrictions to keep people from that hot spot, traveling to other areas of the state . Governor northam let me answer the second part and i think my chief will answer the first part. The first part was if there are parts of the state with more prevalence would there be limits to traveling from those parts of the state . We would encourage them not to. One of the things with Northern Virginia, were in daily communication with them, is the relationship with maryland and washington, d. C. And so if you look at the statistic, the day tark the number of cases, the percent positives, that whole area is so dense and theyre all kind of sharing the same challenges. So that was a lot that went into the Decision Making and is going into the Decision Making of when theyll be able to go into phase one with the ability to work with our neighbors. I would encourage individual, if they are in area where theres a higher prevalence to really be cognizant of the things we know that work for everybody and thats the stay at home order the hand washing, the social distancing, all these things are so important until the numbers start to go down. So while were not restricting them from traveling elsewhere, we would certainly encourage them to maintain the same guidelines we have been talking about all along. Clark mercer, governors chief of staff. Ill follow up on the governors answer and address the need for extra capacity with tracing and testing. We talk a lot about how the virus does not obey political borders. I think the governor articulated, were next to maryland and d. C. Were also we also border tennessee, West Virginia and kentucky. And you look at all those states, theyre all doing something a little bit different with their phase one. So for example, a lot has been written about bristol, half of bristol is in tennessee, half in virginia. Weve got that issue of folks migrating to different areas all across the commonwealth. What makes Northern Virginia unique, Fairfax County alone is bigger than eight states in the country. Thats pretty remarkable when you think about that. The five jurisdictions that sent the governor a let they are weekend, Fairfax County, prince william, alexandria, arlington and loudoun. And some followed up with a followup letter. Those five jurisdictions yesterday accounted for 719 new positive tests. Thats 73 of all the new tests in the commonwealth they feel rest of virginia accounted for 270, our 27 . The rest of virginia accounts for 60 of the population. So its gotten to the point where if you step back and look at the commonwealth as a set of regions that outside of Northern Virginia has hit those metrics and i think a responsible phase one approach which is what the governor articulated, will keep somebody from zooned rhea to from alexandria to drive to southWest Virginia to avail themselveses of outdoor dirninge a haircut. Its not like were flipping the light switch and throwing everything open right away. A lot of large venues, large gatherings, will still be further down the road in phase two and phase three. The 10person ban is in effect for this, thats going to keep people from gathering in large crowds. Its a safer at home order with our elderly and more vulnerable being encourages to stay home. The first question, are we looking to Third Party Vendors to help us with testing and tracing and the answer is yes. Weve heard from hundreds of companies and consul tans that specialize in, whether its a system of unemployment, insurance, whether its assisting with tracing and whether its assisting with testing and other states. I dont think theres a state thats going this by themselves. The tracing program has to ramp up over 1,000 new hires, pretty quickly. In a tough environment. Obviously theres folks that are receiving Unemployment Benefits and we are competing with those benefits to get them into a community tracing program, so you mention one specific firm but we have talked to many, many firms and are evaluating them and hope folks will make the be our health folks will make the be decision working with finance, that will be lev leveraged using the cares act, that will be coming from washington, the money to be put against tracing and testing. [inaudible] i believe were close to executing a contract or two for tracing but have not yet. Reporter my question is, while the state is under its current restrictions and people are out of work, a lot of folks are having issues filing for unemployment. Is there a timeline for get more staff in place to help combat the high volume of requests . Gov. Northam i have dr. Healy making her way to the podium, shes been addressing that. Dr. Healy, thank you. Host the question is about Unemployment Commission an increasing staff to make sure everyone gets their benefits. During the recession we had about 1,600 people working at the virginia employment commission, in february we had 800. Pretty much half. These you were ins are a whole these numbers are a whole lot more than we saw in the great recession. We have done anything we can to staff. We have two call centers that we actually we contract we couldnt contract with. We had to have our own staff. They released that. We have that coming on board. We increased our call center in grundy. And one in newport news. And we increased people at headquarters. Were working as hard as we can, this would be for call centers and we increased our online capability. If youre still having problems with unemployment, make sure you try the online form first. We have two different programs online you have to go through but then we also have more capacity in our call centers. If youre able to begin rolling back restrictions on friday, can you talk about where you stand on the Contract Tracing work force and on any work force youd need for isolating people who are infected if youre also on track to ramp that up in time . The question is about where we are with regard to tracing work force. We