The sanitation department, the sheriffs department, the Transportation Authority as well. You are looking at boxes of food, some frozen, some fresh. Theyre loading the food into the back of these cars. These arent just any cars, though. These are taxis, uber drivers, lyft drivers, folks who otherwise would not be working, and theyre taking the food to millions of people over the five boroughs. In fact, so far new york city has given out nearly 7 million free meals across all its programs in the last 5 1 2 weeks. More on this massive operation in just a moment. But first, we want to get you caught up on the facts. Right now there are about 843,000 known coronavirus cases in the united states. Thats 34,000 more cases since i came to you yesterday at this same time. So far, weve lost more than 47,000 americans. 30 minutes from now, well get the Daily Briefing from new york Governor Andrew Cuomo. This morning he again asked new yorkers to stay at home. Also new this morning, 4. 4 million more americans filed for unemployment last week. That brings the fiveweek total now to more than 26 million. For some perspective, thats roughly more than the populations of the state of new york and the state of massachusetts combined. The fiveweek total, the fiveweek total has erased all of the job gains since the 2008 financial crisis. At this hour keeping a very close eye on capitol hill as well. Thats where lawmakers are set to vote on that nearly 500 billion aid package. Another aid package of relief coming in a couple hours. The money meant to help Small Businesses, also to help some hospitals and to expand testing as well. Just a reminder, once again, were following all the cdc guidelines here. Were wearing our masks, practicing social distancing and wearing gloves as well. We can show you weve got a very small footprint here at the armory. We are going to start with those massive unemployment numbers. Jo ling kent covers business for us. Jo, to say the numbers are eye popping would be an understatement. Walk us through the numbers and what they mean. Reporter craig, good morning to you. 4. 4 million more people filed for the jobless claims over the last week alone. That puts us, as you said, to 26 million. Its because obviously the economy has basically grinded to a halt. You have stores like these retailers in particular really hurting. The signs like this, this one from three people saying we hope youll shop online with us. Thats really the sentiment across the board for retail. For restaurant, that means getting a togo order. Were here in california, the hardest hit state. In the last week alone, half a Million People have filed for unemployment claims. You also have hardhit states like georgia, new york, michigan, pennsylvania. Every single state has been impacted by this. Youre also seeing layoffs materialize in these numbers, but the good news is, if there is any good news in all of this, even though so many stores are boarded up, the Labor Department now says 16 Million People, u. S. Workers here, are now getting their Unemployment Benefits paid out. They have been properly insured. That is good news. However, as you see these boardedup stores, we also have news this morning that gap has said it has not paid rent on its stores. That includes Banana Republic and old navy for the month of april, craig. Thats 115 million they were not able to pay in terms of monthly expenses. Its yet another window into the pain that the u. S. Economy is feeling, particularly in retail and on main streets like this, craig. Jo ling kent for us in los angeles. Jo, thank you. Lets turn now to katherine garcia. Katherine is with me here at the armory. Up until a few weeks ago, katherine was the sanitation commissioner. Now, in addition to the sanitation commission, she has been named new york citys food czar. Katherine, thank you so much. You said a couple weeks ago i believe i read you said no one in new york city is going to go hungry during this crisis. Walk us through exactly whats being done here. This program is specifically for people who are covid vulnerable. Ie, they really cant leave their house. They might be sick, might be elderly. So what weve designed here is really a program to get homedelivered meals on a grand scale using our taxi drivers in the city of new york. The taxi drivers line up. We load them up with food and send them across the city to deliver. This is a program we started only at the end of march, and we will probably do 170,000 meals today across the five boroughs. 170,000. And just 30,000 from this location alone as i understand it. Yes. One of the things i really like about this program, in addition to providing food to folks who are most vulnerable right now, these taxi drivers, these black car drivers, uber drivers, lyft drivers, they wouldnt otherwise be working. Thats correct. We know theres been a real steep economic decline across the city of new york, and we wanted to use the resources that we had to get this program off the ground. This is providing income for them and their families and food to new yorkers across the city. I have to say, i actually think they really enjoy being part of it because they know its helping new yorkers. For folks who are watching right now, who might be listening on sirius satellite radio, if they want to access this program, if theyre struggling, if they need help right now, what can they