Transcripts For CSPAN North Carolina Gov. Cooper Holds Coron

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining todays briefing on covid19 in North Carolina. As of today, we have 41,249 Lab Confirmed cases. 1760 new cases reported today , a new high. 760 people in the hospital, and sadly 1092 deaths. Dying from covid19 or mourning a loved one who right now can be isolating and difficult. We are praying for all those who are suffering now. Today, our concern is growing about the increase in cases and hospitalizations in North Carolina. This is also happening in many states across the country. While our hospitals still have this can we know change quickly. So we are working with hospitals and tracking hospitalizations and icu beds closely. Today is North Carolinas highest day of new cases since the pandemic started, and it is also the highest day of testing that weve had with over 21000 tests reported. But the high number of new cases is not just related to more testing. These numbers show the disease is spreading, that more people need hospital care. This has to be taken seriously. In the last week, we have done an average of over 15000 tests a day, and this is a high number and is good, but we know we still need to do more. Testing is available all over the state, but we are specifically targeting historically marginalized communities and other highrisk populations. The state is also working to surge testing to hotspots as those needs emerge. We also know that when you have been in a crowd, your risk of contracting covid19 increases. This is particularly true when many are not wearing Face Coverings and theres little social distancing. We recommend that anyone who has been in a crowd get tested, even if you have no symptoms. Today we have an update on our key metrics from doctor mandy cohen, our secretary of North Carolinas department of health and human services. I will hand it off to her now to make her presentation. Dr. Cohen . Dr. Cohen thank you, governor. It is daytoday for those of you who like graphs. We are now three weeks into phase two, and as i said earlier in the week, i am concerned about our covid19 trends. North carolina is not alone. Many other states are seeing increases in covid19 cases as well, and the virus is still a serious threat. We have seen in other states how a stable situation can quickly become anything but. As i walk through the data today, you will see that unfortunately it has been another recordsetting day. As a reminder, we look at a combination of trends that guide our decisionmaking. That will include covidlike syndrome cases, Lab Confirmed cases, positive test that the percentage of those total tests and hospitalizations. These subsets of metrics are chosen based on Public Health data and white house guidance. We cant look at any one of these metrics in isolation. We really need to look at them as a whole package when making decisions. Each one of them has limitations. Let me go through them now. On this first graph, we look at people who come into the Emergency Department with covid like symptoms. This metric serves as an Early Detection mechanism. Looking at that yellow line, you can see there is a small uptick at the right hand side of that graph, which represents this past week. As we look to the next graph, these are our Laboratory Confirmed tests. Again, i draw your attention to the yellow line. You can see there is a fairly sizable increase in new Lab Confirmed cases. As you heard from the governor today, we have seen the highest number of positive cases at 1768 new cases, which you will see that top blue dot on the righthand side represents that high record number. We have now seen four days with cases above 1000 in just last week. We are also setting records on the testing side, done each day as well. As a result of this record high amount of testing, we did expect this number to go up, but is the pace of the increase that is concerning and shows us that this virus is still very much present in our communities across our state. Zoom in now, this next graph shows the exact same data on the last slide of Lab Confirmed cases, but now again zooming in for a slightly closer look. This graph shows data since may 1, not all the way back to march, you can see it in more detail. Looking at the yellow line, again its a seven day rolling average. This metric is trending up. You can see its accelerating as the slope of that yellow line is becoming steeper in the last two weeks. Now moving on to the percent of tests that are positive. This metric provides an important context for our number of cases. I want to draw your attention again to that yellow line and you can see the percent of total tests that are positive have just been slightly increasing and today it is at 10 . If you look at that 10 in the conduct of our nation, our percent positive is now one of the highest amongst states in the nation. We would like that number to be closer to 5 . Our next metric here is about day over day hospitalizations. Again, the yellow line shows that North Carolinas trajectory hospitalizations trajectory of hospitalizations is rising. Yesterday was our highest day of hospitalizations with 812, but our hospital still have capacity to meet the increased demand if more people become seriously ill, but this continued rise in this metric is concerning. Finally, an update on testing, looking at the yellow line. You can see that daily testing really is trending up and we continue to make significant progress in expanding our testing. Over the past month, we have tripled our testing from about 5000 tests on average a day to 15,000 average tests per day right now. Yesterday was our largest day of testing with more than 21000 test completed in one day. Alright, putting that altogether, where are we . First, Surveillance Data shows a slight uptake. It is the yellow line. North carolinas trajectory of last confirmed cases does continue to increase and is accelerating. It gets a yellow x. North carolinas trajectory of tests returning positive has increased slightly over the last week, so this gets a yellow line. North carolina trajectory of hospitalizations also slightly on the rise, and this trend gets a yellow line. We also track critical capabilities. When you look at the trend metrics, those i just shared, as well as our capability metrics meaning our ability to respond to this pandemic. Our ability to respond is where we really see positive trends and a ton of work that has gone on. First, testing has had an upper arrow as we have been averaging day. Than 15,000 test a we have more than 450 sites listed on our website plus additional popup testing sites that folks can go to. Our additional test sites purchased from the State Government just closed, so we urge even be able to ser more Rapid Response testing where it is needed in the states. We have hired more than 250 contact tracers to bolster our efforts of our local Health Departments and are in the process of adding even another 200 to meet the ongoing need of our local Health Departments. These Covid Community teams, team members, reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. More than half are bilingual. 