Every 24 hours, it doesnt mean that the number of people that i just reported as having died died in the last 24 hours. There is some lag in reporting and sometimes people die and test is pending and its not until the test comes in positive that that death is then reported to us as a covid19 death. Sometimes i think people are tested completely after they have died. And so we are going to try to start reporting at least personally the number of people who actually expire over the previous 24 hours so that we can take a look at that. The reason thats important is, as i mentioned last week several times, the real numbers that were paying most attention to about covid in louisiana arent so much the testing numbers, but the number of hospital admissions and deaths. Because we know there are a lot of asymptomatic people out there. We dont know what that percentage is that have covid19. But theyre not going to be tested. But we know from data gathered here in the United States and in other countries the percentage of people who should be so sick that they have to present to a hospital and the percentage of the total number of covid19positive individuals who will die. So if you have those numbers, then you have a better idea of what youre doing. We have completed, and i want to thank the doctor and all the people across louisiana, hospital, clinics, but certainly the department of health, weve completed now just shy of 70,000 tests. Number two in the nation per capita. And while we wish we could actually have done more tests, and certainly we wish we could have done more earlier, the fact that weve been able to ramp up to that number of testing, i can tell you, we have a visibility across the state of louisiana that is pretty much unmatched across the United States. And as a result, as we get an idea of just how much covid19 we actually have, the percentage of people being hospitalized and the percentage of people who are dying are getting much, much, much closer to the average. What you would typically see from other states and prosecute from around the world. Currently there are 1809 people o are hospitalized, 563 of them are on ventilators. And while all of the numbers that i just mentioned to you are still high, and theyre higher than we would like, we are starting to see real signs that these mitigation measures that we put into place weeks ago are starting to bear real results. And were hopeful that were seeing the beginning of the flattening of the curve and that these efforts are going to continue through additional compliance from people across the state. Now, we only have a few data points and they dont quite constitute a trend yet. But we believe that we might be starting to see the beginning of flattening the curve. And thats what we believe. So thats what im telling people. The fear is that im telling people that and theyre going to say, oh, the task at hand is accomplished, we can go back to doing whatever it is that we normally do and behaving as we normally would. That is exactly the wrong answer. And i say that because if we started flattening the curve, the only because of the mitigation measures. Its only because of the social distancing and the improved hygiene practices. And one thing that the president and the Vice President , in fact the Vice President told me yesterday and we had another teleconference today, one of the things hes pointing out is this need to stick with the mitigation measures, the stayathome order here, the social distancing. All the good high jeernings all the way through the month of april hygiene all the way through the month of april. He asked know stress that to people. Of course that is consistent entirely with what i would want to be telling you anyway. New hospital admissions are down. Now, hospital admissions as a whole are up. But new admissions are trending downward. As i mentioned to you before, the two numbers that you want to really pay the most attention to are the number of people going into the hospital each day, with covid19, and the number of people who are dying each day with covid19. The people in the hospital, we have an additional 753 ventilators that weve been eable to acquire over the last couple of acquire that weve been able to acquire over the last couple of weeks. We know were pushing out in time the day that we might potentially overwhelm our capacity to deliver health care. That is a good thing. But a lot of this has to do with the great work being done in the hospitals themselves. Because louisiana doctors, these nurses, these respiratory therapist its, theyre doing some of the best work therapists, theyre doing some of the best work in the country right now. I have no doubt that what im telling you is factual. Ive been telling you theyre heroes because of the work theyre doing and putting themselves, risking their own health in order to take care of others. But we now know that they are reducing the number of people who have to ever get on a ventilator in the first place. And theyre doing a good job of decreasing the number of days that the average patient has to stay on a ventilator. And the number days that theyre staying in the hospital. All of these things get factored into our modeling as to when we might run out of beds and ventilators and so forth. So its the mitigation measures, its the work being done in our hospitals and the increasing of the hospital beds and ventilators through thed me search, all of this is taking place at the same time. And its very, very helpful. Of the 753 ventilators that weve received in louisiana, we have distributed 553 of them. 200 of them came in yesterday and they are at the warehouse here in baton rouge. We will distribute those as needed soon. We also got a message that arkansas is sending five. I just got off the phone with governor hutcheson of arkansas to thank him on