COVID-19 06052020



GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Good afternoon, everybody, and today is the first day of Phase II. I do hope everyone will follow all the necessary restrictions and precautions to make sure that this step is successful and we can continue to phase through the reopening. In just a moment we'll get to the latest testing update, but I first want to discuss the tropical weather that we do expect starting this weekend. If you look at the slide, it is Tropical Storm Cristobal. It moved from being a tropical depression to being a tropical storm just a short while ago. It is departing the Yucatan Peninsula. It will be out over water very shortly, if not already, where it's expected to move almost do north on a straight line for Louisiana. The good news, if we have any today, is the national weather serve have all but completely ruled out the possibility that it could strengthen beyond a tropical storm and into a Category 1 hurricane. So that's not something we're contemplating. As you may have seen, yesterday, I declared a state of emergency for Louisiana because of Cristobal. Later today, I will request a prelandfall federal emergency declaration from the White House. We are working with FEMA in order to fashion that request. We've also been in contact with all of the parish officials in south Louisiana about the preparations for the past? about their preparations over the past several days, and certainly we stand ready to assist them as they request. Tropical storm and storm surge watches are now in effect for portions of Louisiana. We continue to believe that the greatest threats will be heavy rainfall and flash flooding, river flooding, with minor to moderate coastal flooding as well due to storm surge. Wind impacts will depend upon the exact track, intensity, and structure of the storm, obviously, but winds up to 60?miles per hour are possible. We do believe, based on current modeling, that tropical storm force winds will extend into central and perhaps north Louisiana as well. In fact, you can kind of look at where that S is at 7:00 Monday morning, and that is a storm that's located overrule central Louisiana. Average rainfall totals of 4 to 6 inches are expected across large portions of the state of Louisiana, but southeast Louisiana, on the east side of the storm, can expect high rain totals of 6 to 10?inches. And what we cannot predict yet, and may be never able to predict with tremendous accuracy, is the banding effect of the storm. And if a band settles over a certain area, then that the the area that could get up to 10 to 15?inches of rain. And that is what is within the worst case but reasonable scenario coming from the national weather service. And so that is what southeast Louisiana has to prepare for is the possibility of 10 to 15?inches of rain falling over a relatively short period of time. One of the good indications are that they have the storm moving north pretty quickly after it makes landfall. You can see that by Tuesday morning, it is at the Arkansas/Missouri line and Wisconsin a day later. Because one of the things we don't want to have happen here, as happened in 2016 twice, is to have a storm system that just sits on top of Louisiana and continues to dump rain. The CPRA, working with the Corps of Engineers and all of our levee districts and local government, are monitoring 689 gates across coastal Louisiana, including those along the river. Since Wednesday, another 44 gates have been closed, bringing the total of closed gates to 201. They are coordinating with SLFPA east and SLFPA west, Plaquemines Parish, Grand Isle, Lafitte, on their flood gate closure, and the Greater New Orleans area. And we are prepositioning flood fighting assets, super sacks and sand bags in low lying areas vulnerable to flooding. It is not too late to get a game plan, so I'm encouraging people, if they haven't done so, to get a game plan. You can go to . DOTD would also like to remind motorists to take extra precautions when driving. Avoid getting on the roads once the storm hits until it has passed, unless it is absolutely necessary. If you do need to travel, please check for road closures by going to . It's realtime information about road closures. That's . It will show you whether a road is closed because of maintenance or because of flooding or for any other reason. If you do come upon water in the road when you're driving, if you're not absolutely sure that it is shallow enough and that it is not fast moving enough to cause you a real problem, you should not go through that water. This is how we see the most fatalities in a typical flood event. A note on DSNAP. You know, I mentioned this the other day, but I want to make sure that I'm clear with the people of Louisiana. DSNAP has not been authorized to our state. And I did say that the other day. We're not expecting it to activated because of this storm. But it may be activated later this year because of another natural emergency. And by the way DSNAP is not also is not available because of the public health emergency dealing with COVID either. But in the past, people have preregistered for DSNAP and they may believe that they remain preregistered, but that is not the case because of some changes in hardware and so forth on the system. So we're encouraging people to go ahead and preregister for DSNAP. If you're currently on SNAP, the SNAP program, you don't need to do this. But you do believe the ability to preregister. Let's talk about COVID now. If we go to the dashboard. For today's testing update, we're reporting 427 new cases, for a total of 41,989. Unfortunately, we are reporting 29 additional deaths today, which brings the total to 2,801. 604 patients are hospitalized with 75 of those on mechanical ventilators. That is 9 fewer in the hospital since yesterday, and that is the lowest number in the hospital since March the 25th. 4.4 percent of the new tests were positive, and according to my personal, unofficial calculations, we have gone below the 10?percent level since the inception. And we've got some additional data coming out, and we're looking at it. We'll let you know more later. But we're just right at 10?percent. And I say that because that's a World Health Organization and a CDC standard that they're looking for everyone to get below 10?percent. And certainly we're moving in the right direction. We've been averaging in the 4 to 5?percent range for a good stretch of time now. Of course, it took a while because at first we were only testing individuals who were in the hospital and so forth. And so at first the 40?percent or more of the tests that we were administering were positive. But we are moving in the right direction. We have completed 420,786 tests. Because of the weather that is approaching, some test sites will be closed over the weekend, and we will be communicating that to people because we don't want them to get out of the home and try to come access testing when it's not going to be available. And we also want to make sure that we stand back up these sites and make them operational as soon as possible, as early as next week. And just looking at the forecast, we should be able to do that by