Economic relief plan, the largest in the nations history. For industries, workers and hospitals devastated by a virus on wednesday thsenate y state. The democrats won coons ill at like increasing unEmployment Benefitsfor workers. Also this week President Trump said he would like to see the economy reopen by easter. But california gov. Gavin newsom things that is too soon for the state. School districts the bay area announced that they would stay closed at least until may 1. W,joining me from washington, dc, his california congressman, adam schiff. Thank you so much for being with here today. So this stimulus bill is intended to provide relief to all levels of society. Can you speak specw ically to it will nshelp californ it will lp them a great deal, first of all, all californians and people around the country will get checks almost immediately. Those are the sh payments of 1200 for adults, 600 for children but it also help people in the economy, nontraditional workers, a lot of them for example, in the bay area but also in los angeles, that work in the Entertainment Industry that donhave em traditionaoyment, that were contractor contract. And Small Businesses all over the state, make payroll, pay the rent, pay utilities, d it will help some of the larger industries, so on the economic side, there is a lot for because it isa large state , with large revelation, get more than most other states, but it also will provide vitall ns for those on the front line in healthcare system, hospitals, clinics, to be able to keep their doors open, see protective gear. Tain when you say almost immediately, what sort of date are you putting on that . When will the checks acally be in peoples hands . My understanding is we are looking at several weeks out. It depends on whether peopleo have elec deposit or not. Those that will have for example an ordinary an circum there, the tax refund by alternate deposit will get their checks quickest, others will, yes, they will have to it weeks toget those in the mail. But those will probably be among the first paymts to go out. Also in terms of an appointment conversation, we extemped unappointed sation, we enhanced the amount of unappointed compensation, on e top of what state ordinarily provides for four months, the federal government will provide an additional 600 on top of that. That is retroactive back to i think january 27 so people should go online to th apply the california will be more generous than e usual on Employment Benefits i hope for the duration of this crisis. Reporter when you expect that we will be able tell if this stimulus has been effective or if there are more steps that are needed. It almost certainly will be a case that more steps are needed. Because the economdisruption is s immense, so i think many of us view this as just another step, is is the ird package we have passed in as many weeks, but we will have to do more for ree states, for cities, more for college students, more for the homeless, more for those that need medical care. So i donview this at all as the end of the story, i think this is just a very large package, yes, but the most immediate need that we are trying to meet right now. We have heard about kiortages of testing , ventilators, masks. And President Trump thtoday invokedefense production act to compel General Motors to make ventilators after negotiations had broken temperature the administrati. And gm, over cost. Do you think, in your opinioe the defeproduction act should have been put into place and used earlier . Or do you think that this timing work, and how se do you think it could be used . Yes, i think it should have been used earlier, rathe adminion has been late on just every aspect of this, initially because the president did not take the threat of this virus seriously, tryi to down talk, saying it was not going to be an issue here. Then quikly, moved to claiming to be a wartime presid that most as quickly backed off and said that he wants businesses to essentially church is full on easter. We would all love to see that bu happenthat is not what scientists and epidemiologists tell usis supported by the evidence, and our solu on has be evidencebased, but he has also, on the need for protective gear and the need of as yesterday, last night, down aying how many ventilators stat to need, saying he did not defense production acand of course, having an aboutface today, so yes, it is a necessary step, it has been too long and coming and the mere indication of it is not the end of the story. He is not going to make sure that Companies Work with each other, that they get the parts that they need, that the ventilators gothto where are most needed, that the states are not in this, you know, race, and competition that the fedegovernment can really help logistically. He has been holdbrg daily fings about the federal response to the coronavirus. What stands out for you about the briefings . And in comparis perhaps, to the briefings on the more local state level, by governors gavin newsom, or andrew,. The briefings by the governors have been excellent, very informative, i think very factbased, you know, the news conferences by the esident have become less and less valuable over time, frankly, whenever the doctor is not speaking, there is not much value to be derived. They are turning into a kind of selfpromotional opportunity. It is becoming increasingly difficult to watch so i wish frankly they werefocused more on the experts, they on a substitute for some for the president s rallies. Buwhat gov. Newsom has done has been important and effective in pushing out good information. Reporter a lot of californians are feeling