Tests, bringing our statewide total to 8,825. Have lostn, we another 27 precious souls of our fellow new jersey population to covid19related complications. Have now lost a total of 108 precious lives. We mourn with these families and with our entire state, every precious life that has been lost. God rest their souls. Usual, judy will be giving you more color and the details of these both positive cases as informationral about the lives that we have lost. Indeed our and thoughts are also with the women hospitals working valiantly to save lives and i can only imagine the emotional on them, as well, when they lose a patient. Fact, it isnt easy on any of us. These arent abstract numbers. Are our neighbors, our family, our friends, all of us. This together and we together. But i reiterate, we have expected, with a very heavy heart, that this would take an increasing toll on our state. Terms of the lives lost, theyre lost, we cant bring is as stark athat reality as any of us have to face. And that obviously strikes all of us, particularly those closest to the folks who have been lost, deeply. Weve have also said and expected all along the testing results that we are seeing. Been preparing for this since january, literally weeks think, many weeks, i about a month, almost a month we had ourbefore first positive case. Before i speak more about testing, i want to announce that i have authorized the advanced of more than 140 million to our healthcare to ready them for covid19related expenses including from our active efforts to significantly and expand their capacity. Viabilitysure their to meet the challenge this. Mergencies has imposed now, on testing. Much of our chances ending thisin emergency relies on expanded testing. We have the lab capacity in new jersey and we have taken ourrete steps to increase specimen collection capacity and allhandsondeck federalfrom our partners, our local health departments, Healthcare Systems and private sector labs. The metric that we have been on from day one and that everyone must be focused on is positive tests among symptomatic individuals. A perfectkly, in world, i suppose would do it but right, experts to my quite frankly, attempting to test every Single Person would us data that in the context of fighting a pandemic and particularly given limited capacity would be useless. To know were testing the right people and not wasting tests. Testing the worried well, the and thed worried well asymptomatic would be an our testinge use of supplies and unnecessary stress on our labs and on our notthcare workers and would provide us with the Critical Data that we need to get out in and to stay out in front. Our best metric and judy and ed get into this shortly, our best metric for ensuring that are beingg resources properly dispersed and that our greater medical resources are to their best and highest use, especially our Healthcare Workers, comes from right people, those are systematic symptomatic. We have among the highest Positivity Rates is a good thing and it shows us that using our limited resources to their highest and best use. Wonderingyone is whether or not we have aggressively expanded our testing, this is a list of where can get tested in the state right now in new jersey. You can see, theres about ando 25 different locations options but again, who are we most important variable here and we have decided from moment one, thanks to my input from the team right, that testing symptomatic most important cohort and secondly, allows us understandance to the dimensions of this virus and dorefore what were going to to break the back of it. That has been our commitment from day one. Ill put our aggressive testing symptomatic individuals up thisst any other place in country if not this world. And while i am on the issue of i want to remind everybody that tomorrow, and pat will correct the record if i get wrong, tomorrow, saturday, march 28, both the bergen site and thelege p. N. C. Bank arts center be reservedite will for symptomatic healthcare responders rst e. M. S. With and valid credentials only and i think after judy speaks, pat, there will be a couple of things id love for you to address what this means in terms of the credentials that will be accepted. Tomorrowes will open at 8 00 a. M. The general public will not be siteso access these tomorrow. Starting next week, these sites will reopen for the general and Begin Operating on a staggered schedule. Sunday, pardon me, on sunday, march 29, the day after bergenw, only the Community College site will be open and it will be able to test people starting at 8 00 a. M. , 500 symptomatic at 8 00 a. M. And then on monday, march 30, only center siteank arts will be open, again, at tests, forfor 500 folks who are symptomatic. These briefings to remind everyone of which site will be open the following day and well also make this Information Available online at website,n covid19. Nj. Gov. Through that portal you can take selftest for symptoms of covid19. Exhibiting symptoms will be tested. In the meantime, i continue to urge everyone, in the strongest to continuems, practicing social distancing and to stay at home as much as possible. Know we are coming into spring and the weather is really nice. Was beautiful outside coming in here so its the to get outside. Who can blame you, for a walk run, but even as you do, it is essential that you practice social distancing. Doing healthy activities, you could still spread coronavirus. Sixfootg that distance is crucial and be mindful of that so i hate to break the news here, this is not the time for a pickup game of basketball, for example. Youre outside, stick to activities that allow you to distance crucial between you and others. Asay and i will hold this up another exhibit, with your logo judy, were going to be providing all essential retail guidances with further for ensuring social distancing within their stores while they remain open. Ask all essential Retail Businesses to