Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the state will begin to move into phase two of its reopening plan after its sustained decline in new covid19 infection rates. He gave more details at a News Conference in austin. Gov. Abbott good afternoon. I want you to know this. Today, tomorrow, and every day Going Forward is one day closer to medical discoveries that will help treat and protect people from getting covid19. Until that day comes, our focus is to keep you safe while also restoring your ability to get back to work, to open your businesses, to pay your bills, to put food on your tables. But lets be clear. Covid19 still exists in texas. Our goal is to find ways to coexist with covid19 as safely as possible. That includes continuing the safe practices you have already adopted. Maintaining safe distances. Wearing a mask, sanitizing your hands. It is a fact that these safe practices save lives. Another safe practice that must be emphasized is protecting our most vulnerable texans, those who are 65 and older who may have other types of health conditions. They represent most of the covid19 deaths in texas. As we move into phase two, the strategy for seniors is to continue to stay at home if at all possible. Additionally, in the three weeks since i announced phase one, that texas was opening for business, we have also substantially boosted our capabilities to respond to and contain covid19. For example, we now have ample supplies of ppe. Get this. We distribute well more than one million facemasks per day. Our testing has also increased. I told you all three weeks ago that testing would increase as texans open up for business. That is exactly what has happened. In just the first half of may, we more than doubled the number of tests given in all of march and april combined. We are now averaging more than 25,000 tests per day. We now have more than 600 testing sites all across texas. But most importantly, our ability to open up was strengthened by the ability to identify and respond to covid19 hotspots. We have found most of the areas that have sudden increases in covid19 positive cases fall into three categories. Nursing homes, jails, and meatpacking plants. When hotspots like this arise, we send in surge Response Teams to quickly provide covid19 tests and separate the sick from the healthy and to ensure the outbreak is contained. We also help to sanitize the area to protect people from getting infected in the future. An example of this is our program to test 100 of all of the residents and staff at all Nursing Homes in texas. Another example is our effort to test thousands of workers at meatpacking plants, as well as residents in the amarillo area. When we increase testing and hotspots, the number of people testing positive is going to spike. Then we find usually within a week or two, the flareup is contained. The number of people testing positive is reduced, as is the number of people who are hospitalized. Now, these surge teams are led by the Texas Division of emergency management. They work with the help of the Texas Department of state health services, the health and Human Services commission, the Texas Emergency Medical Task force, and the national guard. Already, these teams have tested more than 35,000 texans across the state. We also want to thank the thousands of local firefighters who are supporting the effort to test at Nursing Homes across texas. Another strategy to contain covid19 is already in place. It is the voluntary test and trace system that contains the spread of covid19. Systems like this have been used in texas for decades now. And i will ensure that this system protects your privacy and your personal liberty. As we have advanced toward phase two of opening business in texas, we have focused on several key metrics. One is the positivity rate. That is the percentage of the people tested who test positive for covid19. To state the obvious, as testing increases, so will the raw number of people testing positive. What matters the most is the percentage of the people who test positive. The White House Coronavirus task force uses the standard as the criteria for opening up. It requires, and i quote, a downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14day period. And that is exactly what we have seen in texas. The past month has shown a downward trajectory in the positivity rate. For example, on april 13, the sevenday rolling average was about 13. 8 . Since then, that rate has steadily declined to now about 5 . Another key metric is hospitalizations and Hospital Capacity. We want to avoid situations like what people saw in new york where hospitals were overrun and lacked desperately needed capacity. Because texans have helped to contain the spread, we have plenty of ventilators and hospital and i. C. U. Beds. In fact, get this, as of yesterday, we had fewer people hospitalized for covid19 than any day since april 21. If our Hospital Capacity ever gets compromised, we will take swift corrective action to ensure that we will be able to take care of our fellow texans. That brings me to todays announcement for phase two. Informed by the data i just outlined, and with surge response testing strategies in place, texas is prepared to move into phase two for further opening up for business. Very importantly, every decision i have made, as well as every decision i will announce today, is unanimously supported by our team of medical experts. From day one, our mission has been to use data and doctors to open texas in a safe and responsible way that contains the spread of covid19. That commitment to data, to doctors, it underpins todays announcements. Those