04152020 COVID-19 PC



GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: I thank all of you for joining us today. We're holding this press conference a little later today because I completed my monthly radio call in show from 2:00 to 3:00. And so I appreciate you those of you who are tuning in and who are present today. Also, many people around the state of Louisiana received a phone call from me today. I do want to assure you that it was real, and it's part of our efforts to make sure that people are aware of the continuing need for them to comply with the stayathome order, with social distancing, and with proper hygiene in order to continue to slow the spread and flatten the curve of this virus, this disease. We know that it is contagious and it is deadly, and we know that the mitigation measures, the stayathome, all of these things, they work, but they only work to the degree that they are practiced by the people of our state. One of the big questions that many people have had is about what's going to happen with our K through 12 schools for the rest of the school year. I have with me today in addition to Dr.?Alex Billioux, Beth Scioneaux who is the acting education superintendent, and she will be speaking soon about that and she'll take some questions from you as well. And we're going to get to that in a few minutes. But as we always do, I want to update you on the numbers. Today, we are reporting 433 new cases of COVID19 across the state. That is a grand total now of 21,951 confirmed cases. Again, there are asymptomatic people out there and mildly symptomatic people out there and people for whatever reason haven't presented to be tested yet, so there's more cases of COVID19 than that, but those are the confirmed cases through the tests that have been performed and the results that we've received. Unfortunately, we have 90 new deaths to report today. Sadly, this is the second highest number of deaths that we've reported in a 24hour period with yesterday being the highest. So as you know, we put that milestone of knowing over 1,000 deaths yesterday. Well, we went over 1,100 today. Obviously, it remains the case that these are not numbers. These are people. And so we grieve for them, and we want to make sure that we lift their families up in prayer. So that was obviously not good news. There is some relatively good news in the numbers if you look at the total number of new cases added, and more importantly, if you look at the number of folks who are in the hospital because of COVID19. There are currently 943 patients hospitalized; 425 of those patients are on ventilators. Both of those numbers are down. So the number of COVID19 patients in the hospitals and the number of patients who are on the mechanical ventilators, both down from yesterday. At this point, we've completed almost 122,000 tests, and we remain number 1 in the country per capita for the number of tests that we've administered. That really helps us to see what's going on in the state of Louisiana to be prepared. And that testing is not as robust as we would like, and we continue to increase our capacity, both at the public lab and with all the private labs operating in the state, and some private labs outside the state as well. So today is a mixed bag. We have a really high number of death that we're reporting and the number of hospitalizations and vent usage is actually better. And so overall we believe we are moving in a much better direction in terms of our case growth. We have flattened the curve. And the reason we can say that is because the deaths are a lagging indicator. We know it takes just over 11?days on average when someone dies, measured from when the onset of symptomatology was. So when the symptoms appeared, it takes about 11?days on average if someone is going to die for them to die. The exposure to the virus actually came ahead of the 11?days. And so literally people will die today because of something that happened two to three weeks ago, which is why if there's going to be a spike in cases because we let our guard down, it's not something we're going to see in our numbers necessarily for some period of time. And that's why we have to be ever vigilant and take all of these measures very seriously and understand just how contagious and deadly this disease is. And it's going to be great when we start reporting fewer deaths. And of course the number we're all looking for is the Number?0. I hope that day gets here sooner than later. But if you consider where we've been over the last three weeks, where three weeks ago I was standing here with numbers coming out of Johns Hopkins university and calculations made by ULL that showed we had the steepest growth rate of COVID19?cases anywhere in the world, to where we are today, I can only tell the people of Louisiana that I appreciate the degree to which they have comply in taking this seriously, and I urge them to continue to do that. And I know that we haven't had universal compliance, and so for those people who for some reason haven't taken this seriously, I'm imploring you to do that starting today. Are the testing front, several new testing sites that we spoke about yesterday have actually gone online today, and we're working really hard to get more tests moved into areas where it's needed the most. And if you've got questions about those testing sites, because we did cover them yesterday, Dr.?Billioux is here to answer those. I want you to know we have 1396 Louisiana national guardsmen who are working on COVID missions. They've helped package 1.1 million pounds of food at food banks across the state. They've delivered more than 10.3 million items of PPE, literally to every parish in the state of Louisiana. And so I want to thank everyone who's