Gov. Walz good afternoon, minnesota. Our press pool is here. Grateful youre all here. Id like to send a message to minnesotans, last time we were here we announced wed do a homemade cloth facemask drive to see how many we could collect and minnesotan responded, as minnesotans do, with about 130,000 of those masks delivered to fireds across and every single one of them participated, across the state. Those are getting out to our longterm care providers, some of the folks that we need to get them. Thank you for that, minnesotans. And thank you for the work youve been doing. We know were coming up on may 4. I think its time to assess where were at. See the thing that was worked, making sure the plan we have put many place to execute to make sure we have the hospital beds we when needed, make sure we ramped up test, tracing an isolation capacity and make sure we had a clear plan that we arctic pated to minnesotans, how do we get back into our businesses functioning . I want to, today, call out that that sense of urgency and that sense of desperation around Economic Situation is real and validated and why we are able to put those measures in, i still believe minnesotans are finding a way not to force us to make a choice between Public Health and moving our commerce back into a functioning place. We can do both if you do it right. Irning the lessons from states arn the country, maybe more importantly from countries who have been able to do it pretty successfully, works. But i think when the story gets told and i had the opportunity this week to tell the story to Vice President pence, about what minnesota is doing that story is resonating with people because it threads that needle in a way that allows us to think a little more creatively, allows us to roll more things back into the life we knew before covid but with an understanding, theres going to be adjustments. When were outside or in places where we cant social distance, were wearing masks, not congress regating together, that will continue for some time. I think its worth noting and i always think were careful to make sure the science is there and theres validation that has to happen. I think the announcements yesterday in dr. Faucis, i think, validation, not in terms of the science of it, particular to that test, but the idea that it appears like were on the edge of some pretty good breakthroughs on therapeutics that are starting to happen. I think we should pause when theres positive things to happen and i think today theres a lot of positives to think about in minnesota. Thats always against a back drop of our second highest day of fatalities with 24 and we passed 5,000 tests. Excuse me, positive test confirmed cases. We are and i will show you approaching the numbers we need. Just so minnesotans know, since we started this. Ill show you a timeline. It seems nearly impossible that it was march 6 when we had our first covid our first covid case positive in minnesota. All thats happened since then, all land marks that have happened, all the disruptions to daily life. But by doing so minnesotans have saved time and have saved lives an bought us critical time. We can show that with data. Well compare it against other states. It has worked. We have built Hospital Capacity. You saw yesterday we finalized a lease on an alternate care site, i want to thank yokelly, the corps of engineer, all the the phones who worked on that, and if joe needs to, he can answer questions on that. Some states if you saw they built in central park, built the javits center, built out. Lessons from other states showed us we need to conserve resources. I dont think at this time, were prepared, joe, you can correct me on this, six other validated sites . Seven. Within 72 hours we could stand those up. We dont think at this time what were seeing in the numbers that it warrants us spending the money and standing that up. I assure minnesotans we could stand those up in 72 hours. The one we stood up here to validate, its the one because of population density makes the most sense. We prove wed can do it, its there, that adds to our capacity. Commissioner Roberts Davis and her team working with people like doug baker in our private sector are acquiring the things we need and were in a good spot. We announced that land mark testing strategy to allow us to test every symptomatic minnesotan. Id like to give thanks to the administration, Vice President pence an President Trump, when they were there, when we were at mayo, i mentioned the one the the one thing i needed, we needed in minnesota, i was hearing from other governor, but to get to 20,000 p. C. R. Tests and 15,000er isology tests, were swabs. I asked them to consider using the defense production act on swabs. Yesterday, last evening, President Trump announced he has authorized the use of the defense production act for swabs. Thats a Great Partnership. Itll help us out. Im certainly certainly grateful for that again, where were at today, yesterday we did 3,279, i think it was a week ago they said when are we going to get near 5,000, i said hopefully before may 4. That was the goal all along. I want to clarify that number was to kind of drive us. We thought it was a starting point. We want to test all symptomatic minnesotans and then want to expand it out to all others in frontline and positions of high risk. Thats why now its our goal to get to 20,000 as quickly as possible. The word coming out from our partnership with the university of minnesota all the other Health Systems and mayo clinic is that we are going to get there what i want to remind folks of, now when you see numbers, you are going to see minnesota have more cases confirmed, the things that we are watching for very closely and commissioner malcolm will talk about this is, are we exponentially increasing hospital beds, hospital stays, and the number of deaths. At this point in time, even though our numbers are going up, those other numbers are staying within the tolerance level where we think