 Good evening and thank you for being here today. My name is Michelle Hewitt and I'm the Public Information Officer at El Paso County Public Health. We are holding this event to provide the most recent update on COVID-19 in our community. We have some sad news to report today but we also want to share the many steps we are taking to continue to fight the spread of this disease in our community. We are pleased to have with us today Governor Jared Polis, El Paso County Commissioner Mark Waller, El Paso County Public Health Medical Director, as well as Lieutenant Governor Diane Primavera, Mayor John Souther, Colorado Springs City Councilman Wayne Williams, El Paso County Public Health Director Susan Whelan and serving as El Paso County Public Health Deputy Medical Director Dr. Leon Kelly. We will have time for questions at the end of the presentation. Please save questions until that time. El Paso County Commissioner Mark Waller will start us off. Thank you and thank you Governor Polis and Lieutenant Governor Primavera and all the members of the media for being here today. At his press conference earlier today Governor Polis said there were three Coloradans with COVID-19 in critical condition. Sadly one of those people is passed away and that person was a resident of El Paso County and the person who passed away was a woman in her 80s with underlying health conditions. Her family's been notified and we certainly all of us here today want to express our deepest condolences and sympathy to her family. This tragic news highlights the need for citizens to continue with a calm, well informed and deliberate approach to protecting themselves, their families and their communities. We want residents to know that you have a part to play to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 now more than ever. Public health officials emphasize the importance of practicing good hygiene and that good hygiene is thoroughly washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, covering coughs and sneezes with tissue or your inner elbow shirt sleeve, avoiding close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms. Stay at home if you're sick and avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth and finally by frequently and significantly cleaning and disaffecting surfaces. People over the age of 60 and people with compromised immune systems have the greatest risk of serious complications from COVID-19 and obviously these people should take extra precautions to keep themselves safe, but so too should their families, their caregivers and anyone who might come into contact with them. Dr. Johnson is going to speak in greater detail about that later and speak in greater detail about the efforts in El Paso County as well. Before I turn this over to Governor Polis, I'd like to thank our public health director Susan Whelan, our deputy directors Dianne Ryberg and Dr. Leon Kelly and all of the county staff that have worked so hard to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. I'd also like to express my gratitude and thanks to Governor Polis and his administration for all of the efforts that the state has brought forward. And with while these are difficult times, El Paso County is strong and we will continue to unite as a community to overcome any of the challenges that we see in front of us. I have no doubt, no doubt we will each come together and do our part to serve and help others and make our community the safest place possible. Thank you. Governor Polis. Thank you Commissioner. This is a extremely difficult time for our community, for the state, for the country and for the world. While we were prepared for this day and we knew that it was only a matter of time, it doesn't make it any less difficult to hear and share the news of Colorado's first loss. As a state, we're of course in mourning with the victim and our hearts go out to the family and the loved ones of the Colorado that we lost today. We feel their pain, we grieve for them and we grieve with them as we will for all of the victims of this virus and of course we've got to honor the memory of those who succumb by working as hard as we can to protect as many vulnerable Coloradans as possible from this suffering. Today's sad announcement, which we knew was coming, somewhere, somehow it happens that the first one is right here in El Paso County. What this underscores is our need to protect the most vulnerable Coloradans. Those in their 60s, especially those in their 70s and 80s and those with underlying health conditions, just to put things in perspective with some statistics. In China, the fatality rate for people over 80, 14.8 percent, over 78 percent. South Korea people over 87.2 percent, over 70, 40.3 percent. To further put that in perspective, people under 49, 0.1 to 0.2 percent fatality. This underscores the need to protect our most vulnerable. That's why we prioritize our most vulnerable in our state actions, including requiring the nursing homes and senior care facilities to have additional protocols around visitors and doing our best to ensure that our most vulnerable aren't attending public events or in public spaces. And that's why all of us need to be part of that solution as well. For your elderly neighbors, for your aunts, your uncles, your grandparents, your parents, offer to deliver groceries to their doorstep. See how you can be a part of, yes, consoling them and making sure that they know that they have company, but at the same time making sure that they don't out of necessity have to attend large crowds. That's why we recently allowed on an emergency temporary basis people over age 65 to renew their driver's licenses online. And we also issued guidance around allowing people to pick up two months of their prescription drugs rather than one