been part of these efforts, and especially all of these soldiers and airmen. I want to thank people who have been donating too. Speaking of donations, today we can report that practice Biomasks announced they're donating $30,000 to families and businesses both in northeast Louisiana and in southwest Mississippi. They have operations in both of those areas. In fact, of the $30,000, $20,000 will be for relief efforts in Ouchita Morehouse and Lasalle Parishes. Ouchita is one of the parishes most impacted by the tornados on Sunday. So that aid comes at a particularly good time. So I thank Drakes Biomasks for their generous donations. I also want to thank Tito's hand made vodka. They've made a generous donation of 72?gallons of hand cleanser. And also 1500 N95 masks and 1,000 gloves. And so we appreciate Tito's donations to the state. And that may not have been what some people were hoping Tito's would donate to the state, but it is what we need most of right now. Today, as I've indicated I would last week, I've signed a proclamation closing K through 12 schools for the duration of the school year with respect to students. So students will not be going to schools. There may be some things that will be happening at schools with employees and adults and so forth. But I want to be very clear about something. This is not the end of learning for this academic year. It's just the end of students physically going to the school campuses for the remainder of this spring semester. I fully expect that instruction and learning will continue. I fully expect that our schools are going to continue with the nutrition programs to feed the students. That remains critically important. And that's some of the work that we're engaging in as we speak. So remote learning is going to continue, both high tech remote learning and low tech remote learning. And I know there are a lot of concerns about how this impacts student achievement and learning, especially lower income families in rural communities without access to broadband. And I just want everybody to know we're working very hard to address those needs and make sure that every student in the state, regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in or the geographic location where they live, we want them to be able to continue to learn. We want them to learn as much as possible and to minimize whatever regression that you would typically see before school starts back up in August. I know how disappointing a lot of this news is. It's been very difficult for students. It's been difficult for parents and teachers and administrators. And especially for our seniors. I'm having to go home every day to a high school senior, and I know how hard this has been for him and his classmates and it has been really hard for seniors across the state of Louisiana. It's unfortunate that we had to do this, but it's really important that we promote public health. We know what the CDC guidelines are for a state like Louisiana that has so much COVID in it. Again, I think we're third in the country on a per capita basis for the number of cases that we have. This is just a critical step for us to protect public safety. So it's not something we wanted to do. It's not a decision that we made likely. And this decision that I made today when I signed the proclamation was one that I was asked to do by the school superintendents, by the school board's association, by the board of elementary secondary education, and by the Department of Education who is led by Beth Scioneaux. She'll be up here in just a moment. So we'll do everything we can to support teachers and parents and students. And graduates, please know that we're going to make sure that you are properly celebrated as well. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like or when that's going to happen. So at this time I'm going to step away from the podium and ask Beth Scioneaux to come up and to deliver some prepared remarks. I am going to ask that while she's at the podium that you would address to her whatever questions you have about the school closure, and then when she's done, she'll be able to leave and go back to work and Dr.?Billioux and I will stay here to address the remainder of your questions. So, Beth, if you would come up.SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Thank you so much, Governor. I appreciate your support. We certainly respect the Governor's decision today to keep us all safe, but to know learning is going to continue. We are going to continue to support school districts and charter schools, any schools around the state, as we move forward. It's really important that we do a couple of things. First of all, we do need to focus on our seniors and help them make the way into this new aspect of their lives. I, like the Governor, have a senior at home and face that every day. Second of all, we need to then turn our attention to the other students in the state and make sure that every student that we evaluate their learning level in these next six weeks. We need to make sure that we determine what they need with regards to extra academics time. We need to make sure we understand how to start up the new school year strong and have everything in place to be able to do that for our students. We will continue to support the school districts as much as we can. We'll be talking more to the superintendents and other school leaders tomorrow with additional guidance. We've already released some with regards to continuous education, and we will continue to improve that and work with them on their needs with regards to distance learning. So, with that, I'll take any questions.AUDIENCE MEMBER: Obviously, this will linger past the summer and the remainder of this semester. What impacts of closing the campuses for students will linger maybe into next semester as far as what level students are on or what they were not able to achieve as far as grade level wise?