A good thursday morning to you. Craig melvin here. We are in the bronx. Yesterday, of course, just two miles away, roughly, at a testing location. Today were at st. Barnabas hospital. In just the past 30 minutes or so weve seen balance after balance pull in. Weve seen a number of taxis pull in as well. Around 200 covid19 patients are inside this hospital right now. More than 100 patients have died at this hospital so far. Roughly 300 have been treated and discharged. This hour theres an organization on site handing out care packages to the Health Care Workers on the front line. Thats that white truck on the right that you see. Meanwhile, this tent to the left, were told this tent you see right now, thats where the Health Care Workers themselves are being been tested for covid19. You can see some of the doctors and nurses in line for those care packages. Well get you caught up on the situation at st. Barnabas in just a moment. First, we want you to know the facts. In 30 minutes well hear from new York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his Daily Briefing. Starting tomorrow new yorkers have to cover their faces in public when they cant keep at a social distance. Right now more than 640,000 known coronavirus cases in the united states, that is some 30,000 more cases since i came to you this hour yesterday. More than 32,000 americans have died so far, and this morning we learned another 5. 2 million americans filed for unemployment last week. That brings the total number to 22 Million People in just the last month. 22 Million People have filed for unemployment benefits. For some perspective, thats roughly the population of the state of florida. Also later today President Trump planning to brief governors on guidelines for reopening the country. As always, just to reassure you, we are taking all the necessary precautions in the field. Were wearing our masks. Im wearing two sets of gloves. Were also socially distancing, and weve got a very small footprint at st. Barnabas hospital. We have our doctor on duty again, dr. John white. She the chief medical officer for webmd. Well get to dr. White in just a moment. We want to start with kathy park. Kathy, roughly 40 minutes or so from where im standing right now in the bronx, in nassau county. Shes on long island, Suffolk County. You spent time talking to a county executive i talked to last week. They have been hit especially hard. When i talked to mr. Ballone last week, he said one of the hurdles was a lack of early testing on long island. What did he tell you . Reporter craig, good morning to you. The coronavirus outbreak still has a very firm grip on Suffolk County with more than 23,000 confirmed cases. Thats higher than some states. We had a chance to spend the day with the county executive, Steve Ballone leading the Emergency Response on the ground. He says theyre still fighting to save lives. 60 miles outside the epicenter of the nations covid19 outbreak, cases exploded in suffolk, one of the most populated counties in new york. I look back and i say less than a month ago, life was normal here. We didnt have a single death in this county. Today we have more than 1,200 people that have died on long island and that number continues to rise every day. Reporter the eastern end of long island took a hard hit, becoming a hot spot next to its big city neighbor. We are a suburban community, were a rural community. I think its a lesson for the rest of america, if we can get hit the way we have here, this can happen anywhere. Were all in this battle together. Reporter on the ground, its a battle stretching to unlikely corners of the community. The stony brook campus is prepared to receive coronavirus patients under these triage tents as hospitals continue to be pushed to the limit. Its not just a struggle to save lives, but to keep up with the dead. With space running out for bodies, the county had to find another location and they had to do it fast. Thats why they ended up here on this farm, building 106 was once used for Veterinary Research with kornell university. Now its been transformed into a temporary morgue that can hold up to 300 bodies. Do you anticipate having to use this facility . Yes, i do. The acceleration of this process is thats really the most humbling thing of all, just how quickly its progressed. Thank you, be safe. Reporter for heroes on the front lines, these boxes of critical supplies leave as soon as they come in. So the number one item that we are well, the number one item Everyone Needs is masks. Is this your first time stopping by . No. Actually this is my third time. Strategies to win the war are being decided while social distancing. Step inside the nerve center of this countywide response, critical calls are handled virtually every day with state and white house officials. As this executive order comes into effect reporter as the nation talks about reopening, its still the folk cusses in suffolk. Were still in the fight of our lives here. Its about trying to save every person that we can. Reporter leading through a crisis one day at a time. Thank you for being away from your families today to keep this thing going. Reporter and with so many unknowns. Behind me here is a drivethrough testing facility. Officially opened up on friday. 