00 localn 1,5 Department Staff and Community Team members have completed state led training on Contact Tracing and our ppe supplies continues to be stable. We have critical supplies on and to fill request for the next 30 days. Capacity is looking good. We have those tools to respond to the crisis and slow the spread of the virus, but we all have to Work Together on this. We can protect our families and neighbors. We can rebuild our economy. We can look forward to our children returning to school, but we must all do our part to make these things happen. First, we must all practice the three ws. Wearing a Face Covering, wait 6 feet apart and wash your hands frequently. These easy actions have huge impact, but each person needs to do them for us all to benefit, and do them consistently, every day, every time. This weekend, if you are leaving your house, make sure to grab that Face Covering before you go. Wash your hands every chance you get and make sure to stay six feet apart from others. Second, if you think youve been exposed to covid19, get tested. Even if you do not have symptoms and if you attended a mass gathering or protest, get tested. If you work in a setting of high risk exposure such as a Grocery Store, Childcare Program or restaurant, get tested. If you work at a high risk setting like a Food Processing facility, get tested. Third thing we can all do, answer the call. The local health Department Staff and other Covid Community team and members are reaching out to people who may have come into close contact with someone who tests positive for covid19. The team will connect them with Important Information and support to make sure that they get through this time. We continue to do our part to respond to the crisis. We continue to strengthen our testing and Contact Tracing infrastructure. Because we were aggressive and took early action, we bought our self valuable time to build that capability so that we would be in the best position to be able to responsibly ease restrictions. We can now draw on these capabilities, but if we all do our part, we will not overwhelm them. Early on, north carolinians came together and approved we can flatten and approved we can flatten the curve proved we can flatten the curve. We can do it again. Remember, we are all in this together and the actions that we all take right now will help protect our friends, our families, our neighbors and will save lives. Thank you, governor. Gov. Cooper thanks, dr. Cohen. I want to thank you and your team for the hard work that goes into presenting these numbers to us. Relying on the data in science is critical. I know that we came into this making it difficult to gather all this information from all over the state. You are doing an amazing job putting it together and synthesizing it. One thing i want to make sure that i know you know this, but the trajectory of cases was a red mark just like the graph showed. I think you said yellow, but i want to make sure they understand that the trajectory was a red x here today. I think, as a state, we have taken important steps to slow the virus. But those numbers and trends are sobering. I understand that people are anxious to get back to normal. I am too. Especially as school ends and summer begins. With more stores and restaurants and businesses open, people are leaving home more to get out. But everyone should remember that North Carolina is still under a safer athome recommendation. Just because we can leave home does not mean we always should. The places that have opened with new safety rules, thank you for the extra work you are doing to clean and distance for your customers and wear Face Coverings. Keep up that good work, it will be Good Business for you too. We will continue to use caution in our stages of easing restrictions. Keeping our People Health foremost while also strengthening our States Economic health. Easing restrictions gradually has kept the disease from overwhelming our hospitals and we must keep that as a priority in our decisionmaking. This increase in cases that we have seen doesnt mean that we have made a decision about going into phase 2. 5 or 3. Insisting on the strategies that reduce transmission like washing hands, wearing Face Coverings, waiting six feet apart from other people and tracing the its sources. Those are the things we want you to do so that we can make these decisions in a positive way. The most important reopening is our schools. Even as we celebrate graduates this week, i expect to have our children back in the classroom in just a few months. The hard work that we do now will make that happen safely. I know people are tired of the virus. Its been hard on everybody. But it is still deadly and we cannot let our guard down. Slowing the spread is up to every one of us, every time we leave home. Practice those three ws. Our numbers arent where we want them to be, but it does not have to stay that way. Take all of us doing our part, but north carolinians no that we will Work Together and how to defeat it. Along with doctor cohen with me today is the Emergency Management director. Our silent which interpreters our sign language interpreters. Behindthescenes josiah and jasmine are our Spanish Language interpreters. I see we are now joined by our secretary of the department of public safety. We will now take your questions and if you can identify yourself and your organization, we would appreciate it. Our first question is from michael. I wanted to ask you first with the numbers you laid out, could you go into more detail about how this is influencing your thinking about moving the state into phase 2. 5 and even phase 3. How is this impacting your decision about signing the bill that the General Assembly passed to partially reopen gyms and bars . Gov. Cooper thank you for that question. We are looking at all the science and data to make decisions about a potential 2. 