This morning the governor doubling down on the order for new yorkers that wear face coverings in public. Meanwhile over on capitol hill, another round of Coronavirus Relief has passed the senate. That bill now heads to the house. Were going to have a little more on how the legislation would help some would provide some 500 billion money for Small Businesses. All of this while governors in the south are trying to help businesses in their own ways by pulling back restrictions. The cdc director says officials need to stress the importance of social distancing and that protests against stayathome orders, those protests are not helpful. The cdc director also warning that a second wave of coronavirus could come back next winter, and that wave could be even more devastating. This hour were going to be putting a sharp focus on the commonwealth, on virginia. That is where we find nbcs catie beck in the capital of richmond. Shell be with us throughout the hour. What you can see and likely hear, protesters gathering in opposition to virginias stayinplace order. Catie, whats driving these protests in richmond . Reporter craig, these protesters are literally driving to get their message across. This is a moving protest from inside cars. They are driving around Capitol Square in rich mopped trying to make their voices heard. They want the commonwealth of virginia reopened for business. Theyre calling on Governor Ralph Northam to lift his stayathome order, the longest in the country, that extends through june 10th. A lot of protests here having signs that demand that northam reconsider the date, calling it unreasonable and extreme. They are begging for him to reopen virginia so folks can get back to work. The timing of this protest is particularly important because the legislature is actually in session today for one day only. This is actually veto day at the capital where they review the budget and amendments. For the first time in virginia history, the house of delegates and the senate are meeting separately today, both meeting outside the capital. The senators are meeting about a mile and a half away from the capitol because of worries of the pandemic and trying to keep everyone at a safe distance. These protesters are hoping their voices can reach beyond the Capitol Grounds and inside where the lawmakers are trying to make decisions, to try to influence this stayathome order and get it lifted before june 10th. Its a matter of the economy, they say, a matter of Small Businesses and its their right to go to work. Thats what theyre trying to convey to the governor and the state lawmakers in session. We were able to speak with the organizer of this event earlier today. Here is what he had to say. Im saying we need to start looking into reopening today. We need to seriously consider the larger issues outside of the health, outside of personal and Public Health. We need to start looking at the larger ramifications of what the shutdown is doing and a reasonable, reasoned, not fearbased way in which to open up the commonwealth and get us back to work. Reporter another comment we keep hearing from protesters is Governor Ralph Northam is himself a doctor, so they feel hes slanted on this issue from a medical perspective rather than an economic perspective. They say hes going to be overly cautious and extend it longer than it should be. A lot of reasons theyre single him out and want him to hear the message directly. Craig. Catie, we see the protesters in richmond, but weve also seen Health Care Administrators who want more help on the front lines. In fact, it was just yesterday we saw the nurses in front of the white house calling for more ppe, the protective equipment. They even read the names of their fallen colleagues as well. Theres also this new nbc news wall street journal poll thats out that shows 58 of americans say theyre worried the u. S. Is going to actually loosen restrictions too quickly. Just 32 said they were worried it was going to take too long to loosen those restrictions. So, again, not to discount the protesters there in richmond, but it would seem as if a majority of folks, when asked, say we should probably go a little slower instead of a little too quickly here. What are the folks there saying about those numbers . Do they even acknowledge that they are, in fact, in the minority . Reporter they do acknowledge those numbers. I think the point theyre trying to make here is theres a balance between both, that theres a balance between Public Health and securing the economy. Thats the argument ive been hearing from organizers today. While june 10th to them is not a reasonable date, theyre not saying to open up the state without restrictions, without having some social distancing in order to protect people. They do acknowledge this virus is threatening and dangerous and has caused all of this to happen, but at the same time they think protecting virginias economy is also of paramount importance. They feel like the governor could do a better job of striking a balance between the two. Thats the argument being made here today. Okay. Catie beck in richmond, do stand by. Catie will be with us throughout the hour. Right now lets jump a few states south of virginia. Lets head to South Carolina. Thats where Retail Businesses are reopening as we speak. The states republican Governor Henry Mcmaster gave the green light, as long as businesses follow social distancing guidelines, that decision coming just two weeks after restrictions on businesses were put in place. Northbounds ali vitali is in columbia, South Carolina. Shes at a familyowned business. I know that street there. I used to live not far from there. Shes on divine street outside britains which has just reopened. What are you hearing from local businesses on