200 people have been seen so far, another 85 people will go through later today. After speaking with the nurses on the ground leading the effort, a couple things they pointed out, they mentioned the number of positive cases in this location alone is still very high. They also mentioned the lag time is pretty significant. People who got tested on friday, some are still waiting to find out if theyre covid positive. Craig. Kathy park for us there on long island, kathy, thank you. Part of the story that seems to be changing dramatically, the number of covid19 deaths in Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities. Weve seen the numbers double in just the past week. Our carry sanders is covering that part of the story there in ft. Lauderdale, florida. Kerry, good morning to you. Reporter good morning. The question that Adult Children are asking are our aging parents safe in these longterm care facilities. As you pointed out, the Nbc Investigative Team of suzy kim and Laura Strickler looked specific toy get the data. They said of the 17 states that responded giving information about longterm care facilities, the number has doubled in the number of deaths and patients who have gotten covid19 just in the last week, now more than 5,500. Of the eight states that are actually giving specifics, telling which are the very Nursing Homes and adult living facilities where people have this, that information is useful. But so many states are not providing that information. Take a look at the death toll just in some of the states. These are longterm care deaths from covid19 at facilities in new york more than 3,000, in new jersey more than 600, in massachusetts more than 400. Now, in florida, there are 1,332 cases inside the florida facilities. Yet again today, another one in seminole, in Pinellas County in st. Petersburg. It took the assistant county administrator, not the state, to release the information that there were 28 cases and those 28 patients had to be removed and get taken to three hospitals. In illinois, we have 22 who have died in joliet, in decatur illinois again, a sixth longterm care resident died. And here in florida where i am, we have seven who have died inside the willow wood nursing home. One of those victims, 77yearold richard curran. Richard currans wife says shes heartbroken and she blames the state saying they did not establish rules early enough to protect her husband. Im angry. Im very, very angry. You want more . I want more information. I want more transparency, i want people to own up to their part in this, and i want him back its just heartbreaking to hear her. We know about mr. Currans death because florida saying that has to be something that will be private and we need to keep that to protect the privacy of the people who live there. Calling for a criminal investigation, willow wood responded saying Florida Governor ron desantis responses are inaccurate and unproductive. At the end of the day, the question here of privacy and Public Health is one that is now center stage. The miami herald had actually gone to their biggest law firm, the ones who represent them, that is holland and knight and asked the lawyer to sue the state to get the information. That lawyer was pulled off the case, and its not just florida. As we look at states that are saying that things must remain private, we have also in that group, alabama, indiana, maryland, ohio, texas, wisconsin. So a lot of people saying ultimately are my aging parents safe. Craig, its a question they cant answer without that specific information. Kerry sanders, thank you so much. Dr. Chris grantham joins us at sait. Barnabas. Hes the icu director. Hes been here since 1981 when he was an intern. This hospital was especially hard hit early on. You were concerned about running out of ventilators and ppe. Where do things stand today . So, weve made a little bit of progress. We have a little cushion with our ventilators now. We were close to being out a number of times. We have a little bit more of a cushion now. Ppe has fluctuated. We had issues with gowns, masks, different amounts at different times. Weve almost run low on those as well. Currently we have a little bit of a cushion on that. But its a daybyday thing. We work on all the supply lines. Well take donations. The administration is working nonstop to keep the gear there for the staff on the front lines who really need it to protect themselves. Those icu nurses, dr. Grantham, how are they doing . Theyre doing phenomenal work. Theyre doing more than twice the amount of patient load with critically ill patients. Our icus are extended. We have normally 10 to 15 ventilator beds in our hospital. We have close to 80 ventilated critically ill patients at the current time. The nurses are extremely extended. The work theyre doing is nothing short of heroic. Theyre really on the front lines. Theyre putting themselves at risk working in this environment. Unfortunately weve had Staff Members get this illness, and weve had valued Staff Members who have died from this disease and its devastating. Its taking a very terrible toll. Its really a tragedy that people will have this disease affect them and some of them at young ages. Its taking no prisoners. Its really a didi cease to deal with. Doctor, i mentioned youve been here since the 80s. For folks not familiar with this area, were in the bronx. This is by a lot of metrics, the most unhealthy county in all of new york state. How have you seen that manifest itself with this virus . Broadly speaking, have you seen anything like this in the time that youve been here . Youre correct. If you look at statistics, the bronx is some of the most unhealthy patients anywhere in the state. Its an atrisk population. They dont get the Preventative Care that they need. Theres a lot of comorbid illness going on. Its a difficult population to serve. Theyre more at risk in this disease as well. We see this affect Young Healthy people. But if you have underlying disease, youre more at risk and your morbidity and mortality