The Public Health Department Said there are more than 1,000 beds available no the 11 hospitals as well as almost 400 ventilators. Other shows how many have been tested for coronavirus and the number of those that have come back positive. Right now that is about 12 . The county wants people to have that information in as close to realtime as possible. We have doing everything we can to make sure we are ready for any surge when it happens. The only way that we can ensure we have the public trust is by being transparent about our efforts. And the governor is now speaking, giving the statewide update encore h1n1 efforts. Lets listen in. Freeenterprise for what it is, a healthy horse pulling a sturdy aginnstochurchill saying them, particularly milli filing for Unemployment Insurance. With the headlines that we have seen as a trend line for the last few weeks and march 12th of this year we started to see applications for Unemployment Insurance here in the state of california skyrocket. Now over 1. 9 million california residents alone since march 12th have filed for Unemployment Insurance. We have averaged 111,000 on a daily basis in this state over just the last seven days. The economic consequences are profound. I want to speak to those issues today, not only from the individuals perspective, the issue of jobs, and the impact on main stream, impact on Small Businesses. 49 of state employees or rather 49 of all private sector employees in the state of california are employed by Small Businesses. People that make a go of it, put everything on the line, take risks, in ways large and small. When we think about Small Businesses its not someone with hundreds of employees. Many cases its not somebody with any employees, self employed individual, independent contractors, businesses that have one or two part time employees. So, much often we take them for granted even in the best of timesful right now they have been devastated. I want to speak specifically about what the state of california is proposing to do for Small Businesses and i want to highlight what the federal government has done to help Small Businesses. We will not benefit from that help unless we are aware of what it is exactly that is being provided and how we can access those supports. Let me begin with what the state is now announcing and advancing as it relates to supporting Small Businesses. Every map or woman knows what im ref presences when it comes to the issue of sales tax. We collect your sales tax as a Small Business. We send it to the state, give it back down to the cities and counties. The customer pays a sales tax. We hold that into an account and every quarter we fill out forms, Small Businessmen and women and im a former Small Businessman so i know a thing or two about this. We send that money to the state. What we are calling for today is a one year reprieve for Small Businesses where no fines, no penalties will be attached where they can take upwards of 50,000 as a loan and not have to pay the state those sales tax miranda rights for 12 months. In essence its a bridge loan. The money that you have collected you will not have to pay the state for 12months. No penalties, no interest, defact, a loan. I had signed an order previously extending for a number of months through july 31th the need to even file your sales tax. This extends beyond that as a rep rieve so that up warps of 50,000 can we used as a bridge loan over the course of the next 12 months. When i call it a bridge loan in this context because we need to be able to get the federal dollars into the state of california which means we need to get people to apply for these federal supports that were announced. Both in the previous stimulus and in the more recent stimulus that just passed. There are two programs in particular i want to highlight. They are very important for Small Businessmen and women to take advantage of. Number one was the disaster injury, disaster count. Its the Small Business loan related to injury related to the economic consequences of coronavirus. You can get a 10,000 loan up front as your application is being processed. You are presumed eligible for the dollars in that loan account. That loan provides upwards of two Million Dollars for Small Businesses. Of, pay back over 30 year period and Interest Rates of 3. 75 and for nonprofits in that category, 2. 75 . We want to make sure people are taking advantage of that Economic Injury disaster loan program. We have information on our coronavirus. Ca. Gov website that will link you to the sba, to the services and supports so you that can take advantage of that program. The other even more Significant Program was just recently passed in the cares act. This provides businesses up to 10 million loans. If you continue to pay your employees. You have to provide 75 of all of that loan benefit to your employees, to payroll. This can be done through your bank, through traditional institutions, not just through the sba. This is the Paycheck Protection Program. The ppp program that is finally getting some attention. This is a profoundly Significant Program that has 3 49d billion dollars of federal supports attached to it. This Program Starts tomorrow. Thats why its important that people start filling out the application, filling out the form to make sure that they are aware of their eligibility and this is one of those things a lot of people will be rushing to get the benefit of this program. April 3rd is the first day to start drawing down the applications. Work with your bank, work with your lender and if you commit to keeping your employees, even if you have no business, even if your business is closed, but you pay your employees this is a grant program, not a loan program where you are reimbursed for the costs. Again, the cap is 10 million. Not insignificant. There is a modest