03262020 COVID-19 Press Conference



GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Good afternoon, and thanks everyone for joining in today. Earlier today, I participated in a telephone conference? it was actually a video conference? with the White House coronavirus task force, led by the vice president. Participating in that meeting was also the President, and we were able to visit with him. And also earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to have a phone call with the secretary of the Veterans Administration, Robert Wilkie, and renewed our request that we be forwarded through FEMA for supplemental assistance from the VA, particularly with respect to surge capacity at hospitals here in Louisiana, looking primarily towards New Orleans. And last night I was able to have a conversation with FEMA administrator period of time Gaynor on the most pressing needs we have in Louisiana, all of which relate to our medical surge capacity, principally, as I mentioned to you yesterday, those being ventilators, also PPE and other requests. I am pleased to announce, and, in fact, the President announced this during the call with all 50 governors today? and just as an aside, we actually have 55 governors because of territories and things, but I think we had about 50 governors on the call today. But the President announced that he had granted our request related to two 250 bed federal field hospitals. Now, these are basically beds and IV polls. And by beds, I'm talking about primarily cots. They do not themselves come with the personnel to run those hospital beds. But in addition, they will send one public health service strike team of 60 individuals, so these are doctors and nurses who would be able to help us to create surge capacity, and one CDC epidemiology team. We had previously I just told you all that team would be coming to Louisiana. All of these assets and personnel should be in Louisiana soon, and I want to thank the President and our federal partners for this very important assistance. We are certainly grateful for their support. So we are going to add these resources into our plans for medical surge, and I'm going to speak more about medical surge in just a moment. We continue to review the relief bill. I can they're calling it basically Phase III of the coronavirus relief package that the President and Congress have been working on for some time. That bill did pass the Senate. It is our expectation that it will pass the house tomorrow and be signed into law tomorrow night. So we continue to look at all of those provisions to see what funding assistance flexibility that we can bring to bear in Louisiana just as soon as possible. Just an update on the National Guard. We currently have 955 soldiers and airmen overall from the National Guard who were involved in our response to the COVID19 public health emergency. Of that number, 667 are traditional national guardsmen soldiers and airmen who have been mobilized specifically for this emergency. They're doing various things around the state of Louisiana, including supporting testing sites in New Orleans and in Jefferson and other areas in south Louisiana. They are transporting critical needs; they're maintaining and operating the warehouse. And doing various other things that are critically important in this public health emergency. As you can see from the screen to my left, your right, the numbers that we have today are once again very staggering. I hope the entire state of Louisiana is looking at these numbers and that they are as concerned about them as I am. Since yesterday, we have received 510 new confirmed cases of COVID19 for a total of 2305?cases statewide. That is a 28?percent increase from yesterday. There are unfortunately 18 new deaths since yesterday, which makes 83 deaths total. That is obviously very tragic. For those people who think that this is really just a problem for urban Louisiana, New Orleans/Jefferson Parish, for example, we now have positive cases in 53 of our 64 parishes. So nobody, nobody, should look at this situation and think, oh, this doesn't involve me; this doesn't involve my town; this doesn't involve my parish. And I am encouraging everyone, no matter who you are or where you live, to understand that this coronavirus is in your neighborhood. It is spreading throughout the state of Louisiana. There is no place where it isn't. There are some places where we haven't detected it yet through a positive test result. It is all the way across our state. And so when we have statewide mitigation measures in place, they apply to everyone, and I urge everyone to take them very, very seriously. And it's quite frankly the case that the life you save could be your own. And all that you have to do to save lives is stay home. Minimize your contact. Follow social distancing, as we've been talking about. One very disturbing piece of information related to the fatalities that we're reporting today is that we learned that one of those deaths is a 17yearold young person from New Orleans. There is an investigation undergoing by the coroner now. I don't have any information as to whether this individual had underlying chronic health conditions or not. But it does illustrate the point that everyone is at risk. It might be the case that those most at risk are those 65 and older and those with underlying health conditions, but there is some percentage of the population, regardless of age and regardless of their health, who are at risk of having a very serious and severe complications related to this disease, and that includes death. Nobody should assume that this disease will not severely impact them or have the