the ground there, ali . Reporter craig, i think local businesses are hearing a lot of mixed messages when you take in tandem the State Government officials who are saying now is the time to accelerate South Carolina, lets begin the reopening process. And then local officials like the mayor in columbia, steve benjamin, who said in order to be pro business, you also have to be pro health. Hes not happy about seeing how the state is reopening these businesses. The republican governor saying Retail Businesses are now able to get back in business, and beaches are able to be opened. The businesses here weve been spending time at, britains, one you know well, is reopening. Its with a mix of excitement and also nervousness. Theyre trying to take precautions. They deep cleaned the store on monday, their owner told me. Theyre continuing to wipe it down, taking different protocols inside the store so people can feel safe, but also so they can stay in business. I think in talking to the owner here, the thing that really struck me is twofold. On the one hand, she knows she needs to keep paying her 11 employees who are like family to her, and shes also trying to pay her vendors. She recognizes that Small Businesses are not just isolated entities. They live in this larger ecosystem of vendors and employees and other Small Businesses. Shes very much aware of that. To that effect shes really waiting on this money from the Small Business administration to come through, those loans coming to Small Businesses. She says shes applied for them. She said she hopes to see it next week. She says right now thats money thats been spent and budgeted on her end and she really needs it to come through, and its crucial for her business, craig. Ali, while were okay. While were having this conversation, we should point out that were also waiting to hear from the governor, governor mcmaster. I believe we have a live picture there of that press conference thats set to start any moment now. The governor of South Carolina and the state superintendent of education, a woman named molly spearman, theyre expected to make an announcement regarding schools for the remainder of the school year. Perhaps the governor and the state superintendent of education announcing that schools may be reopening in South Carolina. We dont know. When we get some word there from west columbia, south korea sks, well bring that to you. Ali vitali in columbia, thank you. Meanwhile, from South Carolina to georgia, georgias governor also plans to reopen some businesses starting friday. So far more than 20,000 known cases of the virus, more than 800 people have died in georgia. Now a number of mayors there are speaking out against the governors decision. I want to bring in one of those mayors. Atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms, a democrat. You told chuck todd on tuesday at that point you had not spoken with the governor about the decision to start reopening businesses on friday. Have you talked to him last night or talked to him today . I have not talked with him today, but i did receive a call from his chief of staff to my chief of staff that the governor did want to talk over the next couple days. So i do appreciate the call and look forward to having that conversation with him. Im deeply concerned about where we are in this state. On the same date that the governor announced the guidelines for reopening the state, you created your own Advisory Council to create a plan for atlanta specifically. What does reopening your city, what is that going to look like . Who should people in your city look to, if theyre getting different information from their governor and their mayor . Craig, its very confusing to people. Ive received a number of calls from hairstylists, Restaurant Owners, people who just dont understand what this means. So there are people who are concerned and feel challenged because when you fill out an unemployment application, one of the questions it asks is do you have the ability to work or have you refused work. So people are concerned about what this will mean for any potential benefits they can receive. Ive had several Restaurant Owners who said they absolutely will not put their people at risk. When i have a conversation with the governor, what i will relay to him is a concern that many of the mayors have across this state. We arent there yet. Ive spoken before about the high asthmatic rates in atlanta that often makes covid19 deadly. When you talk about hair alones and barber shots and the africanamerican community, theres one on every single corner. When we open up the doors and we have our hairstylists and barbers trying to get ppe when many of our hospitals are challenged, were opening up the doors not just for Small Businesses, but opening up the doors to our community as a whole. That means people with Underlying Health conditions will be at even greater risk. I understand the economics of it. My mother owned a hair salon for 25 years. I know many stylists dont even make it paycheck to paycheck. But i also know that whats most important above all else is life. I hope that when i speak with the governor he will take that into consideration and really defer to local leaders as to how we can best navigate the challenges that we are facing in our respective communities. Our katy becatie beck is in richmond, virginia. She has a question for you as well. Reporter hi mayor lance bottoms. I wanted to touch with you about striking that balance between the economy and Public Health. I know from covering you that youre pro business, you understand the importance of a Strong Economy especially in a major metropolitan city like atlanta. When you hear from protesters on their right to earn, how do you strike that balance between hearing their