 Look good morning, everyone. I Wanted to wish everyone tuning in a very happy Easter weekend But I thought before we began I wanted to assure you On this very dark day in biblical terms that better days are coming And there's always a glimmer of hope Somewhere if you look hard enough for it But sometimes you have to dig deep and then you have to open up your eyes in order to see it So I wanted to share with you a random act of kindness that was bestowed on me this morning And it could be and probably will be the best part of my day So this morning I received this from the son of one of our our finest one of our Vermont State police Officers and it's from Sully. So I just thought I'd share this with you Sully sent this to me. He's I think about maybe five or six years old But but I just thought it was nice of him to do and those random acts of kindness really do I make a difference So Sully if you're out there watching, thank you very much for brightening my day and making an example For all Vermonters to do something That is a little bright in the day of someone else over the next few days and weeks So this morning we have a lot of information to share so I'm going to keep my comments fairly brief As you may have seen Earlier this morning and as I form warned over the last week I have extended the state of emergency until May 15th And this means extending all the mitigation steps in place Including to stay home order. I Know I know how disappointing this is too many as some were hoping we could magically flip a switch and go back to normal And there's no one who wishes that could be more the case than me But unfortunately while it appears we're leveling off, which is good news We don't have enough evidence at this point in time to show that the virus won't spike And I don't want to give false hope or unrealistic Expectations While these are incredibly difficult times and you're making Great sacrifices the fact is and the data shows what we're doing is really making a difference Vermonters are literally saving hundreds of lives by staying home, and it's important We don't let up just yet Mr. P check will provide an update on our outlook shortly, and we'll continue to watch the trends As I said earlier this week as soon as the data shows a downward turn or trend We will open the spicket just one quarter turn at a time to get folks back to work in a measured way That's responsible and safe until then We have to continue to stay home and separate ourselves from others to keep from overwhelming our health care system As well as save lives In this order. We're also providing some additional guidance One one in particular this will allow lodging operators to accept reservations After June 15th, which was an issue for them that we rectified And working with the house and senate transportation committees I've also directed the dmv to extend vehicle inspections due in april by 60 days Many have called with concerns about their inspections running out while they're trying to stay in This order also asks a ccd to make some other sector specific clarifications I do understand the Significant impacts the steps we've taken over the last five weeks are having on families The economy and businesses across the state I'll continue to work with my team the legislature and our congressional delegation to find every tool in the toolbox To help support you during these times We have a task force Looking at additional economic initiatives as we speak In the department of labor with the support of several other partners Continues to work through the the backlog of ui claims so we can get money in the pockets of our monitors more quickly Mr. Harrington will share more on this in a moment I again want to thank vermonas for your sacrifices, which are making a real difference in saving lives I also want to thank the teams at the agency of human services The departments of health and public safety In vermon emergency management and so many others who've been working around the clock for months As many of you know, unfortunately We had an outbreak at the northwest state correctional facility Secretary smith is on the phone to answer here actually To answer any questions on that situation But I want to take a minute to recognize the dedicated team of public health nurses In the epi lab team who worked through the night To test and turn results around for that entire population While this outbreak is serious There is no doubt their hard work will help us better address it to keep employees and inmates safe This is just one example of the hard work of so many And why I know together We'll face fight and overcome the health and economic impacts of the of this pandemic Because we're united as vermonters. So I'll now turn it over to commissioner p check Good morning everyone and thank you governor I'm mike p check the commissioner of the vermont department of financial regulation And I have been leading the state's efforts to model and forecast the growth of the covet 19 virus in vermont On april second, we provided our first media briefing outlining our modeling efforts and discussing the early results Today, I'll provide an overview of the developments over the past week First I want to reiterate that this situation is very fluid The assumptions that underlie our models change regularly and the quality of our data continues to evolve For example, last thursday one model was updated to incorporate actual data from over 40 countries And that model will be continued to be refined over the days ahead Last thursday, we indicated that our early analysis Pointed to some glimmers of hope Mobility data indicated that vermoners were closely following the governor's social distancing orders And our growth rate showed signs of slowing Today, those glimmers of hope shine a little brighter Vermont has seen its seven day average growth rate fall from approximately 15% to approximately 9% this week Further, the number of days it has taken for our confirmed covet 19 cases to double continues to lengthen Initially doubling at a rate of every three days and then slowing to every five and a half days And now slowing again to seven and a half days Due to these positive trends, we re-ran our model as of yesterday and have updated forecasts that I will now detail First as indicated on slide five of our modeling presentation, we continue to follow a positive trend that is below both our worst and even our best case scenarios as of late march The data now more clearly points to the fact that the sacrifices vermonters are making and continue to make are positively impacting our covet 19 experience Our recent forecast indicates we are trending toward a milder experience during april than was initially anticipated With the new confirmed cases still expected to peak over the next two to four weeks I must make clear however that although we are anticipating a milder experience in april Our current forecast still indicate that more than 1000 to 5000 vermonters will be diagnosed with covet 19 by the end of may With hundreds requiring hospital care Accordingly, it's still safe to assume that the worst is still ahead of us The current forecast gives us greater confidence however that our hospital resources will be available to vermonters when those worst days arrive Slide eight of our presentation indicates we will see a demand for staffed hospital beds ranging between approximately 90 to 233 beds in the weeks ahead All safely below our current capacity of approximately 420 beds Further slide nine points to a peak and icu bed demand somewhere between 34 and 96 beds during the weeks ahead This again is within our current surge capacity range of 117 and is trending better than it was last week However, this point underscores the limited margin of error that exists and the need to double down on our social distancing efforts Slide 10 indicates that our peak ventilator need is trending between 19 and 52 ventilators needed Again, well within our current available supply of ventilators This news is positive However, our future is not guaranteed The governor's action today was absolutely necessary to ensure we continue on this positive trajectory The trends can turn on a dime if we stop and relent from social, personal and professional sacrifices that everyone is making in their daily lives Again, our individual actions will ultimately determine our collective experience Although it's difficult, our continued sacrifice will most certainly reduce pain and suffering and save lives I join the governor in thanking all Vermonters for your continued cooperation and sacrifice during this very difficult time At this moment, I will introduce Commissioner Michael Harrington Thank you. Let me just start off by saying thank you to the family and friends of our Department of Labor staff who are constantly showing their support During this time for our staff who are working long and hard hours, that helps us go and continue to keep going And also a thank you to those members of the public who continue to encourage us through their words But also to those who are being patient during this difficult time We know it's incredibly hard and incredibly frustrating and so I extend my deepest gratitude for those of you who are trying to get through and can't get through or are waiting to get your benefits We certainly understand the urgency here and are working on that I also want to say we can do better and we will do better And every day we are looking at different ways to improve what we're doing from the previous day And with that, we've got a number of different initiatives that are ongoing and starting even as early as today in this weekend To help us manage through this incredibly large number of claims that we're receiving Some of this has already been shared publicly, but I just want to recap for the people in the room As of Wednesday, April 8th, we had received approximately 73,000 initial claims requests We've processed, I would say, about 99% of those already So they are either in our system or needing special attention from a member of our staff We have some plans to address that, which I'll explain in just a minute Of that, as of Wednesday, the 8th, we've issued 38,000 benefit payments in the amount of 23,300,000 Our trust fund balance as of the 4th was just below half a billion dollars, it was 499 million And that will continue to shrink and grow depending on debits and credits to that account There's a lot of questions about the $600 federal bump that goes on top of unemployment insurance Those payments started going out this week and people should begin to see those in their checks that are being processed this week and going forward There is nothing claimants need to do other than