it needs to be to keep away from that surge. Id also talk about our website, a lot of folks talked about. This we use new mexico as a template. I want to thank governor Lujan Grisham and her team down there, they did open source on their website. We took on that and built it further where minnesotans can go on, take a diagnostic to see if they think they need a test and now you can check up to 177, we added 50 more, to be able to test see if theyre there, what it takes to get the test done. Thats one of the reasons youre seeing testing numbers go way up. Again, setting the bar where we were, i took a couple of data points, i asked my team, if i ask minnesotans to stay home, if i ask them to sacrifice the things they love, if i can businesses to put themselves on the brink, why are they doing it and are you giving that that was one of the reasons we put up the website, to show you what we were getting in perform p. E. , where we were in i. C. U. Beds. I think its important when we first asked at the start of the pandemic on may 6, we did not know. There was no no state did. There wasnt a real Emergency Response that had all the Critical Care capacity put in one spot to be able to look at. Personal protective equipment, the state of minnesota did not have that because the plan that many states, i think, all states, thought was the Strategic National stockpile would be used to surge on that. That proved not to be the case. We started from zero. Then of course Testing Capacity for covid19. It wouldnt be unusual with a new Novel Coronavirus to come up that you wouldnt be able to test but the testing is similar in terms of you just have a few things you have to change and stand it up, that is one thing that we started at zero and probably why the number of tests we have today i think wed be in a different spot if wed been running 3,200 tests march 6 rather than on april 28. Today, more than 2,500 Critical Care beds. You can see what the commissioner is at, hospitals request their own hospital, build up their own p. P. E. Workplaces build up their own p. P. E. This is the state to be able to backfill to help the folks, we need to help with the surge capacity, make sure the state patrol has them and others. Then Testing Capacity today is more than 2,000, actually its about 3,300 and going up. We will soon remaining progress needs to be made, test all symptomatic minnesotans. Once again i want to show you this. If those of you watching, ill try to stay close to this, if youre seeing the graph on the table, theres a lot here, its all the states, listed of where theyre at. It shows where from the first time we had 100 cases and these are cases per 100,000, once you got to 100. We were in the lower end but kind of toward the middle of the pack. That is the point when we started taking on march 13, the executive order. And this is what you have done. This is not what the state has done, as being State Government, this is what you have done, by taiing home, by social distancing, by making good decisions, ours went down like. This which means there are a couple of states were right about with montana, oregon and california in terms of where were at. Now we cant elit eliminate covid19 at this point in time without a vaccine. But we can slow this. And this is the way it should look. To build slow herd immunity and in the overwhelm the Health Care System. 10 i continue to show this, though, for one reason also. Theres a lot of states and on the im going to stay here and point at this, that were bunched together right here. The virus doesnt care what state theyre in it will act the way the virus acts by infecting people through droplets, by being on surfaces, whatever it might be. The only thing that separates these states on this graph is the decisions that were made by the people and by those states. To stop and change the direction and the numbers. To keep us under per 100,000. Thats why we are still at this point in time able to stay right with the top two or three states. Even, and this is normed to testing. Now, our objective. As ive always said. Help health, safety and the happiness. And i dont use that term as a frivolous, i use it as well being. And every Single Person who is mentioned, the stay at home order can have catastrophic effects on mental health. The state stay at home order can have catastrophic effects on domestic violence. Weve seen this and will talk about it today. It can have catastrophic effects as it has not just in this state but globally on economics. Its critical that that be built into anything we think about and how we go forward. Were trying to slow the spread, build herd immunity and realize youre not going to eliminate it. The news from dr. Fauci, the gilead study, this is exciting stuff. Just to be clear, theres some talk on vaccine bus the talk yesterday was more on the therapeutics. Meaning that those that are most sick, those 5 , if we can significantly reduce the time theyre in the hospital, the need to be intubated, on ventilators, that is a game changer because it changes how we approach this. Protect working on the frontline workers by increasing access to personal protective equipment, we still have that. Ensure the Health Care System can do everything they need. Strategically get more minnesotans back to work. Youll hear today, bruce will be here from our minnesota retailers association, the partners who are figuring out how to get folks back to work. Were going to hear from him. Im grateful nor partnership an understanding. These are the folks that are impacted. These are Small Business owners. These are the businesses facing with customer, trying to figure out how do you both get folks back safely and get businesses going together. I think theres an awful lot of thanks and were learning from them on what they can do and safely and slowly resume inperson contact in other activities. These things are important to our well being. Those activities are important. Im just heart brecken on graduations an