Suspend all immigration to the United States as the nation battles the crisis, but why and why now . Lets begin with marty savage. Martin, the city, as the mayor said in the last hours, struggling how to keep the city healthy as the state prepares to open for business on friday. Reporter right, a lot of the business leaders, as well as civic leaders, are kind of perplexed by the governors decision here. Not so much that he would favor business but that he has done so aggressively in the opposite direction now. You know, there was a long time he was blasted for not shutting the state down and sending it into a quarantine. Now hes being blasted for apparently opening the state up too soon. Heres some of the things that are going to be impacted. Starting friday, people can go back to the gym, they can get pedicures, manicures, massages and even a tattoo and they can go bowling. Monday they can dine in at a restaurant and go out to see a movie. Weve talked to people this morning, ilts about half and half. Some say its way too soon to be opening it up so much. There are others who say, look, the Small Business people and those without work, they cant continue the way theyve been going. However, as you point out, the mayor of atlanta here, and she is one if she could would probably try to override the governors, deeply frustrated. Heres what she had to say to all of you earlier. Ive searched my head and my heart on this and i really am at a loss as to what the governor is basing this decision on, other than getting people back to work, which is extremely important, but for us to have a strong economy, we have to have a strong and healthy community. Reporter a lot of these businesses on social media have come forward to say despite the governor relaxing the requirements, theyre not necessarily ready to reopen. They think its not the right time and it could be an endangerment to their staff and their customers. Jim and poppy . Martin savage, thank you for that. We really appreciate it. Lets discuss all of this with our chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay gupta. Okay, lets take this big picture beyond just georgia. Georgia is telling because you had Governor Kemp there essentially acknowledge, yes, the cases are going to go up but this is the decision were making. Fwa talk about what this means nationally. I think a lot of people are going to be paying attention to georgia, and i think there are the same pressures i think the governor is feeling here everywhere. I dont think it excuses it, but i do understand, these are tough calls. Small businesses want to open up again. But i think weve been sort of seeing the impact of physical distancing, and its had significant impact, beneficial impact. I think when that happens a lot of time, people dont realize that its happening and they think, well, look, its not that bad. Were fine. Its okay to start reopening, not remembering that weve gone through something for the last several weeks in this country that is truly unprecedented. The way that you stop or at least slow down the spread of this virus is by distancing each other. Its just basic sort of, you know, the way this virus spreads. As we start to reemerge, theres going to be new cases, and i think the governor can acknowledge that, like you said, poppy, but hes making that calculation, and i think everybody is telling him from a Public Health standpoint its too early. So the white house released guidelines that were well received bid many Health Experts, one of them being 14 days with declining number of cases. Thats the standard, for instance, georgia has not met. Explain to folks at home who probably themselves want to get back to work or they want the business they work for to reopen again, what the importance is of meeting those standards before reopening safely. The way that they sort of arrived at these guidelines were to basically try and determine at what point are we comfortable enough that the rate of transmission of this virus is going to be at very low levels. There is no question that when we reemerge, there probably will be new infections no matter what. But at what point will it be low enough levels . Thats when they came up with this 14day of downward trend. We can show you georgia and what things looked like in the last several days. The numbers sort of bounced around, but theres not been a 14day downward trend. I think thats the practical part of it. That is the numbers part of it. We also know were not doing enough testing in the state as well, so we dont have full visualization. But sort of what marty was just saying is also what im hearing. How comfortable are people going to be . Is that door handle contaminated . Is the person about to do my nails, has that person been tested . The air in this room, do we have adequate ventilation . Has it been deep cleaned . The psychological impact of this is very important, and it goes hand in hand with how we think about this in terms of the actual testing and the data. You got tested, sanjay. I think we have a video of that. Thanks for letting us get tot totally an inside look at your life on air and off air. Tell us about the experience, how quickly you got your results do you have your results . Yeah, thats no fun. Thats a nasopharyngeal swab. Its the part of your body behind your nose on top of you