Availability of testing. The nations top Infectious Disease expert, after telling lawmakers yesterday the system is failing, sounded a bit more optimistic today. What we are doing right now is getting the private sector involved. The companies that make a living doing these tests. Getting involved in looking forward, you are right, going back the situation was not optimal. Going forward right now with the private sector involved you see a major escalation of capability of getting people tested when they wanted. Harris chief correspondent john roberts live with the latest outside the white house. John . Week of the press conference at 3 00 this afternoon, harris, but what may happen before or after that, we are not sure of the timing. I expect before the president declares a National Emergency, we understand, under the stafford act and under the National Emergencies act. Now, what does that and how did those things differ . If he declares a National Disaster or emergency under the stafford act, what that does is it frees up the Fema Disaster Relief Fund that would normally be applicable to things like hurricanes, earthquakes, other natural disasters. Theyve raised currently about 42 billion in that account that could be tapped. The amount might be a little lower because they currently have some obligations through until the end of the fiscal year 2020. Now, if he declares an emergency under the National Emergencies act, that would apply to health and Human Services and would allow the secretary of health and Human Services, alex azar, to waive certain guidelines in order to fight the coronavirus. Were not sure exactly what those guidelines are that would be waived waive but that would be the net effect of the disaster or emergency decorations. One of the other things we are following is what is going on with brazils president , jair bolsonaro, and with the real story is there. President trump spent a number of hours with bolsonaro at maralago last saturday night. They had dinner, you see them standing together. There outside of maralago, a member of bolsonaros staff came down with covid19 for that was his Community Shows director. Bolsonaro himself had been tested for the coronavirus. His son, eduardo bolsonaro, told somebody with fox news early this morning that a preliminary test had come back positive. You see the two men shaking hands there. But then his son eduardo said that the second test had come back negative. With we do know is that francis suarez, the mayor of miami, had contact with bolsonaro and his entourage and he has now tested positive. Thats not suarez there, that secretary mnuchin. Ill get to him in second. But jair has now tested positive. The Financial Assistance package being nuclear wow negotiated by the secretary along with nancy pelosi, the house speaker, is close to agreement. The secretary expects it will be in agreement later on today that will include free testing for the coronavirus, money for people who are laid off, as well as extending unemployment insurance. Also, paid leave for people who have to stay home. But the secretary suggesting this morning, harris, that there is a lot more that is going to have to come down the road in terms of Financial Assistance to Many American industries. Probably firs first and first at among them, the Airline Industry. Listen to what he said. I can tell you the airlines ive met with, ive spoken with all the airline ceos. That is the next priority on my list, only because, again, its critical we have Domestic Airline travel, under different than after september 11th, this has had the Airline Industry particularly hard. I can also tell you hotels, cruise lines, small businesses, again, these are all areas we are focused on. The secretary said this morning that a lot more help is going to be needed because of the trickledown effect in the economy, how one thing affects another and another and another. One piece of news to report, hhs has given over a Million Dollars to two American Companies who are developing a rapid coronavirus test. This would get back test results within an hour. Testing, as you know, harris, remains a real problem in this country. The cdc and private labs are trying to push out as many tests as they possibly can, but its still not enough. Harris . Harris while you were talking, dr. Siegel of our medical aid team here is slid in. They were right on time with that information. Dr. Siegel is here, and youve been together with us all week as he talked about whats available out there for test kits. Youve actually brought some in. Just to be clear, this is just how you collect the specimen. Nobody out there knows until now. But it isnt the reagents that john is talking about that will run the test for you. Thats what the shortages, and several companies are now coming along and saying we can do it faster. This is how i would go about doing it. Harris okay, talk to me to me. Theres two swabs you use in a relatively healthy patient. Someone whos not in the icu. Someone who is coughing, short of breath, has a fever. Im in a lab and i want to test them. Harris is this what they do in the drivethrough up in new york . This is what theyre talking about . Yes. Harris okay. One swab. Harris the thicker one. The thicker one goes in the throat. The sample specimen in the back of the throat. This one is a nasal swab, this goes all the way up. Harris very uncomfortable, ive heard. It goes all the way up and ask it get to the top. Then, we have a medium we use for collecting viruses. Thats this. You put both swabs into this medium and he would break the tops so you can close it. Harris got it, thats why theres a perforation on the swabs. You can see where you break them. Right. Its a seal so you wont be contaminating it. Harris where you sending that . Heres whats happening, universities