started precovid19 at the department of health with 200 or so tracers. Obviously, these folks have multiple roles but thats the number. Actually since the beginning of this, the department has staffed up to over 600. So thats a significant improvement already. And that is helping right now. Now we have additional, we want to get to that additional 1,000 in terms of tracers and 200 in terms of the supervisory folks with Public Health experience. So were well on our way and we will aggressively ramp up over the next several weeks to in order to meet those goals. Will that be in time to meet the rolling back of restrictions that could begin friday . Weve got over 600. And the hiring experience will be over the next two to four weeks to get an additional 500 and then in june an additional 300 to get to 800 new, to get us to where we need to be. In that 15 or more than 15 per 100,000. We do have increased capacity but we need to increase it further. Next sup tracy agnew. With the suffolk news herald. Reporter my question is whether you have considered a mask order as part of the phased approach to reopening . Gov. Northam a mask order . We have considered in it nonessential retails. Restaurants, were requiring them to wear masks but we are encouraging it otherwise. Well again continue as we move forward, as we look at numbers, as we look at the, making sure that our virginians are our patronning moving into these places of business are comfortable, thats something well consider. Right now, were encouraging the use of facial protection. There are some restaurants perplexed by the outdoor seating requirement only. A lot dont understand why retailers are allowed to open with indoor capacity but not restaurants. So what do you say to people who think the requirements are contradictory . And weve heard about the tentative may 15 date but when will we know for sure so businesses can plan given that were less than a week out. Gov. Northam may 15 is the second part of your question, when will we know for sure. I suspect if nothing changes ill make a ruling, if you will, on wednesday. But i will tell you, jackie, that if our numbers continue to trend in the direction they are especially for areas of virginia, that we talked about today, other than aside from Northern Virginia that i anticipate well go into phase one on friday. Repeat the first part of the question . Reporter weve heard from a lot of restaurants that are perplexed, saying the guidelines are contradickry. Gov. Northam yeah, the question, jackie said shes heard from some Restaurant Owners that think the guidelines are inconsistent and i would just repeat, jackie that this is a phase. Were going into. Phase one. Then phase two. Phase three. We are hopeful that phase one will last no more than two to three weeks. And a lot of the decision on the restaurants was, it falls back to people being comfortable. Going into that restaurant. Knowing that theyre going to be safe. And also for employees. Of restaurants. So a lot of the discussion that we had with our Business Task group included Restaurant Owners and again, i would just tell everybody across virginia that this is for two to three weeks. They are allowed to serve outdoors, at 50 capacity. I think it will allow for individuals to get back into those restaurants, to be comfortable. And if everything goes well over those two to three weeks well hopefully our phase two will be indoor dining. At 50 capacity. No standing at bars. Tables, six feet apart. All of these have been recommendations that have come through the Business Task group. Next is allen suderman with the associated press. Reporter hello, thanks for taking my call. Did you intervene in the case of martin and the parole board and if so why . And have any other recent parole decisions been put on hold . And one other question, do you have a ballpark estimate for how long Northern Virginia would delay going into phase one and when you would when you would make those plans public . Gov. Northam two questions, allen, appreciate both of them. The second one im going to answer and then im going to allow our secretary of Public Safety to address the parole issue. The second question was how long will Northern Virginia delay going into phase one. And thats to be determined. Thats really to allow us time to follow those trends. To follow the percent positivity. To follow the hospitalizations which are as you saw from the graphs are a little bit high for the Northern Virginia than they are in other parts of virginia. So well work closely with them. Its been i commend the leadership in Northern Virginia. The local officials. The delegates, senators. Theyve all been involved in this. This is about the health and well being of virginians. I couldnt ask for a better relationship. They have chosen ton part of the solution and as soon as they feel comfortable and we feel comfortable collectively moving to phase one well certainly do that. I would also say that they are just as anxious as the rest of us, as the rest of you are across virginia to ease these restribses and to again return to as near normal as we can. But theyre not there yet. I appreciate their concerns. And again, we will continue to work with them and just as soon as we feel that its safe for virginians in Northern Virginia to venture out into these places of business, well work with them to move into phase one. Secretary moran, thanks. Mr. Moran governor, thanks. The question is to do with Vincent Martins parole, convicted of killing a Police Officer back in 1979. The parole board some weeks ago determined he was eligible for parole and granted his parole after 40 years of serving his sentence. Fast forward to today. I believe the parole board has determined to put that case on hold. Put his release on hold. We have a new chair of the parole board and there have been a number of concerns raised. By the Richmond Police department, why the local commonwealth