continue to file their weekly claims And I say that because we've had a number of people who opened their initial claim but then did not continue to file their weekly claim So please remember, as you open your initial claim from that point forward, you need to begin filing weekly claims for each week that you are out of work That will ensure that we're processing your payments and you're getting your benefits So let me talk a little bit about the different initiatives we have going on right now Certainly top of mind and top priority is the standing up of the pandemic unemployment assistance program We hope to be able to launch phase one of that next week That will help provide service and benefits to self-employed independent contractors and sole proprietors Again, we hope to have a portion of that live to begin to receive applications as early as next week And we'll begin processing those payments shortly thereafter We are also partnering with a third party vendor and looking to partner with a third party vendor, I should say We will be putting a bid out today for an emergency turnaround to assist with call center support And standing up a supplemental call center to help relieve some of the volume that is pulling on our staff right now For example, let me just share with you that approximately 50% of every claim, initial claim that comes in Has an issue attached to it and that issue holds up payment And so it becomes incredibly critical during this time to devote staff time to clearing issues Because it is the issue on the claim that's stopping payment that's causing someone to call our claim center Because they're not receiving timely benefits And so while we want to have someone on the phone answering the calls We can clear more claims by working behind the scenes and get more payments out the door So we're hoping that this vendor solution for our expansion of our call center services Will allow our skilled staff to focus on clearing issues on claims And getting more benefits out in a more timely manner One other piece that I want to mention is we're launching a series of special internal teams That will be devoted to clearing issues And these are groups ranging from 5 to 10 to 12 people And they are each taking on a series of claims that they will be reaching out to claimants for Or answering additional phone lines for simple things like PIN resets and status of claims And so on and so forth So those teams are launching as early as today and will continue for the foreseeable future Again right now we have about three different teams that are spinning up at the moment And we will add to those as we go forward We are instituting and this is an important note for everybody here today And listening on the phone and alphabetized calling structure We can give more details for that We are looking for a voluntary compliance We will not be preventing anybody from calling or turning anybody away But we are asking the public to help us help you Our system is easily overloaded Our call center is easily overloaded So we are asking that you voluntarily adhere to this call structure So that it doesn't overload our system and crash our system And it doesn't prevent people from being able to get into our call center I can share a little bit more about that But let me just say that our automated claims filing line Which is 800-983-2300 Is open all day on Sunday And Monday through Friday from 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. To 4 30 p.m. And that anybody can call at any time during those time periods There are no restrictions on that time And that is an automated phone system for people to continue to file If someone is looking to file using our online portal That is the system that is easily overloaded So we are asking for the following schedule to be adhered to Sunday, anybody can use the portal Just know that most people try to get onto the portal And that typically causes the portal to go down Monday, we are looking for people whose last name Start with a through e Tuesday, f through l Wednesday, m through r Thursday, s through z And because Friday is the last filing day of the period We are leaving that open for people who need to get their claims in For the claim and assistance line We're following the following schedule Of Monday, a through e Tuesday, f through l Wednesday, m through r Thursday, s through z Friday is open for everyone as well as Saturday There are timetables attached to this So we are looking for people whose last name There are timetables attached to this So there will be a press release going out Following this press conference with more detail And also it will be posted on the labor.vermont.gov website Finally, let me just share that we are providing Regular town hall meetings both for employers and claimants So the employer town hall meetings are Tuesdays and Thursdays And the claimant 101 or claimant town hall meetings Are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday beginning next week We've already held a series for this week And all of that information is found at the labor.vermont.gov website With that, I will just conclude again by saying Thank you to everybody. We appreciate the support We appreciate the patients you have And just know that our staff is working extremely hard They are truly committed to what they're doing And it is incredibly important to them That people get their benefits. So again, thank you very much Turn it back over to the Governor Hi, Mike Smith, Secretary of Human Services I just wanted to give you an update of what's Happening at the Northwest State Correctional Facility Just to review yesterday We started, we completed testing of all Inmates of staff at Northwest State Correctional Facility Following the announcement that an inmate Had tested positive We conducted 328 tests that were completed Within approximately 24 hours We have received some of the test results 167 of the test results have come back In the initial round of results 28 inmates have tested positive as well as Five additional staff members We had three staff members prior to that Full test results will be completed today And corrections will be holding a press avail At approximately 2 p.m. to update you on Any further information that they may have As of last night we moved 27 of the 28 inmates to the St. Johnsbury facility To isolate them while they recover Currently these inmates are not showing symptoms The staff will be quarantined and not report to work The reason between the 27 and the 28 27 were moved, 28 were tested positive Is that we had one that had a disciplinary issue And we have housed that person in A negative pressure room at northwestern Northwestern remains in full facility Lockdown as we announced earlier this week And as we announced on Monday Staff and inmates at that facility were Issued masks to wear at all times And now all facilities have been placed In full lockdown temporarily Full lockdown is a controlled measure To mitigate any further spread of the virus Throughout the facility and inmates will remain In their cells, essential services, meals And medication will be brought to them And movement will be restricted except For emergency and hygiene purposes Additionally, protective masks have been Delivered to all facility and are now Being used by staff and inmates One of the issues that keeps coming up I want to address this directly Why aren't you testing everyone at all facilities The answer, and I'm going to talk about The fact that we're expanding our testing protocol Thanks to Dr. Levine The answer is we will test As soon as we have reason to do so We now have, thanks to luck and ingenuity Vermonters and hard work A robust testing system And have pushed the bounds throughout This crisis, we have pushed the bounds Of more rather than less testing We have often gone beyond the CDC guidelines In terms of testing as we have moved forward But the fact remains that our testing Capabilities are not unlimited And although we would like to test Vermonters, we simply can't And frankly, it probably wouldn't give them A, it could give them a fault sense of security Because this virus can strike at any time You can test one day and be negative And then the next day be positive So with that said, however We have broadened our approach to testing In the last few days to include Universal testing for the following institutions Nursing homes, correction facilities Those homes that house Sort of a residential, disabled and disability facility Residential treatment facilities Assisted living facilities State psychiatric care facilities As well as the Department of Health Will be issuing guidelines for Quarantining transfer of patients From, for example, a hospital to a nursing home Quarantining that patient up to 14 days Plus making sure that person is tested Before they are moved So a lot of going on on the testing area I just wanted to talk about that up front And move forward later today As I said, the Department of Corrections Will hold a press avail When we get any updates on numbers From the second round of test results That we're waiting on right now So thank you Without open up to questions I would ask, maybe Rebecca could Let us know who's on the line In terms of some of our team members We have Dr. Levine on the line Commissioner Shirling Secretary Hurley Secretary Young Probably by the folks on the line But yes, Dr. Levine, just so everybody knows Is on the line We're going to start on the phone today And take our first question from Anne Wallace-Allen at BT Digger Star six to unmute you Hi, can you hear? Yes, go ahead Yeah, sorry about that Thanks so much So Governor, this is a little bit Of a departure from what you've been talking about But I wanted to ask you about The hazard pay initiative And about, in particular Pay raises for state employees I've heard that some state employees Going to get 20% raise But I haven't actually found Anything, any firm information on that Do you know what's happening with that? Yeah, I do I've been briefed on that But if we have Secretary Young on the line And she can give us the exact numbers Thank you, Governor I am on the line The state senior For state employees In COVID infected facilities It is a 20% senior On top of their hourly raise So that would apply To correctional facilities Where there are infections Or the search facility In St. Alden's, for example Correctional officers And mental health workers And others who are in our 24-7 facilities Have received $1.50 per hour increase Regardless of whether the facility Has the infection or not What about police? Yes, I believe the state police Again, where offered the same Pay increases Okay, thanks Sorry I have another question If that's