around the country are now doing their own tests. Cleveland clinic has gotten approved to do them. And why you will do one as of monday. Nebraska, where i visited, was already doing one. That takes six hours. And they are bio containment, they were doing their own. And cdc would confirm. As of now, lab core and questars starting to do this monday or tuesday theyre going be running specimens. If i bring this to a labcorp or a quest, they will be running it. They are running it as of monday. Harris when you hear labs reporting that they want the test, weve just done is take down some of the heat on this misinformation out there. So people actually not only have two go get this ordered by a doctor, physicians are the ones who are responsible then for making sure that this gets run at a lab. Which is why you cant just show up and expected to happen. That sounds very basic, but in the frenzy of worry, sometimes we will think things like that. Heres another point thats related to the point you just made, harris. Cdc wants physicians to screen for symptoms. Do you have a cough, do you have shortness of breath, do you have a fever . What i want and what dr. Fauci was saying today is i want to be able to test anyone who may have been exposed. I dont want to be told to rate the level of exposure. Id like to be erring on the side of safety and over test people to get more and more negatives. Im happy to get a negative result. I do hiv tests on anybodys ever been out on a date. Harris harris so they comu and they are a patient of yours, you want to just baseline a few things, and thats one of the things you do. Thats very interesting. Are we there yet where we can do that kind of baseline testing . Should dr. Say, you renew this person or that person commit we are not there yet and we need to get there very rapidly. South koreas testing 20,000 specimens a day. The United States of America Needs to test at least 100,000. Harris with the governor of new york is doing and pockets without that cluster up a new rochelle, this drivethrough, there will be six lanes, he says, for people to drive through and get testing. Talk to me about the efficacy of that. Does that seem like something reasonable to you . Its completely reasonable, that should lead to Rapid Testing. He made a point earlier which i agree with. I want there to be a doctor in the loop. But theres random testing of people on their own recognizance, we wont have control over this. I do want practitioners and nurses in the loop on this. Harris do we need what john roberts was reporting, that a Million Dollars to each of two companies that was coming from hhs for this Rapid Testing, results within an hour . I like that. I want to point out that to announce they announced today they announced their Rapid Testing has been approved by the fda for coronavirus. Thats happening in labs across the country. That should be starting also by monday. Thought for our test has been approved by the fda. Harris agile people in my social media that you be joining me twice today. When you come back i will have a lot of questions for the viewers. If you havent visited my physically unsocial, its Harris Faulkner across all platforms. Thank you for getting a test and coming in and teaching us how it works. I really appreciate that. The dramatic step of closing schools in response to the coronavirus outbreak. My next guest is once in their shoes. Former arkansas governor mike huckabee, next. Get em while theyre hot. Applebees 25 cent boneless wings are back in your choice of three sauces. I need all the breaks as athat i can get. Or, cent boneless wings at liberty butchemel. Cut. Liberty mu. Line . Cut. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Cut. Liberty m. Am i allowed to riff . What if i come out of the water . Liberty biberty. Cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Harris there is breaking news as the Texas Governor abbott is giving an update to the people of texas on things i cant tell you. Earlier dallas declared a state of emergency and we brought you love the messages as governor. Governor abbott of texas. Lets watch. Last week, it was announced that ten Public Health labs in texas are now equipped to perform covid19 testing throughout the state. The established a website for covid19 to share uptodate information. It would be helpful if you get that out. It is dshs. Texas. Gov coronavirus . Again, it is dshs. Texas. Gov coronavirus . The state has also asked Health Insurers and hmos operating in texas to speech health costs associated with the testing and telemedicine visits concerning coronavirus. We have a long list of Health Insurers that have agreed to comply with that request. Very importantly, for the uninsured, if an uninsured person needs testing for coronavirus, there are two options. One is Public Health testing, or private laboratory testing. For Public Health testing, he requires consultation with local Health Departments. If the person meets Public Health criteria, then the person is eligible for testing through Public Health testing with no cost to the person. Private testing can also occur, but there could be a cost to the individual. If people need to find a local provider, they can call 211, which can connect them to low or no cost providers in their area. As far as texas schools are concerned, the tea, the commissioner, they work daily with schools to prepare the appropriate response for every school district. The commissioner has begun leading daily calls with superintendents. Very important to note, texas is seeking waivers for federal regulations for the School Lunch Program to give district flexibility to provide students food, should the district need to shut down for a temporary period to respond to the coronavirus. Now, some information about numbers, where we