doctors have provided safe standards for businesses, for employees, as well as for customers. And those standards are contained in this book. And they apply to all Business Operations that open up in texas during the course of this pandemic. Based on the advice of the best medical doctors, as well as a team of outstanding business leaders, i am proud to announce that businesses can open up today. As you know, barbershops, hair salons, and gyms are already open. Effective today, other personal Service Businesses will also be able to open. A list of these is mrs. As well as their safety guidelines can be found at gov. Texas. Gov opentexas. Additionally, beginning today, businesses located in Office Buildings are able to open. They can open to 10 employees or 25 of the workforce, provided the employees maintain safe social distancing. One thing we all know, an important part of reopening his access to child care. Starting immediately, Child Care Services are able to open. That includes programs like boys and girls clubs as well as ymca programs. Then, beginning this friday, may 22, a long list of businesses can now reopen or expand capacity. Restaurants can open to a 50 capacity. Bars, wine tasting rooms, craft breweries, and similar businesses can open at a 25 capacity. Like with restaurants, those capacity limits do not apply to outdoor areas that maintain safe distancing. In addition to that, a wide range of businesses ranging from drivein concerts to bowling alleys can open up that 25 capacity. The list of these businesses can be found at the open texas website. And then, on may 31, youth sports camps and programs Like Little League will also be able to open. I want you to know that parents will be allowed to spectate so long as social distancing is followed. Also on may 31, other youth camps can open, including all summer camps and other daytime and overnight camps. This includes programs like scouting, Vacation Bible School camps, and 4h camps. Also, some professional sports can return on may 31. That includes pro golf, autoracing, baseball, softball, tennis, football, and basketball. For all sporting and camp activities, special Safety Standards apply to prevent the spread of covid19. These can be found at the open texas website. Next is Summer School. School districts have the option to provide Summer School so long as they follow safe distancing practices as well as all other health protocols. These classes can begin as soon as june 1. Let me give you this perspective. As we open up, we must continue to place health and safety first and foremost. There may be times when a county or region is facing covid19 challenges, challenges that prevent it from opening at the same pace as other parts of the state. Now is one of those times. As many people know, the area around amarillo is suffering the fastest growth of covid19 in texas. This problem is largely the result of meatpacking plants in the area. That covid19 spread, as well as the challenges it poses to the region, is something that impacts the Regional Health care systems. And it requires a temporary pause in the opening process. The same is true for el paso where the Hospital Capacity is too close for comfort at this particular time. We have surge Response Teams actively working to increase testing and maintain Hospital Capacity in these regions to ensure these regions can safely move into phase two. Their beginning date for phase two is being pushed back just one week. Everything in todays order slated to open later this week will also open in those regions one week from this friday on may 29. These will give those communities and our surge Team Response the time needed to slow the spread and maintain Hospital Capacity. It will ensure those communities safely move into phase two. The counties that are part of this delay are el paso, randall, potter, moore, and deaf smith. Texans have always faced adversity, and texans have always prevailed. By using safe practices, we are slowing the spread. By protecting our most vulnerable, our fatality rate is one of the lowest in america. With the help of our hospitals, our recovery rate is one of the best in the country. We are getting through this. But now, more than ever, we need to Work Together as one texas. So, as we move into phase two, be a good neighbor. Be a texan. With that, im going to pass it off. Thank you, Governor Abbott. This is a great opportunity for texas to continue to practice the things that have been successful all along. Those are the things we have been recommending that you can do to prevent the spread of covid19. We started with social distancing. We stayed very far out of range of the germ. We will come back closer together now. But the things we are recommending like face coverings and hand sanitizing and sanitizing surfaces and personal hygiene, those will work as they work against every germ there is including covid19. But this is a test to make sure we care about each other and ourselves and take the steps we are confident will allow us to reopen texas and remain safe at the same time. Gov. Abbott thank you. Thank you, governor. We all appreciate your thoughtful leadership throughout this crisis. It was a little more than a month ago today that you announced to the people of texas that we would begin to reopen our state in a safe and methodical manner, based, as you said, on hard data and medical expertise. And that is exactly what you have done today. Well, today is one step forward in that measured process of getting texans that to work. The strategies you continue to put forth are protecting our most vulnerable citizens while at the