attorney. Because of those i believe theres now been an independent investigation begun as reported by a local television station last week. Parole board became aware of it in. Light of an independence investigation into the process by which the parole board made that determination, they have determined to put it on hold temporarily. This will allow the removal of the cloud that has formed over this parole decision. There have been a number of aldwations made and independent review will allegations made and an independent review will allow the parole board, mr. Martin, the family and richmond p. D. To move on after that independent investigation is concluded. Reporter are any other cases affected by that . Mr. Moran i believe its the vincent mortain case thats drawn a particular amount of attention, allen. It is a temporary hold until that osic investigation is completed. Other cases the osic investigation is supposed to be confidential. I dont know exactly all of the details. The parole board, as you know, worked furiously to respond to the covid crisis. There were a number of releases during the month of march. But there are also a number of reviews. They worked diligently, followed up three times as many cases as they normally would. Were all interested in making sure the processes were followed. Certainly in terms of victim notification. Thats very important to the parole board and that administration. We want to make sure that the process was followed. But that particular case brings a great deal of attention and i think extraordinary action by the parole board is limited in this particular case. Reporter is anyone able to get tested, and some people are questioning the validity of number, can you talk about why the numbers are included. And then a question for the governor, i know were working really hard on testing and Contact Tracing. Do you feel were at a capacity where we wont be wont see cases increase when we start reopening on friday . Gov. Northam the first question is, the Virginia Department of Health Counts among the tests that are performed here the serologic test that looks at antigens and antibodies and why did we do that. We made a decision to count all tests and changed our methodology from just looking at the unique people who were being tested. And the in general, when we do our data, its provided to us by the centers for Disease Control and prevention. There is no set guidance on that. You will find variability among the states on how that gets reported. We chose to report all the tests that were being performed. And short of doing a survey of all the states to find out who is doing it the way were doing it versus some other way, i cant tell you that theres some particular reason that one state would choose to do it one way or the other. We can see how many tests performed are serologic and how many are diagnostic . And Johns Hopkins and harvard say they recommend states do not lump them together. Can you talk about why virginia has decided to do that . Gov. Northam the question is could we separate out the serologic tests from the mo elect rar tests. Molecular tests. I believe that there may be ways to do that, we can certainly look into that. In the same way we separated out unique people tested from total tests. The second part of your question, it sounds like it was a repeat of the first question. Why did we decide to do it. Given that Health Researchers have suggested that as i said theres no national guidance. Some Health Researchers suggested that and others are doing what were doing, which is counting all the tests. Perhaps someone else would like to answer . Ill just say that, we started with just the p. C. R. Test and then that was the dominant test and when serologic tests were added, they were added to, again, the idea was to survey all the tests we could about this disease. In retrospect we may have chose an different path. Without guidance we went for as much testing as represented in the community. So going forward, well look into how to untangle those. And more to come. I think its important, we do pressers three times a week, this question comes up from the press every single time we get in front of you. And its written about extensively. I have asked our team and i had suspicions and continued to, about whether or not all states are reporting uniformly. If were going to be compared to all 50 states i want to make sure its apples to apples. Our team did the same thing you did. Which is talk to Johns Hopkins and the harvards of the world and it became clear that other states are including serologic testing. So if youre going to compare us to other states and be critical of the volume of tests were doing, were not actually comparing aptols apples, i think thats grossly unfair. I think theres a way at the back end for us to parse those two types of tests out. If another state is including serologic tests and theyre getting ranked above us and we are not, you cant win either way. Now we are including them and our ranking will be better but now were criticized for that we want to make sure that these tests are valid and the data is comparing aptols apples. Comparing apples to apples. On the first question about being ready nor friday, and greg, this is a followup to your question about the trace, i think the governor has made it pretty clear, well have guidance coming out through our council, but when you take Northern Virginia out of the mix, if they are permitted and allowed to not enter phase one this friday, when you look at our contact tracers and our testing for the rest of the commonwealth, i think were more than ready for the rest of the commonwealth to enter phase one. Were going to have to really ramp up some Contact Tracing is where we have the preponderance of positive tesses, which is in Northern Virginia. So it stands to reason if theyre delayed by a week or two weeks or several weeks, we have a bit of cushion to get tracers in