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: I think it's really important that we assess that in these next six weeks, that we have a system in place to support the school districts in doing that. Because they need to know where their students are. We want to make sure we understand their learning levels and that we make the appropriate academic adjustments to whatever they need and supports to start strong in the next school year.AUDIENCE MEMBER: Are you or is BSEE recommending a certain way that the districts should be testing students or determining if students are ready for the next grade? Are you providing guidance on whether they should try some summer school or add days to the next school year? What specific guidance are you giving districts as to how they should move forward in judging students' preparedness for the next year?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Well, it is a local decision. They will use, working very closely with the educators in all of the classrooms, they will evaluate different types of work similar to the guidance we talked about for the seniors. It will be a preponderance of information that is available to them as they judge the readiness of their students to move forward?AUDIENCE MEMBER: So there's not something specific that the state department is suggesting to the individual districts.SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: We will give out some guidance in the future with some suggested uses in order to do that. And so we will support them in making some of those decisions?AUDIENCE MEMBER: How are grades going to be handled? Is that going to be up to the individual school districts? Will it be pass/fail?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Yes, it will be up to the individual school districts, to answer the first question. They will use a variety of schoolwork in order to judge that. At this time, we will likely not recommend pass/fail, but we will be issuing some guidance to the school systems to the tomorrow in a call that we will have with them more specifically about that.AUDIENCE MEMBER: What about the school districts that do not have online or distance learning or online learning, however you want to describe it? How concerned are you that those students are really falling behind? Have you heard where teachers are still reaching out to these students whether it's phone, email? I've heard school buses involved, dropping off homework, stuff like that.SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Well, we do know that there are different varieties of distance learning. There's some high tech and some low tech. We support the school systems in using a combination of those if that works well for their students. We are helping them evaluate their needs with regards to technology, and we'll be offering some information with regards to how to access some of that technology over the next six weeks?AUDIENCE MEMBER: How concerned are you that maybe those students in particular are maybe falling even further behind than for those that at least have high tech learning?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Because there can be a combination of high tech and low tech learning, I think they are all getting, you know, based on their individual circumstances, some information. But it will be important for the educators to evaluate that learning level that that student is at to make those decisions going forward?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Question inaudible). Will the department be recommending either mandatory or statewide summer schools before we start the next school year to try to (question inaudible).SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: I think again it is a local decision as to how they would go about helping their students. I think if there was a need for any of that, that they would come to us and let us know and we would certainly support them in any of their decisions.AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you know if the start to the school year in the fall will be moved up a little bit to the summer, possibly, or maybe the middle half?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Yeah, we don't know that at this point. It would be premature to say that?AUDIENCE MEMBER: I guess I'm just a little unclear on what kind of specific guidance you're giving individual districts at this point. It seems that they're largely left to their own devices, and that seems like that will leave students with different levels of access across the state, depending on where they live. So what are you? what is the state doing the too make sure that school districts and the students are actually getting what they need?SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Well, we are working closely with the school districts to assess where they are with their plans. Everyone needs a plan in each community to help their students. So we are working individually with them to assess their plans. We have put out guidance that's already out there about continuous learning that gives them sort of a road map of questions to ask theirselves to solve any of these issues. And we'll be doing more of that when we release that tomorrow as well?AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Question inaudible).SUPERINTENDANT BETH SCIONEAUX: Not yet. We don't have that survey yet, but we are working individually to gather information. Okay. Thank you, Governor. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Thank you, Beth. Appreciate you. Okay. So we've got two questions from the public today that both deal with things that I think are better left for Alex, so he's going to come up and answer those questions and then I'll come up to take your questions.DR. ALEX BILLIOUX: Thank you, Governor. So the first question is from Phyllis in Marrero, and she asks: How long are asymptomatic people contagious? So this is a tough one to answer because we're still learning about the virus. It's worth highlighting, though, surprising for us to say, we're about four months into knowing about COVID19 or the virus that causes that. The other challenge that we have is we know that, you know, one in four people around that could be asymptomatic and yet have the virus, meaning they could be out and about, inadvertently spreading the virus. And we don't know how to monitor them shedding the virus because we don't know who they are because they don't have symptoms. But what we can say is the measures that we've taken to encourage people to stay at home, to wear face coverings as the CDC and now the state of Louisiana has recommended so that your nose and mouth are covered when you're out and about would reduce the likelihood that any one of us could be asymptomatically infected are shedding the virus and spreading it to other people. So we encourage folks to wear those face coverings, again, to limit being in crowds and being around other folks as much as possible. Next question comes from Shannon in Shreveport, and she asks: Can mosquitos transmit the virus? and I think here we're talking about coronavirus? from person to person? So, again, we don't yet know definitively what the risks would be, but what I can say is it's extremely unlikely and extremely rare for an infection to be transmitted by mosquitos, period. We don't see that with the common cold and coronaviruses other than this one, so I think very unlikely, but worth noting as we enter mosquito season, we still need to be doing what we can to avoid mosquitos in our neighborhoods. Thank you. GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Thank you. Okay. So yesterday I was asked a question about OJJ and I didn't have the information. I wanted to start there, and then I'll take your questions. The office of juvenile justice has 31 youth in their custody, 27 in secure care facilities, four in contracted group homes, that have tested positive for COVID19. ONEthird of these youth are now considered recovered. Nine of those are in secure care facilities. And one is in a group home. Importantly, none of these kids are in a hospital. None of them required very much medical care at all. And this is I think owing to the fact that the virus has the least impact on younger people who are healthy, at least, and don't have the comorbidities that we've been talking about. Obviously, also, the juvenile justice is closely monitoring the staff that they have in their various facilities. At this time, there's not a need to reduce the secure care population due to staffing concerns. I will tell you that per the request of two contracted group home providers, OJJ has reduced their populations through extended home passes to accommodate for some staffing challenges that they have had. A total of 16 extended home passes have been granted. As a precautionary measure, the office of juvenile justice has begun coordinating with local courts on the possibility of extended furloughs for about seven youth in secure care that do have some chronic medical conditions. And you all had been asking about recoveries. So I saw some modeling on recoveries; right? This is not some tally that we have tremendous confidence in as being exactly precise at this point in time, but based on the number of people who we believe have been tested positive and that because of the lapse of time and how long it's been since they've been without symptoms, we have an estimated recovered population of 7,044. Is that right? 7,044. So that's a little more information for you today. So at this point I'll take your questions. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Have you given any thought to requiring people to wear masks in public (question inaudible). GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: You know, I haven't thought about requiring people to wear masks in public. As we transition into May, and obviously we're going to have to put out additional proclamations regarding the mitigation measures that are going to remain in effect, those that will be loosened, and then how we're going to try to reopen the economy while balancing the need to protect public safety and health, then obviously we're going to be looking at some new measures. And whether I would mandate individuals to wear masks, you know, I'm not certain. We're going to be looking at what the CDC's recommendations are on this, which I think it was a week or ten days ago that they actually? and by the way time gets away from me, so it could have been three weeks ago. It could have been yesterday. I don't remember. But that they actually started recommending for the first time that they're going to wear masks when they're going to be out in public and unable to properly social distance. So if you're going to be going to the store and you're going to be interacting with the cashier, that sort of thing, that you actually wear a mask, more so to protect others from yourself. But if everybody's doing that, then we're all protecting one another. So what I can tell you is more likely? and I probably shouldn't even be mentioning this because they haven't even made the recommendations credit? but it would be more likely that we would mandate the workers at the stores and the restaurants, for example, that are going to be open, that they have to have a