potential to kill them. This virus knows no limits when it comes to age, race, gender, background, your social status, your whatever. It really doesn't discriminate. So I am again urging everyone, regardless of who you are and where you live, to take this very, very seriously. With every passing day, doctors and scientists are learning more and more about this virus. They're learning more and more about this disease and how it impacts people. But we know enough already to know that people need to follow the stay at home order that we've given. We know that people need to practice social distancing. It is of the utmost importance. As of today, we are currently tied with New Jersey for Number?2 in cases per capita in the United States of America. We are tied for Number?2 in the entire United States of America with New Jersey when it comes to cases per capita. If we don't flatten the curve, and do it soon, as I mentioned yesterday, we could be out of ventilators in Region 1, the New Orleans area, by as early as April the 2nd. And we would potentially be out of bed space for individuals by about April the 7th. There's simply not enough healthcare resources to care for all those who will need care if we continue to develop cases at our current pace. If we don't slow the spread of this virus, if we don't slow the spread of these cases, this is what's going to happen. It's not conjecture. This isn't some flimsy theory. This isn't a scare tactic. This is what's going to happen. Every single person has to take social distancing and my stay at home order seriously. There's been a lot of discussion about medical surge with a standup facility in the New Orleans area, particularly around the Ernest and Morial Convention Center in New Orleans and setting up a facility there. And, yes, we are in the process of signing the necessary contracts to stage 1120 beds at the convention center initially. The first 120 beds will be ready by the end of this weekend, with the rest coming online in the following week. We are executing the contracts for the wrap around services to include staffing for that facility. We will have the ability to scale more beds over the next couple of weeks if we see that that is necessary. And obviously we are watching that curve to know what we can expect in that area. I've heard a lot of discussion about different options for where we would place these hospital beds, and trust me, we have done an exhaustive survey of all the different facilities and hotels and dorm rooms and where we think we can do this with the most efficiency and have the best possible impact on delivering healthcare to the individuals who are going to need it. There are obviously pros and cons to every option, but the most important thing, because one of the hardest things we're going to have to solve is the staffing. And quite simply, it is easier to staff a single large facility than it is multiple smaller facilities. And the layout of the convention center is near about ideal when it comes to staging these beds there in these wings of 120. Obviously, it's not an easy call to make, but the projections show that we're going to need potentially 1,000 or more hospital beds in the New Orleans region by about the 8th, 9th, 10th of April. And that depends on what the data points are over the next few days as they come in, but that's the trajectory we're on, and what concerns me is these were the same dates we've been talking about for the last three or four days. And the simple reason for that is we have yet to start flattening the curve. I want everyone to know that in addition to this capacity, we are surging capacity within our existing footprint of hospitals, not just in the New Orleans region, but around the state. This is not complete, but I will tell you that Ochsner LSU health in Shreveport is expanding by 120 ICU beds, Ochsner New Orleans by 96 ICU beds, LCMC in New Orleans by 70 ICU beds, Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge by 75 ICU beds, Baton Rouge General is adding both regular inpatient hospital beds and ICU beds, 34 ICU beds and 229 inpatient beds. These things are being done in phases. Some of those are coming online very quickly; others within a couple of weeks; and others within about a month or so. But all of it is critically important because those obviously who are most severely impacted by this disease will need an ICU bed. They're going to need a ventilator. So increasing our capacity here is incredibly important. In addition to this work, we are also identifying all the capacity we have at tier two hospitals across the state of Louisiana. And just for illustrative purposes in New Orleans region, Region?1, there are approximately 172 of these beds. And then we are working, as I mentioned before, to try to get an arrangement with the VA hospital, most especially in New Orleans in the shortterm to see what surge capacity they may have so that they can take some of our patients as well. Actually, I was very gratified today in the call that without my prompting the President called on me to report about what our needs were. And before I could give an answer, he asked me about whether we thought we would need the VA hospital in New Orleans as surge capacity. I confirmed that we thought that we would, and so I know that this is receiving the required attention at the highest levels in our federal government, and I really appreciate him for understanding what our situation is here in Louisiana and doing what he can as our federal partner to assist with what we're trying to stand up here in Louisiana when it comes to our medical surge capacity. Now, I've spent a lot of time talking