are your mouth. I think the person there didnt really care for me so she stuck it in a few extra times. Some of these other tests that are not as invasive just in the nose test using flocked swabs are now approved, and i would have preferred to know that earlier. I got my test results back and theyre negative, so i am negative for the virus. Its a good test, i think, but as weve talked about, poppy, just to keep in mind that if you get tested negative, that means youre negative right now, this snapshot in time. It doesnt mean youll always stay negative. If you are positive, that means, yes, you have been exposed to the virus. In some ways a positive test is a more meaningful test in terms of what it tells you. But right now im negative according to that test. I feel good about that. We all struggle with those, sanjay. Weve all had them done. I think youre right, that a positive test tells people so much more because everyone thats negative is still susceptible. Thanks, sanjay. Sanjay, thanks so much. Joining me now to discuss all this, michael chertoff. He was the former Homeland Security under president george w. Bush. Secretary chertoff, thank you for joining me. Good morning. You had to make decisions all the time, balancing security safety against other interests. As you watch this now, governors relaxing these social distancing guidelines, but crucially before they meet the trump administrations, the white houses standards before you can do it safely, 14 days of declining cases, is that a safe thing to do at this stage . First of all, let me say based on my experience, i do understand these are very personal judgment calls. The easiest thing in the world is to keep restrictions indefinitely, but you cant do that. Nevertheless, i do think the decision has to be fact and sciencebased, which is to say you need to have metrics that give you the sense that the rate of infection is declining so that you simply dont reopen and then wind up with a spike in infections. The other thing is youve got to do it gradually. Theres got to be a logic to what youre doing. So, for example, reopening for essential things, for widely spaced venues may be the first way to start as opposed to having movie theaters or restaurants with lots of people. It has to be based on some theory of what the science and the facts are. In the midst of this, the president says hes going to sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration due to coronavirus. The fact is there are already a lot of restrictions in place that have greatly reduced immigration at this point, but from your perspective, given that the cases are now in this country, many hundreds of thousands of them sadly, does that protect the country to suspend all immigration at this point . I think there is more or less ascension to doing that. Im not sure it will make much of a difference. What is important is to make some exceptions. For example, we dome want healt care workers to be able to come to the United States and help us out. We may need migrant labor. I think this is going to wind up being something that has to have some real loopholes. And there are, apparently, exceptions for that. I guess my question is when you look at this, you said decisions in this environment, including reopening, they have to be fact based, right . They have to be based on science, not politics. I wonder from your perch is that what youre saying in this country, or are you seeing politics trump the Health Experts . I think were seeing both, were seeing politics and political pressures play a role in some decisions, for example, governors are making. But were also seeing people being responsible and careful, and again recognizing that not all the balance of equity is on one side. There is a real cost to people not being able to work, not being able to get basic services, and its fair to weigh that. But, again, the most important thing is to make sure we dont wind up actually reversing the progress weve made. Final question, then. Given that, and again, we talk about that often in this broadcast because peoples lives are being hurt, damaged by the shutdown of the economy and so on. Does the country need a National Plan or a statebystate plan to make these judgments . I think it really needs to be national because people travel between states, and, therefore, if you have one state, its going to affect the neighboring states. Thats one of the reasons some of the governors regionally have come together to cooperate and coordinate in terms of what their plans are. Obviously the authorities rest with the individual governors, for the most part, but we should have a coordinated sense of what the science is, what the consequences and decisions will be and take a cooperative approach, making sure one state doesnt cause a problem for every other state. Yep. There arent walls at those state borders. Michael chertoff, good to have you on this morning. Good to be on. Lets dig in more on this decision by the president to suspend immigration into the United States. Our White House Correspondent john harwood is with us again. The key question, this came out of the blue, it came in a tweet. The key question is why now and to what effect . Because so many people have contracted coronavirus and died in this country already, and he did not totally cut off travel from china