Unfiltered, at cspan. Org coronavirus. An update now from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on the state response to the coronavirus pandemic. She said that coordinating with other state and county officials on how to reopen the economy once the pandemic starts to lift. Gov. Ivey i think for i think i speak for all alabamians in thanking the lord that we did not have lossoflife and Property Damage was not dire, so we are very grateful. While in the middle of the covid19 virus, certainly, we are all concerned about our help our health. No many of our friends are also having the extra burden of having to deal with a damaged home or vehicle. We all know that you can replace a building, but you cannot restore your loved ones. We are grateful that no lives were lost in our state on sunday. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with our neighbors in the east and the west. They have certainly had a lot more of the deaths than we have, and Property Damage as well. Governors reeves, kemp, and edwards, our condolences for this time of loss in their anyes, and we will provide resources they would find useful. That is what neighbors do. Neighbors help neighbors. Back toour attention the covid19 pandemic, i want to give you a more indepth update on the progress we are making with our current stayathome order, which runs through april 30. While i am personally grateful that so many people intend to be staying at home and taking the order to heart, all indicators suggest it is working. I cannot overemphasize enough the import. In fact, it is imperative that we keep doing what we are doing. Now is not the time to let our guard down and pretend that these are back to normal. Have been paying dividends. Many around the state are beginning to ask what are our plans about reopening the economy. That is the same question that other governors are getting, and that President Trump is getting, and World Leaders are being asked as well. In these few minutes, allow me to give the people of alabama an update on our plans to open our economy back. Things being all equal, we can stick to this roadmap, in all honesty, we have been working on such a plan for several weeks. As many of you know, i recently asked the Lieutenant Governor to get the Small Business commission, which he chairs, to begin looking for ways where we can restart the economic engine around our state, especially of Small Businesses. As everyone knows, this is not a simple process like flipping a light switch. This commission have been working with the Lieutenant Governor to bring forward a set of recommendations that i trust will be valuable and helpful, and i hope to see their input by this coming friday. Over the weekend, my office contacted each of the Seven Members of our congressional delegation to ask that they look at this challenge on a district by district basis, setting up their own individual working groups in their respective districts. I was so pleased that all seven immediately jumped on board to be helpful. Before,aid for decatur is not the same as another county. Thereespecially true that are many economic differences in our state, as there are geographic and regional differences. Our house delegation will have on or beforeck april 22. I admit there is a lot of free advice on what we could do, to getdo, or first do the economy going again. The staff is taking every digestion seriously. Of thed to take all suggestions and recommendations and ask six members of my Coronavirus Task force to help my administration begin to vet all of these good ideas. These six individuals will serve on my executive committee, and to put together a well playing timeline. Mind that these recommendations will have to be thefully integrated into advice we are receiving from dr. Harris and the medical team of experts from throughout the state. Will reviewnd i these recommendations so we can provide an updated plan of action before the current onyathome order expires april 30. Going forward, we will hopefully dates ono give regular what segments of the economy might be able to open, and we are also allowing our businesses ample time to plan for a safe, responsible reopening. This will be a roadmap that will help alabama begin our road to recovery. As governor, i have the responsibility to look out for both the help of our people as well as our Economic Health. On a Conference Call yesterday with the secretary of labor, i was reminded that we have had people file4,000 for unemployment in alabama in just the last four weeks. That is in stark contrast to the number of unemployment that was , 130,000. Ar ago we can take the Economic Health and wellbeing of our state seriously, just as we can look out for the safety to obey the over people. We can do both of these things at the same time, and thats what coming together, alabama is all about. Confident we can schedule both of these tasks that the same time. Now i would like to ask dr. Harris to come forward and give us an update on the pandemic, and comment on things we have mentioned as well. Dr. Harris . Dr. Harris thank you, everyone, for being here today. Thatatest numbers show there are about 3800 confirmed cases so far in the state. Just over 100 deaths, we are still in a process of confirming those. We have confirmed about three quarters of those. Most of this will be confirmed. About 100 deaths so far. Hospitals have reported they have about 400 inpatients currently who have tested positive for the virus that causes covid19. There is around another 600 or so inpatients who are currently being tested. Not all of those will turn out to be cases of covid19. Several of them certainly well. I would say that is about where we expected that we would be. We have seen a lot of modeling change, as you know, over the past week, and even the past two days. Our predictions look a lot better than we first thought when we were talking about this a month ago. As we getchange closer to the time of an expected surge. It looks at this time that we thatfairly confident whatever surge