anxious right now, and are strugg ng with sheltering in place. What would you have to say to them . We will get through this. We have been through more fficult things in our nations history, and yes, this is ing to be disruptive and difficult, and it will get harder before he gets easier but i have every nfidence, we are going to get throh this and will get through this together. Ll we rebound as an economy, and as a state, we will once again have the opportunity to lengregate with the pethat we love, but for now, we are all gointo haveto maintain discipline, we will have to maintain our distance, we will have to find ways to occupy ourselves withr homes. But this too shall thpass. Ank you so much for joining us today. This week San Francisco warned that the number of coronavirus cases in the city will search in the next week two. Also he city recordits first three deaths from covid 19 this week. On wednesday mayor london breed and Health Officials said the city may need 5000 more hospital beds and up to 00 more ventilators to treat a surgeon cases. There are Additional Resources coming soon, he says San Francisco has hired 82 new we nurses, and the 1 million facemasks. This as hospitals in the bay area and around the nation face severe shortages of critical supplies. Joining me now by skype is krista durand, she is an emergency room nurse at zuckerberg San Francisco general hospital. Thank you for being with us toda you just came off a shift, can you tell us what it is like there on the ground, at the hospital right now . Yes, i can. I just got off of my shift yesterday, and it kind of feels like the quiet before the storm, or th calm befothe storm, we are doing a lot epof ation for what we see that is going on in new york, and italy, and, w,so, right we are not seeing a huge surge, but we are expecting one in the next couple of eks, in ou staff. They are mentally prepared for that. Activities that are taking place, to prepare . Our biggest concern is having enough personal protective equipment, malike s, gowns, and goggles, to protect us from being vectors of t sovirus. Ight now, we are asking a lot of questions about how to get that, as far as the pnumbe ients that we are seeing, the patients are coming in sicker and sicker, our hospitalcan bed abou179 patients, and currently, as of yesterday morning, we had 174 of our beds filled. That is altered to patients, not just covid19. About a third were inpatients undestigation for covid 19. And we are having positive results of covid19. How are those paents being treated and how are they being kept separate from other patients who are there . Yes, and the emergency department, we are still kind of finetuning that. We have started screening every patient at the door, fourthose type of symptoms, and if they screen positive, every patient is receiving a surgical mask. And if there really, really sick they will go to a private room, if they are not so sick, they are going to a covid19 triage area and we e going to do a little bit more questioning, and to they might be sent home to self quarantine. You mentioned concerns about having enough personal protective quipment, and i want to ask you we also talked widifferent cisco generals spokesperson, brent andrew. We wanted to find out about the availability of critical supplies there, we know nationwide this isan issue as well. So brent told us, that we have been actively acquiring supplies from the typical sourcersand many ot in addition we are diligently managing the use of those supplies to ensure we have does that lineup with what you are experiencing at the hosp al . Currently, the emergency udepartment, we are rationing our personal protective equipment, which means that we are usually using a mask for our entire shift. If we are not se ng a hi isolation patients, in order to avoid running out. So right now, we do have enough, but i dot think brent andrew is correct in saying that they are working hard, i think that we need to be reaching out further to the public, and when he spoke to he told him that we were not do acceptintions and that was very concerning to me. Why are you concerned . Because we currently have gotten an announcement that we are going to get a lot of ppe but we have not seenit yet, so it would be in our best interest to accept what is offered to us from the community right now. So what you are saying seems to me to be, that you do h t have fain the management there, they are doing all they this is a situation in which i am sure Everyone Wants to do the best that they can. Do you feel like you are management your management should be doing Something Else . And what is that something s else . T a national problem, but i also think that it is a local issue. We are a public e alth, we the safety net of thcity at San Francisco general. And i think it is important for them to remember how important it is thatif we become vectors of the virus, then we cannot re for the public and we need to protect healthcare workers, in order to be able to handle that. So in swering your question, i think our administratis failed to hire enough staff, in order to handle a search, they have failed to hire enough staff, just onr a reguday, because we have been working as a disastervel care center, a critically low staff are many, many days. Lets get to that because the mayor has announced that there are 82 more nurses were been hired and there are more to come. El does that like it will help fill the need . Is thenough . It depends on what those nurses specialties are. I think those 82 nurses are spread out between departments. And wh i have seen isorin r to care for these respiratory