Good afternoon everyone As of this morning North Carolina now has 97 positive cases of the new Corona virus covet 19 Our state lab has now confirmed our first case due to community spread in Wilson County which means the person had not traveled nor been in contact with a known positive case This is unexpected but still unfortunate benchmark in this new pandemic Expected community spread is one of the many reasons are state made difficult decisions to take early aggressive action to slow the spread The decisions we make and the actions we take now will help determine how we fare In the end these are life or death decisions that government leaders pray that we never have to make But when these decisions come we pray for the wisdom and courage to make the right cause We have to work to see around corners If we're going to combat this virus effectively our public health experts and emergency management team continue to prepare Our medical resource is toe handle A surge in grown a virus Patients we are identifying additional facilities We can use his emergency medical centers We're finding more protective gear for our health care workers were pushing out testing supplies and establishing sample collection sites across the state I can't stress enough how much our state and the rest of the country will need the federal government to step up with testing supplies equipment and then laters We are managing Our resource is and we are ahead of other states But we can expect many more patients I'd like to thank the hospitals that have stopped many elective surgeries to conserve resources Both equipment and human resource is they are taking this seriously and I urge everyone in North Carolina to do the same We urge these and other hospitals to doom or of this and we are examining whether we need to make this a mandatory directive As we're seeing the fallout from this crisis we know that we must help meet some basic needs We've asked for waivers from the federal government to get US flexibility to serve food to Children whose daycares have closed and who may not have access to nutritious meals We're asking for a disaster food assistance that expands eligibility for families who need help buying rushers after my request Over the weekend North Carolina has received a disaster declaration from the Small Business Administration that will open up support for small businesses that are already feeling the pain of loss is due to this pandemic After my executive order to make unemployment benefits more widely available we have seen a dramatic spike in applications for assistance as restaurants shops and other businesses make those hard layoff decisions to try and stay afloat We're working with our congressional delegation in Washington to help North Carolina We've heard many positive announcements from companies that are waving late fees and penalties for people who have a hard time making ends meet We need more of this and I urge other businesses to do the same I'm thankful for many businesses who have donated supplies and equipment and food and who were helping people in our community and our state and I thank them to the many North Carolinians who were worried about what this means for your families and your lively hoods Please know that you will not be for gotten yesterday I drawing a virtual meeting with hundreds of faith leaders from across our state I thank them for abiding by our restrictions on large gatherings and for finding new ways to help people connect with each other and their faith They may not be able to hold in person service's that they are still finding ways to serve I'm deeply grateful for their work as they bring others together and bringing communities together in the past I stood at this podium on sunny days with a Tar Heel blue sky outside and warned about Ah hurricane that maybe on the way it's hard to grasp that hurricane is coming before the worst hits We know that this situation will get worse before it gets better And I know that people are shell shocked One day you're at work you're going about your business and the next day your world has turned upside down You're home Your Children are out of school for an indefinite period You can't shake hands or hug people you can't get Go and sit down in your favorite cafeteria You can't go to church You worry about every cough The change is dramatic Please know this I know that we are doing all weekend to help all of us deal with this crisis But we need you We need you to take this seriously to take care of your own health including your mental health to practice social distancing and to stay home when you can to help and comfort others We will get through this and we will be even better on the other side I have with me on stage today our secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service is Dr Mandy Cohen our director on emergency management Mike Spray Berry our assistant secretary for employment security locker Taylor who could help with questions about unemployment benefits And I know that our secretary of Commerce Tony Copeland is also in the building today Nicole Fox is our sign language interpreter and I would first like to recognize Dr Cohen the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service is for her remarks Thank you Governor I'm going to talk in more detail about what it means to have our first documented and confirmed case of community spread and how it changes what we will all d'oh In the first phase of our response effort we've been in what is called a containment phase Let me break that down a bit to help you understand what that is and then how we move forward at an onset of an outbreak We want to know who has coded 19 How did they get it We want to figure out who they had contact with so we can attempt to contain the virus and keep it from spreading forest long as possible We have seen a delay in spread here in North Carolina and it has helped us further prepare and ready us for the next phase of the response as we now have confirmation that we have community spread which means we have at least one case where we don't know how someone contracted Kogan 19 They didn't