Covid19. I want to thank you for joining me for the national day of mourning on monday. We continue to pray for those who have lost loved ones to this virus. Before the murder of george floyd and before the country heard yet again the cries for Racial Equity and justice, we already knew that covid19 was disproportionately impacting communities of color. In North Carolina, africanamericans make up approximately 22 of the population, but as of june 1, they account for 30 of the confirmed covid19 cases and 34 of covid19 deaths. People are just 10 of the population, yet they make up 39 of covid19 confirmed cases. These statistics are alarming and they are not acceptable. I want to be clear there is nothing inherent to black or brown people that makes them more susceptible to severe covid19 illness. The data should not be used to further racism or fear. The disparity is because people of color have historically had less access to health care, housing, Economic Opportunity and more. This virus is exploiting those inequalities. It is up to us to do something about it. Today, i am proud to have signed executive order 143 to address disparities in communities of color that are being highlighted and intensified by this pandemic. This order moves our state in several areas. First, it creates the Andrea Harris socioeconomic environmental and Health Equity task force to address these longterm disparities. My friend Andrea Harris dedicated her life to eliminating disparities in North Carolina. She fought for social, economic and Racial Equity. We lost andrea a few weeks ago. Our state will miss her advocacy and her action. Naming this task force in her honor is a way to carry on her mission. The task force will focus on five areas. Access to health care. Patient engagement in health care settings. Economic opportunities and employment. Environmental justice and inclusion. And education. Our department of a Administration Secretary will lead the group. Secretary sanders is a strong leader, accomplished businesswoman, and fierce advocate for all of North Carolina. Im excited she will take this on and we will hear from her in a minute. In the coming weeks, we will name a Diverse Panel of experts from each of the five focus areas, as well as community and state Agency Leaders to serve on this task force. As the task force examines longterm opportunities, there is some meaningful things we can do right now to lessen the disparities. We know that black and minority owned businesses are often overlooked and under resourced. Too many of these businesses have been excluded from covid19 funds. My order directs the North CarolinaPandemic Recovery office to ensure that covid19 relief fund are fairly distributed. Ofalso expands the capacity our North Carolina historically underutilized Business Office to provide those businesses access to opportunities and resources. We know that minority and marginalized communities are more likely to suffer from Chronic Health conditions, including diabetes, kidney disease, obesity and asthma. The data shows these Underlying Health conditions significantly increase a persons risk for severe covid19 infection. Alln effort to ensure that communities have access to health care, my order directs the North Carolina department of health and Human Services in partnership with local health departments, Rural Health Centers and free and Charitable Clinics to provide covid19 testing and related health care to uninsured North Carolina. People who are uninsured in our state. We know the best thing we can do to improve health care for everyone in our state is to expand medicaid. North carolina should have done this years ago and i will keep fighting to close the Health Care Coverage gap. Going to a doctor should not be a luxury weather were not there is a pandemic. Provides also direction for other state agencies. I know that those marching and protesting right now are lifting up their voices for more than just health disparities. We hear you. And there is more to come. Today, we are taking steps to help reverse the impacts of longstanding inequality made worse by this pandemic. My administration is committed to helping to eliminate these disparities. We will keep listening. We will continue to work with communities all across our state to address systemic injustice. Now i would like to ask our secretary of administration, tohelle sanders, share some remarks with us. Michelle . Sanders thank you, governor. Thank you for your continued leadership during these unprecedented times and challenging times. While we have been laying the foundation for this new task force for some time, the work we officially began today with the announcement of executive order 143 couldnt be more timely. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to chair this new task force that Andrea Harris social, environmental and Health Equity task force. Named in the honor of one of our great africanamerican civil rights, environmental and social justice leaders, misses Andrea Harris. As the governor said, she was a champion for racial and social equity, and justice for all people. And worked tirelessly and healthsly to eliminate economic disparities across the state. I know that she will be with us in spirit. And i know as we pick up the torch in her honor to grapple with these complex and Critical Issues for North Carolina that together, we will do well. I will chair this new task force with courage, inclusion and hope for putting forward evidencebased and datadriven recommendations with tangible results. Addressing disparities in health and health care is important not only from an equity standpoint, to help for improving more broadly by achieving improvements in overall quality of care and population health. As a unified state, i know we can get through these difficult times together. However, we must also acknowledge the systemic inequities that class, race, gender and other social determinants present. We are not all faced with the same challenges and must look to provide alternative solutions to mitigate the impact of covid19 and other Economic Health and equity issues from vulnerable populations. The onslaught of covid19 and the resultant economic downturn has disproportionately hurt our communities of color. Particularly our black communities. You heard the governor mentioned that on june 1, africanamericans make up 22 of North Carolinas population. But account for 30 of confirmed of covid19 34 race isn cases where known. 90 of our historically underutilized businesses which represent 58 of North Carolinas Small BusinessCommunity Report they have been impacted by covid19. The task force will work with various subject matter subject Matter Experts to identify best practices for creating economic stability, eliminating health disparity, and achieving Environmental Justice communities of color. As missioned by the governor, we will focus on issues related to access to health care, Patient Engagement in health care settings, Economic Opportunities in Business Development and employment. Environmental justice and inclusion. And education. We will focus on the root cause of these issues. The root cause of Health Inequity begins with historical and contemporary inequities that have been shaped by institutional and societal structures, policies and norms in the United States. These deeply rooted inequities have shaped the inequitable experiences of the social and other determinants of health. Education, income and wealth, employment, health systems, services, houses, housing. The physical environment, transportation, and the social environment, and Public Safety. Health inequities are a result of more than individual choices or random occurrences. They are the result of ongoing interplay of inequitable structures, policies and norms that shape the lives. These policies and norms such as segregation, redlining, and foreclosure, and implicit bias play out in socioeconomic, environmental, as well as social determinants of health. I look forward to working and collaborating with state leaders and the department of health and Human Resource health and Human Services, the office of environmental quality, the office of Minority Health and health disparity. The Pandemic Recovery office, members of the commission on indian affairs. The commission on inclusion. Andhispanic Latino Council the council for women advisory board, as well as partners and experts and stakeholders across the state of North Carolina. In addressing this issues for more equitable and unified North Carolina for all people. As president obama said, change is not easy but it is always possible. And we are going to work to achieve that possibility for the state of North Carolina. Thank you. Thank you, secretary sanders. Here today, we also have dr. Burns, Senior Deputy director of the division of public health, to announce some new tools we are engaging in our fight against covid19. Dr. Burns, we welcome you today. Governor thank you, and secretary sanders for your leadership. In every health measure, communities of colors fare worse. Covid19 did not create these disparities but made it acutely visible. The root causes are complex, interconnected and rooted in structural racism, implicit bias, and historical inequities. This is no longer acceptable and the question is what will we do . Embedded inly say all of our covid19 response is the goal of achieving Health Equity by investing in and directing a proportionate amount of resources to historically marginalized populations. One way we are doing that is beginning with ensuring we break down barriers to access. The new initiatives i am announcing today are a part of a larger effort to make sure that covid19 testing is available in trusted and accessible places are communities of color. Today, we are launching two new online tools to help people determine if they may need to be tested and find a nearby testing place. Many people may feel uncertain or confused about whether they should get tested. While there is no substitute for a conversation with the medical professional, our new online tool called check my symptoms allows people to enter their symptoms to determine if they should get tested for covid19. Find my testing place is a resource for anyone who needs to be tested for covid19, but arent sure where to go. People can enter their county or zip code to find a testing site. These new online tools and resources will help north carolinians have the information and support they need to protect themselves and their loved ones. Before i conclude, i cannot talk about testing without acknowledging myco lead, dr. Scott shone, and noting that today, we reported our highest number of tests completed at more than 19,000. I am old so appreciative of our local health apartment, federally qualified health centers, hospitals, health systems, private providers, commercial labs, community partners, and so many others who are ensuring that testing is widely available and who are intentionally focusing on our communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by covid19. And, of course, everyone should practice the three ws when they leave home. Wear a face covering, wait six feet apart, and wash your hands often. It depends on all of us working together to put ourselves, our loved ones and our neighbors. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Burns, and thank you dr. Shone too with the test surge workgroup. Having reported more than 18,000 tests conducted in one day is pretty impressive, so i appreciate that. This is an important effort to boost our testing and tracing. These are critical pieces as we fight this virus. I also want to briefly mention and thank our dedicated men and women operating our resources phone line. They have marked 50,000 calls processed since the start of the pandemic, helping people get connected with community and social service resources. We applaud your efforts and we are really grateful for them. Oury, we have with us secretary of health and Human Services, dr. Mandy cohen. Our secretary of Public Safety, dr. Hooks. Our director of emergency management. Brian tipton and karen magoon are our sign language interpreters. Jackie and jasmine are our Spanish Language interpreters. When you go to the website, you can put in your symptoms, you can find out whether you should have a test. It will tell you where to go to get that test. It is a good tool to have and i am glad we are rolling that out today. We will now take questions from the media. If you could identify yourself and your organization, we would appreciate it. We will take the first question. Our first question will be from rose from North Carolina health news. [inaudible] there . , are you gov. Cooper i think we are getting that one. Ok, we will take our next question from Gary Robertson with the associated press. Hi, governor. Slightly offtopic but still on covid19 you have a bill on your desk that would allow bars to reopen outdoors. Do you need to act on that by this weekend . What are your plans and what do you think about a similar bill that would reopen gyms despite your executive order that has them shuttered . Gov. Cooper i have concerns about both of those bills because they take away flex ibility during the time of emergency. Weve said all along that we really want to boost the economy and to ease restrictions at the right time. We are looking at this data, are indicators, are trends, putting it all together and making decisions. Now we are in phase two. Restaurants have been allowed to reopen. Personal Care Services have been allowed to reopen. We are analyzing whether bars and gyms should be able to open and i will say theres a possibility that even before we get to the timeline of phase three, that we might want to do a phase 2. 5 or look at some of these additional items that might boost our economy, but that we would feel safe about not boosting the number of covid19 cases enough to overwhelm our hot zones. That is something we are considering. But the real problem with this legislation is that if, for example, we do have a surge in authority ofthe the executive branch is taken away to be able to close those again in order to protect the health and safety of the public. Woulde General Assembly act,to of the emergency allowing the executive branch to take specific action in an emergency and it removes the flexibility. It also hampers the ability of local governments to go in and make those decisions to protect the health and safety of the people. So, although these things may be good to do at some point in the near future. This legislation is not the right way to go about it we are reviewing both pieces of legislation. I dont think one of them has passed but we will let you know as soon as we make a final decision. Thanks. Question. Cbs 17. El with hi, governor. This is michael from cbs 17. We are getting very close to one Million People filing for unemployment in North Carolina since the outbreak begin. Aside from changing who is in charge, what specifically have you asked them to do differently and how are you ensuring those changes actually happen . In addition, what do you have to say to the more than 300,000 people still waiting for those benefits . Gov. Cooper one of the things i have asked them to do is significantly improve customer service. Unemployment laws are getting more and more complicated because there are more benefits that intersect. In a division that was handling 12,000 claims a month, not only are they handling many more claims, over one million claims, but also intersecting claims with both federal and state claims. I have issued an executive order to take away some of the regulations to make it easier for them which is positive. They dont have to have in person meeting creative they dont have to be putting in applications for a job. The employer does not have to pay for it. Those things were all in the law. By executive order, i have taken them out and the General Assembly has confirmed that. They are getting more and more people trained to be able to answer the phone and also they