5 or phase 3. We are looking at it over a period of time and we are looking at the trends. There has not been a decision made about either of those at one this point. Neither one of those phases is off the table here. We will review that legislation. Obviously, we would rather do it through executive order. I think that legislation makes the process much more clumsy and more difficult to change in the event that we would need to reinstate an executive order. We will review that bill and let you know what we do with it when we make that decision. Thanks. Next question, please . Our next question is vanessa from wcnc. Reporter thank you so much for taking my questions. I have three. They are all related to metrics. I wanted to know how reflective is the current testing and percent positives we are seeing of the general population . So are we seeing these higher rates as a result of targeted testing and at risk communities, or is this reflective of the general population of the state . My second question is the other day and also today you mentioned , dr. Cohen, that the state has one of the highest present positives in the u. S. We know that North Carolina has not opened as quickly as other states, so why do you think that metric is so high . Hospitalizations is a concerning metric as well. We also know hospital beds can be surged to meet the need. What is the threshold for this call to surge or further action to be taken with hospitals . Gov. Cooper i will turn it over to dr. Cohen for her analysis. Dr. Cohen thank you for that thoughtful question. It is questions we ask of the data as well. We have been surging our testing. We continue to have testing criteria that is focused on people with symptoms, but also with exposures. This week in particular, we have been sharing with you we want folks to get tested who have been at a mass gathering or he highert some of t risks job sites as i mentioned in my remarks. I think what we are seeing in our testing is a combination often those symptoms and exposure the people have. That is a good thing. It means we are targeting our testing to people who are more likely to be positive. When i see that percent positive, i think that we are targeting two groups of folks that are more likely to be positive. However, we know we want to get to a level of testing that does drive that percent positive lower so we make sure not just that we are targeting those specific people who might be positive, but we are really casting a wide enough net. That is why we are going to continue to ramp up our testing even further, so were not done here. In particular, we will be focusing, as i have mentioned in earlier remarks this week, on some counties where we are seen where we are seeing a more rapid increase in the number of cases where we want to Surge Capacity in those counties as well. We know there is more work to do on the testing side there. As far as hospitalizations, those are trending up and it is something we want to very much keep our eye on, but you can also see from our dashboard we do have capacity in our Hospital Systems. The thing weeds is watch closely. That that is a smaller resource for us as a state. There are a smaller number of icu beds total than there are in other hospital beds. We watch that closely. Im in close contact with the leaders of our large Hospital Systems that have the majority of those icu beds there. We were just on a phone call with them earlier today to get their input on where they see or how they see things close to the ground and obviously they are seeing those trends as well but what i would say is they have said we feel that these months in which we have been able to build our capabilities that i talked about earlier, building our ability to have ppe, building our capacity around testing, building our plan to surge, that puts us in a better position to respond. Again, these are concerning trends and they are things we can do to continue to slow the spread of the virus. But we need to make sure were doing those actions now. That the actions have to come now in order to avoid overwhelming our North Carolina<\/a>. As of today, we have 41,249 Lab Confirmed<\/a> cases. 1760 new cases reported today , a new high. 760 people in the hospital, and sadly 1092 deaths. Dying from covid19 or mourning a loved one who right now can be isolating and difficult. We are praying for all those who are suffering now. Today, our concern is growing about the increase in cases and hospitalizations in North Carolina<\/a>. This is also happening in many states across the country. While our hospitals still have this can we know change quickly. So we are working with hospitals and tracking hospitalizations and icu beds closely. Today is North Carolina<\/a>s highest day of new cases since the pandemic started, and it is also the highest day of testing that weve had with over 21000 tests reported. But the high number of new cases is not just related to more testing. These numbers show the disease is spreading, that more people need hospital care. This has to be taken seriously. In the last week, we have done an average of over 15000 tests a day, and this is a high number and is good, but we know we still need to do more. Testing is available all over the state, but we are specifically targeting historically marginalized communities and other highrisk populations. The state is also working to surge testing to hotspots as those needs emerge. We also know that when you have been in a crowd, your risk of contracting covid19 increases. This is particularly true when many are not wearing Face Covering<\/a>s and theres little social distancing. We recommend that anyone who has been in a crowd get tested, even if you have no symptoms. Today we have an update on our key metrics from doctor mandy cohen, our secretary of North Carolina<\/a>s department of health and human services. I will hand it off to her now to make her presentation. Dr. Cohen . Dr. Cohen thank you, governor. It is daytoday for those of you who like graphs. We are now three weeks into phase two, and as i said earlier in the week, i am concerned about our covid19 trends. North carolina is not alone. Many other states are seeing increases in covid19 cases as well, and the virus is still a serious threat. We have seen in other states how a stable situation can quickly become anything but. As i walk through the data today, you will see that unfortunately it has been another recordsetting day. As a reminder, we look at a combination of trends that guide our decisionmaking. That will include covidlike syndrome cases, Lab Confirmed<\/a> cases, positive test that the percentage of those total tests and hospitalizations. These subsets of metrics are chosen based on Public Health<\/a> data and white house guidance. We cant look at any one of these metrics in isolation. We really need to look at them as a whole package when making decisions. Each one of them has limitations. Let me go through them now. On this first graph, we look at people who come into the Emergency Department<\/a> with covid like symptoms. This metric serves as an Early Detection<\/a> mechanism. Looking at that yellow line, you can see there is a small uptick at the right hand side of that graph, which represents this past week. As we look to the next graph, these are our Laboratory Confirmed<\/a> tests. Again, i draw your attention to the yellow line. You can see there is a fairly sizable increase in new Lab Confirmed<\/a> cases. As you heard from the governor today, we have seen the highest number of positive cases at 1768 new cases, which you will see that top blue dot on the righthand side represents that high record number. We have now seen four days with cases above 1000 in just last week. We are also setting records on the testing side, done each day as well. As a result of this record high amount of testing, we did expect this number to go up, but is the pace of the increase that is concerning and shows us that this virus is still very much present in our communities across our state. Zoom in