are today. I understand they constantly change. But at this time, not counting the people who have been repatriated into Lackland Air Force base, texas has 39 confirmed cases in collin, dallas, fort bend, greg, harris, montgomery, smith, bell, and travis countys. Hundred 20 texans have been tested in either texas Public Health labs or by the cdc. We have approximately 75 texans who are being tested as we spe speak. Texas, some important facts i want to make sure you get. Texas Public Health labs have the capacity to test 273 People Per Day currently. With that ability to increase, also with private labs coming online. Importantly, next week cpl will be able to test several thousand per week. In addition, there is labcorp and Quest Diagnostics that provide testing. Im also pleased to announce something that is happening as we speak right now. Its the first drivethrough testing facility. I am pleased to announce that mayor nuremberg in the city of san antonio and his team are opening the first drivethrough testing facility in texas. This has been a swift advancement with the combined effort of the city of san antonio, city manager eric walsh, metropolitan Health District director dr. Don emerick, Fire Department chief charles hood, southwest Texas Regional advisory council, executive director eric eppley, Ut Health San antonio president bill heinrich, and University Hospital ceo george hernandez. This facility is opening at this moment. It will initially be for first responders, health care workers, operators of critical infrastructure, and key resources, and certain highrisk patients. Since theyve only been open quite literally a few minutes, its too seem to tell how many people he will be able to test each day. Weve been working with the cities of san antonio and dallas and is the conversations to the city of austin to also implement drivethrough testing sites that will run at the national and local level. I anticipate that at least two if not all three of those cities will be up and running next week or the week after that. Our local leaders and partners know their communitys best, and i appreciate their swift action in providing these facilities. As the situation continues to unfold, texas is taking additional action to mitigate the spread of the virus, and to protect the Publics Health and safety. To ensure that the state of texas and are cities and counties are fully capable to prepare and respond to covid19, i am at this moment declaring a state disaster for all counties in the state of texas. Now, pursuant to this state disaster declaration, they will be many directives issued by this office over the coming day. Here are a few. This will authorize the use of all available and necessary State Government resources to help prepare and respond to covid19. This will give the Texas Division of Emergency Management the ability to reassign and fully utilize personnel where they are needed the most. This will provide the immediate ability to move resources around the state, including resources obtained through the Strategic National stockpile. This will empower the Texas Attorney general to pursue cases of price gouging and assure that offenders are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And my office can approve the waiving of state laws that enter state agencies abilities to respond to covid19. A few more things. A key focus in our response is to prioritize the protecting of the most vulnerable populations who would be most likely to contract covid19. As a result, i am directing state agencies to restrict visitation at nursing homes, statesponsored living centers, hospitals, and day care s this directive allows limited exceptions for things like endoflife visitation and requires all individuals to go through the proper screening. We want to make sure we do all we can to protect this vulnerable senior population are others in hospitals from being contracted with covid19. I also directing state agencies to restrict visitation at prisons, jails, and juvenile justice facilities. While staff remains in Constant Contact with those facilities as they work on establishing best practices protocols. Im also directing state agencies to take any action necessary to facilitate telemedicine. In addition, i am directing state agencies to provide flexible place and telework policies to employees to care for their families while ensuring the State Government continues to function at full capacity and provide all necessary services. This means that anybody who thinks or feels or believes that they are ill in any way, they need to stay home and work from home. You may have the flu, you may have some other Infectious Disease, or you may have covid19. We dont need people who are sick coming into work. One byproduct of having more people work from home, whether it be people who are working or whether it be students who may be in a school that would be temporarily schooled, closed, or college and university, that would decrease the demands upone internet bandwidth. With this increase, we need to be able to make sure that the increase in bandwidth usage is met. As a result, in typical texas fashion, the private sector is stepping up. I applaud what at t just announced, that they are waiving Internet Data usage is for any customer who does not have unlimited Home Internet access. The state of texas will continue to take preventative measures and work with our federal and local partners to contain this virus and to keep texans safe. During this time, we need all texans to do their part to help the state respond to this situation. That means doing things like being extra vigilant about washing your hands, disinfecting frequent touches, avoid shaking hands, and staying at home if youre feeling sick. I want to be clear, there is absolutely no need to go out and