okay Go ahead As long as the stay in place order Is in place And I know how the slew of the situation is Is there any chance that businesses Are going to be able to open Before May 15th Unessential businesses? Yeah, that's a great question And while I can't I can't promise that But that's our intention Again, as we watch the trending As we watch the graphing And the modeling and so forth If we can continue to see And have confidence That it's leveled out, plateaued And then starts declining That's when we start opening the spigot And as I said, a quarter turn at a time In order to make sure That we're doing the right thing That we're not having any adverse effect On the population That we're staying within A realm of possibility of making sure That we don't exceed the capacity Of our healthcare system So watching that on a daily basis And a weekly basis is going to be important But it's our intention To do everything we can To get back to normal But we want to do it in a safe and responsible way I guess I'm asking, do you think there's a chance We might actually do that before May 15th? Yes, that's what I think I'm sorry, I thought I answered that Yes, I do believe There's an opportunity to do that We'll be announcing some of those On a weekly basis as we Receive the information If we continue to move in a positive direction As we're doing right now Then we will start opening that up To certain sectors It's going to be a phased in approach It won't be all at once It won't be one sector all at once It'll be a phased in approach With safety measures in place We're going to be asking those sectors To help us with that Be a partner so that we can Get through this safely All right, thank you Also just to add Secretary French Education Secretary Is on the phone too, I missed him, sorry Tim Quiston, Vermont Business Magazine Hi, good morning This is for Michael Harrington I'm wondering, Michael This was a big spike in claims Given the circumstances Is your modeling suggesting That maybe we're near a peak We're at about 21% On employment rate given that data Do you feel like we're sort of Near a plateau Or where do you think that's going? So there are two components To your question And one is If we're talking about the number Of initial claims we're receiving From the start of this We have seen a slow decline In the amount we're receiving On a daily basis At one point we were receiving Close to five or six thousand Claims per day Now we are receiving somewhere Between 1,500 and 3,000 claims a day And that can be up or down Depending on the day of the week What this doesn't account for though Are those self-employed individuals Who will begin filing When the new system comes online So that will also show An additional spike in the numbers Which will then again level off Again, these are just Initial claims received Doesn't mean that all of these people Are eligible but I would guess That most of them are eligible And so that does show We are expecting this to increase Over the next week But then we'll see a leveling off I also just wanted to point out When I mentioned the alphabetized schedule That will be starting Sunday Of this upcoming Sunday And going forward until otherwise Mentioned Do you have an anticipation Of where the unemployment rate could get to I think that there's a lot of people Concerned about that obviously Absolutely, I think At this point it's too early to tell I can say if we just take The rough numbers Not doing any analysis The seventy thousand Represents about twenty percent Unemployment but again That's not having done Any deep review Of those numbers and those claims But again that would May increase But I did mention yesterday In an interview that This is a relatively We'll call it short term unemployment As opposed to sustained unemployment So we will spike Or peak at some point We will then gradually decline As the governor mentioned when businesses Are allowed to reopen And people go back to work And then we'll reach whatever that resting point is There We're getting calls about businesses In a quandary about whether they should Pay their employees Whom they've laid off because they haven't Got claims because of the backlog you just mentioned What I understand is that All the claims will be Backdated so everyone will Receive all the benefits They deserve from that From that point is that correct Correct every claim that we receive People will receive benefits Back to the date of separation So if they, if there is a Week delay or a two week delay Or longer Those people will still be As long as they're eligible for benefits They will receive the full benefits Back to their date of separation Alright thank you Alright Mike, Donahue, the islander And Alex at the journal opinion Thank you for Hello Oh sorry Mike I hear you now Alex could you hold just a moment Mike go ahead Mike Smith, I was just wondering With the announcements This seems to dovetail with what the BFDA is asking That all Correctional center employees and others Be tested and I'm just Wondering what is the plan For these other state Facilities to be tested Especially correctional centers And the second part is How many inmates Can John's very actually hold Sure How long will it be in operation Up there Good questions Mike I want to make it clear here When we're talking about universal testing We have to have a reason to universal Test so there's got to be A positive case or cases That we react to Without a positive case We may be Testing as I said Before for no reason We had ample reason to come in And universally test At the correctional facility in northwest We have not had staff Or inmates Test positive yet In any other facilities But we stand ready to Universally test if we have A case or cases In those facilities that I talked about Nursing homes corrections Disability services residential Treatment facilities And assistant living facilities We have approximately 80 beds In St. John'sbury That we can That are up and operational That we can staff Both with medical staff and correctional People If we go above that we have In terms of what we can do At the various facilities As you know Mike we have various Facilities medical facilities In our correction Facilities For example northwest We have a medical staff there Northwest which is housed in St. Albans town We have medical staff there So we have Convincy plans based upon that But if we have a case This is something we haven't Done If we have a case or cases Within the following nursing homes Corrections those homes with Disability or disabled Homes Residential treatment centers Assisted living facilities State psychiatric care facilities We will universally test Those facilities And again it's We are blessed With various Vermonters who have Been working Extremely hard To make our testing Capabilities robust And our ability to test Beyond what many Recommend including the CDC But at the same time We don't have an unlimited supply So we have to sort of wait for A confirmed test To jump into universal Which we will do This is a follow up The courts are considering Releasing as a matter of fact two more Were released yesterday So it seems like it would Make sense to actually start Testing everybody At the correctional center if the Judges are going to start releasing People when they don't even have the Information They seem to be on their own For as opposed to all the God has done to bring everybody Together moving in one direction Why wouldn't you Offer that to the Judiciary to tell them whether These inmates Are testing positive as Opposed to just releasing them into the Community. I will offer to the Legislature to the courts that We will test anybody that they plan On releasing to Make sure but let me Talk about this specific Issue because this has come up On a couple occasions and I Want to really sort of zero in Why don't you release inmates Particularly older ones that may Be susceptible to covid-19 We have put in place An aggressive effort to release Those that can be safely and Responsibly returned To the community And we've established criteria Along the way For example our population In corrections was 1614 In february It is now 1419 as of today And the reason it is that is because We looked at various policies Where we could release Those that are incarcerated In a safe Manor For example during this Extraordinary period Daoc relaxed some of the Regulations regarding Where a resident may reside Now we put in sort of electronic Check-ins but we Relaxed some of the requirements Of where they may reside We also looked at The population beyond The Senate's In making sure That those that were coming up On their maximums That were within their maximums 60 days within their maximums Return to the community But I want to really emphasize this It's imperative That the crime victims Have to be considered In any of our release procedures That we're doing and we've been doing That as we move forward You know many of us said that You know we should release Medical furlough But That's You know advocates and others Have called for the medical Release of inmates during the pandemic Who otherwise Are in stable condition Are either elderly Or have a chronic illness That may put them At risk The commissioner doesn't have that power I mean the state law Is pretty specific right now It's basically end of life Sort of situations And also If you look at the Over 60 population There are Some hardcore criminals in here That we're not going to release To the public 101 individuals in our Prison population are over 60 years old 12 are detained by the courts We don't have anything To say about that But in that 12 I mean two are for murder One is for attempted murder Fifty one for sex crimes Four are sentenced right now Pending charges Two for murder One assault and robbery with a weapon One sex crime 86 are sentenced 18 for murder Attempted murder Man slaughter 51 for sex crimes 9 for aggravated assault These are people that are Dangerous to our society For giving me an opportunity To get on my soapbox on that All right Thank you very much All right Alex, journal opinion Yes thank you Governor I was wondering if you could elaborate A little more on the selection of the new emergency Order and date I was wondering how much of it is Just an incremental one month increase How much of it is epidemiological How much of it is economic Yeah probably a little bit All of the above Trying to give some certainty To people, Vermonters About what we're doing I think part of the challenge that we all face Is we like certainty We like to know what's going on Good, bad or indifferent So picking a date for me Was to make sure that it was A safe date that I believe that we Could adhere to While not