And a new face. Right, the commissioner of the department of Public Health. Judy, good afternoon. Ed lifshitz. Dr. Police colonel pat callahan, and we are also joined by the commissioner of the department of Environmental Protection, catherine mccabe, to my left. Great to have you. Covid 19 is ao wholeofgovernment endeavor. Lots of departments have key noes to play, and dep is exception. Commissioner mckee will talk about her departments role. We will go right to the numbers and then feel in details from their. There. We are reporting an additional 2100 96 positive test results. Our statewide count stands at 18,696. Positive test results since yesterday. 696 in total. We continue to lose members of our new jersey family to covid19 complications. This does not get any easier. Since yesterday, another 69 residents have died. 267,total net stands at each of them a precious life lost from our new jersey family. Taking that number, which is a big one, and putting a face to it, and a couple of different ways. Passaichose souls was a firefighter. He became a firefighter about a year and a half ago. He was a volunteer before that. He served as an emt. He was only 33 years old. I spoke to his wife, maria, earlier. And have two children, 19 and onee who is nine who is seven. I spoke to his chief and exchanged notes with the mayor of passaic. By all accounts, an incredible guy and someone we mourn. We keep his family in our prayers, as we do every new jersey family dealing with the worst part of this emergency. You mayyoung person have read about, then luder, head baseball coach at cliffside park, 30 years old, part of the Undefeated Team of 2008, number one in the nation. To his wife brandy and his family, god rest his soul. You just heard about a 33yearold and a 30yearold. You are going to hear from judy when she goes through the dimensions of fatalities, that those are on the somewhat of an exception side, that clearly the demographic that is older is the one being hit the hardest. Listening, this is a reality for all of us. This is not abstract, no matter how good our health is, no matter how young we might be, and if it doesnt impact you, never mind kill you, you may unwittingly carry this virus and past it on to someone you hold dear. Ben, the other, 67 folks we lost overnight, bless their hearts. The disease has taken service members, First Responders, loved ones, friends and too many New Jerseyans. And sadly, we know this number will grow. In myt be any clearer call. Stay at home before this hits for 200 it has now four 200 67 of our families. Nowour part like it has of our families. Please do your part to flatten the curve. We can see the totality of where this could go if it was left unchecked, and where social distancing can take us. This chart on the left is as of yesterday. This changes every day, but look at where this virus would have taken us had we not stayed at home and done everything we can to flatten the curve. Left, just on the under 80,000 hospital beds. There is no state in america that has the resources to come up with that sort of a surge and meet it. Look at the chart on the right. As ans just if we behave average state, based on past pandemics. That is what we can do. The blue line surging at the top is still north of that red line underneath it. The red line is current capacity of hospital beds and the blue line is the search come but that is an average result. We are not an average state. We are the quintessential, come together, one family, do the impossible state. That is new jersey. Our job collectively is to stayathome, keep social distancing and flatten the hell out of that curve. Lets all stay in this together. Lets prevent more losses like n and otherto be innocent souls who lost their lives. We can meaningfully save lives and lessen the strain at the same time on our Health Care System and communities. Thank we always do, we everyone on the front lines, especially the unsung, overlooked heroes out there working in our communities. This is beyond the healthcare workers who are heroes, the First Responders who are heroes, how about home health aides, sanitation workers, retail employees at essential businesses . The teamsters, truck drivers, transit workers . Their commitment and dedication to the rest of us means the world, and it means we know we will emerge from this stronger. But lets also help them. We help them by staying home and doing our part slow the spread of covid19. It issnt about you, about us. But nowhis isnt fun, nothe time to be selfless, selfless, and for all of us to pull together. Cabinerstand the anxiety, fever, impatience, restlessness, the unknowns. We get all that. The best thing we can do together and by the way we will shoot straight with you on the facts, where we are and where we are headed but the best thing far and away any of us can do is to stay home and keep your distance from anybody, even at home. That, allow me to switch gears a couple of times before i invite my colleagues to speak. Tomorrow, wednesday, april 1, the pnc Bank Art Center site in partnership with fema will open at 8 00 a. M. Again for symptomatic new jersey residents only. Community county College Testing site will be closed tomorrow. Hoping toan onoff, accomplish the same amount of tests but do it in a more coherent way. Site more countysponsored either have or are preparing to open. I will go north to south, and it is good news as we continue to aggressively open our testing regime again for symptomatic persons. The federal world, government would give us all the testing to real need, the personal protective material we need, and we could be like south korea. We realize that isnt the case. We dont have that level of material and support from the government, so we made the decision for personal Health Reasons to test symptomatic people only. And that has an added benefit to the colleagues to my right, because that is the most valuable data we can get, positives and