same time aggressively responding to the hotspots in texas that may arise. We are grateful that the health and safety of our citizens remains your absolute highest priority. And throughout this process, this has been a team approach. So i would like to thank Lieutenant Governor patrick and his team for their support, input. Thank you, speaker, for your continued support and input. I would also like to thank our volunteer strikeforce members and our doctors. They have given an incredible amount of time to make sure that this was a success. And during this challenging last two months, it really has been inspiring to see texans helping texans. Every single day, we see examples of texans sacrificing for the benefit of others. This compassion and genuine concern is a perfect example of what many would call the texas spirit. It is that spirit, as the governor mentioned, that has enabled our great state to navigate the many adversities successfully over the past 175 years. It is this spirit that our strikeforce feels will unite the state, and therefore we will be able to defeat covid19. Now, we know that texans are hurting. We feel the heartbreak of our citizens that are out of work and struggling. So, evermore a reason to get the texas economy back on track. However, we know if this is to be done, we must contain the spread of the virus and keep texas safe. So, as we go forward and take another step forward, it is essential to realize that each texan must do their part. Each of us has a profound responsibility, not only for our health, but the health of our employees, the health of our customers, the health of our friends and family. And that personal responsibility includes maintaining social distancing, following the guidelines on sanitation and wearing a mask in public. And over the last couple of months, many texans have sacrificed to get us to this point today. Therefore, our strikeforce believes the entire Business Community will strictly follow these guidelines so that we can go forward. Because we do not want to take one step forward and two steps backwards. The next two weeks will be critical in our fight against this virus. However, if we all uncompromisingly uphold our strong commitment to personal responsibility and embrace the texas spirit of texans helping texans, im confident we will get through this unprecedented challenge together. And again, i want to thank Governor Abbott for his unwavering dedication to open texas in a safe and responsible manner. Gov. Abbott thank you, james. Now, Lieutenant Governor dan patrick. Lt. Gov. Patrick thank you, governor. Each time we have been at this press conference last several months, ive pointed out the most important member of the team is you. 29 million texans have allowed us to get to this position. It is those of you who have been responsible and been Good Neighbors and been texans. And the Business Community i am so proud of. I have been out the last couple of weeks since we have opened up and i am so proud of the businesses and employees working hard to make you feel safe when you enter their business. It takes more than just opening up. It takes customers so restaurants and retailers can thrive. Just because we have been locked down for nearly two and a half months does not mean we have eliminated the virus, nor does it mean we are now going out in a bigger way. It means it is behind us. We are doing two things at once. That is protecting life, protecting the health care citizens. As the governor said, sending in our teams where we have hotspots, and at the same time, trying to return to his sense of normalcy and revive this economy so you can go back to work, so our businesses can flourish, and so texas can once again lead this nation. We are today, we will in the future, and we are going to do that because of 29 million texans. We are all going to Work Together as partners. Texas as one strong state will lead the nation again out of this pandemic. Thank you for everything you have done. Thank you to the Business Community. Thank you to our First Responders and Health Care Workers and grocery workers serving us and taking great risks. We thank you on behalf of all texans for being there for us. Gov. Abbott thank you. Speaker . Thank you, governor. I want to thank the governor for his leadership, his team. All of us in State Government have done a tremendous job. It has been mentioned today that we can open texas. The governor has given us a great map and has opened up more texas today and the future. The reality is texans have to feel safe and confident for those businesses to flourish in the way the governor and the rest of us desire. It is important we continue to follow these health guidelines, we continue to take face coverings, social distancing, and hand sanitizing into mind, because texans have to feel confident being part of this economy for us to restore our businesses to the flourishing they had precovid19. It is vital we continue to be responsible and respectful and compassionate to each other so that the dream of a vibrant texas comes back even sooner than possible. I want to thank everyone who has worked at making this effort. We are all very connected. Without each other, we will not succeed in destroying our economy and defeating covid19. Thank you, governor. Gov. Abbott thank you. Now, chief . Thank you, governor. I want to reiterate a few things you said about over 600 testing sites open in texas today. Texans who are symptomatically please go get a test at any one of these sites. We will be adding another 14 teams by the end of this week. 64 Texas MilitaryDepartment Teams will be out at drivethrough