giving false hope Not signaling That this could go on for a longer period Of time, we just don't really Know at this point But think about how far we've come It was just five weeks ago Six weeks ago Our life was normal And today it's far from normal For each and every Vermonter Each and every one of us throughout the country So a lot's happened In a five week period My hope is a lot more In a positive way Over the next four weeks So it's just a date that was selected Looking at the At the graphing When we can hit the peak And then we can start sloping off If we can peak I just know That looking at some of the graphing And modeling that it will take At least as long To slope back off As it did to come to that point So that's basically An exact science In some respects But just trying to give a date That I think is reasonable Thank you Great Cat, WCAX Thank you So the modeling shows That we're below even our best case Projections in some respects So is there a concern that Not enough people are getting And recovering from this virus That we have less community Immunity down the line For when the virus inevitably comes back And that we might surge when we Then aren't ready for it I'm going to let Dr. Levin answer that Because some of it is as you say There's a lot of fear that we have That this could all of a sudden spike But there's the science I don't think there's enough data To understand whether we build up An immunity or not Or whether we could get this again So Dr. Levin could you Venture into this one Happy to Governor So most of what we know About this type of management Of viral infection shows That once you get down To the deceleration phase You will be able to enter This era of suppression And suppression hopefully Will go on for many, many months When you have a period Of suppression that means There are very few actively Infected people in the community And you can then employ strategies Of containment whenever Some case appears So that you can quickly isolate Contact trace and then Quarantine as needed Most data shows that There will be another Occurrence of viral infection In the population But that occurrence does not have to be We're near to the magnitude Of the first go around And it's a little bit undetermined What that will look like However there's still questions about Will this virus be as active In the summertime or Will warm weather actually have A deleterious impact Most of what we do As you've seen in the Period of time we've had Stay safe, stay at home Is try to Suppress enough infection So that at this point In time we're not overwhelming Our healthcare system The same thing And it's a little bit of A fine time phenomenon So later on We hope that before That next peak might occur Two things may have happened Number one, there may be Anti-viral medication That is actually effective In appropriate clinical trials And will be available to the population And I'll include in that list Of medication not just traditional Medicines but also The question about will plasma People who've been infected And have antibodies be helpful To those who get In a way to run And then the second thing of course Is that hoped for Vaccine That we know was going to Take at least a year to develop And we'll have to wait for But again, fine time Till that point in time When there could potentially be a vaccine For the population to take advantage of So I hope that answers Your question I have one follow-up then So if our modeling shows that we're below You know, our death case projection And we have a lot of this Personal protective equipment When will we decide when we can share That with other states that may need it? Sure, so I could take a little guess at this one And perhaps Commissioner Shirley would also But basically Different states have activity At different times You've seen that there are some states In the Mid-Atlantic region that are having Significant peaks right now A little bit ahead of where we think Our peak will be Also part of the country that has had Very little in the way of activity Or much more modest Experience with the virus Who presumably will eventually Reach a new stage So I would think that If we have a prolonged period Where we suppress the virus We would certainly be able to share Resources like you've mentioned At that point in time But I would also wonder If at that point in time There will be so much Because there will be more access To PPE nationwide Due to a lot of the efforts That are gearing up now But as you realize, aren't quite ready For prime time yet As well, I'll ask Mike Shirley To comment here in a minute But I thought I would share As well that we are sharing Some of the PPE Some of the N95 masks For instance, from Burton To New Hampshire as well When we receive more of the supply We'll be sharing with other states In the northeast To make sure that we spread that out And they're able to help them out In their time of need as well Commissioner Shirley Hi, Governor, I think it was pretty well Covered. I'll just add that As we continue to make our assessment About what the right point in time To be able to share at that is We have additional work Going on now to ensure that we're taking Into account models Of use of PPE, not only By the core hospital facilities And our medical surge facilities But also for home healthcare workers For elder care facilities Long-term care facilities And first responders For whatever posture is going to be necessary To keep them all safe for the next Several months until A more permanent solution that the virus Is found. So we've got a little bit more work To do before we're able to Begin predicting that All right. Thank you. Thank you, Patty, LaBeouf, Bennington Banner Hello, can you hear me? You can. So I'm wondering, I believe this would Be a question for you, Governor I know some other states On a here and there basis Sometimes even on a city basis Are suspending evictions I believe California or Oregon May even have suspended Rent. In general I know you had mentioned previously That you were prepared to Reduce or to stop evictions Or something of that nature if they need a rose I'm wondering with the fact that many People, as I understand it, have not received Their stimulus checks yet And of course this order being extended So people's places of employment Are going to be closed for about A month long for them they otherwise would have I'm wondering if you have updated Your consideration on that if you planned To do anything in regards to renters In the state of Vermont Yeah, again as I stated previously We're working with the legislature On this, they have a bill that's moving Through at this point in time And if I saw that there was A need before they could act That we would place an executive order On the end of the state of emergency To take care of that We haven't heard That I know of Asked people to call Our office 828-3333 Or 211 If they are being evicted So that we could Keep our finger on the pulse so to speak But I haven't Been made aware of Anybody calling about that But suffice it to say I believe we're working in partnership With the legislature I believe they are Even taking testimony on that today We want to make sure that we get this right So that it protects everyone Along the way But it makes it even more important That we work on our Unemployment insurance to be sure That we get that in the hands of Vermonters Along with that extra $600 every single week That will go a long ways In helping to pay the rent And to pay other Bills, utility bills And otherwise We are still I'm still willing to do whatever's Necessary to protect Vermonters But we haven't We'll continue to work with the legislature And we haven't seen the need at this point And Governor do you happen to know The number of that bill Or who's sponsoring it so I can look it up I don't off the top of my head But I believe It's about rent Okay I've just been told Could possibly be H642 Fine Thank you Marcus WVMT Governor based on What Commissioner Pichic said earlier Again performance being better than Your best case scenario And then of course your acknowledgement That Vermonters have been doing very well Following the guidance and The order That being said Restaurants have obviously been Continuing to do their business Based on curbside service And delivery Why not extend that to Other forms of retail And have you thought about those Industries that are as Special to do their work Primarily outside like Landscapers and things of that nature Let me take the first part Of that Question We have not Down any businesses We have asked those Who could become more creative To provide For retail if it's a Walmart or any retail Operation that can provide curbside Service We are promoting creativity So that they can continue to sell Whether it's online or delivery Or whatever it is So we want to Make sure that retail can Continue to stay open In some capacity But what we're trying to do The goal really is about Preventing people from Congregating from We're trying to social distance So that we don't want to create a form Where they come into the store But I would advocate And if that's been misunderstood We want people to be able to sell Their products But to have to do it in a much Different way So that's what we're trying to do With that ACCD In order to get clarity on that And the second part Again, as far as landscapers And so forth Outside work Those are exactly the types Of Industry, businesses and so forth That we'll be contemplating In the next few days We've taken steps Along the way since the initial Order was placed To increase Turn off the spicket, so to speak And we'll take the same approach When we are convinced That we're plateauing Or heading downwards And we'll start opening that spicket In the same kind of way So you'll see that we'll be Opening up different sectors In different ways I would probably get the first First attention, I would say But we just want to keep people safe Thank you Alright, and I just got Notification from our policy team The eviction bill is S333 S333 Greg, the county courier Hi So my question is About the false hope with Universal testing If false hope is Given with universal testing Does this mean that You're going to continue Universal testing through our correctional Centers at regular intervals Going forward? Here's what the plan is Like I said, with those Facilities that I mentioned If there's a case or cases We will begin universal testing And to your point If we feel that it's necessary I broadcast this Or forecasted this the other day That if we feel it's necessary To go back in there Within a certain time period We will do that as well Again, given The nature of your question You're absolutely right There