we might see in the next week or so can be handled within the hospitals, it is exactly what we would like to see. We certainly have been worried that the that we would have not enough Hospital Capacity or we would need to have an alternative care site to take care of patients. At the moment, that does not appear to be the case, although we still have some turnkeyready facilities we feel like to be up and running quickly, should we need to do that. At the moment, the numbers look as good as we have seen them, so we are very encouraged by that. The reason that that has changed is because people have been taking seriously the order to stay at home. There is certainly some changing in the mathematics and statistics and looking at other things that affect the model. The thing that has affected the modeling at most is that we have the state at home orders that people buy in large been taking seriously. Very gratified this week to get photographs of people who were sending pictures of their easter services. There were people meeting in their cars or in the parking lots, or meeting at home. It was very gratifying just to see people were really taking seriously and trying to live their lives, and so respecting what we asked them to do. We know we will continue to see cases. We are working very hard to make sure we can test everyone that needs to be tested, as quickly as possible. We have testing capabilities. Not necessarily every day, but pretty much every day in about 57 counties, we still have a few more we are looking to get set up. We have the ability to test in every county, although not as completely as we would like. We also want to be sure we can do Contact Tracing on all the people who do test positive, that we can reach close contacts, and we can isolate people who need to be isolated. In public health, we are working hard to add to our capacity to do this. We are shipping employees from into parts of the agency roles where they can do Contact Tracing. We have a small stuff doing this. At the moment, we have just about the number of people. We plan to add a lot more as we can get them, to get them trained, so we can continue to do this. Overall, very encouraged. I think i do want to remind you again of the Health Disparity that we see from covid19. This is a disease that disproportionately affects our africanamerican citizens in our state. Like many health disparities, whether it is Heart Disease or infant mortality or certain types of cancer, this is a disease that has worse outcomes in people that already have other social determinants like Chronic Health problems, or just related to education and income. This is a big concern for public health. Areant to make sure we committed to continuing to do that. We certainly welcome this plan the governor has today. The governor has done a tremendous job in leading this effort. It is her order that has saved peoples lives, and it is the reason we are in position to even be having this conversation. Thank you very much for what you have done. Thank you. Sec. Esper kim chandler gov. Ivey kim chandler, do you want to start us off . Kim is this something that will happen9 9 all at once . Gov. Ivey this is a process that will be segment by segment or region by region, because one size does not fit all. Room to to him members of the executive committee of coronavirus. It will be phased in, segment by segment. Different from what a manufacturing or a retail store needs to do. We want to get folks back to work as soon as we can, but we want to do it as smart as we can. Reporter President Trump recently said he has total authority over when states can open up their economies. The restrictions on covid19, what are your thoughts . Chargeu guys lead the or is thek, now, federal government . Gov. Ivey we certainly want to work with our fellow governors across the nation. Works in alabama works in alabama. We may have some ideas they have not thought of, and they may have some ideas we have not thought of. We will certainly Work Together and cooperate. Do what will be in the best interest of alabamians to get back to work any reasonable, orderly manner. Has reiterated that covid19 is a lot worse for people with preexisting conditions like diabetes and so forth. Those tend to be bad in rural areas. Has this pandemic and the circumstances because due to to more strongly consider expanding medicaid . You previously said all options are on the table. Are you changing because of what happened here . Gov. Ivey we are concerned about the health of all her citizens, wherever they may live. At the same time, it would be irresponsible to think about expanding medicaid just for the sake of expanding medicaid, without having a complete and honest discussion about the source of Stable Funding to pay, etc. It is an option. Im aware the interest is there. There is a lot of exploring that has to be done on how you pay for it. Are you exploring finding a stable source of funding . Gov. Ivey we are trying to make a plan when we can get our people back to work. Yes, sir. Reinfections [indiscernible] in your plans to restart the , what is the factor of gov. Ivey that is the reason we want to be sure we are working as soon as we can come about as smart as we can, to reopen the economy, because we could have a resurgence. We have got to be prepared and nimble enough to meet that crisis, should it present itself. Reporter what specific benchmarks are you looking for, when you want to reopen alabamas economy . Gov. Ivey i dont know that we need to have benchmarks. We are working to have a plan in place in every region and geographic location, and every type of industry. The steps are needed for that industry to get up and running in a responsible manner. Yes, sir . Expect towhen do you see the peak of virus in alabama . When would you expect to see the peak or the flattening of the curve . I think sometime between april 20 and april 22. Dr. Harris that is exactly right. We think the peak demand for hospital beds will be around the 20th. Im sorry, i see you beds will