now, this next graph shows the exact same data on the last slide of Lab Confirmed<\/a> cases, but now again zooming in for a slightly closer look. This graph shows data since may 1, not all the way back to march, you can see it in more detail. Looking at the yellow line, again its a seven day rolling average. This metric is trending up. You can see its accelerating as the slope of that yellow line is becoming steeper in the last two weeks. Now moving on to the percent of tests that are positive. This metric provides an important context for our number of cases. I want to draw your attention again to that yellow line and you can see the percent of total tests that are positive have just been slightly increasing and today it is at 10 . If you look at that 10 in the conduct of our nation, our percent positive is now one of the highest amongst states in the nation. We would like that number to be closer to 5 . Our next metric here is about day over day hospitalizations. Again, the yellow line shows that North Carolina<\/a>s trajectory hospitalizations trajectory of hospitalizations is rising. Yesterday was our highest day of hospitalizations with 812, but our hospital still have capacity to meet the increased demand if more people become seriously ill, but this continued rise in this metric is concerning. Finally, an update on testing, looking at the yellow line. You can see that daily testing really is trending up and we continue to make significant progress in expanding our testing. Over the past month, we have tripled our testing from about 5000 tests on average a day to 15,000 average tests per day right now. Yesterday was our largest day of testing with more than 21000 test completed in one day. Alright, putting that altogether, where are we . First, Surveillance Data<\/a> shows a slight uptake. It is the yellow line. North carolinas trajectory of last confirmed cases does continue to increase and is accelerating. It gets a yellow x. North carolinas trajectory of tests returning positive has increased slightly over the last week, so this gets a yellow line. North carolina trajectory of hospitalizations also slightly on the rise, and this trend gets a yellow line. We also track critical capabilities. When you look at the trend metrics, those i just shared, as well as our capability metrics meaning our ability to respond to this pandemic. Our ability to respond is where we really see positive trends and a ton of work that has gone on. First, testing has had an upper arrow as we have been averaging day. Than 15,000 test a we have more than 450 sites listed on our website plus additional popup testing sites that folks can go to. Our additional test sites purchased from the State Government<\/a> just closed, so we urge even be able to ser more Rapid Response<\/a> testing where it is needed in the states. We have hired more than 250 contact tracers to bolster our efforts of our local Health Departments<\/a> and are in the process of adding even another 200 to meet the ongoing need of our local Health Departments<\/a>. These Covid Community<\/a> teams, team members, reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. More than half are bilingual. 00 localn 1,5 Department Staff<\/a> and Community Team<\/a> members have completed state led training on Contact Tracing<\/a> and our ppe supplies continues to be stable. We have critical supplies on and to fill request for the next 30 days. Capacity is looking good. We have those tools to respond to the crisis and slow the spread of the virus, but we all have to Work Together<\/a> on this. We can protect our families and neighbors. We can rebuild our economy. We can look forward to our children returning to school, but we must all do our part to make these things happen. First, we must all practice the three ws. Wearing a Face Covering<\/a>, wait 6 feet apart and wash your hands frequently. These easy actions have huge impact, but each person needs to do them for us all to benefit, and do them consistently, every day, every time. This weekend, if you are leaving your house, make sure to grab that Face Covering<\/a> before you go. Wash your hands every chance you get and make sure to stay six feet apart from others. Second, if you think youve been exposed to covid19, get tested. Even if you do not have symptoms and if you attended a mass gathering or protest, get tested. If you work in a setting of high risk exposure such as a Grocery Store<\/a>, Childcare Program<\/a> or restaurant, get tested. If you work at a high risk setting like a Food Processing<\/a> facility, get tested. Third thing we can all do, answer the call. The local health Department Staff<\/a> and other Covid Community<\/a> team and members are reaching out to people who may have come into close contact with someone who tests positive for covid19. The team will connect them with Important Information<\/a> and support to make sure that they get through this time. We continue to do our part to respond to the crisis. We continue to strengthen our testing and Contact Tracing<\/a> infrastructure. Because we were aggressive and took early action, we bought our self valuable time to build that capability so that we would be in the best position to be able to responsibly ease restrictions. We can now draw on these capabilities, but if we all do our part, we will not overwhelm them. Early on, north carolinians came together and approved we can flatten and approved we can flatten the curve proved we can flatten the curve. We can do it again. Remember, we are all in this together and the actions that we all take right now will help protect our friends, our families, our neighbors and will save lives. Thank you, governor. Gov. Cooper thanks, dr. Cohen. I want to thank you and your team for the hard work that goes into presenting these numbers to us. Relying on the data in science is critical. I know that we came into this making it difficult to gather all this information from all over the state. You are doing an amazing job putting it together and synthesizing it. One thing i want to make sure that i know you know this, but the trajectory of cases was a red mark just like the graph showed. I think you said yellow, but i want to make sure they understand that the trajectory was a red x here today. I think, as a state, we have taken important steps to slow the virus. But those numbers and trends are sobering. I understand that people are anxious to get back to normal. I am too. Especially as school ends and summer begins. With more stores and restaurants and businesses open, people are leaving home more to get out. But everyone should remember that North Carolina<\/a> is still under a safer athome recommendation. Just because we can leave home does not mean we always should. The places that have opened with new safety rules, thank you for the extra work you are doing to clean and distance for your customers and wear Face Covering<\/a>s. Keep up that good work, it will be Good Business<\/a> for you too. We will continue to use caution in our stages of easing restrictions. Keeping our People Health<\/a> foremost while also strengthening our States Economic<\/a> health. Easing restrictions gradually has kept the disease from overwhelming our hospitals and we must keep that as a priority in our decisionmaking. This increase in cases that we have seen doesnt mean that we have made a decision about going into phase 2. 