Conducted in commercial labs. The increase of cases appears to be less a sign of exponential growth over the last couple of days and more a sign of a logjam for commercial labs that have developed over a long period of time. And so many of these tests were taken several days, if not longer ago. It is a very good thing that the louisiana has been able to rapidly wrap up testing. In fact, depending on the day, we are somewhere between the third in the nation or fifth in the nation in terms of per capita testing. That said, the reason weve been able to wrap up is weve got more and more commercial labs that have been able to come online. But our different data systems have to be able to talk to one another, and that is a part of the problem. A bigger part of the problem is that with private testing, those labs have greatly exceeded their capacity in terms of the tests that they have taken in and they are waiting through their labs. So what were seeing is a logjam and these tests are coming through in big numbers, breaking through the logjam. You may have seen yesterday quest reported that they had 160,000 backlogged tests. Similar stories coming out of labcorp, for example. If there is good news for todays numbers, its that the vast majority of those people who are covid positive, pursuant to todays report do not require hospitalization and they have already been told by their physicians that they were covid positive, and theyve been in isolation for some time now. While the hospitalization death rates remain high, its also true that as we discover all of these new cases, the trendline here in louisiana is starting to match up with what weve seen across the country in terms of the percentage of individuals with covid19 who have to be hospitalized and the percentage of those who died. So were moving much closer to the national average. It is true, however, that we still have more than our fair share of people dying and that is likely because we have more than our fair share of people who have the vulnerabilities that make them especially vulnerable. Again, these are things like diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, hypertension, obesity. But we also have a lot more covid19 in louisiana than we have thought up until now. And thats what the last three days of test results has unequivocally shown. Youve heard a lot of talk about modeling and i had a question about this yesterday and i want to address it. We are still working on our model as it relates to the number of deaths we believe we can expect from covid19, but i was asked yesterday about the National Modeling that was used at the press conference at the white house two nights ago. You might remember it showed nationwide, we can expect between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths. That model suggests that, in louisiana, the total deaths would be about 1,834. I would assume, but im not certain, that that is the midline between those two ranges because nationally, it was between 100,000 and 240,000. So, there has to be arrange for louisiana, as well. And we hope to be able to update you more on this shortly. But i would like to remind everyone, and i say remind is may be the wrong word, that model was used two nights ago from the white house to talk about the number of deaths we could expect, but they didnt say one of the assumptions underlining that model is that we actually continue to have the same mitigation measures in place all the way through the month of may. And so any of these numbers would also have to be attached to that particular assumption. Now, that model, the national model, also says that we will reach our peak count of daily deaths in about eight days with the death rate being about 76, starting on april 10. Obviously, this is very imprecise and im not sure that is what were going to actually see or that the peak may be higher than that and it may come later than that. But what we know is that we have a role to play and we can determine, collectively, with our individual actions, how much worse this virus will impact our families, our communities, and our state. That is related to how many cases we have in the state, how many people have to be hospitalized, how many people have to die. The demands we put on our health care system. I would underscore that this virus is in all of the parishes across the state of the louisiana. I think we actually added one more parish today. And that was caldwell parish. Caldwell parish. There are still three parishes up here with a zero. I promise you there is the Novel Coronavirus and theres covid19 in every one of those parishes and every Community Across the state of louisiana. So this remains an extremely Serious Public Health emergency and i am asking for the vigilance of all the louisianans because that is key to flattening the curve and slowing the spread. Thats also why, later today, im going to sign an executive order extending the stay at home mitigation measures through april 30. I told you several days ago i would do this. And this order would be in alignment with the guidance coming from the federal government two nights ago when President Trump announced the mitigation measures he felt we should have been placed through april 30. The new orders largely the same as the old one except it now go except that it just now goes through the end of the month. Im going to go back over the list of businesses that remain closed to the public. All places of public amusement, whether indoors or outdoors, including but not limited to locations with amusement rides, carnivals, amusement parks, water parks, trampoline parks, aquariums, zoos, museums, arcades, fairs, pool halls, Children Play centers, playgrounds, theme parks, any theaters, concerts, music calls, music halls, Adult Entertainment venues, racetracks and other similar businesses. All personal care and grooming businesses, included but not limited to barbershops, beauty salons, nail salons, spas, massage parlors, tattoo parlors and other similar businesses. All malls except for stores in a mall that have a direct outdoor interest and exit that has essential services and products as