do . So if you want to access the program, you can call 311 and say get food, or you can go online to nyc. Gov getfood. To be clear, the meals being provided will last two days, and then were moving to a threeday box next week. Threeday box. Most of the folks getting the food, are theyll derly yes. Many, many people are elderly or live in Housing Authority developments. Thats really the population weve been trying focus on, particularly older people who might have been very independent and might have been able to go to the grocery store, and now its not safe for them to do that anymore. Of course, the National Guard here making it all work. Our guardsmen and guardswomen doing what weve come to see so much of over the past few weeks. As someone reported to me, the unemployment numbers weve been talking about, a number of National Guardsmen unemployed as well. Ms. Garcia, thank you for your time. Commissioner garcia, in addition to picking up the citys trash, shes also now in charge of feeding the city as well. Thanks for all the work youre doing. Thank you. Ali vitali is still in South Carolina for us. Yesterday she was in the capital. She has made her way to the coast now. Ali vitali is on folly beach. As someone who knows that beach reasonably well, this time of year that beach is usually flooded with folks. This morning, like most of the beaches up and down the eastern seaboard, it is virtually empty. Tourism the number one business in the palmetto state. Its being hit especially hard, ali. Reporter craig, thats exactly right. This beach is one of the public beaches that the South Carolina governor has now said is allowed to reopen which leaves it to local officials to figure out how best to do that. In order to get onto folly beach, you have to get onto folly eye lantd. Before you can do that, you have to go through a checkpoint which is to ensure that residents are the only people that can come and get onto the beaches. You see the people around me, theyre walking, not sun bathing or sitting those are the rules if you want to be on the beach today. At the same time you mentioned, tourism is down. In talking to the mayor today, he said theyre not able to be collecting taxes or revenues from these businesses that are closed. So they havent had to do this yet, but if this continues, they may have to dip into a fund that they typically reserve for literal storms, not figgive ones like what were going through now. Listen to what he told me. We keep a general fund balance of over 2 million. The 2 million is a bad storm in case we had a bad storm where we wasnt collecting taxes or income to keep the city running. This is a storm of a different kind, as i just said. Sooner or later, just like your savings account, were going to have to dip into that. Reporter craig, i think the mayor here said he thinks it is too soon to reopen. Hes concerned by the fact that South Carolina as a whole hasnt seen 14 consecutive days of declining cases. One of the metrics laid out by the white house for states as they continue to consider what reopening looks like. Ment at the same time mayor goodwin also said hes hopeful about what this beach reopening looks like because there is that impetus to get businesses back running so these Business Owners can keep making ends meet and so that the city may not have to dip into its hurricane, rainy day fund. You know as well, Hurricane Season starts in june. So far theyre okay not dipping into that fund, but these two things might come up right against each other. For places like here in South Carolina, it could put them in a monetary situation if they have to deal with funding for a potential hurricane and also funding to keep businesses afloat amidst a pandemic. Ali vitali for us there on folly beach, an empty folly beach. Ali, thank you. Lets turn now to corley fiorina, of course former chairman and ceo of hewlett packard, a titan in business. Last time we were together, i believe you were fairly critical of the aid package that was about to pass congress. Theres another aid package thats going to be voted on here in the next few hours. It is likely to pass. The president has already said hes going to sign it. Some 485 million primarily for Small Businesses, but it includes money for testing and hospitals as well. What say you Carly Fiorina about this new aid package . Well, good morning, craig. As youll remember, the last time we were together, i was critical of one piece of the aid package, and that one piece was the 500 billion to large corporations Like United Airlines and boeing and others. My point at that time was we ought to be prioritizing that money towards Small Businesses. Well, here we are. It turns out that we needed a lot more money to go to Small Businesses, almost 500 billion worth. So i applaud congress forgetting more money to Small Businesses. Its what should have happened in the first place. Unfortunately, 4 trillion worth of stimulus is important. Its vital. What these unemployment claims tell us is theres just economic devastation. But prioritization still matters. Big companies have a lot of tools available to them that Small Businesses an working families dont. So we should continue to prioritize money to Small Businesses and working families and individuals and hospitals and testing, not big corporations who have the wherewithal to get through this. Is this relief package going to be