have installed a new chat function. I think today, we are trying to confirm this because i look at the numbers coming from the division of Employment Security every single day because i know each one of those numbers represents a family on the edge and someone who needs unemployment benefits. It looks like that all of the unique callers sometimes people make two or three calls, but all of them got to somebody today which i have asked them to find a way to make sure that you answer every single call. There are some people who have complicated issues that they are working through having to deal with. They have put together a team of people who can go in and analyze all of these complicated issues. We are now getting close to 700,000 people who are receiving unemployment benefits. I think the number i have to go back and look i think the number is over 3 billion of money that has gone out to north carolinians. They are still striving and working hard every day to get more money out to more people. With the extended number of people they have put in place, with the number of people they are getting trained to answer the phone, with the additional chat function, with the teams they put together to handle the more complex cases, they are making progress. We are pushing them every single day. They are working hard. Thanks. Next question. The charlotte business journal. Hey, governor. I wanted to ask you two questions about the rnc here in charlotte. The first is whether you see any kind of drop dead date in terms of making a decision on whether this goes forward or not. I know that is not your decision, but having a resolution to it. Secondly, i want to know what your perspective is on the rnc offering a version of the convention that would put all of the events for most of the events here, other than the nominating speech, acceptance speech by President Trump . Gov. Cooper lets make one thing clear that i have said all along, that i have said to the president personally, that i said to the rnc, that we put in writing we want the Rnc Convention in North Carolina. We want to make sure that it is held in a safeway to protect the health of North Carolina in. I was told by the president that he insisted on a full arena, 19,000 people inside the spectra marina with no masks, no social distancing, and that we the tote of North Carolina had guarantee they could do that at the end of august. We said we want to convention here. We are willing to work with you on outside venues. We are willing to try to find a way you can safely do it but we cannot guarantee that. There has been discussion about having all of the other events in charlotte except for the acceptance speech that the president has insisted upon making sure there is an absolutely full arena with no social distancing and no masks. I hope that can come about and i understand that some of those discussions are occurring. We want to convention here. We think it is good for North Carolina. We are not going to guarantee something that we know could hurt the health and the health and safety of North Carolina indians. I look forward to any continued discussions that they want to have. The president announced he is moving the convention somewhere else. I think the rnc wants to keep a lot of it in charlotte. We will see how it works out. Thanks. Next question. David hodges. Hi, governor. Similar to eric who just spoke regarding the rnc, my question revolves around that. From people i have talked to, there is concern about the possibility of litigation coming out of all of this. That the any concerns convention not coming to charlotte could put people in the middle of a lawsuit, whether the city, state, or people that put money into this . I know there are a lot of contracts the convention i know there are a lot center, the spectrum center. I know there are a lot of those and people plan to go forward. I think it is important all of those be viewed in the context of the fact we have declared states of emergency in charlotte , in North Carolina and in the United States and we have a covid19 pandemic. When i talked to the president , i commended him on not have had any rallies since march. Because of the potential danger to the participants. It is pretty obvious that the state of North Carolina cannot guarantee a full arena in august because we dont know what the status of the virus will be at that point and we are continuing to make sure we dont overwhelm our hospitals. I think there is still discussions going on. We will have to see what happens with those contracts but we are going to continue to keep the health and safety of North Carolina indians as the number one priority here. Thanks. Next question. We are going to try rose with North Carolina health news again. Are you on the line . I am. Thank you so much for taking my message. Governor, i know you were talking about the inequities cases. E present in covid there is also inequities in the prison and jail population, but it is very difficult for folks out here to know whats happening in the prisons and jails in North Carolina. Do you plan on letting us know whats happening with covid in prisons and jails . Gov. Cooper yes. Our department of public and safety can certainly provide. Hat information there is more we need to do with all of criminal justice. Many of these inequities have been brought to life. We