behalf of all the people of louisiana for their generous contribution to our state. So we bought ourselves more time. It allows us to continue to be able to surge our medical capacity and continue to flatten the curve. All of this stuff works in concert. So we have to keep doing everything that weve been doing to have the best possible outcome. The data points that weve been seeing are only going to become a trend if we continue. So the mitigation measures, the stayathome order. The hygiene. Social distancing. All very, very important. So now we have to keep it up. Its not the time to become lax and to ease up. And the surgen general has warned not louisiana so much but the entire country that this is going to be a really critical week. Its going to be a difficult week. When we see cases and deaths and so forth. So we have to stay focused on this. As for the question of whether we have actually peaked, its obviously too soon to know for sure. Even dr. Deborah birx this morning on the white house call noted that weekend data is sometimes not as clear as what you get during the week. So all around the country the number of cases that were reported yesterday and the number of deaths that were reported yesterday are be a normally low. And that was are abnormally low and that was borne out by the fact that we reported more today than yesterday as well. So we dont quite yet have enough data. But it looks like things might be moving in a positive direction. So we should be looking at this data very carefully for the next several days to come. And if we put the second graph up there. I want to show you all why its important that we practice social distancing. And good hygiene. And why it is that we have the mitigation measures in place, the stayathome order, and weve closed businesses and so forth. All of which are very difficult things to do and we know were asking people to sacrifice. But this is data that comes from Johns Hopkins and the calculations are done by dr. Gary wagner of the university of louisianalafayette. And what it shows is that half of the top 20 counties, and of course were the only state that doesnt go by counties, so its parishes here, but half of the top 20 counties parishes in the country, in the nation, with respect to covid19 deaths per 100,000 residents, half of those are our parishes. St. John the baptist. Orleans parish. St. James. West baton rouge. Jefferson. St. Charles, allen. St. Bernard. Two days ago six parishes were n this list. So obviously we have a significant problem here in louisiana. Weve known this for some time now and this bears it out and it also reinforces the need to continue to do the things that we are doing. Except to do them actually better. To have more compliance and not less. With respect to the information that we are sharing with you all , were going to start showing more covid19 deaths on our dashboard at Louisiana Department of health. Starting today were going to share aggregated data on race, the date of death, over time, and underlying conditions. All this will be on the dashboard. That will be updated not every day, but once each week. Nd you can see this as ldh. La. Gov. And this is continued proof of our efforts to be as transparent as we can be about what the situation here is in louisiana on the ground. We want to also be as timely as we can be with the information that we provide to you all. Disturbingly this information is going to show you that slightly more than 70 of all the deaths in louisiana are of africanamericans. Im sorry, slightly more than 70 . So that deserves more attention and were going to have to dig into that and see what we can do to slow that trend down. Hypertension is the leading underlying condition now for people who have died in louisiana. And so for all these reasons, we have to continue to work this as hard as we can, be patient, be focused, be resolute. Were not far behind new york and new jersey in terms of per capita cases. We make projections to help us plan and allocate resources because we canner to we have to be prepared and we have to be prepared for the worst Case Scenario that is feasible. But we only get the worst case if people dont do what theyre being asked to do. And that is to make sure that theyre staying at home, dont go out unless its absolutely necessary. Minimize your social contact. Practice good hygiene and social distancing. If you put up graph number three, please. New york is not on this. This is a chart that was shown to us today by the Vice President. The top line there is new jersey. The green line underneath that is louisiana. So you can kind of see where we are as a state relative to all the others. The reason new york isnt up there is because it is so much higher, both in terms of the number of cases and its per capita case count. That theyve left it off this particular one. But were number three in the country and what we need to see is, you can see this we need to see that turn flat and then over time come down. And thats exactly what were looking to do. And the call i had with the Vice President yesterday, i was able to thank him for the 200 ventilators that were sent from the national stockpile. That decision was made friday night and they arrived in our warehouse over the weekend. I also thank the president for the federal testing sites that we had in new orleans and jefferson. Two in new orleans originally, one in screverson. The two in new orleans were since combined. Because they played a big part in our ability to really ramp up our testing and to know more about the disease in louisiana and how it was spreading. Those sites were scheduled to be closed on april 10. By this friday. He told me that if we wanted to keep them open, all i needed to do was make that request. So i really appreciate that and we do intend to keep those open. Another important update