This is station 7. You can see the ambulances lined up here. These are the folks who rush out when that 911 call comes in. In the next 30 minutes weve gotten word well be getting the Daily Briefing from new York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Well get the latest information from new york state. Meanwhile, here in the United States it was the second deadliest day of covid19 so far. So far nearly 15,000 americans have died, more than 432,000 known cases. Thats a jump of 31,000 cases since i came to you yesterday at this hour. Also, another tough day for americas workers. Another 6. 6 million americans filed jobless claims last week alone. That brings the total now since the pandemic started to 16 million in the last week, 16 Million People have filed for unemployment, just to give you some perspective, that is the population of nevada and pennsylvania combined. For everyone who is watching this morning, just a reminder, were taking all the necessary precautions. Were wearing the masks, will be wearing the masks for the entire hour, the recommendations of the cdc, gloves as well. Were also social distancing. We apologize in advance if we have to move suddenly because again this is station 7 is a working unit, some 80 members of paramedics and emts here. Well have to be pretty quick here with some of our movements. I want to bring in vincent veriali. Vincent, stand by for a minute. Hes the emt lieutenant and president of the ems officers june yoon ju union and the fdny. Also a presumed case of covid19 himse himself. So this is what weve been seeing throughout the morning, guys, by the way. The call comes in, that 911 call comes in, and these are the folks who rush out. In just a moment were going to talk about specifically the kinds of calls that theyre getting. Theyre getting a lot of cardiac calls. Lets start there, start with these cardiac calls you guys have been getting. On sunday i understand it was an especially difficult day for you guys. Yes, it was. We received an increase in the cardiac arrest calls. Normally wed see about 80 calls throughout the city of new york. Now were seeing it jump to 250, 300 calls a day. A lot of death, a lot of work for our members throughout the city. My understanding is of those calls that youre getting, those cardiac arrest calls, some 75 of the people who are dying usually that figure is far lower. Im sorry. Roughly 70 of the people, those cardiac calls on sunday, they died. Do we know why that figure seems to be so much higher right now than usual . I definitely believe its the coronavirus attacking the respiratory system in people. I had the coronavirus early on, and i can tell you, it makes it very difficult to breathe. So especially if you have an underlying condition like asthma or respiratory problems and you get this virus, you can go into respiratory arrest and then cardiac arrest. I definitely understand why the death rate would go higher. Again, word coming down that weve got 597 members of the fdny have tested positive for covid19. You think that number is likely much higher. Why . I think its much higher. We still dont have adequate testing. We still dont have from the very beginning weve asked for testing, and fdny doesnt provide testing. Our members are working four, five days a week, 16 hours a day. So dont even have time to go get tested if they can find a site. Its a dual problem. You also said something to me before we came on the air that i had not considered. Youve got a number of your guys and women as well who work a 16hour shift, and at the end of that shift, to protect their loved ones, theyre not going back inside that onebedroom apartment. Thats correct. What are they doing . The fdny has provided some lodging. Unfortunately its not enough that is available for our members. So many of them are choosing to stay in their cars after working 16 hours because they dont want to bring this home to their loved ones, to their wife, their children, their husbands. Many of them live in small apartments where they cant quarantine themselves from their families. So they are choosing to stay in their cars for the night or at the end of their tour for six or seven hours and then go back to work. Normally fdny gets about 4,000 calls a day. What are you guys seeing right now . Weve seen the call volume rise as high as 7,200 calls. Last night it was a little bit lower at 6,250 in the call volume. But its still a 50 increase in the call volume were used to seeing. How are they holding up . How are your guys, how are they coping throughout all this . Its tough, as you can imagine. A lot of them are physically, mentally and emotionally drained. But you know, were dedicated, committed members who save lives. Theyre all stepping up and working. We have a large percentage of the workforce out sick. When you increase call volume, its tough on you. We appreciate you. Vincent veriale, thank you very much. Appreciate you, sure. Kathy park is standing by in queens, not far from where im standing. Shes in front of elmhurst hospital. Weve done a lot of reporting at how bad things have been there. Whats the latest on the ground today, kathy . Reporter hey, craig. Good morning to you. I think one of the most alarming headlines that we have seen here in new york is that we have more coronavirus cases than any other country. So those are some sobering statistics. As far as yesterday goes, Governor Cuomo will be hearing from him shortly. He said we have seen the highest spike in death tolls, the largest oneday jump, 779 in the past 24 hour. We anticipate the numbers will actually go up even more as far as positive cases and deaths go. He did offer a bit of hope yesterday saying that the social distancing measures appear to be working, and we are starting to see a flattening of the curve. He says hes cautiously optimistic. Hes stressed that this