mentioned several times that africanamericans make up 22 of our states population. They make up 52 of people who are in prison. Those are the kinds of things that we have to deal with headon and i know our chief justice of our supreme court, davis beach. About tackling those inequities. There is more to come. Theres more to come in the criminal justice arena. People whosafety of are in prison, right now, the department of Public Safety is in the process of testing every single staff member. Those are people who go into the community and back into the prisons. Making sure that people who are in our prisons arent infected. Testing is going on throughout the prison and i dont know what information you were looking for that you do not have, but if you can ask our office, we can try to provide that to you. Thanks. Next question please. Blanford, abc 11. Hi, governor. Its andrea blansford. A followup to the potential of phase 2. 5. As the protests and marches continue, you are tracking the data on whether that has an impact on the covid trend. Is there a point in time, say 14 days from the start of the demonstration that you might look back at the trends and see if there is no drastic change, we will consider going ahead and allowing the playgrounds, gyms and bars reopen outdoors at that point . Gov. Cooper the data will guide us. We will be looking at the number of hospitalizations, the number of hospital beds, icu beds and ventilators that we have available. The number of positive cases. The percentage of positive cases. The number of people coming to the emergency room with covidlike symptoms. All of these things operate as canaries in the coal mine. They operate together to give us a potential forecast of whats coming down the road. Yes, im concerned about people who may become infected with covid19 at any kind of mass gathering or meeting, including protests. Say aing to let dr. Cohen word or two about that. Our courage enough more and more people getting tested so that we can identify, isolate people and try to slow the spread as much as we can. Dr. Cohen . Dr. Cohen hi, andrea. Yes, i think we want to continue to watch our trends. Anytime we see large groups of folks coming together, we know theres the potential for exposure when folks are not able to socially distance. As we rollout this new tool, saying should i get a test . We want folks who may have been at a mass gathering, whether it is a protest or somewhere else, like the speedway, to potentially think about getting tested. We are making sure we are identifying cases early and identifying contacts of those folks so we can isolate those and make sure the virus is not spreading around our community. Testing and tracing continues to be an important component, as well as doing the important social distancing, face covering, washing your hands that keeps the virus level up. That is our goal overall. Keep the spread low so we dont overwhelm our health care system. So, if you are participating in a protest or mass gathering, we know a lot of folks are wearing face coverings but not everywhere. Folks all social distancing but not everywhere. We want to make sure folks do get tested and make sure that they know that is available to them. They can use the new symptom checker, as well as a tool to find a location near them. Thanks. Gov. Cooper thank you. Next question. Kate martin with Carolina Public press. Good afternoon, governor. This is kate martin. I have a couple of questions. When you say the state wants to provide covid19 testing and related health care or health services, how much will this actually cost the patient and how will they qualify . Im basically wanting to know what will this look like for the patient . Will they have to pay anything . Will they get hospital care and ventilator support if that is needed . Also, im wondering if possibly dr. Cohen can tell us about the reliability of the test being used, both in prison and commercially. Gov. Cooper we do not want cost to affect peoples ability to get a test. Weve pushed private Insurance Companies to cover these things. Theres positive things going on there, in medicaid and medicare. In addition, the federal government has provided covid19 funds which we have appropriated to make sure that people can get tests. So, we dont want cost to be a barrier for getting people tested. Commentet dr. Cohen on the other part of the question. Dr. Cohen hi, yes. As the governor said, in terms of cost for folks, that our number of partners we are working with like walgreens that are actually federal sites for testing. No matter who goes to those sites, there is no cost to the patient. Other places you may be going to, they will want to bill your insurance if you have that, medicaid, medicare, private insurance. If you dont, they have the ability to build towards the federal government if you are uninsured. Gap,ere continues to be a we have allocated additional funding from the state level to make sure we are not only paying for the tests themselves, but the infrastructure of actually administering these testing sites. That is the work that is ongoing. We want to maximize all the potential sources for payment from the federal government first before we think about needing to use funds at the state. There are teams working hard on that. But testing and the cost of testing is a real issue and i know that