covid19 patients, we will need a lot of icu and emergency room specialty nurses, so i dont know ow mathose are specialized in that department. So im t sure itwill be enough, and i dont think we have enough ancillary staff as well, and is between therapis, were going to be vital to caring for covid19 patients. Is what your biggest fear in the coming days, as the hospital braces for a search of the new coronavirus cases . My bigges to pick and choose which patients we care for. If we get overwhelmed, we only have 60 ventilators, in our hospital. And i hope it is enough and i dont want tohave to be in a situation where i choose one patient over another to care for. Thank you so much for being sath us. Stay out there, protect yourself, and we thank yofor the work you are doing on the behalf of the community. Thank you. Most San Francisco residents appear to be staying at home, and socially distancing. But will it beenough . Help hospitals facing a new wave of infections . Joining me now is dr. Bennett, member of the command staff the San Francisco department of public health. Take you so much for joining us. I want to jump right into this estion about personal protectiv we know there is a nationwide shortage, of masks, of ventilators, we had just heard from a nurse here in San Francisco who is worried abt running ouof critical supplies. Do we have what we need or will we be able to source it in time for this expected surge in cases . We do have newhat we right now. We are asking in every avenue we know how fre, the st from the federal government, from private vendors, for more because we do know that we do so we are both prepared now, s. And looking forward to meetg more tprepare for the future. The nurserspoke with id you are not accepting donations at ff general. Is that correct . No im sure what that means. The city is excepting donations whether or not they are f being dropped at her particular site, as the donor site, maybe what she is thinking but we are in fact accepting donations. And they are going to sane francisco l among other places. Donations of masks, gloves. Those types of equipment. Okay. Thsame is also ld us her worst fear is that she and doctors at the hospital will have to go kethrough and the choices that have been made in ves, and who doesnt, because there simply is not enough equipment. How likely is that scenario here . We have lots of projections that span the range about how to plan for how many people will need extra care. So will broaden peoples scope a little bit, that it is death decisions, vast majority of people argoing to be decisions about whether or not we are able to alleviate anybodys suffering. People need comfort, to prolong their stay outside the hospital. So have a lot of layers of decision that are going to need to be made, none of tous want be in a position. And so we are getting new hospital beds, weare ordering equipment, and doing the best that we can but we do need help from outside sources. Lets lk about th outside help. What else would you like to see, the state and the federal governme do. Whave made requests for ppe equipm t, for covid testing equipment, i know that the plan is coming together around facilities and other things that we need, but that is a total plan mithat is together right now. The past acts ha artie been made for the testing and ppe, and some of that has arrived. We know that the mayohas made request for 5000 more hospital beds, and for 1500 more ventilators. What has been the response those requests, are we getting what we need . So we have made many both for equipment and for various kinds of staff and g haten some of those requests met. The new request that have recently been made, dont believe that we have actualized those, but i do know that it is a minuteby minute process and we are getting responses as they come through. Just today, san francisc mayor londeed once again urged everyone to stay inside, to shelter in place, only go outside for essential trips, do you think we e seeing an impact to that sheltering in place . Are we seeing in effe from the work that people are doing by staying home . So there are two affects, so the first is that we e seeing people further away from each other, in a way knthat we keeps them from being infected. So if you walk out on the street, everybody is very o focused on the people they do see or the small cluster potentially family members come up but i want to focus on those that they dont see. There are vast spaces from those you see in that is what fr keeping people being infected. What we are looking for, is that going to have an effect on the numbers e that we in terms of positive cases . The numbers you e today are not an indication of whether ori not that ac has been effective because those people were infected a week or even two weeks ago. What we are looking for is next week and the r,week afdo the numbers start to level and go down and we expect that they will go up e ght now becawe are expanding testing. So we are finding more people as we get more supplies and being more intentional about trying to get as many testing sites as possible so you are going to see raises and the do numbers, thatt necessarily reflect more people being infected and were infected that we expected. The numbers to watch are the numbers coming forward. What we might be seeing in the nextweek or two. So we are seeing a concted effort fromall over the medical community, so various differente Health Systems all opened testing sites, the department has several testing sites, and we now are opening with the in city to tesites for first responders. usites all over the city from one provider or