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 determin