month to reduce the need for visits to pharmacies. Look, this is the first. There will be more. There will be far more Coloradans who recover successfully and go on with their lives from this virus. And I know at this time Coloradans are feeling frustrated. Coloradans are feeling scared, angry. People often feel like they're not in control, but it's important to realize in these moments that we truly do have control. Each and every one controls how we respond to this virus, to this challenge. Each and every one of us can do our part for our family, for our friends, for our community. And that means things like following proper hygiene, washing your hands with soap for 20 full seconds, refraining from shaking hands and practicing social distancing, avoiding large gatherings. We issued statewide guidance today to prevent gatherings of over 250 people. They can't ensure a distance of at least six feet between people. It also means staying home from work when you're sick, and of course getting tested if you feel symptoms, and of course following the appropriate isolation of 10 to 14 days to make sure that you don't spread this to somebody more vulnerable. Look, this is a test of our character. I can assure you that we are going to get through it. We will have losses, like the very first one that we have here today in El Paso County. And the next few days and weeks and months will be difficult, not just in Colorado, not just in the United States, but across the world. But in that darkness there's also always light. A light that we will see will be the goodness of Coloradans that are looking out for one another. It could mean a young man picking up groceries for an elderly neighbor and leaving them on their doorstep so they don't have to go out. It means a small business owner giving additional sick leave to their employees to keep others safe. It means a doctor or nurse coming out of early retirement and agreeing to put on their suit and mask because their community, our state, and our country needs their help to address the surge. We all need to do everything that we can. We need to show everyone that light. We will find our way through this darkness. We're no stranger to adversity in Colorado. We've had fires and we've had floods. We've been tested before. We'll be tested again. But Coloradans are tough. We're resilient. We're going to get through this together and we're going to come out on the other side for our health, for our economy, and for our way of life. Let's do right by our communities and right by one another to make sure that the trajectory of this crisis in Colorado is one that saves as many lives as is possible in coordination with our county health departments, our cities, our school districts, and so many other great partners across the state. With that, I'd like to turn it over to our great partner on the public health side, Dr. Robin Johnson, the El Paso County Public Health Medical Director. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Robin Johnson. I'm the El Paso County Medical Public Health Medical Director. So we realize that the continued spread of COVID-19 is frightening and that many people are worried about how to care for themselves and their families in this trying time. Please know that public health is committed to mitigating the potential spread of this disease and providing the treatment and resources needed for those who do become ill. We cannot combat this disease alone. We need the help of every one of you. Above all, it is your proactive actions to slow the spread of COVID-19 that will protect your family, friends, and neighbors who are at risk for severe illness. As a county, we all grieve the loss of life from COVID-19 and we grieve with this family for the loss of their family member. We can each do our part to prevent further death by practicing social distancing where possible. That's staying six feet or farther from others. We help limit the spread of COVID-19, which is primarily transmitted to person to person when a sick person sneezes or coughs. Social distancing is particularly important, as you've already heard, for those over 60, those with certain pre-existing medical conditions like lung disease, heart disease, and diabetes, and those with compromised immune systems. But that doesn't mean we can stop being a community that cares. Rather, it means that we find new ways to connect in the face of this crisis. It might mean that we attend a church or a community meeting over the web rather than attending in person, and it could lead us to call on an elderly or sick neighbor and find out what groceries or supplies they need so that we can deliver those items to their doorstep. Maybe it means we hold a video conference with grandparents rather than bringing the kids over for Sunday dinner. These simple, smart choices will help us turn the tide on the spread of this virus. And once again, you can continue to support all of our public health efforts by remaining calm, practicing good, common-sense respiratory hygiene, and being prepared to stay home if you need to for a couple weeks. You can protect yourself and your loved ones by washing your hands, staying home when you're sick, covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or coughing and sneezing into your inner elbow. So quoting David Brooks from the New York Times today, in every pandemic there are doctors and nurses who respond with unbelievable heroism and compassion. That is happening in our community and across the globe today, and we would like to extend our sincerest thanks from public health as well as El Paso County to these individuals and to these agencies who are standing in the gap. Please know that your public health professionals are hard at work addressing the situation and taking the steps necessary