another. We dont have a unified health system, right, so there isnot a Single Person doing that. You are seeing all the various Health Systems that have patients in the city trying to develop their own sites, and they are, they are doing that succsfully. Thank you so inmuch for beg here today. It has been nearly 2 weeks rence residents were or not to leave their homes, except for essential tasks like picking up medicine or food but for some vulnerable residence, that can be tough to do. While limiting their exposure to coronavirus. So madeleine and three the volunteers launched a grassroots organiztion to help neighbors in need in San Francisco. From delivering groceries to seniins, or just a friendly voice to talk to, they are helping their communities stay safe but not isolated. Joining me now is madeleine, one of the coorganizers. Thank you for being towith me y. Thank you for having me. Tell me about how your Organization Began and who you support. Yeah, so we started almost 2 weeks ago now, and there are four of usthat started out and basically, we all met through next door because we had seen other folks voice similar interest around how we can corral all of the generosi and support people have been voicing on there, st it arted off as how can we match a oflot his d interest help each other out, to how do we match that with some of the growing needs in our community and connected together, so we are ng really trto create a community seere the univ can support neighbors. It seems like this organization has also been bringing a lot of intergenerational connections, that you didnt have necessarily before it started. Tell me a little bit about that experience. And have you yourse helping out, in ways that you can share wius . Definitely. This isa broader goal of how we think about our community and how we take collective action together. And it is around how can, lets say, emily, who helps out tom, not only be some who delivers s groceries right innow, but a few months from now or year from now, emily goes to toms house and they play trds. Thk about how they can come you knowlocal icy, and organizational efforts around the community. And come you know, me personally, i have talked to a few different folks, who have requested some support and it has been anything from mewishin e happy birthday to helping organize their groceries. I think that is facilitating noonly assistance bulonger term relationships. What are the age ranges of those were serving . We often hear it is oldeho peopleare having trouble getting out especially because they are more vulnerable. But you find that this is, the help youre providing across various ages were does attend to be the Senior Community . So it started off on the older end but we have seen more and more people, because i think Everyone Needs me to everyone has needs right now. Ranging from , me you kn lets say 42 upwards of 80s s. A re definitely concentrated on the older de. After couple of weeks of helping your neighbors, how has the way you understand community . Ive always thought of our community rmlot in of shared interest, or where i went to school, or my job. But now i think a lot more critically about it in terms of my neighborhood, and my local area, and how together, we are aling with this crisis, and for betteror for worse, it becomes a lot more in tune to how to support one another through shared experiences. Talk to me about how youre using chnology to match those needs . It started of. Very manu anything from google forums, a spreadsheet, and more or less a lot that is still the process that we are using, but as we expect more requests that, we will be scaling our efforts and how we use other forms of technology as well, whether that is some sort of support matching technology or start using, according to ow, our volunteers. Google maps to he map out the different areas. Some who may need help may not be quite as tech savvy, how are you foreaching those s . Definitely. I think one of our biggest areas is how do we meet people wherthey are. Both on the volunteer site and the support side, so in addition to starting off individually with forms and such we have been doing a to of efforts, we have asked pe le to email us as well as phone numbers, so if you are somebody who witnesses a mafire but not know the best way to navigate the internet, there is a number you can call, theree is some things that we are exploring right now as well, such as community partnerships, grocery stores, things like that. How are you all making sure that yog are staysafe . As you are doing this work . And helping each other . Definitely very top of mind for us, so we have talked to a handful of s Health Profession and have seen or other organizations are doing. And we mehave created guidelines for volunteers to adhere to. So we are keeping safety very top of mind and first priority. Thank you so much for being with us today, i appreciated. Thanyou so much. If you need help, or wants to help your neighbors in San Francisco with essentiatasks, visit sf Community Support network. You can find more on our coverage at kqed. Org newsroom. Thank you for joining us. Stay safe. Captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan on this edition for sund on the coronavirus pandemic. In our signature segment the complications of coronavirus fot incarc people. And welcoming a bundle of joy in next on pbs ur weekend. Pbs newshour weekend is made possible by bernard and irene schwartz. Sue d Edgar Wachenheim iii. The cheryl and Philip Milstein family. Rosalind p. Walter. Rbara hope zuckerberg. Charles rosenblum. We try to live in the mont, to not miss whats r