Resume when the stayathome order expires. Other topics included guidelines for Meat Processing facilities in the state. Gov. Northam good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. Today, we have updates on our meet processing facilities and allowing our hospitals and outpatient providers to resume nonemergency procedures, allowing our dentists to start seeing nonemergency patients, and allowing veterinarians to see nonemergency pets and their patients. Yesterday, President Trump evoked the defense production act to require Meat Processing facilities to stay open to maintain our food supply chain. Last weekend, i joined the governors of maryland and delaware in sending a letter to President Trump, asking for federal help in coordinating our approach to rising numbers of cases in our poultry facilities. Trump, asking for federal help in coordinating our approach to rising numbers of cases in our poultry facilities. Deployings responded, teams to each of our three states to work with health officials. This team arrived on virginias Eastern Shore yesterday. They met with local health and worker safety teams. Assess theginning to plants and ensuring they are operating to assist safety guidelines that the cdc issued sunday in response to the request from me and the governors of maryland and delaware. Howe guidelines describe plants should reconfigure their spaces so that workers are able to be separated and protected from each other. I want to be clear that my number one concern here is our workers. Everyone is a human being who deserves our attraction. These factors place them at a high risk. We took important steps these years to help workers like these. We raised the minimum wage in virginia. We passed legislation to allow those who are not yet citizens to have drivers licenses and we are working to make sure that the expansion of medicaid helps as many virginians to get access to health care as possible. Easternp on virginias shore and i know how important these industries are. I fully understand the importance of me crossing meet processing facilities on the food chain and on virginias agriculture economy. I think the hardworking farmers, employees, truck drivers, Grocery Store workers, and all members of this complex supply chain for their work to make sure that all of us continue to have safe, nutritious food during the midst of this health crisis. I want to be clear that this depends on workers who are healthy and safe. If we declare that workers at meet Processing Plants are essential, it is imperative that we continue to support their health and wellbeing. Todayon a call earlier with agriculture secretary sonny perdue to raise this very issue. I hope with this executive order that the president is signaling that the federal government will play a much larger role in keeping these employees safe and will provide federal support to ensure that every worker has protection including adequate ppe. Im instructing virginias department of health and industry to work with the plants to make sure that they implement the cdc guidelines to protect our workers. They will work with the u. S. Department of agriculture, osha and the fda to work with state and local officials to affirm their following state and local guidance. About thelearn more state of virginia is cuba poultry plants in the next few virginias poultry plants in the next few days. We fully expect that all employees in these Food Processing plants will be tested, and that those who need medical care have adequate access and a safe place to go if they need to be isolated. Then we will have a much clearer idea of the thats time is of the essence to stop the spread and protect our workers. Now i would like to move to the issue of elective surgeries. Ago, the Virginia Health commissioner and i signed Public Health order to, which prohibited elective surgeries and limited dental procedures. I sincerely appreciate the cooperation of our Health Care Providers and health care facilities. Ppeid this to preserve our for our frontline workers and hospitals, and provide for a surge if that were to occur. I want everyone to remember six to eight we think of. Our hospitalization rates were rising. We were worried hospitals would be overwhelmed by a surge in cases like we were seeing in italy and new york. We were planning how to build alternative care facilities. Around the country, people were worried that we would one out of ppe and our nurses would have to resort to wearing trash bags. We found that totally unacceptable. Because everyone has worked together, we have avoided that. Our efforts to slow the spread of this virus are showing success. Our hospitals have not been overwhelmed. We have been able to get more ppe and develop ways to be contaminate test and decontaminate decontaminate masks and gowns. Results weret taking more than a week and now in most cases, it takes less than a day. Together, we took the right actions and they have been successful. We slowed the spread of this virus. For weeks, our teams have been in contact numerous times a day, working together. Now, hospitals and dental facilities are prepared to restart nonemergency procedures safely. They have worked for weeks to prepare to be open and they are ready and i want to emphasize and underline the word safely. On monday, our hospitals, clinics, dental offices, these are safe, these are clean places to go. While we have entered his pandemic, i want to encourage all virginians that your health care is important and i encourage you to resume that health care and we built together do it in a safe manner. That, im announcing elective surgery and dental procedures can resume when the public