03232020 COVID-19 LPB Special



VOICEOVER: A global pandemic, Louisiana and the country at a near standstill. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Today I am issuing a stay at home order for the entire state of Louisiana.VOICEOVER: What you need to know about the evolving coronavirus crisis. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Quite simply put, there is more that we must do.DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL: Tonight from the LPB studios in Baton Rouge, COVID19, Louisiana's response.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Good evening. I'm SallyAnn Roberts. Thank you for joining us from across Louisiana for this important conversation about the COVID19 crisis facing our people, our state, and our nation. Our goal tonight is to provide you with new information and to reemphasize the things we know will help slow the spread of the coronavirus which is absolutely critical. In this hour, we will be joined by Governor JohnBel Edwards and members of his administration, along with state health experts as we answer questions about Louisiana's response to the outbreak, job losses, closed schools, and curtailed services and dealing with the fear and anxiety from this world wide epidemic pandemic that has reached our state. We encourage you to have a pen and paper ready to take down information about available resources to help you and your community, your family, and your business. Of course, after this broadcast, you can find this entire program at YouTube. Governor, we will begin with you because I understand that you have an important message. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Thank you, SallyAnn, and thank you to LPB and every station carrying our broadcast tonight. And I want to thank everyone for watching and listening. I want the people of Louisiana to listen to me closely. COVID19 is in the state of Louisiana and throughout our state. We have confirmed cases in more than half of our 64 parishes, but we shouldn't delude ourselves. It's in every single parish. We need to beat this virus. The only chance we have of doing that is by flattening the curve, and the best chance we have of doing that is through the shelter at home order that I issued Sunday which took effect at 5:00?p.m. this evening, just a couple of hours ago. It will stay in place until April the 12th unless we deem it necessary to continue. If you have questions about this order, you can visit gov.. We have 1,172 confirmed cases and 34 have died because of this virus. Our rate of growth is faster than any state in the country or any country in the world, for that matter. And I know that that's unbelievable to hear. It's hard to hear, but it's true. Our ranking is third in the nation in cases per capita, and this is why we need people to stay at home as much as possible. Don't go out unless you absolutely have to. And if you do need to go out, get what you need and return home. And, listen, I know this is completely the opposite of what we're used to and how we live in Louisiana. It's a major adjustment, but it is necessary. We need to make this adjustment now so that we can get to the other side of this. The virus is here, and everyone needs to act as if they have it. Our only chance to get past this, which I know we can, I know we will, is if everyone takes the mitigation strategy seriously. Stay home, stop the spread, save lives. We're going to give out a lot of important information during our conversation. I implore everyone to take heed and order to ensure that we don't overwhelm our capacity to deliver healthcare. Thank you.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Governor Edwards, when I think about flattening the curve, I think back to 2016, in August of 2016, we had a deluge in Louisiana. Thirty?inches of rain in a very short period of time caused catastrophic flooding. Now, if we had that same rain over months, it would not have caused any problems. But this is what we're talking about here. We are facing a flood of cases if we don't change things. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. And the difference is when people were watching the rainfall, there was nothing they could do to stop it. But we have everything to do with whether we're going to flatten the curve. What we have to do is we have to slow the spread so that the graph doesn't peak too quickly, too high because that will overwhelm our capacity to deliver healthcare. We need to flatten the curve, extend the duration of this event, so that we don't overwhelm our capacity to deliver healthcare. And that's how we're going to save lives. That's how we're going to get through this in much better shape. And it's up to everyone to play the part that they've been given. And it's not a part that they wanted. It's not a part that they asked for. But we have to do this together as citizens. We have to be good neighbors to one another. And that's why these mitigation measures are so important, SallyAnn.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Now, thank you very much, Governor. We have some medical experts here tonight who are going to give us an update on what we can expect. Dr.?Alex Billioux is the assistant secretary of public health for the Louisiana Department of Health and Dr.?Catherine O'Neal is an infectious disease specialist with Our Lady of the Lake hospital in Baton Rouge. We thank you both for joining us. Dr.?Billioux, I want to start with you. Let's talk about testing. We have to know where this virus is, and that's why testing is so crucial. How is that going right now?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Well, we've seen a dramatic increase in the capacity to test and frankly in the numbers of tests across the state. It's kind of breath taking to just take ourselves back two weeks when we had our first case and where we were as a state and what we thought was going on and certainly our ability to test. We now have commercial tests available. Nearly 6,000 of those have been reported. We have our own state lab that has increased its capacity just in the last week and proved its efficiency by 35?percent, really enabling us to answer critical questions that make an impact on care. Does somebody need to be quarantined in the hospital or isolated in the hospital using up valuable protective equipment or not? Can we move them to a lower level of care? And most importantly, you know, do we need to reach out to other people who may have been exposed to this individual. And testing is what can answer that question for us and let us know how the spread may be going.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And Dr.?O'Neal, we've heard about treatments that might be available. What is available right now?DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL: What's available right now is supportive care. There are lots of medications that we've been hearing about in the news and medications that people have tried in the United States, mostly under clinical trials, but some of the newer agents that we've heard a lot of promise about are actually available to patients with underlying rheumatologic diseases. We've heard about those medications, but they haven't been proven to work. And so we are using those only as part of clinical trials. At this point, we don't know if they work effectively and studying them is the only way to know if they work. We've also seen some drug shortages, and there are people in the United States who need those medications to control their disease, so we're trying to use these medications as part of a clinical trial so that we can do it in a symptomatic fashion and know if they really work.