enough to save so many of those mom and pops . I hope so, but honestly, craig, i dont know so. I think what were seeing is this level of economic devastation is widespread, and the recovery will be a long, slow slog. This isnt going to be a situation where states just open up. Theres no justification for what Governor Kemp is doing in georgia. But even where states follow the National Guidelines and do their own testing, and even where employers are sensible about how to reassure their customers by creating more physical space, for example, its going to take a long time. So i think what were looking at is a long slog. Theres no scenario in which i think theres a sharp vshaped recovery. I think were not returning to normal in this calendar year, honestly. So i do think theres going to be real pain, particularly with these very small mom and pops, particularly in communities of impoverished citizens, and its why prioritizing where we send our money is so important. You also just alluded to something that i dont think has probably gotten enough attention, this idea that governors and local lawmakers as well, this idea that they may reopen parts of the economy, but if people dont feel safe going out and buying things, then it really doesnt do much to restart the economy. I think thats so smart. I do think look, people are resilient and creative. Just as your wonderful story about the Food Delivery Program in new york city demonstrates. So i do think employers, small employers, smart Business Owners are going to get creative. For example, takeout is here to stay. Telework is here to stay. The pedicure chairs may be further away. A Smart Airline is going to say were going to leave our middle seats open. Its going to take a while for people to feel confident to go back. In Grocery Stores having cleansing stations, hand wipes, face guards. All those things i think are here to stay. So there is an opportunity for smart businesses and smart employers to be creative in serving their customers, but i think its going to be a long while before a lot of people feel comfortable packing in to close quarters for extended periods of time like we used to. Carly fiorina, former gop president ial candidate, former chairman and ceo of hewlett packard, always good to have your perspective. Well have governor cuomos Daily Briefing. When that starts, well bring it to you live. After a quick break, were going to show you perhaps a unique solution, shall we say, an idea that one small city is now considering to try and determine who may or who may not have covid19. It is as hightech as it is controversial. Well talk about that right after this. Right now another look at this massive Food Distribution operation thats been set up here in new york city at an armory in the bronx. This is msnbc. Hi, its jan from toyota. Toyota is here to help. Were offering an incredible 0 on our most popular toyotas. Thats 0 on camry. 0 on rav4. Your payments for up to 90 days. You can even shop and buy online from the comfort of your home. Were here for you. Contact your local toyota dealer to see how they can help. Toyota i know that every time that i suit up, there is a chance that thats the last time. 300 miles an hour, thats where i feel normal. I might be crazy but im not stupid. Having an annuity tells me that im protected. During turbulent times, consider protected Lifetime Income from an annuity as part of your retirement plan. This can help you cover your essential monthly expenses. Learn more at protectedincome. Org. [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. Welcome back. Craig melvin in the bronx at kings bridge armory, transformed into one of the citys massive distribution centers. I want to give you a look, a peek inside one of these boxes. This is one of the fresh fruit and vegetable, bread, asparagus, onion, apples in there as well, some potatoes. This is one of the prepared food boxes. You cant tell at home but this is frozen. Chicken tenders and carrots and mac and cheese as well. Sergeant grant, not just a guardsmen, but a member of the nypd as well. Yes. Tell me about this operation. Youre in charge of this thing. Im in charge of the operation. You guys are moving about 30,000 meals every day. On a personal level, how does it make you feel knowing what youre doing right now . It makes me feel good, helping new york city. People are hungry. So we have maybe 30 people here trying to get these meals out every day. Sometimes its more. We have a lot of the without them we cant push out the food. Thank you for what youre doing and keep it up. First of all, look how packed this honda is, packed to the gills there. How many meals do you usually get every car gets a maximum of four routes. After the four routes, if they want to do more, they can come back and do more. Sergeant grant, thank you so much. No problem. A guardsman and member of the nypd as well. Over in connecticut theres a town experimenting with some new technology to actually try and tell whether you or your neighbor may be Walking Around with the coronavirus. In our search for solutions this morning, jake ward, our business and technology correspondent, found this really fascinating story. But quite honestly, jake, its a little creepy, too. Reporter thats right, craig. This is a really important question for all of us. There is technology that may be able to help us cut a path out of