5 or 3. Insisting on the strategies that reduce transmission like washing hands, wearing Face Covering<\/a>s, waiting six feet apart from other people and tracing the its sources. Those are the things we want you to do so that we can make these decisions in a positive way. The most important reopening is our schools. Even as we celebrate graduates this week, i expect to have our children back in the classroom in just a few months. The hard work that we do now will make that happen safely. I know people are tired of the virus. Its been hard on everybody. But it is still deadly and we cannot let our guard down. Slowing the spread is up to every one of us, every time we leave home. Practice those three ws. Our numbers arent where we want them to be, but it does not have to stay that way. Take all of us doing our part, but north carolinians no that we will Work Together<\/a> and how to defeat it. Along with doctor cohen with me today is the Emergency Management<\/a> director. Our silent which interpreters our sign language interpreters. Behindthescenes josiah and jasmine are our Spanish Language<\/a> interpreters. I see we are now joined by our secretary of the department of public safety. We will now take your questions and if you can identify yourself and your organization, we would appreciate it. Our first question is from michael. I wanted to ask you first with the numbers you laid out, could you go into more detail about how this is influencing your thinking about moving the state into phase 2. 5 and even phase 3. How is this impacting your decision about signing the bill that the General Assembly<\/a> passed to partially reopen gyms and bars . Gov. Cooper thank you for that question. We are looking at all the science and data to make decisions about a potential 2. 5 or phase 3. We are looking at it over a period of time and we are looking at the trends. There has not been a decision made about either of those at one this point. Neither one of those phases is off the table here. We will review that legislation. Obviously, we would rather do it through executive order. I think that legislation makes the process much more clumsy and more difficult to change in the event that we would need to reinstate an executive order. We will review that bill and let you know what we do with it when we make that decision. Thanks. Next question, please . Our next question is vanessa from wcnc. Reporter thank you so much for taking my questions. I have three. They are all related to metrics. I wanted to know how reflective is the current testing and percent positives we are seeing of the general population . So are we seeing these higher rates as a result of targeted testing and at risk communities, or is this reflective of the general population of the state . My second question is the other day and also today you mentioned , dr. Cohen, that the state has one of the highest present positives in the u. S. We know that North Carolina<\/a> has not opened as quickly as other states, so why do you think that metric is so high . Hospitalizations is a concerning metric as well. We also know hospital beds can be surged to meet the need. What is the threshold for this call to surge or further action to be taken with hospitals . Gov. Cooper i will turn it over to dr. Cohen for her analysis. Dr. Cohen thank you for that thoughtful question. It is questions we ask of the data as well. We have been surging our testing. We continue to have testing criteria that is focused on people with symptoms, but also with exposures. This week in particular, we have been sharing with you we want folks to get tested who have been at a mass gathering or he highert some of t risks job sites as i mentioned in my remarks. I think what we are seeing in our testing is a combination often those symptoms and exposure the people have. That is a good thing. It means we are targeting our testing to people who are more likely to be positive. When i see that percent positive, i think that we are targeting two groups of folks that are more likely to be positive. However, we know we want to get to a level of testing that does drive that percent positive lower so we make sure not just that we are targeting those specific people who might be positive, but we are really casting a wide enough net. That is why we are going to continue to ramp up our testing even further, so were not done here. In particular, we will be focusing, as i have mentioned in earlier remarks this week, on some counties where we are seen where we are seeing a more rapid increase in the number of cases where we want to Surge Capacity<\/a> in those counties as well. We know there is more work to do on the testing side there. As far as hospitalizations, those are trending up and it is something we want to very much keep our eye on, but you can also see from our dashboard we do have capacity in our Hospital Systems<\/a>. The thing weeds is watch closely. That that is a smaller resource for us as a state. There are a smaller number of icu beds total than there are in other hospital beds. We watch that closely. Im in close contact with the leaders of our large Hospital Systems<\/a> that have the majority of those icu beds there. We were just on a phone call with them earlier today to get their input on where they see or how they see things close to the ground and obviously they are seeing those trends as well but what i would say is they have said we feel that these months in which we have been able to build our capabilities that i talked about earlier, building our ability to have ppe, building our capacity around testing, building our plan to surge, that puts us in a better position to respond. Again, these are concerning trends and they are things we can do to continue to slow the spread of the virus. But we need to make sure were doing those actions now. That the actions have to come now in order to avoid overwhelming our Hospital Systems<\/a> three, four weeks to come in the future. That is why we are raising our concern level now to make sure that we take all the actions we there ndividuals out again, Face Covering<\/a>s, washing hands, waiting 6 feet apart, those will be the individual actions and actions businesses can take right now today that will help us slow the spread of the virus and not overwhelm the Healthcare Systems<\/a> so we see that hospitals rise and we hope to see that level out. Thank you. Gov. Cooper next question, please. Thanks for taking my question. I want to know if you have any decisions on phase 2. 5 and 3. Still the planned date even if specifics arent ready yet . On a different topic, the budget was 2. 