Northern Virginia and ready when they are ready to enter phase one. Gov. Northam mel, you had a second part to your question, have you questions been answered adequately . Is there something i can try to add . Is there anything else youd like to add . \[laughter] this will be from lieu ann rice with roanoke times. Reporter last week there was talk about the surveys at the Nursing Homes which will tell you about the illness at a particular date. Are you going to provide information as to what youre learning from these surveys as to the number of tests given, the number of Nursing Homes or assisted living facilities and number of positives so we can have a better understanding of disease prevalence . And a second question, because everyone seems to be getting one, are you also considering doing routine universal testing at the facilities, such as maryland is proposing to do . The question is around our Point Prevalence surveys and if we can povide more information about where the surveys are taking place, i can provide that in upcoming briefings by setting. While the majority have been in longterm care facilities were providing that service in other settings like workplaces. And correctional facilities as well. When its warranted. We would not be providing facilityspecific case counts, for example, but we can certainly provide the aggregate information around the surveys and where theyre happening so you can have that information. In regards to the universal testing, what were doing with our Point Prevalence is surveys is very comparable to whats happening, i think you said in maryland. So any were using data now, the Virginia Department of health, to identify facilities that would benefit, longterm care facilities specifically that would benefit from a Point Prevalence survey based on number of cases. We reached out to those facilities and essentially scheduled them, it does take some plan, they need to be ready for what to do with results, etc. Weve not turned down any requests so far. Were seeing a lot of phone calls, emails, about those on the frontlines, the nurses, health care providers, even law enforcement, who were concerned about hazard pay or bonus pay when they look at other people who are getting subsidized incomes, unemployment checks. They think were still going to work and we are on the frontlines. Can anything be done for them . And my second question would be for dr. Underwood, wondering how is your department being perceived because it seems as though theres a climate of misunderstanding about inclusion and diversity. Somehow the group being perceived with the work youre putting forth . Gov. Northam two questions, appreciate both of them. Ill let our secretary of finance address your first question and dr. Underwood the second. The first question was about pay for overtime and different things. First of all, the regulations that have been given to us by the federal authorities are leave some decisions up to the localities. If it is deemed that it is directly responsible for a covid virus and that is something that needs to be determined in going through there. Its not clear cut as to whether or not these are allowed, depending on the situation. So it really depends on whats happening there an what their re what theyre responding to directly associated with the covid19. Again, it goes back to directly associated with covid19. If the localities or whomever can prove that, then that may be an eligible expense. Otherwise it would not be. But it is, the key point is whether or not it is specifically related to the virus. I would just add on Workers Compensation we have had our counsel diving into this. Got a couple of notes here ill read off. Most employers and employees in virginia are covered under the requirement of the virginia Workers Compensation act and the act specifies what is covered under the Workers Compensation system and how medical benefits and wage reimbursements are afforded for temporary and permanent disabilities. Workers comp is provided in certain situations when workers are injured on the job or contract a jobrelated illness. And that presumption is something that is provided for in the act and code of virginia. So if a decision was made to provide a temporary presumption for covid for all First Responders and health providers, such a policy would need to be accomplished legislatively through the General Assembly rather than through an by the governor. So that is a topic that the legislature, i suspect theyll be back in richmond late they are summer. Theres a variety of issues they have discussed bringing up. I think presumption under Workers Compensation act is one theyd have to act on legislatively. You were looking at all possible options to look at for workers who may not feel comfortable or able to go back to work in their industry, if theyre going to back to work buzz of immunocomp are mies for themselves or family members, any updates for those not able to go back for those reasons . Its a tenuous situation with folks being offered their positions back. I think many workers have very valid concerns. Theres a protest, adjudication process if someone doesnt want to come back because they think their workplace is not safe or the right precautions havent been put in place. I think therell be tension with the Trump Administration over how this is handled nationally. Folks are receiving unemployment that unemployment Unemployment Insurance lasts through august. The administration asks that states provide lists of employees who have rejected coming back onto the job to be kicked off unemployment. That is one route that would go through the fravet. Through the federal government. We have a state process to handle claims and complaints. I think it would be our preference to handle that at the state level. There are many valid concerns ranging from whether an employer has take then right precautions with social distancing an p. P. E. , to whether