is not a time for us to be complacent. We need to continue the social distancing measures. Here at elmhurst, craig, we have noticed a big difference from a couple weeks ago when we saw a long line of people waiting to get test ed. Now, we actually at this hour dont have anyone in line. So it is perhaps going to the larger picture of the number of hospitalizations, intubations, those stats seem to be going down. Thats definitely some good n s news. The city, the state, they have all been working together to make sure we have all the resources in place. All these hospitals are now working together as one Hospital System and essentially sharing the resources as needed, whenever there is a crisis that continues to pop up through out the state, craig. Kathy park at elmhurst hospital in queens. Kathy, thank you. Let us turn now to our doctor on duty. Every day weve been bringing in someone to answer our pressing medical questions. Lots of folks go to webmd to get answers to those questions. We thought it would be a good idea to bring in the doctor from webmd, dr. John white, the chief medical officer there for that website. Dr. White, thank you so much for your time. I know you guys are very busy. I want to start with something i read in the times, the idea that the cases were seeing especially here in new york, that these cases did not originate in china, they originated in europe. What, if anything, can we glean from that . Craig, thanks for having me on today. First, it really talks about our medical technology, that we really can do these genetic investigations. What it tells us is we may have been wrong early on when we thought most of the cases were from china. In fact, they mostly have been from europe. It speaks to the importance of testing. You mentioned earlier about no one was in line for testing. But if we had a better testing strategy, a more comprehensive testing strategy, we might have been able to be alert to cases that were coming from europe. Dr. White, of the questions that you guys are getting at webmd, whats the most popular question . Whats the one question that everyone seems to be asking that goes to the website . I should tell you we have 20 million page views a week on coronavirusrelate tod topics. 3 million a day. A large number of questions are around safety concerns. What theyre really asking is how long does the virus live on surfaces. Thats what they want to know. Is it okay to get a package, is it okay to order groceries. Should they disinfect their tabletop every hours. Thats what they want to know, how long does it live on surfaces. The best, most credible informati information. Dr. White, they have been signs for cautious optimism over the past days. Intubations appear to be going down. Hospitalizations continue to be going down while deaths continue to climb. Where do you think we are in terms of the apex specifically here in new york . As you know, weve been talking about is this eight or nine days in mid april. We have to keep in mind, we talk about data, but we really want to know whats happening in our local area. So here you are in new york city where we think most of them are we already starting to peak because were seeing the decrease in the rate of hospitalization even though deaths might be increasing because were ten days behind. But i think for most people were thinking its most likely in the next ten days or so. But it is going to vary slightly based on the dynamics of infection in your area. Dr. John white, our doctor on duty for the hour. Webmds chief doctor. Dr. White, stand by for me if you can. Were at station 7. I want to show you simple signs, simple poster. Were not sure if thats a business, not sure what that is. You see it there in the window, a simple sign expressing the sentiment of so many of us on this thursday morning. To all those on the front line, thank you. Speaking of folks doing their part on the front line, bethenny frankel, the entrepreneur, the philanthropist. Shes raised some 15 million for ppe. She also reached out yesterday on social media to ups and got a response on something that were going to talk about on the other side of the break. Well continue our coverage here on msnbc right after this. You should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not, because you have e trade whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad, get e trade. New tide power pods one up the can it one up spaghetti night . It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . 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Craig melvin here back at station 7 of the fdny as two more paramedics hop in their ambulance here. They just told us they are, in fact, headed out on a call. This is what weve been seeing all morning, of course. Our front line workers, our Emergency Responders have just been crush with calls related to covid19. Well have more on that in just a moment. But there are also a lot of other folks that are doing a lot of good in their own way, one of them being bethenny frankel, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and has raised at last check, beth bethenny, 15 million for the personal protective equipment that weve been talking about so much over the past few weeks. How have you been raising that money and where is that equipment going, my friend . So were now at about 17. 