5 million last year for the africanamericans monuments on the Capitol Grounds<\/a>. Now that the money isnt in the the budget coming forward, is agencyoney in another that could fund that, and should the process stay as it is or removing confederate monuments . Gov. Cooper the first question i think had to do with phase 2. 5 and phase 3. We have not made the decisions on that and neither of those are off the table, nor is it off the table that we might go into phase three as scheduled. We will look at the trends in the data in order to make that decisions and we will let you know as soon as those decisions are made. Secondly, my position has been clear on confederate monuments that we should move them to a place with more historical context, moving them off the Capitol Grounds<\/a> into one of the civil war battlefields. I do believe that that monument is a that the budget had is a positive thing for our state. We will want to help to try to find the money for such a thing and we will continue to work with the legislature to see if that can happen. Thanks, next question please. Our next question is from jonah with abc11. Know, what want to is the threshold for staying in phase two or pivoting back to phase one . Is it 50 increase in cases . Beds . A limit of icu dr. Cohen, the National Headline<\/a> that governor carolina is the huge increase of cases each day. By our math, we have seen cases up 24 in the last week, but also test up 24 in the last week. Hospitalizations up only 10 . We want cases to go in the other direction. Is this increase in cases that unexpected seeing how we are doing so many test . Gov. Cooper i will let dr. Cohen address that. Of theselooking at all trends and indicators, all seven of them in combination, in order to make decisions about moving forward into a phase. I will let dr. Cohen address that along with the second part of your question. Dr. Cohen hi, jonah. The governor is exactly right. That is why we have said all along it cant be one metric in isolation that says yes or no, we can or cant move forward. They all interplay with each other. You rightly, i think, were giving an analysis that we have ramped up testing a lot, which is good news. So we are seeing more cases. The question is are we just seen eing more cases for the more testing or are we also seen a lot more viral spread . That we are seeing a number of cases that are increasing with the percent positive which is also increasing makes me have the conclusion that we are not just picking up cases because of increasing testing, but also because we are seeing more viral spread. We have been stable around hospitalizations. Around 550ish people in hospital day over day for many weeks. Very stable. In the last three weeks we have ton echo from the mid500s over 800. That is a significant change. It tells me that the virus is spreading more because we know that there will be a percentage of people who will become more seriously ill. So as more people become ill, that percentage of people who will need hospitalizations goes up. All of those in combination, more cases we are finding through testing, percent positive going up, hospitalizations coming up i think those tell us in combination that we are seeing more virus in our communities. By the graph i went through today you can see that timing is very much linked to the last two, three weeks. It is very much linked to when we started reopening. I think we knew that when you reopen and you move around more that the virus will move around more as well. Now it is upon us, every one of us in North Carolina<\/a> to say how can i help keep the virus level low . Those threened things we need to do. One is the three ws. Wearing a face mask every time you are out in a crowd. Waiting six feet apart and washing hands. The third is picking up the phone to our local Health Departments<\/a> in case you have been exposed and they want to tell you about the next step in terms of isolation and getting tested. Those are the things we can do right now, so we want to see those trends. We are increasing, but the question is how fast . We have the ability to change the trajectory of those trends so that it doesnt go as fast. We can flatten the curve. Again, it is always that action to how can we flatten the curve as we go forward. We have done it before. We can do it again. Thank you. Thanks. Per next question please. Followup from jonah, abc11. Again. R hello, thank for taking this question. This is the second time you mentioned we can flatten the curve. Does that mean the curve is not flat right now and we are going toward a peak . For governor cooper, phase 2. 5 t o phase 3 could mean bigger crowds. We see the rnc is moving, at least the celebration part to jacksonville, florida. The president says he wants to hold a rally here in North Carolina<\/a>. Have you had any contact with the president s campaign about hosting such an event . Let me take your first question. I think we saw in the data i presented today, we saw the slope of that line. It tells you how fast are we accelerating and that does contribute to flattening the curve. I do see a quickening of the pace or the steepness of that curve, which tells us we have work to do to flatten that curve out. Like i said, we have done that before. There were actions we take to do it. I will turn it back over the governor. Over to the governor. Gov. Cooper we are concerned when there are Mass Gatherings<\/a> and large crowds because we see more viral spread when that occurs. I have not heard anything from the president s campaign about any rally in North Carolina<\/a>. We will check to see if any of our other agencies have heard anything about that, but i have not. Thanks. Next question please. Our next question is from Brian Anderson<\/a> with the associated press. Reporter hi, governor. Hi, dr. Cohen. Brian anderson with the associated press. Thank you for taking my questions. I had one for the governor and one for dr. Cohen. For the governor you talked about phase 2. 5. You acknowledge that theres a possibility that the current second phase would need to be scaled back. I was hoping you could give me a straight answer on whether or on which direction you are leaning towards right now. Do you generally feel that things should be more open or more closed right now. It sounds like youre saying you have no intention of going backwards. So i wanted a general direction of where youre going. Dr. Cohen, we have a pending request with your office for daily case data by county. I was curious if you had an idea of where dr. Birx flagged. I would appreciate if you can get back to us on that. I want to ask are we in the middle of a second wave yet . I see on your dashboard the icu beds, the way it is represented has changed from 13 to 22 . If your staff could follow up on that as well, that would be great. Gov. Cooper we are going to rely on our Health Experts<\/a> who are reviewing this data. All seven of these trends and indicators, making recommendations to us about whether we move to a 2. 