these types of things, the whole idea of what was the class of 2020, how do we start thinking about that. And youth sports. I hope theres questions around that. I would think just like the Business Community, theyre smart people out there thinking about is it possible for us to socialties tans on a bail or softball field with each team using their own ball, catchers wearing another glove . Those are smart things we have to think about. Weve got to live with this for a while until we get therapeutics and vaccines. Ive said from the beginning and continue to say, you cannot isolate people indefinitely until that happens. Minnesotans have found the middle way. Its not that light switch, its not everything opens tomorrow, its not everything is locked down. Theres somewhere in between. I think the slide i showed previously about where were at bears out that that works. Again, the factors that weve been asking about. This is what we asked ourselves, this is what we asked our partners in business. This is what ski we ask everyone when were making a decision. For those of you at home, thinking about Public Health as being part of this diagram. How does it impact spread of the disease . How prepared are we to test, trace and isolate . Are hospitals prepared to treat patients . And how does it Impact Health for noncovid related illnesses . I saw a story in todays i believe it was in the star tribune, the family waiting for the young child to get back surgery that is critical to that childs well being fall into that circle but might not be deemed essential surgery at this time. Ill talk a little more about this. I think this is an area because of the good work minnesotans have done, because of what the hospital has done, because of what commissioner Roberts Davis has done, those are things that we can now answer and say, yes, i think we can make some of these changes. Social distancing, can you effectively social distance when doing the action . Do we have the supplies needed for workers an customers to be safe in how big a gathering will people be safe . And then societal well being. Will this action spur economic recovery . I want to assure everyone that this idea of if you just are putting in, plugging in Public Health which is important, no one wants to have to make that choice. We are using those numbers around economics. We are saying what can happen. And i just want to be clear. Those who are saying that we should open up all businesses tomorrow because this thing is not that serious and we overreacted, they are wrong. Those who are saying we should open up as fast as we possibly can because this is causing huge economic damage and we should figure out a way to do that that is the safest possible way to do it, those people are right. Thats what we should be doing and thats what the state of minnesota is ding. Does the action encourage other communities to return to civic life in a thoughtful way . Does it um private improve the live oves people . Its not as if those arent huge considerations into these factors. What were announcing today is were going to extend the stay at home orders on bars, restaurants and public accommodations until monday, the 18th of may. But we are moving Retail Businesses to reopen operations for Curbside Pickup and delivery, putting 30,000 minnesotan barks to work. Bruce will talk about this, he used a football analogy with me which is always helpful, i guess, about the step were making to move. This this is a this is a big move. Its a move that not a lot of states have taken. Some have opened up all the way and others have not. But what this allows us to do is it allows us it allows us to believe we can continue to social distance and use smart processes will continuing to test, trace an isolate and not overwhelm the system. Again, i would go back to that slide. The problem with this thing and again, i can answer some questions, we were down in worthington yesterday, ill answer at the end on the situation down to there. We basically went to zero tests, to 700 tests in 10 days. 700 positives. So the per capital infection rates in Nobles County approaches new york city. That happened between a week ago sunday and today. And so the real thing we have to be focused on is, not to be complacent. To be smart. To lean into things where we can. But with a recognition that we are on a very fine line with this virus that can come very, very quickly. It wont be a slow burn. Itll be exponential growth. So heres what were asking them to do commissioner grofe will take time with this, bruce will talk about it from the perspective of someone and his members are doing this, all customerfacing retail establishments are eligible for Curbside Pickup starting next monday. Dry cleaning, candle sales, whatever it might be all available for that every business will develop and post a plan for how to do. This templates available. Once again the state of minnesota is not collecting these. The state of minnesota is not in the business of of hassling folks or trying were in the business of making them successful. Because what the Business Community knows, if you dont get this right, people arent going to come. If they know that your store is dangerous because youre not adhering to those principles, people are not going to come. Its one of the reasons that weve got folks like costco going to all masks. If you want to shop in costco, wear a mask. Grocers association is recommending that everyone go with a mask. We are recommending and well bring that up, that everyone do that when theyre in settings when theyre out in the public. Online payments should be used in every possible scenario. Employees an customers should wear masks, protective equipment. Social distancing guidelines apply. In deliveries, items should be posited. These are things others have been doing. Retail establishments can do it. These are folk that was been thinking and can do it. They said let us go here. Validate that we can do this then we can take it to the