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And a vaccine is, what, more than a year away?DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL: Vaccine is at least a year away because just like medications we have to study the vaccine, make sure it's safe and effective before we give the vaccine.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Now, we have gathered important questions from the public and hope to answer many of them tonight. For the questions we are not able to get to, we're going to post those answers to COVIDLA. Dr.?Billioux, one of the questions that we have received came from someone? her name is Debra, and she lives in Metairie. She says: My husband may have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus. I have come down with a cough and a headache today. Should I get tested? And also we'll let you answer that question first.DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Sure. So certainly our recommendation is that if somebody knows that they've been in close contact with somebody who has COVID19 or has been infected with the coronavirus, we do want the people that they've been around to be monitoring for symptoms, looking for fever, looking for shortness of breath, cough. Now sore throat's been added to that list because we're learning more about this virus over time. And if they develop those symptoms, the most important thing is to call the provider, call your primary care provider, explain what's going on, and certainly get the advice on whether you need to be tested or not. In this particular case, I'm not hearing that the husband who might have been exposed had any symptoms, but it's still always the right answer to go ahead and call the provider and see what kind of advice they're getting about testing.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. Dr.?O'Neal, our next question comes from Emma from Lake Charles. How long is a person contagious even if they are asymptomatic? And that is so frightening for so many people, that you can be contagious even before you have symptoms?DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL: That's a great question. Right now, the guidance is that if you've had the infection that you take precautions for at least 14?days because we know that there are some people who can shed for a prolonged period of time. In any respiratory illness, if you're asymptomatic, you probably shed less than a person who's actually had the infection, so that makes it safer. The other thing that we know about this novel coronavirus that is very different from its cousins, like SARS, is that you head shed a lot at the beginning of the infection and then it tapers off fairly quickly. So there's a new study out of Germany that shows that by about day eight of our illness, you're really not infectious at all. We can find the virus there if we use highly scientific techniques like PCR to find parts of the virus, but you're probably not infectious anymore.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. Let's, very quickly, Dr.?Billioux, when can we expect this virus to peak in Louisiana?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Well, I wish I knew the answer to that question. What I can say is we're looking at the data that we're getting every day on people who are confirmed cases and trying to plot out.You know, as the governor said, our rate of increase was remarkably high. But behind those numbers, there's also that our rate of testing, you know, our ability to test was low initially. So what we're really finding out was the level of coronavirus that was already in the state. As we start to reach a steady state, we'll have a better chance of predicting, but the most important thing is we don't know really for another week or so whether the measures that we can all take and should be taking now are going to have the desired effect of reducing the spread of coronavirus.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: So it depends on all of us, of us.DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: That's right. We have a lot to say about what happens to our numbers in the coming days and weeks.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Thank you both very much. The Governor is going to stay with us. Coming up next, we're going to switch topics and talk about how this crisis is impacting the state's businesses, jobs, and workers. But, first, here are some helpful resources. We're going to turn our attention now to the impact COVID19 is having on Louisiana's businesses and industries and its workers. I want to introduce to you Kimberley Lewis Robinson, who is secretary of revenue for the state of Louisiana; Ava Dejoie, secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission; and Marketa Walters, who is secretary of children and family services. First, Governor, a lot of people are living from paycheck to paycheck. They're in a desperate situation right now. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: They are, and my heart goes out to them and I know this is a very difficult situation. And obviously we're going to do everything that we can to bring relief to these individuals just as soon as we possibly can. And, look, we want to stand our economy back up and get people back to work, get businesses back open, but our first order of priority is to limit this spread, try to make sure we don't overwhelm our capacity to deliver healthcare. But for example, you know, we've requested and have been given statewide Small Business Administration? you know, they granted that request. So those SBA loans are available to small businesses all across the state, regardless of which parish they're in. So that's available to small businesses. We're looking into? you're going to be talking to Ava Dejoie in just a minute about unemployment benefits. We've got SNAP benefits that individuals can take advantage of in many cases. And so we're trying to bring everything to bear, and we're watching Congress. Because senate has taken up Phase III of coronavirus legislation, and we really need them to pass some meaningful legislation so that we can get some money snoot people's pockets and into their bank accounts and get these businesses shored up so that when we come out on the other side, we'll be positioned to start moving forward again.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And, Secretary Dejoie, tell us about the unemployment applications.AVA DEJOIE: Well, the best place to go apply for unemployment benefits is online at . We have a team working, answering our call center, from 8:00?a.m. to 7:00?p.m., but you can go on and apply for benefits online 24?hours a day. In fact, I encourage people to try and apply during off hours. We had a full contingency working over the weekend. We've pulled more staff. And the staff really does understand that this $247 is the lifeline for so many people. It's not like after Katrina where I can remember my own family had four generations in the house. Everyone was cooking. Everyone was bringing food over. This is it. This is all the benefits right now that are readily accessible for individuals.