or travel from europe. Months ago he made some steps, but i dont get this move right now. Reporter its very hard to understand, poppy, either a Public Health or ecological logic to this. He cited both in his tweet saying hes concerned about jobs. 22 Million People have filed for unemployment in the last several weeks. The tiny number of people whose immigration status into the United States might be affected have nothing to do with that, and as you pointed out, the virus is already spreading in a communitybased way all around the country, so it has nothing to do with stopping the virus, either. It is understandable, though, poppy, as a political matter. This is a president who is feeling the immense weight of a negative public judgment. Only 36 of the American People in polling say they trust what he has to say, they trust governors a lot more. Twothirds of americans believe that the president was late on the coronavirus. And so what hes been trying to do lately is escape blame for this catastrophe. We see it at his briefings when hes going after governors and blaming him for the testing situation when is critical for trying to reopen the country, directing blame at the world health organization, at china, at europe, and now at immigrants, which is consistent with the theme of his political career, hostility toward immigrants has been a core part of trumpian politics, but hes in a very deep hole right now. John, thank you very much for that reporting. I think were all wait to see whats actually in this as its drafted. So the Detroit Police department ticking reeling in this pandemic. Hundreds of officers either infected or in quarantine. Even the citys police chief is recovering from the virus, and hell join us, ahead. Police and Health Care Workers suffering so much. Plus, several cities are now seeing a surge in cases prompting local government to see make tough decisions in order to combat the spread. Ahead well speak to one mayor who thinks the worst is yet to come. Help is on the way. To support you during the Current Health situation. Cvs pharmacy is now offering free one to twoday delivery of prescriptions and Everyday Essentials you need to stay well in the days ahead. Visit cvs. Com delivery or call your local cvs pharmacy to learn more. So you can be prepared, stay on track with your medication, and stay well, with free prescription delivery from cvs. Thats why working together ist more important than ever. At t is committed to keeping you connected. So you can keep your patients cared for. Your customers served. Your students inspired. And your employees closer than ever. Our network is resilient. 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I have jeans on, who is she . Family run sometimes you like modify a recipe and its so good your girl, is still losing, ah all right, i want you to take a look at something for a minute. Take a look at this picture. A fiveyearold girl. This is skyler herbert, just five years old. She died on sunday at a hospital in detroit after being on a ventilator for two weeks. She tested positive for coronavirus and then she developed a rare form of meningitis and swelling in the brain. Her parents were two of detroits bravest First Responders. The Detroit Police force has been rocked by this pandemic. More than 700 have been quarantined or tested positive for covid. That includes now recovered Detroit Police chief james craig, who is with me. Good morning and thank you for being here. Im so glad youre better. Good morning, poppy. Im so glad youre better. Thank you so much, poppy. Of course. Lets just begin, though, if we could pull back up the picture of that beautiful little girl, skyler herbert. Because i think this really speaks to the toll on the department beyond even the officers, right . I mean, you talk about the toll on their families. Her mother had been a Detroit Police officer for 25 years. Yeah, what a tragedy. Ive had an opportunity to talk to her twice, once since death of her daughter, and then prior to, and what wasnt said, both her and her husband were also fighting covid at the same time. At the same time they were dealing with their fiveyearold daughter, they were fighting as well, so a tragedy. I cant tell you how many Police Officers ive called, not just those in hospitals battling covid, but also those who have lost loved ones. Im talking about parents. Not a day has gone by. You just lost the force just lost one of your beloved colleagues, captain jonathan parnell, who headed the Homicide Division and was a veteran of 31 years with you guys. He just collapsed last tuesday walking into the bathroom. Yeah, it was tragic. I had a conversation with him two days. I knew that he was battling covid. He was a strong man. Used to be an srt officer, certainly revered as a leader in the Detroit Police department, and hes a fighter. His son is also a Police Officer with a local university in state. His dad was a hero throughout his career, and to lose him certainly has left a void in our department. Its left a void. What a great man. And also our 911 call taker also succumbed to covid just before cap pain ptain parnell. You spent 28 years at the washington Police Department before becoming police chief, and you said nothing in your career, mass shootings, riots, following rodney kings beating prepared you for this. You