may be Times where we have to go back in And look at If this is spread even further The answer to your question is yes So Do you guys anticipate doing regular testing Specifically at Northwest? I think you can anticipate That we'll be doing further testing At Northwest We haven't made a final decision on that But I think you can anticipate That we'll probably do further testing At Northwest Okay, and a follow up I think for Dr. Levine Do you have a number of positive tests Coming out of say nursing homes Or Northwest That were asymptomatic Does that indicate that the level Of spread through the general public Might be much greater than The numbers indicate That's always indicated That whether you're talking Vermont Another state or the entire country Or world This is known to be A condition that One person can spread to perhaps Two to two and a half people At a time So that anytime You have a number you think represents The disease activity In your population You should multiply that by some other Number Unclear what that other number will be But it's almost always greater than The number you think you have So Especially in the pediatric population That Lack of symptoms may be the rule As opposed to the exception In the adult population We know that it happens Or that the symptoms can be mild enough That people don't realize they actually Have COVID So it's always going to be An underestimate of What's really active in the population Thank you, that's all for me Thanks for your time Joe Barton Chronicle I understand how The modeling Shows What is likely happening Within Vermont's Actions but I am curious To know whether it takes into account The possibility That Other states Behavior Whether they're as cautious as we are Or not might Have an impact On Vermont Obviously in a certain way I'll let Commissioner Pichek answer the question In further detail But I would say yes Just because we have a boundary A state boundary doesn't mean That we can't have spread from Another state And if they're not as cautious as we are It could have an effect On the population Here that's why we've taken Many of the steps we've taken In terms of Closing down The ins and Hotels and motels and so forth B and Bs to prevent people From other states coming into the state To bring The infection with them So yes I think the bottom line Is that but Commissioner Pichek Can elaborate Thank you Governor So the modeling did anticipate Some additional number Of people in Vermont that were not Vermont residents that came here from New York or Boston Or other metropolitan areas that were here For second homes or here Vacationing or here maybe Spending the winters elsewhere and coming back To Vermont in the summer so we did Anticipate that and we did see Obviously a lot of out of state Is being tested positive early on so That's incorporated and to your point If Vermont is having a better experience And other states might not be having As good of an experience You do have to keep a close eye on Whether individuals would come Into Vermont with the disease And potentially spread it here So that's something we do have to keep A close eye on in the future going forward Thank you very much Sean, Chester Telegraph Thank you The town of Chester doesn't Routinely chlorinate its water supply But we understand it was ordered to do so By the state and this is a closed System pulling from the groundwater supply Just like many Vermonters have at home And that comes to questions If the state thinks that municipal Water supplies need to be disinfected What is the state saying to thousands Of homeowners about their water wells And if home water wells don't Need to be chlorinated by Required municipalities to do so Just want to clarify Is this in regards to COVID-19 Yes This came from the groundwater Protection I would have to say That I don't have any knowledge Of requiring a community To chlorinate based on COVID-19 Now any public water supply Has to be tested and chlorinated In a way When you're Transmitting that to others But I'm not aware of anything With COVID-19 Dr. Levine or any others On the phone Have any knowledge of that I do not I shed a little light This comes from the drinking water Groundwater protection from ANR And it was sent Thursday March 26th And it has to do with Protection of groundwater With COVID-19 I will be happy To get back to you on that And we'll ask them I haven't I'm not aware of that Thanks very much Neil, Vermont standard The Woodstock area So lodging is And tourism is a very important Thing You said that you're going to Be opening up reservations On June 15th Yes, with a caveat That if we Determine That we're not out of the woods At that point They would have to notify Those making the reservations And cancel those But at this point in time We're allowing them to take reservations We previously Shut down the reservation system In its entirety But we are convinced That accepting reservations On June 15th Would be helpful to them And in the future Because many people Are making reservations A year in advance Of a significant event Whether it's a wedding Or a graduation or some other event So we wanted to make sure That we provided for that So do you think that by June 15th it will be safe To have visitors from other Reservations to allow for the Reservation with a caveat That if we aren't out of the woods At that point in time That we could We will enforce With the understanding That they might have to cancel Those reservations We can't put a timeline on this An exact timeline Because it really is The coronavirus that's Dictating this We have to watch the modeling and the data And that's why it's so important To make sure that we don't overwhelm Our healthcare system And that we don't Encourage The spread of this disease In some detrimental way So that's why we're doing what we're doing Taking steps along the way Watching the modeling And if we see that It's not working Then we have to close the spigot And we're staying under the capacity Of our healthcare system And everything is okay Then we can open up the spigot An increasing amount But the June 15th was Really just a date So that they could start taking reservations Is there anything being done To assist You know, these Watching businesses that are You know, missing A large chunk of their Season now Yeah, everyone is suffering In some respects That's why the SBA loans That have been Enacted and I'm hearing that Congress is going to take further action On the SBA loans There was $350 billion Dedicated to that Initiative alone Which isn't probably going to be Enough and I would think Some of these entities would be able To do the job So I've heard and speaking With Senator Leahy last night In particular He had said that They are going to take action They are working through some of the details And more money Will hopefully be on the way For just that Those areas of our Economy Awesome, thank you very much Appreciate it At this time we still have About 18 people in the queue Taylor, News 7 I have no questions at this time I'll read it back to the governor, thank you Thank you Taylor Wilson, AP Hi, as always Thank you very much I have a couple of questions One is a medical question I guess it's for Dr. Labine How many patients Who have suffered from the COVID-19 Would you now consider to have been Recovered and then Are you collecting the plasma From those recovered patients And weren't going forward With that and then The other question is You're starting to see People say oh man this reaction It was just way too much It was an overreaction look nothing Is as bad as we said it was I mean what do you say to those For whoever would like to answer that one What do you say to those people And do you think we're declaring Victory too early First of all I just want to make sure We are not declaring Victory at this point in time I want to make that perfectly clear In fact quite the opposite And in part In answer to your other question The more successful we are With this Social distancing And all the measures we've taken The more it's going to look like We overreacted and I'll take I'll take the blame and the burden Of that over the Alternative path where we have More deaths than we Had predicted so it's You know it's difficult In some respects because There will be and there already are Along the way there were many people Who said you're overreacting You shouldn't be doing this We shouldn't be taking these steps In the end that I was right And they may be right In some respects but it will only be Because of the actions we've taken Dr. Levine I concur with everything you've said With regard to the first couple of questions The answer to how many have recovered I will use the word the majority But we do lack firm data But I feel pretty comfortable Setting the majority We know that in terms of people Who've been hospitalized And have survived They have Been listed as Recovered by the hospitals And there's at least 30 of them But the majority of people as you know Do not require hospitalization And so We have to assume Unless we hear otherwise That they have recovered For people who are in the healthcare industry Who want to go back to work There's a very specific Definition of recovery Which has to do with The number of days that have gone by Since your symptoms began And the absence of fever Or the associated symptoms That you were experiencing when you were ill And that enables them To go back to work And we've not been hearing a lot about Long-term sequela To this viral infection With regard to collecting the plasma I would Submit that that's premature at this point In time We're waiting eagerly and anxiously The results of studies That are being done Nationwide On plasma As a form of treatment For seriously ill COVID patients And until that Was really shown to be a Possible pathway to follow And successful And efficacious in the trials Without significant adverse effects I wouldn't want to start Collecting plasma routinely from Vermonics yet But we'll be watching that very closely Okay, great, thank you very much All right Dana, Caledonia record Good afternoon, can you hear me? We can. Yes, great, this is But, sir The expectation of any New cases from northwest Announced later today Is the expectation that they'll be Transferred to the St. Gelbrough Facility And since, of course, we now Have positive cases in The St. Gelbrough facility Does that mean that now All staff there Facility-wide will be tested And The bringing of those 27 people To the St. Gelbrough facility Has tripled in your cases In Caledonia County What assurances can you give the people Of St. Gelbrough in particular That the virus will be contained In the facility? First of all, if we have Additional cases