mask on. But it may extend to individual patrons. We just haven't gotten to that point yet. But we do know that there are going to have to be some additional mitigation measures in order to try to prevent the cases from spiking again. You know, we've done a herculean job of really turning around what was the fastest growth rate in the world in order to flatten the curve, and we know it wouldn't take long in order to see cases start to spike again. And we don't want that to happen. Because if that happens, ultimately, you're not going to be able to restart your economy the way that you want to regardless of what you're trying to do. So you have to keep all of this stuff in balance, and we're going to be looking at what other states do. We're going to be consulting with the CDC. We're going to be looking at other public health experts. And of course I'm going to be leaning on Alex and Dr.?Guidry and others here in the state of Louisiana to do this?AUDIENCE MEMBER: One other thing. When you're out and around, have you been pleasantly surprised or disappointed when you see the number of people that are wearing masks?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: I have been pleasantly surprised, but I'm not sure that when I'm somewhere? first of all, I don't go that many places. But when I was in Monroe, nobody came close to where I was that didn't have a mask on. I'm not sure that that's the way it is everywhere, but that's what I saw from the time I got to the airport until the time that I left. And so I had been pleasantly surprised. I am being told that more and more individuals are choosing to wear masks into public. And by the way I think it's something that we should sort of just wrap our minds around, that this is going to be the new normal for some period of time and the normal normal, we're not going to get to until there's a vaccine. And so we don't know when that's going to be, but it's likely a year or so from now, maybe a little longer, before it's actually mass produced. I'm hopeful that because we have the best scientists in the world working on this all at one time that the vaccine comes faster than we've been told to expect, but, you know, we have to plan for the worst case that is feasible, and we've been told that it's a year to 18?months before that is going to happen. Jeff?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mayor Latoya Cantrell has extended the stayathome order for New Orleans to May?16th. Did New Orleans consult with the state at all? And how will that factor into your decision on what may happen statewide?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, everything factors into the decision, because we have to look at not just sectors of the economy but in geographic regions as well and try to figure out whether we take different actions in different locations. And obviously we will take into consideration her decision. I will tell you that I did not speak with the mayor. She did not speak with me. It's possible that she called some members of the Department of Health. I'm not aware of that. What we know is that when you hear talk nationally about hot spots for COVID19, for cases, for deaths, for transmission and so forth, New Orleans is always in that conversation. And by the way it's not just Orleans Parish because if you look at the map, and we'll go back to the map, you see right next door in Jefferson, the Case Number is about the same, just a little below that. So it's that Greater New Orleans metropolitan region. You've got 5769?cases in Orleans and 5265, I think that is, in Jefferson. And so you would expect that hot spots would do things differently. So I'm not expecting the mayor of Ville Platte to necessarily do the same thing, you know, for example. And by the way I haven't talked to Jennifer lately. I don't know what she's thinking about doing. So I'm not terribly surprised. And by the way we've been told by the President, when he releases his guidance? and I hope to get a little better glimpse on this tomorrow during our video conference? that every region of the country is not going to be treated the same because there are some places where you don't have the problem that you have in other places, and certainly in Louisiana, there's not a community with more cases and more deaths than New Orleans. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Going back to education, I want to get your take on something. I know in your prepared remark, you said obviously the state is working to make sure, regardless of where in the state they're located, kids have access to resources. Obviously distance learning has been going on for about a month and each day we get closer to the end of the school year. Is it likely that once the end of the school year comes, there's going to be a disparity of what students have learned?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah. Look, I don't think there's any doubt about that, and you just have to know about the disparities we have with respect to broadband access around the state. You know, that in lower income populations, you're going to have fewer devices in the home, whether they're smart phones or computers and that sort of thing. And so, you know, that there are certain parts of the state that are not able to do this as efficiently and effectively as other parts. But I'm worried about all of it because I happen to think that while Zoom is the best alternative, you know, and distance education through a computer, online education, is the best alternative, I happen to think students learn best when they're sitting in the classroom with that teacher there who can look at them and determine whether they're really paying attention and whether they're engaged and ask them