from this disease is going to be higher. I think our numbers are higher than anywhere else. Were really in the target zone. U. S. s highest numbers, new york state highest numbers, new york city highest and the bronx. This hospital, were right in the center of it. Barnabas is a small nonprofit hospital. We dont have deep pockets. Were doing the best we can, but we would take help from wherever we could get it. Dr. Grantham, thank you for all youre doing. Youre working seven days a week, you were here last night, came back this morning. We appreciate all youre doing. Thank you, craig. Appreciate your time. Thank you, doctor. Thank you, thank you. Dr. John white is our doctor on duty for the hour. Dr. White is the chief medical officer for webmd. Dr. White, i want to start with you where Kerry Sanders left off, longterm care falts specifically, retirement homes. What more can they be doing, what more should they be doing to keep their residents safer . Craig, thanks for having me back. These are heart broking stories. Our most vulnerable populations are most impacted by the disease. Its what very been doing, trying to have the social distancing. Its making sure we clean and disinfect surfaces. Everyone has good intent, but sometimes its about doubling up on some of those efforts. We talked before, weve got to have adequate testing, and we need to make Testing Available to everyone because thats going to help us really triage those patients who may be most in need of quarantine and closer care. So we need to redouble our efforts. Now is not the time to be saying we can slowly peel back for those populations such as those in Nursing Homes that are most vulnerable. Dr. White, one of the reasons we always enjoy having your perspective is youre able to really tell us what people are out there on the internet asking, what theyre searching for on your website, webmd. What is the latest . What do people want to know specifically about this virus . You know, last week i told you people were searching how long does the virus live on surfaces. Theyre still searching that. Whats interesting, craig, is now theyre starting to search for content on loneliness and depression and how do they spot it and how do they treat it. Theyre also starting to search more for what do mild symptoms mean . Theyre starting to think through, what are those precautions that they really need to use to stay safe. So as the epidemic slowly starts to change, were seeing search behavior changes, too. Im particularly interested in this loneliness and depression aspect that theyre trying to find more information on. Dr. White, at least folks are out there looking to get some help. Dr. John white, dont go too far. Ill come back to you a little later. Govern Governor Andrew Cuomo roughly 20 minutes from now, the Daily Briefing. Im going to step back and show you again, this is a line of Health Care Workers who are stopping to pick up one of the care packages being provided to them today. These are doctors and nurses who have been on the front lines of this thing over the past few weeks. Meanwhile, senator Kamala Harris is introducing a new bill that will address the prospect of voting in november in the midst of a pandemic. Senator harris will join me on the other side of this break to talk about that bill and a few other things as well. Quick break. This is msnbc. Our gummies contain a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no nextday grogginess. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturally superior sleep. Weve worked to provide you with the financial strength, stability, and online tools you need. And now its no different. Because helping you through this crisis is what were made for. Saturpain happens. Aleve it. Aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. When pain happens, aleve it. All day strong. Swithout even on yoleaving your house. Just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. You can get it by ordering a free sim card online. Once you activate, youll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just 12 a month. There are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. Get a 50 prepaid card when you switch. Its the most reliable wireless network. And it could save you hundreds. Xfinity mobile. A good thursday morning to you. Craig melvin from the bronx in new york city. Were at st. Barnabas hospital. This is a live look at the hellers being helped. This is an Organization Called pro mobile kitchen. They set up shop here to provide some muchneeded relief, some care packages, roughly 5,000 of them were told, to the doctors and the nurses who have been working around the clock for the better part of four weeks now, some healthy snacks in there, some Energy Drinks and just a small token of the appreciation from that organization. But in reality, really, from all of us. Again, craig melvin, st. Barnabas hospital. I want to turn our attention now to another aspect of this story. Senator Kamala Harris, california senator harris joining me now. Shes unveiling the vote safe act today. Senator harris, i want to hear more about the bill in just a moment, but i want to start with Paycheck Protection Program. Word from the Small Business administration literally in just the last hour that all of the money that had an appropriated for Small Business relief, apparently all of that money has run out. Theres no money left. What do we do now . Well, weave got to get back to work, and we need to pass the next bill. So many of us who voted for that 2 trillion bill which included approximately 350 billion for Small Business knew it was not enough when we passed it. Its clearly not enough. Our Small Businesses are hurting. They are suffering. They are in fear and really looking at the potential that they may never reopen if we dont get them immediate relief. The democrats, the leader, schumer and nancy pelosi offered a bill, 250 billion back to Small Businesses. 