have contact with someone who tested positive for Cove in 19 or they didn't travel to a highly impacted area Confirmed community spread is a signal that we need to further accelerate to the next phase of work which is called mitigation As I shared previously we have already been taking actions as if we knew we had community spread To get ahead of this virus the governor has taken aggressive actions to limit large gatherings closed restaurants and bars all with the goal of flattening the curve We need toe lesson in the number of people who get sick at the same time and avoid overwhelming our hospitals and healthcare system Our goal is protecting you As we move into this next phase we need to continue to reduce the chances for spread and exposure and protect our health care system so that it's there when you need it People are a key resources are doctors nurses janitors transporters phlebotomist respiratory therapists and many more who work in health care They need to have supplies masks gowns gloves to keep them safe and healthy so that they can care For those who need more serious medical attention As the governor mentioned hospitals will need to stop doing elective procedures and surgeries I want to thank again those hospitals that have already shown leadership and moving in that direction Testing for people with mild illness will also become less important As we transition to this next phase we will begin to deploy other surveillance methods to understand the spread of virus and drive our decision making And more importantly we want to reduce the chances that people will be exposed to the virus or expose others as we transition our work over these next days to this second phase of work we're learning from other countries and states that have come before us We want to be best prepared to keep our health system strong as possible so that they are there when folks need them That's why we've been aggressive about the social distancing measures we put in place and why everyone must do their part to spread the to slow the spread of this virus are individual actions matter So remember to practice social distancing those who are higher risk of needing more serious medical care Those over 65 or with an underlying health conditions should stay home to the extent possible There's limited information so far about Cove in 19 in pregnant women but we know they're a higher risk from influenza the flu or other respiratory viruses so I would encourage pregnant women to be extra vigilant I know this can be a challenging time but it's important to remember that the vast majority of people who get go the 19 will have a mild illness and will recover at home I also want to reiterate that these changes we're making and our daily life are hard as a governor mention and all of this can take a toll on our mental health So I want to remind people that support is available and to go look for resource is on our website That's N c D HHS doc of Backslash Corona virus Thank you we had on the end the secretary Department of Public Safety Eric Hooks And under him is our emergency management director Mike Spray Berry and directors Bayberry I'll recognize you for a couple of rewards Thank you Governor Good afternoon everyone The State Emergency Operations Center remains activated for the Cove it 19 event for it's now been for 10 days It's in a level three which means we have emergency management personnel as well as partners from public health Ohms the Office of Emergency Medical Service is the Department of Public Instruction and others So uh 10 days like I said Raoul remains how though we also stood up are 211 line yesterday We've gotten a lot of calls there and I just recommend everybody continue to call to 11 If you have any questions at all it doesn't It doesn't have to be just for Corona virus It can also be for questions about where to get food and and things like that We encourage people to call to 11 rather than 911 because we don't want to overload our 911 systems which is for emergencies We also encourage people to when they go to grocery stores please I understand that you know there are people out there that can't go buy all their groceries at one time Let's make sure that you buy commodities and very methodical intentional way so that we don't empty out of the grocery stores Currently their food supply lines are working well who want to keep him just like that here at the Stadio See we're ordering supplies and equipment as needed and that's keeping is very busy because is you know the things like personal protective equipment and things like that So we want to make sure that we have all of our health care responders and our emergency responders ready to go Finally I just like to thank all of our local partners for all the great work that they're doing We couldn't do it without you I want to encourage you to follow the guidance of CDC and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Service is And we'll get through this together One team one mission Thank you sir Thank you Mike will now take questions and ask you to go to the likes on the corner there Governor there will be a uh a teleconference with the president later on this afternoon What do you hope to get out of that What specifically will you be asking the president We need to make sure that North Carolina and other states get critical medical supplies equipment testing supplies We're also concerned about making sure that the federal government addresses the economic loss that our state and other states are facing As you could tell from the dramatic spike in people applying for unemployment insurance after I issued my executive order giving more flexibility to the rules that this is going to be hard on our economy and people at home or wondering about that next rent payment they're worried about whether they're gonna be able to support their families So we're gonna need a significant infusion of help from the federal government They've already passed some legislation that's gonna be important on food nutrition which which is good and some help for people with paid sick leaves I think we're all going through it to