 Good morning everyone. I know this is an incredibly difficult time with disruption that most of us have never experienced. And there's a lot of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety across the nation. I understand how tough things are right now and will continue to be. But what's really important is to focus on and complete our first mission. To work together is one community, is a slow the spread of COVID-19. Yesterday when we announced the death of two elderly Vermonters with COVID-19, we had a stark reminder of why the mitigation actions and efforts we're taking are absolutely necessary. We have to recognize that many of us will get this virus. And while many will have moderate symptoms, we must do all we can to protect our older Vermonters and those with underlying conditions who are at greater risk as severe outcomes like what we announced last night. The consequences are serious, but the response is literally in our hands. So I want to thank Vermonters for their flexibility and help in responding to this pandemic from folks picking up supplies for elderly neighbors to the grocery store crews, restocking shelves from our restaurant owners and workers, educators and school administrators who've met recent adversity with understanding and a sense of service. To our healthcare workers, nurses and doctors on the front line doing all they can to fight this virus and keep us healthy. To our Department of Health workers and those from other agencies, many of whom I visited last night at the call center working second and third shifts to answer questions and track responses that are needed. State employees, even former employees stepping up outside their daily jobs to help and do whatever they can. I want every Vermonter to know I fully understand the incredible economic and emotional toll coronavirus is having and will continue to have on each and every one of us. The measures we're implementing well disruptive are based on the best science we have from experts and we're committed to doing all we can to help people weather this storm. As we continue to work on this first mission to protect the health of Vermonters, we also know financial security is critical for us to recover from this pandemic as well. So we're here today to announce steps we've taken to support working Vermonters affected by COVID-19 and additional actions we're going to put into place. Let me be clear, my team and I are fully aware these initiatives are not enough. People are hurting and businesses are at risk, but let me assure you we will pull every lever and turn every dial we possibly can to support folks through this time and look towards economic recovery even while we're closing in on the eye of the storm. The initiatives we're outlining today are small steps, but they're just the beginning and we need people to know what resources are available to them right now. We've already taken several actions to provide some economic relief for Vermonters to start. We made unemployment available to all Vermonters who can't work because of coronavirus. We also waived the work search requirement for those who are laid off or had their hours reduced during this emergency. This of course means many more Vermonters calling the Department of Labor for help and we continue to expand capacity and have simplified the process for Vermonters. This includes an online form for initial claims and tripling the number of staff in our claims center, borrowing people from other agencies and departments to help out, including a generous offer of staff support from the auditor's office. With schools and daycares now closed, it's my hope we can extend these benefits to those who need to stay home to care for their kids and will work with the legislature to do so. To further protect workers, I'll also ask the legislature to expand and extend job protections for those employees of small businesses who cannot work due to the family and medical reasons. Knowing the burden of health care and how utility costs weigh heavily on many families, I've directed the Department of Financial Regulation and DEVA to help reduce financial pressure wherever we can and make sure Vermonters continue to have access to care and prescriptions. DFR acted quickly to ensure Vermonters didn't have to pay out of pocket for COVID-19 testing and directed insurers to allow for a 30-day supply of prescription medication available to patients. Commissioner Petschek is now working with MVP and Blue Cross Blue Shield to try to make sure no one loses their health care coverage during this time and I've directed DEVA to waive premiums for the Dr. Dinosaur program. DFR is also working with financial institutions to encourage flexibility for customers. Things like waiving fees and delaying loan repayments, which is just the start to providing relief. On the utility front, my team at the public service department has been working with other our utilities to ensure that folks are not disconnected during this emergency due to inability to pay. I'm happy to report that our utilities overwhelmingly stepped up to do the right thing and their good conduct and cooperation was acknowledged in the PUC's recent order to formalize this protection. I know the steps we've taken to slow this virus down are already taking an incredible toll on businesses and their employees, especially our bars and restaurants, which are so vital to our economy and our culture. Again, we will do everything we can to help these businesses and their employees, but my heart goes out to each and every one of them as they face the brunt of this right now. We've acted on some other opportunities to provide relief and we'll do more. For instance, I ease liquor laws to allow restaurants, which can only offer takeout and delivery to help mitigate the