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Now, the number? I understand that the phone lines, the computer, went out, you had so many applications coming in.KIMBERLY ROBINSON: Well, the volume has been through the roof. And, again, I need to thank the wonderful team and recognize them at LWC. We had 71,000 people apply for benefits as of Saturday evening at midnight. 71,000. That's up from an average of 1400 to 1500 on a weekly basis. So our capacity is stretched thin. Our third party administrator that manages the site for us shutdown on Saturday, added in more service, so we are increasing capacity.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: So how quickly would they be able to see these checks?KIMBERLY ROBINSON: The checks are starting to be cut this week. So the Governor, through his executive orders, waived the week of waiting. So the week of waiting is waived. And the Governor also waived work search for Louisiana citizens.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. And Secretary Walters, tell us about SNAP. This is a food program that is so necessary right now.MARKETA WALTERS: Absolutely. And this is really confusing to a lot of people in Louisiana, because we're used to disaster food stamps, and we think that that's what this is, but it isn't. DSNAP is not available right now. The federal government has not allowed that. What we have is we're opening SNAP to people that have been? their income has changed, because they're now not working, they're staying at home. So if you've never been on SNAP before and now your circumstances have changed, we're encouraging you to please go and come online and do the application. It's no longer that you have to walk to an office to do this. It's an online application. And the easiest way to get all the information is to text 898211 and next GETSNAP. GETSNAP. That will give you facts and figures. It will give you the application. It will give you a chart. You can click and see how much you would be eligible to receive should you become eligible. So we're really encouraging that. And another thing that Congress has done, has given us the ability to raise the level to the maximum for those that are currently on the program but don't get the full benefit. Now that has been turned on by Congress for us as well.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: A lot of it is going to depend on Congress and the action that they take in the coming days and weeks. Secretary Robinson, tell us about how this is all affecting revenue for the state.KIMBERLY ROBINSON: Well, as Secretary Dejoie and Secretary Walters spoke about, the increases numbers of applicants, of course, those are people that are not working. A large portion, at least a third of our revenue, comes from individual income. So if people aren't working, that's going to have an impact on our revenue. We are starting to see those decreases as we are starting to see people ask questions. Are you extending the due date for income tax? We did that today. We issued that information bulletin. So the due date for the May?15th income tax is now July?15th. We did what the federal government did, so that relief has been made available to our citizens. We also did an extension for our sales tax. We know that for small businesses, the sales tax due date, that was last Friday. That's something that will help them stay afloat for a little while longer. We extended that to May?20TH. These are very important things for them.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And very good news for a lot of people. It gives them a little relief. Now, we've gotten so many questions. Secretary Dejoie, one of the questions we're seeing most often was asked by Maddie of New Orleans. She says I am a restaurant worker and my employer is cutting back and let me go. What type of assistance is available to me, especially in terms of healthcare.AVA DEJOIE: Well, we're concerned primarily with at the workforce commission with your unemployment benefits, but we are messaging to individuals how to be able to access Medicaid expansion, and that information will be going out when someone receives their benefits and when they complete their weekly certification because everyone that applies still has to complete a weekly certification.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. And Governor, our next question comes from Rachel in Mandeville. And she wants to know: Will you freeze all monthly bills, rent, electricity, et cetera, in order to help residents stay in their homes to prevent the spread of this virus even more?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I can't freeze the bills, but what I can do is make sure that we're not going to allow people to go forward with evictions and foreclosures. We've already done that. The Public Service Commission has made sure that utilities will not be disconnected for failure to pay the bills as they come due. Now, we still encourage people to pay those bills if you can and so forth, but that relief has already been given. And I want to piggyback on something that was said a while ago on healthcare. Because the Medicaid expansion is capped at 138?percent of the medical poverty level, there were individuals before who couldn't get onto the Medicaid roles. Now they potentially can. So if you've looked at this before and you weren't eligible, now you may be eligible and it's something that you can take advantage of for your healthcare needs.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. And we have a question for Secretary Walters. It's from Josh of Bossier: Some of us are struggling to feed our families due to time off. Is there? I think we've already talked about that, the temporarily opening the food stamps to those who normally would not qualify and what resources are available to my elderly grandmother.MARKETA WALTERS: I would really encourage the grandmother to check in with her local Council on Aging. We are doing feeding programs through that. Meals on Wheels is available. We're getting food out to our elderly. She certainly should be applying for food stamps. If she's not already on the SNAP program, we would want her to do that because we really are watching our elderly very closely. We really want to take care of those nearest and dearest.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And Secretary Robinson, this question comes from Ashley in Shreveport. She says: How are you helping small businesses/restaurants? How do you foresee them being able to stay in business when all this is over? How do you suppose the many, many employees are going to survive?KIMBERLY ROBINSON: So in addition to the tax relief that I talked about, we at the business emergency operation center are working every day with small businesses to make sure they have resources available. We're also doing things, we're partnering with the restaurant association to make sure those restaurants have opportunities to partner with existing resources. For example, with the school program, if there's a restaurant that can partner with a school to help deliver meals, we're doing that, connecting those resources together. We're also making sure people know that you can go into restaurants that are still open to get your meals. Take out is available from those restaurants. We're doing add campaigns with them. We're also making sure, for example, that sales tax extension. We're also doing things like the extension of other taxes that restaurants may have to come due. We're making sure we work with them on that. Daily calls I do with the businesses around the state and those business organizations. What are your needs? What are you seeing? How do we make those things available to you? How do we partner? What do we need to do to make a difference so that you can stay afloat? We're also partnering with the workforce commission on retraining dollars that I'll let Secretary Dejoie talk about for those workers that are in the restaurant that may need to be retrained in another way. AVA DEJOIE: So we have rapid response funding that we can help to train those individuals, and we're also working with employers that are hiring right now to do virtual job fairs and recruiting events to place? replace, retrain individuals and get them directly back into the workforce.