provided by the guidelines. Businesses close to the public pursuant to this provision shall not be prohibited from conducting necessary activities such as payroll, cleaning services, maintenance, or upkeep as necessary, but they are close to the public. The order means that you still cannot gather in groups of more than 10. But frankly, you shouldnt be gathering in groups at all. Thats what weve been talking about, minimizing social contact. And certainly if youre one of the more Vulnerable People in the population, you absolutely should not be gathering in groups. And it would be a great thing if louisianans can employ their ingenuity to find new different ways to connect with individuals without having to be physically together. Guidelines for Funeral Services an licensure for Health Care Workers were already extended through april 30 in the previous order, so those will not change. School closures will continue through april 30 and i can tell you that the department of education is in the process of determining what will happen beyond april 30. And i suspect were going to have some guidance from them very soon, either tomorrow or early next week. Today, were also announcing a new way that the public and stay uptodate on the latest information concerning this crisis. This afternoon at 4 00 p. M. , were sending an Emergency Alert to all cell phones in the louisiana to alert them of the stayathome order. I know that people are used to associating this alert with severe weather, which is why i wanted to give everybody a heads up that it is going to come today. That said, it underscores how seriously we take this Public Health emergency in the louisiana. As you can see from our report today, it truly is a life or death situation. If people want to get alerts and updates, they should they can opt in for texts by texting lacovid to 67283. A lot of people are watching these news conferences and i appreciate our Media Partners who bring these resources to you every day. And i want to let you know that weve added new information to the department of Health Dashboard in an attempt to be extremely transparent and candid with the people of louisiana and do it in a realtime basis, so youre not going to be able to see information about available beds, icu beds and ventilators by region of the state. It will be updated daily at noon, just as all of the other information is updated related to testing. For more information and available resources, you can also visit the website, coronavirus. La. Gov. Coronavirus. La. Gov. That is a new address. We are working to unite as much information as possible because we are in this for the long haul and we want this information to be readily available. Also want to thank, really, so many people across the state who work extremely hard every day. Weve been talking about doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists and all the other allied Health Care Professionals and they are true heroes in this. And we have First Responders all across the state, at the local level and so forth, doing tremendous work. And at the state level, weve got a lot of people working extremely hard and extremely well. I do want to give a shout out to the National Guard today. They have been delivering supplies throughout the state. For the entire time that weve been in this emergency. We currently have over 1210 soldiers and airmen assisting with the covid19 response from the louisiana National Guard. In addition to their numerous other missions, theyve been able to deliver 366,555 n95 masks. Over one million gloves, 450 ventilators, and 49,650 suits, just to name a few of the items that they have been delivering. Also want to thank exxon mobil baton rouge for partner with the Global Center for medical innovation to develop new industrial style masks and put on the fast track for production for doctors and nurses and other Health Care Providers. These masks can be sterilized and worn multiple times. Once approved by the fda, they will be able to produce as many as 40,000 ready to use masks and filter cartridges per hour. Our exxon mobil baton rouge Chemical Plant is providing the chemical used to manufacture this product. Inlosing today, and closing today, and before i take the questions you might have for me, i did want to point out that among the deaths we have announced, louisiana lost a legend yesterday with the death of ellis marsalis. And his family is attribute in attributing his death to covid19. He was a proud patriarch of one of the most prominent jazz families in new orleans, certainly as the director of the just department. He worked at the university of new orleans. He was a mentor to countless jazz greats and left an indelible mark on the soul of new orleans and really, the country and beyond. Some of his best students included his sons, whose music we all enjoy. So, this should be a sad reminder for all of us of the terrible toll this disease, covid19, has taken on our people. So, please join me in lifting up the marsalis family and really all families of the deceased in your prayers. As i normally do, ive got dr. Alex here to take specific questions that might relate to testing. And with that, i would be happy to take your questions. Yes, sir . Reporter given what you described in the new cases that were confirmed, the logjam and older test results, how exactly are you leading the response to this and like, grappling with the numbers . Do you have better data when it comes to the specific dates these tests are conducted or are you looking at something else, some other component of the data thats informing your response . Gov. Edwards well, i will tell you what ive been told, and i want dr. B to pay attention, as he always does, and if i say some thing wrong, come and correct me. Obviously, the number of cases we report on the daily basis is important. Its important to know that. But the two data points that inform our modeling more than any other, and really inform the modeling, i think everywhere, are not new cases. They happen to be hospitalizations and deaths. And the reason is new cases gets you a picture of how much covid is out there, but the