125 of that would go through the Community Banks and Credit Unions to ensure minorityowned businesses, womenowned businesses are not left out of the benefit. Were also including 100 billion because the hospitals are urt ing. We had money for the hospitals in the first one. They need more. Were also saying lets increase s. N. A. P. Benefits which is money for hungry children. So this is the kind of work that were trying to get done. I know leader schumer is meeting with secretary mnuchin, but weve got to get this done. Im in d. C. And im ready to act. We need to act. Senator harris, one of the criticisms has been that some of the things you just mentioned should be in a separate bill, that you guys should just vote to increase the funds for Paycheck Protection Program immediately and take up those other things separately, this should be a standalone bill. What say you to that . The logic of that argument is flawed, craig. The reality again is that 2 trillion package we all knew was insufficient, but met the crisis of the moment at that moment. It is predictable that were at the place we are today which is the Small Business money has run out. We knew it would, it was president going to be sufficient. Were saying Small Business. In the first package it was also state and local government, getting money to states and local government. Thats part of what were saying. They need more. We in the first bill got money to hospitals. They need more, so thats what were saying. Theres no reason why we cannot reconvene to make better what we did the first time, and all of these things were in that first bill. Lets talk about the vote safe act that youre introducing today. What would it do . So the vote safe act would do a number of things. 5 billion to encourage states to, one, expand vote by mail, to make sure we also are allowing people to vote early. So im proposing at least 20 days early voting. So vote by mail, early voting and expand access and safety. Were proposing that states consider curbside voting. Were proposing we have more access for our indigenous people, our native american populations, alaskan populations, that we expand access to voters with disabilities because we have still have so much work to do there. Its very exciting because its about the federal government encouraging states to actually make voting in this moment safe and accessible for all voters. Bipartisan support . I hope there is bipartisan support. I think there will be. We are right now seeking bipartisan support. When you look at wisconsin, the most recent election, and you look at the fact that they had to close over 100 polling places because they didnt have the workers, because they didnt have the infrastructure to acted date voting in this area of a pandemic. So its only the smart thing to do. It should be nonpartisan. Its about patriotism, in fact, to say that we believe in our democracy, one of the tenets of a democracy is a free and Fair Elections process. We need to make sure everyone has access and they can vote in a safe way, whoever they vote for. Lets talk about another aspect of that election. Perhaps youve heard, your name has been tossed about a fair amount as a possible Vice President ial pick. I asked the presumptive nominee, the apparent nominee about this during a conversation recently. Here is what joe biden told me. I asked barack why he wanted to vet me. He said because theres not a single important issue we disagreed on. Would Kamala Harris fit that bill . I think so. But again, ive not spoken to Kamala Harris about that. Its presumptuous of me to do that. Kamala harris would be someone look, theres a number of women. Have you talked to Vice President biden recently, senator harris . I have been focused 100 on this pandemic. Craig, obviously i would be honored if i were being considered, but i have to tell you right now my entire focus has been on what we need to do to get relief to americans right now. 22 million americans as of today, just in the last few weeks are unemployed. People are trying to figure out how to feed their babies and pay their rent. Thats been my focus. Obviously im honored if i am being considered, and i think whats most important is that we all join together, that we unify the party, unify the country and that we elect joe biden because donald trump does not know how to do the job. He has failed as a president so obviously in this moment of a national crisis, and we need new leadership that has the ability to unify the country and up lift the spirits and the condition of the american people. Donald trump isnt capable of doing that. Senator harris, if he asked, would you say yes . Obviously id be honored to serve with joe. Im just telling you my focus right now is really on what were dealing with right now. Youre in front of st. Barnabas hospital. What were looking at is a situation where we have Health Care Workers who are going to work every day because they have taken on the mission of saving the lives of other people, but in so doing theyre risking their own lives. Im on the phone constantly yesterday with the 13 biggest mayors of california who are worried about the fact that they dont have enough tests, their Small Businesses donts have enough resources and support. This stuff is happening every day. You look at that ticker tape. Every one of us wake up every morning looking at what