order expires at midnight tomorrow night. With guidelines in place to ensure safety for Health Care Workers and patients and to maintain an adequate supply of ppe. We know that dental issues can affect the rest of the body, so it is important that dental facilities are included in this. The Virginia Dental Association issued new guidelines to their members yesterday. I would like to introduce a doctor to discuss how dentists are planning to safely move forward and before she comes to the podium, we have had a great relationship working together to be able to get where we are on friday and i would like to thank elizabeth and all the dentists across virginia for their cooperation and for taking such great care of our fellow virginians. Thank you. Thank you, governor, and dr. Carey, or your administrations close contact with dentists and other Health Care Providers. I would also like to thank the dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, and office teams for their professionalism and dedication to patients as we continue to see our emergency patients here in the commonwealth. As you may remember, and as the governor mentioned, the Virginia Dental Association issued a recommendation on march 15 to postpone elective procedures. Our goals were to preserve the muchneeded ppe for our medical colleagues in hospitals, to keep our dental emergency patients out of the hospital system, and develop new guidelines to protect our patients and providers in a dental Office Setting amid this crisis. That said, as the governor alluded to earlier, we all recognize that the longer practices remain close do not emergency treatment, the more untreated patients dental diseases will progress. Ethicalsts, we have an responsibility to our patients and our dental teams. We have worked tirelessly over the last month and a half with the Governors OfficeGovernors Office for issues like liability to Health Care Workers. Thank you for your executive earlier executive order signed earlier this week. When the order is lifted at the end of the month, virginia dentists will be following detailed guidelines from the ada, bda, Virginia Department of health, and cdc to keep patients , dentists, and dental team members safe. The safety of patients and dental team members has been and always will be our utmost concern. As we begin to open our offices for nonemergency treatment, i encourage virginians to contact your Health Care Provider if you have an oral health need. Bee but not all offices will resuming regular operations at the start of may and they can work with you to make sure your needs are addressed. Please know that dental offices have always been leaders in Infection Control and our offices have new protocols in place to minimize the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. Those protocols will include measures like Wearing Masks to your visits, screening specific for covid19, adjusting appointment times and schedules to allow thorough cleaning between appointments, and minimizing or eliminating patients in the reception area. Weeks, bothcoming dental practices will be given who dental those needs may precipitate urgent or Emergent Care if not addressed sooner. They will be given special consideration to patients who are at high risk for covid19. They will minimize the use of air and water to minimize aerosols and we will wear different forms of protective equipment to minimize transmission. Access to certain ppe continued to be an issue for some practices. We continue to work with our suppliers and the Governors Administration to address these shortages. Toare excited and prepared open our offices and begin safely seeing our patients for comprehensive care. I encourage anyone who may have had to postpone dental treatments or maybe having a dental issue to call your dentist and wake and work with him or her to develop a plan. I speak for my colleagues when i go back tot wait to seeing our patients. Thank you again, governor, secretary, for your continued encouragement and engagement with the health care professions. We look forward to working with you and your office to be a part of the solution as we move forward with testing and a vaccine and eradication of the coronavirus. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Reynolds. In the past weeks, everyone in our Health Care System has stepped up. They preserve ppe and found new ways to decontaminate it. People have followed our stayathome order and we are flattening that curve that we often talk about. Our hospital census levels have remained steady. Now it is time for our hospitals to resume nonemergency activities. This is important because elective often means nonemergency. Elective surgeries include everything from knee replacements to some cancer treatments. These are procedures that can wait a wild, but not forever. I know ridge and yes hospitals are committed to our Ongoing Partnership and i want to usher virginians that if we begin to hospitalization rates rise again, we are prepared to take swift and necessary action. Dr. Michael to ask mcdermott, president and ceo of Mary Washington health care, to give more detail on how our hospitals will move forward. Thank you so much. Thank you, governor. Good afternoon. Mcdermott, the president and chief executive officer of Mary Washington health care in burke, virginia and im chairman of the virginia hospital and Health Care Association board of directors. During this pandemic, i have had the privilege of serving as chairman of the vha covid19 committee and as cochair of the joint Virginia Department of health vha covid19 committee. Today byike to start expressing my gratitude to the governor and the administration