04202020 COVID-19 PC



GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Good afternoon, everybody. Today's remarks will be relatively brief. We've got a lot of work going on, things that I've got to get back to. I do have Dr.?Billioux from the Department of Health here to answer questions about testing or other medical related questions. I know that you in the media and the people around the state of Louisiana are waiting for more details on what comes after April?30th. I just don't have that information for you. We are working, trying to figure out where we are in terms of the threshold criteria that we have to meet before we can move to Phase I, exactly what Phase I looks like and what the timing is going to be and so forth. And we're going to have more on that in the coming days. Today, for testing reports, we are reporting 331 new cases of COVID19 across the state of Louisiana, and that's a smaller number of new cases than we we've been reporting lately. I think that's the smallest in at least a week. And it's based on almost 6,300 new tests, which are more tests. So that's a good sign. The total number of cases in Louisiana is, I think I may have just mentioned, is 24,854. Unfortunately we did report today 77 new deaths, and that's a total of 1,405 across Louisiana. The number of individuals in the hospital with a positive diagnosis of COVID19 is 1798. That's an increase of only four from yesterday so, it's basically flat across the state. Remarkably, vent utilization continues to trend in a positive way as well, because even though we have more cases and more people in the hospital, we have 35 fewer vents being used today. So that is another good sign. As I mentioned yesterday, you are going to start seeing new features on the dashboard that has been created by the Department of Health to make the data that they have as transparent as possible and as easy as possible to digest, and they're going to add new features later this week that will give an even more complete picture of COVID19. And one of those additions will be a racial breakdown on deaths by region of the state, and there are nine regions in the state that are used by LDH. And then of course the minimum number of deaths that have to occur in a parish or region to be reported in this fashion is 25. And that's based on CDC guidance on that. And so wherever you have 25 or more deaths in a parish, you will see the breakdown of that as it relates to race. And, in fact, there are 11 parishes where that information has already been made available by the Department of Health on the website. So if you're interested, you can go take a look at those parishes. And I don't know? certainly the biggest parishes in the state are part of that 11, but we also have some smaller parishes but with more deaths than you would expect to have in small parishes, like St. John, St. Charles, and St. Landry. It is interesting to note that more than 21 million views have taken place at LDH's website. That is a tremendous number. And we're going to continue to make sure that we present the data in a way that's easier to digest for the people, easier to understand, adds more clarity to the situation. Because quite frankly that's going to help us as we move forward to help us keep a lid on the cases as we go forward over the coming weeks and months and we transition and open up more and more of our economy, we're going to be bringing people into contact with one another and we're going to have to very closely monitor through testing where we have cases and so forth. And so this is going to really help us as well. I told our team on the UCG call this morning that slowing the spread remains the Number?1 priority for us at the state level, with all of our local partners and federal partners, but also it's the Number?1 priority for the state as a whole. And I want to reinforce that to all the people across the state. So all the things that we've been talking about for many weeks now remain incredibly important. The Number?1 priority for the state. So follow the stayathome order. Please don't get out if you don't have to. And when you get out, make sure you don't take everyone in your family. Practice social distancing when you do have to come into contact with other people because you go to the grocery store, the bank, the gas station, the pharmacy, whatever. Make sure you're wearing a mask. Wash your hands frequently. Use hand sanitizer. Stay home if you are sick. All of those things that we've been talking about, incredibly important. So that's the number 1 important thing for the state. Number?2 will be to increase our testing capacity, which we performed a lot of tests, especially for a state our size, but as we go forward, we know that we have to do more when it comes to testing. And we've been talking about it. This is diagnostic testing and serology testing together. And we're working on that with local officials and with our federal partners as well. And the third imperative is to make sure that we can engage in more contact tracing. As we test individuals and they become positive, we need to then be able to make contact with everyone that the positive individual came into contact with for about 48?hours before they became symptomatic, and then get those individuals to understand that they may have come into contact with someone who is shedding virus and that they need to engage in quarantine. And that's going to be key to us going forward so that we can keep the case count down, obviously keep the number of people who die from this disease to the absolute minimum, and then continue to open up the economy as we move forward. And it's not just our plan here in the state of Louisiana. This is what every state is doing. And by the way it's a big part, very prominently featured, in the plan that the President released last Thursday for reopening the economy across the country. It's a strong reliance on additional testing and contact tracing. I continue to be extremely grateful for the generosity that's being shown by so many businesses who continue to donate things state. BASF donated more than 800?gallons of hand sanitizer to the state of Louisiana for distribution to hospitals and other healthcare and emergency response facilities. Facebook donated 25,000 KN95 masks to us and 200 thermometers. And I found out today that Popeyes is funding 1 million meals for families in the New Orleans area through the Second Harvest Food Bank, which is the largest food bank for that region. I did speak to the Popeyes CEO earlier today to thank him for that generous donation and also for the chicken that I enjoy on occasion. I happen to be a big fan of Popeyes spicy fried