figure out exactly what it means to North Carolinians But we're going to tell them that they need to use their power And I think that they last couple of days at least We've seen some real engagement from the federal government I know that I've been in video conferences and has spoken with both the president and the vice president to continue to update them on what's happening in North Carolina We're gonna need their help We're gonna need all of the businesses to pull together and we will get through this one for questions This is kind directed to both you and Dr Cohen Since we now have a confirmed case of community transmission how does this change the metric in terms of any further measures you might be looking at such as no potential shelter in place and that I think the first thing we have to do is to make sure that we are prepared with our medical treatment We know the first sign of that we have found of community spread means that we're gonna have many more patients So making sure that we are mobilizing our resources to ramp up our ability to take care of people we've got to focus on that But I let Dr Cohen Yes So I would say now that we have our first documented case of community spread It certainly remind us why we put in these aggressive measures to begin with And what I would encourage folks is to make sure that they are following our guidance very closely It is why we have asked for no gatherings um above 50 The enforcement level is at 100 but we really want folks to be following the CDC guidance which says no more than 50 folks gathering for the next eight weeks The president has called on folks did not gather with more than 10 for the next weren't into his 15 day a day plan again using really good judgment If you were in a high risk category meaning above the age of 65 or have underlying medical conditions to really heat our recommendations here we don't want tohave to go further but we will look at what is needed as we move through Um uh this this unprecedented time we're looking at what other states and other countries air needing to do But I hope that all North Carolinians can he our words now about social distancing um and that we don't have to take further measures But there are always things we will have to consider Mr Governor Now that mitigation phase I know you've closed the restaurants and bars What about factories Other workplaces where people can't practice social distance We're asking employers to work with their employees to see if they can work from home and to do as much of that is possible We're asking employers to stagger shifts so that they have fewer people Actually there We know that there are things that have to go on and that we're gonna need people at work and we ask employers and employees to work together to make sure that those who do need to be at work in a lot of them are here in this emergency operations center that they are protected there We're hoping that people can all take this seriously and that can volunteer We can voluntarily do what we need to do past the orders we've done We have no intention at this point of any additional orders along those lines But we do want people to step it up because now that we have documented community spread we know it's out there and we know it's probably in other places in our state as well I had a question for Dr Colin as well Are you seeing the increase in You'd like to see you Do you expect more What's the update on that drug test sites Yes Regarding testing sites around the state a CZ I mentioned that we are wanting to very much understand where we are in the virus in our first phase of work So we do have community based sites for testing We don't want folks who have mild illness to be headed to our emergency rooms We really want thio Make sure that folks are one not exposing others to the virus if they may have it really important as well as exposing themselves to others who might have the virus So we want to make sure that folks are calling their doctor as a first step If they have things like fever cough that that should single calling your doctor And if someone doesn't have a doctor to call your local health department or your local community health center Thank you Governor A lot of concerns we're hearing from of course well small businesses in general especially restaurants One thing a lot of the event saying to us is that they'd like to see the state delay postpone whatever the tax payments that are do payroll taxes or d'oh sales taxes or d'oh ah business taxes I guess you're coming to two And a lot of these folks are saying You know we have little money in the pot right now and if we have to pay that that's pretty much gonna clean it out Would you consider taking that action And is that something that your administration could take her Would you need to call back lawmakers for that First we want to do everything that we can to help small businesses One of the reasons that I issued the executive order on unemployment benefits is that I heard from them They really wanted to make sure their employees heir protected It is amazing how close small business employers are to their employees in it and it hurts them so much so that was really their first request to me And loudest request to me Please help my employees So we did that by waiting the one week requirement We did that by not requiring them to look for another job and hopefully getting benefits to them Cool Quicker We've also gotten really out off this unprecedented speed but it it is about as fast as I can remember seeing it The Small Business administration improving the disaster declaration which allows our small businesses now to go to them We know that there is a lot of potential help in Congress that is coming that we hope will help our small businesses and our workers On the tax side I know that the Secretary of Revenue has the ability to waive interest in penalties Right now uh the filing deadline is something we're going to discuss as to what can be done administratively as to what the Legislature would need to do One thing I do know is that I've talked with all of the legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle and everybody's rowing in the same direction here I think people want to take the steps to help people get through this So certainly everything like that is on the table At this point we have to make sure that we're making the right calls toe not only preserve our balanced budget in our state and an actual we've got the resources to help where we need but also helping our small businesses So everything I would say right now is on the table just to follow up You mentioned the unemployment benefit changes on the spike in applications we keep hearing from folks who say they're having a hard time accessing the site Is it crashing from the volume of people trying to access it Or you know what Should we tell that What would you want to tell them So we you know I think they're used to uh very much smaller number than they got And just in a few days I think it was over 18,000 claims I want everybody to know who has filed and who wants to file that This administration intends to work to make sure those applications are considered and that if you can qualify that you get your benefits and every single application is important We realized that the system could not take all that came but they are working on making sure that people can do it over the phone and online Uh there was a requirement under the law that there had to be an in person interview and I was able to weigh that with my executive order So that moved everything to online On the phone We have locker Tabor Taylor who is with the employment security condition in I'm gonna let him come up if you don't mind and to tell Tell you what What he's doing their locker Thank you Governor I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today because we're trying to get the information out Two individuals who are frustrated right now they're panicked Right now They're out of work and they've been trying to access our system last week and for the last probably a year and 1/2 we've been set up We set up a system to handle 3000 claims the week on As the governor said in the last day and 1/2 we've taken 18,000 claims We have our staffing levels set for 3000 claims Ah weak And so we are ramping that up where we have all hands on that attack At this point I want to thank the officers State personnel We asked yesterday that we needed more positions They expedited 50 additional positions for us that were posted this morning That certainly should help us take care of the levels of enquiries and applications that were taken were also very fortunate Toe have this new automated computer system we had issues with it yesterday is for Is it getting error messages I T department is working not only with the vision of information technology but we've increased the capacity of our servers to ensure that that are able to handle the workflow that we have coming in at this time I have such a committed and dedicated staff who have been through disasters in the past They will We will work extra hours We will work weekends to ensure that we are able to get the applications processed those benefits out as quickly as possible I have a question related to that before you go for people who are applying this week when should they expect to start receiving those benefits so unemployment benefits are paid on a weekly basis were since the announcement of the closure of restaurants and bars at the first end of the week This first eligible week won't end until Saturday There's also a 10 day waiting period for employers to respond Eso you have toe allow the employers by statute the ability to respond to that notice of claim we put in as an identify or of a reason for separation as the cove it and having the individual who's filing and the employer list cove it as the reason for separation is going to expedite those claims and get payment out quicker We would I am certainly believe that we will get payments out within two weeks and then this may be a question more so for the governor But have you started to have conversations with the General Assembly about potentially increasing the number of weeks people could qualify or even the amount of money that people could get on a weekly basis We've had a lot of conversations with the General Assembly and one of the one of the things that we want to do before the General Assembly is called back in is let's first determine exactly what the federal government is going to do and now they're working on another traunch of funding for our state Uh the second thing would be us deciding what we want to match if they're any match requirements And one of the things we're asking the federal government is the way of a lot of match requirements for states But we know we will likely need some match money for some pots of money that the state would have to come up with And then the next thing we want to do is to fill the holes I think that you know we do have ah good trust fund in place at the time close to $3.8 billion We believe that even with these increased benefits that we should have enough in this trust run for the next three months However I think that we certainly can put on the table the issue of increased unemployment benefits and what we can use federal money to do because people are gonna be out of work And this is such an unusual situation Usually when you're laid off of her job or you're fired from a job There's not a whole lot of expectation that you would go back to that employment again here We know a lot of these small businesses when we emerge on the other side of this pandemic they don't want to rehire these employees So that's why we want to help to provide the benefits for them during this time and not make them look for another job so that they could be available to be hired back But I do think that's one of the issues that we will uh will be a topic of discussion with general Simply wonder Clarify one thing you mentioned about any additional directives that may come out Have you ruled out extending the period of time that schools may be closed But you were about to go on longer You know we're gonna be out of schools for a while Uh the order was until March 30th but I think