this situation, but the big question here is where are we going to wind up. Have a look. In the small town of west port, connecticut, a drone is scanning for covid19 symptoms. The reaction here is, well, mixed. Police have been flying drones here since 2016 for everything from Traffic Management to search and rescue. They can use them to spot and warn people who are gathered too closely. But now draganfly, the company that makes the drones claims they can also detect whether youre running a fever, sneezing or coughing heavily, all through a single camera flying 40 feet overhead. Subtle differences are on a millimeter type of basis. If somebody is coughing like this or like this, its actually quite a different type of cough actually that theyre detecting. Reporter the police chief says this partnership could help the town reopen, and they need every tool possible. The pandemic well see the elevated temperatures, the increase in blood pressure, the flushed skin. So to have the Technology Available for future incidents, whether it be covid related or Something Else that comes our way, i think we need to prepare for that. Reporter this is the first time americans have been scanned for symptoms in this way, and there are skeptics. I dont know that this technology could distinguish between somebody with covid19 and somebody with influenza. Im inclined to doubt it. Reporter not to mention that many infected people never exhibit obvious symptoms. And even if it does work, are we ready to be scanned from the air . The involvement of the police makes me more worried about how this technology might have what we sometimes call function creep in that it is used and designed for one purpose but gets repurposed for other things. Do you believe well have to strike some kind of necessary compromise with the desire for privacy in order to get out of this thing . Public health has built into it the need to sometimes invade peoples privacies. Reporter the chief says its all just research. But the police are save everything. By no means will we single out people and say, look, you look like your temperature is elevated. Will you be hanging on to data that drag gan fly is creating . Any missions, so to speak, we fly with our drones, we keep those records. Reporter the aclu responded saying any new surveillance measure restricted solely for Public Health use should be promptly rejected. Keep a safe distance of six feet from others. Theres a side of me that would say this is very science fiction. I feel like ive seen this movie. I feel the same way. But at the same time its reality. Its our new reality. Reporter craig, its a really strange new world were entering and its one that asks this question. Do we want Research Projects like this intended to figure out whether we can track the spread of the virus through the population, find the hot sfots all at a time when we do not have enough testing, maybe this is the way to do it. Then again we have to ask ourselves, are we ready to be scanned just for walking outside our houses . As glenn cohen from harvard points out there, is Public Health necessarily going to require some sort of invasion of privacy in order to do the job of getting us out of this crisis, craig. Jake ward, thank you, sir. Fascinating indeed, my friend. Thank you, thank you. Lets turn to dr. Lena nguyen, an emergency room physician. She is also former commissioner of the Baltimore City health department. Dr. Nguyen, lets start with that drone technology. This may be an extreme example, but what can we do to make sure that folks are walking out among us are healthy, are safe, arent transmitting this virus . Well, craig, i understand the desire here, to identify individuals who are ill and ideally prevent that spread of covid19 to others. I do think there were interesting questions raised about privilege see and also about the use of these new technologies that frankly are not yet proven, especially thinking about my city here in baltimore where there is already such distrust of the police and certain institutions, and the last thing we would want is to foster that mistrust. Frankly, there are other forms of technologies that are proven and Public Health methods that are proven that we should be using, too. For example, mass testing. We know many people with covid19 dont have symptoms. Theyre not going to have fever and cough and may not look flush. We need widespread testing of people that do not show symptoms. We need to rely on the tried and true Public Health methods of contact tracing. Identify individuals who test positive, figuring out who they were exposed to. Thats resource intensive. Its time intensive, but building that trust especially among vulnerable populations and populations that already feel disenfranchi disenfranchised, thats really important before we turn to big tech and surveillance thats not yet proven. Dr. Wen, as you know, theres this on Going National debate now over how we should reopen, when we should reopen, which businesses should reopen first. Albany, georgia, as you know Governor Kemp in georgia has said tomorrow a number of businesses are going to be allowed to reopen including salons, tattoo shops and bowling alleys. I asked the mayor of albany, georgia, about that decision. Here is what he told me a couple hours ago on today. We have counties in this state, some counties that have twice our population that