for the executive order addressing some of the liability issues that could arise in response to this covid19 crisis. Expressingtart by the Hospital Communitys gratitude to the governor and his administration for the incredible partnership and collaboration in this unified covid19 response in the commonwealth of virginia. This has been an inclusive process and it involves countless stakeholders and diverse perspectives as we Work Together to protect virginians from this contagious virus. Everyone involved in this effort recognizes that this pandemic has had a significant effect on the commonwealth, this nation, and the world. That includes the many patients and families that have been directly affected by covid19, and the front line Health Care Providers in First Responders who continue to give their all in the fight against this illness. But the effects of this serious situation also extend beyond that. It touched everyone in some way. Having worked closely with the governor and his team, i know the governors focus throughout these trying times has been exactly where it should be, on Public Safety and the health of our communities across virginia. As we have worked through the many challenges associated with this pandemic, from access to testing and personal protective equipment, to and sharing adequate treatment capacity and other issues, the governor has been a steadfast ally in this coordinated response effort. Because this is uncharted territory in many respects, we have had to make adjustments as this pandemic has unfolded and shifted on a daily basis. Early on in the process, virginia hospital took a precautionary step of postponing nonemergency medical procedures createerve ppe and to additional treatment capacity and our facilities. This step taken by the hospitals was consistent with the governors order calling for a halt to such procedures throughout the commonwealth. When we talk about nonemergency procedures, it is important to define what we mean. They include things like cancer surgeries and many other scheduled procedures and forms of Preventative Care that are important to the help health of patients who need these medical treatments. While those scheduled procedures have been on hold, region yes hospitals and Health Care Providers have been working diligently to care for covid19 patients and to secure the necessary supplies and resources such as ppe and expanded testing capability to support patient care during the response effort. Throughout this ordeal, the commonwealth and Health Care Providers have monitored the real world conditions and situational demands caused by covid19. As we consider the Current Situation and other medical needs of virginia patients, we believe the time is right to chart a path to begin providing nonemergency, scheduled procedures to people who need that care in inpatient and outpatient settings to improve their health outcomes. Virginia hospitals have more than 5000 available beds to meet patient needs and continue the care for those impacted by covid19. Access to expanded testing continues to be an area of focus for the governor and for Health Care Providers, as our ppe supplies. Our hospitals follow best practice care and infection protection prevention protocols and are safe facilities. It is important for all virginians to know that if you need care, please do not hesitate to receive care to improve your health outcome. The Hospital Community will work state, andfederal, state, Specialty Group framework to guide us as we prepare to move forward with resuming scheduled procedures. This framework positions us to safely and responsibly take these next steps in a manner that is consistent with health care best practices. Direction,ed in this we will continue to work closely with Governor Northam and his administration to monitor the number of patients hospitalized for covid19 and other conditions to track testing and ppe supplies and to protect the safety of our frontline caregivers as we work to slow the spread of this disease. Together, we will be ready to adjust our approach in response to new challenges we may be confronted worth with as we continue to fight this virus while meeting the health needs of our fellow virginians. Thank you. Gov. Northam thanks so much, dr. Mcdermott. Im grateful to our hospitals and dentists for their efforts to support Public Health during this difficult time. Im also grateful to our veterinarians. Many of them voluntarily stopped doing any surgeries that required ppe so that they could donate that to those on the front lines. Our veterinarians have continued to care for animals throughout virginia during this crisis, implementing social distancing, and i would like to thank them for their cooperation during this challenging time. On a side note, our two labrador s love their veterinarians and thank them as well for their cooperation. Virginia veterinarians are allowed to provide the full array of services their patients require while using Public Health best practices. I want to move to a different topic, but a good news topic, and that is our Student Loans. The federal cares act allowed many people with Student Loans to delay payments during this crisis. Thatll be applied to people with certain u. S. Government owned loans. Virginia is joining several toer states in an initiative add an additional 200,000 loannians with education programs. Perkins loans are privately held Student Loans. Lenders will provide a minimum of 90 days forbearance on loans and waive late payment fees among other actions. This is great news for the 200,000 virginians that are affected. I want to close by talking about our resource challenges. A few week