5 million distributed to governments. We brought 200,000 masks to deblasio, a million hazmat, bio hazard suits to cuomo, 50,000 bio hazard suits to louisiana and then thousands and thousands of masks to hospitals and clinics throughout the country. Weve touched about 15 states now and over 200 hospitals we will have helped. But the money raised from people donating is going to all those hospitals and clinics that cannot after fortd to lay out money for ppe even if they could get it, and they couldnt wait to get reimbursed by fema. Were trying to allocate aid based on where its the worst. You just described new york being the worst and new york city being the worst of the worst. Louisiana is very bad. Were moving on to texas. Weve distributed in florida, in california. Were working with michigan. Weve talked to nevada. Were trying to really help as many states as possible and the really, really challenged hospitals, volunteer hospitals, hospitals that have absolutely no money, no resources. Just yesterday you made this plea on social media to ups, asking them to lower their shipping costs during this crisis. It would seem as if you got their attention. I got their attention, and they are in contact with us now. I need people to understand that for every 7,500 as mat suits we send out on behalf of billy joel, we can send out 1,000 more if the shipping were down. Shipping is very expensive. Same thing, if we send out several thousand masks, we could send a thousand more if our shipping were decreased. 100 of bestrong goes to the effort. We have a warehouse in miami. Were constantly moving aid out every day. Billy joel donated 500,000. His aid was distributed to places in new york and long island the next day. The mcconaugheyss aid was distributed the next day. The shipping was very key for us, its timely and cost effective. We are really trying to save lives of the people who are saving our lives. Were working day and night to get them the protection they need while theyre on the front lines trying to fight a fire without any gear. Imagine walking into a fire without your helmet. It would be treacherous. Also police officers, also firefighters, people who really need to be protected. Theyre going out when were staying hoping. I was over in queens yesterday at a popup food bank, and the line for food literally stretched four blocks. It struck me. I understand that youre also putting together some kits for povertystricken families to try and help them get through this difficult time. Whats in these kits . The corona kits have sanitizing gel, wipes, gloves, hydration, immune boosters. They started in the beginning when people were still out in the world, not basically quarantined. Its basically for prevention, but we dont know how long this will be around. This is also a great thing for Health Care Workers because they need their immune systems up. They need to be hydrated. Theyre fighting for us. The sooner everybody really falls in line with what they should be doing, whether its wearing your protective gear or staying home, everyone knows what their part should be, thats when this curve when well be on the back nine of this. The only way is for everyone to do their part. Everyone needs to do exactly what theyre supposed to be doing, be protected, stay home, not be running around and going to different restaurants or takeout every day and using this as some sort of a vacation. Im really serious about it. People have to hold people accountable. Two more of our emts at station 7 pulling back in from a call. Bethenny, really quickly, for folks who dont know, you are a new yorker. Whats this been like for you personally . Personally, i have a roof over my head. I think you have to be so aware of the unemployment numbers and the poverty numbers and People Holding signs that say will work for food. The desperation level means people are going to have posttraumatic stress disorder, are supposed to have anxiety right now, we all have to be together. New yorkers have been through so much together and they are survivors. We will survive as a city and a state, but we have to just all be a link in the chain to work together. Im a new yorker, and im proud to be a new yorker, and i feel so badly for whats going on right now. But it is a global reset, and i think were all finding meaning in this. Well come together and it will make us stronger. I genuinely do believe that. As do i. Bethenny frankel, thanks for what youre doing. Keep it up and keep us posted as well. Chicago. Chicago has also been hit especially hard. Its being hit especially hard and especially in communities of color. Black people in chicago are dying from covid19 at a rate of six times, six times higher than their white counterparts. Whats happening in the windy city . Well dig into that on the other side of this break. soft music [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. Weve worked to provide you with the financial strength, stability, and online tools you need. And now its no different. Because helping you through this crisis is what were made for. Craig melvin from new york city. Were outside station 7 as we shine a light on our First Responders and how theyre dealing with this global pandemic. Right now were keeping our eye on two things. First of all, d. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser addressing reporters there, making some comments, taking questions. The mayor of d. C. Shutting down those popular fish markets and outdoor food markets until they can figure out how to implement social distancing. Were also keeping an eye on governor Andrew CuomosDaily Briefing. Were told that is set to begin any moment. When he takes to the microphone, well take you there live. Were also keeping a very close eye on what is happening in this countrys Third Largest city. It has been said before that when white people catch a cold, black people catch the flu. That seems to be whats happening in chicago. Shaquille brewster standing by. Shaq, as i understand it, in Chicago Black people are dying from covid19 at a rate six times higher than their white counterparts. Do we know why . Reporter thats exactly right. When you talk about chicago specifically, africanamericans make up about 30 of the population, but we know from data that theyre coming up with in terms of fatalities, 70 of the phi at that times in this city. Thats why you hear medical leaders emphasizing the control of the spread of the virus. Yesterday the state of illinois saw the highest increase in coronavirus cases and coronavirus deaths. 