said the unknown enemy has been so unreal. I will tell you while nothing compares to the issues we dealt with when i was in los angeles for 28 years. But the one thing, why arent the Police Officers across this country trained to deal with the unknown . You have to respond quickly when you go into situations. This unknown is so different, and i am so proud of the men and women at the Detroit Police department who i have to believe have their set of fears wondering if theyre going to get the virus, take the virus home to their family, but that said, they still come to work. And even those that were quarantined, i know you saw the numbers of officers quarantined, they wanted to get back to work so they could help their fellow officers. And one sign of good news that detroit mayor duggan told us last week was this lab test allowed you to test all 700 of your officers that were quarantined and said when they could come back to work. Thats great news. There is a picture of you and your fellow officers we can show folks here. One of your officers that just graduated, a rookie out of the academy, mark perez, told officers, i have to come to work wondering if im going to be the next victim this is not him, lets be clear about that. Wondering if i will be the next victim. Every day is stressful for me. What do you say to the young rookie officers out there who dont know if theyre going to contract this during a traffic stop or whats going to happen . I will tell you, and i know thats the feelings of so many, yet they still come out, they work hard to try to make this city safe. They also work hard knowing that this virus is real. Theyve seen too many of their colleagues quarantined, even the chief of police who contracted it. So they understand it. But i will tell you, and i want to applaud mayor mark duggan for really going out and getting the rapid testing. You said some numbers. Just to give you an example of the impact, 892 as of this morning cleared and returned to duty. Phenomenal. And so weve had some staggering numbers in terms of those who have tested positive, a total of 273 since we started testing. As it stands today, there are 102 that are still positive. Were fighting a good fight, but i will tell you early on, poppy, we put measures in place to keep our officers safe. We were very aggressive about quarantines probably more than most places, but it worked out. I think we may have saved additional officers lives because of being aggressive. It doesnt mean the officers were not concerned. If i had any criticism early on, if we had donned masks sooner, maybe we would have had fewer numbers. But this pandemic, you learn as you go. Im so proud of how this city has responded, and when you look at our numbers now in terms of our sworn civilian employees, were dropping. We are really dropping, and its really having a positive impact on the Police Department. Im so glad to hear that. So, so you must be so grateful for that. Detroit police chief james craig, were so glad youre better, but were sorry for the losses youve endured. Thank you for being with us. Thank you so much. I appreciate you giving me time. Jim . That poor little girl. Vice president pence says the organization is closely tracking cities such as boston and philadelphia. The mayors of those cities will join us next. What theyre doing to battle the coronavirus. Always go for 100. Bring out the bold™ and i like to question your im yoevery move. N law. Like this left turn. Its the next one. You always drive this slow . How did you make someone i love . That must be why youre always so late. I do not speed. And thats saving me cash with drivewise. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady . [tina] youre an old lady. Wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home, from inspiration to installation. Like way more vanities perfect for you. Nice. Way more unique fixtures and tiles. Pairing. Nice. Way more top brands in sinks and faucets. 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You could really make use of the mail that day. The way that it works is you get this test and it includes sort of a qtip kind of swab, and you use that to swab your nose, and then you mail the test back in, and labcorps, which is going to be marketing this test, has said once they get specimens, it usually takes them about two to four days to process it. Well see if that goes for this home test as well. If we could do this large scale, this could make such a big difference. I personally have spoken to several patients who are saying, you know what, i think i have coronavirus but i dont feel well enough to go to the doctor or i dont want to go there and risk getting somebody else sick. Ive talked to a couple patients who have decided to stay at home and kind of wait it out. Im not saying thats the way to go, but it would be nice if they could just get these results at home. Elizabeth, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Its going to be interesting to see how that all works out. While some parts of the country are at their peak or past it, other cities like boston and philadelphia are still seeing a surge in cases. Vice president mike pence says the administration is now working to move resources to those cities. Joining us now, the mayors of those cities, boston mayor marty walsh, philadelphia