review this 19. Nj. Gov, andvid apply these practices in your establishments. I exchanged notes earlier today with mark peron. Already in his name a prior session the leader of union, one of the largest if not the largest country. Ions in the an again, mark expressed important point which weve raised here before which youve Healthcare Workers and First Responders and not terribly far got folks doing the essential work in and pharmacies into contact with folks and have less personal Protection Equipment at their disposal, et cetera. Directive from judy and her colleagues walks through including keeping retailes at these operations as low as possible, distancehe six foot mandated and make sure theres hyperhygiene, hand hygiene, surfaces, et cetera. In addition, while there has broadcom pliance with my executive orders, were hearing of essentialrts businesses failing to implement distancing, too many reports. This is especially crucial for manufacturingand personnel. Again, like our retail brothers and sisters, who are on the of our supply chains and these businesses must do everything they can to provide protections against the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing is especially important for them and no one workd be expected to go to if they are sick. If you see a nonessential continueshich operating in violation of my orders, please reach out to us, again, at the same general website. You can see it behind me, covid19. Nj. Gov violation. Theird everybody to do part to slow the spread of coronavirus. Pat, not now, but if you wouldnt mind, again, after judy you to would love weve had largely, broadly speaking, good compliance with no gatherings but weve still if youew exceptions and wouldnt mind after judy going through a couple of things. Of overnight data and some of the stuff you guys are doing to push book that. Switching gears, a couple of quick highlights here. Again, our corporate citizens have stepped up in a big way and do so. E to merck theme mention other day, a couple of hundred n95 masks. Frasier, newnk ken foreign icon. Our friends at u. B. S. , a huge at weehawken, stepping n95s, thank you to that team. Johnson and johnsons stepping ofwith 10,000 pairs healthcare goggles that we need. Ately alex gorski and i were back and forth. Huge iconic new Jersey Institution and great leader. Stepped uphs has again, theyve come across with n95s for a0 n95s and5,000 theyre scouring their client system to see if they can unearth any ventilators and by the way, john, since your question, weve got no evidence of anybody in new jersey right now making ventilators, not that we would not like that to happen. Mike jersey industries, rene, sent me a note this morning stepping up in their cash to both relief funds as well as directly to needrofit hospitals who the Financial Support now more than ever. I want to thank mike and the jersey colleagues. Lots of great examples of this. Thats a recent list. We last saw you, a couple of group calls. I mightcase with judy, add, among others. Yesterday, i think we had 119 of 120 legislators on a call both sides of the aisle. Very good chance for judy and and others to get our sort of bring the speed. Ture up to theyve been great, by the way. I just exchanged calls with in here. Eney coming both sides of the aisle and they had a lot of really good questions and really good suggestions. Judy and i, this morning, along Human Services commissioner, carol johnson, did a call with by theiranized leadership. Ill raise my hand and say that member. And i was told there were 15,000 people on that call this morning so to our seniors who were on are call and or who watching now, we have your backs ad we know this is particularly anxiety provoking time for you all. Good note a really from kevin slaven who as you may c. E. O. Oft just the st. Josephs hospital but also jersey hospital chairman of the new jersey sometal association and really good news. His colleague who he mentioned pruden,s ago today, jim is on the road to recovery. Hes been off the ventilators few days and he gave me permission to say that. Thats really good news to hear. Well keep switching gears here. As weve discussed over the past workingdays were also with our level one Hospital Systems and the u. S. Army corps up threeers to stand field medical stations at the Exhibition Center in secaucus, the convention from in the Atlantic City convention center. Ande Police PersonnelExposition Center staff and Union Contractors i believe are unloading the first 250 bed field medical station as we speak. Is happening quickly. Having said all of that, i want to it. My voice we are mindful of the need for Trained Medical personnel to ensure Proper Staffing as we build out the new capacity. To have state blessed countless dedicated and committed Healthcare Workers, doctors and nurses and everyone in between and they have enough plates and we know we experienced for backup. Today i am putting out a call for volunteers with qualified training and experience who wish to join our fight against coronavirus. For new jersey residents, either. Were looking across our nation for help. Retired nurses or doctors, nursing and medical students, e. M. T. s, former members of our Armed Services medical corps. Above, all of the above. If you have training, we need you. Ouroure willing to join fight, please go to covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. See that behind me. Covid19. Nj. Gov volunteer. To sign up. Our office is working directly Business Partners regarding possible transportation and lodging arrangements for those coming from outside our area. So stay tuned for more on that. I repeat. If you have medical experience wish to pitch in to help us get through this emergencies, please sign up i cannot thank you enough in advance. Additionally, we continued to accept personal protective equipment or ppe for prep frontline safety responders. They desperately need this. This includes the