about how we are surging in Louisiana with respect to our medical capacity, and we are working around the clock, nonstop, to do that. The average person in Louisiana doesn't really have a role to play in how we surge, but you have a tremendous role to play in determining the degree to which we have to surge and the time in which we have to do it in order to meet the need because if you will do what is within your power to slow the spread of this virus, to slow the spread of this disease, we won't need to surge as much or as fast. And you literally have it within the power of yourself to save lives. It could be your own it. Might be your spouse's. It could be your parents'. It could be your next door neighbor. But you have it within your power the opportunity to save lives if you will simply minimize the contact that you have with other people. And I know it's hard. It's both simple on the one hand, and it's hard on the other. It's not how we're accustomed to living, but those are the facts. I also want to point out that we are seeing a troubling sign in northwest Louisiana. We typically look at our state, and we look down in the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish area. New Orleans I think is at almost 1,000 case. 997?cases. Right next door in Jefferson Parish, 458. And we say, well, that's the hot spot. Just a few days ago, there were only a handful of cases in Shreveport Caddo parish and Bossier. And you can look up here now and we have 115?cases and 32. Well, think back. It wasn't that long ago that those were the kind of numbers we were seeing out of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. So, again, this illustrates the point. This is a statewide problem, and nobody should be thinking that they're not at risk and that this doesn't involve them. So to my fellow Louisianians, if you find this briefing startling and unsettling, if you think that it is a situation that I'm describing that you want to avoid, understand we can avoid it. It is entirely within our power to avoid it. But we've got to have more compliance. And by the way I want to thank all of the individuals, the leaders, the political leaders, the business leaders, the faith leaders, who are doing so much to promote compliance. And those individuals out there who are compliant. But we're not doing as well as we should, not when we know what is coming down the road in the not too distant future if we don't do better. So I am urging everyone to do what you can. And be selfless. Be a good neighbor. Think about that healthcare worker who's already performing heroically. But why would you want to increase their workload, increase the people with whom they're going to have it to be exposed? Why would you want to take the chance on bringing it home? So while we left essential businesses open so that people can go to the grocery store and to the pharmacy and to the bank and to the gas station, you don't have to go every day. You don't have to do those things every day. Because of the critical need for our healthcare workers, we've created a medical volunteer website in order to mobilize healthcare students and graduates from Louisiana universities and colleges to support the existing healthcare workforce that is quickly getting stretched thin. This website is also available to active members or retirees or Louisiana's healthcare workforce who are willing and able to assist. And we are asking volunteers of all medical backgrounds to sign up. This is really important because, in addition to ventilators and PPE, really the most critical thing that we need in order to increase our surge capacity are the medical professionals, the doctors and the nurses, the respiratory therapists, and all of the other allied healthcare professionals. We need volunteers. So if you are qualified and able and willing, first of all, I'm imploring you to volunteer; secondly, you can do so by visiting . And I want to thank everyone involved with making this possible, and I want to thank those who have already volunteered. We will have all of these links and phone numbers on our website, by the way, which is gov.coronavirus. Just a reminder for those of you who are filing for unemployment benefits, in order to receive weekly unemployment benefits, you are going to have to satisfy? it is a legal requirement that you satisfy that you are still unemployed. You've got to do that once a week, and you've got to be unemployed due to COVID19 in order to get unemployment benefits. Those weekly certifications must be filed by Sunday of each week that you're unemployed. And think of the weekly certification as filling out a weekly timesheet. You just have to do it every week. It allows the workforce commission to know on a week to week basis that your employment situation has not changed. Despite the dire circumstances that we face, I do remain hopeful? and, in fact, optimistic? that with greater compliance to the stay at home order, to the social distancing measures that we have put in place, and to people just exercising good common sense and that people are going to be motivated by just the desire to be good neighbors to one another, that we are going to start to flatten the curve and that we are going to start seeing that in the very near future. Because our future, from where we are today, with the curve that we're on, is not promising. We will gladly accept help, both human and divine, so I'm asking people to continue, in addition to working to make sure that we better, that they pray that we will do better as well. There's no doubt that there's daylight at the end of the tunnel, but we're not close enough yet to see it. Now more than ever, we need people to stay home, slow the spread, and save lives. I am going to take questions. I will remind you that as we have every single day, and I want to thank him and all the people at the Office of Public Health, really all the people. Statewide who are working so hard on this, both at the state level and at the local level. But we have Dr.?Alex Billeaux here to answer questions as they may relate specifically to testing, and I want to thank him personally. And I want to thank those healthcare workers who continue to perform heroically all across the state of Louisiana. And I know that they are getting tired, but the fact of the matter is we have a long way to go and so we're going to continue to encourage them and support them as best we can Greg?