is that the New Orleans Convention Center medical monitoring station opened today. There are currently 23 covid19 patients there. So basically its one of those wings. If you were there or if you saw it on tv, what we wanted to do was we wanted to make sure that we opened it, a soft opening, if you will so that we could test the systems, make sure everything is working appropriately before we take a lot more patients. And so we have 23 patients there presently. This is a stepdown facility. So its not where anyone can go as a hospital to present with symptoms. Youll if you need if youre going to go there, youre going to be transfered there from another hospital. So nobody should be walking up to that hospital to get care. And nobody should be presenting that hospital to visit with a patient either because youre not going to be allowed to visit. The purpose of it is to allow our tier 1 hospitals to more frequently rotate their beds and to get people out of the hospital sooner than they otherwise would. This is another measure that were taking to try to surge our edical capacity. A note about face coverings. Because i know that this over the last few days has become an area of interest to a lot of people. As you should know by now, the c. D. C. Recommends that people wear a nonmedical mask when they leave home. To protect each other from covid19. And what youre really doing for the most part is youre protecting others from yourself. Should you have it. But if the others are actually wearing a mask, then theyre protecting you. Typically you dont need to do this if youre out exercising and youre going to be a Long Distance from other individuals. But when youre making those essential trips to the Grocery Store or to the pharmacy or to the bank or to get gas, and youre just going to have to be closer to other people than is recommended, then that is the scenario under which you would want to have a mask on. And it is still not recommended that you use an n95 mask which remain in short supply for our doctors and nurses. We need to make sure that they get the medical masks, whether theyre n95 masks or surgical, and individuals can use cloth coverings that are relatively. Asy to manufacture at home and i want to thank attorney general. He brought me a pretty one today thats got the louisiana seal on it. Really appreciate that. Obviously im not currently wearing a mask because im here talking to you all. But if and when i need to go out in public, lets say im going to go and look at a facility that were going to be standing up as a medical Monitoring Unit or Something Like that, you will see me in a mask and i think alec has decided similarly to ear masks in that situation. Please dont think that the mask means you dont have to follow the social distancing guidelines or the hygiene because you do. This is just one additional measure that you should be taking. Over the weekend we began sending mass techs with all of these updates. If you didnt receive the updates and you want to, you can covid19 texting la o 67283. Obviously this part of the year is going to look different than it has in the past. Were in holy week. Were going to have Easter Sunday and i think this is when typically theres the most demand for craw fish and youre having the crawfish boils and block parties. And i understand that this is not just different, its upsetting. To a lot of people. I appreciate that. This is different for me and my family as well. Im just encouraging people to be patient, look at the big picture. And lets make sure that we do what we have to do now so that we can all get together safely ust as soon as possible. It is important that we put the health and safety of our neighbors and our families and of ourselves first right now by staying home. We can still find ways to worship and i will do that as well. You can still have that big easter dinner at home. But you stay home and save lives. Theres not anything more christlike than that. In closing, i know that a lot of people are feeling some anxiety, like theyre not in control of things right now. One of the things that we like to do in louisiana to come together, an experience we can share and relive again, will be the saints beating the atlanta falcons. That will be on tonight. Youll recall this game. This was the first game back in the superdome after hurricane katrina. It will be on tonight, on espn. And so i encourage people to watch that. In conjunction with the event. If you are able. And you see fit. I would encourage you to consider donating to the gale Benson CommunityAssistance Fund through the Greater New Orleans Foundation and that fund is providing assistance to the new Orleans Service industry during this time which is obviously one of the areas of our economy, among many, that are really suffering right now. You can do this by visiting gnof. Org benson. So, join me, ill be home watching the game tonight. Id ask you all to join me. Now im going to ask the attorney general to come up and share some news with you all. At the conclusion of which, what id ask you to do if you have questions about the initiative that hes going to talk about, go and address those to the attorney general and then following that ill take your questions and alex is here to take your questions as well. Attorney general thank you, governor. Glad to know my dad has something to do tonight. I know hell be watching the savenlt i want to thank the governor forgiving me an opportunity to come here and for working with me on what were about to announce. The people of louisiana should know that all of their elected officials are working on their behalf and all are working to keep themselves them safe. And in that, you know, ive been committed to fighting and winning this epidemic. And i continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the governor. The president