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Governor, are you hopeful that after this is all over that we will be able to bounce back?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yes, I am. Look, we're going to get through this, and we're going to come back and we're going to do it together. And I think everybody should have hope. In the meantime, however, we have to be intensely focused on the task at hand, and that is doing our part to minimize this spread so that we can get through this and do it in the best fashion possible. I have every expectation that in a matter of weeks or months, we're going to be past this for the most part, at least, and resuming life as normal, and then things are going to get back the way we want them in Louisiana.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: From your lips to God's ear. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Absolutely.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Thank you very much. Now we are going to take a break, and we're going to turn our attention? I believe we've already answered this question about the Louisiana tax date that has been extended. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yes.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Until July?15th. Okay. Now coming up next we're going to turn our attention to the impact this is having on our educational system from K through 12 to higher education. But, first, here are some helpful resources. Thousands of Louisiana students are out of school because of the COVID19 and are now transitioning to athome and online learning environments. There are many questions about how the school year will conclude, and joining us now to talk about the impact on the educational system and resources for students, teachers, and families are Dr.?Kim Hunter Reed, Louisiana's Commissioner of Higher Education; Beth Scioneaux, who is the acting superintendent of education; and Christina Melton, deputy director of Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Governor, I want to start with you again. How realistic is it to expect that schools will reopen before the end of the school year?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, we're going to evaluate that as the calendar rolls on and the facts change. And we closed them, I think, through April the 12th.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Mid April. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah, and so we're going to evaluate that. It's my hope that school can resume. But we know that even if schools resume, that the education has been disrupted to the point that there were some things that we needed to do. And so I requested, for example? I issued an executive order where I suspended certain statutory requirements related to testing and assessments and evaluations and instructional minutes and attendance and those sorts of things. And then Beth will tell you in just a little bit, I'm sure, that she then had to request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education because of the Every Student Succeeds Act where we had contractually obligated ourselves to do the things that I had suspended. We were told today by the President that those waivers would be forthcoming. And I don't know if we've received them yet. But this has been very disruptive. And I hate this for our children and our families. I'm asking your parents to do what they can to keep their children engaged now with as much educational programming, the distance education, if they have that opportunity, but do everything that they can to make sure that the children don't regress during this time that they are away from school. SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And Dr.?Reed, I'm going to let you pick up there. SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: Yes, well, we have made plans at the department to help immensely with regards to support to K through 12 education. We are developing plans that accommodate scenarios that bring the kids back in mid April.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And, I'm sorry, Superintendent Scioneaux. SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: Thank you.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: I apologize. SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: But we also realize that there's unanswered questions, as indicated by the Governor. So we are developing other plans as well. That will give us other timelines to work on. We have also worked very hard to obtain some regulatory flexibilities, as the Governor mentioned, that will allow things that will make these uncertain times easier. For example, we have already applied and been granted an approval for the federal waiver that allows for assessment to be set aside for this year and these particular times.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And now, Dr.?Reed, tell us about college seniors. They're concerned about whether they're going to be able to grant and how is this going?COMMISSIONER REED: Well, obviously, we're trying to make sure that we're doing everything that we can. As the Governor mentioned, this is a stressful time. All of our colleges and universities, public or private, have transitioned to remote learning or online learning. So our faculty and staff and IT have done an amazing job to try to support our students. Students are creating community. Obviously that's important. And we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can, as the Governor mentioned too, make sure that students are on track to complete. The first priority the Governor gave to us was to support the healthcare surge. And so we have over 600 nurses who are near completers that are on track to finish in May or early. We have medical residents that we hope to have? that have matched in Louisiana that we hope to have on the front line early. Community colleges are supporting everything they can do to support the state labs. If they have protective gear, they're donating it to their local hospitals. So this is an all handson deck. We recognize it's extremely stressful for our students, but I'm proud of the work that is being done to try to support and to bend the curve.