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, you seem concerned about the lack of compliance not being where you want it to be, yet there are large gatherings, sometimes at churches, and law enforcement are naturally reluctant to break these up. When are you going to? when will that happen?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. Well, look, I said this before, and it remains the case. We have 4.7 million people. We have 4,500 churches. We have tens of thousands of businesses. The people of Louisiana need to listen carefully. We are not going to enforce our way through this. People need to comply. And if you have a pastor who is going to continue to have gatherings and services at church, then I'm calling upon the parishioners, the congregates, not to go. You know, everybody has a decision to make here, and I'm calling upon leaders to be leaders. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, the tone seems a little harsher today. Is there something in particular about compliance that has become a worry in addition to what you've already? GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: It's just the numbers. Every day that we stay on our current trajectory is a day that we know leads us toward an outcome that we all want to avoid. And I'm trying to stress to the people of Louisiana, it is an outcome that we can avoid if we will practice social distancing and observe the mitigation measures that are in place. We will spread the curve. We know that it works. But it only works to the extent that we actually engage in the process and honor those mitigation measures and comply. And so I'm just trying to do what I can to impress upon the people of Louisiana the importance of doing this and the importance of doing it now. Because I suspect there are people out there who are? it's kind of human nature. You see things happening, and you say, well, that's somebody else's problem. I need all the other people to comply, but I don't necessarily have to do it myself. Well, that's just wrong. This is for every single person in Louisiana. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, it might be repetitious, but what's known as the Italian lesson, what they didn't learn, is now being the Louisiana lesson because we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. And so my question is, maybe not churches, but where people congregate at the LSU lakes, many reports of way too many people not being distant. Audubon park in New Orleans. Would you have people go into those areas and try to patrol them somehow, anything to that nature?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, we have law enforcement that are? and when they see obvious violations, they are stopping, reminding people, they're dispersing crowds. And in those situations, people are doing what they're being asked to do at that moment by law enforcement agents, and that's happening for the most part. My message is to all of the people of Louisiana, no matter where they happen to be, and that is, you know, that they need to take this seriously. We can do a better job. There's a lot of compliance out there too. There really is. There is a lot of compliance out there, but we can do better. And we need to do better, and we need to do better now, because, quite frankly, it takes six or seven days, I think is what Dr.?Burkes said today, from an exposure to the virus to when we're going to see symptoms and a positive test. And so, you know, we should, because of when we instituted these mitigation measures, we should start seeing that curve flatten if we're doing a good enough job. And we haven't started to see it yet, but, Andre, my point is, to the people of Louisiana, don't just sit out there and say, oh, yeah, there's this virus circulating. It's going to be somebody else's challenge. They're going to surge the medical capacity so we don't have anything to worry about. We cannot surge the capacity to meet the need if we don't bend the curve. We cannot. Now, I don't accept that we are Italy, because we haven't gotten to that point yet. And if we will start to bend the curve now, we won't. But I have said it from the very beginning, there is no reason why the things that you see coming out of Italy wouldn't happen here in Louisiana if people don't engage seriously in these mitigation measures. So my messaging on that is remaining entirely consistent. The good news is we still have time to do it, to make a tremendously positive difference in the outcome, but we just need to make sure that people are taking this seriously and do it now. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, can you talk more about the field hospital versus the convention center, what types of patients are going to be going to those facilities? And also it seems like the case is we're getting more resources, but the numbers continue to put us on the same chart. Is that more or less where we're at right now?