stockpile supplies. This isnt the type of situation like what we see with an oncoming hurricane where you may be without supplies or you may need to stock up on wood or water or whatever the case may be. Theres no need to stock up on water with these other supplies. They will be plenty available. For those who may be worried about seeing empty shelves at the grocery stores, these shelves will be replenished and people will have access to the supplies they need. Texas is in the best position to handle a situation like this. Weve been working with grocers and retailers and texans must remain calm and understand that hoarding is neither necessary nor productive. We are prepared with the goods and supplies we need. I want to share with the people of texas that we are going to make it through this. Weve been through situations like this before. We made it through sars, we made it through ebola, we made it through h1n1, and we are going to make it through this one, as well. Last is to give you a template for exactly the positive outcomes we are capable of achieving. If you will remember, on february 7th, at lackland force base in san antonio received 98 repatriations of american citizens from Hubei Province in china. Among those 90, one of the people tested positive but has since been cleared. Importantly, all 90 of those people have now returned home. This is not a death sentence were dealing with here. This is a typical outcome that we expect to see, working together i know we can do it. The leader of this effort in the state is the commissioner at fort dshs, who i will now call upon to make some remarks. Thank you, Governor Abbott. I would really like to underscore the fact that texas is prepared for this. Texas prepares for many harris now that theyve pulled away from Governor Abbott of texas, i want to bring in former arkansas governor mike huckabee. Also fox news contributor. Governor huckabee, we saw an update on covid19 there with the decoration of the state disaster for texas. What does that mean, just in terms of what they can do now . When you declare a disaster, what it means is that you are able to provide some resources and allocate some resources from the state to local Health Departments, to schools, to any community who may need assistance. Just in preventing some of the safety procedures. The reason the president is likely to do that at the National Level this afternoon is because that empowers the federal government to provide those resources. But what we are seeing, harris, his government the way its supposed to be done. The most important decisions are the decisions that are being made at the most local level, closest to the people who are affected. That is how its supposed to work. The president s job, protect the borders, give us some sense of making sure about the people coming into the states dont have the disease. But once people in this country, then its important for governors and county and local officials to be making the decisions, especially like whether school should close or events be canceled. Thats one of the things youre seeing, and frankly, its encouraging to see because it how it ought to all work. Harris its encouraging to hear you say that. Theres been criticisms of some of the missteps and misinformation via the administration from early on. Can you talk to me about what your responses to that . You know we are talking about human beings, but this is a group and they are supposed to be the best of the best. What should our expectation be . I think our expectation should be that we get the best information, that its factual. Sure, there were some missteps along the way in terms of how soon testing would be available and how much testing would be available. At the same time, this is coming at us so fast that i think people have to recognize that its a lot like what happened after 9 11. There were so many rumors that were going on on the day of 9 11. Every state went into shut down thinking that they were the next target of a terrorist attack. The truth is, nobody knew. So you take every precaution you can. The reason schools are closing, there are three reasons, basically. One, kids are not likely to be most highly impacted. Some indications are this virus doesnt hardly affect the child. But they are carriers. So the problem is not that they are going to get really sick, but if they go see grandma, grandma is going to get really sick. The second thing, parents have a lot of anxiety. When mothers and fathers see disney shutting down, ncaa, nba, major league baseball, they are wondering, how come my kid is at school . Alludes to alleviate some of those anxieties from parents. The third thing, lets face it, we are being told every hour, wash your hands, be careful what you touch, disinfect. We are adults. Ive got six grandkids. I dont care how many times i tell them to use good hygiene, they dont always wash their hands and theyre not that careful about what they touch. So thats another reason a lot of decisions are being made to keep kids at home. Because they are not going to be able to do anything other than maybe passed on whatever terms theyve got. And thats the last thing anybody needs right now in america. Harris there is a lot of wisdom in that. There is. I want to leave it right there and let people just settle on that. Governor huckabee, thank you. Always good to see. Thank you, harris. Great to talk to you. Harris as we wait the president s 3 00 p. M. Eastern News Conference here on fox, where he is expected declare a National Emergency now, we want to take you to one of the nations busiest airports with the latest on air travel and how that is expecting some of you. Keep watching. Saturdays happen. Pain happens. Aleve it. Aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. When pain happens, aleve it. All day strong. Harris we are keeping a close eye on the white house right now. President trump, as weve been telling you, expected to declare a National Emergency on the covid19 pandemic. That will happen at 3 00 p. M. Eastern today. Meanwhile, congress is scrambling to put the final touches on that Coronavirus Response bill, which could get a floor vote later today. Could, we say. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke yesterday about her priorities for the legislation. [indistinct] its about our children who are in school, people with disabilities. Harris chad pergram lives for us on capitol hill with the latest. Chad . The latest is that house Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to talk from the Speakers Office about 2 00 about the coronavirus bill. That bill is basically done. The question is, will they have republicans vote for it, or will democrats have to go it alone . Kevin mccarthy, the House Minority leader, has just returned to capitol hill. Hes been meeting with president trump. There is concern among Congressional Republicans that if the president does not support this, with the be willing to back this bill . Thats my policy has a decision to make. Does she forge ahead and just put this in . We are going to go back to you, harris paid until theres some breaking news here. Harris Governor Cuomo making another announcement. He has spoken already today. Lets check in and see what the news is. We have said the way to reduce the spread, the reach of the spread, the 2pronged approach, reduce the density. Yesterday we announced measures to reduce the density. Gatherings of 500 and over, et cetera. The second way is to increase the Testing Capacity. The more you test, the more positives you find, the more you can isolate, the more you reduce the spread. You learn from the countries that have come before. China, south korea, italy. The better you are at testing, the more you test, the more you can reduce the spread. Ive told you that weve been talking to the federal government about the federal government authorizing states to do testing. State Health Departments regulate labs in their states. If you go for a test now at a lab that is regulated by the state, we need obviously more Testing Capacity and we need it quickly. So i spoke to the Vice President about this. Vice president mike pence is a former governor so he understood the states rules. Department of health and regula wriggling laboratories. He said he would look at it. I said i thought it could make a tremendous difference. I spoke with the Vice President today and i spoke with the president , and they are authorizing new york state to do the testing, and allowing our labs to do the tests. And allowing the state Health Department to set up the protocol. That will increase dramatically our Testing Capacity. I want to think the president and the Vice President for their receptivity to the idea, and i want to thank them for their quick turnaround. We have the authorization as of today. So, today the state Health Department will be going out to the 28 laboratories that the department of health works with on complex testing matters, and those 28 labs will be authorized to do testing. We are down in the boiler room now, turning all the valves. The labs will be coming on, next week we will go up to capacity of about 6,000 tests per day. Which will be a dramatic increase for us. To date, weve done around 3,000 tests. So that is a very, very big difference. Testing is probably the single most important thing that we can be doing now. As i said, that will double. Well be able able to do about, in one day, all the tests that we have done to date, believe it or not. Again, i want to thank the Vice President , and especially the president , who facilitated this and moved quickly. A couple of quick items on the executive order, im going to do another executive order. There are issues that come of that need to be addressed. Unemployment insurance, we are going to waive the seven day waiting period for anyone who was unemployed as a result of quarantine, or laid off because of the virus. Local schools are making a decision whether to stay open or close, that the local decision. The state rule is if a child in that school tests positive, the school must close for 24 hours so we can clean the school, assess the situation, and make a decision. Some of the schools want to know, if they close, do they get penalized by the state for not following the 180day rule . Which is 180 days of class to qualify for state funding. We are going to waive the 180day requirement. Some Utility Companies are in a position where people may not be able to pay their utility bill, because they got laid off. Or they are working less. The state Public Service commission is going to put out an order that says no utility can turn off a utility to a person who hasnt paid their bill as a result of responding to this virus situation. We also need to come up with an answer to political petitions that are now being circulated to put people, qualified people, to run for election. Normally you go door to door with a petition, and you speak to the person who opens the door and you ask them to sign a petition. This is not the best time to be sending people doortodoor. Its the exact opposite of what we are trying to do. I dont know the specific solution, but i know its something we have to address. Will give you the numbers for today. Thats the total number of people tested, about 3200. The number of cases, current total, 421. Weve gone up 96. New york city, you can see, went up 59 cases to a total of 154. Westchester went up ten, 2158 these are the counties that have cases, schenectady is actually a new county for a case. New york now has the highest number of cases in the country. New york and washington go back and forth. Washington had more deaths, obviously, because it was in a vulnerable situation. Senior citizens, senior care facilities, nursing home facilities. Those are the number one situation that we are concerned about through this. Current hospitalizations, 50 out of the 421 cases, thats a 12 hospitalization rate. 18 are in intensive care. We have 3200 intensive care beds in this state three of the total number of hospital beds, 53,000. 