to fight this virus. We consider each of you to be our public health partners, and we will continue to be transparent with you about how best to combat the spread of COVID-19. Thank you. We'll be happy to take some questions from the press. We don't have information about that particular patient. Again, out of respect for the out of respect for the deceased, additional information will be available if and when the family desires that. What's that? Okay, so again the vast majority of people who contract coronavirus will not need any medical treatment. They need to remain isolated in their home for a period of 10 to 14 days after the symptoms subside, 10 days after the symptoms subside. For those who need medical treatment of any age, they need to call 911 or call the provider if you're having difficulty breathing. And again, given the proper safety protocols at the hospital, you will be admitted and they need care up to and including a ventilator to help help them recover. People who of all ages who've had to be on ventilators have recovered successfully. Others have immune systems that are unable to prevail at the end of the day and they succumb. Again, we had our first victim of coronavirus today here in Colorado. There will be many more. There'll be some that reside in nursing facilities, some that reside at home. There will be victims across all sectors of life. What's important is that this is the first of many to come. And of course, just as we'll be sensitive to all of the families and loved ones of the victims, we want to make sure that we're providing the basic information to the public while respecting the family's desires for what else is known about the victim. The steps that are being taken immediately a couple days ago, we announced our guidance and requirements around additional steps to protect nursing nursing homes. That includes screening of staff and visitors to the nursing home and retirement facilities, limitations on the number of visitors to two. That means if you have a family of four and you want to visit grandma, it means two people can go at once and they will be screened on a mission to make sure that they don't have flu-like symptoms. So this additional guidance is available online. It's been disseminated in calls with the nursing homes across our state and it's now in effect across the state of Colorado. Well, again, I think it's important that there's no reason for people to panic. People are going about their everyday lives, they're going to work. Many Coloradans will come down with coronavirus. And most of those will have a minor illness and be in convenience as they might with a cold and be able to return to work after their period of isolation. But for the most vulnerable and for a small percentage of those of all ages, this will take on a much more threatening form. And for up to 20% of coronavirus victims there will be some form of medical treatment that's required. So there's being testing done across two of the three areas that we hope to have testing done. We have the state lab, there's a drive-through facility that wasn't able to be open in the snow today. The safety equipment and the suits are not rated for for moisture, external moisture. It will be open tomorrow. There are a number of health partners, including UC Health, Centura, Kaiser, and many others that are doing testing through Lab Corps or Quest. UC Health has a driving facility here in Colorado Springs and there are likely other facilities in the area administering testing. The state lab processes results in 24 hours. The Lab Corps and Quest are on the 72-hour timeframe. We hope that in the next week or two, very likely, a couple of our larger networks, the ones working on this include UC Health and Children's, will likely develop the ability to do in-state testing on the turnaround, which means they'll likely be able to have some capacity to 24-hour turnaround. Now let me talk about testing for a moment because there's been a lot of focus on this. There's really three purposes that testing serves in this. One is the epidemiological information that comes out of that to help us, the political leaders, the public health leaders, make informed decisions about where the virus is and isn't, what the threat of public events are in different areas. That can be accomplished through a sampling of data. There's not a epidemiological reason for everybody to be tested, but we don't want to act blind. We need to have a sampling of people across different parts of Colorado. The second reason is the clinical reason for the treatment of the patient. That is not needed clinically for the vast majority of people who contract coronavirus. They can simply treat coronavirus like the flu or cold, remain in their homes, and only seek out medical treatment if they are having difficulty breathing and need medical treatment. The third reason, and probably the most relevant reason that testing needs to be scaled up on a larger scale, is so that anybody exhibiting flu-like symptoms can return to work sooner once coronavirus is ruled out. So if you have, remember that based on our initial epidemiological data out of the Denver drive-through site for the first two days, nine in 10 people tested did not have coronavirus. That means one in 10 did, nine in 10 had a cold or the flu or some other ailment. We want those people to be able to return to work after three or four days just as you normally would. You have a cold, the fever goes away, a day or two later, you're back at work. If everybody was a cold or flu has to stay out of work 14 days, it only worsens our workforce shortage that we have. So scaling up that testing capacity to make sure that people can return to work as soon as they are safe to return to work is absolutely critical. Again, as