questions. And you can do that to some extent online, but you can't do it to the degree that you can do in the classroom. So I'm worried about what's happening across the board and just trying to make the very best of what is not an ideal situation. And that is harder to do in certain communities than others. You know, and this is not something we're learning for the first time today. Our rural revitalization task force already had identified critical infrastructure as one of the goals to work on, one of those things being high speed internet access. We have the broadband for everyone in Louisiana task force that's working on the same thing. Of course, we didn't realize that the pandemic was going to happen and this public health emergency that was going to exacerbate the problems that we had seen and have an impact, like it is having today, on our ability to deliver education. But there are other things that schools and teachers and parents can do with respect to students learning, and it's low tech distance education. But it may be harder to do it, but you can still get that piece of paper in that student's hands, and you can still communicate through parents and find different ways to engage the kids and keep that instruction going. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend that that's as good as it would be if we hadn't canceled school. That's why I didn't take that decision lightly. But we know it's critically important to do, just like the kids in office of juvenile justice we were talking about, none of whom have needed any hospitalization whatsoever. That's the situation with the overwhelming majority of young people who will get this virus. But they're going to take it home to their parents. They're going to take it to their grandparents. They're going to bring it back into their communities. And so if you're going to really stop the spread, you know, that a part of this has to do with schools, and that's why the CDC guidance is really clear on this. And by the way it's not too early to start looking at what school looks like next school year, pause we're not going to have the vaccine in place. So you're liable to see schools taking in without large assemblies. You may see students arriving on campus at different times and leaving at different times so they're not all congregated together and waiting on buses and so forth. You may see some platooning of students. And these are all things that our school districts are going to have to work through under the guidance of the Department of Education and the BSEE board, none of which is easy, and none of it is ideal. But it is necessary. Yes, ma'am?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Two thoughts. Do you have any reaction to the senate of governmental affairs committees adopting the emergency elections plan?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Yeah, so it's my understanding? and some of this was playing out late this afternoon when I was on some phone calls and so forth, so I'm not exactly sure what they did. It's my understanding they accepted the fact that there's a public health emergency. They just didn't like the plan?AUDIENCE MEMBER: If they accepted the public health emergency, deferred that and didn't even take up the plan?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, look, obviously, the Secretary of State and I have had an opportunity to visit. He presented his plan to me. I thought that it was well thought out and appropriate. Obviously, just like we're talking about changes to the way we do school and the way we open businesses and conduct ourselves in public, the changes to the way we conduct elections are warranted as well because nobody should have to decide between exercising their right to vote and endangering their health, or the health of others, depending upon what the particular situation is. And that's especially true for the most vulnerable members of our society. And we don't know exactly what the situation is going to be in July and August, but I think the two dates now are July 11 for the primary, August?15 for the general election. But what we do have is that if we're going to have different procedures in place for the elections, you have to have lead time in order to prepare for that. And that's why the Secretary of State wanted to get a specific plan approved, so that it could be implemented and we would have the time necessary to do all of that work. But nobody should have to choose between exercising their right to vote and potentially endangering themselves or others. And if you saw what happened in Wisconsin recently, I think that speaks loudly to the need for us to be thoughtful about how we move forward and conduct our elections. So I would hope that the legislature would take this into serious consideration and give the Secretary of State the ability to modify the election in order to make sure that people can participate to the maximum degree possible without having to make that decision about going into public if they believe they may have COVID or if they're potentially at risk because of one of the medical conditions or because of their age and that sort of thing. Yes, second question now?AUDIENCE MEMBER: You've seen in some other regions of the country, I'm thinking the pacific northwest, that states are working together on plans to sort of rally their economies and how to move forward. Have there been any conversations with other governors in the south or any of our neighboring states about how you are approaching things here and how you will approach things?