spread of the virus to sell alcoholic beverages as part of the takeout service. And while this may seem trivial, I wanted to allow as much flexibility as possible while their dine-in service is closed. We've also requested a disaster declaration from the Small Business Administration, which would make emergency loans available to Vermont small businesses. To supplement this, we'll be working with the legislature to create a business loan program through VEDA, similar to what we did in the immediate response to Tropical Storm Irene. As we work to expand UI benefits, we're also working with the legislature to make sure UI experience ratings are not negatively affected. ACCD is also providing resources to support businesses with technical assistance, regular guidance, and more. And they can go to acc.vermont.gov for other assistance. Again, we know this is not nearly enough, and there will be much, much more in the future to help our small businesses the backbone of our economy. While working to provide some economic relief, we're also working to ease the regulatory burden and simplify government services in ways that will help us better respond to this crisis. For example, the Department of Motor Vehicles shifted to online phone and mail services only. And to help take some of the stress off, I declared them or directed them to grant a 90-day extension for all licenses and registration renewals. We know two areas of tremendous need right now are in our health and communication systems. We've already expanded telehealth services, including for mental health needs. And we'll also work to give our healthcare providers more flexibility on licensing, staffing, and referrals, and ease in our procedural requirements to accommodate surge capacity at our healthcare facilities. And we're looking to ease on the barriers to communications infrastructure to make sure those systems aren't interrupted. Additionally, the Public Service Department is developing an interactive map of free Wi-Fi spots. Those Wi-Fi hotspots will support our students and workers now learning and working remotely. On the federal level, we continue to assess what's being passed and being considered in Washington, which will provide much more relief for workers and businesses. I want to thank the congressional delegation, Senators Leahy and Sanders and Congressman Welch, who have been so supportive in taking my numerous calls each and every time I make them. I also want to thank the legislature, particularly the leadership, who have been standing ready to act on our needs in this time of crisis and who will continue to work closely with on several of the proposals I outlined today. As I've already made clear, these are just the first steps of many to come that we think we can make a difference for Vermont, but we know, I know, that many more will be needed. And we'll take those steps together. We'll take each challenge as it comes, calmly, and with the best interests of all Vermonters in mind. Each and every decision we make will be informed by the best science and with information from subject matter experts to protect Vermonters. I want to close by again commenting on how proud I am of the people of our state and how encouraged I am with what I've seen as we pulled together. Little things like neighbors encouraging others to get takeout from our restaurants, businesses donating mass and personal protective gear to hospitals, bus drivers delivering meals and learning materials on the routes they used to pick up students on, and folks taking a moment to thank the custodians for working overtime to help keep our spaces clean and safe. Just like Irene or the Great Depression of the 30s or the flood of 1927, we will get through this and we'll get through it together. I'll now ask Dr. Levine to give a brief update on the current situation. Dr. Levine. Thank you, Governor. In my allotted time today, I'd like to focus on three areas. First is the situational update on numbers and on testing. Second is the outbreak at the long-term care facility in Burlington. And the third is on the lifestyle changes we're all experiencing. At this point in time, prior to any results coming in today, we have a total of 28 positive test results in Vermont. The perspective there is that there are about 800 negative test results. Yesterday brought seven new positives for them at the long-term care facility, three members of the community who are not hospitalized. And as you heard at last night's press conference, we noted the passing of two individuals very elderly with COVID-19. The health department continues to monitor several hundred Vermonters. With regards to testing, it's always been and will continue to be for the near future a mixed picture but far more balanced on the side of optimism. We are now having access to commercial lab capacity out of state, which will allow us to test a majority of what we term low priority test specimens, hopefully within a 48-hour turnaround time. We continue to do all the high priority testing here in state with a 24-hour turnaround time. We have an important affiliation we've developed with the University of Vermont Medical Center and the College of Medicine. And we are constantly in touch with our federal partners and agencies such as HHS and FDA. The ultimate solution to the problem is obviously making sure that there's adequate testing reagents, buffers, all of the components of what go into doing the test. I feel proud that we have adequate facilities to take specimens from patients. And though there are a few gaps in our geographic region, we know how to fill them and they will be filled effectively. Moving on to the long-term care facility in Burlington, as you noted, one of the deaths was indeed at that facility of the two deaths yesterday. And there are a total