chicken. Before I take some questions, I do want to remind folks that there's a forecast out that calls for an enhanced risk of severe weather again tomorrow. The pattern we had settled into was that was happening on Sundays, but we have a mid week threat as well, and I'm asking people to pay attention to that. We obviously don't know exactly where or when it might hit. The threat for north Louisiana is more significant than in south Louisiana, yet again. I'm asking people to pay attention to their news stations and radio stations. Check your local weather. Heed the advice of your local officials. And then make sure that you're monitoring your cell phone too because, quite often, the last warning you might get before a tornado hits is going to be that cell phone warning. And if you get that, please heed that particular warning. Just before I came in, I saw the headlines that it appears that the U.S. senate is on the verge of passing, by unanimous consent, later today additional relief for the country and certainly Louisiana will be in position to get its share of this as well. The primary focus was on replenishing the Paycheck Protection Plan money, the PPP, that ran out last week. There were $349 billion initially. I think there's another $321 billion in what's been agreed to between the White House and Congress. That should be very helpful. $75 billion for hospitals. Don't know exactly how that's going to get allocated yet, but that too will be helpful. And then $25?billion for coronavirus testing. That would include $11?billion that comes to the states. Again, this is following up on that imperative that we have about testing going forward, and that will be very helpful. Tomorrow, we will have the first meeting of the resilient Louisiana commission. That will be tomorrow afternoon. It will be held remotely, and I will address the group to give it some marching orders, so to speak, and then we will be back here with a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 in the afternoon. So we've got a question from Abita Springs, and Ann wants to know: What are your secrets for destressing? I don't know that there are really any secrets. This is a stressful situation for many people, including myself, but quite frankly, I don't? I try not to think of it as stressful for me, because I think in comparison to what doctors and nurses and EMTs and paramedics and respiratory therapists and so forth are going through. But I do know that it's a stressful situation regardless of your age because we have young kids who want to be in school and they're not in school and they're not seeing their classmates. They're not going to the graduations that they would normally go to and all that sort of stuff. But no matter who you are out there, if you're feeling anxious or stressed, there is free counseling available. You can call 18663107977. It's open to anyone. It is free, and it's confidential. Now, some of the things that I do to destress, I plant. I planted a vegetable garden, and I get to tend that a little bit every day, make sure that it's watered and weeded and that sort of thing. I do continue to enjoy my chickens and making sure they're fed and well cared for. Now, what I haven't been doing as much as I should and will get back to because I think it would help me tremendously would be to do more exercise. So I'm going to do that, and I encourage other people to do that as well and get outside and enjoy some fresh air, especially when we do have good weather. We've been having a fair amount of that lately. Watch a good movie. I don't recommend horror movies, especially those that are themed aren't pandemics and so forth. And there are a lot of those on TV, by the way. I mean, there are a lot. I had no idea that there were so many movies that have a theme that is somewhat similar to what we're going through. So don't watch those. Becky from Shreveport asks a question that Dr.?Billioux is going to answer: Is there any knowledge or scientific research about the longterm effects upon genetics related to COVID19? And I'm going to ask him to come up and answer that question.DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Thank you, Governor. And thank you Becky for the question. I think it's actually a good opportunity to highlight that there's a lot of longterm questions that we don't know about COVID19, period. We became aware of the illness really in January, and we're now in mid April, trying to learn as much as we can. And the specific question asks about genetics. I'll say that in general, most infectious diseases, like COVID19, the virus that we're all talking about, does not cause longterm genetic changes. Sometimes people have concerns about what happens if I'm infected with the virus and I'm a pregnant? I'm pregnant and could be giving birth to a child. We know there's a lot of concerns around that when we were talking about Zika. In this case, we don't have any evidence so far that there's a direct impact on the fetus or on newborns. I will say there's been several cases now where women who had COVID19 have given birth to babies who have tested negative. So it's too early to say that that means that there's no chance that the virus would be able to be transmitted from the mother to the fetus or to the baby while still in utero, or inside, but it's still doesn't seem like there's an increased risk. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Thank you. And with that we'll take your questions. Greg?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, you've made it clear that there's a lot of details to work out in the next phase and clear that those aren't complete, but what is your sense about whether or not there will be some form of your order ending in now just eight or nine days. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I don't bet very often, but if you made me bet a dollar, I would bet that on May the 1st we'll be under a different order than we are now, that we won't just continue it. But that really does depend on what happens over the next week or so because we have to make sure that we have those 14?days where our trajectory is the way we want it as it relates to cases, as it relates to hospitalization capacity, I should, say, of our hospitals. And then an overall downward trajectory over 14?days of influence and like illness, ILI. So those are the things that we're monitoring. Hopefully that will be the case, and we can transition to something. I do want to continue to make sure people have realistic expectations about what that will look like, whether it happens May the 1st or sometime after that. It's not like we go back to where we were before, but it will be a gradual phase to reopening of different parts of the economy. Social distancing will remain a prominent feature of daily life. There will be still restrictions on crowd size and other limitations and to make sure we do things in a way that is as safe as possible. And then we're always going to be monitoring through testing and to see what happens. But we believe that we can? when the time is right that we can move forward in a way that balances public safety on the one hand and the need to gradually reopen the economy on the other, relying upon the guidance we got from the White House coronavirus task force, informed, as it was, by the CDC, but also being that locally. In fact, you're already starting to see us do that. Yesterday, we issued an order from the Department of Health geared directly towards the resumption of nonemergency medical procedures and surgical procedures at the clinics and hospitals around the state. And so we're moving forward. I can't be more specific than that right now. I can only tell you that the that is what we're working on, just about around the clock. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, it seems health experts are agreeing that there's going to be some level of resurgence of the virus once we start to reopen. Given the high prevalence of people with underlying conditions in Louisiana that's made our death rate so bad, what are you guys doing to prepare, to make sure that that second wave doesn't also come with a second wave of deaths?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. Well, that's the $64 question, right? When we do the phased reopening, it will always be very clear that we're encouraging people who know that they are more vulnerable than others, either because of age or because of these chronic health conditions? and, you know, what they are. They are hypertension, kidney disease, heart disease, obesity, respiratory illnesses, and so forth? that they always exercise more caution. And so when you have limitations on crowd size, for example, that limitation is for someone who is relatively young and healthy, and it really doesn't apply to those people in those most vulnerable categories. They're going to have to be more cautious. And so we're going to continue to focus on that. With the work we're doing with the task force we created to analyze the health disparities that we've seen across Louisiana, we're going to be communicating in the shortterm the need for those individuals to be more cautious, but also to get in the best possible health. It is never too late to start eating better. It is never too late to reduce your sugar intake and your salt intake, to start exercising, make sure you're taking your medicines. And one of the reasons that we are opening up more outpatient services, for example, in our clinics and hospitals, is so these people can start seeing their doctor again and get healthier. So that's always going to be a prominent feature, at least until such time as there is an effective therapeutic treatment, which, as of right now, unless something happened today, there is not. And obviously we know there's no vaccine yet. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, the Secretary of State has devised an emergency election plan that's a little bit different than the first draft. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Have you been in contact with him about this latest draft and do you have thoughts on whether it does enough?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. Well, first of all, he and I had an opportunity at 1:00 this afternoon to have a phone call, and I was able to review the draft plan that he's submitting to the legislature before that call. And I think it was? that draft plan was calibrated to make sure that it would enjoy the support of the majority of folks on the house and senate governmental affairs committee and do the most that it could to protect public health while affording people a viable option to actually vote in the primary in July and the general election in August. I think his plan does that. There will be enhanced opportunities to request ballots by mail, not quite as open as it was in the first plan. But I think it's a reasonable plan under the circumstances, and I hope that it meets with the approval of the legislative committees tomorrow and the legislature as a whole once it's voted upon by them by mail, of course. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: So there's a group of people who are planning to have another protest at the capital this weekend, calling it end the shutdown, trying to urge the state and the economy to be open again. What do you say to them? Because they're saying this is taking their rights away from them, they want to get back to work. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Nobody wants them back to work more than I do, but also nobody wants them and others to be safe and that we get on top of this virus in terms of the spread and want deaths that it's causing. You know, those things are imperative. So the things I would say to them are no different than what I've been saying to every person in Louisiana for weeks now. We have to be very careful about balancing public headlight on the one hand, the economy on the other. We're doing things as best we can with the information that we have, relying on our federal partners, working with the President and the vice president, with their plan, by the way, their guidance as to under what circumstances we should start reopening the economy and then the phases by which we will do that. And, you know, it's? I haven't had an opportunity to visit with or observe any of the protests, but I understand they're rather political in nature, and I would just make sure that they understand that what we are doing is what we've advised to do by the President and by the vice president. So we're going to continue in the fashion that we've been setting out and? You know, there's 4.7 or so million people in Louisiana. Obviously you're always going to have some people who feel differently about any given issue, and they always have the opportunity to express themselves. I mean, that's one of the great things about living in the United States of America. So they can make their views known. I'll continue to make mine known. And we're going to move forward as best we can, but we're going to do it in the manner that I have set forth here. And I really don't need anybody protesting me to tell me that we ought to open up the economy as soon as we can. I get it. Nobody wants to do that more than I do. But as the Governor, I'm going to protect public health and safety. You know, you hear elected officials all the time talking about priority number 1 is public health, public safety. Well, this is one of those times where it obviously has to be priority number 1, but we're going to start moving, as we're able to, towards reopening the economy. It is a phased approach. Again, I don't want people having an unrealistic expectation that when the stayathome order goes away, whether that happens on May the 1st or not, that all of a sudden, we're going to be free to do everything that we were doing before this public health emergency ever came about, because that's not going to be the case. And there's nobody, to my knowledge, with any credibility on this issue, who's recommending that we do that. And it's certainly not coming from the President or the vice president or anybody working with them. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: A question about testing. You mentioned the fact that we've done pretty well in terms of our per capita rate of testing in Louisiana. Why exactly is that? Are there factors that explain that? Have we gotten more help from the feds or? and also do you know on that $11?billion share of testing aid, do you know how much might come to Louisiana?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: No. They haven't even passed the bill yet. I think they're still putting the final language in the bill, but I did see where $11?billion will go to the states out of the $25?billion for testing. And, you know, I would assume what they typically do is there's some formula where they will have so much by population and then maybe so much more by tests? sorry, by active cases as of the date they pass it or whatever. I'm not sure. Or they may just tell health and human services, the FDA, to figure out what that allocation is going to look like later. So I don't know. We have received significant help from the federal government. We were among the very first states, for example, with drivethru testing created in partnership with the federal government. So health and human services sent people down here to help us set those test sites up. FEMA resourced them and paid for the labs that were actually doing the testing for us, so Lab Core on one hand and Quest on the other. And so that helped us every day test 750 people before other states could get that going. We've expanded capacity at our state lab. But folks like Ochsner have come on board with tremendous testing. And really when I start naming names, I normally leave some out, and I don't mean to do that. But in trying to answer your questions, you look at north Louisiana and LSU in Shreveport, tremendous testing capacity have been ramped up there. They're testing not just for Northwest Louisiana, but because they also? Ochsner administers the hospital in Monroe, Conway, they're testing in Northeast Louisiana as well. And so just the number of tests have really ramped up. And that has to continue. And what we're trying to do now is make sure we're increasing our instate capacity as much as possible, identifying every lab that has capacity to do this COVID19 diagnostic testing, make sure that they can turnaround a specimen pretty quickly, get it tested, and get the result back to us, because that's going to be really important for us going forward. And I know there's some other? we have local folks here who are manufacturing viral transport medium. We have higher ed 3D printing devices that are printing swabs for us to use. And I'm not saying this to say we've got it all figured out and we've got everything that we need in terms of our capacity, but those are the sorts of things we've been doing in Louisiana to really ramp up our testing capacity. And then you've got Walgreens that's doing testing, and you've got Walmart that's doing testing as well. And all of this together just makes a tremendous difference?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, last question?AUDIENCE MEMBER: On that subject of testing, you talk about serology testing, but do you know of any serology testing is certain to be accurate and is available in the state at this point. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, when you say certain to be accurate, serology testing is notorious for being? having a rate of inaccuracy, I guess, and I typically don't use one serology test in isolation from others to inform decisions and so forth, and that's for a variety of reasons. So I cannot tell you that I know of a serology test that is 100?percent accurate today. We do know that some are much more accurate than others, and I do know that we have increasing numbers of antibody testing that's available in the state of Louisiana. For example, I had a conversation with Warner Thomas last week, and he told me he had 20,000 and that he would get 20,000 more serology tests in before the end of the month. And so that's just one healthcare provider. So they are coming online. We have been advised by the vice president and Dr.?Burkes? and I think particularly by the FDA? who told us we need to be very careful because there are some serology tests out there internationally that are being promoted in the United States that they do not find accurate enough and that we should still stay away from those. But they've given us a listing of the ones that they think we should use. Obviously, we're going to move in that direction. And additional ones will continue to come online. They're relatively cheap and can be very accurate. I think they can be mass produced for about a dollar a test. So it's something that we happen is going to be very important going forward. But, folks, I know that in Shreveport, LSU's moving to do antibody testing. I mentioned Ochsner. And so we'll have a lot of that capacity in the state before too long. Okay. So tomorrow, same time. Same time, at 2:30. I want to cubit to thank you for helping us to communicate with the people of Louisiana. I want to continue to thank the people of Louisiana for doing what needs to be done when it comes to complying with the stayathome order and making sure that we're social distancing as we need to, and then following proper hygiene. I am absolutely confident we're going to get through this. And it's not going to be soon. I know that. And it's not going to be without some hiccups along the way, but we're going to make sure we have in place what we need to monitor what's happening around the state of Louisiana as we move forward so that we can adjust as necessary to always promote public health, protect public health, even as we open up our economy and get people moving again. So God bless, and thank you. ................
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