have four deaths and less than 100 reported cases. So these citizens are throughout the state. Thats why i have a problem. If the governor likes the restrictions in those areas, he should recognize there are exceptions like albany and doherty county. Dr. Wen, is that a way to reopen . Can you reopen parts of certain states, regions of certain states without opening the entire state . It doesnt really make sense. We have to base our decisions on data and science. Frankly, we also have to be using common sense, too. The idea of opening tattoo parlors an beauty salons how do you cut someones hair and practice social distancing . It doesnt make sense. It also doesnt make sense to reopen in one county but not reopen in another. Diseases will cross borders, people cross borders. At the end of the day, we need to think about the health and wellbeing of our citizens. We know social distancing has been working, and we also know we dont yet have the sisz stems in place to replace social distancing. If we had widespread testing, if we had the ability to do contact tracing, if we know the number of infections is substantially coming down and we can trust those numbers, then we can do reopening and we can cothat in a phase, in a stepwise manner. At the moment, without that information, this is a reckless step that will lead to more infections and unfortunately more preventable deaths. Dr. Wen, i understand that you had a baby in the middle of this pandemic that were all experiencing. Whats it like being a new mom in the middle of all this . I know have an almost threeweekold daughter, and i also have a 2 1 2yearold son. Living through this pandemic, working from home like everyone else, its a reminder to me and i think to everyone how health care continues to happen in the middle of a pandemic. You dont stop having children. You dont stop having heart attacks and Car Accidents unfortunately in the middle of a pandemic. The way the Health Care System is so much different than we ever expected. I would advise everyone if youre going for something thats planned or if you fall ill from Something Else, always have a plan in some kind of mind. Write down your medications, medical issues, allergies, doctors information, Contact Information of a loved one and know, also, that you may not have someone to accompany you when you go into the hospital. I was lucky i had my husband with me during labor and delivery, but so many patients going through emergency surgery or going to get medical care through other things, cant have someone with them to be their advocate. Come up with a plan for how youll handle that yourself. Have the list of your issues with you. Also have a phone or i patted or something so you are able to reach others if you happen to be alone oopsz. This is just a time of uncertainty for all of us. But health care continues to happen, and i hope that that will be considered, too, that its not only the patients with coronavirus who are affected. Its actually all of us who may have a medical condition or may need treatment for it, too. Dr. Wen, always enjoy and appreciate your insight. Congratulations as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Dr. Wen just mentioned testing, mass testing. Were going to take a break, and when we come back, a company that is introducing that mass testing to Public Housing specifically. Also, a live look there, Governor Andrew Cuomo set to take to that podium any moment now for his Daily Briefing. When we does well, of course, bring it to you live. This is msnbc. At papa johns, we want you to know that from our 450degree oven, to box, to you, its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. When taking a break from everyday life is critical to everyones health, there is one thing we can all do together complete the 2020 census. Your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, infrastructure, and education. Lets make a difference, together, by taking a few minutes to go online to 2020census. Gov. Its for the wellbeing of your community and will help shape americas future. And will help shape americas future. A lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesnt get everything clean. I tell them, it may be your detergent. Thats why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum. With the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in. For sparklingclean dishes, the first time. Cascade platinum. Andrew cuomo set to start his Daily Briefing. In the bronx with kings bridge armory ill step out so you can see this operation that continues. National guardsmen teaming up with nypd, department of san tigs. Too many jurisdictions to mention here, providing 30,000 meals from this location alone every day to the citys most vulnerable populations. So a live look as the guardsmen load more of that food into taxis and black cars and ubers and lyfts. Meanwhile, just a few moments ago, dr. Wen was talking about mass testing. Justin dangle, the ceo and founder of a group called ready responders. Its a group that goes doortodoor to take covid19 testing and medical care to people in Public Housing and other places as well as i understand it, justin. Talk to us a little bit about what your company does and why its so important right now. Yeah, thanks for having me on. We provide inhome medical care through a network of responders who are nurses, emts and paramedics and telehealth