concerns but also protecting Public Health . What i think we have to do as leaders is continue to make sure were able to put money in the pockets of people who need it. We have to make sure we have our food programs set up. Do what weve done in atlanta. We have a Small Business loan program in place. Were already administering dollars to Small Businesses. We launched yesterday a beauty and hair Salon Relief Fund so we can put money in the pockets of people who need it. Weve suspended evictions. Weve suspended mortgage payments. There are a lot of things we can do to make this a lot easier. What i would say to these protesters, perhaps you cant call the names out of people who are sick and have died in the way that i do, perhaps you dont know a Chantel Myrick who had oxygen delivered to her home, a lilly thomas who was on a ventilator for 15 days, or retired Police Officer newkirk who lost his life. If you can call those names, i think you have a better understanding of what this means. Its not an economy versus freedom. This is about life and making decisions that allow people that allow people to be healthy and whole on the other side of this pandemic. Mayor, lets take a pause here from the pandemic and lets talk politics for just a second. Perhaps youre aware that South Carolina congressman jim clyb n clyburn, he recently listed a few names as potential running mates for jooid. I believe last summer you came out and endorsed him. Congressman clyburn told the newspaper in london you would make a solid number two. Youre a firstterm mayor of a major metropolitan area. Do you think youre qualified to be Vice President . Craig, after navigating a pandemic in the biggest municipal cyber attack in the history of our country, i think im qualified to handle just about anything other than home schooling my four kids. So when congressman clyburn mentions your name, certainly its an honor to be spoken. Ive said all along, i want joe biden to win in november. I trust he will make the best choice that will allow him the best opportunity to take over the white house in november because elections matter. We see it now. We see where we are as a country, attempting to navigate this pandemic. I think we could have done a much better job even if we simply had the Pandemic Team in place that was left by the obama biden administration. I think people need to take this election very seriously, and we see what consequences of elections are when we dont have solid leadership in place. We sea mayors across the nation getting it done. We see governors getting it done. So the short answer is, yes, i certainly think im qualified. If you can run a major city, then i think you have a pretty good idea of what our communities need across this country. If he asked you, would you say yes . You know, if he asked me, it certainly would be a conversation worth having, and i would want to know why he thought i could best help him win in november. So right now, again, the biggest concern i have right now is navigating atlanta through this pandemic and making sure that our community is whole on the other side of this and making sure that my four kids are able to finish this home schooling experiment at grade level. Its a conversation i would certainly welcome and would be honored to have, but thats not a priority for me. Mayor, we will let you leave it there and let you get back to the home schooling and also governing that fine city as well. Always good to see you. Thank you so much for your time. Good luck. I know the struggle is real with regards to home schooling. While we were having the conversation with the mayor of atlanta, word coming down a few moments ago from their neighbor to the north, South Carolina, the governor announcing that schools in the palmetto state will remain closed for the remantder of the year. There had been some question about whether students would be allowed to return for a few weeks. Word coming down a few moments ago this is the News Conference in South Carolina. Thats the superintendent of schools there alongside governor mcmaster, students not going back to school this school year. Meanwhile, to the west coast we go now. Were learning more on just how many more people in california may have been infected with the coronavirus than originally thought, and the numbers are eye popping. Preliminary results from a study involving Antibody Testing in Los Angeles County alone show as many as 400,000 people may have had the virus. Right now the total confirmed cases in california stands at just over 35,000. Im joined now from l. A. By gadi schwartz. Gadi, what are you learning about these Antibody Testing numbers . Reporter those Antibody Testing numbers are still coming out. Another big surprise for the west coast and really the entire country is that we now know that the first covid19 death may have happened here in california almost a month earlier than what officials originally thought was a first death out of washington state. It turns out that two people died in their homes of covid19 in santa clara, california, weeks before. A man in his 50s died in kirkland, washington. All that is raising questions on how early covid19 may have been introduced to the united states. Once again, its stressing the importance of testing. When those two people died in their homes in california testing wasnt really available to everyone with symptoms like it is now in los angeles. You had to have a known travel history to china or have contact with somebody that had covid19. In those early days, it appears as though the virus was spreading dramatically which brings us to the Antibody Testing studies that were seeing, being done right now. One in santa clara and another here in los angeles suggesting, like you said, anywhere from 