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And it's going to be very necessary to get people into these medical positions right away so the normal course that they may have taken before all of this, they're going to be rushed to the front line, nurses and doctors. COMMISSIONER REED: Absolutely. We are trying to make sure that everyone that has an opportunity to finish finishes on time or early. Now, the Governor has to support us through an executive order because nurses were doing their clinicals and Level I hospitals and nursing homes clearly were prioritizing protective gear for their doctors and their nurses. So clinical faculty and students were moved out of clinicals, which means we needed to have an option to keep them on track to complete. So the Governor did an executive order so that students can do simulations. They will still have high quality support and education that they need to get in to the profession, but we had to make sure that we could keep them on track or accelerate them, and we're doing that.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And you mentioned something about protective gear, and that's something that a lot of people are concerned about. Where do we stand as far as protective gear for those first line defenders?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, first of all, we're not alone, but we don't have all the PPE that we want, whether it's the N95 masks, the gloves, the facing shields, you name it. We're working with FEMA because that's how we're acquiring PPE as a state, as we've been instructed to do by the federal government. We're making requests. There have been shipments from the national defense stock pile that have come into Louisiana. As soon as those things come in, we're pushing them out to the various parishes that have made the requests. In the meantime, we're also trying to procure these items on the market, as are all the healthcare providers through their normal vendors. And so it's? everybody's working as hard as they can. I'm not going to tell you that we have all that we want or that we know that we're going to be able to get all that we need, but we're working extremely hard. It's a conversation that we had today with the vice president, in fact, on the phone as part of the task force that he stood up on coronavirus.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And, Christina, Melton, with LPB, I want to talk about, going back to the education picture. You have really been on the front line in trying to reach out to students through public television. DEPUTY DIRECTOR MELTON: We have, and I can speak to this as a mom with three boys at home doing distance learning now. So this is a stressful time, and we know parents need support and help and educators need support and help. And so LPB is doing all it can on multiple levels to really try to be there for our educators. We have a? we've created a broadcast schedule where people who do not have access, a lot of our citizens don't have access to the internet or computers, and so we have created a section of our broadcast schedule from noon to five every day with middle school and high school, social studies and science content that we've been working on with the Department of Education very closely to develop. And then we also have our award winning PBS Kids programming in the morning every day from 5:30?a.m. until noon. And then we also have the 24/seven PBS Kids channel, which is just award winning educational content which is the only educational content recommended by name by the American Academy of Pediatrics for helping early childhood outcome.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Bravo. DEPUTY DIRECTOR MELTON: So we're very proud of that. In addition, we've created an online learning web resource called? that you can access at athome, and it has hundreds of resources, didn't like resources for educators that are free online, standard space materials for every grade level and every subject that teachers can go and access. And then we also have a service called bright by text which is a free texting service for parents that they can sign their children up and receive free texting information localized to tell them about things that are coming up with the Department of Education and other resources and other parent tips that can help ease stress in this time of great concern.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And you can feel the pain. You're a mother of three. DEPUTY DIRECTOR MELTON: I can. It is? it is real.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: I want to go to Superintendent Scioneaux. This is very important. Meals for children. School may be out, but children still need their meals. Where do we stand with that? SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: We've been working closely with those school districts who have been providing meals to the stupidities. They have faced some challenges with regard to that, and have done a wonderful job. We are so appreciative of all the work that they've done in serving our students. We are working very closely with them to transition and answer a lot of questions between the last couple of days, and we'll work very cooperatively with? you know, in getting answers to how we move forward from here.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And superintendent we have a question for you from Sapphira of Shreveport. She says: With school closures and the suspension on standardized testing, what will be the impact on the 2021 school year grade placement or graduation? And what plan is in place to ensure accurate performance levels and grade place. SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: Well that's what I spoke of earlier. We are running scenarios right now that look to the future of reengagement and what that might mean to our students. Things are uncertain at this time, so we have several plans in place to make sure that we can address whatever comes next.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: So there was concern about will the child be promoted to the next grade? Will there be a problem with the online learning? Is the online learning going to be sufficient to assess the appropriateness of promoting the child? SUPERINTENDENT SCIONEAUX: Well, I think we really need to examine that closely. We are working on examining that right now, look to what might be best for the children.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And we have a question here for Christina Melton, and this comes from Julie of Chalmette. How do we keep our children socially engaged? And you've been talking about that, and that's what LPB is all about. DEPUTY DIRECTOR MELTON: Absolutely. And one of the things with having your children home. I mean, it's a stressful time, but it's also a time to enjoy your children and take them for walks and play with them, play games with them, play educational games with them, read with them. There are so many resources that are available. I know people are confined to home, but they also now with social media can communicate with each other much more than they have been able to in the past, and that can keep them connected.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. All right. Now, you know, talking about the health crisis with children, as a mother of three, you have children at different levels. I have my grandson. He wants to go back to kindergarten. He wonders why he's not there. What do you say to children about this health crisis? DEPUTY DIRECTOR MELTON: Well, PBS has a number of very ageappropriate resources to help you talk to your children about this crisis, and to help alleviate their fears, reassure them, be honest with them. And so a lot of the resources are on the web page that I mentioned, and they're ageappropriate and they really are very helpful.