Tuesday. However, we're going to be communicating that as we move forward. I do hope that everyone will stay safe this weekend, both from the tropical weather and from COVID19. And please monitor the weather closely. Look at your local forecast. Check the national weather service. Pay attention to what your local officials are saying. As always, prepare for the worst and pray for the best. Before I take your questions, I do want to spend just a moment to address the demonstrations and protests that continue across Louisiana, as they are across the country. I am extremely gratified that the overwhelming majority of these events are entirely peaceful and nonviolent, without any property destruction or injuries or anything of that nature. Of the very few events that have had some of that, it's just been a few of the individuals as well. And so the people in Louisiana are expressing their concerns and exercising their rights in a way that is appropriate, and I think as a result, their voices are being heard and need to be heard. So I just wanted to express my appreciation to them, and I do hope that they will continue to be peaceful and nonviolent. I do want to ask individuals who are planning to protest over the next several days to be cognizant of the weather forecast and the approaching tropical storm that we just talked about, but also to be cognizant of the COVID19 situation. We are encouraging individuals f they want to protest and they're going to be in close proximity, as they typically are, with people who are not in their immediate household, that they social distance as best they can but also wear a mask, engage in proper hygiene, especially washing of hands as frequently as possible. We do want to ask those individuals who may be vulnerable because of age or underlying chronic health condition to be especially careful and to avoid protests, just as we ask these people to avoid crowds of any size. But I also ask them to take into consideration whether any member of their household is vulnerable so that they might inadvertently go out to a protest or a demonstration and contract the virus, the disease, and bring it home to one of these vulnerable people. So we're asking that they be very, very careful about that. I am certainly praying for all people in our state as we face a number of issues today. And so I would ask that everybody lift up our state and our people in your prayers. To help with questions today, if you have questions about the approaching tropical storm, I have Colonel Jim Wascom who is the head of GOHSEP, here. I also have Dr.?Alex Billeaux, and Dr.?Guidry from the department of health, in case you have some questions about testing or the public health emergency that I may need help answering. But at this time I am happy to take your questions. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible) funding the agenda for the republican legislature, sort of crafted as agenda, but special sessions, tax breaks and tax cuts. Can you talk about your take on that agenda and whether you have your own agenda (inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, the agenda we're pushing for this session is to get the essential business gun. And it was not done in the regular session. And the most essential things are having a budget, making sure we have a capital out lay bill, a supplemental budget for the remainder of the current year, those sorts of things. And that's where we're engaged first and foremost. And obviously we're in discussions with members, not just the members you just mentioned, but members, whether they're democrat or republican, house or senate, or a range of issues. It is difficult, however, as well intentioned as many of these instruments are, it's difficult to support instruments that would have the effect of diminishing the revenue that we have available to fund the essential services of our state when we already have budgetary pressures because of the declining forecast that we're dealing with. So we're working to? because we know that these are all things you would like to do, but we also have universities to run and K through television schools to run and hospitals and prisons and so forth. So just trying to create the right balance here is what we're shooting for. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, we're going to be successful. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I think at the end of the day, we have a rainy day fund that we're going to deposit 25?percent of the surplus into as we need to. And by the way when we do that, that fund will be restored to a balance that exceeds what it was when I became Governor. Now, having said that, we also need to tap into the rainy day fund for the next fiscal year as well. And so some of that balance would be used. So it's a reasonable discussion to have, but at the end of the day, we have tremendous needs along our coast and coastal restoration for levee work. We have transportation needs. I believe that at the present the better course of action would be to proceed with the projects. And in order to have some stimulative impact on the economy, get these businesses into these projects and these employers, these members, these suppliers to work, and that sort of thing. But it's a reasonable discussion to have, and it's not necessarily all one way or the other. It's creating the right balance. And we're going to continue to work with the leadership in the house, and in the senate, in order to make that happen. I will tell you that the amount of cash that is being withheld from capital out lay is much smaller than what was being contemplated by legislative leadership just a couple of weeks ago. So I think we're making good progress, and we're going to keep working with them. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: I understand there's a number of law enforcement officers from a number of agencies at the mall in Hammond. Have you been briefed on that? What's the latest on that situation?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, it remains under investigation. The incident occurred right around noon today, so they're still trying to figure out exactly what they're dealing with. But we know that the state police responded to an incident at the Hammond Square, and I think technically it's called Hammond Square now, because it's not a mall. But I'm from that area, and I still call it the Hammond Square mall as well. And they're assisting the Hammond Police Department and the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office. And one thing that went out that seems to have been inaccurate, it was never an active shooter situation. You have an event where an individual? and we believe it was one, although there is some indication there may have been somebody else involved? who drove a vehicle into the Target store at Hammond Square and exited the store, was quickly taken into custody by local law enforcement. There was at least one suspicious package that was left in the store, and I can tell you that the state police experts who deal with this are on the scene, evaluating that package, and trying to figure out what it is. And if it's something that's dangerous, they will render it not dangerous; they will neutralize it. Hopefully they will get that done pretty soon. And the investigation continues. If you have specific additional inquiries, you might want to direct those to the Hammond Police Department. I will tell you that it might be in error if you were to associate this incident with the protests and demonstrations that we were talking about, just based on some very preliminary information that I got just before I walked in, although I don't entirely rule that out. I think there may have been another cause for this that's obviously not one that's justified, but it could have been motivated by something totally different. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yes. And you make a good point, because it's basically from St. Mary Parish east, so through Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and then up into St. Bernard. That's the area that we believe is at most risk for the storm surge. And all of that area experienced significant storm surge in a hurricane last year. And there's been a lot of work that's continued since then in order to fortify levees and raise them and so forth, but we do know that that work isn't complete. We know we have some weak points, and we're shoring those up. And the people in St. Mary Parish certainly know where that is. So in the event that the storm surge, or any other flooding event, causes the need to do sheltering, then we have arranged? in fact, it's something Colonel Wascom worked on weeks ago with FEMA so that we wouldn't necessarily have to use the congregate shelters, but we would be able to put these individuals up in motels and hotels, which they're available because they have a lot of reduced demand right now. And secondly because they are safer in light of the public health emergency that we're dealing with. We are not announcing today that we are opening shelters or that we've designated certain hotels, but if we need to do that, whether it's this tropical storm or some storm that comes later during this hurricane season, we will pursue those options. Well, we will? we will make that announcement when the time is right. Typically, that gets followed by either an evacuation order in advance of the storm or after you've engaged in search and rescue operations and so forth. But when we have to announce this, we will announce it working through the local offices of emergency preparedness to the populations that we're trying to communicate with. And, again, I don't? I think I caused some confusion the other day talking about DSNAP, so I want to make it very, very clear. We are not calling for any evacuations. We don't have any shelters open in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal. But if we do need to shelter people during this public health emergency, we have additional options that we haven't used in the past, and they include the hotels and motels. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Given that there is no evacuation order, what can the average person do right now to be vigilant in preparation for the storm? We're not talking about moving around or leaving their home. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. Well, what they can do is make sure that they get a game plan. Go to , and it's got a checklist of those things that you should do. And by the way it's an updated checklist because it has things that are particularly important in light of the public health emergency. But generally speaking, they need to be prepared to make sure that for the first 72?hours they are resourced and able to make it without assistance. Now, we're going to get assistance to people as quickly as we possibly can. And very rarely in the last number of years, anyway, has someone had to go more than 72?hours before they could get assistance. But that is what we're asking people, to make sure that they and their families are able to do. And then they need to make sure that they're getting updated. So the national weather service at least twice a day updates its forecast, and as the storm gets closer, then they have more confidence in the forecast that they're offering. So please make sure that you're paying attention to that. To the local news, and not just the weather, but the news portion of those broadcasts and radio. And then they need to be making sure that they're listening to those local elected officials and the offices of emergency preparedness around the state of Louisiana. So it's really the same thing that they do in any storm. The difference now is that we do have this public health emergency, and so there's additional considerations that they need to take into account. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible) there has been a strong response to the protest (inaudible) President Trump (inaudible) comment on his reaction and (inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I would rather offer my perspective, which I've done in the past. And that is: Here in Louisiana, we have seen our citizens take to the streets and to public spaces, and they're doing so in large numbers, but they're also doing so in a way that is peaceful and nonviolent and appropriate. And I appreciate that. And we haven't seen the sort of things here that have been observed in at least some areas across the country. And so our law enforcement is doing a great job of working with the organizers of these protests and demonstrations and those who show up and the folks who are protests are making sure that the safety of the officers is in mind, and then the officers have the safety of the protesters in mind. And you see a lot more dialogue going back and forth than you typically see, and I happen to think that that's a good thing. And it's also appropriate. Because there is not a law enforcement officer anywhere in his or her right mind who believes that the use of force by the Minnesota police officer was appropriate or reasonable. It wasn't. And?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: I believe that it was, in light of all of the circumstances there, and done ultimately for the safety and protection of people who needed to clear that area. And it certainly wasn't done in a way to try to escalate the situation. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, has Karen Carter Peterson told you she's not running for reelection as the dec party chair person and did (inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: No and yes. Thank y'all very much. If we have the need for another press conference, we will let you know that before our next one that is scheduled for Monday. However, I will tell you, Monday will be the day when we expect, based on the current forecast, for the tropical storm to really be having maximum impact here in Louisiana. So that's probably going to change our schedule going forward. But we still may need to do something relative to the storm, so we will let you know. I doubt we will be having a press conference on Monday to discuss the public health emergency. But thank you all very much for continuing to cover this, and I look forward to seeing you all next week. Please be careful. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download