that we Report this afternoon, they will be Transferred to St. Johnsbury Second of all, we've Done a lot of outreach In the St. Johnsbury area, both With town officials and state Officials, state elected Officials up there to sort of Discuss what we had planned to do. So we've done a lot of outreach Both beforehand and last Night to continue that Outreach. Secondly, we've Been pretty open in terms of Where these cases would go In a surge capacity Sort of way. In terms of protection, We will continue to make sure That that facility is Locked down in terms Of those people that are In there obviously. We have Medical staff. We have also Set up comfort in Facilities for Those staff to Locate if they feel uncomfortable We'll continue to monitor Our employees and if need be We'll test our employees There at the facility We are sort of operating The same way a hospital would Operate in that area with Covid-19 patients that We're going to have this Throughout the state. It doesn't It doesn't have borders in Terms of what it does. So I would say to the people Of St. Johnsbury, we're Securing that facility. We are taking all the Precautions that we possibly Need to test. We'll test. And we have all the PPE that we need In that facility For both the Healthcare workers and the Correctional staff in that facility. Great. Thank you sir. One final follow-up. What is the capacity of The St. Johnsbury facility To deal with any inmate patients Who require intensive Healthcare intervention? It is 80 and that The capacity is not for intensive Healthcare. We would send them To a healthcare facility In that case. That would be a hospital. Understood. Thank you sir. Chris Roy, Newport Daily Express. Yes, good morning. I'm just wondering since Memorial Day weekend is only A couple weeks after May 15th Should individuals and groups To attend their events for that Weekend. And I'm also Wondering how the state is going To continue to enforce the Stay home order if any Finds are being issued and if People don't pay those fines What are the consequences? Yeah, we're continuing to I wouldn't say enforce. We're providing guidance And we're encouraging Providing education To try and To stay home and stay safe. And we've been quite Successful at that thus far. Secretary Scherling might Have some information on Whether any fines have been issued. I don't believe there has been In any organization at this Point in time. In terms Of Memorial Day, that's Tough. That's a tough one. We'll continue again To provide details. We'll provide this modeling On a weekly basis so that The media and Vermonters Know where we stand In real time. And we'll Continue to make determinations Based on that, based on Information, the science And the best information from Our experts as well. And take This case by case. So It's my hope that we can Again provide For this plateau That we'll see a decline And start opening up some of The businesses And other things That we enjoy throughout Vermont. So it's too early To tell right now. But again, there's Light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a very, very long tunnel. Commissioner Scherling, Anything to offer in terms of The fines? No, Governor, as far as I know There haven't been any fines In the last couple of years. And the level has been Relatively low just over 120 total Complaints. So We again, the posture is Education. We think that is Largely working for monitors Are all in on keeping everyone Safe. May I ask a follow-up? Sure. So if somebody does not Continue to obey the law By the recommendation Given by the state? Well, that is a possibility. All of those decisions are being vetted By the Attorney General's office. So they're centralized. And again, the hope is that Whether it's Folks, your neighbors asking For compliance with the order Or it's a law enforcement officer Stopping by to ask Or if it's the Attorney General's Office calling For health implications And we'll be compliant without the need For compliance. And if they don't say it would Ultimately be tied to the Addrabus license, there are All points that suspend Addrabus license? No, this is not a traffic Ticket. It's a completely Separate mechanism. Okay, thanks. All right, Liz Burlington Free Press. So questions for Secretary Smith. I heard from an inmate In Newport last night Just after the lockdown was Issued. And he Was really worried because he had Heard a rumor that inmates from St. Albans were being transferred To his facility. And so I wondered if that is Indeed happening if inmates from St. Albans are being transferred To other facilities, ones that Haven't tested positive Are previously in St. Albans. The ones that have tested Positive have been transferred To St. John's Berry. If I'm not aware If there's been any other Sort of transfers that have Happened with non-positive Inmates. I would I will have to defer that To corrections for For their press avail This afternoon. I just don't Have that specific knowledge. We did have Two tests that were conducted at The Chittenden Regional Facility that was negative. Okay. And I just have a follow-up Question. So, you know, given the fact That there are rumors, there's A lot of anxiety, a lot of fear. How is corrections making sure To disseminate information to Again, I'll leave it to corrections On their news avail This afternoon, but they are Developing a plan to make sure That everybody is informed About what is happening Plus, to be honest All you have to do is Read the news. We've been pretty transparent In terms of what's going on And how things are being done Given What we know, as soon as we Know it, we try to get it out To the public. Well, just in response to that I heard from an inmate the other day In saying all this, he said he didn't Have access to these snoopers Or the news like he usually did Well, we'll make sure That we step up Information flow On this particular virus Thank you. Ann Galloway, V.T. Digger Ann Galloway, Joel Burlington Free Press Can you all hear me? We can. Oh, great. Governor, it's a pleasure again To listen to you update us. I'm interested in The Image of opening up this Bigot to commerce And it sounds like There's an encouraging sign For hotel Owners and At least To Move things a little bit In that direction of normalcy I was wondering If And when you all are Going to Decide On what industries What other industries Might be edging Towards normalcy And I'm thinking When you would decide this Or is there A ranking or something That is developing And also specifically I'm thinking Farmers markets and construction And If I may just About farmers markets Last Friday The Secretary of Ag Told the House Committee on Agriculture And Forestry That Farmers markets that have taken strict Health safety measures to remain open Like preordering And drive through And minimal contact Which is actually More stringent than what Grocery stores and supermarkets Are required to do They could remain open Following the model of The kingdom Farmers market That seems to have successfully Modeled that So I was wondering the status If you could outline the status Of farmers markets going forward Given what Secretary Tevitz Has told us And What's in store For the construction industry Yeah, you hit on probably Two sectors that We're thinking about at this point in time And how do we responsibly open those Up to the general public I would say In terms of farmers markets They are of course important To the supply chain Important to the food supply To Vermonters And we want to make sure that they open Up as soon as possible But I would also offer That those individuals Are not prevented from selling Their products from their homes and so forth Or their place of business As long as they have a curbside service There. If you compare them And we've had this debate We've talked about it a lot When do we start thinking about it I think about this Almost every hour of every day How are we going to open These businesses back up To some sort of normal And so when you think about The farmers markets in particular And I know some have Conflated those And compared them To like a major Food supply Grocery store of some sort They aren't the same Because you have individuals Who are selling maybe two Or three at one individual station Selling their product And then you have another one Just 20 feet down Two or three people Selling again To an individual Whereas in a grocery store You have probably One person For every 50 or 100 people Who come through the store So it's a much different atmosphere So if you think about what our goal is To make sure that we don't Congregate Over congregate We separate and distance ourselves That's part of the goal Both for those For the workers In those businesses As well as for those Consumers So that's been our thought process But that is on the List of Trying to find a way for them To open back up As well as in the construction industry And this will not be A flip of the switch We will not be saying to the construction Industry for instance That you can go back to work tomorrow We're going to provide For a phased in approach Of some way we're engaging With the contractors engaging With those in the Farmers markets to provide Some sort of a method For opening back up In a responsible manner But But if I didn't Get back to you It sounds like it's a work in progress And I know a lot of people Who are waiting with Bated breath in all number of industries To see how they might Comply And Meet the standards That are in place Maybe even It sounds like some farmers markets Have a pioneered Pre-ordering It's not Hagling over a cucumber They're actually picking up a box Having it popped in the back of a pickup And I think that's going to be the approach As we open these back up In many different ways Thinking outside the box It's not going to be in the normal fashion And I would just add There's nobody more anxious than me To open up the economy But again, I want to make sure that we do it In a very responsible And safe manner All right. Thank you, Governor. Appreciate it. Thank you, Joel. We have about 10 Questioners left and we are about an hour and a half Into this, so just everybody for awareness Brittany, Local 22 So my question is In regard to the CARES Act The New York Times came out with an article Yesterday that said A lot of small businesses Aren't getting the loans They will promise. They are promised up to two million And they're only seeing about 15,000 Of that. So my question is Just have you been in contact with the whole Government and the authorities And can Vermonter rely On the CARES Act? Are they going to get the money That they will promise? Well, I'm going to refer To someone from commerce But I will add we had this conversation Last