well, modest is relative, but a. 5 fee attached to it. Interest rate. Fixed at. 5 . Above and beyond that you have the capacity to get all of that loan completely paid off by the federal government as a ant on sounliit is in make for folks and go to the website at covid 19. Ca. Gov and we have a link. We will link all the information to people to take advantage of these programs. The reality is not everybody can take advantage of these programs. While the sba has Debt Forgiveness programs and other programs that one cana vial themselves to not everybody has the capacity to get an sba loan. As a consequence of that we are announcing today the state of california is putting 50 million into our i bank to create micor lending opportunities for people that otherwise would not be eligible for sba relief, the paycheck protection act and the other disaster, emergency injury disaster programs. So, its ana diggal contribution for the state to address those that may otherwise fall through the crack. Thats thats a overall sense of what we are trying to do, to highlight those federal supports. Advance some state relief through sales tax, up to 50,000 for a year with no interest, no penalties and then provide micro lending opportunities through our ibank in the state of california. We are encouraging businesses large and small, again, up to hundreds and hundred of employees that are eligible for the status of these benefits to do just that and get prepared because tomorrow, again, on that Paycheck Protection Program those applications will start being processed. So, lets get a head of the line and make sure if you know someone is a Small Business person, make them aware of this and if you are a Small Business person lets make sure that you get this paperwork done and get those applications in as quickly as possible. Something else we are announcing today. Im very proud of it. I met with a small group of people in fresno, california about a year ago. Organization called bit wise. Remarkable economic story in fresno and in the central valley. One thats not often highlighted in the news. Its not just an agriculture community. Its a v ib rant community with remarkable human capitol, young people, people young at heart doing incredible things. A good spirit and a technical exper tise. Bit wise is partnered linked in and sales force to create a new site called onward ca. Org. Onward ca. Org. That is about getting us back up on our feet. Not just Small Businesses now, people that have been laid off, that need a job. Bit wise is already created a remarkable website to match open jobs to individuals and their particular skill set. They actually prompt 37 questions to specify where you are, what your exact skill set is, what your wage preference may look like. Then they match you with open job listings throughout the state of california. Already 75,000 open jobs listed on their site. We will probably have 100 plus thousand just in the next number of days. They have four priorities that are hiring right now at this moment. Not surprisingly health care being one of those four areas, agriculture is looking for work force, logistca, broadly defined, transportation, warehousing, that sector is in need of support and of course grocers. 70 plus thousand open jobs today in the state of california. Go to the bit wise news site. This onward ca. Org site and fill out the applications and see if we can match you with a job just down the road and make sure that we get you off unemployment or if you havent gone on make sure you dont have to go on so we can get new to the work force at this time. I want to thank our partners in that process and putting together the job listing website. We also are very pleased about the work that is being done. The heroic work by some estimates. I mentioned one march 12th. Not surprising that is unprecedented. Its overwhelming the call volume at our department. We refer to as edd. Thats the our state department thats responsible for processing applications for Unemployment Insurance. They had a 21 day turn around on the unemployment checks in the good days. We are struggling to keep up with that. We are still confident we can do that. We have reorganized our staffing, 200 more folks to deal with the surge of demand. We have 800 other folks that are now ready to increase that capacity beyond even the surge of supports to make sure we get these checks out quickly as possible. Remind people checks from the low as 40 to as high as 450 a week for Unemployment Insurance and in addition to that people are eligible for at least the next four months for another 600 on top of its 40 to 450 a week because of the federal stimulus. Those that may not have availed themselves of the Unemployment Insurance, please do so. Easiest site is the covid 19. Ca. Gov site. Edd will process these and we are doing everything we can to make sure we do so in a timely manner because which recognize people are feeling deep anxiety about just paying for basic needs and food and rent and the like and child care for so many et cetera. That is it in Broad Strokes where we are leaning into this economic moment. I should preview i have an Economic Development team foe doing on how we can get this state back on its feet sooner than later and what that looks like from an economic stimulus perspective. Some of the best and the brightest from across the country advising the state of california. The department of finance, the go biz which is the Economic Development team and looking at the regulatory system and ways we can stimulus real brought and time when we turn the corner on this virus. So, i want folks to know that we are taking this very, very seriously. We have to deal with the immediate and thats helping Small Businesses and thats certaining claims. Re out these i want di panof open up as we do to