doctors available on tablets that our whole team carries. We, since the outset of this pandemic have been supporting hospitals, ems systems and public authorities in helping to extend care into the home. One element of what we do is testing, as you pointed out. We go to a patients home and provide a test, and they get results within 24 to 48 hours. As i think you mentioned, we launched a program in conjunction in new york, in conjunction with the governor, the mayor, congressman meeks and other public officials. Weve launched it today. Youre also testing in new orleans and las vegas as well, sfliet. New orleans, las vegas, washington, d. C. , baltimore, and well be launching in los angeles in about a week and plan to add several more markets. Were trying to get to as many people as we can as quickly as we can. Theres obviously a huge need for testing and inhome medical care. So our ambition is to build the infrastructure and see as many people as we can and to make sure that anyone who can help, that were prepared and available to help. Im going to have to come back to talk to you more about it. Iet es a great idea. Governor cuomo starting in now. Lets listen in for the Daily Briefing. My spin. Separate from what i would like to believe, what i hope. Just facts. The reason i do that is because everything were doing is basically voluntary on behalf of people, right . State government, local government, federal government, doesnt have the power to enforce stayathome orders. If 19 Million People said im going out today, they would go out. But the belief was, if they have the facts, if they understand the facts, theyll act prudently in connection with the facts. Now, some of the facts have been disturbing. Some of the facts have been ugly, but those are the facts, and thats my job, is to present the facts as facts. If i have an editorial comment on the facts, i give it to you. But i want you to know thats my editorial comment versus what data or science will say. Also, our muslim brothers and sisters begin the observation of ramadan this evening, and we wish them all the best. The hospitalization rate is down again. So that is good news. The projected curve everybody is looking at curves nowadays. If you look at the curve, the curve continues to go down, and thats also in the total hospitalization number, bounces up and down a little bit, but its clearly down. Number of intubations bounces a little bit, but its also clearly down. The number of new covid cases walking in the door or being diagnosed is relatively flat. That is not great news. Wed like to see that going down, but its not going up eith either. Number of lives lost is still breathtakingly tragic, 438. That number is not coming down as fast as we would like to see that number come down. What were looking at at this point is, okay, were on the downside of the curve. The number are trending down. Do they continue to trend down or do they pop back up . If they continue to trend down, how fast is the decline, and how low will the decline go . In other words, if 1,300 people or about that number keep walking in the door, then youre going to have a hospitalization rate proportionate with the number of people walking in the door. So we want to see the number of people walking in the door reduced, the number of new infections reduced so we hit a low plateau, if you will, but we dont know what that is and we dont know when it is. If you look at the number of incoming cases, its been remarkably flat for the past several days. So thats the best indicator of how containment is working and how the closedown policies are working. Over the past few days we basically flattened at 1,300 new cases a day, which is not great. Wed like to see those new cases reducing even more, and wed like to see them reducing faster. You have other longterm questions. Is there a second wave of the virus. We talked about the 1918 pandemic. It came in three waves. Is there a second wave . Does the virus mutate and come back . The federal officials are starting to talk about the fall and potential issues in the fall. Theyre worried about the virus waning somewhat during the summer. Remember, there was talk will it go away when the weather gets warm . No one is really saying it will go away when the weather gets warm in the summer. Theres still a theory that the virus could slow during the summer but then come back in the fall. If it comes back in the fall, then it comes back with the normal flu season. Thats then problematic because youre, quote, unquote, testing for the flu and youre testing for covid on top of all the other tests you do. That could be a possible overwhelming of the testing system. If people could have the flu or could have covid in the fall and they dont know which it is, they could get nervous and start going into the Health Care System, which could then bring back a capacity issue in the Health Care System. So thats something we have to worry about and watch. Nursing homes, they are our top priority. They have been from day one. Remember how the nursing home system works. They are private facilities. They get paid to provide a service. They get regulated by the state government. There are certain rules and regulations that they must follow including additional regulations on Nursing Homes in the midst of this crisis. Staff must have appropriate ppe. They must have their temperatures checked