negatives. Get ourows us to best arms around this and get ahead of it. Starting tomorrow, Middlesex County in partnership with the new Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission is opening a drivethrough site at the mvc Inspection Center in edison. The site will be open three days a week, monday, wednesday, friday, from 10 00 a. M. Until 2 00 p. M. , testing by appointment only, and you must be both a Middlesex County resident and exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness. The appointment window is open. Find more information at j. Gov covid19tyn 7327453100. Ll ocean county opened its testing site at Ocean County College yesterday. The site is open monday through friday by appointment only for ocean county residents exhibiting symptoms. Information or to make an appointment, please visit the Ocean County HealthDepartment Online at ochd. Org. We also thank ocean countys health care partners, hackensack meridian health. In tomorrow, Camden County partnership with Cooper University health care and Virtua Health will be opening a testing site at Coopers Point park in camden which will be open from noon to 4 00 each week day through april 15. Testing will be available by appointment two Camden County residents and anyone seeking a test should contact their ,edical provider at coopervirt virtua or another provider. It is for symptomatic people only. About to thank our partners. They joined a long list of other counties that are doing everything they can to test symptomatic persons. You will see now the total list of testing sites continues to grow. By my count, there are 26 at least in the state. So, we will continue that. Freddie new jerseyan. I want to come back to our allencompassing website. Freddie new jerseyan two things for any new jerseyan, who thinks they need to be set up. There is our website, covid 19. Nj. Gov. If you do believe you may be exhibiting systems of covid19, call your health care practitioner. Before i leave testing, i had a very good conversation this morning and my colleagues had preceded that with him, both last night and today, with tom evers. One of the senior guys at abbott laboratories. They have, as you have probably saw over the past couple of days, they are developing a rapid turnaround test. Im honored to say that new jersey has been picked as one of the early states they will put that test equipment into. Right now into bergen county, more details on that to come as we know more. It is a modest first step but an important first step. According to tom, he and his ab bott colleagues will continue to wrap up the ability to get that piece of equipment into as many hands as possible, or access as much as possible. As i said all along, it takes a village. In this case, i want to tip the cap to abbott labs. Switching gears to the topic of personal protective equipment, or ppe. I will ask pat callahan to say a few words before we go to q a about both ppe and compliance, or lack thereof. Last night, we received a shipment of ppe, another one. This is now our fourth shipment out of fema. It consisted of more than 260,000 pieces, including masks and gloves. Again, deep appreciation. We are grateful for it. It by no means alleviates our the for more ppe. We work every single avenue to get more ofor our state and frontline responders, and to ensure our Community Health personnel have what they need as well. This fight is not just in our hospitals. It gives a i think quick glimpse into our current statewide ppe numbers. Im hopeful that perhaps as early as tomorrows briefing, i will be able to give, along with pat and the team here, a greater accounting of our ppe supplies and how they fit into our current needs. Our work, both collectively and through pats efforts, is to ensure we are distributing our ppe supplies as efficiently and as effectively as possible. This is why we have put in place the daily reporting mandate for all of our Health Systems and hospitals, and why we are continuing to seek out every available piece of ppe at every available ventilator. Make no doubt, we appreciate every single piece of ppe that we are receiving, whether it is through the federal government in the national stockpile, from the many donations we have received, or through our own purchasing. But, and i repeat, we need a lot more and i continue toush our case with the white house, with fema, and with everyone i speak to. As always, if you have ppe to donate, please let us know through this website, covid19. Nj. Gov ppedonations. Colonel callahan and his team will connect with you to take that off your hands. It is not just ppe. We have also desperately have mentioned many times we need more ventilators. I noted yesterday we continue to pursue every avenue on that front. The 300 ventilators from the strategic stockpile we referred to yesterday have arrived and they are being tested as we speak. So far, so good. Haveief of staff and i each been on with the highest levels of the white house this morning, reiterating and underscoring, particularly with another 69 fatalities, the need for more ventilators. As good a spot as any to say, that i mentioned it takes a village. I mentioned tom evers and abbott labs. I have a long and incredibly powerful conversation yesterday with a guy i have been in regular touch with and that is alex gorski, the ceo of johnson johnson, one of our iconic corporate citizens. Alex and i spoke i wanted to reiterate my thanks for the 10,000 goggles they had contributed. An enormous amount of money. They are allowing their scientists and researchers to take, i forget what the sabbatical period is, but to go into hotspots and actually work on the front lines. You may have seen they are working aggressively on a vaccine. There are many working on a vaccine, but there are a few out there and i mean out there anywhere in the world, never mind new jersey or america, who can realistically hope to achieve the scale that is the key, the scale of