of five positive test results from that facility in the residents of the facility, including the individual who died. We have been rigorously working with the facility regarding their infection control procedures, the fact that they already had adequate policies in place, already had been certified and passed regulatory muster in October of 2019 with no deficiencies noted. And when we became involved very quickly after the first case, it was obvious that they were already pursuing appropriate infection control procedures. We are of course assisting with a lot of the contact tracing, making sure that we're aware of any other resident, any healthcare worker that might have had contact with a positive case and doing the appropriate surveillance that's necessary. We are also doing appropriate testing, needless to say, and working very closely with the facility on their supply of personal protection equipment, which has been forthcoming through the state and will continue as needed. As I mentioned, we've been connected from the outset, both on the telephone lines and as of yesterday within the facility, we are using guidance that often is very standardized, if I may use that word, from the Centers for Disease Control, but that is effective. We have been connected with the Centers for Disease Control throughout this. We have another call in today, really investigating with them if they could be sending a team to Vermont to assist us in the investigation. I have to be very frank here. This is not the only long-term care facility in the United States that is suffering from the COVID-19 epidemic. The CDC is probably as overwhelmed as everyone in every state is feeling at this time, so I don't know how feasible or realistic that is, but we will certainly enlist their ongoing assistance. Last thing I mentioned was the social distancing. So during this time of uncertainty, many Vermonters are feeling understandably anxious, worried, perhaps angry, perhaps scared. Social distancing can compound the feeling of isolation. We encourage all Vermonters to use this time of social distancing as an opportunity to reconnect with family, friends, and your community in responsible ways. Use technology to communicate. Enjoy the outdoors. Take time to learn a new skill. Follow up on long overdue projects. Volunteer to support those who are in need. This is a big transition from how we live our daily lives. We're all working together to adjust, change the way we express kindness, affection, embracing people, meeting them for the first time. Knowing this, all being in this together goes into all of the difficult decisions that the state is making. And I and the Health Department are not only understanding, but in the midst of everything else, training our focus on this. In coming press conferences, I will have more to say regarding innovative strategies that all Vermonters can begin to use to help cope in these challenging times. Thank you. Well now, open it up to questions. I believe there's a process. I believe the question was echoing a bit the shelter in place order. Obviously, everything is on the table at this point. Nothing we're considering in the short term, but watching what other states are doing and how it's advanced much further in those states than it is in Vermont. Everything's on the table and we'll consider everything we can based on the science and data that we have available. And then we'll make the proper moves and take the proper steps at that point in time. But not at this point. We're getting a lot of feedback and we figure this out. Next question is Pete Hirschfeld from VPR. Peter, if you need on mute. Sure. So I have to be honest, we're drawing up those numbers as we speak. We've had a consultant involved to work with us, which another may be able to talk to. But what we're talking with the hospitals on, as recently as 8.30 this morning, is the total number of beds they have available if and when there would be a need to stand up other facilities to add to that bed component. How many ICU beds might be necessary? How many ventilators might be necessary? We already have capacity to set up. The term, I guess, would be pop-up hospitals. We have invested in at least 80 new ventilators above and beyond the supply that the state already had. And maybe I'll turn this over for a second. Well, some of the modeling data that has just come in. Thank you, Dr. Levine, Mike Peechak from the Department of Financial Regulation. So the department has engaged internal experts as well as external experts to look at some of the modeling for best case and worst case scenarios in Vermont. When the numbers are below 100 of confirmed positive cases, the numbers are not as consistent in terms of the projections. So we're running a number of scenarios to try to get a best estimate on best case and worst case scenarios. We have those initial estimates internally, but we're working on getting them with more accuracy before disseminating them broader. Mike Smith, Secretary of Human Services. I just wanted to give an update on available beds in Vermont and elsewhere. We have a total of 500 available beds. The ICU beds have climbed significantly to 49. Surgical beds have climbed significantly to 204. And isolation beds have climbed as well. The numbers have gone up significantly since yesterday because of the governor's action dealing with elective and non-urgent procedures being postponed. Also, as Commissioner Levine had talked, we have 87 new ventilators coming and we're looking to increase that capacity as well. We have currently 153 with 87 coming and available today and with 87 coming and the promise of converting existing ventilators that are used for other procedures to this procedure on COVID-19, which will increase our capacity even more, more to come in a