n95 masks and Everything Else in between. Please reach out to us again through our onestop portal, covid19. Nj. Gov ppedonations. Covid19. Nj. Gov ppedonations. And a reminder to all businesses and nonhospital Healthcare Facilities, in possession of ppes, this is not a nasca, this is in order, if youre not using the ppe for Critical Healthcare services, you have until 5 00 p. M. Today to submit information to us regarding your inventories. This reporting was ordered and i expect full compliance. Again, this is for businesses and all nonhospital healthcare sitting on ppe. We needed to report your inventories to us by 5 00 p. M. Today. And again you can see businesses lining up on their own voluntary compliance after that we will never forget. The Healthcare Facilities particularly those, judy has reminded us that wouldve otherwise been doing elective surgeries which has as of tonight we are suspending indefinitely. There are ppe in those locations and additionally there are ventilators, we need all of that to be registered by today. Again this reporting should be done through our Online Platform and by going directly this case, covid19. Nj. Gov ppereport. Thank you for that. As you can see, we have a lot of information that we are trying to get out. Were also trying to get a lot of information in. And this is why we have created covid19. Nj. Gov to be a single point of reference for everyone throughout the crisis. Putting the site together has been a whole of government approach and its also a lot of this to form great partnerships as i mentioned with the private sector partners as well. Quarterbacking this process has been the office of innovation. Led by chief innovation officer beth novak and her tremendous te. Additionally, we have received a generous grant, from another corporate citizen, google. That will allow us to more readily and proactively push essential information out to new jersey through googles search platform. This means we will be able to reach exponentially more people and not just those who are coming to the covid19. Nj. Gov portal. I am going to ask in fact, novak to join us in the future briefing if that is ok with you madam commissioner. To give us a little more on how the office of innovations is working to keep jerseyans and informed and i think her and her entire team. And again i urge everyone with questions to go to that website, to make us portal their very first stop in questions , concerns, comments. Covid19. Nj. Gov. I know there were many new jerseyans worried switching gears by the way, many new jerseyans worried about being able to make their mortgage payments next week. I and my team understand and fully appreciate your concerns and women speaking directly with mortgage lenders and many others about solutions and we are working tirelessly on this and look forward to having a full announcement on this tomorrow and speaking of which, a program note for each of you here and everyone watching at home, tomorrow our briefing will be live, not on the telephone at 1 00 p. M. Here in person at the memorial. And as of now, on sunday, there will be know in person briefing but we will report out our testing results and other information to you all electronically and i commend to you, personally if we are for whatever reason there is something material that happens, between saturdays briefing and when we would otherwise give you the readout of the information on sunday that is material, i will personally likely get on the phone. But at the moment we will keep sunday june electronic distribution of the date on test results. Please god, but we do expect fatalities and that will be done electronically. One other program note. Starting on monday, we will be memorial daily at the beginning at 1 00 p. M. So we will move assuming we would run into the president or the Vice President video calls. We will move our press briefings daily from 2 00 p. M. Until 21 00 until 1 00 p. M. Beginning i guess tomorrow. Theoretically we will be here at 1 00 p. M. Tomorrow. We will also in the weekdays, move to 1 00 p. M. Before i turn to judy, so other things that struck me particularly today. I read that if you have not read it, theres a fascinating piece by david brooks in the New York Times that talks about the severity, the fatality, the loneliness of what we are facing, not just as a state but a nation right now. And all that goes with that. The weight that is on everyones shoulders. That knot in your stomach. All of us would like to know more than we do right now. How long is this headed . How long will it last . Live directly impact me or a Family Member or a friend . This is emblematic of something i have been feeling and ive said in a couple interviews over the past 24 hours. At the same time, it also feels like this great moment is reaching deep into our souls and better selves. Even if it is a bird virtual way, those examples of singing from balconies, the meet ups that folks are having through social media, the virtual connections that we are making. It is also calling out our better angels. In a way, it is beginning to make some of the big fights weve had over the past number of years if not decades look trivial by comparison. Something, as grave as this is, as tragic as the loss of life is, there is something cathartic about that. There is something that is uplifting about that. So i would say that we understand that. We understand both the anxiety but also the fact that we are coming together like never before. I would just say as a practical matter, particularly to somebody oneknow is literally alone, thing we could all do today, lets do it each day over the weekend, to touch somebody we have not been touching lately. Email, a wavean through a window. Keep the social distancing. We cant violate that. To find a way to touch somebody who is alone, who has been by themselves. To make sure that they know that you are here for them. Second, we spoke with 15,000 members of aar