production. Alex and i also talked through the likelihood of how this plays out in terms of the sequencing as we have said all along, we have to break the back of the coronavirus first and meaningfully reduce the cases, if not toward zero, then begin to responsibly reopen our economy and society. He and i talked about im operating above my pay grade. Talked about the likelihood of therapeutics. Drugs that can treat the symptoms, becoming more broadly available. In his judgment, i do want to put words in his mouth, but if you look at backtoschool timeframe. A vaccine they are literally out testing, retesting, making sure its safe and efficacious. And the ability, whether it is them or whoever, but they are as big a dog on the hunt as any to have vaccines at scale, god willing, perhaps as early as spring i2021. We have no bigger player in the Health Care Space in the state than johnson johnson. None with a deeper heritage. Again, to all i mentioned in the past week merck, so many other of the big, Big Companies that are proud to call new jersey home. We waeear their presence like a badge of honor. They are proving and not just takes a village in words but in actions. Hats off to each of them. In particular, the conversation with alex was particularly powerful and enlightening. Allow me to switch gears again. On saturday, i mentioned we were close to having 100 compliance from municipal Water Companies voluntarily halting all service shut off during this emergency. Im proud to report we now have that 100 compliance statewide. Between both municipal and private sector Water Utilities, should fearyan losing their access to clean water. I thank everyone for their operation. I know catherine will touch on this as well. Switching gears from the attorney generals office. I want to amplify the announcement made yesterday that we will crackdown on any physician or pharmacist or anyone else porting certain prescription drugs or inappropriately prescribing them to friends and family. As we have read on the news, certain drugs are being investigated for their in treating covid19. I mentioned therapeutics a minute ago myself. We must start now to protect that supply. Like a lot of other things, overwhelmingly, these are fields filled with good actors, but a few knuckleheads spoil it for the rest of us. From the department of labor, we cannot urge employers enough to keep your workers on payroll throughout this crisis. And allow them to benefit from the expanded paid sick and family leave programs made possible by the recently enacted federal response bills. If you do, you will be eligible for a dollar per dollar payroll tax credit against those costs. 99. 8 ofvailable to businesses of new jersey and all but the largest employers. I urgee you to do the right thing and keep your employees on payroll throughout this crisis so we can deliver them peace of mind and so we can get our economy going that much faster when this emergency ends. Also from the department of labor, residents who are eligible for unemployment will receive an additional 600 per 31 because ofuly the federal relief bill last week. This money should arrive starting next week for those already collecting unemployment. For those of you just filed, it will take a little longer. The department is working overtime to process all of your claims and we ask for your patience due to the record volume with which they are dealing. Any information, go to our allencompassing website, covid19. Nj. Gov. There has already begun some chatter about the next coronavirus related bill coming out of congress. I spoke with Speaker Pelosi not once, but twice yesterday on this very topic. Let me again reiterate our priorities. We need assistance for workers, Small Businesses and flexible aid for states that have borne the brunt of this virus and we are certainly at or at the top of that list. New jersey and New Jerseyans who are in the eye of the storm should not be treated the same lesshen states impacted by this invisible enemy. As we continue to think about a main street stimulus, congress should undo the deduction cap to help new jerseys middleclass homeowners. I thank congressman pasquarello for their continued efforts on this front. Speaker pelosi and i spoke not just about the general need for another bill in stimulus coming from congress, but specifically spoke about lifting the salt cap. Related to budget, to money, to impact, we had a good conversation late morning with our teams with the Senate President and the speaker. We are as soon as we can looking to come to folks with guidance about where the budget is headed. And specifically, about tax filing deadlines. It was a good conversation. Our teams are following up on that as we speak. Come when we have information for you. Before i turn things over to judy, i want to again express my thanks, indeed our thanks to the overwhelming number of New Jerseyans who are doing the right thing by all 9 million of us to get through this crisis. I cannot think enough the women and men who are out there every day in whatever capacity they are working who are keeping us going. I must give a special shout out to the many state employees who are assisting their federallow residence in any number of ways. To our state colleagues, which measure in the many tens of thousands, i tip my cap to you. I want to tip my cap actually to our educators up and down the state who are doing a phenomenal never before seen Remote Learning environment in which we are all living. As usual, we have the best educators in america, if not the world. They are stepping up in this case from home, in most cases, and walking our kids through the most unusual time in any of their educational lives. Again, in general, i cannot thank enough the millions and millions more residents who are staying at home and doing their Extraordinary Part to flatten the curve. We take our hat off to you. Overwhelmingly, folks are doing the right thing. There are still