before they come into the facility. There are no visitors who are coming into the facility which is a tremendous hardship, but its necessary to protect Public Health. If they have a covid positive person in the facility, that person has to be in quarantine. They have to have separate staff for the covid residents versus the noncovid residents. If they cant care for the person in the facility, they have to transfer the person to another facility. The nursing home is responsible for providing appropriate care. If they cannot provide that c e care, then they have to transfer the person to another facility. They have to notify residents and family members within 24 hours if any resident tests positive for covid or if any resident suffers a covidrelated death. Thats a regulation that they have to follow. And they have to readmit covid positive residents, but only if they have the ability to provide the adequate level of care under department of health and cdc guidelines. If they dont have the ability to provide the appropriate level of care, then they have to transfer that patient, or they call the department of health and the department of health will transfer that patient, right . But that is how the relationship works. The state has very strict guidelines on privately run facilities. They get paid to take care of a resident. That resident, that patient must have a state directed level of care. If they cannot provide that, they cant have the resident in their facility, period. Those are the rules. Were going to undertake an investigation of Nursing Homes now to make sure theyre following the rules. Its going to be a joint department of health and attorney general investigation. But those are the rules. They get paid to take care of a reside resident, and they have to do it in accordance with state rules. And if they dont, we will take appropriate action, and the state department of health and the attorney general are going to be commencing an investigation to make sure all those policies are in place and being followed. If theyre not being followed, they can be subjected to a fine or they can lose their license. Its that simple. Testing is going to be a major operation that happens from now until the situation is over. Its new. Its technical. Its complex. Its a political football. But testing does a number of things for us. Number one, it reduces the spread of the virus by finding people who are positive, tracing their contacts and isolating them. Thats a function of testing. Testing also what they call antibody testing, you test people to find out if they have the antibodies. Why . If they have the antibodies they can donate blood for convalescent plasma which is one of the therapeutic treatments. So you want to find people who had it so you can identify them to donate for convalescent plasma. The tests also can tell you the infection rate in the population where its higher, where its lower to inform you on a reopening strategy, and then when you started reopening, you can watch that infection rate to see if its going up, and if its going up, slow down on the reopening strategy. So there are different forms of testing for different purposes. All of them are important. It was vital for any state, i believe, to first get a Baseline Study of where you are on the infection rate. All we know to date is the hospitalization rate, how many people are coming into hospitals. Thats all we have been tracking. Thats all we know. And then from that you had all sorts of anecdotal extrapolations on the hospital rate saying, i think the infection rate is this, i think the infection rate is that. I said i want to have the infection rate. So we have undertaken the largest most comprehensive study of new york state to find out what is the infection rate. And that we started a few days ago. Sample size so far sample size 0 people statewide. Lets find out what the infection rate is. We have preliminary data on phase one, and this is going to be ongoing. We did about 3,000 tests. We want to continue this testing on a rolling basis. We have a larger and larger sample but i want to see snapshots of what is happening with that rate. Is it going up . Is it flat . Is it going down . It can really give us data to make decisions. We did 3,000 surveys in about 19 counties, 40 localities across the state. The surveys were collected at Grocery Stores, boxed stores, et cetera. And thats important. It means youre testing people who by definition are out of the home and not at work. What does that mean . I dont know. But that has to be a factor thats taken into consideration. These are people who were out and about shopping. They were not people who were in their home. They were not people who were isolated. Theyre not people who are quarantined. Who you could argue probably had a lower rate of infection be because they wouldnt come out of the house. These are people who were outside. These are people who were not at work so theyre probably not essential workers. So that has to be calibrated. What we found so far is the statewide number is 13. 9 tested positive for having the antibodies. What does that mean . It means these are people who were infected and who developed the antibodies to fight the infection. So they had the they were infected three weeks ago, four weeks ago, five weeks ago, six weeks ago. They had the virus. They developed the antibodies and theyre not, quote unquote, recovered. 