 While their exact causes of death will be determined by the state's medical examiner, the fact that they had tested positive for COVID-19 is going to be concerning to many Vermonters. So I thought it was important to address it tonight. Dr. Levine will get into more details about the patients, but we know they were elderly Vermonters, which is an important reminder that the virus is most dangerous to seniors. And those with serious underlying conditions like heart and lung disease. There is no doubt this is sad for all of us, but it's not unexpected news. While we have always hoped there would be no deaths here in Vermont, we are also very aware like other viruses, COVID-19 has the potential to cause serious illness, especially for the very ill or elderly, and can be fatal. It's also a reminder that even though the vast majority of us will have mild or moderate symptoms, or maybe no symptoms at all, we can still spread this virus, which puts the vulnerable at extreme risk. Now I know some are feeling very scared, worried, overwhelmed, but I want you all to know we will get through this because we're all in this together. And in times like this, Vermonters rise to the occasion, we help our neighbors, we answer the call of duty, and we get creative to solve the challenges ahead. I'm seeing the good in people every single day. The people of Vermont in their compassion and commitment to each other show me that we will get through this, and we'll do it together. With that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for further details. All of us at the Health Department are feeling these first losses very deeply, and I want to express my deepest condolences to the patients, loved ones, friends, and family. The first was a male resident of Windsor County who had been hospitalized at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction. The second was a female resident of the Burlington Health and Rehab Long-Term Care Facility in Burlington. Both were very elderly. When COVID-19 first appeared in Vermont, we sincerely hoped that our community would be spared such losses. Unfortunately, this new coronavirus can be very serious, especially for vulnerable Vermonters, such as people who live in closed settings like long-term care facilities. As you know, in Vermont, we're now experiencing the type of community spread of virus that has been seen in other states. The state's been taking very strong action to prevent illness from spreading. But these deaths, and I hope we will experience no more, highlight how extremely important it is for all of us, young and old, to take extra care to protect those who are most vulnerable to serious illness, including older people and those with chronic illnesses or impairment in their immunity. Here at the Health Department, we continue to work tirelessly to identify people who are at high risk because of possible contact with people who have tested positive for the virus. That includes household members in close contacts, as well as health care workers and first responders who may have been exposed. Each person is assessed for their exposure risk and provided with guidance for their health and recommendations for self-isolation or other measures. And as illustrated by these two cases, we are prioritizing our testing to health care workers who are symptomatic, people who are hospitalized, residents of long-term care facilities, people who are immunocompromised, and other high-risk groups. As the Governor alluded to, even in such a time of tragedy, Vermonters rally and they show how resourceful and resilient and creative they can be when confronted with a challenge as big as COVID-19. Thank you. With that, we'll take a few questions. Governor, do we know that any of these patients have pre-existing conditions? I'll let Dr. Levine answer the medical questions. Yes. We don't have a complete idea of their whole health history. And again, they haven't traveled. These were not believed to be cases related to travel. Dr. Levine, is there any indication that other residents of the nursing home have been infected? So we're assessing that as we speak. And our epidemiology team is actually on-site examining who might have been exposed, who should be tested, all of that. What guidance is the Department of Giving to families who may have all of them in that home? So families that may have visited or? Now that may have some concerns about having someone in that facility. Yes. That's hard to give them guidance until we complete our assessment and our testing. So there will be guidance forthcoming, for sure. Do you have any more specifics about their age, 70s, 80s, 90s? We're not really allowed to release that information. You can only say that they're elderly. Yes. And I can assure you they're quite elderly. Sure. Can you give any kind of indication of how fast this progress for either patient, when, how fast did they go from them showing symptoms to getting tested to them dying? I can speak in generalities. You might recall it was not very long ago when we had our very first case in Vermont. We're talking maybe a week and a half ago, less than two weeks. So that's the pace. So it moves fairly quickly and quite quickly is quite fast? It can, especially in those that we've talked about who are more vulnerable. I wanted to ask about the testing and the priorities that you mentioned. How standardized are those priorities and who exactly is making that call? Yeah, those priorities are quite standardized and they're being disseminated to all clinicians around the state. Were the people on respirators and how many do you have? So I can't speak to either question, right? I can't speak to the first question and the second question is probably more appropriate for our press conference tomorrow. How old is Elder Langer when you say they're elderly? What is your threshold to consider? Yeah, I think the common standard, although it's evolving, is 65, as you know. To be clear, both these deaths occur today? Yes. We're hearing today in New York State, for instance, fears statements coming out of the government's office that they expect their hospitals to be overwhelmed very quickly by this. We spoke tonight about hoping there aren't any more deaths here. I mean, are you expecting that we're going to see similar problems in their hospitals that are coming up? So obviously, we're planning for that. We've done a lot of modeling, but the fact of the matter is today, if we talk about our number of cases to be in the 20s and the number of negative tests to be way over 700, that just gives you a little perspective. So clearly, our hospitals are not being overwhelmed today, but I have to, again, repeat that COVID-19 is not the only disease in our community. We are still in influenza season. We are still in the season for respiratory syncytial virus. And both of these are affecting our elderlies, especially in causing hospitalization, even before we had this new pandemic arrive. Folks, we have time for one more question. We have a press conference tomorrow as well. I think it's also important to remind all Vermonters, this is the time to take this into your own hands. What we've been talking about over the last three weeks is to make sure you wash your hands. Social distancing is really, really important. If you're sick, don't go into any institution. Separate yourself and take some responsibility because this is more important than ever. It transmits very quickly as we found and it really does affect the most vulnerable in a significant way. So we have the opportunity to do our part in making sure that we don't transmits this to our loved ones and the most vulnerable. Have you spoken to either family, either of you directly? Both families have been notified, but we have not spoken to them personally. You, personally, as the Health Commissioner of the U.S. Governor, have you spoken to either family? Not yet. I have not either. I don't have, actually, I don't have the names of either one at this point in time. Are you testing anybody who doesn't meet those priorities? If they're symptomatic, which is one of the priorities. And I know we're going to finish up now, but I just want to, since I'm getting the gist of where the questions are going, you can rest assured if there's a scenario we are planning for, it is a worst case scenario. So every day we talk about what is our hospital capacity? What is our ICU capacity? What is our ventilator capacity? How much PPE do we have and how much don't we have and how much are we hoping to get? How many test kits do we have? When will we run out? How are we hoping to remedy that situation? Name the issue you want and we have done a lot of modeling and we're really looking at the worst case scenarios so that we know we can be prepared. I think that's probably sufficient for tonight. And we will be having another press conference tomorrow with further details and other significant areas that we're working on. So we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Thank you again for coming out tonight. We appreciate it. Thank you.