fact of the matter is some significant percentage of people have covid, they were totally asymptomatic. Theyd never been tested and are not going to be tested anytime in the near future. And if you read different studies, one came out of iceland that suggested that number could be as high as 50 . And so the number of new cases doesnt necessarily tell you the trajectory you are on in terms of what you can expect to happen after hospitals and in your icu beds and on ventilators. So if you look at the number of people you have in your hospital and the number of deaths, those two data points actually can tell you what trajectory that youre on. And so thats whats informing our modeling and, quite frankly, it suggests that we are still headed to a place where we are going to overwhelm our capacity to deliver health care as it relates to the total beds available and to ventilators. And even though were reporting the highest number of cases today, the modeling that we have shows those dates have slipped back in time, not ahead. I think its one more day then than we reported yesterday. So and i didnt write this down and ill have to confirm this. I think its april 7 for vents and the 12th for beds, in the new orleans region. Our modeling doesnt show and the further out you try to model, the more error there is going to be and the less you can glean from your modeling efforts. We dont have in the 14 day window of our current modeling any other regions running out of beds. And so, we will continue to update this modeling with new information as it comes in every single day. Yes, sir . Reporter this may be somewhat of a followup to that, but obviously tuesday, we saw a big spike of cases. Wednesday and then today. This may be a question for the doctor. How long can we expect cases as it relates to how big is it backlogged, this logjam of cases . Gov. Edwards well, you know, we dont have really good information until we get it. We can tell you anecdotally, for example, that the drivethrough testing that was conducted, has been conducted in new orleans at two sites, which has now been combined into one, but theyre testing up to 500 a day. And 250 drivethroughs in jefferson parish. The majority of all of those tests have not yet been reported. So at some point, they will all come through. Whether they come through in a uniform amount every day or whether theres an exceptionally large number of results that come through in a single day, we dont really know. So until we come out here and tell you what that report is, we dont really know what to expect. But we think that is going to continue to happen. The good news is the vast majority of those tests are being done on a drivethrough basis. So those people are not so sick that they have to be in the hospital in the first instance, so its much more likely those individuals dont have to go to the hospital in order to deal with this particular disease. And were telling people, when they show up to be tested, you may or may not be covid positive. And were going to tell you the results as soon as we have it. But from this point forward, you are to act as if you are. So, go home, quarantined quarantine yourself, and we will let you know what the results are. So, those people should be, until they are deemed by their Health Care Providers to be recovered, at home in isolation. So thats the good news with the vast majority of those particular individuals. And i wish i could give you a better answer, but the truth is we know more every day, but we dont know it before we report it. Yes, sir . Reporter do you have any update on the two state lawmakers that are battling covid19 . Gov. Edwards i dont have an update and i havent been authorized by them or their families to share the information about their identities or their situations in any case, so i just dont want to do it. Like everybody who is struggling with covid19 right now, i want to ask everyone to lift these individuals up in prayer. Yes . Reporter have you made any progress in getting additional ventilators at this point . And what is going on with the pricing you are seeing and has it reached a level of affording it for gouging . Gov. Edwards weve already reported some to the u. S. Attorneys for the middle district with respect to potential price gouging. We have distributed 450 ventilators since the start of this, and that included the 150 yesterday that came from the Strategic National stockpile. We have not gotten a line on any additional ventilators. We do believe some of the orders we have, with vendors for example, will come in. Certainly not all of them. We continue to call those people daily to check on that. We are trying to source ventilators literally all over the world, and the price has at least doubled on every ventilator that were looking at from just where they were three to four weeks ago. So its a very expensive thing, but we have to do our best to get what we need to take care of as many people as possible so if and when we exceed our capacity, its by the smallest number of people possible. Thats what we do in order to protect the health and welfare of the people of the louisiana. And we are being aggressive. We are also renewing requests for those ventilators that had been held at the Strategic National stockpile. So while weve got 150, we know that some additional ventilators were held there for subsequent allocation and distribution. And were making our case for our share of those and i dont have any update on that as we speak. On that point, sir, i know there has been guidance put out by fema about a checklist the state has to provide. Are you finding it a checklist that is easy to comply with or are the hurdles great . Gov. Edwards im not going to say its easy to comply with, but we complied with it. We sent in an updated request last night with every data point they were requesting. And we included Additional Information we thought would aid us in getting the attention of the decisionmakers as it relates to those ventilators. So we did it last night. We continued to pursue those ventilators and every other ventilator that we can find because it is incredibly important. Yes,