82 deaths, 1,500 new cases. Well see what those numbers are later today. What hospitals have been focusing on is not just the treatment, not just testing and screening, but also the education, making sure that people understand how to stay safe and how to stop spreading the virus. One thing theyve been doing is partnering with local community organizations, an leader to an organization i spoke to, normally they pass out flyers dealing with the violence, now passing out flyers dealing with to control the spread of the virus. What weve been seeing is the youth dont believe it, dont believe the virus is real. Despite the numbers . Despite whats being said on television. We have to be honest. Most of them dont watch the 6 00 news. Thats where we come in. We provide them with information from the Chicago Department of health, and were partnering with them, with information on how to be safe. Not only you, but your family. Reporter he explained to me a big problem theyre dealing with is the misinformation and disinformation out there, people thinking theyre invincible to this virus, young people not taking this seriously enough. Theyre addressing that know. Ill tell you the mayor of chicago, Lori Lightfoot announced a new policy theyre announcing in order to deal with people using public transportation. Bus drivers will only use rear door boarding, so people only enter the buses from thing ba. Theyre also giving bus drivers the option to skip some stops if the bus becomes more crowded. Youre seeing an all hands on deck effort not only from the community but from officials. Shaquille brewster in chicago, thank you. Lets bring back our doctor on duty, dr. John white from webmd. We know hypertension, diabetes are far more prevalent in black communities than other communities. What do those two things specifically mean for covid19 . Well, we know those populations are at increased risk, when you have high Blood Pressure, when you have asthma. The other point, craig, we need to point out is theres not equal access to testing. People of color are not getting tested to the same degree as caucasians are. Many times essential workers are people of color, and theyre more likely getting more exposure to coronavirus. So if you have diabetes and you have high Blood Pressure which can compromise your blood vessels, thats going to put you at greater risk. But im not surprised, sadly, that blacks are dying at a greater frequency. We see that pre covid19. This is really just exposing the lack of access to the Health Care System, the lack of access to those social determinants of health. But we have to start with equal access to testing. And screening and education as well, doctor, i would imagine. In terms of education, shaq just mentioned some of the misinformation out there. A couple weeks ago on facebook someone sent me some nonsense about how blacks werent getting covid19, how because the makeup of our dna, that we were immune to this. How much of an uphill battle is education and misinformation in all of this . We say its an epidemic. Its also an impodemic. Theres a lot of information out there. Were trying to provide credible evidencebased information. Early on in january and february, people were saying blacks cant get coronavirus. We know thats just not true. It probably put people at greater risk. So we need to encourage people to check the source of the information, to check who is writing it. Everyone that has a blog isnt an expert epidemiologist or Infectious Disease specialist. Sometimes thats hard to determine. You really want to look and see who is writing that information and what seems credible and what have you heard elsewhere. Youre exactly right, we need to get credible information, and we need to present it in ways that people can understand. Its particularly challenging when we want to get that good information out to minority communities. I love the line where your guest said people arent watching the 6 00 p. M. News. I wish we were watching more news, but we have to acknowledge that and then figure out ways, how do we reach communities that are most impacted. Right now its primarily communities of color. Dr. White, webmd, our doctor on duty for the hour, stand by. I want to call your attention so many signs like this popping up all over new york city, thank you ems, stay strong. Were told that someone just dropped this off one day and put it up. The emt workers have left it up ever since this pandemic started. Other folks on the front lines right now, essential workers that you might not think about or probably didnt think about up until a few weeks ago, Grocery Store workers. A gro are Grocery Store workers sho l showing up for work . Many making minimum wage. A lot of them sounding the alarm that they do not feel theyre being properly protected in those Grocery Stores. Im going to talks with someone who represents a union on behalf of these Grocery Store workers. Well do that right after this. This is msnbc. She wanted to help anyone she came in contact with. So she said to me, mom, no one is showing up to work. Were short short staffed. Mom, i have to take my own hand sanitizer. Theres no gloves available. She worked at lion grocery for for six years, six years. Well have more on that a little later. Right now new York Governor Andrew Cuomo with his Daily Briefing. Lets listen in. 80 days. Been an intense life changing 80 days, but thats what it has been. When we started this situation that we are still in the midst of before people get complacent, the end of march the White House Task force, Coronavirus Task force was still talking about 1. 5 to 2. 