mayor jim kenney. Thanks to both of you. We know you have a lot on your plate. Mayor walsh, maybe i could start with you. I guess the big question for Public Officials around the country is what do you need to see first before relaxing some of these restrictions . Because i know youre hearing it both from the Health Experts but also people who arent making any money. Theyre concerned about their job, theyre concerned about their business. How do you make that decision . I think what we need to see is more data, more testing and see what the test is saying. In boston we have up to 5,700 positive cases of the coronavirus in t coronavirus. In the commonwealth of massachusetts, we have about 35,000. To really make informed decisions, you need informed data, and that data right now simply isnt enough and the sampling isnt wide enough to be able to make really accurate decisions about how we reach out to our economy, what populations should not be starting to work when we open our economy and making those important decisions to we dont get people sick, and were not in the same situation three or four months from now. Mayor kenney, to you. The governor of pennsylvania has actually pushed back the target date to start reopening until may 8th, but the plan is now after that it will sort of be region by region across your state. I wonder what you think of that, because people dont just stay in their city, generally, right . If you have things so different across the state, will that be effective . It will certainly be a factor in the decisions we make. Pennsylvania is primarily a rural state. We have pockets of population in the southeast and in western pennsylvania and smaller pockets up in the northwest and northeast, but in the middle of the state and across the northern tier, there is very few population and very little activity of the virus, although it is there in every county. Were at about 10,000 cases, were closing in on 10,000 and weve lost 300 souls to the disease. Even though it seems as if were plateauing, which i believe we might be, i dont want to send a message out to the public that somehow the crisis is over and go back to your old activities. We have to keep pumping out the social distancing. People need to wear their masks out, there is no doubt about that, and the governor has ordered that the masks be worn in all central businesses. Its going to be a pretty long slog. I dont know what will happen throughout the summer, i hope we dont have another resurgence, but we have to be disciplined, we have to be sure about this, and then we have to turn to the federal government for the help well need to rebuild our cities and states. Mayor walsh, social distancing is designed, really, not to prevent everybody from getting the virus because, sadly, many more people will get it, but to flatten the curve so they dont overwhelm hospitals, doctors, facilities, et cetera. Has the social distancing accomplished that for the city of boston in terms of allowing the space you need to treat the people who are infected, particularly the most serious cases . Im making an assumption here that it has helped. We dont know to what level its helped unless we have the real information and more testing. Were seeing a spike in our Homeless Population. About 32 of our homeless folks are coming back positive. We have people in nursing facilities and older folks that are coming back at a high level. Those numbers dont give us an accurate account of the overall population in boston, and i think what the mayor said is absolutely right, we need to continue to be very vigilant on Wearing Masks and doing the physical social distancing and making sure that people are staying at home as long as possible. All of that stuff is going to help us, but i think its really hard to give you an accurate even the curve. I mean, when we talk about the curve and the surge, the models have changed in the last week two or three different times. Its very complicated when measuring how good were doing with the data that we have because we dont have completely accurate data. Your segment before this talked about doing athome mailin testing. I dont know if thats a reality, i dont know what the rate is to that as far as the accuracy of that, but we really have to start focusing on National Testing across the board. You know, in massachusetts we have rural areas as well as pennsylvania, maybe not as many, but we still have populations of people in urban areas in the commonwealth of massachusetts, and were seeing those numbers testing at a higher rate because people are living on top of each other. Mayor kenney, you were nodding your head a bit there, too. Are you seeing that . 