is the number today, so thats my focus. Thats my focus. I totally understand. I appreciate your time, senator. Thank you, and good luck to you. And you. Take care. Be safe out there. I will. Thank you so much. Senator Kamala Harris there. Senator, thank you. Do we have cuomo yet . We do not. Governor cuomo has not started the Daily Briefing just yet. Jake ward is joining me now, also there in california. Jake, we wanted to spend some time talking to you today because weve seen over the past few days how Tech Companies are stepping up in a big way and really creating some unique ways perhaps to fight this virus. What have you found . Thats right, craig. Our single graeft it weapon against this virus right now seems to be staying at home. The big question has been how are we going to stay at home and how well are we doing it . Are there places that arent able to for some reason. How can policy officials and Public Health workers considering how to flatten the curve. A generation ago, it would have been impossible to find that out. All over the world big Tech Companies are helping put together a way for following the trends in how we move around. Theyre doing it using the data on our phones. When you and i look up directions on Something Like google maps, it turns out that information is incredibly valuable to policymakers and Health Officials. This week apple announced it is joining both googles project that is going to be giving aggregate data to Health Officials and to the general public so they can begin figuring things out. For instance, according to google which did a report back in the beginning of april, they were looking at the degree to which people have stopped moving around as compared to early february, a sort of pre emergency baseline. They found out about 49 fewer people are doing things like going to restaurants, going to retail centers. 20 fewer people are going to the Grocery Store and pharmacies. 20 fewer people are going to parks. That is good news and incredibly useful news. Its super important that Health Officials can figure out are people staying home. In places where they are not staying home, why would that be . Perhaps people live in a food desert, a place where they dont have ready access to a Grocery Store or they dont have the ability to stay inside. Of course, one of the great shockers of this has been what facebook found through its data for good program, that theres this total flip happening right now between what we would normally consider people most likely to travel, and thats higher income people and people who are most likely to be stuck closer to home, and thats lower income people. It turns out in a time of crisis, thats being reversed. It turns out 30 fewer people at high income levels are traveling. People are staying home who can afford to. Those of us lucky enough to have a job we can do from home arent going out. Theres a mobility flip when it comes to lowincome people who, as you would expect, are stuck in jobs where they often have to report in person and if they dont have access to the internet at home or only have a single device and as a result need other abilities other resour resources, then theyre having to go out for groceries, having to go out to pay their bills, having to go out for all sorts of things. As a result, theyre moving around more in a crisis like this. It turns out, craig, this data, not individualized data, not saying you craig melvin and me jake ward are moving around this way. Its a way of how people are moving around the country and the world. At this point were finding this kind of data is going to be one of the most important ways to understand whether we are sheltering in place the way we have to to survive this thing together. Jake ward, our man on tech, thank you so much, sir. St. Barnabas hospital is where we are on this thursday. A look at the front line workers, the doctors, the nurses, the hospital staffers who have been spending day and night over the past four weeks combating covid19. Right now theyre in line for a care package, just a small token of our thanks from a company, a local company here in the bronx. Also over in harlem, theres a chef who is doing his part to help front line workers as well. Well introduce you to him on the other side of this break as we wait for new York Governor Andrew Cuomos Daily Briefing. You can see that they are set up there for the Daily Briefing. Well take you there never mind. Ive been told the governor is speaking now. Lets go to him. Lets give you some facts today. My man, sergeant joe friday, just the facts, man. My daughters say nobody understands who joe friday is. Thats their mistake. Dr dragnet was an underappreciated cinematic treasure in my opinion. Joe friday, just the facts. Here are just the facts. Hospitalization rate is down from 18,000 to 17,000 mark. That is good news. Total hospitalizations down. You talk about the flattening of the curve, the apex, how long is it flat, when does it start to curve . We dont know. But this is a good sign today. If you look at the net change in hospitalizations, its down more significantly than it has been. So thats positive news. Threeday average which is more accurate than the daytoday counts. Im more skeptical about the daytoday counts. This is all a new reporting system. The threeday average is more reliable. Icu admissions number is also down significantly for the first time. So thats good news. Intubations is down, and thats really good news because the intubations ultimately lead to the worst news. 80 , roughly, of people who get intubated never come off the ventilator. The number of new people who are diagnosed with