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Okay, so it was just at noon today when we got word that the two 250 bed field medical stations are en route to Louisiana and the 60 personnel, the doctors and nurses. And so we are planning right now as to how to best integrate those assets into our surge plan. I cannot tell you right now exactly where they will go, but as we develop that, we will let you know. I can only tell you that both of those will be very important, the beds and especially the people. And your second question was what?AUDIENCE MEMBER: It seems like we're starting to get resources, beds and the convention center obviously, but you still have the same projection for us running out of beds. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. AUDIENCE MEMBER: So is it the case that we're getting more resources but also the numbers just keep putting us on the same? GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, day after day, we stay on the same trajectory. And we know when we run out of beds, and based on our ability to surge within our existing footprint as we are doing with the hospitals, as we surge to tier two, as we surge outside of the region that's principally effective and use the available beds in other regions, we know that we still are on a path to exceed what those capacities are and that's why we have to have additional surge. It looks like the VA hospital. It looks like the Morial Convention Center. And it looks like the 60person strike team that the U.S. public health service is sending down here. But all of that together isn't enough if we don't get off of this curve. Now, we can move more of these wings, 120bed wings into the convention center, but? and we will if we have to, but staffing those beds becomes very, very problematic. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, this afternoon Governor abbot over in Texas issued an executive order ordering any travels to go into Texas from New Orleans self quarantine for 14?days, kind of following what Dr.?Burkes said yesterday about New York. Just your I guess response to? GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Look, I can't say that that is inappropriate. We saw that coming out of New York City, and it has to do with the amount of spread in the New York City area. The per capita case count in New York is actually higher than it is in Louisiana. But we're close enough second, along with New Jersey. And by the way, you know, New York and New Jersey, that's kind of just one large metropolitan area, where I cannot say that that's inappropriate. I would hope that what Governor abbot is doing in Texas will reinforce my message here in Louisiana about the need to stay at home, because that principally is what quarantining is. And I'm asking people to stay at home as well. And so hopefully his messaging goes along with mine, and it just reinforces the importance of this and the porn of doing it now, by the way. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: On the discussion of the strike team and the epidemiological teams, can you talk a little bit more about what those teams are supposed to do, what they're supposed to focus on? And when you talk about setting up field hospitals and all the surge capacity, does Louisiana have enough medical health professionals to actually staff all the space that is being rolled out?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: So the answer to the last question is it will be very, very difficult to staff all of the beds that we will need if we stay on our current trajectory. It is the principle reason why we need to get off that trajectory. It's not just the staffing. It's the ventilators and so forth. Very, very difficult. With respect to the epidemiological team, I'm going to let Dr.?Alex Billeaux provide a more detailed answer in just a moment, but principally, they come from the CDC, and in this case, upon our request in order to help us with the work that we need to do around several locations across the state where we have clusters so that they can help us better deal with that. And then you asked a threepart question, I'm sorry?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Also, the same idea about the strike team. What does the strike team specifically do? What is its focus?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, ideally, we would have received enough medical personnel to administer all of the beds that we have requested. We actually have requested four 250person field medical stations, enough for 1,000. What we were granted were two. So that's 500. And I don't know whether the normal numbers for 500 beds are 60 personnel, but what we've got are 60 personnel. And this announcement came at lunch today, and so I can't answer all?AUDIENCE MEMBER: They will staff those field hospitals?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yes. And so we determine now where we want to set that field hospital up. Is it going to be something we do at the Morial Convention Center? Is it going to be something we do somewhere else? And we're working on that right now. I mean, this was just announced at lunchtime today. But it becomes part of our surge. And by the way, it's a capacity that we didn't have before it was granted. So we are very, very thankful for that. And Dr.?Billioux, if you would come and address? and if you've got testing questions, go ahead and ask them while he's up here, okay?