and all our health care officials, as we work to help end the spread of covid19. I also want to thank, as the governor did earlier, too our health care providers, our doctors, our nurses and everyone who is supporting them as well. Because working together is the best way to beat this. You know, in order to combat this invisible enemy that has taken the lives of some of our citizens, halted our economy and turned our livelihoods upside down, we must be willing to use all available tools at our disposal. To that end a week aling, i announced a donation of 400,000 hydroxy color quinn tablets give tonight state of louisiana. Given to the state of louisiana. This is being used by doctors in louisiana right now to try and help treat covid19 patients. I can report to you today that this medication, due to hard work of farm suit distributor morrison dixon of shreveport, has already delivered to nearly 100 tier 1 locations around louisiana. The donation was received timely and it coincided with a medical study to determine whether or not hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment against covid19. Their clinical actually includes two parts. Part one was the treatment of patients infected by the virus and part two was to determine whether or not they existed in treatment to help our medical providers. I appreciate the l. S. U. Medical s kind words. Today the governor and i are making this announcement together. Because to treat patients infected with covid19 and utilizing hydroxychloroquine, the drug must be coupled with something else, a more commonly known as zythromax. As this medication continues to show promising results around the world, the demand for the drug becomes great. As supplies diminish, the ability for us here in louisiana to benefit from any of the effects of this treatment could become jeopardized. I would like to note that these drugs are really not experimental drugs in and by themselves. Each of these drugs have been on a market for quite some time. Of course used to treat other medical conditions and have been approved by the f. D. A. And medical providers for those use. Last week my chief deputy and i contacted a manufacturer of both high drocksychloroquine and the other in its genetic form to discuss the ability of the state to access these drugs for our as our infection rate rose. Because tiva is a main plaintiff in our ongoing opioid litigation, i not only sought out the consent and consult of the governor, i asked for his further assistance in helping to secure what were about to announce. So i want to thank him for his help. Today we are announcing that we have secured an additional medication from tiva pharmaceuticals who has made available 8,000 zpax. And an additional 75,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets. I want to caution everyone that it is important to remember that these drugs dont represent a Silver Bullet or a magic wand. However, many medical doctors have chosen to prescribe these drugs to relieve symptoms of the virus in some patients. In some cases, allowing the recovery of these patients without the use of a ventilator. Or hospitalization. That is important. Why . Because any positive results in a patient by these drugs, whether incremeble or significant, could incremental or significant, could potentially allow our ventilator needs to decrease or the capacity of ventilators that we have to be more readily available. Again, while these drugs are in an experimental phase, it is our hope that the access that these drugs now will allow both l. S. U. s Clinical Study to continue, and patients in louisiana to have some hope of relief as their local doctors to utilizeher or not these prescriptions. I want to make another announcement today. Some people contacted to us look at the governor Andrew Cuomos executive order, where he granted immunity for doctors and Health Care Workers dealing with covid19. For those in the health care field, i would like you to know quickly about our existing law. This is something the governor and i discussed this morning as well. And we both, as lawyers, not doctors, agree with. Should a doctor prescribe hydroxychloroquine and another to a patient in louisiana in connection with the current ovid19 pandemic, and in accordance with f. D. A. s clinical approval, that doctors actions would likely fall within the immunity statute that we currently already have no louisiana. Of course i would note that the facts and circumstances surrounding any incident will always determine whether an individuals entitled to immunity. But as a blanket order, the immunity statutes that we have here in louisiana go even further than governor cuomos executive order. I will continue to do everything that we can to assist our states effort to fight this pandemic in louisiana. I again want to thank the governor for helping us secure this medication and because it is going to be one more step in helping to protect us here in louisiana. Thank you. You got questions, go ahead and ask them now, the attorney general. All of those tablets have been secured in the and being distributed now, general . The 400,000 tablets of hydroxychloroquine were received last monday and half of those have been distributed to hospitals. According to their need. The zythromax and additional hydroxychloroquine, we got an email today that are being packaged and should be here by tomorrow, no later than thank you. S what weve been said some of this is involving research at the lsu medical centers. Can you talk about what kind of research they are doing . I believe lsu put out a press release over the weekend. They received approval for two clinical studies. In those studies, of course, one of them is actually treat patients that are in university hospitals, in shreveport, baton rouge, and portland. New orleans. So, they will be using those