night with Senator Sanders Senator Leahy, Congressman Welch And we certainly all have the same goal We want to make sure that there's a path Forward for anyone needing money So with this next provision In the CARES Act I would say if there's improvements That need to be made They're all ears. They want to help Thank you. Hi, this is Hi, this is Secretary Curley You know, just to re-emphasize What the Governor said Vermont Lenders are reporting That they received Applications that were submitted And approved loans There's going to be 3,500 Just in this week alone And they are hearing what You're suggesting as well And so we've been in communication With the Congressional's delegation On this and what we want to Just remind people is not every Product is the right Product necessarily for you And we know That you need to get guidance on that And we want to issue or help Help you with that guidance And offer some technical assistance But again, it's both Can get in the queue And get their applications And hopefully as maybe more money Is approved in some of these programs Are tweaked to correct some of the fixes That need to happen Will be better off down the road Thank you Hi, this question is for Secretary Smith Do you have a preference For criminals when you're talking About not releasing people From prison? I was just wondering If there was, what about people Who might be pre-trial Or in their patrol violations? Does this feel something you're considering Further limiting the prison population? Or do you feel like you've gotten it Down as far as you can? We're always looking at getting Prison population in a safe And responsible way Getting the prison population Down as far as we can Like I said, it's 1419 Today That's quite low Over a historical time Of what our correctional facility Has been. I think a couple years ago I saw something and we were over 1700 So we are looking at Different ways, Colin I will say this I think we're getting towards the end There may be a few more opportunities But I think we're getting Towards the end as I mentioned before We're not going to release those People that I had Sort of signaled out In terms of sex offenses In terms of murder, aggravated assault These people are violent And we're not going to let them Out of our correctional facilities But we're always Looking for opportunities With the proviso That one We contact the victims And two, it's safe And responsible to return these people To the public I've got a question, I've been curious About the question of whether it's Going to be a second spike It's come up several times It has to do with obviously Has an effect on how just people Also would affect the governor's Plan to start opening The spigot Would obviously Would have a There would be a problem with that If you had a second spike I'd like to ask Dr. Levine To just say a little bit about the Biology of this When we talk about a second spike Do you contemplate that What we would be looking at Would be Either a Mutation Of the COVID-19 Virus Or suspect By Is coming from latent COVID-19 That's just still lurking out there In the population Sure, so I'd like it to get away from The term spike because when I think spike I think of that horrific curve I showed in the very first time I brought a prop with me And showed how the Healthcare system would be overwhelmed Because it was a steep increase To a very high number So I would prefer to call this A period of Reactivation of disease activity And That might be A much, much milder Curve than The one that I've envisioned for you You know, there's Things being learned about Mutation all the time And right now, mutation is not At the top of the list of things That people are concerned about And I think that's because of Experience with prior coronaviruses That have affected humans That really can Re-infect them Causing mild illness, but don't Re-infect them because they've Mutated necessarily In an area where there would be A time period of, as you called it Latent disease And after that period of latency There was some recurred activity Of disease in the population Which again, we would hopefully Be able to address with more Of a containment strategy And not have to rely To the extent we are currently On the mitigation strategies That we're employing Thank you Can I get one more question? I'm curious whether Given the still limitation Of the amount of reagent available For testing Whether you've thought about it all Whether it's even relevant Whether you should begin to look for a serum test Than just looking for antibodies Has that been discussed at all By your team? All the time And I get questions about it all the time And I will just say That if they are in the discussion We would like to find One that actually has Sufficient accuracy That we would find it trustworthy And that the results Would give people confidence Either if they were positive or negative And we Would also like to employ them At a more ideal time And when you're still In a very significant period Of virus activity in the population We would much rather rely On the PCR testing Of nasal And throat secretions that we're using currently But in that period Where things have They're called decelerated And there's less disease activity That becomes a more ideal time To begin using These serologic tests on the population Thank you, sir Peter Herschfeld Peter Herschfeld, BPR Secretary Smith, you said you were going to hold off On universal testing and correctional Facilities until you have a confirmed case By the time you had One confirmed case that Northwest Looks like based on Pest results so far 20% of the inmate population Had already contracted COVID-19 Why Not do more surveillance Testing in the inmate population To avoid a similar outcome In other correctional facilities I wish I had all the tests in the world Peter But we don't We have a robust testing procedure But we don't. I want to clarify something You just said We had three staff Test positive Excuse me, that were tested For COVID-19 The first staff member was Outside of the facility And didn't have direct access to the facility The next one Had Actually Was Called out six on March 26 Was administered a test that test came back Negative, unfortunately That person took a turn for the worst after That test but did not return To the facility and then The third Inmate and then the The third Correctional Officer and the inmate almost Happened within 24 hours We saw that We started testing We started universal testing But I mean to get To your question Why don't we just Why don't we just start Universal testing No matter what I wish we had that type of capacity We have robust capacity We don't have unlimited capacity Digger I just wanted to touch back On some of what you're doing To increase the call center Capacity I was just curious What is the hope for How many Folks you will get on to answer Calls and how much if you know Yet I could cut down On the number of calls going on answered I wouldn't be able To provide that I can look at traffic Into the call center I can tell you how many we are Many people are trying over And over and over again and there's no way To know whether someone tried Five times or a hundred times To get through our expectation Or hope is that with This secondary Call center Being stood up over the coming days That it may have as many As 30 staff People manning the phones But I will say that That will allow the 25 people That we have answering lines Right now to redirect Towards clearing Those issues which I said probably 80% if not more Of the calls we receive right now Or because a claim was stopped Because of an issue so again There's two components Going on here one is Redirecting staff to clear Issues more quickly to Reduce the number of calls coming In but also standing up A new site to be able to help With just the high volume Of calls. Does that answer your question? That does just a quick follow up Do you expect that this Additional call center will be Not moving forward to deal with The increase in claims? I do because I think Again the volume Of calls will go down As the number of issues clear So the only people who are really Calling our claims center because They have some piece of follow up That has to happen. People are still Able to file their initial claim Online via the web and then When they file their weekly claims They're able to do that through the Automated phone number and On the web as well. So as long As there were no issues on a claim A claim could literally be opened And someone could be filing weekly And receiving payments without talking To anybody face to face Over the phone. But again Of those claims that have an issue Maybe there was a bad piece of information Maybe we need a little more detail Maybe there was an incorrect Social security number given There's a variety of different reasons That issues occur And so again as we clear Those issues the call Volume is expected to go down And with the pandemic unemployment Assistance program I would You know we're constructing that system So it's as much self Service as possible again Reducing the number of people Who would need to call in and talk To an actual person. This question is likely for the governor So talking about travel Once this day of home order And do you foresee that People will be able to travel out Of the state without having to Quarantine when they return and The second question on to that is Larger events like weddings And things already planned for later on in the year Yeah those are two great Questions and something I don't have The answers to other than We hope to get to a point Where we don't have to ask people Coming into the state to quarantine Or self isolate. That would be Our goal. And at the same So we're going to try and mitigate That and trying to prevent that From happening by Staggering or some Sort of phasing of the Inns and hotels motels Bed and breakfasts and so forth So that we prevent Anyone from having an excuse To come to Vermont. So All this has to work together State parks, private campgrounds All the above have To be worked together in a phased approach So that we don't overwhelm The system. Normally We'd be asking people To visit Vermont. I mean this is Counter-intuitive to everything that I've stood for In terms of the economy I couldn't imagine. I mean You know how much I talk about the economy And growing the economy, making Vermont More affordable and so forth Who would have thought that we'd be in a position We are today where I'm discouraging People from visiting here But I'm hopeful That we'll get to a point Where we can go back To where we were in some capacity And start welcoming people Back in. In terms of The weddings and so forth I just