32 positive rate of the Homeless Population in boston is staggering. Are you seeing something similar . I dont know the exact percentage but im shaking my head because everything marty is saying, were experiencing the same thing here. Its like a mirim ror image of h other, although were a slightly bigger city. Its the rapid testing, its the tracing and the quarantine that we really need the federal government to help us with. Mayor walsh is right. If we dont have the data, we dont know what were up against. This virus just on that point, can i ask you quickly, because the mayor of detroit has had so much success with those rapid lab 15minute tests. How do you get those . Do you have to buy them . Do you go to the federal government . How does that work . I know our Health Commissioner dr. Farley is in contact with all the Health Commissioners across the country. I dont know where they come from. Im sure he knows, but if we can get the same thing with ppe. Weve been struggling to equip our hospitals and Nursing Homes with the appropriate ppe because there was no National Effort to do it. We wish you guys luck. Real quick, as jim said, we are in the same boat when it comes to testing. Were looking at can we purchase these tests ourselves . We have about 700,000 people in the city of boston. Id love to get my hands on 500,000 tests. We have the infrastructure set up to do these tests in our Health Centers and hospitals. The issue is can we get these tests that we can make sure we see what the data reflects. Its amazing that is still an open question, can you get the tests . We should not be in competition with each other, thats the problem. Weve been in competition with every state and city in the country on ppe and now on testing. This is what the federal government should be doing to help guide us through this. We wish you guys luck. My goodness, its just a huge, huge thing to tackle. We wish you luck getting those fast tests. Thank you both. Thanks. Thank you. Some rural hospitals were teetering on the edge of collapse before the coronavirus pandemic, and this crisis has made the situation even worse for them. Frustrated that everyday activities cause wrinkles and theres nothing you can do about it . Now theres a solution downy wrinkleguard is a fabric conditioner that helps protect you from wrinkles all day. Just pour the dye free liquid into the rinse dispenser. 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Our team spoke to five different rural hospitals across the country, each of them echoing that same sentiment, and this as covid19 cases are on the rise in rural areas. Among the Rolling Hills and the open fields, a laidback community. To me its one of the best places to live. Reporter Rural America has largely been able to avoid the worst of the coronaviruses. No packed icus or morgues filling up, but there are people with covid19. 18 of Rural Counties across the country have now reported cases, and though it is nowhere near the spike seen in metropolitan areas, for Donna Beckett in West Virginia its been devastating. Having covid on top of it and already struggling, the Health Care System has been quite burdensome. Reporter the presence of a pandemic is just one more financial burden on struggling hospitals trying to stay afloat. 19 hospitals closed last year, victims to medicacuts to medica medicaid funding. Hes the ceo of Scotland County hospital in missouri which serves about 5,000 people. When elective procedures came to a halt in response to the coronavirus, their revenue dropped by almost half. When we were already in a fragile situation, its really put a tremendous burden on our ability to meet payroll. Reporter last month the hospital reduced staff and paya cro pay across the board in an effort not to close down, which would be devastating to the community. They are more vulnerable to the coronavirus menace. It is critical for our area to keep the hospital here. Reporter their patients are both recovering from covid19, and theyre saying having a hospital with familiar faces closer to homemade all t made a difference. We are about an hour from any health care facility. There are times when people need Emergency Care and we need it now. Reporter back in mingle county, West Virginia, Williamson Memorial Hospital will likely shut down any day. Weve not been able to do elective procedures on an already low volume day, so that makes it even harder. Reporter they were hoping a Community Hospital could save it. Then came covid19. It was the last straw and the current owners decided they would go ahead and pursue closing the hospital. Reporter the relief package last month provided some temporary relief to rural hospitals with a 1 million fund to hospitals and other health care providers. Its not enough, tobler says. We were vulnerable and remain vulnerable and now were probably a more vulnerable hospital, because theres no foundational change. Reporter jim and poppy, dr. Beckett in West Virginia tells us if there is no federal or state intervention, when i asked him when they would shut their doors, he said april 21st. Thats today. My goodness. Leyla, thank you for keeping an eye on all that reporting. Its so important. All right, ahead for us, a story you broke, a critically important one. Officials saying theyre keeping an eye on intelligence that indicates north Korean Leader is, quote, in grave danger after having surgery. More on that ahead. Can get the very best start in life. At bayer, this is why we science. At t knows you have a lot of things on your mind. Staying connected shouldnt be one of them. Thats why were offering contactless delivery and setup on all devices. And for those experiencing Financial Hardship due to this crisis, well work with you to keep your service up and running. Hi because at at t, were always committed to keeping you connected. That Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. And westchester and rockland, the suburbs of new york city. But just as were cieseeing acr the country, this virus presents a slightly different problem in different parts of the country. It also presents a different problem in different parts of the state. Overall, the total hospitalizations are basically flat from where they were yesterday. As you see, the overall curve is on the way down and that is good news certainly. The net change in hospitalizations is down. Not down as much as we would like. Change in intubations is down, and thats always good news, because intubations means a person is on a ventilator. 