be around the 20th. The peak demand for total hospital beds may be a day or so earlier than that. But certainly within the next 6, 7, 8 days. [indiscernible] this is already a vulnerable population. Is that oversized [indiscernible] Nursing Homes are very vulnerable populations. We have been engaged very closely with Nursing Homes since before we had our first case. Nursing homes do a very good job of thinking about infections and thinking about outbreaks, because they do have a vulnerable population that is confined. Example, orfor gastrointestinal problems, are things they have to think about and deal with on a regular basis. They do spend a lot of time working on their Infection Control plans. What we have brought to them are other ideas about how they can deal with expectations. For example, when we have known positive patients who are not sick enough to be hospitalized, we are encouraging them to keep those patients and perhaps a single wing or even a separate building, if that is possible, and have dedicated staff and dedicated equipment to use only for those patients that are known to be positive. In cases where we are known to have outbreaks, they have proceeded with trying to determine if people have asymptomatic infected people, it allows us to isolate those people as necessary. In a nursing home, they always have to work very closely with hospitals, particularly when they are receiving a patient who has been diagnosed as infected, been hospitalized, and is returning to a nursing home. There are a number of ways that we are working with them to make sure that people are protected. They are probably the most Vulnerable Group we have in our state. Reporter can you talk briefly about the effect of covid19 on africanamericans in the state . Dr. Harris africanamerican alabamians are very susceptible to severe disease, as we know. We spent a great deal of time working with senator singleton on ideas that he has had, particularly in his district, but also statewide, in terms of reaching out to hospitals, providers, helping them understand the susceptibility they have. We are trying hard to communicate and get the message out. We think sometimes we are not able to communicate as effectively as we would like to. We sometimes struggle adding the message out to have people understand they really are susceptible and at risk. Over the past two weeks or the last weekend a half, we have seen a lot of evidence that the message is getting out. People are not having the same kind of gatherings we have seen before. They are not coming, for example, the Large Services we have seen before, although they are finding ways to meet. It has been a challenge to get that message right. We think we are getting there. Reporter can you explain your reasoning why bigbox stores can stay open when there are other ,tores selling similar items with similar sanitation policies, and they have less people . What is the reasoning behind that . Big box stores have a limitation of 50 of the fire occupancy rate. They are limited to how many pick many can be in the store in a given time. The protocol, if they have 50 gov. Ivey maybe some of the recommendations when we come forward will start to open up more businesses. [indiscernible] certain stores open and others not. Gov. Ivey what is your question . [indiscernible] system of winners and losers behind store closures . Gov. Ivey the issue is not who can open and who can close. It is who is able to be separated and apart, and limit contact with people. That is the initiative. Certainly, we can make improvements as we go along. We will continue to do so. Time, with physical distancing and limiting the exposure reporter ventilators [indiscernible] dr. Harris it is a day by day calculation. Right now, our best calculations on ventilators is that we are ok. We believe the capacity in the state, which includes additional ventilators we have acquired and others that should be here any minute we think we have covered the number of patients who are going to need those, particularly as our hospitals are pretty good at sharing with each other. We think we are ok on that. Ppe is a different issue altogether. There is a worldwide shortage of ppe. The supply lines are completely changed. It is different for everyone, everywhere to get ppe, and we find ourselves trying to compete with other states for the same limited supplies. I think that is going to be an issue as we open the economy up. We will see recommendations about different kinds of behavior, just forever citizens, people who are going out in public and wearing masks, or who are in certain types of workplaces, having to wear some degree of ppe. We continue to try to source that everywhere we can. The governor has an assets team that has done a great job of finding ppe for us. In public health, we do not know how to evaluate a is in his offer from china. The department of commerce and the Governors Team are going to do those things. We have tried to track some things down. We have made a significant purchase or placement order over the weekend that we hope to get in the next few days. It is just day by day. I want to clarify the timeline. You are saying no currently closed businesses will be reopened before may 1 . Governor, i just want to clarify the timeline. Were saying no currently closed businesses, by order of the state, will be reopened before may 1 . Gov. Ivey the stayathome order goes through april 30. Reporter dr. Harris, both you and Governor Ivey have said what are the indicators you are looking at . Gov. Ivey the traffic account was much lower than an easter weekend Traffic Count usually is. That is a strong indicator that folks are staying at home and doing what they ought to do. Reporter i was asking if there is any chance that some businesses will be open before april 30. April 30. Gov. Ivey it is possible. A couple more questions. Brian . Brian is it important to say that [indiscernible] plan fora regional reopening the economy . We will share our plan, but i have not been asked by any other s