any questions that we may have. To make this point. A few days ago a nouned 25,000 people filled out applications of emts, paramedics, nurses, doctors, et cetera, to help support their loved ones, community, state and Health Care Delivery system by saying i may have just retired but im happy to go back to work as part of this health corp site we put up. Today we have over 70,000 applications. Its just extraordinary. Most difficult part for us is going to be triaging all these applications. Its just a sense of this civic momentand how people are doing extraordinary amount to try to participate in neating it head on. I want to compliment all of he is of you that told folks about this website and may have filled out the application and know we will do our best to get back to you in realtime and like that bit wise site we will try to match you up where you are and based on your experience and work through some details and just know that we are going to respond quickly as wek. In terms of response let me just continue to make this point. I want to thank all of you for practicing, not just sitting there promoting or preaching what we could do, pointing fingers, its the individual acts of tens of millions of people that allow me to say the following. The numbers in the er positive yes, the number of deaths, 203 have grown. The icu numbers and the hospitalization numbers, while they are growing are not growing as significantly as you are seeing in other parts of the country. We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. We show folks what we mean by that when you showed you the models yesterday. The reality is that we are buying time for every individual that is in the icu. My heart goes out to them. 816 vinyls are currently in the icu representing a 5. 4 increase from yesterday. 1,922 people are in the Hospital System with covid19245 are positively identified. Those are big numbers but well with in our modeling and capacity to serve and meet this moment. Again its the physical distancing that people are doing. Its taking this moment seriously that is allowing me to make that statement that we have the capacity to meet the moment. We still need to do more on personal protective gear. The n95 masks and i can tell you i can write a book about all the stories of how that process is unfolding in realtime. I know a lot of attention has been placed on that and much of what you are hearing is true in terms of it being the wild wild west out there, in terms of procuring the masks, the shields, the glove sets, and the like. Currently in california at least as of this morning we have already given out 35. 9 million ned 5 masks. We have gotten 189,000 from the National Stock pile and apparently we will get another 176,000masks. We were just told about that this morning. We recognize we have to do more as a state. So, for the caregivers out there and for the grocers and police and fire, people on the frontlines broadly defined we recognize our obligation to you to continue to find this personal protective gear and to source n95 masks and surgical masks and the gowns and the cover alls that all of you do deserve. So, our Hospital System was slack, not just surge. Every day we bring on more beds, we build capacity and every day i continue to be amazed by the incredible leadership with in our hospital sessions system, assisted living facilities, Skilled Nursing homes where they are anticipating the need to do more and better in providing more points of access and more space as they repurpose existing space in order to prepare for our peak in the next number of weeks. Every hour, every day we must take advantage of keeping this curve in a model tr a. J. Ectory so we tonight experience what other parts of the country and the world have. Every day none of us will regret doing our part to do more to bend that curve. Final point, i want to te. Beyo e health corp ebracci i want to thank all the countless volunteers through the Volunteers Program that have gone to their site to contribute their time and energy at our food banks over 2 million meals have been delivered just in the last few weeks, just at the food banks. Unprecedented surge of need. To all the folk that reached out a few days when we asked you to make five phone calls, to connect with your neighbors and seniors and actually did to. Thank you. That is an extraordinary and heroic effort. We are see that on social media in terms of the partnership with next door. We are see that with the heart association, the Alzheimers Association and others, aarp that are helping amplify that sense of community. The commonwealth. All throughout the state of california. Lets keep doing more of that. Lets stick together and lets be defined by our capacity to seize this moment as so many of you are seizing every day to do the right thing including making sure that we are protecting our most at risk, our seniors and our homeless. Thats Broad Strokes, the update for today of course. Here to answer any questions that anyone may have. P, litico. Yes. Governor, thank you very much. Two part question. The governor in new york made news to cancel construction sites and this week the Bay Area Health officers appeared to do the same when they issued new stay at home restrictions that prohibit most construction. There is a patch work california and the mayor of la is doing a different take. If you are if the Building Sites safe and the Construction Industry said they are enforcing and adhering to strict guidelines are you comfortable allowing construction to continue in california rather than doing what they did in new york and boston the other question i have is april 10th is coming the second half of property taxes due. Is there any suggestion that people can defer or waive those payments. Thank you. The conditions in new york are very