49 Lab Confirmed cases. 1760 new cases reported today and a new high, 760 people in the hospital and sadly, 1092 deaths. Dying from covid19 or morning a loved one who right now can be isolating in difficultin and 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 capacity wean know this can chae quickly so we are working with hospitals and tracking hospitalizations and icq beds closely. Today is North Carolina highest day of new cases since the pandemic started and it is also the highest day of testing that weve had with over 21000 test reported. But the high number of new caseh 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 targetingai 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. Oday we have an update on our key metrics from doctor mandy cohen, secretary of North Carolinas department of health and human services. I will hand it off to her now to make her presentation. Doctor cohen. Thank you, governor. It is daytoday for those of you who like crafts. 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 walked 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 and that will include covid like syndrome, cases, Lab Confirmed cases, positive test that the percentageli of those total tess and hospitalizations. These subsets of metrics are chosen based on Public Health data and white house guidance. We cant look at anyone 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 but let me go through them now. On its first graph we look at people who come into the Emergency Department with covid like symptoms. This metric serves as an Early Detection mechanism and 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 and as you heard from the governor today we have 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 amounts 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. We zoom in now, this next graph shows the exact same data on the last slide of Lab Confirmed cases but now again zooming in or 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 in 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 of tests that are positive. This metric provides an important context for our cases. I want to draw your attention again to that yellow line and you can seese the of total tess that are positive have just been slightly increasing and today it is at c 10 . If you look at that 10 in the context of our nation our present positive is not 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 of hospitalizations is rising and yesterday was our highest day of hospitalizations with 812 but our hospital still have capacity as governor said 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 progressne in expanding our testing. Over the past month we have tripled our testing from about 5000 tests on average a day to 15000 average tests per day right now. Testerday with our largest day of testing with more than 21000 test completed in one day. Alright, putting that altogether but where are we . First, Surveillance Data shows a slight uptick and its a yellow line, North Carolinas trajectory of last confirmed lacases does continue to increae arand is accelerating against te yellow acts. North carolinas trajectory of tests returning positive has increased slightly over the last week and this gets a yellow line. North carolina trajectory of olhospitalizations 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 meetingtr our ability to respond to this pandemic and our ability to respond is where we really see positive trends and a ton of work that has gone on. First, as i have said, testing has had an upper arrow as we have been averaging more than 15000 tests a g day and we are more than 450 sites listed on our website plus additional popup testing sites that folks can go to and our art as q additional test sites purchase 4from the State Government just closed so we will soon be able to served even more Rapid Response of 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 tracers and more than half are bilingual. More than 500 local 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 hand to fill the next 30 days. Capacity is looking good. We have those tools to respond crisis and slow the spread of the virus but we all have to Work Together on this. We can protect our families and neighbors a and we can rebuild r economy and 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 3ws. Wearing a Face Covering, wait 6 feet apart and wash your hands frequently print 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 leavingd your house make sure to grab that Face Covering before you go. Wash your hands every chance you get and make sure to stay 60 apart from others. Second, if you think youve been exposed to covert 19 get tested. Even if you do not have symptoms 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 or 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 and we continue to strengthen our testing and Contact Tracing infrastructure because we were aggressive and took early action we bought ourselves valuable time to build that capability so that we would be in the best position to be able to responsibly use 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 improved we can flatten the curve and 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. Thank you, doctor cohen. We 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 and i know that we came into this having or making it difficult to gather all this information from all over the state and 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 and i thank 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. A e t 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 the summer begins. 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 and just because we cannot 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 and keep up that good work, it will be Good Business for you too. We will continue to use caution in our stages of using restrictions. Keeping our People Health foremost while also strengthening our States Economic health. Using restrictions gradually has kept theat 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 three but insisting on the strategies that reduce transmission like washing hands, wearing Face Coverings, waiting 6 feet apart from other people and tracing the virus to 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 and its been hard on everybody. But it is still deadlyrk and we cannot let our guard down. Slowing the spread is up to every one of us, every time we leave home soow practice those 3ws. Our numbers arent where we want them to be but it does not have to stay that way. It will 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 Emergency Management director [inaudible] and nicole fox for our sign language interpreters. Behindthescenes josiah and jasmine are our Spanish Language interpreters and i seen out we also are joined with our secretary of the department of public safety, eric cooks. We will not take your questions andd if you can identify yoursf and your organization we would appreciate it. Thank you. Our first question is from michael hyland, w ncn. Hello, governor print this is michael hyland, i wanted to ask you first with the numbers you laid out could you go into more detail about how this is influencing about moving the state into phase 2. 5 and even into phase three, is anything off the table at this point based on what we saw and how does this impact your decision about what we will assign the that the General Assembly passed to partially reopen bars . And cute for that question. We are looking at all the science and data to make decisions about a potential 2. 5 or a phase three and we are looking at it over a period of time and we are looking at the trends. There has not been the decision made about even one of those at this point. Neither one of those phases is off the table here. We will review that legislation and obviously, we would rather do it through executive order but, as i think, that legislation makes the process much more clumsy and more difficult to change in the event that we would need to reinstate it and an executive order. W we will review that bill and let you know what we do with it when we make that decision. Thanks. Our next question from Vanessa Rufus with w ncn c. Hello there, vanessa, thank you so much for taking my questions. I have three and they are related to metrics. I wanted to know how reflective is the current testing and resents positives we are seeing of the general population so are we seeing these higher rates as a result of targeted testing in communities or is this reflective of the general population of the state . My second question is the other day and also today you mentioned doctor cohen, that the state has one of the highest present positives in the u. S. And we know that North Carolina has not opened as quickly as other states so why do you think that metric is so high and then finally, hospitalizations we know is the concerning metric as well and we also know hospital beds can be used to meet the needs what is the threshold for this call to surge or further action to be taken with hospitals . I will let doctor cohen give her analysis on that in those questions. Sure, thank you for that thoughtful question. It is questions we ask of the data as well. We have been searching our testing and 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 that we want folks to get tested who have been at a mass gathering or protest or some of the higher risks jobsites and as i mentioned in my remarks. I think what we are seen in our testing is a combination ofen those symptoms and exposure the people have. That is a good thing and it means we are targeting our testing to people who are more likely to be positive. When i see that present positive i think that we are targeting two groupsen 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 present positive lower so that we make sure that 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 earlier remarks this week, on some counties where we are seen a more rapid increase in the number of cases where we want to have 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 ourth dashboard we do have capacity in our Hospital Systems. I think i see you beds is the thing we watch most closely and we know that that is a smaller resource for us as a state through the 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 were just on a phone call with them earlier today to get there 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, by building our ability to have ppe, building our capacity around testing, building our plan to preserve, 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 n