2 million deaths. Their best Case Scenario with, quote, unquote, mitigation efforts was 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States which is breathtaking. For new york, there were a number of models that were put out that we are following. The most frightening was Columbia University that said we could have 136,000 people in new york city only who would be hospitalized, not infected. We had the mckenzie model which suggested 110,000 people could be hospitalized statewide. We had a second scenario from mckinsey which is 55,000 people hospitalized. And then the gates foundation, thank you very much, funded the ihme study which said 73,000 statewide. Any of these scenarios are devastating for new york. Remember, we only have a 53,000bed capacity system statewide. 36,000 beds in new york city. Any of these scenarios are problematic. Luckily, the current trend if it continues and if we continue the flattening of the curve, were at about 18,000 people hospitalized right now. We increased the capacity of the system dramatically. Weve moved pieces around the state like never before. Our Health Care System has done a phenomenal job in doing an insurmountable task. Our federal partners, the army corps of engineers, they have really all done a great, great j job. My job as governor, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Were at about 90,000bed capacity in our overall system today. With everything weve done. Even the 90,000 beds, as you see, doesnt compare with the most problematic scenarios. 90,000 beds we can handle the mckinsey moderate scenario. We dont make the mckinsey severe scenario at 110,000. I believe that 90,000, we have a plan to get to 110, converting dormitories, et cetera, et cetera. But it would be a massive undertaking and a massive scramble. We do make the gates funded projection model. The Columbia University model, we can never. That would be a nightmare. That is the one that keeps me up at nights because you couldnt get anywhere near that projection. But all of the statisticians also said, look, we dont know how effective you can be at closing things down and social distancing because weve never done it before. But they all said thats the chance to socalled flatten the curve if you actually got people to comply with all these measures and we have never seen it done before in this country and we dont know if you can do it. So that is the big if in the equation. That remains the big if in the ae kwags. You can flatten the curve. We are flattening the curve by what were doing and were flattening the curve so far. We should all be concerned, especially new yorkers, well, were flattening the curve. Thats good news. It is good news. Well, now i can relax. No, you cant relax. The flattening of the curve last night happened because of what we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that. This is all a direct consequence to our actions. If we stop acting the way were acting, you will see those numbers go up. And i showed in the projection models, because we cant handle the worst Case Scenarios. We cant even handle the moderateCase Scenarios with all weve done. So it is essential that we keep that curve flattened because we dont have an option of handling the curve if it goes higher. The additional good news is, the hospitalization rate does suggest that its coming down and we are flattening the curve. We had 200 net increase in hospitalizations which you can see is the lowest number weve had since this nightmare started actually. A change in icu admissions is the lowest number weve had since march 19th or so. So all of this data suggests were flattening the curve so far and the numbers are coming down so far. Number of intubations is down. Threeday average on intubations is down. So far our efforts are working. Theyre working better than anyone projected they would work. Thats because people are complying with them. Theres always two questions, can you enact the policies and can you enact the policies in a way that people will follow . We can enact a policy, and people thumb their nose to it and continue doing what theyre doing. There has to be a social acceptance and adherence to the policy. New yorkers are doing that. Theyre acting responsibly and diligently and we are saving lives by what people are doing today. Our expression has been new york tough, because every day is tough on many, many levels. I get it. But every day that we are new york tough, were actually saving lives. And dont underestimate this virus. I think that is a mistake we made from day one. We as the collective we, we as the global community. This virus is very, very good at what it does. We lost more lives yesterday than we have to date. We understand and all the experts have said dr. Fauci said from day one to me, you will see the deaths increasing after the hospitalizations because the deaths increase the longer the person is in the hospital, the longer the person is on the ventilator. I understand the scientific concept. I understand the data, but youre talking about 799 lives. The highest number ever. Its gotten to the point, frankly, that were going to bring in additional Funeral Directors to deal with the number of people who have passed. If you ever told me that as governor i would have to take these actions, i couldnt even contemplate where we are now. And to put all of this in perspective, i lived through 9 11. 