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Yeah, so, you know, we have a small but mighty team at the Office of Public Health that leads our epidemiology efforts. Normally, they are working on out breaks throughout the state. And what's going on now is obviously the volume of work that they're having to do is changing the way that they are doing their processes. And so the specific request we had for the CDC was to send experts to come down and give us guidance and ideas on how we can adjust the work that they're doing being prepared for scale. You know, we've moved from having, you know, one cluster in the state in a nursing home to now having six. And we fully expect unfortunately that that will continue to expand. And we want to make sure that we're still delivering the key epidemiologic important evidence that we need to understand how this disease is continuing to spread; meeting best practices, and the CDC are best experts at that; and essentially helping us adapt our practices, being prepared for having to work at a different scale. We've tried to add to that team as well as take some of other work off of that team and really have them laser focused on the core work, which is identifying clusters and communicating the best ways to isolate and protect people in the state. But we anticipate in the coming days, if this trajectory continues, that's going to be increasingly difficult. So we're really fortunate and grateful that the CDC is sending us that team to help us adjust not only our overall idea of methods, but specifically for us to be planning on how we manage clusters across the state going forward as well. You had a question?AUDIENCE MEMBER: As far as testing goes, can you kind of talk about the turnaround of getting these tests back? And for example today's cases that were released at noon, when were those tests done, kind of the turnaround? And then the process of notifying the parish, physician, and the LDH?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Sure. So keep in mind there's two big swaths of testing going on in the state. There's the tests that come to the? or the samples that come to the state lab for testing. These are generally individuals who are in the hospital, potentially in, you know, a nursing facility as well, as well as our first responders and our healthcare workers, two critically important groups of individuals that we want to keep on the front line. So that comes to the state lab. When we hear about driveup testing centers, walkup testing centers, or even just testing centers happening in clinics, that's usually being done by commercial labs. So those are the Lab Corps, Quests, and others. So the Lab Corps and Quests, what we're seeing is that's usually taking about six days for folks to get back. We have seen that there's some improvement in that number, I guess, as they're being able to better manage their processing. So maybe down to four days. And the state lab, we're still aiming at keeping at that 24 to 36hour turnaround. Now, that includes having to get it from every corner of the state. So sometimes there's extremes there. And I think a couple of days ago, maybe it was Sunday, I think it was announced that we've been able to, through the work that we've done at the lab, adding more automation, adding more staff to increase our efficiency by about 35?percent. So expanding the capacity that we have there. So we're still aiming for that 24 to 36 turnaround time there?AUDIENCE MEMBER: And then as far as the process of notifying?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Sorry, yeah, so the notifications to the providers are done from the lab, both whether it's Lab Corps, Quest, or the state lab. And that's standard for any of these values. I can't speak to how Lab Corps and Quest are explicitly doing it, but I can tell you we contact those providers about positive tests. Negative tests go out as standard through our processes. And then the epi team that I was talking about earlier, that group at the Office of Public Health, they then afterwards are reaching out to individuals to get more contacts. Because often what we have is a name, maybe a date of birth, and that kind of information on that test. We now need to learn more about that individual and were they part of a cluster and things like that. Is it a testing question? Across the weeks, we've seen people die while waiting on test results. If you can explain how this virus attacks the body and possibly how fast it attacks the body.DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: So it's variable. As you heard the Governor say, you know, if we looked at the average case, we know that somebody after exposure to the virus in the first five to seven days should have symptoms. And what we're seeing is that those symptoms are staying around for, on average, about? or the total course of that illness is about ten days. There's extremes on both sides there, though. There's people who have been infected or maybe exposed and then became ill maybe 14?days later. And that's why you're seeing a lot of us talk about, you know, we need to see two weeks to really feel confident that you're out of that window. But it's variable how you're going to react based on your underlying health, based on maybe even just the way that your body reacted to the virus. And so we had a very tragic death this morning that we learned about in a 17yearold, but we have other people who I'm sure have been in the hospital for a while before they passed. And some people unfortunately may have been well enough at home and then died suddenly. And so you have the full? the full spectrum. The most important thing that we can say is if you are starting to feel ill, we do encourage people, reach out to your primary care providers. Call their offices. Don't just show up. And certainly share what you're feeling. If you're feeling critically ill, if you're having difficulties with breathing, anything that would normally lead to calling 911, call 911. Yep?