2 to 4 of those counties populations might have had antibodies and might have been infected. That would suggest that 10 to 50 times more people have covid19 in these areas than the current confirmed cases. To give that a little perspective, here in l. A. , we have 15,000 confirmed cases right now. When the study was done we had 8,000, 9,000 confirmed cases. The study done by usc suggests as many as 200,000 to 400,000 people might have had the virus as opposed to the confirmed cases were seeing, 8,000 to 15,000. A big discrepancy, all underscoring the need for more testing. Craig. Gadi schwartz in los angeles this morning, thank you. Lets bring in the doctor on duty, dr. Stephen class cow, the president and ceo of jefferson health. Doctor, lets start where gadi left off. This Antibody Testing. How accurate do you think the testing is and what can we glean from those numbers . Theres probably more that we dont know about Antibody Testing currently than we do. The simple fact is there are some people who test positive in certain antibody tests and some that test negative in others. We also dont necessarily know we can use that as a diagnostic test. Where i think it will have the most important usefulness, though, is as we start to get back to work, employers and others will be able to look and say, if i can test all my employees, and i know seven of them have positive antibodies, maybe i can work it out so those folks can come back a little earlier. Well start looking at that from a Population Health and getbacktowork point of view. We dont know, if you have positive antibodies, that you cant get covid again. As you probably know, the head of the cdc warned on tuesday that a second wave of this virus may be coming in the fall, and that wave could be far worse. How concerned should we be about a second wave, or is it simply tooer tloi tell . I think its a little too early. I really like the word catie used in her reporting around balance. I use nuance, balance and customization. I think certainly we shouldnt be having 50,000 people in a ball park any time soon. For example, in pennsylvania weve had great conversations with our governor about when we can start to treat patients that dont have covid, how we can start treating patients that have other diseases. It was brought up that some of our underserved population, some of our minority population, theyre not getting the treatment for Heart Disease or diabetes or lung disease other than covid. Thats going to be a big issue. Were taking a very nuanced, customized, balanced approach here in pennsylvania. Dr. Klasko, this video has been making the rounds. I im sure youve seen it. Well play a clip for our viewers. Doctors and nurses in your lopt lifting each others spirits with some pretty remarkable dance moves. Here we go. Dr. Klasko, noticeably absent from this video is their fearless leader. That was a very, very wise thing on ellens part to not have me be part of that. What i will say is my primary job over the last two months has been to be a spokes model for the heroes at jefferson. Were one of the Largest Health systems in pennsylvania. What we have done well not dancing. But what i think my and my team have done well is this, we from the very beginning have said making our employees, patients and students safe is whats most important to us. Were one of the first in the nation to go to an allmask policy, an n95 policy. We had 60 days of ppe on hand because we thought about a pandemic previously. We maintained all our employees without furloughs. So some of that morale is great, but its the least we can do for those amazing heroes on the front line. By the way, i want to thank ellen and Russell Wilson and cierra, because once you get on their social media, its fantastic. You plugged about five or six different people and the hospital. For those who dont know, youre also plugging your book. I recognize the book over your right shoulder. Dr. Klasko, our doctor on duty, stand by if you can. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about to head to the cameras fresh off the Oval Office Meeting in washington on tuesday. When the governor gets started, well take you there live. First, though, half a trillion dollars in Small Business aid on its way to the house. For some mom and pop store owners, it cant get to them fast enough. When those who need it most are going to start to see some relief. For many of our members, being prepared. Wont be a new thing. And it wont be their First Experience with social distancing. 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At carvana the safer way to buy a car. Staying connected your way youre just a tap away from personalized support on xfinity. Com. Get faster internet speeds with a click. Order xfi pods to your home in a snap. Or change your Xfinity Services with just a touch. All in one place. Youre only seconds away from all of that on xfinity. Com. Faster than a call. Easy as a tap. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Some new jersey stars are coming together to try to help the front line workers. Right now there are more than 92,000 known cases in the garden state, the second in the nation behind its neighbor new york. Tonight a big fundraiser called jersey for jersey, a benefit that featured homegrown stars like Bruce Springsteen, jon stewart, doane any bennett, jon bon jovi, whoopi goldberg. The money will go toward the pandemic relief fund. Im joined by new jersey first lady tammy murphy. Ms. Murphy, thank you so much for your time. Tell us a little bit more about yo your event and what makes it so unique. Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me. This evening is really special. Its my way of giving our state a virtual hug. I reached out to jon bon jovi and Bruce Springsteen who immediately said, yes, they were all in to help gather and perform and bring new jerseys finest out to give a little Mental Health break for our state, raise money for those most impacted by the covid pandemic and also just to have a virtual hug. Im really excited this is going to happen. We have so much great talent here in new jersey. We had difficulty fitting everybody into an hour. We left some off. But weve got some great people. What exactly is going to be done with the money that the event raises . We founded this fund about a month ago, and it is really to fill in the gaps and make sure that we are providing money and resources on the ground to those who are most in need during this crisis. Obviously our most vulnerable citizens are even more vulnerable in this situation. So we have already given out grants in the area, shoring up Food Security across the state and also working with some of our health hubs in some of our major cities. We are really trying to target those who are most directly impacted. As officials battle the virus there in new jersey, as theyre all over this country, what are some of the biggest concerns that youre hearing from folks . I think its the same anyone has. Its really not only the ppe piece and medicine down the road, but its also how do you responsibly reopen economies in a way that were not going to see a surge. I think were all in this together. We will get over this together. But the challenges are real. First lady of new jersey, tammy murphy, thank you so much for your time. Its a great idea. I hope it goes well tonight. How can folks tune in, by the way . I forgot to ask you how can folks watch. Two things. Go to www. Njprf org. It will be broadcast across the major networks. You can see it on apple and sirius. Theres another fun piece that has been added on. The gaming app hq trivia added on a jersey takeover show starting at 9 00 tonight. Its free to download, and every person who plays is going to be giving a dollar to new jersey courtesy of hq trivia. I hope everybody shows up, learns a little new jersey trivia. A little hint is if you watch the show from 7 00 to 8 00, you will benefit in playing the game at 9 00. So thats it. Part game show, part concert. Tammy murphy, thank you so much. Good luck to you tonight. Thanks so much. Meanwhile, congress very close to passing hundreds of billions of dollars in more Coronavirus Relief. The house should take up the senate plan this week. That bill includes money for Small Businesses, payroll, hospitals, money for testing as well. Nbcs kasie hunt covers capitol hill for us. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell making news this morning telling politico this is it, there will be no more Long Distance votes for relief, and the next round would potentially help workers, not businesses. Whats next here . Reporter thats right, craig. This interim relief bill on its way to being passed in the house tomorrow morning. The house is going to have to come back into session to pass it. This was not something they could do unanimously. If Congress Wants to do something while theyre not all here in washington, they have to agree. It has to be unanimous. Thats not the case in the house. That said, what mcconnell was essentially saying is that to negotiate this next package, they want to bring the entire congress back to washington, and were already starting to have discussions about phase four. That was actually a critical piece of the lastminute negotiations yesterday. Democrats wanted a commitment from the administration that, if they left state and loek ld funding and some other elements out of that interim package, that there would be some sort of public commitment from President Trump to, in fact, do a phase four bill. Youre starting to hear mcconnell use words like deficit, implying there should be concerns about how much Money Congress is spending. Democrats are not at that point yet. They think theres more relief thats needed. Obviously states have huge holes in their budgets. Theyre trying to pay their Police Officers, firefighters while theyve been spending all this money trying to bring in ppe. Thats on the top of the list. Were also having another conversation about infrastructure, roads, bridges, et cetera. I would expect that to be part of the conversation, too. All right, kasie hunt for us on that bill, thank you. Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo again just back from washington, d. C. From his white house visit on tuesday. Hes starting his daily briefing. Lets listen in. 53 days is nothing. Weve dealt with really intense terrible situations for a long time in the past, but it feels very long and its very stressful. Thats across the board. You have families that havent had a paycheck come in in a couple of months, and meanwhile the bills keep coming in. Thats tremendous economic anxiety and insecurity. By the way, its exactly right. When do i go back to work . When do i get another paycheck . Thats a pressure that people feel in the household. Even the good part of it, my family is together. I have all my three girls in my case with me, and thats nice, thats good news. But you put even the family together and lock them up, cabin fever and everybody has their own stress that theyre dealing with and everyone is trying to figure out their life, and theyre all together in this intense period. Even that is stressful. I feel it in my own household. My daughters are getting tired of my jokes believe it or not. How that can happen, i have no idea. Somehow they manage to do that. We even have trouble now picking a movie at night because the rule is, if you pick a bad movie, youre on movie probation. You dont get to pick the next movie. Everybody is on movie probation in my house