drugs in combination on patients as they come in to determine what the effects of the drug on the virus. Did you know this might be better for the doctor. I read a couple of articles because hiq glossy hydroxychloroquine has become in demand for covid patients. They are struggling to get the mitigation medication. One of the big reasons, or one of the great news surrounding the hydroxychloroquine that we got last monday was actually to relieve that supply. So, the more we get donated by pharmaceutical manufacturers, the more we get into the state, actually relieve the ability of the supply of hydroxychloroquine so those patients who have Rheumatoid Arthritis have access to that medicine. I will tell you i reported to the governor earlier today as well, i spoke to a number of large chains and also some distributors here in louisiana. I dont find, as far as right now, as huge shortage of hydroxychloroquine. So, they should be able to receive their medication. Thank you very much. Thank you, attorney general. This is really important. You will recall a couple of weeks ago, the pharmacy board thought they needed to do an emergency rule because the demand was outstripping the supply. There was some concern about whether people with lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis will be able to get it. They ultimately rescinded the rule in favor of some guidance because they believe the supply would catch up. But with the work did last week and this week, it is going to be even better. We know that we have doctors across the state of louisiana who were prescribing the name fo r hydroxychloroquine before these announcements really came out of washington. So, this is a treatment that doctors were doing. It is important that they have the ability to find this truck. I think it is drug. I think it is a great thing they are coming to louisiana. We are not doctors. We are not involved in the trial. We are not here to testify to the heck of a city the efficacy of the drug as it relates to covid19 but we know we have trials ongoing and we have doctors that want to use it, so making it available is exactly the right thing to do. I thank you very much. Yes, sir . I know you have seen the university of washington talk about the latest adjustment drastically reduces the number of projected depths in the u. S. And louisiana. Is that something whats you r take on that . Gov. Edwards first of all, it is heartening to see models that are gaining currency that show a little death lower death total. We hope and pray that is the direction we are going to go. The numbers in that particular study sorry, that particular model, dont match up so well with what we have already experienced. We are trying to reconcile the assumptions that underline that model with the assumptions that underline ours. We do believe regardless of the washington models shows, we are starting to see improvements in our numbers. Related principally to hospitalizations and deaths. Online,t more testing we are not such a big outlier anymore. We still have more than our fair share of deaths. It is because we are not as healthy as we should be an hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, obesity all of these things are feeding into that. As we get more tests in and figure out where we are, how much covid is in the louisiana, our numbers are starting to look much more like we would expect. So, we are encouraged by all of that, but we know that if we have a positive trend developing, it is because of the mitigation measures we have taken and it is because of the work being done in our hospitals, all of which is buying time to allow us to can turn to continue to surge medical capacity. The message for the day is that even if we have started to see improvements in the numbers and we are starting to develop a trend that is very helpful, we have to maintain what we are doing with respect to the mitigation, stayathome order, social distancing and all the hygiene practices we have been talking about for literally weeks now. Yes, sir . Administration changed informationegarding for Nursing Homes. Can you explain the policy rationale . When you give that information out in response to public records request . Gov. Edwards what i give what information out . The names of the Nursing Homes that have coronavirus clusters confirmed. Gov. Edwards if you submit the request, you will get an answer. It may not be what you are asking for gazeta what have i would have to sit down with my executive council. Hasow that the doctor been studying the clusters and what is involved in the change of our policies, so i will ask him. Yeah, as we talked about last week, we had a team from the cdc come down, several of those individuals still instate. Part of what the cdc team helped us do was look at our practices as our numbers continue to increase, what can we do to maintain our ability to target those areas where Contact Tracing and slowing the spread through direct contact are still very important, and also manage areas like the new orleans area where we have Widespread Community spread of covid. And tailor that result with our relationship with our clusters of Nursing Homes and making sure most importantly we are getting Accurate Information that helps us intervene. What they shared with us as a best practice is essentially moving to the position we currently have where we are sharing the number of Nursing Homes that report one or more cases. We are sharing the number of cases associated with Nursing Homes across the state. Then, deaths associated with Nursing Homes across the state. It gives you a sense of these very special populations we have a lot of concern about without potentially jeopardizing their willingness to share openly. Increasingly as the epidemic goes on, we are more and more reliant on our Nursing Homes giving us transparent