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. And we have a question now for Superintendent Scioneaux, and this comes from container in Kentwood. People in the very rural areas don't have access to internet or decent cell phone services. My child's school has moved to online learning. How can I help my child continue with schoolwork without her falling blind? SUPERINTENDANT SCIONEAUX: Well, the department is very concerned and wants to help with continued learning and minimize that learning loss during this period of time. In fact, this week we'll be releasing tool kits to educators and those tool kits will give us examples of ways to engage the students. Distance learning takes many forms. It doesn't necessarily have to be solely about technology. Parents should always seek assistance from their schools or their school districts with regards to possible free internet access or possible devices that can be taken home. But the tool kits that we will put out to help educators can mean that some? they can either use technology or perhaps it will not need any technology at all to help engage those students.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Go ahead. COMMISSIONER REED: Let me add to that. I know that the state librarians are identifying all the places that you can access with free wifi. I know that LSUa is providing for K12 students and our colleges and university students a place where you can park safely in your car and access the wifi from that institution. So I certainly want to support what Beth said about it doesn't all have to be about technology, but the digital divide is real. And so we have to think about how do we support students where they are and how do we build capacity in the future to really make sure that we don't have haves and have not when it comes to technology.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Well, we have a lot of students who look forward to graduation, whether on the college level or the high school level. Graduation could be very different this year, couldn't it? Will we have big stadiums filled with graduates and their proud parents? COMMISSIONER REED: I'm so glad you asked this question because I want to make sure, and I know the Governor and I have talked about this, the class of 2020, we want them to know, the high school students and the college students, we are going to celebrate you. I don't know when it will be. I don't know how it will occur, but those students that have worked tirelessly to make sure that they have the grades to go on to college or college students that have worked so hard, some of them first in their family to graduate that have worked so hard, we will make sure that they will not be a footnote in this pandemic. We will celebrate those students at the right time. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Absolutely. You know, and I just want to say, this has been an unprecedented challenge. And we're only a couple of weeks into it. It was two weeks ago today that we actually had our first confirmed case in Louisiana. And so we don't pretend that we have all the answers, but what I can tell you is that everybody is working nonstop to do the very best they can by the state of Louisiana, and that certainly includes our children. In fact, it includes our children probably more than any other group of people. And so I just want to thank all of these people. In fact, everybody that's been here tonight, not just for the work they've already done but because of the work that I know they're going to continue to do on behalf of all the people in the state of Louisiana.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay. Now, what about the TOPS program? Is that going to continue? I know this has taken a big hit on the budget. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I have every expectation that the TOPS program is going to continue, that we're going to find a way to make sure that we fully fund that program. It's a commitment that we've made to the kids of Louisiana. You know, if they take a certain curriculum, if they have a grade point average that meets the requirements and an ACT score. But there is no doubt that we're going to have a lot of challenges, but working with the commissioner and the folks under the Board of Regents, they're working to minimize the turbulence within the TOPS program and within the lives of seniors, high school seniors, who are looking forward to next year. And so we want to make sure that all those young people who should be able to participate next year are going to be able to do that.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: All right. Well thank you all for joining us and talking about this very important subject, the education of our children. And there is so much more information here, and we will have it all online at COVID. And the emotional and mental stress can be heavy. When we come back, we're going to be talking to faith leaders and a mental health professional and take a few final questions. But, first, here are more resources. Mental and emotional health cannot be overlooked during this crisis. We are being joined right now by Dr.?Jim Hussey, medical director for the Office of Public Health, along with Dr.?Sam Tolbert who is President of the National Baptist Convention of America International Incorporated; and Bishop Michael Duca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge. And we thank you all for joining us. And I want to start with you, Dr.?Hussey. What kinds of? I know that there are lines open now where people can call and get counselling. What are you hearing from people? DR. JIM HUSSEY: Well, obviously, there's a lot of anxiety out there, and there's a question about will I be able to continue to have the services that I've been having. So if someone has a mental health or substance use issue, of course one of the main questions they have, will they continue to be able to see their provider, get their therapy, get their services, get assessed. And the answer to that is yes. Obviously, everyone's challenged, but we've done a lot of work with the providers, with our managed care companies for Medicaid, and gained permission from the centers for Medicaid and Medicare services to extend access to services through telehealth, telemedicine, teletherapy. So that's one way we'll be able to continue that.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: They may not be able to go to their group sessions. And you make a very good point, that when tensions rise, sometimes people are tempted to go back to alcohol, to drugs, and they need the therapy. DR. JIM HUSSEY: That's an excellent point. I'm glad your brought it up, because that is unfortunately that a lot of people do and they feel that maybe the alcohol or the cigarettes will calm them when, in fact, they actually cause more problems. So, you know, drinking alcohol is a depress want. It can cause depression. It decreases good sleep, and sleep is very important for mental health and physical health.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And also, exercise, getting outside and doing things. DR. JIM HUSSEY: Another excellent point. You know, I think some of the advice that I'm giving friends, family, and others that I talk to is to create a schedule. It's very important to have structure, for adult and for kids. And when you make that schedule, make sure you include things like exercise, regular meal times, meetings with family. Schedule in time to call friends and family that may need additional support. But exercise is critical. I exercise at least three times a day. Walk, ride a bike, do YouTube exercises.