9 11 was supposed to be the darkest day in new york for a generation. Weve done everything we can since 9 11 to make sure 9 11 didnt happen again. We lose 2,753 lives on 9 11. Weve lost over 7,000 lives to this crisis. That is so shocking and painful and breathtaking, i dont even have the words for it. 9 11 was so devastating, so tragic. And then in many ways we lose so many more new yorkers to this silent killer. There was no explosion, but it was a silent explosion that just ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9 11. What do we do . We move forward and we do the work we need to do. Were going to start an effort called new york loves which is going to be a coordination of all the charities and not for profits and foundations and people who want to help. Theres been a tremendous outpouring of support, but also people wanted to donate, people wanting to help. The best effort is, if we can coordinate all those resources to make sure theres not duplication and were actually addressing the right need, so the department of state Rosanna Rosado and fran barrett, well coordinate all the people who want to donate and help and work with the local governments that need help. Also, lets learn the lessons of what were going through now, because we havent finished going through it. Lets learn how and why this virus kills, especially why we have higher fatality rates among africanamericans and latinos and what we do about it. Lets understand it, but lets also address it. Were going to be doing more testing in africanamerican and latino communities with more data. Were going to open new testing sites primarily in africanamerican and latino communities with suny albany, department of health, northwell. Collect the test results, but also collect the information that we need to come up with policies to fix this. Where do people live . Where do people work . Whats their socioeconomic status . Where do they socialize . What are their Previous Health conditions . Why do we have these higher rates and what do we do about it . And lets do that now. Rapid testing and testing is going to be the bridge to the new economy and getting to work and restarting, right . Were not going to go from red to green. Were going to go from red to yellow. Yellow is let the people who can go back to work start going back to work. How do you know who can go back to work . Testing. You have Rapid Testing capacity. We have to bring it to scale and bring it to scale quickly. Thats something that the state is working on as well as the federal government. Lets also find a treatment for this disease. Convalescent plasma which is plasma from people who were infected that can be then used to treat people who get infected. We need that plasma from people who were infected. Were starting a blood drive and asking those who have recovered from the virus to contact us and to donate blood so we can develop the convalescent plasma treatment. Theres a website on the screen that they can go to to help. We also have to be prepared and stay prepared. We have to have the supplies, we have to have the right laws, the right procedures. Because remember, the 1918 spanish flu came in three waves. Were on the first wave. Everybody is assuming, well, once we get through this were done. I wouldnt be so quick to assume that. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. Weve underestimated the enemy and that is always dangerous, my friends. And we should not do that again. Theres an article in the l. A. Times that says the communities that have dealt with this before like wuhan, singapore, are now seeing a second wave of infection. There is a theory that this virus can mutate and change and come back. So this is not were in a battle, right . This is about a war. Were only on one battle here. Even once we get through this battle, we have to stay prepared for what could come down the road. We also have to start to repair the immense damage. Before you Start Talking about restarting the economy, youre going to have to address the damage that is done to Society Today which the economic damage, people who are now living in poverty. People have been without a check, without a job, for weeks. And most people in this state live paycheck to paycheck. All of a sudden the paycheck stops. Were doing everything we can on the Unemployment Benefits, increasing the Unemployment Benefits. But you have families that are in true Economic Hardship and are impoverished because of this situation. What do we do with the Housing Market . Hour m hour Health Care System, we have pushed to the max, pushed people to the max. We pushed facilities to the max. We have beds in lobbies and Conference Rooms and hallways. We did what we had to do to be ready, but weve done a lot of damage in the midst that has to be undone. So thats something were working on immediately. And we need the federal government to be responsible. And we need the federal government to pass legislation that helps. We have to stabilize state and local governments across this country. New york state has had the highest number of cases by far and away. Our costs have been the highest in the country. We passed legislation that was enacted, we were told would bring 6 billion to health care. When we did our state budget a couple of weeks ago, we believed what they said and we thought we were looking at 6 billion in health care funding. Turns out when we actually read the language, it was about 1. 3 billion to the state of new york, which is much different than 5 billion or 6 billion. And the funding disqualified onethird of new yorks medicaid recipients, which nobody said. And to our federal representatives, i spoke to senator schumer, i spoke to senator gillibrand, this is no time for politics. This is a time to enact the legislation that actually addresses the need. And i was in washington for eight years. I get how the political process works in washington, not here and not now, my friends. We also have a Significant Mental Health issue that comes with what weve done, the isolation, the disorientation. Its a growing problem. We have a growing problem with the number of Domestic Violence cases. If you need help during this highly stressful period, and i suspect more people need help than acknowledge that they need help, we have a support hotline. We have thousands of people who volunteer to help and people should reach out and ask for