we continue to scale up testing capacity across the state, with the private partners, with federal help, and with the public labs. So we fully expect, based on the data that we have, that there are far more Coloradans that have coronavirus than are reflected in the testing. Now to be clear, we have better testing than any state in the country. In fact, more than 10 percent of all the tests administered nationally have been administered in Colorado because we scaled this up several days ahead of other states. But that still means that there are likely many undiagnosed cases. That's why people exhibiting cold or flu-like symptoms should remain home from work and should self-isolate pending test results, given the fact that based on our limited sample size, approximately one in 10 might in fact have coronavirus. Nine in 10 do not, would test negative for that. And again, that'll be updated on a regular basis as we develop a more larger data set. Yeah, so that was just today. We're doing two things. We are expecting, based on the experience in other countries, that again, this is sadly not the first critical case here of the several that we have. So we are going to need additional capacity. We've activated the National Guard. They're actually going to be running in conjunction with the civilian leadership, the Denver Drive through test site tomorrow, so that the state CDPHE folks can work to develop an additional site and an additional part of the state without accessibility to private or public testing. We are also asking that those who are qualified, nurses, pharmacists, doctors, who are working in another field or who have left the field, but are willing to re-engage to contact their former employers so that they might be available to return to service in a surge. Finally, we are waiving the normal requirements for people who are credentialed out of state, pharmacists, nurses, doctors, so that they can get reciprocal recognition to be able to practice in Colorado when needed under an emergency basis through Department of Regulatory Affairs. Those just went out this morning. The formal DORA guidance around the licensure will likely go out Monday, and again, the direction to folks who have left the field or are retired is to contact their former employer first, and we're hopeful that that's occurring, and I've heard from several hospitals that people have contacted them. So again, we also support the role of county health across the state to have appropriate localized responses depending on the situation, and I'll just give an example. Pitkin County, which has one of the highest rates that we've identified so far of transmission on occurrence of the coronavirus, went to prevent gatherings of 50 and up two days ago, I believe. We support that. The statewide guidance of 250 is the minimal statewide guidance for areas that have active contagion and become hotspots. We fully are in correspondence with their local health authority and are supportive of the additional steps that they feel are necessary in that community. Again, this is something that brings Coloradans together. We fully expect that all Coloradans want to prevent the transmission of this virus. All Coloradans share in the goal of protecting our most vulnerable and fully confident that Coloradans know that we need to avoid large gatherings, particularly with our most vulnerable population. I would like to add that several agencies and faith-based sectors have taken steps above and beyond that guidance. The archdiocese has canceled their in-person masses this weekend. We had a call with faith leaders from across the state earlier today, and they are all cognizant of the threat, particularly, again, for the most vulnerable and elderly. Those who have congregations of 80 or 100 and 150 that might still be meeting all know that they need to reach out to their parishioners in their 70s and 80s and encourage that they join in fellowship in a different way than the traditional one that involves physical proximity. So I think there was, Mayor Seathers has a response to that here. The details are being worked out, but I think a couple of our YMCA facilities will be available for childcare and some other possibilities, and I think you'll hear a lot more about that as the weekend goes on. And there has been a lot of discussion statewide about making sure the free and reduced lunch students are able to continue to receive breakfast and lunch services across the state. That's been finalized, but that's been front and center in the minds of many of the districts to make sure that those youth that are most at risk are able to continue to receive nutritional meals during this closure. So, yes, we do have a mental health professional to answer that, and I would let me just address the kind of, she'll talk about the general anxiety. I want to address that for people who are in isolation because they may or may not have it, or they do have it, but of minor symptoms. It's important that they honor and comply with that isolation, and I know that can be challenging because spending 14 days at home when you're healthy is not easy away from friends and family, but it is so critical from a public health perspective. So use technology, read a book, watch those movies, but it's absolutely critical that those who are healthy but tested positive or have pending testing results fully honor that period of isolation to prevent the spread to those who are most vulnerable. Hi, I'm Dr. Lacey Edwards. I'm a clinical psychologist at Aspen Point. We are a local behavioral health provider and we're partnering with El Paso County in this. So thank you for the question around anxiety, and I hear that here in the room, and one of the things I think about with that is I also hear how much you care about your