covid, about 2,000 still yesterday. So when you see the reduction in rates, remember what were talking about. Were talking about a reduction in increases. You still have 2,000 people every day about who are walking into a hospital for the first time or who are being diagnosed with covid for the first time. 2,000 is still a lot of people. But the good news is it means we can control the virus, right . We can control the spread. And we did not know for sure that we could do that. We speculated that we could do it, but we didnt know. To now we know that we can control this disease. The bad news is, 2,000 people walked into a hospital yesterday for the first time with the disease, and the worst news is 600 people died yesterday from the disease. That is still continuing at a really tragic, tragic rate. Of those deaths, 577 in hospitals, 29 in Nursing Homes. Weve been watching the nurse homes because Nursing Homes in many ways are ground zero for this situation. Last night the number in Nursing Homes was relatively low. Everyone asks the same two questions. When is it over, and how do we get there . How do we start to make our way from here to there . When is it over . As ive said, when is it finally over . Its over when you have a vaccine and thats 12 months to 18 months. We said to the fda, anyway we can be helpful in the testing of that vaccine, how do we accelerate that, how do we expedite it . New york is ready, willing and able to do that with the fda. Maybe theres a medical treatment between now and the vaccine. That would be great. Those are unknowns and its out of our bailiwick. We are working with a lot of companies that are working on treatments. Were testing treatments in our hospitals. But thats a pure medical research and development function which is beyond us. At the same time how do we unpause new york. New york is now on pause. How do we unpause it . First, do no harm. Dont let that infection rate go up to the best of your ability. Dont lose the progress that you have made. Second, now go back that we have some stability and we can actually work with the Health Care System which we had on overdrive for many, many weeks. And we increased the capacity as you remember. Every hospital had to increase capacitive 50 . Just think about that. 50 more beds, staffing those beds during this horrific period. Now we have a chance to be more intelligent, frankly, about handling our Health Care System. Testing and tracing, testing and tracing, testing and tracing, and we need the federal government to work with us on that. And then phasing in economic return to the quote, unquote, new normal. Those are all activities going on at the same time. Thats our plan to, quote, unquo unquote, pause new york. You stopped everything. How do you now restart that machine in a coordinated way that doesnt drive up the infection rate. Thats the balance that were trying to strike. On unpausing and having businesses open, that is a nuanced question. Theres no light switch. Its not all businesses go back tomorrow. Its what businesses, what do they do . What risks do they pose . And what changes can they make in their business to make them more safe . This is not just government deciding. Its government deciding with private businesses who now have to take a look at this new normal, this new reality and tell us how they think they can adjust to it. One of our questions and evaluations is how essential is that business service. You have to start somewhere. Right now we have the economy working with what are, quote, unquote, essential workers. Thats why the Grocery Store is open, why Public Transit is running. All right. So we want to start to bring the economy back, move up one tranche on how you define essential. Whats the next level of essential businesses . Are there certain businesses that are inherently safer or can be safer . Lets talk about how we reopen them and where we reopen them. These are all questions that we have to work through on a casebycase basis. There is a matrix, and the matrix is how important is the business to society, how essential a service, and how risky is that business from a rate of infection. Obviously the more essential a business, the lower the risk, the more they are a priority. And then how do you do it . You do it in phases of priority, and then you phase it up the way we phased it down which is by percentages. This is going to be an ongoing process over the coming weeks that were working through with the other states. But the what, the how, the when, looking at how important that business is and what the risk that business poses, and then do it in coordination with our other states because this is really a regional issue. It should be addressed on that basis. Kwor coordinating with the other states doesnt mean well always be in lockstep, but well talk through everything first. And hopefully were not doing something thats contradictory to another state at a minimum. So far, so good on that exercise. And that analysis is on going. But its not going to be all about what government does, what government does. The private sector now has to think about what they do and how they do it and how they can do it differently in this new normal. Reimagine your workplace. We learned a lot through this situation. People worked from home. How many people can continue to work from home and the business still work . How do you socially distance in the workplace . Can you socially distance in your workplace . What are your new normal procedure and practices . How do you think youre going to get workers back and forth and what precautions would you take . In the workplace, how would people work