different than the conditions in the state of california. We have been working closely with the Building Construction trades, specifically long conversation was robbie hunter, their leader. I want to acknowledge and applaud them for their strict work force efforts and making sure that their own members are protected their members protecting their community and thoses they serve. We put out guideline that we think are appropriate as baseline guidelines as it relates to construction in the state of california. Im well aware of what the bay area did. They have a legal right, the Health Directors arent e abe ze lee ocan to he ahead of us. All of this is subject to change. Im satisfied with the state directives currently. As it relates to i have once again forgotten the second question. Ly go back and answer that off line. John meyers, los angeles times. Governor, thank you. You can hear me perfectly. John you may need to ask me one question. I seem to have a capacity only for one. You guy dear sir circle back. I know you have a lot to ask and i want to be able to respond. Okay. I want to specifically ask you about the question of people Wearing Masks in public. Some of this came up yesterday. I think there is a little bit of confusion out there. Your guidance pretty much leaves it up to people doing what they think is best it seems like from what we have seen. Thats not exactly what we have seen in riverside where there they are being more specific and la mayor who was much more specific last night. Are you not comfortable with issuing a little more strong guidance on this because its not the same everywhere in the state. Do you think those locals are doing the right thing and people should listen to that we were very clear in our message. Absolute clarity for a state to put out dividance saying the masks additive, not a substitute. Masks are not a substitute for physical distancing. Thats crystal clear. Its very Important Message to express. Its a very consistent message with the mayor. I think the message sent in riverside as well. Theres clarity in terms that have message. Here is another point i want to make. We believe and we put out guidelines that if individuals want to have face coverings that that is a good thing and a preferred thing in addition to the physical distancing and the stay at home order and we put out guidelines of what that looks like. The concern that we have about mandating it is references in my comments just a moment ago. We are still trying to protect our health care workers, provide them the appropriate masks and surgical masks and gowns and cover alls, the Testing Capacity in the state is also impacted by masks and person protective gear. As a consequence we want to make sure that its a priority in the state of california. We have been very clear that if you are going into an environment where physical distance is all but impossible, for example a Grocery Store with small aisles and a long line, that we do believe it would be beneficial to have a face covering. Sac bee. Governor, i want to ask about some reports related to churches and other religious organizations that are staying open despite the stay at home orders. Earlier today the bee reported on a church in Rancho Cordova that is continuing to apparently meet. Do you is your office looking into that church or any other churches that are, you know, reported to be staying open and do you have any message for religious leaders who are arguing that the services that they provide are essential with all due respect its essential that we practice physical distancing everywhere, period, full stop. So i would highly encourage anyone that is not practicing physical distancing to reconsider it and to the extent they refuse we will apply social pressure and to the extent possible we will advance addition al, wednesday for enforcement. The protocols are bottom up, not top down. We would look to local leaders to enforce poll sessions first and to the extent they need support from the state of california we would avail ourselves to supporting addition allen forcement. Angela hart, Kaiser Health news. Hey, governor, thank you. I wanted to ask you, we are getting reports about home tents being used by the state, by the administration at california state hospitals and i wanted to ask if that is happg, if sotowhat degreeat part of broader effort in caring for coronavirus Homeless People as well as perhaps Homeless People who dont have the virus so, tomorrow we are going to make some very specific announcements and update everybody on our efforts around homeless and the the current status of our trailers that we announced a number of weeks ago and the number of hotel rooms, how we are we will lay out in detail our regional strategies, our regional partners, county by county. Then we will be able to provide you clarity in terms of your question. Again, this time tomorrow we will specifically lay those things out. Laurel, cal matters. Hi. Thank you so much. I was wondering generally how you are preparing for the state budget that is upcoming, the may revise and if you intend to continue advancing the idea of providing Health Insurance to undocumented california resident who are overage 65 as you had proposed in january. We have a work load budget which suggests everything ison the table. The january budget is no longer operable in terms of the conversations im having with staff and conversations im having with legislative leaders. They recognize the size of this moment. 1. 9 million Unemployment Insurance claims just since march 12th. The world is radically changed since january. Everything is on the table. That the an honest and sober reflection of that reality. We certainly are being benefited, modestly by the federal stimulus in terms of the state
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.