it. We have to stay ahead of this virus. Were watching rockland, nassau and suffolk. The numbers have come down in new york city. But you look at the concentric circles around new york city, the natural spread, natural central circles are towards the suburban communities, westchester, rockland, nassau, suffolk. Westchester, we had problems already. One of the first hot spots in the nation was new rochelle in westchester. Now we are seeing numbers creep up in rockland, nassau and suffolk. Were watching those areas. We sent additional equipment last night. And the overall point is you stay at home and you save a life period. Stay at home, save a life. I know new yorkers who are born and bread, the instinct is this is good news. Now i can relax. By the way, i have been dyeing to relax and get out of the house and end this groundhog day reality. Yeah, youre not out of the woods. And now is not the time to misunderstood whats happening. We have done great things, and weve saved lives because we have followed these policies. The moment you stop following the policies, you will go right back and see that number shoot through the roof. And we are not prepared to handle the highest numbers in those projection models. Whatever we do. You cant take a 50,000bed system and get it to 136,000 beds. Its an impossibility. And im a person who never says no, and believes new york can do anything if we try. Im telling you, we have to keep that curve flat. Today we can say that we have lost many of our brothers and sisters, but we havent lost anyone because they didnt get the right and best health care that they could. The way i sleep at night is i believe we didnt lose anyone that we could have saved. And that is the only solace when i look at these numbers and look at this pain that has been created. That has to be true, and that has to continue and that is a function of what each and every one of us does. So new york tough, yes. Were tough, but tough means were smart with discipline, were unified and were loving. And if you dont want to stay home for yourself, stay home for somebody you love. Thats what the Stayathome Campaign is all about. You want to have reckless disregard for your life, its not about your life. Its about the Health Care Worker who will have to treat you in the emergency room. Its about the Vulnerable Person who you infect, who you can kill by your actions. Sometimes it not about you, right . Its not about me. Its about we. And thats where we are. Questions . Do we need Nursing Homes just for Covid Patients . No, were not planning Nursing Homes for Covid Patients. Governor, millions of people are applying for unemployment nationwide and hundreds of thousands here in new york. We have consistent reports they cant get through to operators at the new York State Department of labor. This has been going on for weeks. What sort of assurances can you offer residents they can get these benefits, particularly in times of Economic Hardship . With the technology at the department of labor, the system just crashed because of the volume. Its one of those unanticipated consequences of a situation like this. Again, jesse, nobodys been here before. We learn from the next time, but we have a government shuts down the private sector economy. You have millions that are out of work. The next shoe to drop is going to be millions of people calling for Unemployment Benefits, crashing the system that handles the Unemployment Benefits because you had 100fold increase, which is what has happened. We have 1,000 people who are now working on just personnel for that incoming system. Think about that, 1,000 people who are working on processing applications for Unemployment Benefits. That was like the number we used to get of applicants. Now we have 1,000 people processing applications. Were working with google to come up with an online mechanism. That bypasses any phone certification. The phone certification was important because you want to make sure that people who are applying are also qualified. So were doing everything we can. The good news is whenever you sign up, your benefits are going to be retro active. You will not have received the check, i get that. And thats causing anxiety. But its not like youre not going to get the same benefit because you didnt get through on monday and you didnt get through until thursday. Melissa is working on the system. You want to update it . Sure. To give everybody context, these numbers will come out later today. Last week there were 350,000 unemployment claims in new york. Going back to march 9, were at 110,000 unemployment claims. So far 6,000 have been successfully processed so you have over 200,000 that are still in partial status. You go online and fill out the application. If you fill out the application in full, youre done. If you leave any of the fields blank, whats been happening is they tell you to call the system. So you call the system to follow up. Thats what then caused the crash in volume and then the system goes down. As the governor said weve been working with google. Today between 5 00 and 7 00 the system goes down to reboot. 7 00 the new application goes online. Its streamlined. There are fewer questions. And once you get to the end of that, if you successfully fill it out, its going to say youre finished with the application process. If theres any area left blank it will say dont call us, we will call you within 72 hours. And there are a thousand people on the phone lines reaching out directly so people dont have to go through this infuriating process of calling and getting busy signals and thereby collapsing the system. Hopefully today after 7 00 it will be much better streamlined, but as of governor said, its a volume issue we never experienced. Last night you acted to freeze the pay of state workers. Can you talk about why you decided to do that . I will ask