80 of the time when people are on a ventilator, they dont come off the ventilator in a successful way. The number of new people in the state who walked in the door yesterday or were diagnosed with covid is 1,300. That is down and thats good news relative to really bad news which is what was happening up until then, right . We have to remember our calculus of good, our definition of good has changed here. Good is now not terrible, but on an absolute scale, 1,300 people walk in the door with covid on a single day in the state of new york. That would not be good news in any other context between the size of context were living in. Buffalo, erie county, new york, you see the numbers. We had a dramatic increase in erie county and then basically a leveling flat, little uptick yesterday. Number of total hospitalizations in erie, threeday average. Again, basically flat. These numbers, i would not take any of these oneday numbers, even threeday numbers as absolute. This is a new reporting mechanism that just was put in place. So from a statistical point of view, i dont know exactly what the margin of error is with all due respect to the statisticians doing this. Weve been watching the spread all across the state because this is like stamping out a brush fire. You need to run to where the fire is and put it out there, so we were watching for a spread of the fire from downstate new york towards upstate. Whenever we see a small fire starting, we jump on it right away, testing, isolation, et cetera. But thats remained fairly constant, and thats also good news. But the point that different regions of the country have different, quote, unquote, curves, the virus does not hit at the same time at the same rate. So you hear about different states in the country, and when theyre going to hit their apex, when theyre going to hit their top and when theyre going to come down. Its different all across the country. Its also different across the state. Weve been talking about states like theyre uniform, homogeneous entities. Some are more homogeneous than others. When i was in the federal government, i worked in every state. So you have a whole different variety of states. This state, we have very different regions within new york. When you say new york, people think new york city. Yeah, one of the densest places on the globe. You also have upstate new york where, in some counties, you have more cows than people. People dont think of new york that way. So as you see variety across the country, we have variety across the state of new york. And you have to watch each one of those individual curves, and when does that region hit a high point and where is that . Because depending on that regions curve is how you have to calculate your strategy. And youre looking at those curves. How long is the ascent up the mountain, and then how long are we on that plateau, and then how long is the descent from the plateau . Western new york, i believe were on a plateau. All right. Now the question is how long are we on that plateau, and is it a plateau, or might it still ascend . Downstate new york, it appears were on a descent. And the question becomes in downstate new york, how quickly do we descend . The worst news, and the really ugliest part of my job these days, is telling new yorkers this news. In erie county we lost seven hospital deaths yesterday for a total of 125. In the state we lost 481 people. 452 in hospitals, 29 in Nursing Homes. Again, Nursing Homes are a central focus and priority for all of us going through that. Where are we today . Were operating with two rules. The first rule is do no harm, second rule is start to plan the reopening. Planning the reopening is just that, plan the reopening. Understand its calculated, calibrated. Nobody has done it before. How do you do it . When do you do it . First rule, plan no harm. We paid a tremendous price to control this beast. We closed down everything, people have worked tirelessly in the Health Care System and the First Responders and the essential workers. You showed you can control the beast. Do no harm. Dont go backwards. Thats the first point, and then plan the reopening. On the do no harm, you take a place like erie county, any region in the country or in the state that is still on the ascent or on the plateau. Beware of a hot spot, beware of an increased need. In this state what weve said is any need anywhere in the state, the rest of the state will Surge Capacity and equipment and energy to help that part of the state. So when downstate new york needed help, upstate new york was there. If upstate new york needs help, or western new york needs help or Central New York or the North Country needs help, the rest of the state will be there. And you have my word on that. In these crises, pressure brings out the best and the worst in