testing. I want to thank the firefighters who have risen to the challenge to get Nursing Homes tested. Our supply chain is getting governor. Our testing capability is getting greater. I want to thank the lab technicians. They have been working around the clock to deliver the results much needed. Thank you. Gov. Abbott now, i will take a few questions. Governor, will theme parks be able to reopen . You mention some other types. Gov. Abbott we are closely looking at organizations and theme parks like that. We see what disney is doing at a national and international level. We are monitoring the ability and strategies for parks like this to be able to open up. We understand how critically important they are to the Tourism Industry and for the Entertainment Industry in the state of texas as well as a place for children to be able to go to. It is an area we want to open as quickly as possible. However, there are unique challenges in making sure they can open in ways that contain covid19. Just know that some of the best professionals in america and the world are working on those strategies as we speak. Governor, is the state Health Department commingling the numbers with antibody and live Virus Testing . If so, how is that impacting the confidence of texans in the numbers you are providing as we make the decisions to reopen . Gov. Abbott the answer is no, they are not commingling the numbers. Those numbers will be provided separately. Governor, everything you say is looking pretty good. What would be the precise trigger for a retrenchment . Can you tell us now so we know what to expect . Gov. Abbott one thing we announced today is something that is not a retrenchment. What we announced today for two regions of texas is a temporary pause for one week of when they are able to reopen. Our primary goal will be not to go to a point of retrenchment but to slow the opening only in cases where needed. Candidly, what we are dealing with in the panhandle or certain counties in the panhandle and el paso would be either a meaningful outbreak we are in the process of containing or concerns about Hospital Capacity. We feel, as it concerns Hospital Capacity, we have a strategy in place already where we can assist various counties in being able to quickly expand the Hospital Capacity as needed under two strategies. One is, as i previously announced, we are now allowing elective surgeries to proceed forward. The First Response would be to halt elective procedures to make room for any necessary hospitalizations. The second thing you may recall from the press conference about a month ago when we announced multiple Surge Capacity strategies in hospitals that would provide additional Hospital Capacity. Those would be the first two strategies we would go to in the event that particular areas were limited, before even having to consider a retrenchment. We have seen no evidence, no signs, to raise any concerns about the possibility of retrenchment in texas. To the contrary, i will add this. We have seen outbreaks take place in other regions in the state of texas. I will mention shelby county, panola county, and washington county. But those outbreaks were contained. Even though they had a spike in people testing positive, that has returned to a normal rate. We think the same thing will happen in the amarillo region and the el paso region. My point is that we have seen spikes happen before. We have seen the containment of spikes take place. So, we know how to do this. As we move forward, we will be prepared to deal with spikes and expect a similar response in a feature to the success we have seen in the past. Governor, what sorts of delays are there in the state receiving notification of covid19 deaths or new infections or testing numbers such that texans can be confident they understand the Current Situation as opposed to a picture from a week or two weeks ago . Gov. Abbott i will let the doctor as a part of this. Im unfamiliar with socalled delays in deaths. Here is a reality. If a person loses their life, there may be days where there would be a determination about identifying the cause of death. Sometimes, that just takes a day or two before it is added to the system. I will tell you something we expressed that happens from time to time as it relates to the test. There might be a private lab that is a day or two late reporting all of the tests they had feared it could be a one or twoday time lag. That is why we like to look at figures on a sevenday rolling basis. That way, youre not hinged to any one particular day. It could be off by a day or two. More important is to look at one week averages so it gives you a better feel for what is happening in the state of texas. We do not want it to be any delay in the reporting of deaths. One of the things we do is to keep up with that, looking and scanning all of the city and county Health Department data that they post. If they post a death, we include that in our daily count. It may turn out later on, it might be that is not primarily attributed to covid19, so there are some things that can be corrected later on. We want to give the most current data that we can and rely on the city and county Health Departments to do that. As the governor mentioned, as far as test results, in some cases, keep in mind that normally for reportable diseases, labs and doctors are only required to report the positive tests. In the case of covid19, we want both. We want the positive and negative tests so we can calculate percent positive rates. In some cases, the data feed on the total number of tests or the negative tests, we had to make corrections for that. That is the reason