and where would they sit and stand . How do you do it without conference meetings . How do you do it without gatherings . How will you interact with the public in a way that keeps the public safe . Were talking about businesses that pose a lower risk. Tell us how you intend to organize and conduct your busine business . Can you do it in a way that poses a lower risk . What would you do with your workforce to make sure if an infection happens, that we can jump on it quickly. And then as were going through all this planning, this is going to be a moment of transformation for society. And we paid a very high price for it. But how do we learn the lessons so that this new normal is a better new york, and there are lessons that we must learn from this because we do need to do things differently or we can do things differently, and we can do things better. Part of the way to cross that bridge is testing. It is the single best tool to inform decisions and to calibrate all of this. This new testing world is a new frontier for all of us. New york state has been very aggressive about doing testing. We set a very ambitious goal when we began. Im happy to say they did it. Weve done 500,000 tests in 30 days. Thats more than california, florida and michigan combined. And this is all about figuring it out first and taking a system that frankly didnt exist and creating this testing system and this testing regimen. 500,000 tests in one month. That sounds great, and it was great, it was a great accomplishment, and congratulations to everyone who put it together. But when you think of 500,000 tests in one month and compare it to the fact that you have 19 Million People in this state, you have 9 million workers, the 500,000 doesnt sound so big. We have many questions to answer. Where do you test . How do you get the supplies . How do you coordinate the private labs . How do you coordinate the demand going to these private labs . Everybody wants testing. Private Sector Companies are calling for testing. Theyre going right to the labs. Everyone is going right to these labs and 50 states are competing and the federal government is buying product from these labs. This has to be figured out, and it can only be figured out in partnership with the federal government. On top of that, once you go from testing, you have to trace every person who comes up positive. Trace means investigate, investigate all those prior contacts, and then one contact, you test that person, leads you to another person. So the tracing investigators are really assembling an army that does not now exist. I spoke to the white house again this morning about it. I understand that this is a problematic area and the federal government is not eager to get involved in testing. I get that. But the plain reality here is we have to do it in partnership with the federal government. Youre talking about supply chains that go back to china. A state does not have the capacity to do that, and theres no reason why you would have 50 states each trying to figure this out on their own, competing with the federal government, competing with the private sect sector. So im very much looking forward to the federal governments willingness to tackle this, understanding it will be imperfect at best. But if we Work Together, we can do better than any of us could do alone. Thats what this is all about. Youre not going to achieve optimum performance. You cant put together this National System with perfection. So people are understandably reluctant to get involved, but understanding the risk and understanding that its never going to be done perfectly. If we Work Together, we can do better. Thats what we have to actually accomplish. We have to strengthen the Health Care System. Our surge and flex which is the first time weve ever called upon these hospitals to Work Together and coordinate. Every hospital was basically its own enterprise. And then we go back and say, well, you all have to Work Together and coordinate, and were going to help you coordinate. It was the first time thats ever happened. We understand about a stockpile like we never understood before. Reunderstand about sharing resources like weve never understood before. And we understand about sharing among states and how good people were to new york when we needed it and stayed stepping up and septd us ventilators. I said new yorkers dont forget and new yorkers are the most generous and most gracious, and we will be there when people need help. New jersey is still looking at their curve rising. The wave hasnt crested in new jersey. There are neighbors, anything they need just ask and were here. Were going to send 100 ventilators to new jersey. The key to all of this, the calibration is the investigation rate. And this gets a little technical but i need people to really understand this. Why dont you open tomorrow . P because were afraid the infection rate will go up and everything weve been doing is to slow the infection rate. Well, how do you track the infection rate . We dont. We dont track infection rates. We see hospitalization rates, which are different. A hospitalization rate is a person who got infected and became seriously ill so they had to go to the hospital. But we dont know how many people have been infected or are getting infected. We only know at this point how many people walk into a hospital, okay . Or how many people get tested in a nursing home. If you have advanced testing, then you have a better idea of what percent of your population has actually been exposed. Thats what the Antibody Testing is all about. The key is as youre making this calibration on the reopening of the economy, as youre bringing