people know that with community spread now coming and this crisis increasing that we will likely be out of school for a longer period of time I do know that we're working closely with the State Board of Education with the Department of Public Instruction with schools and teachers to prepare for this One good thing is that a lot of places across the state are providing food for Children which was one of the big worries about letting school out and closing schools for a period of time And now they're working on innovative ideas for remote learning which we know is tougher in some of the rural areas But we have to prepare that we may be out of school for quite a while It's what we have to prepare for What would be great if things that we hadn't didn't have as many people sick as we thought it would get sick and things get better Senator and I'm not saying that that may not happen but the likelihood is that it will be longer We just don't know how long At this point I had one last question for Dr Cohen You had talked about pregnant women being at higher risk using a bit more about what the underlying reason for that Why isn't the CDC saying that explicitly So the CDC guidance around high risk groups continues to be those who are older and who have chronic conditions I think folks as we have said our we were trying to learn a lot about this virus as we go through and so new data and studies air coming out um from countries that have experienced a virus ahead of us So I am sure they are evaluating new studies Well we can look at our how pregnant women fared with other respiratory illnesses that may be similar to this so it's not exactly the same Which is why I would say I'm looking at flew data and other respiratory viral illnesses and and say that would that would cause me to say I'd like for pregnant women here in North Carolina to be extra vigilant about some of the social distancing and make sure that they're they're doing the proper hand washing and such We'll let you know if the guidance from the CDC does officially change But I would I would take extra precaution Thank you Thank you Yes I'd liketo get back into the unemployment issue first Elif daily information could be released as faras total number Clinton think that would be helpful for everyone Second could you speak to the 50 job postings You mean like you're looking for 50 people toe come in or is the state's temporary solutions I know we have a temp agency basically in the state How are you going to ramp that up How long is that going to take to ramp up First we want to make sure that we've got enough employees in place to handle the additional workload And this is why this request was made locker room and let you talk specifically about what you plan to do to nature That these claims get paid as quickly as possible in the nature that the public is notified Yes Lockhart Taylor assistant secretary for the Division of Employment Security We immediately recognized that we were gonna have ah great number of individuals entering the system so we posted the 50 positions We have to really front in faces of employment security Our call center in our communication unit the communication unit makes the initial determination on eligibility for individuals Once they filed a claim and we knew we would need additional individuals there the call center clearly was gonna need additional staff Although we're redirecting existing staff within the division to assist with with the Cole center of of increase in calls Um I think we are going to utilize attempt solutions but we're also going to utilize time limited positions for up to one year And so those have been posted as of this morning And so as we expedited the postings of these positions were hopefully we're gonna expedite getting those applications processed in end of building this quickly as possible Do you have a timetable on that No sir I do Not at this time And if I could also ask are these jobs the call center of these people that are in cubicles right next to each other in a large building I assume Are they able it all to work from home But we are currently working on that process to test the system of how we can get those a certain percentage of those back home We've been working with Department of Information technology again too Determine the feasibility of getting them the telecommunications capabilities of Anthony's from home But we're looking at our whole process Is a cz much as possible from teleworking as well Yes sir In this question is for a secretary Cohen a lot of folks are e mailing us or commenting that one of their co workers or friend has Cove in 19 being kept on the hush Understand HIPPA eyes Obviously a big thing here What is the health department doing to kind of live e eight The fears that some people have on and then secondly how are you able to determine which location is at risk versus not being at risk for So as I said as we move from this phase of containment when we want to rapidly identify individual cases and trace contacts we're moving over the next number of days into our next phase of work which is called mitigation and where we We want to make sure that we are protecting people from getting further exposed um to to the virus And so you will see different strategies over the next coming days for folks What I would say if someone is worried that they were exposed to a cove it 19 that they should be monitoring their symptoms Are they having fever or cough And if they have and develop those symptoms to get in touch with with their doctor with their local Health Department or their community health center who can talk them through those symptoms The good news about Covert 19 is a vast majority of folks are going to have mild illness meaning that they don't need to go to the hospital for higher level care That's the good news But we know that there were are folks who will need that kind of level of care And we want to make sure that we have that care available to those who need it And that's why all this work is going on to make sure we're mobilizing Resource is uh right now as we go forward Thank you Thank you All will be back