few days on that. I know it's pretty early, Governor, but is it becoming any more clear here, how long the shutdown, like with schools, restaurants, and cars, or last, if they'll have to go beyond able six? Yeah, too early to make that decision at this point, but suffice us to say we're still increasing the number of positives we're seeing. The exponential threat is still there and I would expect, I think, we, Vermonters, need to prepare for a much longer period of time, but at this point, not ready to declare that, but it certainly looks as though we're going to have to consider moving that date much further forward. We are, and this is Mike Smith again, we are identifying the county of resident for those individuals. We do gender, age range county resident or where they, what county they're from, whether, what hospital they're in, if they're hospitalized, or if they're home. The reason we do that is to maintain some patient privacy, according to HIPAA, but trying to get out as much information as possible. For example, last night, we identified the long-term care facility that has not been done in the past. We're trying to move as quickly and as, as transparently, as transparently as possible with these things while we try to give the patient some protection. So we're trying to do, we're trying to walk a really fine line here. And if you're, if you're talking, we're not hearing you. The question was whether the, the positive cases that were announced earlier in the week, will they be identified per county on the county-wide basis? Do you know that on a county-wide basis? Yeah, I, and I'm a little confused because we, we do account on a county-wide basis each time we, we send out a count each day. There was one day where we didn't do that because of some program issues, but every day we try to identify the county where the person is. We had a little bit of glitch in the first part of the week because what we didn't want to do, and the governor was absolutely right with this, we didn't want to split non-Vermaners and Vermonters out there to have that dichotomy between non-Vermaners and Vermonters. So we, we, one day we had 10 when we should have had a total of, I think it was 17, something along that line, but it's our intention to report as much as possible every time that we do report. Thank you Secretary Smith while you're there. If I could ask you, should daycare still be charging people when they're closed? I mean it'll be up to every individual for essential people. Right now we are paying daycare centers for those that are subsidized. We'll look into whether they should or whether they shouldn't as we move forward, but right now we are, whether you have a, what we're trying to do, Stuart, is to make sure that we don't collapse the daycare system. So when we come out of this, that we still have a daycare system. And what we're trying to do is provide payments to that daycare system, whether you have children or not. And these are the pre-K systems that I'm talking about right now, the private pre-K systems. We're paying the subsidy through the closure period that we announced. If I could just follow up with Dr. Levine, do you know, sir, if there are any healthcare workers, including physicians who were perhaps involved in the treatment of the woman who died yesterday in Burlington, who have now tested positive? Do we have any physicians in our state who have tested positive? So I don't have the answer to that yet. I suspect most of those tests are cooking right now. Mr. Levine, as testing capacity increases, what, as testing capacity increases, what symptoms exactly has the person have been reverse-detected, and has that guidance changed on what the threshold rate is and how the food should be tested and when and when? So our knowledge about symptoms is evolving, much as the knowledge about the epidemic is evolving. We have only used the word symptomatic so that we can leave that up to the discretion of the clinician and their judgment if that's an appropriate patient. Obviously, the key core symptoms that we've always been talking about still hold, fever, cough, shortness of breath. But we do understand now that there are those who may present with achiness syndromes like flu-like symptoms, headaches, things of that sort. And much like any other clinical decision, the clinician integrates all that information and makes a decision about the appropriateness of testing. So that's how that part will go. Stephen, are you on mute? Even with all these new efforts to support the economy, how long can Vermont sustain this level of economic suppression? Yeah, we'll sustain it as long as fees will be possible. I mean, we'll get to the end of this and we'll do it together. I have tremendous faith in our inner strength here in Vermont and the businesses that are working so hard to be creative. And the federal government and the state government and all of us working together, we'll get through this. As I said before, we've been through multiple challenges in our history. If you take the 1927 flood here in Vermont or you take the depression in the 30s, certainly, we've seen this in Irene. We got through it and we'll get through this as well. So I got the first part of the question, which is how many have been tested so far and that number is growing, so I can't give you a precise number, but I would definitely think we would have at least a half a dozen, if not more, but I can't give you a precise number because our investigation will help determine who needs to be tested. I'm going to need you to repeat the rest of the question because it didn't come through very well. Why everyone there is not being tested? That would probably not be an effective use of resources unless everyone there was symptomatic with the illness. The other question I