more people out of their homes, how fast is that virus spreading and how quickly is that infection rate rising, right . Dr. Fauci said early on that this virus spreads. It does it very well. And we know that and weve learned it the hard way. The rate of infection is everything. All of those early projection models assumed a higher rate of infection. A higher rate of spread. Thats why they were calling for so many more hospital beds, many more mortalities. Because they projected a higher rate of spread. That is not happening so far. Caveat, so far. Weve controlled the beast. Weve brought the rate of spread down. If their rate of spread actually happened, we would have been in a much, much worse situation and we would have been in a really bad place. I mean, their projections were staggering. And it didnt happen because we slowed the models. But remember what they were talking about, cdc, which was supposed to be the preeminent source, 160 million to 214 Million People infected they were projecting. That was only march 13th. Thats what the cdc was projecting. You know how many 216 million to 240 million are . We only have 328 million in the country. They were projecting more than half of the population and many twothirds of the population infected. And that was only a month ago. They were saying 2. 4 Million People to 21 Million People would be hospitalized. You know how many that is . We only have 900,000 hospital beds in the nation. They were saying by their projection a minimum of twice as many would need hospital beds as we have hospital beds. Just imagine that. That was the cdc. The White House Coronavirus task force, the same thing. White House Coronavirus Task force was saying 1. 5 million to 2 million deaths, deaths. And that was the White House Coronavirus task force as of march 31. Bestcase scenario, 120,000 to 240,000 with mitigation effort hes, march 31. Just over two weeks ago. So and thats why all of these models said the same thing. They were all believing a higher infection rate. And thats columbia, cornell, all of them, gatesfunded model, they were all projecting a higher infection rate. We slowed the infection rate by our actions, and thats why were in a better position today. Now, what does the infection rate mean . I know this gets a little granular, but people have to understand it if theyre going to understand why we need to do what we need to do. The infection rate is how many people does one person infect . Okay. How fast is the virus spreading from one person to another . And they talk about the rnaught factor. The rnaught factor is the projected spread of the virus. If one person infects less than one other person, the disease is on the decline. If one person basically infects one more person, the rate of spread is stable. I get infected, i infect what, one person infects one. When you have a real situation out of control is one person infects two people or more. Then the increase is just exponential. Thats fire through dry grass. This is what they were all trying to project. And this is what we have to control as we start to reopen the economy. We turn the valve on the economy, we reopen a little bit and we watch themeter, right . Whats the meter . Themeter is the hospitalization rate or even better, the virus spread rate. So you start to turn that around, you start to bring people out of their homes, you start to reopen businesses. You see that number going up, turn the valve back right away. And this is what were trying to deal with going forward. And again, nobody has been here before, so were trying to figure it out. If one person if the virus spread increases to a place where one person infects two people, that is an outbreak. If one person is only infecting one other person, that is basically a stable increase. Ideally one person is infecting less than one person. And that is a decline of the spread of the virus, and thats what were shooting for. Just to belabor this one more point. Where you seen an outbreak epidemic spread is when one person is infecting more than one other person. Thats when its out of control. On the diamond princess cruise, one person infects 2. 2 additional people. Wuhan, one person infecting 2 to 3 people. The 1918 pandemic, one person was infecting 1 1 2 to 2. 8. On our severe projection, one person was projecting 1. 4 to 1. 8. On the moderate projection, one person was infecting 1. 2 to 1. 4. What weve done because of our mitigation efforts, social distancing, stay home, lock the doors, we brought it to less than one. Our infection spread rate is. 9. Okay. Wuhan, which really closed down everything, everything everything, and locked it up, wuhan brought the infection rate down to. 3. Okay, so thats the range were talking about. But when you think about that, were at. 9. We only have a margin of error to. 9 to 1. 2. 1. 2 takes you back to the high projection rate. Were at. 9. That does not leave you a lot of wiggle room. So were going to start the phase of reopening. Youre at. 9 now. After this entire closedown, if you go to 1. 2, youre going to have a problem again. So you see how narrow the window is. But new york pause has worked. The closedown has worked. Thats how we controlled the beast. Thats how we got it down to. 9. However, were not there yet. Were just a. 9. Depend, wuhan got down to. 3. So we have to continue doing what were doing. I would like to see that infection rate get down even more. The new york pause policies, the closedown policies will be extended in coordination with other states until may 15th. I dont want to project beyond that period. Thats about one m
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