information. We need them to continue to do that in order to give you Accurate Information. That is the position we took again under guidance and with advice from the centers for Disease Control and prevention. Saying they would not provide that information if you release the names of elite . The Nursing Homes never said anything like that to us. Why was there an assumption in order to continue to get them to provide information, you have to be willing not to provide a name . We moved in a position where we were able to do almost all the direct outreach in a very timely fashion. Andnumbers are coming in to be timely in addressing clusters, we needed to continue to encourage Nursing Homes which are obligated under the emergency rule to report and do that in a timely fashion. In consultation with the cdc, they felt while we were sharing a lot of information, they were concerned about what that would mean for the Nursing Homes sharing as this continues. Yes, sir . Disparitiesincome when it comes to death related to this virus. Are we seeing any trends here . If so, can that evidence be made public . Gov. Edwards we will have a public facing portion of our dashboard. It will talk about, as it relates to deaths i dont know the socioeconomic status of the victims, but certainly by race. We are seeing a disparity because right now, slightly more than 70 of all of our debtaths are among africanamericans who make up about 32 or so of the overall population of our state. Obviously, this is a big disparity and we are going to try to figure out what that is attributable to and what we can do about that as quickly as possible. So, yes, you are going to see that. That will be updated once a week on the dashboard. Theou go to i will find lbh. La. Gov. You can find it there. Yes, sir . You have an optimistic tone on hospitalizations and beds over the last couple of days. What does it mean for the projection for figuring out when we will run out of ventilators and hospital beds . Gov. Edwards obviously what it means is that data is pushed up in time and we are not as closed to those dates as we were. I dont have one to share with you right now. Again, we are modifying the modeling based on the rate of transmission, the growth in cases. And, it gets complex. I was not a mathematician, but i know we are trying to figure out what is that rate of spread. Appears we are trending in the positive direction because of the mitigation measures that we have undertaken. So, for those reasons, along with the fact as i mentioned before, our hospitals are doing a really good job in keeping some people off of a ventilator altogether who previously would have been put on a ventilator, and limiting the number of days on a ventilator for those patients who actually have to have one. Also, appear to be reducing the number of days of the average hospital stay. All of which ties into the modeling to figure out when we will exceed our capacity. So, these things are changing, but they are changing in a positive way right now and thats the news we have for you today. I dont have an exact date for you. This was the week we were going to run out, is that still the case . Gov. Edwards no, that is no longer the case. Yes, sir . Last week, you are assured there would not be any point between the texas and Louisiana State line. Obviously, that changed yesterday. How has that policy change been explained to you . Gov. Edwards i dont feel like the texas officials misled me. I had a phone conversation this week with governor abbott. We talked about this briefly. I think just about every single f Public Safety in texas is talking to colonel reeves, the superintendent of police here. First of all, commercial traffic is not being hindered at all. It is my understanding that they are pulling over every fifth vehicle from outofstate going into texas, and it has nothing to do with whether that vehicle is from louisiana or not. They are not treating Louisiana Residents any differently and they are not telling people you cannot come to texas. What they are saying is if you are going to be here for less than 14 days, we are asking you to quarantine for that 14 day period. If you are going to be here for more than 14 days, quarantine for the first 14 days of your stay. Im asking people to stay home anyway. Im asking people to stay home and not engage in nonessential travel. That is what the Texas Governor is asking. Im not going to come up and pretend to be upset with the Texas Governor, i am just not. But we are communicating and i have not been deceived at all. Last question. You talk about some positive trends on the numbers. I know modeling showed last week for everyone positive covid patient, they were projecting a little over two. I know we have seen that number a few times during that outbreak. Is this what we see . I probably should let alex do this, but i will give it a shot. I want you to come up and correct if i am wrong. We now believe that several weeks ago, before we were really paying attention, when the virus really got seeded into louisiana that the initial transmission rates could have been as high as three. This is before anyone was paying attention, knew the virus was here, and so forth. We then believe that the average is 2. 4 if you dont have any mitigation measures into place. We think it naturally on its own came down to a 2. 4. 2. 0tarted modeling at a once we started putting restrictive measures into place. The more restrictive they are, the lower that should be depending on the degree we are in compliance. We started modeling at 2. 0, hoping we would get to a 1. 7 which is the nto ourd build iinto modeling. If we have really good compliance, universal compliance with the stayathome order, meaning only essential workers were out traveling about and people were only leaving homes to do the things that were essential and otherwise staying at home and all that sort of stuff, you could potentially get to 1. 