think I answered in my comments earlier, which was the strategies we're using from a public health investigative and surveillance standpoint with the facility to understand their infection control practices and make sure that as we're there on the ground, they're being implemented and to continue to work with the CDC either remotely or with them sending a team to further enhance our efforts. Of course, you know, make people say there's a big risk there. Some people are calling for some low-risk inmates to be released. Is that on the table still and sort of what of those discussions have been there? Well, we've been looking at the inmate population on a daily basis. By the way, it has been decreasing as we speak and as we've moved forward. We're at about 1,500 inmates today. That's significantly lower than it has been and actually allows us now to spread inmates out for more social distancing in the correctional facilities. As I mentioned the other day, we're taking very stringent actions in terms of intake into those facilities, making sure there's a thorough medical examination as we intake various inmates. The other thing is we're working closely with the state's attorneys. I think Commissioner Baker the other day had a meeting with the state's attorneys and the judicial system as well, talking about the need to look at who is coming into our facilities. But at this time, at this very time, we have no plans to furlough anybody within our correctional facility. We'll see as this moves forward. But right now we have no plans to furlough anyone in our correctional facilities. I just want to add as well, not only are we doing that, we're also limiting access to the inmate population as well through video conferencing in terms of visitations and those other things we're doing. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. The ventilators that are available today is 153. We have 87 additional ventilators coming. Plus Dan, I just want to tell you we are looking at how to convert other ventilators for the purpose of COVID-19. We're learning from other states on how to do that. And we think that will boost our numbers as well. So we'll continue to look for additional capacity in ventilators. But right now today we have 153 that's available for us, boosting it up to 87, boosting it up with these conversions that we're talking about and boosting it up because we're still out there searching for other ventilators as we move forward. I'm sorry, if you could repeat the question, we're getting a lot of feedback here. And if everyone on the line could just so that we could narrow this down, if you could just mute your phones, that would be very helpful. I think you made a very astute point. And if I could just digress to Italy's experience, which has not been good, part of the hypothesis about why it hasn't been good in addition to some differences in the healthcare system relate to the fact that their population is older and has a higher smoking rate. So I think the correlation between prior damage to lungs and then having an insult like COVID-19 is very clear. We're fortunate in Vermont that at least in the combustible cigarette smoking rate, we've had steady decrements for many, many years now and are probably at an all-time low, although you're right, the vaping epidemic has changed that for a certain part of our demographic. If there's some good news in that, the demographic that's really doing the most vaping are in the adolescent years and perhaps young adult, but those are the years that seem to be less unfavorably impacted by this virus. Nonetheless, I do agree with you that messaging can be a component of an effective public health strategy. We haven't actually turned off any of the messaging that we're doing with youth regarding vaping and I think we should continue to support that message regardless and specifically broaden it to any tobacco product message since we don't want our older adults who are more prone to have serious outcomes with COVID-19 forget that connection. And they're in state or they're out in state? Well, we tell them not to go into urgent care. It doesn't mean they can't go to urgent care. However, they can still communicate with the health care system and we tell people don't show up in urgent care, don't show up in an emergency room because you may walk in and nobody's prepared to realize that you could be a vector for this disease, but we don't tell them don't call ahead and we in fact encourage them to call ahead. So I would still give that same advice to someone who doesn't have a health care provider and they feel symptomatic. The last thing we want to do is have people decline the opportunity to get care and as you know we have such a low uninsured rate in Vermont and so many changes have been made at the level of paying for tests, paying for care with this virus in mind that are all geared to making sure that no one in the country never mind Vermont feels that access to care, access to testing cost is going to be a barrier to their getting the right treatment. So I would hope that no one would feel that way. Yeah, absolutely. We're looking at that as we speak. We want to make sure whatever we do doesn't have a ripple effect across those like those who own apartment houses for instance they have to pay a mortgage as well so we want to make sure we get this right but we are definitely going to look at this and make sure that we're protecting vulnerable Vermonters and making sure that people aren't evicted. So we'll be considering this in response to many, many different requests working with the legislature as well as what we can do with an executive order but we'll be taking this up as well. All right thank you very much everyone for coming and we'll have another update by Monday hopefully not before that.