5 or a three. No decisions have been made about that yet. These trends that we have been seeing the past week are concerning. We think the public, the people of North Carolina<\/a> can play a significant role in our ability to get these numbers headed in the right direction. If people are careful and wear their cloth Face Covering<\/a>s and keep their social distance and washing their hands. Across the state, people others look up to will set an example, it will help us a lot. The priority is getting our children in school in august and we want to do that. We also want to continue taking steps to ease restrictions to reignite the economy, but we will not do that until our trends and indicators tell us that it is time to do that. I will turn it over to dr. Cohen. Dr. Cohen thanks. There were a number of data questions and we will follow up on each one of them. But in terms of case counts by county, those are on our dashboard right now. We have them by county, zip code, per capita. We also just this week posted line level data as well. There are spreadsheets of data if you want to look through them. There is a lot of new information up on our dashboard. Again, trying to be as transparent as we can on how we are looking at these numbers across our state. Synthesize that together for you to paint a picture of where i think our trends are going and how we can impact them because nothing is set in stone. These trends dont mean our fate is sealed. It means we have the ability to do actions ourselves right now that can change the trajectory of these curves. That is what we want to make sure that we are doing. We are warning everyone that the trends are headed in the wrong direction, but there are things we can do now to make sure we can get our kids back to school in august and do other things. Thanks. Gov. Cooper next question, please. Followup from Brian Anderson<\/a> come associated press. Reporter sorry, really quick for dr. Cohen. Do you believe we are in the middle of a second wave right now . Over the past week, have your fears of a second wave escalated . Dr. Cohen i think this is our first wave. When i look at the numbers, we took early and aggressive action to flatten the curve and we did that very successfully. That was an important and critical time that allowed us to build our capacity here in the state to respond to this crisis, but we did not see an early spike or surge. That was a good thing in our state. I think this is our First Experience<\/a> at an increase. At the beginning of that increase. That is why we all want to really Pay Attention<\/a> here because i dont want to see a spike or a surge. There are things we can do to prevent this. This for us is not a second wave, this is a first. It reminds us that the virus is here and we have to learn to live with this virus because we dont have a vaccine. This is a matter of how can we live with this virus so we dont can keeppike, that we the virus level low enough so that we can open up schools again. I dont think this is our second wave. I think this is our it is a first. Matter on us to make sure that we can live with the virus to make sure we dont overwhelm our Healthcare System<\/a> and we save lives. Thank you. Gov. Cooper next question, please. Our next question is with fox 46. Reporter this is from fox 46 charlotte. South carolina has been opening at a much faster pace than North Carolina<\/a>. We are on the border and our cases are spiking. T believe the case count in charlotte is rising because of what happened in South Carolina<\/a> . We know people are traveling down there to eat, to do other things. Did you ever have a conversation a month ago when everything was reopening with Henry Mcmaster<\/a> about having the carolinas open together instead of two different states doing two Different Things<\/a> . Gov. Cooper i will let dr. Cohen address that in a minute, but we know the virus does not respect state boundaries. We know that when you have an area where people travel back and forth, that there is potential to spread the virus. South carolina took a somewhat different approach from North Carolina<\/a> and did ease restrictions more quickly. He and i discussed it. We did not discuss coordinating those efforts, but we did talk to each other about what each one of us was doing. We remain concerned as these numbers go up. Im not sure that i can tell you particularly where that Charlotte Mecklenburg<\/a> increase comes from. I do know Charlotte Mecklenburg<\/a> has been a place of concern since almost the beginning. Addresset dr. Cohen that point as well. Dr. Cohen thank you, sir. Yes, i would say all of our three urban areas, the triad, the triangle, and the charlotte area continues to be areas of focus for us. It means that when people live closer together and is more densely populated there is more mass transit and means theres more opportunities to spread the virus. As the governor said, charlottes always been an area area an area of focus, but i do think that as we are reopening and we know folks move around more, the virus will move around more. There are a number of things that drive our trends and in fact, frankly, the increase testing we need to do helps us identify where the virus is and try to understand how we can isolate it and make sure that folks who are sick and have covid19 do stay home. It is a number of the things that we have been talking about that drive viral spread, and whether it is someone who is in a high risk exposure through their job like a Grocery Store<\/a> or Childcare Center<\/a> or have attended a mass gathering. Those are the things where we want folks to get testing. I think this is driven by a number of different factors and in our urban areas because of their density are certainly going to be more challenged. Thanks. Gov. Cooper next question, please. Our next question is from Rebecca Martinez<\/a> with wunc. Reporter thank you for taking my question. My question is for dr. Cohen. Where is the dhhs in its plan to test every nursing home resident in the state . What resources are being provided to facilities to carry out that testing . Dr. Cohen thanks for the question. We known Nursing Homes<\/a> have been an incredible challenge through this pandemic. We know once the virus is in our Nursing Homes<\/a>, its incredibly hard to contain. It is why we have taken early and aggressive action to do a number of things across the board, from decreased visitation to make sure that we are having folks if they see even one case of covid19, to test everyone. Its but we wanted to go further. We know we test when there is a case, but we want to state we need to take some proactive work to test everyone in longterm Nursing Homes<\/a>. We are working with the Nursing Home Association<\/a> and those folks that run each of those Nursing Homes<\/a> on how do we make that happen. It is a big challenge to test everyone and we are working through those challenges. We know testing the residents of Nursing Homes<\/a> is more simple because they have insurance. Folks in the Nursing Homes<\/a> are either covered by medicare or medicaid. Having