3,200 icu beds. When i spoke over the last few days, ive been talking about watching the hospitalization rate, and in particular, the rate of people needing the icu. This is where italy got into trouble. They didnt have enough icu beds to handle the number of patients who needed intensive care. That is going to be a problem in this state and in this country. And that is something we have to watch very, very carefully. Weve been talking to the hospitals about, how do you increase capacity quickly . Staffing capacity facility capacity, canceling elective surgeries, which can add a significant amount of capacity. If you have an elective surgery, you want to hip replacement, some other type of elective surgery, there may come a point in time and i would say its probable where we may postpone elective surgeries because we need that hospital staff to be taking care of this issue. But that is a major problem that we are looking at down the road. Again, perspective on all this, the Johns Hopkins numbers, everybodys anxious, everybodys nervous. Johns hopkins has been tracking the facts. I understand emotion. I also understand facts. You want to relax yourself, you want to understand what is going on. Look at the facts. They have tracked every coronavirus case. 137,000. 5,000 people have passed away. You look into that 5,000 number, youre going to see senior citizens. You are going to see people who had underlying respiratory illnesses that were preexisting. You are going to see people with compromised immune systems. The same type of people who would be affected by the flu, but at a higher rate of infection, and at a higher rate of mortality. 69, almost 70,000 recoveries worldwide. 62,000 pending. We are dealing with the virus, and we are dealing with peoples perception. Any emergency, any disaster, you have the issue that youre dealing with. It could be fire, could be flooded, could be an impending hurricane. You have the issue and then you have the Public Perception of the issue. The fear, the anxiety, the panic, can be a more difficult issue than the underlying issue youre dealing with. You have a lot of anxiety. I think much more anxiety than the facts would justify. But they are emotions, right . Emotions dont have to be factbased. And part of my job is to say to the people of this state what the reality is, and what they should expect. First, this is not going to be a quick situation. This is going to be weeks, months. I would calibrate ourselves. This is not going to be gone next week. Its not going to be a return to normal next week. Look at china, look at south korea, look at italy, look at the trajectory. This is months. So prepare yourself. And this is going to be everywhere. There is a daytoday account, we are up to trent, we are up 7. My guess is that there are thousands and thousands of cases Walking Around the state of new york. My guess is there are thousands of people who had coronavirus, didnt even know they had the coronavirus, had symptoms, resolved, moved on, and never knew they had it. 80 will selfresolved. There could be tens of thousands of people who had it. So this fascination with how many cases today, the number of cases, we are doing to try to identify positive people. It is not in any way representative of the sample of how many people have coronavir coronavirus. So you have to keep that in perspective. Also, everybody wants to protect themselves. You want to protect your family. And you to protect your children. What do i have to do, what do i have to do . People ask me ten times a day. At one point, you cant control the situation. And that is where we are. You cant protect yourself. You can add hermetically seal yourself and your family. Someone will touch her child. Someone will put their hand down, and then your child will put their hand down. That is going to happen to you. Thats going to happen to your children. That is why the facts are important. What happens if my loved one, my brother, my sister, my mother 80 of it will selfresolve it if theyre in a class, be careful. Be careful today. It can be problematic. If you think youre going to escape, coming into contact with this, its not going to happen. One of my daughters was in a precautionary quarantine. She came in contact with someone who was in a hot spot, who we didnt know whether or not that person was positive. So she was precautionary quarantine for 14 days. Thats my daughter. Thats everything to me. Thats why i get up in the morning. How could i protect my daughter . Why didnt i protect my daught daughter . Its impossible. Its impossible. My daughter is a young woman, shes not in one of the vulnerable categories. So i have to talk myself through the facts. Right . You talking about my child. You want to talk about emotion it just goes up in you. So i have to talk myself through the reality of the situation and the facts of the situation. To calm myself. So i understand fully the anxiety that people feel. I understand the questions. Again, facts. The facts do not justify the fear. I know more facts than anyone. Im doing this every day. But my daughter was possibly exposed. Because you cant control it. Who knows where the cabdriver was . Who knows where the person who sits next to you on the bus was . Who knows where your body was last night, who may have come into contact with a person who then finds out they were in