Also those who are coming in from around the states. Im joined today with a couple of outstanding leaders from the National Guard to serves as chief from the joint chief of staff out of washington dc and is with us today and was here about 40 years ago with a call for Natural Disaster when we had flooding but it is good to welcome him back here. Im especially pleased and i can tell you if there is one consistent thing every time the governors get on the phone whether the president and Vice President and the National Governors association the one thing that every governor that we have a lot to do with the leadership with the quality of the guardsmen and the soldiers around the country. And they are very familiar to see the National Guard with that Tremendous Service and in difficult circumstances. But this Public Health emergency is different than what we saw before we saw our fair share of floods and hurricanes and tornadoes. But this pandemic with the coronavirus is very different. We have over 1425 soldiers and airmen assisting with a response you probably dont know what they are doing and this is just some of the things they are doing. Medical services and engineering assessments a lot of the distribution and support to manage warehouse and all the ventilators and ppe to provide shelter assistance and testing proper ppe training and food banks with Liaison Officers with Emergency Operations centers and the assessments for different facilities looking regionally to identify the surgeon and medical capacity. And many other functions so thank you for your leadership and all the work is being done by the soldiers and the airmen of the louisiana National Guard. Ive always said and i will still say it that general mcneil and i agree with that but i know he understands just how good the National Guard is. And not just as port on support and those soldiers and airmen and by the end of this year we will have 2700 deployed with the 256 brigade. And the state of louisiana today is worse than without the service of the National Guard thank you for the general to support us at a National Level in one of which is to get the title 32 status extended beyond the 32 days to have tremendous impact on the individuals who are serving because of the additional benefits they will now qualify for. And to deliver some remarks if you have questions for him asked them all he is at the podium because i know he has one more meeting and then he has to leave because he has to get to another location. And then to come back. Thank you very much and the rundown of what the National Guard is doing and congratulations and thanks to general waddell for his leadership of one of the greatest. Thank you to let me come firsthand and then to do a few things. And safe and able to perform missions to protect ourselves going around the louisiana today to see the care that men and women with the recommendations and social distancing and then to respond to the crisis as a nation and as a governor as louisiana needed to do. And men and women all over the world most recently i visited many of the combat zones in the middle east with worldclass soldiers and airmen. I will could not be any more proud of who they are. And with this event on a National Guard scale as of this morning we have 43500 National Guard members across the nation including 1200 here in louisiana responding to the covid19 pandemic. These are continuing to rise over the next week or so and those men and women that are called to do that and since 2005 and katrina with men and women in every state and territory participate more than 50000. That assist in that event in every state this is happening in every state not just in the gulf region of louisiana. This is a historic event i just need to express my supreme gratitude for the men and women for those that would maintain their lives as a civilian the president needs them but to come to serve the country and towns and homes that is special and we should be as a nation the First Responders in doing that response to be very grateful we think our families and spouses and employers with the nation to come when they need them to come away from the civilian up one occupation. Louisiana is no stranger to the families that lost someone. As the governor mentioned here four years ago numerous hurricanes between then and now the louisiana apparatus and where we bring together that we learned so much about in this part of the country. Not just tornadoes with cyberactivities, ransomware , the unique apparatus not just soldiers or airmen back guardsmen and that special piece allows us to come to duty to make it special. I just mention one last thing and closing, its not what we do in our military specialty thats always so valuable that the innovation and the skill set from the civilian lives and what they asked to do to put the uniform on that has on display innovative way to distribute highvalue medical apparatus around the stay in a moments notice should people need them. And with that testing facility and as a truck driver or the Intelligence Officer that happens to be working with the food bank. And those that have been distributed. And as military components go and then to design a component and domestic operation of who we are and what we are doing today and across the nation as a National Guard. Thank you very much i will be happy to take any questions you have. Thank you for letting me come. I appreciate it. Before the covid19 and the general we did have two deaths yesterday and overnight that we believe were related one was in the parish likely as a result of the tornado but second in De Soto Parish individual drown also thousands of people summer damage very severely with the facility and alexandria and that appear to be destroyed there was some damage as well as we use as the Mass Evacuation shelter for hurricanes. And well have to do some work ahead of Hurricane Season to make sure its fully operational so the Severe Weather continues today in Southeast Louisiana across the Central Coast so obviously our hearts go out to the families especially those who lost a loved one. People have a lot on their minds already with the covid19 pandemic. But i do continue to encourage all Louisiana Residents to watch the forecast and the weather Pay Attention to the advisory make sure you have yourself where you can monitor for warnings with enhanced risk and what we are doing to make sure for the Hurricane Season that we are intentional and deliver it how we approach the Hurricane Season because of the posture we are in. Because of covid19. And to have exercises with working with the Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Support functions and the exercise to be facilitated by the National Weather service. And to flesh that out in coordination with fema as well. So we ask everyone to be mindful of the fact that Severe Weather is happening more frequently with more severity so have a game plan to prepare yourself and your family is more important than ever that you prepare yourself and your family and they can tell you how to do that. So with the cove it update 481 new cases today a total of 25739. We are also reporting 67 new deaths sadly there brings the statewide total at 1540. A moment ago we are talking about Hurricane Katrina it is my understanding the death count now from this coronavirus pandemic exceeds the death of the count that was attributable to Hurricane Katrina. That is some historical context. We are reporting there are 1727 covid positive patients in hospitals. From yesterday 274 that is a decrease of 13 so those ventilator usage has increased thats pretty steady over the last few days. We will take some questions from the public have i seen the senior class of 2021 participate in fall sports . I have said it before, im a huge sports enthusiast that is hard for me to envision a fall without football and for no other reason it is my hope we can do that but we dont have the ability right now to see that fall forward to know the circumstances and what they will be but rest assured the High School Athletic association to make the best decisions they can whether its safe to resume athletics and under what conditions. What i cant say is that in the event we have fall athletics is not going to look like it did last fall because there could be some selfsufficiency requirements and protective measurements to exercise for the benefit of others and the department of education for exactly what the school year will look like at the department of health here at the End Department of louisiana to protect health and safety and the medical Assistance Available to those who have been laid off if you have lost your job or had your hours reduced you may be eligible for medicaid now with the Medicaid Expansion so there are individuals out there that are not eligible now and you can apply or call 888 3426207. 88834262072 in choir about your eligibility. Louisiana medicaid is keeping members covered current members will not lose for any reason are to be requested to have the coverage ended additionally the federal stimulus check will not impact Medicaid Eligibility so although not account for for that poverty. So with that i will open for questions. [inaudible conversations] we apply that same kind of pressure here . I know the premise of the question. We are planning to move forward in louisiana as if we meet the threshold criteria to move into phase one. Im not making the announcement today but that current order expires april 30th it would nice to go to phase one we are still evaluating if we meet the criteria and exactly what that will look like because what you know is a series of guidelines so we will continue to move and that direction and it would be my expectation that some time early next week after tell the people of louisiana what to expect by the end of the week and thats when we have the announcement to make. As we mentioned before the cases are flat and have been for a number of days and hospitalizations are down and it seems we have plateaued as well. Although that is much higher than people would like to see we would like eczema with the deaths but we intend to move forward to protect Public Health. And 15 minutes. [inaudible conversations] we are going to get started. Thank you. Good morning. The hearing will come to order. I thank everyone for joining us this morning and i want to especially thank my colleagues for joining us today for the House Committee on business hearing the response to covid19. We have had a hard stop act once