don't have the answer It's just a day-to-day Week-to-week, month-to-month Decision-making process Where we can open that spicket back up What about out-of-state travel, Governor? In terms of People certainly restricted in that way As far as going to maybe like Hot, what are now in third hot spots I mean that could change I would say everyone's in the same position Throughout the country I can't imagine Anyone is promoting Anyone leaving their states At this point in time But again, this is going to change Based on the data, the modeling And what we see I mean if other states are I'm seeing some success stories In other states as well Hopefully we'll get back to some normalcy But imagine a future Who knows, I've made the statement the other day From any crisis we've Experienced, and after 9-11 We brought the TSA Increased testing Is going to be part of the future in some capacity And it's going to be more instantaneous And I don't know what it looks like But if we can have quick tests Where we're preventing people from When they're traveling Getting on an airplane or getting on a bus Or getting on a train And take a quick test to make sure that They're not positive And that will probably be part of the future But I don't know how to Attain that I just know that testing is growing By leaps and bounds And hopefully that'll be part of the Solution as well as the vaccines That we'll see in the future And I know everyone is working day and night To try and accomplish both Okay, thank you Emily, VPR Hi, this is another question For Secretary Smith Can you clarify If inmates do need intensive care Will they be going to hospitals Or will the National Guard Be involved instead? No, if they need intensive care They're going to hospitals Okay, well I've heard Jim Baker Talking about the National Guard Building some kind of medical unit At St. Johnsbury, what is that about? You're going to have to talk to Commissioner Baker about more The details about that But that would be in reserve If we needed something in reserve Okay, and then a second question My last question On the same topic That you've already discussed I'm hearing some inmates who have Medical conditions that are specifically They pass them and they're waiting For programming that programming began Now it's canceled They're essentially Incorporated for programming they can't Receive I was wondering if you have any response To that particular scenario But more so if you could describe What is the process by which DOC Decides which inmates it can release Emily, the process Is what I had described Earlier in terms Of the various things That we've done I mean there is a process In age old In terms of what you go through For releasing For getting released Out of corrections But in these COVID 19 times I would say Enhanced That process again We've reexamined and loosened Restrictions to offenders Re-entering the community And specifically things like This extraordinary period DOC has relaxed Some of its current limitations regarding Where an inmate may reside Upon reentry And there's a whole host that Corrections can go through on What that means I've got one, two, three, four, five Six bullet points on that They've also looked at Scanning their population As I had mentioned before DOC has reviewed previous Denying furlough in cases Where the offender will max out Within the next 60 days And looked at these cases Individually They've also made sure that Again, when they're doing all this They've looked at The victims And how does this affect Victims and fully inform Victims on a pending Release So they not only have Instituted guidelines that have been I would say Well established during the times We have instituted guidelines That increase That have been sort of Been done During this time Of COVID-19 I want to also address your other question Look, we're In unprecedented times And certain things that we did During pre-COVID times We can't do During COVID This COVID period time We'll return to normalcy as soon as we can But During this time, people got to realize That none of us None of us here in this auditorium None of most people that are watching On TV, none of us Have ever experienced this And what we are doing Is trying to be fair Trying to be consistent Trying to be responsible And safe As we look at the prison Population here in Vermont. And the mere fact that We've gone down from 1600 And some odd 1679 To 1419 Shows that we are doing this In any responsible way Okay, it's One o'clock and I know The governor probably a lot of other people In this have a meeting, so We have three more Please, if you have any questions There's going to be another press conference And perhaps I could just be taken offline And Just please one question If you need clarity, that's fine But not multi-part questions Erin from Digger All right, Stuart Hi, can you hear me? Yep, go ahead Hello? Yes, go ahead, Erin Okay, sorry about that Yeah, thank you for Taking the time to answer the questions Yeah, it's been a long press conference My question is About the modeling that was Released today You know, many of the things That you're modeling right now Are things that you're working on Getting search capacity for Like I view beds, ventilators But one thing is Also trying to work on getting Is more healthcare workers But there's no model Of how many Culture workers there are How many we are working on Getting to the search planning And whether that's going to be enough Under these different scenarios These different models That the state is putting out So what can you tell me about The data the state has for that And are you planning to release Any of that data in the coming weeks? I'll let Secretary Smith Answer that, but I can say That there's a lot of competing interest Out there in our neighboring states New York has put out a plea And quite lucrative In some respects for healthcare workers So it's challenging across The industry, and we were challenged Before this COVID crisis So it's Become more and more of an issue Something that literally keeps me up At night if we had a surge To have the personnel Because we can have all the hospitals All the ventilators, all the PPEs In the world, but if we don't have the personnel Then it's all for nothing Erin, it's Mike Smith When this first started When I started seeing the worst-case scenarios That was the nightmare scenario For me is making sure we had enough People, if you look at the models Right now, those are staff beds So I'm feeling A lot more confident in terms of Our ability to do that Plus on top of that we have All of those capabilities that we have At the Champlain Valley Fairground At Patrick gymnasium And the capacity that we have At the Rutland facility At the rink at Rutland I will say That we are Always on the lookout for Nursing and medical care people As we move forward with this So there is a volunteer Website I don't have it on me Maybe Mike Shirley does In a moment, but I would say that We're always on the lookout for medical care In case You know, things Don't progress the way the models are But right now The things that The governor have put into place Have given me At least One hour of sleep at night In terms of what we're looking at As we move forward In terms of beds, in terms of staff beds In terms of ventilators In terms of all those things That we were looking at in March That just kept us awake So thank you The website is The slash volunteer Alright, Calvin So I think this might be a more Question for Commissioner Harrington So we mentioned that this is going to be A relatively short unemployment period How short are we of that And what about businesses That may not ask back Yeah, so I use the term short In relative terms When we look at Unemployment numbers and historic Unemployment numbers, those are prolonged Periods of unemployment So again, we're seeing This Incredibly large spike In unemployment But again, we also know that in many cases That's temporary It will not be temporary for all And so I think we will see Once businesses begin to reopen And bring staff back to work To decline But I think it will be a while Before we go back to pre-COVID-19 I don't have the ability to foresee that At this point But it certainly won't happen all at once And I think it will take us a while To even get down to where we were At 2.4% I just don't see that happening for a while But yeah, so it will be a long process Just a quick follow-up For the viewers So people can have a recap And Test positive I mean in general The overall population I think it's on our website Yeah, I'll ask Dr. Levine to sort of Make sure I've got the numbers right But I think it was 51 last night And that includes the correctional facility For a total of 679 Dr. Levine, can you verify those numbers Those are correct We just have one more question Thank you, I appreciate it Mike will ask you With two North reports Since we now have a crisis Of 70,000 Vermonters out of work And since the models for COVID-19 deaths Have proven to be greatly overestimated So far Will your administration now consider Using a targeted strategy Of mandating social distancing For vulnerable populations To find the rest of the Vermonters To get back to work That's our goal Is to get Vermonters back to work And that's why we're putting all these steps into place And we're doing it in a responsible way I'm I'm hopeful That the modeling that we've put into place Is going to continue To show the positive steps that we've taken Are making a difference And so if we continue down this path Obviously We're opening business up just as quick as we can Again, there's no one more anxious Than me in doing so And What was the other part of the question Would you consider Targeting the social distancing At the specific vulnerable populations Over people? Again, I don't think it's just The social distancing it hears to all of us Like this is transmitted Whether you're 15 or 75 It doesn't matter your age It's just that you're more vulnerable With chronic conditions And having an adverse effect As a result of contracting coronavirus So All of us have a role to play in this All age groups So just To concentrate on one sector Just wouldn't be beneficial Dr. Levine, anything I should add to that? No, I think that's well stated In the end we're all vulnerable And though we've Targeted a certain group as being The most vulnerable If you have widespread disease In the population People who don't fall in the older Chronically ill vulnerable groups Will get very ill Just statistically speaking So the strategy is Population-wide It can't really be targeted in an effective way Okay Thank you everybody Thanks for tuning in Have a good Easter But do it in a responsible way Thank you very much