3. What is safe to say is we thought we were at 2. 0 last week. The trends we are seeing suggested we are lower than 2. 0, but exactly where we dont know. The reason is because the lowest data we have in terms of test results came in yesterday, but it was a sunday. Those if you go back four weeks we have been doing this, it is the sundays where you typically get the fewest reports. I think that is a function of the commercial labs. Over 90 of our test results come in from commercial labs. They have this battle rhythm to what they are doing. For whatever reason, on sundays, those reports are lower than they are every other day of the week. If this data is confirmed over the next several days, we will know. I hope i can come out tomorrow and the next day and say we continue to be on that line that we want to be where we are flattening the curve. Ultimately, you want to see it to start going down, too. Again, it is not just your tests. It is the hospital admissions and it is your deaths. That is where i am particularly paying attention to as are the folks who are modeling this, who are doing a really great job. Look, this is a novel coronavirus. This is new. Every day, the scientists, the doctors, the mathematicians are still learning because they are not just studying here. We are studying whats happening in italy, in south korea and in spain. All of that influences the way we are modeling here and around the country. And so, i do want people to be patient with this because things change. Things change. And, they are changing in part and we should all be think to this, because our doctors and hospitals and nurses are doing a much, much better job. They are learning, developing best practices and sharing those with other hospitals and other providers across the state and across the country, really. That is helping, too. I would just ask everyone to continue to be thankful for all the doctors and nurses and therapists and all the other providers. In this holy week, lets lift one another up in prayer. Lets be patient. Lets make sure we are doing whats required. For now over the next several weeks so we can get back to that point sooner rather than later, when we can be together and so forth. Attorney general, thank you very much for being here today. Thank you all. We will do this tomorrow around the same time. Cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and its all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. We understand that some countries have recommended or are considering the use of medical and nonmedical masks in the general population to prevent the spread of covid19. First and foremost, medical masks need to prepare be prioritized for Health Workers on the front lines of the response. We nonmedical masks can help to put know medical masks can help to protect Health Care Workers but they are in short supply globally. Were concerned the mass use of medical masks by the general population can exacerbate the shortage of these specialized masks for the people who need them most. Shortage ises, this putting Health Workers in real danger. O. Lth care facilities, w. H continues to recommend the use of medical masks, respirators and other personal protective equipment for Health Workers. In the community, we recommend the use of medical masks by people who are sick and those who are caring for a sick person at home. W. H. O. Has been evaluating the use of medical and nonmedical masks for covid19 more widely. Today, w. H. O. His issuing guidance and criteria to support countries in making that decision. For example, countries who consider using masks in communities, such as cleaning hands and social distancing is hard to do due to living conditions, if masks are worn, they must be used safely and properly. W. H. O. Has guidance on how to put on, take off, and dispose of masks. Whats clear is that there is limited research in this area. We encourage countries that are considering the use of masks for the general population to study their effectiveness so we can all learn. Most importantly, masks should aly ever be used as part of comprehensive package of interventions. There is no black or white answer and no Silver Bullet. Masks alone cannot stop the pandemic. Countries must continue to find isolate,find, test, and treat every case and trace every contact. Mask or no mask, there are proven things all of us can do to protect ourselves and others. Keep your distance. Clean your hands. Cough or sneeze into your elbow. And, avoid touching your face. Tonight, a special evening addition of washington journal on the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. Join us at 8 p. M. Eastern with john barry, author of the great influenza, the epic story of the deadliest pandemic in history. And florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz on the response to the virus in her district. The the convict conversation on washington journal primetime tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago, but our mission continues. To provide an unofficial unfiltered view of government. We brought you the president ial impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, created by private industry. Americas Television Company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. All month long, cspan, we are featuring the winners of the studentcam documentary competition. Middleton High School Students created videos answering the question what issue do you most want the 2020 president ial candidates to address . Our second prize high school 12th goes to 11th and graders from frontier high where in mansfield, texas cspan is available through spectrum. Their winning entry is titled our responsibility. We are at the beginning of the end. The ground we walk is on fire