insurance access really does help when we think about testing. We know unfortunately the folks that work in our longterm care settings are more likely to be uninsured. We know that our state is only one of a dozen or so states that have not expanded medicaid. We have a high uninsured rate here. It presents a significant challenge, not just logistically like how do we get everyone tested. That is a big challenge. My team is working on that with Nursing Homes<\/a>. But also how do we make sure that folks get that coverage of their test. So we are working through all those challenges and we want to make sure we are getting as much testing in the Long Term Care<\/a> space as we can. Again, because of the risks to the medically frail folks who live in our Nursing Homes<\/a>. Thank you. Gov. Cooper thank you. Next question please. Martinez,up, rebecca wunc. Reporter what resources are being provided to the facilities . I dont know if you are sending are responsible to do testing on their own. What introductory is in place for residents who do test positive, especially if they dont have acute symptoms . Dr. Cohen the way we do testing is that in some cases the nursing home is able to, on their own, contract with a company that will come in and do all the testing for them. In other cases, that is not possible. We work with local Health Department<\/a> to deploy teams. That is how we been doing it for the last number of months. When we hear about even just one case. An outbreak of two or more cases, but even one case we send teams from the local Health Department<\/a> to work with them, not just on testing, but on the infection protocol that are necessary for folks to make sure that they are working through this. If someone does test positive for covid19 and they have no symptoms, they should stay in the nursing home. In the nursing home, you have nursing care. That is a good thing that they have some medical support at the nursing home. We only want folks going to the hospital if they need hospital level care. What we want folks to do if they find folks who are positive is to cohort them. Meaning we want those that are positive to Stay Together<\/a> and those that are negative to be separate from them so the virus doesnt spread. Make sure the staff who help those with covid does not also work with the residents who dont have covid. There are a number of Infection Control<\/a> procedures. We have many guidelines on our website with teams of folks who been working on this for quite extensively for a long time. There is quite a lot of work that goes into what is happening in our Nursing Homes<\/a>. We have reflected our payment levels in medicaid to these Nursing Homes<\/a> to reflect the fact that this work is hard and it takes resources. There is a lot going on in the Long Term Care<\/a> space we have been working aggressively on. Thanks. Gov. Cooper you might have said sendingt we have been personal protective equipment to all our nursing and rest homes to help them out. You need that to do testing as well. Next question, please. Our final question will be from laura leslie with wral. Reporter hi, governor, can you hear me . Thanks for letting me ask the question. Actually a couple things. Of cases arecent coming from people in congo bit living settings in concord get living settings, prison or Nursing Homes<\/a> overall . One of the counties has a rising caseload. What guidance are you offering to our counties for measures they might need to implement to control outbreaks on a county or local level . hi, laura. I dont have the percentage on the top of my head, so let me get back to you on the percentage that are related to longterm care. There is a lot of information on our dashboard about the outbreaks, what we track every day and how that relates to our cases. As far as what we would advise with wake county, we have been working closely with a number of that we are seeing faster increase in cases. In local Health Department<\/a> lake county are putting our Heads Together<\/a> about how we make sure we are getting ahead of things as much as possible. Key to that strategy is ramping up testing. Testing helps folks know they are positive even when they dont have symptoms. Ramping up testing is critical. As well as ramping up tracing capacity. So we have been deploying additional tracers from our ccnc contracts to our local Health Departments<\/a>. I know lake county requested support for that purpose. So we work with them to say how can we help you. Sometimes tracing and sometimes it is just digging into the numbers. Our local Health Departments<\/a> are the tip of the spear in doing this work. It is hard work. Thats why we are trying to pull in as many partners. We want doctors and clinicians. It will take a ton of partners and an all hands on deck approach to really get our arms around this and make sure we stay ahead of it. We are sharing early warnings with you today about the trends we are seeing, and if we can take an all hands on deck approach it cant just be from the state and local government it has to be everyone working together. Whether it be individual action, business action, testing action, tracing, all of that is going to matter. It is no one thing, they all have to be layered together and we have to use those tools. We want to be as coordinated as possible and when resources are needed from the state, we want to come in behind the local efforts to see where we can fill in gaps. Thank you. Gov. Cooper that do it . For joining usl today. Stay safe and tried to be careful this weekend. Try to be full this weekend. Do the three ws. Cspans washington journal. Every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discussing policy issues that impact you. Saturday morning, the codirector of Georgetown University<\/a> law schools Innovative Policing Program<\/a> discusses proposals for abolishing or defunding the police. And the property and Environment Research<\/a> center talks about the Great American<\/a> outdoors act and federal governments role in public Land Management<\/a> and conservation. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages<\/a> and tweets. The d. C. Circuit court of appeals heard oral arguments on whether the perjury case against former National Security<\/a> advisor Michael Flynn<\/a> should be dismissed. He pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador<\/a> to the u. S. If the court to cleanse to intervene, a hearing to dismiss the case will be held later this summer. 205143, michael t. Flynn. Petitioner, Michael Flynn<\/a>. Honorable emmett sullivan. Good morning, council well hear first from miss powell. May it please the cou","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia803208.us.archive.org\/2\/items\/CSPAN_20200613_000300_North_Carolina_Gov._Cooper_Holds_Coronavirus_Briefing\/CSPAN_20200613_000300_North_Carolina_Gov._Cooper_Holds_Coronavirus_Briefing.thumbs\/CSPAN_20200613_000300_North_Carolina_Gov._Cooper_Holds_Coronavirus_Briefing_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}