now. Thats a problem. Even the dog, captain, is out of sorts and relating to stress, maybe too many people in the house and hes having trouble adjusting. Captain doesnt like the boyfriend. I said i like the boyfriend. Its nothing i said. All sorts of tension that people are living with, real tension and just the daytoday stress. So, yes, its a terrible period of time. I get it. But we have to deal with it. When you look at the reality of the situation, we are actually in a much better place. Were not home yet, but were in a better place. The really bad news would have been if we concluded that we couldnt control the spread of the virus. That was a possibility. You looked at all those initial projections. How do you know that we could control the spread . We could have done all those closedown measures and it didnt work and the spread continued. That would have been bad news. So relatively, were in a relatively good place. In downstate new york, the curve is on the descent. The question is now how long is that descent. Is it a sudden dropoff . Is it one week, two weeks, three weeks, six weeks . We dont know. But better to be going down than to be going up. Lets keep that in mind. We are going down. How fast, well find out, but were in a better place. Hospitalization numbers are coming down. Intubations are coming down. Number of new people going into the hospital every day is still troublingly high but better than it was, but still problematic. Number of lives lost is still breathtakingly painful, and the worst news that i have to deliver every day, and the worst news that ive ever had to deal with as governor of new york, but at least its not going up anymore, and it seems to be on a gentle decline. But make no mistake, this is a profound moment in history. Our actions are going to shape our future, and youre not going to have to wait for a tenyear analysis, a retrospective to find out how our actions affected our future. What we do today, you will see the results in three, four or five days. You tell me what the people of this state and this country do today, you will see the results in the number of hospitalizations in just a few days. We get reckless today, there are a lot of contacts today, unprotected contacts today, youll see that hospitalization rate go up three, four, five days from today. It is that simple. And its that pressing that every decision we make is going to affect how we come out of this, how fast we come out of this. So in this moment more than any other, truth, not what you would like to see, what you hope to see, not emotions. Truth and facts, truth and facts. Thats how we operate here in the state of new york. Truth and facts. Give me the truth and give me the facts. That has to guide our actions, period. We had a productive meeting at the white house yesterday, productive visit. Everybody says productive visit. Very few people come out and say unproductive visit. What does that mean, productive visit . To me a productive visit means we spoke truth, we spoke facts, we made decisions and we have a plan going forward. That was accomplished yesterday, and i feel good about it personally. Because its what should have happened, right . Big issues on the table. In the political process, he said this, she said this. You get into a hesaid, shesaid or a blame game and fingerpointing, but the meeting was very productive. By the way, these are people in the white house who politically dont like me. Thats the fact, right . You see the president s tweets. Hes often tweeted very unkind things about me and my brother. Politically weve had conflicts back and forth. But we said with him, we sat with this team and that was put aside because who really cares how i feel or how he feels . Who cares . Get the job done. I dont care if you like him or he likes you. Were not setting up a possible marriage here. Just do the job, right . When youre at war, youre in a fox hole. Nobody says, well do you like the person youre in the fox hole with. Who cares . You protect the other person in the fox hole. Then you get out of the fox hole and you take the hill, charge up the hill. Thats how we should be operating now. I dont care what your politics are. I dont care what you think about my politics. It doesnt matter. We both have a job to do. Lets do the job. That was the spirit of the meeting yesterday, and it was very productive on what were very contentious, unclear issues. So it was very good. The main issue was testing which ill talk more about in a second. We also talked about state funding. All the governors are united, democrat and republican, National Governors association, every governor is saying the same thing. We have to have state funding. The states have were all in a deficit situation and we need funding from washington. They passed bills that help a lot of americans. Thats great. Help Small Businesses, thats great. But you have to help State Governments because State Governments fund the people that the federal government cant fund. State and local governments, were funding police, fire, teachers, schools. You cant just ignore them. When you dont fund the states, youre saying to the states, well, you have to fund them and the states have already said in one united choir, we cant. We cant. We talked to the president about that. The president gets it. Hes going to work very hard in the next piece of legislation. But ive been in washington. I was there for eight years. The congress has to insist that this is in the legislation. Yes, they passed funding for Small Business and funding for testing and thats good. That is a good thing. Its not a bad thing. But its not enough either. And they dont come back every day, the congress. Its marred to get them to come back. This was not the time for baby