to use the sevenday rolling average to even out those corrections. I need to ask dr. Hellerstedt a followup. Hospitals not reporting negatives, are your figures now corrected . Is there a date that you can point to where we have the full picture . Dr. Hellerstedt we believe they are now corrected on a Going Forward basis. Governor, contact tracing. Is today every new positive case being traced . If not, can you specify when you expect the state and its partners to be able to do that . Gov. Abbott sure. I will let dr. Hellerstedt answer that. Dr. Hellerstedt we are ramping up on case tracking. Tracing is the term we are using. I would not say we are able to contact every positive test at this point. We believe we will need a workforce of around 4000 to do that. In addition, we have a webbased application that is going to cover the entire state and enable coordination of the case tracing across the entire state. That is still being developed. It is being developed at a very fast rate and it is being perfected so we understand what users need and it becomes a very useful tool. So when we work with city and county Health Department partners, we will give the option of them to either tie their data into that system or use that system directly to do their own case tracing work. Right now, we are ramping that up as fast as we can. It is a fact that we are not able at this point to do tracing on every civil positive case. Given the unemployment, what do you say to texans who are still without work . And any efforts the state will continue to make to help them as they navigate through this . Gov. Abbott unemployment numbers are too high and unacceptable. That said, i will tell you that according to the dallas federal reserve, texas has the lowest Unemployment Rate of any of the large states in the united states. What we intend to do to lower the Unemployment Rate even more is to continue this process of opening up texas. The reason why the Unemployment Rate is where it is is because of the businesses that were shut the reason the Unemployment Rate is where it is is because of the businesses that were shut down. Our fellow texans need to understand that one of the most important strategies that we can utilize to make sure that texas can continue to open is to have all texans continue the process of distancing, hand sanitization, doing Everything Possible to reduce the spread of covid19. The more that we do that, the more we can safely open up, the more texas can get back to work and get back into the workforce. There has been a Chilling Effect for undocumented immigrants who are fearful of deportation and not taking advantage of some of these benefits that they are eligible for. Should the state do more to educate which programs are universally available, such as the pandemic electric electronic benefit transfer on school meal replacement, or the for Health Care Providers that would have no effect on immigration . Abbott i am on tv every day, multiple times per day, talking about these strategies to make available to anybody in the state of texas. As you know and as your paper has published, we provide that information publicly that does get repeated multiple times per week. We will continue to make sure that everybody in the state of texas is aware of these programs and make the benefits available. I know that you have asked people to be careful to be respectful of others, but at the same time to patronize his this is, but if you go to parks or bikes thoroughfares, you see a lot of people not maintaining social distance or not Wearing Masks. How do you balance the idea of telling people to go out while being respectful of others or Wearing Masks if needed . Abbott you need to make sure you are not jumping to conclusions. Some of the people who are not distancing could be family members because they congregate within the family all the time anyway. One thing that we know for a fact with an Infectious Disease that does not have a cure is that the more that people practice safe distancing the more that we will be able to reduce the spread. And every dayay that we strongly urge all texans to continue safe distancing practices, to where face masks, to sanitize your hands and do everything you can to continue to slow the spread. If you do that there will be more opportunities to open the state even more. All. You cspan has unfiltered coverage to the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic with white house briefings, updates from governors and our daily callin program, hearing your thoughts about the coronavirus crisis. Time on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Here is a look at our live coverage tuesday. Jerome powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testified before the Senate Banking committee about the distribution of Financial Aid under the cares act, a 2 trillion bill that Congress Passed in march in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and on cspan two, the senate is back to consider judicial and executive nominations including James Traynor to be a member of the federal election commission. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker held a briefing on his states to the coronavirus. He announced that manufacturing, construction and houses of worship will be able to resume operation starting today. From boston, this is an hour. Gov. Baker good morning. I want to gov. Baker good morning. Want to start by recognizing the toll this virus has taken on so many people in the commonwealth. I want to talk about who is behind all of the numbers that we discuss in this room every day. Nurses, doctors, and all the