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: No, we haven't had those conversations. I can tell you there have been conversations between myself and Governor Reeves in Mississippi about particularly the Mississippi Gulf Coast and how many people live there and work in the Greater New Orleans area and vice versa, and just how much transportation, you know, linkage there is between the two areas. But we haven't had specific conversations about trying to synchronize our plans to reopen the economy. And that may happen, whether it's with him or with Governor Hutchinson in ark saw or with Governor Abbott in Texas, but that hasn't happened to date. And I don't really see us doing what you were talking about California, Oregon, and Washington on the one hand and then it's New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania maybe on the other. I don't see that that's going to happen here.AUDIENCE MEMBER: Why?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, I just don't believe that it's necessary. I think if you look at the areas where this is happening, you have very similar situations in terms of the amount of COVID that they have in those various states. And they have a much greater degree of interconnectedness in terms of their economies and so forth. But if it's something that we believe we should consider, I certainly will. I haven't been pointed in that direction by anybody in state or anybody in these other states at this point. Yes, sir?AUDIENCE MEMBER: Governor, can you see suspending games in the LSU stadium or the Super Dome, or do you see fans participating in LSU Tiger football this fall?GOVERNOR JON BEL EDWARDS: Well, because I am both a Saints fan and an LSU fan, I hope so. I know that I will see them there at least aspirationally until such time as perhaps it becomes obvious that that can't happen. But it's April the 15th, and I'm just not prepared at all to go down that road to talk about what the situation will be this fall when it comes to that. I am prepared to say that if those things happen and fans are able to participate, it's still not going to look exactly the same. There's going to have to be some precautions taken. And what those might look like, I don't know. I don't know if, you know? and I'm thinking out loud here? I don't know if they can sell every other seat, every third seat. I don't know if they're going to have to try to figure out different ways to get people in and out of the games so that they're not all piled upon one another at one time. I don't know whether you're going to be temperature checked and make sure that you've got a mask to get in. I just don't know. But I can certainly see myself in tiger stadium because that's where I want to be, yelling for the tigers so that they can successfully defend their national championship. I guess that was the last question. So tomorrow we're going to do things a little differently again. And I apologize. It's because we have a telephone conference tomorrow with the President and the coronavirus task force, and also because, for some reason, I've agreed to sit down with The Advocate and do something that starts at 4:00. And so our press conference tomorrow is going to be at 11:00. So I'll be here at 11:00 tomorrow to take your questions, as always. I want to thank you all for joining us today so that we can better communicate with everyone who's out there. And just to remind everybody that, yeah, the numbers in terms of our cases and number of hospitalizations, number of vents that are being utilized, they're all trending in the right direction. We certainly have flattened the curve. But it doesn't take much for these cases to spike. And we know how deadly it is. We know how contagious this disease is. And so I'm asking everyone to be patient, to comply with the stayathome order, to make sure that you minimize social contact, especially if you are sick, do not get out of the house. Don't go to work. If you are vulnerable, you shouldn't be in any groups, period. And even though you can go in public and do certain things, such as go to the grocery store, you don't have to go every day, and not everybody in the household needs to go. And then continue to wash your hands frequently and vigorously with soap and water. Use hand sanitizer when you captain do that. Control your cough. And maintain your social distancing. And when we do this, we're going to be in better shape. We're going to get flow this sooner than we otherwise would. And, yes, we are going to make sure that as we move forward, we strike the right balance, as best we possibly can between protecting the public health and making sure that people can go back to work and that we can stand our economies up again. And we're going to do that in consultation with the doctors and the scientists, with the economists. We're going to be relying upon the CDC, and certainly we want to be working with our federal partners as well. But this is? and you hear this all the time. It's unprecedented. The truth is, it happened back in 1918, but there are not many of those people left to tell us what that experience was. And the situation has changed so much between then and now that I can say it is unprecedented. And so we are going to try to make the very best decisions that we can make as we move forward, and I continue to appreciate all the people of Louisiana who have been patient and who have been doing what we've been asking. And for those who have for some reason have decided not to take this seriously and they haven't been complying with the stayathome order and social distancing and hygiene, I once again implore you to do that. It is critically important. Be a good neighbor. And this isn't all about yourself. This is about your neighbor and making sure that we get through this together. So God bless you, and I'll see y'all tomorrow. ................
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