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: You know, I did something. I was outside, and I was giving a little speech on, you know, Facebook, and someone said, go back in your house. But this stay at home order does not keep people from going out, as long as they keep their distance. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah, you need to practice social distancing and make sure that you don't come into contact with people, but we do encourage people to go outside, go into the yard, play. Encourage your children to do that. I mean, that's one way that you can actually continue to live with your children when you have them home for an extended period of time. But those sorts of things are not only allowed under the stay at home order, but they're actually encouraged.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And so tell us more about the stay at home order, that people? people are confused about, you know, being locked up in their house. What can they do?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, first of all, I want everyone to understand that the stay at home order was fashioned in reliance upon CDC guidance, working with CISA to figure out who the essential workers are and the essential businesses that need to stay open. That's the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, but it's part of the Homeland Security. And we fashioned this after looking at what other states had done, looking at what the President did when he said 14?days to flatten the curve and he lowered the groups to ten people that you should be with. So we took all that into consideration when we issued the order. We believe it's absolutely essential for people to adhere to it, to conform their behavior to the order if we have any chance to flatten the curve in the near future. And that is the only way we're going to prevent overwhelming our capacity to deliver healthcare.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And again, what is the window for flattening this curve?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, the problem is that people will be positive 14?days from now from a contact, a spread that happens today. So the sooner conform our conduct, the better we're going to be but at some point in the future. So you can't go back and change anything you didn't do yesterday, but starting right now, starting right now, conform your behavior to the executive order. Do all the social distancing that you see on TV, from the federal government, from state government. That's the only way that we have to flatten this curve.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: There's? and I'm so glad that Dr. Tolbert and Bishop Duca are here, because at a time like this, people are looking for answers. And I know there's an old saying: When fear knocks, let faith answer. Dr.?Tolbert, what do you say to people right now who are dealing with this fear? DR. SAM TOLBERT: One of the things I've been noticing, of course, people are watching the news media more: They're on social media. And they're hearing a lot of information. Much of it is factual, but some of it is just bad news, even though it's factual, and that depresses people. So I suggest to people of faith in particular that they spend more time on a daily basis feeding themselves with scriptures from the Bible so that they can hear some positive things and see some positive outcomes that are in the scripture and know that the God of the Bible is also the God of today. Because we see a lot of misery around us right now, but the Bible talks to us about the mercies of God and how they are new every morning, to meet the challenges that we are facing on a daily basis.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And Bishop Duca, I have a question for you. We received the news today about archbishop in New Orleans, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who has contracted the COVID virus. Do you know anything about his condition right now? BISHOP MICHAEL DUCA: No, all I know is probably old news now, but that all he had was a slight fever bump and so he went and got checked. And that's the most I know. He was proved positive that he has the virus. I guess it will depend now to see how hard a case he has. But I texted him today and called and left a message for him. He texted me back, thanked me for my prayers. And so he's getting around enough to answer his texts.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: A lot of prayers are going up for Archbishop Aymond. I want to ask you, there's a question that I would like to ask you about, and this question comes from? let's see. Where is that question? Do we have that question? Okay. This comes from Monique in Alexandria: What would you say to other pastors about the importance of being creative to meet the spiritual needs of their congregation? BISHOP MICHAEL DUCA: I have to tell you, I don't think I have to tell them anything. I mean, before I even got online with a mass, most of my priests were either trying to either stream masses. They have Bibles. I've been calling my priests all week to talk to them and see how they're doing. The Bible studies are going online. They're going by conference calls on the phone. People are connecting. Pastors have not only mass being streamed daily and on Sunday, we have one pastor that at 9:00 every night, he calls it evening prayer and checkin. He has evening prayer and just open conversation on the web in a chatroom that you can check in on. The people and the pastors are really doing a lot of good work, and they're also using old technology. They're finding that prayer trees, for example, that are already connected through phone lines are a good way to pass information. So there are all kinds of ways that people are trying to stay connected, the community of faith.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And now Dr.?Tolbert, I want to ask you about this. Faiths, all faiths, are based in love. DR. SAM TOLBERT: Yes.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: All faiths talk about the importance of love. In obeying this order by the Governor, isn't that a way of showing lunch to our neighbors when? I'll just say this to you. Today I was at a Walgreens, and I looked across the store and I saw a lady and I just stayed back and I just felt I was showing her love by not getting close to her. And I just think that we need to make that clear that this is about our faith when we do things that will stop the spread of this disease. DR. SAM TOLBERT: Yes.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Then we are showing love. DR. SAM TOLBERT: I think, you know, we're so accustomed to a hug expressing love, but for the time that we're in, the distance that we keep from people to prevent them from getting infected with this virus is an expression of love. And it's just like this afternoon, I would have loved to shake the Governor's hand when he walked in the studio.