13. 9 , just about 14 . Breakdown male to female. Female 12 positive. Males close to 16 . 15. 9 positive. Regional long islandly 15. 7, westchester 11. 7 and rest of the state 3. 6. This basically want phis whatqu we have been seeing anecdotally. Puts numbers to it. Rest of the state, upstate new york, 3. 6 . Its about 7 , 8 of the cases we had in the state. Westchester rockland, we had a significant problem. Remember westchester had the hottest significant cluster at one tiemtd, 11 and new york city near 21, which support whats we knew anecdotally. Long island 16. 7 so its not that far behind new york city and significantly worse than Westchester Rockland. Weve been talking about Westchester Rockland and nassau suffolk basically as one but theres a variation with the long island numbers. By race, asians, about 11. 7 , africanamerican 22 , latino hispanic, 22 . Multi nonother 22 , nine, 1. 1 . This reflects more the regional breakdown. Africanamerican and latinos are in this survey disproportionately from new york city and new york city is at 21 . So the africanamerican number, latino number is 22 . But and the upstate whites theyre talking more upstate, which is 9 but 3. 6 in the survey. By age, nothing extraordinary here. We did not survey anyone under 18. So it starts with 18 years old. 18 to 24, 8 . 45 to 54 45 to 54, 16. 5564yearolds. And then 75 plus. How many 75yearolds were out and about . Thats the group that are supposed to be selfisolating. But thats a distribution. Again, the example was by definition people who were outside the home. So we have to analyze that. What does that do to the numbers . But that is a factor that has to be taken into consideration. If the infection rate is 13. 9 , then it changes the theories of what the death rate is if you get infected. 13 of the population is about 2. 7 Million People who have been infected. If you look at what we have now as a death total, which is 15,500, that would be about. 5 death rate. But too big caveats. First, its preliminary data. Its only 3,000 3,000 is a significant data set, but its still preliminary. And when we say there are 15,500 deaths, that number is going to go up. Those deaths are only hospitalization or nursing home deaths. That does not have what are called athome deaths. This doesnt include people who died in their home, and were not in a hospital or a nursing home. We still have to compile all of that data. And then the athome deaths, you have to go back and try to find out what was the cause of death for those athome deaths and then add them to the number of deaths connected to covid. It gets even more complicated because in california, they are now finding deaths that go back to last december or january that they believe were covid related, and people didnt even know about covid at that time. So if you then go back to december and january and start to look at the number of deaths and check them for a covid related death i dont even know how you would do that practically, you will see that total number of deaths go up. But that 15,500 is not an accurate total number of deaths in my opinion. Well, fact, its not an accurate total number of deaths because it does not count inhome deaths, athome deaths. Its not accurate because there will have been many other deaths that were never tested for covid that should be attributed to that number. But with those caveats, thats what we see in this survey. It also supports the decision that we talked about to have a regional analysis and decision making. Upstate new york is 3. 6 . New york city is 21 . What do you in a place with 21 is not the same thing necessarily that you would do in a place with 3. 6 . Its just not. Its the same theory that some states are open now and new york doesnt. Because the facts should dictate the action. If the facts dictate the action, when you have different facts, you have different action. When we talk about writhal analysis on reopening, thats exactly right. Look at the facts in that area. Sorry. But theres a second complicating factor because there always is, what you do in a region still has to be coordinated because you have a pentup demand in the whole tristate area where where one region opens up for business. You can see people come in from literally the tristate area and overwhelm that region. We try troogsallize with connecticut and new jersey because there have been facilities in connecticut that were open and you have all sorts of new york license plates there. So, yes, regional analysis, but understand on that regional analysis, that you still exist in a tristate area with millions of people who are looking for something to do to get out of the house and put the kids in the car and go. So that has to be factored in. Thats a significant factor. We also have to do more to get testing in the africanamerican and latino communities. We talked about health disparities. This state did not have the kinds of disparities we saw in other states but i want to address them. There could be a number ever factors why you could have a higher percentage of positives in the africanamerican latino community. There were existing health disparities. There were existing como comorbidities, underlying illnesses, diabetes, et cetera. I also believe you have a greater percentage of the quote unquote essential workers who are africanamerican latino. And like many