steps. This is when you should be taking bold action. The action is proportionate to the issue, and you havent had a problem that is any bigger than this that any of those senators or Congress People have ever dealt with. Then your action should be proportionate and responsive to the problem, and it wasnt. The president also agreed, which is a big deal for new york, to waive whats called the state match for fema. Normally a state has to pay 25 of the fema cost. That would be a cruel irony for new york and adding insult to injury. New york had the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. Therefore, our cost of fema was the highest cost in the nation, and therefore, new york should pay the highest amount. How ironically cruel would that be . Youre going to penalize us for having the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. At the same time that Congress Passed a piece of legislation not even funding the states. The president agreed to waive that. Thats a big deal. Thats hundreds of millions of dollars for the state of new york. The big issue was testing. Weve been talking about testing, tracing and isolating. That is going to be the key going forward. Thats how youre educated and have some data points as youre working your way through this reopening calibration. How does it work . You test the person. If the person winds up positive, you then trace that persons contacts, contact tracing. You have to start with a large number of tests, and we set as a goal yesterday to double the number of state tests. We go from 20,000 on average to 40,000. That is just about the Maximum Capacity for all of the Laboratory Machines in this state. We have private labs, about 300 of them, that we regulate. They have purchased machines over time. These are very expensive machines. If you took every machine we had and they had all the supplies they needed from the National Manufacturers and you ran that machine seven days a week, 24 hours a day, how many tests could you do . About 40,000. So thats if you put your foot to the floor, you brought the engine up to maximum rpm, up to the red line, you brought it up to 6,000 assuming the red line was 6,000 and you held it there seven days, 24 hours a days at red line, how many tests would you do . 40,000. Now, theres a lot of buts and ifs in there. But the machine has to Stay Together for seven days, 24 hours a day. You have to have enough people feeding the machine, but that is our maximum potential. So where did we set the goal . At our maximum potential. Why . Because we need to. Well, its unrealistic. It might be a little unrealistic. But id rather set the bar high and try to get there and whatever we get is what we get. Once you do all those tests, every positive, you have to go back and trace. The tracing is a very big, big deal. What y once you trace and find more positives, then you isolate the positives. Theyre under quarantine. They cant go out and cant infect anybody else. This entire operation has never been done before. So its intimidating. Youve never heard the words testing, tracing, isolate before. No one has. Weve just never done this. There are a few textbooks that spoke about it, but weve never done it. Weve never done it anywhere near this scale. So it is an intimidating exercise. But i say so what . Who cares that youve never done it . Thats really irrelevant. Its what we have to do now. So but i say so what . Who cares if you have never done it . Weve have to do it now. Figure out how to do it. We have to put together a tracing army. Yes, we put together armies before. Never a tracing army but we can can put together people, we can organize, we can train, and we can do it. And, yes, its a big deal but its what we have to do and what we will do. We want to operate on a tristate basis, spoken to governor murphy in new jersey, whos doing a great job, and governor lamont in connecticut is doing a great job and who have been very great neighbors to new york. Its best to do this tracing on a tristate area. Why . Because thats how our our society works. The virus doesnt top at jurisdictional boundaries. Depending on the pattern of the virus. It is in a metropolitan area. So we will work together. This is going to be a massive undertaking. Good news is mayor Michael Bloomberg has volunteered to help us develop and implement the tracing program. Mayor bloomberg was mayor of new york city, as you know, three terms. As governor i worked with mayor bloomberg. He has then developed an organization, he works with mayors all across the world literally in providing them guidance. He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective in this. Remember, his company bloomberg, they went through the china close down, open up. The european close down, open up. So hes had quite a bit of experience in this area. Its a very big undertaking and we thank him very much for taking it on because it is going to require a lot of attention, a lot of insight, a lot of experience and a lot of resources. Were also going to be partnering with Johns Hopkins and vital strategies in putting together that tracing operation. It will be coordinated tristate and downstraight. Why downstate . Downstate operates in one area. About 45 of the workers in new york city come from outside of new york city. I have a house in westchester. I work in new york city. Who is supposed to trace me, westchester or new york city . If i turn up positive, yeah, my residence is in Westchester County but i work in new york city, and i would have contacted many more people in new york city than i did in westchester. Because thats where if i work in new york city, thats where im contacting people. I live in suffolk but i work in new york city. Im a Police Officer who has a house in rockland, but i