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Yes, I almost went up there myself. DR. SAM TOLBERT: But to keep him from getting infected, or me, I kept the distance. And I think it is an expression of love in a new way, just like, you know, we are reaching out now, many of our churches, to some of the seniors in our church and making sure that every day, each one of them is checked on. Because, again, they're not going to be coming into the worship space on Sundays, so that's a whole a lot of time lapping between the time that we'll see them again. So we're trying to get people to check on them. That's an expression of love. And you don't have to go to their door all the time to check on them. You can call them, text them. SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Call them. Just a call. And I think maybe people are reaching out more, Governor. It's about being a good neighbor. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Absolutely. And I'm reminded of Luke chapter ten. That's all about being a neighbor, who was the neighbor to the robber's victim. Well, we have to find new ways to be neighbor in light of the challenges presented by this virus and this disease, COVID19. And I am very, very proud of the faith community, the faith leaders across the state of Louisiana, because in very short order, they have found ways not just to stay in touch with their particular congregations but to serve as examples to people who may not go to their church or may not go to church at all. And so this is another example of what I see every time Louisiana is challenged. Every emergency, every disaster, people step forward, and they're leaders. And nobody does that better than the faith leaders across the state of Louisiana. DR. SAM TOLBERT: And I think also there's been such a gap between the millennials and some of the other generations, but I see millennials coming together with some of our other generations, trying to help them, especially in the area of technology, because they're tech savvy. And so we can make use of that now and bridge the gaps.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Yeah, that's a real blessing. And, you know, Governor, we have gotten some questions, and I should ask you about this. People are concerned about daycare centers that are still open and they wonder why the daycare centers are open because there is no separation between a child and a daycare. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: And we're working with early learning centers across the state of Louisiana. We want those that can stay open to stay open. It's a difficult balance to strike. But, for example, we need our healthcare workers to be able to go to work. And in many cases, they are not going to be able to go if they don't have some place that can take care of their children. And so we're trying to strike the right balance. We're working with the Department of Education, with the Department of Health, the Office of Public Health to inform the early learning centers of exactly what changes they need to make in order to keep the children safe and to stay open if possible. And we're working with them every single day, SallyAnn.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Okay, Governor. We have a question for you. This comes from Scott in Baton Rouge. And he says: Are preparations being made to use sports arenas as makeshift hospitals in the event that local hospitals run out of space?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, we're surging our capacity across the state of Louisiana within our existing footprint of hospitals first because that is the obvious place to go and the staffing challenges are just a little bit easier there. Then we're going to surge at our tier two facilities, our longterm acute care facilities, for example, our rehab hospitals. And then beyond that we are going to have step down units that we're going to have to stand up and create. We're working actively as I speak to identify the best possible locations, first in the New Orleans area, in region 1, because that's where the heaviest case load is. But we're going to identify those areas, or those facilities, I should say, across the state. And it's too early for me to say tonight what that's going to look like, but we know that we have to bring additional beds online for people who don't need the acute care or the ICU bed in a hospital but they're not quite ready to go home, either. And if we can get people out of the hospital sooner and have them moved to those beds, then that's another way of increasing your surge capacity.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: And we're coming to the end of our program, and, Governor, I want to give you a chance to give a final word. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, thank you very much, SallyAnn. You know, the hour has gone by very quickly, and I want to leave everyone with this. The decisions that I've made have not been easy. I'm fighting to save our people, and I need every single person in Louisiana to be in this fight with me. We must flatten the curve in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in our state. We're not there yet. Everyone needs to follow the mitigation measures to minimize social contact and slow the spread. Nobody knows how long this is going to last, but we do know that right now Louisiana's trajectory threatens our ability to deliver care and to take all of the information that you've been given tonight, during this program, and use it. We know it works. We're posting updated information every day on our website at gov.. There are many life events like weddings, family gatherings, reunions, birthday parties, and even funerals that have been altered because of this virus, and I am very sorry about that. But I know the heart of the people of Louisiana, and I know that we will celebrate and dance together again, and I want that time to come sooner rather than later. So, please, stay home. Stop the spread. And save lives. Isaiah 41:10 says, "So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will up hold you with my righteous right hand." Let's continue to work and pray for one another. God bless you, and thank you.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Amen. We want to thank you, Governor. Okay, I'm sorry, I thought we were out of time, but we have a question for? one more question. And I heard about fasting. Are you planning a fast?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, you know, I'm a Catholic, and I fast every lent multiple times, and certainly it's the Lenten period now. But I'm going to do a day of prayer and fast tomorrow, and I'm just going to encourage people across Louisiana, if they are of a like mind too, join me in that so that we can unite our prayers together for our state, for our country, for everyone with the virus, for those who have already perished and that we will be able to come together, flatten this curve, and take care of one another.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: All right. Well, Governor, I'm going to join you in that. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Please do.SALLY-ANN ROBERTS: Fasting and praying tomorrow. We thank you all for being here today. We are out of time. And you can get more information about this. You can see this entire program again at YouTube and all the resources we've mentioned tonight are accessible through COVIDLA. And remember, pray, prepare, and persevere. We're all in this together. Goodnight, everyone. ................
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