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you have a handle of how many retired doctors and nurses currently that are deployed?DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: So I don't have that information currently. I would though encourage if you are out there listening to this and think how can I be a part of this fight, to go to the website to join us.AUDIENCE MEMBER: Any chance any nurses or doctors that are close to granting would be able to graduate early to help out. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I know that for example at the LSU Health Science [Center] in Shreveport, they've been able to accelerate the time with which they would normally credential and license new residents, for example. A couple of Fridays ago we had match day, where every senior medical student on track to graduate, their residency was identified for them. And typically they come online around the first of July. I know in Shreveport, and I don't have the date on the top of my head, I apologize, but I know they were able to accelerate. I'm looking to New Orleans to try to do the same. And it's not just doctors. It's also nurses. It's respiratory therapists. It's all of the allied healthcare professionals across the spectrum that we're trying to do this for. And of course you have certain standards that are going to have to be met, and some things can be accelerated and some things cannot. But this is an important part because, as I mentioned a while ago, staffing is the most difficult part of this. And, you know, we can work on staffing while we also work on ventilators and work on PPE. But, you know, I could commandeer a hotel if I wanted to and say every bed in it becomes a hospital bed, but I don't know who I would put there to actually render the necessary medical services. And so that's? this is all part of the work that we're doing here as we surge our capacity. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: You talked about the first week in April in New Orleans, potentially overwhelming their healthcare capacity. Do you have an idea or projection of any other areas in the state, like Baton Rouge?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. So that may be the impression that I gave and largely what you just said is correct. It's not New Orleans. It's Region?1. And so you look down here, and you've got New Orleans and Orleans Parish, you've got Jefferson Parish. You've got a large number of cases now in St. Bernard and so forth. And so it's all of that area together. And that is region of our state that is at risk, at the earliest time, of exceeding our capacity. Again, it's around April the 2nd or 3rd with respect to ventilators, based on the modeling with those that we have on hand. Obviously we have ordered some, and we're trying to procure them desperately. We're making contact with vendors. We're asking for them from the strategic national stockpile and so forth. And then obviously we're trying to bring additional beds online before April the 8th as well. Did that answer your question?AUDIENCE MEMBER: I guess I was just wondering, is there an idea of other areas of the state where it's growing? GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, you know, we're limited in how far out we can model at any given time. I can only tell you the other regions of the state the modeling doesn't show problems by April the 8th, but we're going to continue to model out. We know that they're going to be, at some point, more bed capacity needed in central Louisiana around Baton Rouge? I'm sorry, in the Baton Rouge area and in northwest Louisiana and additional ventilator capacity as well. But those are out past April the 8th right now, but we are planning for those areas too. And obviously we're working very, very hard to make sure that those things that have been in short supply and slow to arrive actually start coming in in greater numbers and more frequently, like PPE, like ventilators, and so forth?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, can you give us an update on? you talked yesterday that you had an idea that you might get 100 more ventilators this week. Can you just update on that? And then also, how many have we requested from the federal stockpile? Any idea. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: 5,000 from the federal stockpile. We've received none. Today, we? I'm sorry, it was actually yesterday after? I think it was after the press conference, we actually received 90 more. You remember I said we were looking at three groups of 100, 100 that had already come in and been distributed, we're looking at another group of 100 this week. Well, 90 of those came in. And that number may actually be 92?AUDIENCE MEMBER: From vendors?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yes. Not from the national stockpile. And then we still expect to receive another 100 that we've identified from a particular vendor early next week. Those numbers are not the kind of numbers that we need. We need several thousand ventilators. And obviously we need them in Region?one first. Part of the conversation that I had with Administrator Gaynor last night of FEMA, and the most important part, was around ventilators and our request. Obviously, they don't have enough in the strategic national stockpile to meet everyone's needs and grant everyone's request. I just asked him that as they slice the pie, make sure they sliced a piece for Louisiana. And I haven't heard back on that particular request yet. But we are leaving no stone unturned. I personally went out looking for ventilators earlier today. And in conversations with some other individuals, we think we have a lead on them. But, you know, they're in short supply. And so we're having to be aggressive and work as fast as we can to get our handson as many as possible, because every other state is in the same situation? well, they're not in the same situation, but they're not far behind us. There's only a couple other states out there right now that have the pressing problem that we have. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: To followup on the procurement, over the weekend when the major disaster deliberations were first announced within three states? California, Washington, New York? there was talk that those states would be prioritized in terms of getting these crucial supplies like the PPE and ventilators. Now Louisiana has the same designation. Have the feds specifically said that we would be prioritized?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, look, I don't think it was just happen stance that the President called on me today to ask me what was happening in Louisiana, what our most pressing need was. And it wasn't? it wasn't just, you know, a coincidence that he was? he gave live, as they put the paper in his hand, that the epi team, the two field medical stations, that the 60 person strike team were coming to Louisiana. So I believe that the major federal disaster declaration did elevate in the consciousness of people the situation we have in Louisiana. It also has made funding available a little quicker so that the 75?percent of the cost that's being born by the federal government by FEMA, they're approving that money faster as a result of that declaration. So that's also very helpful. I would point out that yesterday I was able to announce that we were the fourth state with a major federal disaster declaration. There are a number of other states now that have come in behind us, and I suspect that that number is going to continue to increase as we go forward. But there is no doubt but that the declaration that was granted by the President has been and will continue to be helpful to us here in Louisiana. Last question right here?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, obviously we talked about the tone today and the noncompliance you're somewhat seeing across the state. I know you said we're not going to enforce our way through this, but could more restrictions, harsher restrictions, be on the horizon?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, you know, one of the things that? and I don't know what this is going to look like yet? but one of the things the President mentioned today, and I saw it up on the CNN screen just a moment ago? is we're looking either today or tomorrow, very soon, to receive additional CDC guidance with respect to social distancing and mitigation measures that should be in place in different places, depending on what the facts are on the ground in that area. And I don't know whether that guidance is going to include things that are more restrictive than what we've already been doing. I know until we start to bend the curve, we're not going to do anything that's less restrictive. But I'm looking forward to receiving that guidance. We continue to have conversations with our counterparts at the CDC. I will be reaching out to some folks in the federal government to make sure that they are watching what's happening here in Louisiana and to receive whatever advice they can give me. As of now, I don't have any news to make with respect to this. What I am confident of is that the stay at home order that is in place, the social distancing guidelines that have already been put out there, all of those mitigation measures are sufficient to bend the curve if the people do them. I am 100?percent confident of that. And if there's been a little difference in my tone today, it's because we're just one day further, and we haven't yet seen that curve start to flatten. And so I want the people of Louisiana to know that they may feel helpless because? because this is an invisible enemy. This is a virus. And it's not something we contend with. They may feel helpless because I'm explaining all the difficulties we have around suggesting our medical capacity in order to meet what may be the need, but they are not helpless when it comes to slowing the spread. And, in fact, they are the answer. They have it entirely within their control collectively? they have it entirely within their control as to whether we need to surge and by what date we need to surge. And so I'm, again, imploring people to do better. We will beat this. We're going to come out on the other side. I would rather it be sooner than later, and I would rather it be with less people neglected and less people dying than would otherwise be the case. And we can do that, Louisiana. And I'm confident that you will. You know, I'm just confident that you will. And, again, I ask you to continue to pray for our state and for this country, for those people who have died, those family members of those people, and then those who have the disease now, that they will be restored to full health. And pray for one another, that we will find the courage, the will, to do what we know we need to do. This? there are a lot of things mysterious about this virus, but there is no mystery around what we should be doing right now and what we should not be doing. So let's get with it. Thank you. ................
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