work in new york city. Im a firefighter who lives in rock land, orang rockland, orange, but i work in new york city. I live in the city but i work in connecticut. All of those interconnections, if youre going to do these tracing operations, you cant do it within just your own county. Because you will quickly run into people who are cross jurisdictional. So understand that going on. Blur the governmental jurisdictions because they dont really make sense. Put everybody together. Work together. Harder done than said but 100 right. Theres no doubt about that. We will take the initial tracers that people have now. The state has about 225 today, rockland 40, westchester 50, nassau 60, they will work together. Mayor bloomberg will start with that core but we have to build on that. We will literally need thousands. Suny and cuny have 35,000 medical students to draw from but we have to put together a significant operation because the numbers get big quickly. Today is will the 50th anniversary of earth day. When you look at many of the numbers were finding and you look at the disparity between the africanamerican community, Latino Community that is a higher rate of infection than people in White Communities thought to ask why, and you start to study those health disparities, you also find that in those areas where the Coronavirus Infection rate is higher, they tend to be minority areas and, by the way, those minority areas tend to be the places where we cited plants that pollute, the asthma rates, respiratory illnesses are three times higher among people in the africanamerican community. Three times the asthma rate, the respiratory illness rate, theyre getting more coronavirus. Theyre a higher percentage of essential workers. You see how these two factors come together and make a bad situation worse. Lets turn from that. Its one of the lessons we have to learn and we have to go forward and we will. The positive message is, look how well we do when we actually focus, and we make a decision and we say we have to do this. If you told me two months ago that i would be able to stand up before the people of the state and say, by the way, we have to close down everything, business is closed, everything closed. Go into the home, lock it and dont come out, i would have said its not going to work. Youre not going to get 19 million new yorkers. Were just a Defiant Group of people. Question everything. Theyre not going to do it. Maybe if you give them all of the facts and they understand, then theyll do it. And we did. Look at the potential. Look at the possibility of what you can possibly do. Then can you really make a real difference on these issues we have been fighting for decades but we havent made the progress we need to, climate change, the snef ye environment . Yes, you can. Last point, my phone is ringing. Im talking to many local officials. They feel political pressure to open. I understand. I said yesterday were going to make decisions on a regional basis because just as the nation as different states in different positions, new york has different regions in different positions. North country has one set of facts, truth in facts, Northern New York has a different set of facts, western new york has different set of facts. Make decisions based on facts and facts are different in downstate new york and many different areas. Also make them on the facts and realize the consequence you can do opening one region but not other regions and how you can flood that one region and give them a host of problems they never anticipated. But make the decision on the facts. I get it. Dont make the decision based on political pressure. Im not going to do that. Im not going to do that. This is a profound moment. We make a bad move, its going to set us back. And i get the political pressure. And i get the political pressure that local officials are under. We cant make a bad decision. I get the pressure, but we cant make a bad decision. Frankly, this is no time to act stupidly, period. I dont know how else to say it. I have said it innumerable times to local officials on the phone. I get the pressure, i get the politics. We cant make a bad decision and we cant be stupid about it. This is not going to be over. Any time soon. I know people want out. I get it. I know people want to get back to work. I know people need a paycheck. I know this is unsustainable. I also know more people will die if we are not smart. I know that. I have to do that count every day of the number of people who passed away. Were not going to have people lose their life because we acted imprudently. Im not going to do that. Im not going to do that. And im not going to allow the state to do it and im not going to have the obituary of this period being well, they felt political pressure so they got nervous and they acted imprudently. Thats not who we are. So i said to them, look, if you look at any of the facts, the 1918 flu, they are talking about it now. There can be waves to this, right . Walk out into the ocean, you get hit with the first wave. Oh, great, im done. The wave hit me and im still standing. Be aware because there could be a second wave or there could be a third wave. So dont be cocky just because you got hit by a wave and it didnt knock you off your feet. There could be a second wave. And if youre not ready for the second wave, thats the wave thats going to knock you down because youre not ready for it. So thats what im worried about. And also to the local officials and local politicians, i have no problem with them blaming me. Very simple answer, say to everyone, whatever they say, i agree with you. Its the governor. Because by the way, it is the governor. It is. These are state laws that are in effect. The local official cant do anything about them anyway