community and one another and you want to be doing well. So with the anxiety, it's really normal when we have uncertain and unexpected events like this, all of our anxiety will peak and you may feel it go up and down throughout the day, and we also have choice in that, right? We get to choose where we focus and where we focus our minds, what we choose to do if we do end up in isolation or how we care for loved ones who may also need that, and so I want to encourage you to be proactive in that. How do you start your day? What do you focus your mind on? What do you choose to look at in the media? I know there's been a lot of inflammatory things with good intent of getting the word out there, but we want to really choose to focus on how do I stay grounded in this and what do I have control over in my day to day? So through that, you can practice yoga, you can practice stretching, things that calm you, things that ground you. You can choose to focus on a mantra or deep breathing or maybe there's something new you want to learn. I would encourage you to focus your energy. If you start to notice that you're becoming overwhelmed, how can you use that time to redirect your mind and care for those around you, care for yourself? Maybe start a new hobby that you can, but there are good things that can come from this season as well and we want to encourage you to step into that. So by the way, I have an answer to an earlier question about how this lady lived. She lived on her own, so that is being released that the lady lived in her own home or apartment, so just to be clear. Again, no, this lived independently. So again, there has been additional guidance and we have had several conversations with the ski industry. They've taken immediate steps as of several days ago to ensure that skiing parties are not combined with other skiing parties in closed areas like gondolas, that means if there's four people scheme, they would not be another two or four people in a gondola. I think they're taking additional measures on chairlifts. It's also certainly possible that some are making decisions about whether to remain open both in light of the decreased demand as well as legitimate health concerns. So let me walk this how this works from a worker perspective. One of our initial orders was around paid sick leave for people in food handling, hospitality, senior care, healthcare, those who might be at greatest risk of transmitting the virus to somebody who's vulnerable. There is a guaranteed four days of sick leave for people in those fields, meaning if they are ill, they should not go to work. They will be paid. They need to get tested. If it comes back negative, then they had the flea work hold. They returned to work in three or four days comes back positive. They will go over to state unemployment for 14 days. For the full period of their isolation, they will be compensated. And there are also discussions now about what additional work might look like federally. That's very much central to the discussions around the second federal piece of legislation that's being considered. The first piece addressed public health. The second piece economic. I had a call with our congressional delegation yesterday. I talked to Senator Gardner and Senator Bennett today about that effort. So, again, we did a couple of things with regard to the cost for those who are insured. There is no copay. You're talking about an uninsured population. I think we have a $1 copay going in for Medicaid. Again, if people are ill, they should self-isolate. If you recover, again, the question is if it tests positive, you need to remain isolated for 14 days. If it's negative, you can return to work quicker. Of course, there's additional concerns about our most vulnerable population. And included with that would be our homeless population, many of whom also have additional health concerns. Thank you all. And again, just to put this in perspective, we are so saddened by today's news and today's loss. I just wanted to add one thing. Okay. We'll add one thing before we close. I'm so sorry. I'll let you close this. As to the homeless, as you all are aware, we had a recent outbreak of hepatitis A in our community. And with that, we have been able to work very closely with all of our homeless agencies as well as our hospital systems and respite care. Just yesterday, we began those conversations to really continue to build upon those collaborations, those relationships that are now strong to begin developing processes that will address some of those concerns around our more vulnerable population of the homeless. And again, once we got the news of the virus in Colorado, we knew that today was inevitable. We didn't know if it would be yesterday or today or next week. We mourn, of course, that that first victim is here in El Paso County. And again, I think the main message is, while this is the first, it won't be the last, but together we're going to get through this. We're going to make sure we protect our most vulnerable population. We're going to make sure that the trajectory of the spread here in Colorado is such that it doesn't overwhelm the capabilities of our health care system, not only to address coronavirus, but to address everything else that saves lives every day in our hospitals. So we're doing everything we can in conjunction with our hospitals, with our county health departments and with our other first responders to make sure that we are preparing Colorado as best we can for the days and weeks ahead. And we encourage all of the citizens of Colorado to do the same in your own personal lives. Thank you. With that, we'll go ahead and close, but we wanted to let our media partners know that we'll have county officials and the mayor available for additional questions after. Thank you.