more work is being done at the federal level to think about how we support the cost of testing going forward. Your second question now was oh, the reliability of the tests. Thank you. The testing largely that is being done, and many of these testing sites is what we call pcr testing. It is looking for the actual virus. We do a nasal swab, the back of your throat, and against set off to a lab. It takes 24 to 48 hours to come back. That has a very high level of sensitivity and specificity. That is the Gold Standard. We know even how you take the test, like how you collect the samples matters to how good that test is. We know if you can get a sample from way back in the back of the nose and throat, that is more likely for you to pick up more virus then if you are just at the tip of the nose. There are changes to how these tests run just by the way you collect the samples. So, that is generally how most folks are testing. There are some more rapid tests that are out there. Abbott had a rapid test. There have been concerns about its ability to actually find the virus quickly. So, i think that science is still evolving in terms of how can we identify tests, but the majority of what the testing is right now and the Testing Capacity we have built is doing that Gold Standard pcr testing. Just know there are still false negatives where they might say you are negative. Its possible to still be a false negative. That can be because of the way the sample is collected themselves or the way the sample is run. That is just the reality of how these tests get done. Generally, we are looking at that Gold Standard test. I know the Scientific Community is working hard on increasing the kinds of tests that can be done, to make them faster, to be able to scale to more places, and still be able to identify covid19 but that science is still evolving. Thanks. Gov. Cooper thank you. Next question please. Richard with the winstonsalem journal. Governor, the question i was going to ask has been asked so i am fine. Gov. Cooper great. Next question. Our last question will be the observer. You answered some of my questions that i have new ones. You talked about 2. 5. 4 and phase june three could be at the end of the month, whether or not to sign or bar billr let the happened this weekend. Would 2. 5 happened this week, next week . Would it include bars or changes to the order . Gov. Cooper we will let the science and the data drive decisions here. Dr. Cohen and her team are looking at these numbers every day. We dont want to be so affected by numbers on one day. You want to look at a trend over a period of time. When they get to a point where they feel comfortable making being able to turn that dimmer switch up a little bit, that is when we may potentially issue new executive orders allowing more activity to occur. Remember, most businesses are open. People are doing things to slow the spread. We appreciate that very much. Courses toare taking make sure they are protecting their customers. More and more positive things are happening out there. The problem with the Legislation Authority limits the under the Emergency Powers act and would prevent us from making a decision to turn the dimmer switch back down. Suppose there was a massive surge of virus that began to overwhelm our health care system. Most people would not would want us to take steps to slow the spread of the virus and the way this legislation is written, that ability is taken away from the executive branch under this or any other emergency that might occur. Thats not good legislation and we have a problem with that. It is not to say that the things that are in that legislation arent laudable goals. It might be potentially put into an executive order if the numbers are right. We look forward to continuing to consult the health care experts, consult the Business Community about when the decision is made, how things are done to ease restrictions so that people can get back open again or open more than they are. We want to get this economy boosted. It is important. The health and safety of North Carolina and has to remain the priority. Thank you all very much and we will see you again soon. Stay safe, everybody. With the federal government at work in dcf throughout the country, use the congressional directory for Contact Information for members of congress, governors and federal agencies. Order your copy online today at cspanstore. Org. Also tonight, the Memorial Service for george floyd who died in minneapolis last week after a Police Officer kneeled on his neck for close tnine minutes. Family members and the reverend al sharpton spoke at the service. You can see it tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Next, a political reporter for the morning hold newspaper in allentown, pennsylvania talks about the state of the 2020 president ial race in the keystone state where President Trump won in 2016. She discusses how pennsylvanias Political Climate has changed since the 2016 election and what issues are driving voter decisions at the polls, including the economy and the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. This is about 10 minutes. Lauraning us via zoom is olson, washington correspondent for the morning call, as we talk about about a ground state. Lets go back to 2016. What are the lessons for the democrats and republicans as they gear up . Laura