someone is caring for a child whose day care is otherwise closed and they cant find somewhere for their child to have a safe situation while theyre at work. Its a work in progress, its a situation were cognizant of and working through. Thank you for the question, i believe the question was how is my office being perceived. I want to answer in two ways. The governor often suggests and tells everyone that my position and my office is the first of its kind in the nation and in virginia. And in that way we are a national exemplar. Thats how i go around the state and even the country talking about the work that were doing. Its very unique to virginia. But we really encourage every governor across the nation to have a position at the cabinet level that looks at diversity, equity, and inclusion. My leading the Equity Task Force is also, i believe, perceived very positively in that the localities we worked with have been very excited to partner with us. For example, in the city of harrisburg, mayor deana reed and i were working together in the task force and we were able to rule that pilot out roll that pilot out within a week, as well as richmond just rolling out tomorrow. So i think that were being perceived very positively. Were excited to partner with other localities. Right now, there are several localities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and in southWest Virginia that say we want to learn more about what youre doing and how we can collaborate. So to those localities i sago to our website and take a look at what we have to offer and what were doing and were happy to link arms with everyone. What about those who say your department is a waste of time. The governor doesnt see it that way. I dont see it that way. I believe i speak for the entire administration that as long as were here we see the value in it. I would also like to suggest that were not here to convince everyone of the value in it. But we are really interested in linking arms with the people who want to do the most good and build momentum. As far as im concerned, thats what were doing and what well continue to do. Thank you. Gov. Northam thank you, dr. Underwood. I never like to correct people but i have corrected her before. Dr. Underwood told you when she first started speaking that she worked for the governor. Just like all of these individuals up here, she and they work for you. They work for virginia. They report to me as the governor but you work for virginia. And i thank you for all that you do and all the rest of you, what you do i just wanted to close, i know weve gone on a little longer today. But mel asked a question, and i thought she might follow up on it. When we go into phase one, what are we looking for . And are there going to be increased numbers of cases out there . And the bottom line to that is that we are going into phase one because we have been following the science. Weve been following the data. A lot of that, those guidelines, have come from the c. D. C. And we have talked about those a lot. So we feel that were at a place where we can safely go into phase one and in most areas of virginia. Obviously Northern Virginia is an exception. But the other reason that we can go into phase one is because we have the tools now that we didnt have a month or two months ago. We have the tools to include more testing. As youve seen. Were close to 10,000 tests a day. We have tools that were working toward better testing. Better tracing, not just in the hot zones but all of virginia. I would not be making the decision i have a lot of help with folks make the decision but i would not make these decisions unless i knew you were safe because thats of utmost importance to me. The final thing that i would tell all of you this is in all of our hands. Its not in my hands, its in all of our hands. We understand now. Weve been dealing with this virus for more than two months. We know how contagious it is. Doesnt seen it discriminate. There are cases in the white house. Its out there. As youve heard me say before is a position, i have never seen any pathogen that acts like this that is as contagious. As we prepare to enter phase one, we are in a new day in this world. Not just in our country or in virginia but this virus is out there until there is a cure for the virus and until there is a vaccination. We have to be cognizant. We have to be vigilant that its out there and that we have to protect ourselves and we have to protect our friends, our loved ones, our neighbors and we have to protect those on the front lines, those you just mentioned who are working in our hospitals. Its in our hands so we need to continue with the social distancing. We need to continue staying six feet apart, washing her hands, keeping her hands from our faces. We know all of these things work but we have to keep doing them. You keep up the good work across virginia. We appreciate, again, the press. I know this is three times a week now but it is so important that what we are doing, what is going on with this virus in virginia is transmitted to virginia so they get accurate and updated information. I thank all of you for being part of this team and part of the solution we will look forward to seeing you on wednesday. Thank you very much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] on the cspany networks, the first of two Supreme Court cases on president trumps finances. First the oral argument regarding congressional subpoenas of the president s financial records. Thes followed by president ial immunity and subpoenas for the president s tax returns. At noon eastern, the National Constitution center host a panel to review the days oral arguments and at 230 p. M. , the Senate Judiciary committee holds a hearing on viability on Liability Protection during the covid19 pandemic. At 10 30 a. M. , the Senate Returns to work including the nomination of Brian Montgomery to be deputy housing and urban development secretary