contact with a person . You cant. You cant. The good news is, the facts. And yes, if you are in the vulnerable population, its different. If it was, my mother may have been exposed, then i would be more concerned. So, what am i doing . Im taking more precautions with my mother. I talked to her about it every day. Im just a son, she knows better than i know, she gave birth to me, so by definition theres nothing i could ever tell her in my life that is valuable, so she gave birth to me, so by definition im just inherently inferior. Which i understand, and happens to be true. But thats a different situation. All of this to say you cant, nobody is going to be immune from this. The facts say we have to do what we have to do, but we are going to handle it and get past it. Questions. Report of my kind of a rebuttal, if you will, to the call for you to close schools statewide. You probably have something very similar to say about, specifically, those calls to close schools. The call to close schools, there is a theory that children are not affected by the virus, may be carriers, you close the stools dont act schools, but you close the spread . The closing of schools is very difficult decision, a complicated decision, and theres pluses and minuses. I understand the pluses. I just mentioned the plus. The minuses are, who says the children arent going to be in contact with other children . If youre not in school for a day, i know when i wasnt in school for a day i came into contact with a lot more kids being out of school then in school second, how about the learning for the children that is not going to happen now . Third, a lot of children are receiving breakfast and lunch at school. How do you do that . How do you get all those meals to all those kids when they are not in school . What distribution mechanism do you have . And then, if the kids are home, which of the do . Well, then he can watch the kids most people dont have staff at home to watch the kids. If the kids are home, the parents are home. If the parents are home, whos going to be working in my hospitals . Which is the critical system in all of this. Staffing the health care system. It is complicated. What we have done is lifted up to the localities, by and large. We have many schools closing. I dont know if thats always a judgment on the facts, or if that is a response to anxiety in the local community where parents just say, i dont want johnny going to school today. By the way, intendant attendancn schools is way down. That parent is saying, this is my child, this is my gift from god, this is my precious child. I dont know whats going on, i dont want them going to school today. I think you see that anxiety reflected in local School Closings also. So, its not difficult emotionally. Its factually a very debatable premise. Its something we look at every day, something we talk about every day. Because there are pluses also. There are significant tradeof tradeoffs. Reporter you said youre keeping track of this every day. [indistinct] well, look. You are watching the increasing curves of the spread. Right . If you look at what i has been done in the past, if youre not slowing that curve, you take increasing measures just to bring down the spread. Now, we dont know if factually closing schools actually reduces the spread. There is the premise, the theory that says it does. But we dont know in truth, joe. You could close a school, that could increase the spread. Right . Nobody has factual data because we havent done this before. If the number keeps going up, you keep turning the knob to reduce, to reduce, to reduce. More testing, more density reduction. More testing, more density reduction. Right . We have now said on density reduction, the 500 gathering, and the 50 occupancy. The number keeps going up, you turn that not more. Thats what you see you have some places on the globe where theyve just closed everything. Italy got to a point where they said grocery stores, pharmacies, everything else, closed. Thats as tight as you can turn that valve. But it is a calibration that you do daytoday. We are saying to local School Districts for example, we are waiving the 180 day requirement. Which means its up to them without any sanctions. Reporter you are not a shrinking violet. Bill de blasio says, what do you think, should you close the schools . What you tell bill de blasio . I say the same thing i said to you. Heres the pluses, heres the minuses. Reporter its u up to de blasio . Lets be clear, is it up to him to close there are local decisions, except when you have a child who has tested positive. Now the state says you must close it for 24 hours, period, and, new paragraph, you must consult with department of health. If you have a positive case in the school, you have to know the facts, the circumstances. Is there a possible cluster and that any changes so youre seeing if no one tested positive. Sounds like youre washing your hands of this question, right . Sounds like youre telling youre passing it off to localities and saying its not my im saying theres no the state at this point with these numbers does not believe that we need to close schools statewide. If a locality feels they should close schools either because they think theres a Health Reason or frankly because they think theres an anxietybased reason, i understand that. If the numbers tell us a different story, i have no problems setting a statewide standard. I set plenty of statewide standards. The 500 occupancy ratio. But we dont have a position determined by facts and data that says the closing of schools would make a difference, and you know there are negative consequenc consequences. Theres a big deal if parents have to stay home. Its a very big deal if were shortstaffed in hospitals. When it comes to testing, is the state looking to contact