 Good morning, everyone. We have a few public service announcements for you this morning. And I'll also preview one of the restart steps we plan to announce on Friday. First, I've asked our state librarian, Jason Broden, who is helping lead the state's complete count efforts for the US Census to give an update on the response we're seeing. But to put it bluntly, our response rate remains very low. So we're asking Vermonters to take about five minutes today to complete their census form. Having a complete and accurate count of our population is critical in so many ways. It makes sure we have fair representation at all levels of government and determines the level of federal funds we receive. Receiving the right amount of federal support is always important. So we're getting back at least what Vermonters are putting in as we face a global pandemic and the economic crisis that's followed, making sure we get every dollar federal relief we can is so important to our recovery. It is not just for disaster relief. It's infrastructure projects, school lunch programs, and so much more. Even in the best of times, an accurate count is essential for our state and local budgets. Unfortunately, as of this month, only about half of all Vermonters have responded, which is one of the lowest response rates in the country. 47th, to be exact. We need to do better because the fact is if we don't fully account for our population, another state will get that money for their roads, schools, hospitals, and more. I know it seems as though we've already asked a lot of Vermonters, but it only takes five minutes, and you could do it today. Fill out the form online at 2020census.gov or by phone at 844-330-2020. It's really pretty simple, and Jason will share more in a few minutes. I also want to mention, as we get into the heart of summer, Secretary Curley will give details on our upcoming State Park opening, as well as guidance for events like parades and other celebrations with 4th of July coming up next weekend. Public Safety Commissioner Sherling and Dr. Levine will also provide some tips to help us stay safe as we look to have some fun over this holiday weekend. Finally, I wanted to forecast some of what we'll be announcing on Friday as our regional data continues to show. We can turn this bucket a bit more to welcome a few more visitors to our state. Last week, we announced the increase in capacity at restaurants and events to 50% beginning this Friday. And while our lodging facilities are already able to operate at this level, we know our travel restrictions make it difficult to reach even this capacity. Mr. Pichek, working closely with our epi team, has developed a creative and effective approach to allow much of the Northeast to visit Vermont without a quarantine because they're coming from counties and other states with low case counts. On Friday, we expect to expand the number of states that are within driving distance of Vermont and can meet these trusted travel thresholds. As Dr. Levine and I discussed on Monday, we continue to use your help to slow the spread of this virus so we can protect our most vulnerable and our healthcare system. So we ask everyone to follow the guidance, wash your hands, stay six feet apart, stay home when you're sick and wear a mask whenever you can. These are all things that remain important even as we let up on some restrictions. So with that, I'll now turn it over to Jason who's been doing an outstanding job as state librarian during this pandemic and for an update on the census, Jason. Good afternoon, everyone. The information I'm providing will be a snapshot of census activity across Vermont. Before that, I'd like to thank Governor Scott for making the census participation by Vermonters a continual reminder to be counted accurately once, only once. Along with that, I also want to thank the Vermont Complete Count Committee members and all of our partners for their hard work doing this unique time that we are all experiencing as a planet. And of course, the numerous local Complete Count Committees and the US Census Bureau itself. The 2010 response rate for Vermont was 60.3% when it comes to self-reporting. At current, for 2020, Vermont is at 54.7%. Before March 3rd of this year, we were at 34%. I would like to really make people aware that that is such a tremendous amount that we have had to overcome because a lot of that had to be done by word of mouth, phone, and online types of activities. All in-person activities had to be stopped because we were all navigating COVID-19. At current, according to US Bureau, Vermont has just under 260,000 occupied households and just over 190,000 facture responded. That still leaves a very large delta of about 70,000 Vermont households that have not completed the census. Our highest responding county is Chittenden at 70.8% of the households responding and our lowest is Essex with about 34% responding. The US Census Bureau, as an update, is seeking relief from the federal government to extend the census into October and then allow the reporting requirements to be conducted in 2021. We are still following and navigating that information, but it would definitely allow all states across the country to continue census operations. We do have restart of the field operations across Vermont going slowly with the US Census Bureau and we look forward to having a variety of different parts begin to connect with people to ask them to participate. Within that, though, the census results affects our communities every day. On average, about $4,000 per person impacts of Vermonters when it comes to money that comes back to Vermont. And with that, an overall aspect is about $2.5 billion comes back to Vermont for a variety of items such as for planning of roads, community items, hospitals, first responders, education, different types of grants and a whole host of different types of items. This is only given once every 10 years. We ask that everybody please be counted in Vermont. And with that, we again want to make sure that people can take just a small moment because you can do it online in just five minutes. And as the governor has said, 2020census.gov or by calling 844-330-2020. It's simple and fast. And yes, the census does not ask for social security numbers, bank accounts or any other personal data. With that, I ask you to please participate and be counted. Thank you. With that, I would now like to introduce Secretary Hurley. Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone. As we all head into the summer months and the 4th of July holiday, we wanted to take a few moments to reinforce some of the guidance we have issued around celebrations and festivities in the weeks ahead. The Agency of Commerce has received several creative requests from towns and villages looking to reimagine their 4th of July festivities, keeping current restrictions on social gatherings, fairs and festivals in mind. We have been impressed with the way these towns are putting public health first, while balancing the need to give Vermonters a way to responsibly celebrate their summer traditions. Many towns have worked with vendors, local businesses and landowners to give residents a drive-in fireworks option. They've identified large open areas that allow for proper distancing or relocated displays so that more citizens can see fireworks from their homes. They've put social distancing requirements in place and made a responsible plan that I hope other towns will consider. We have posted some of these plans on our website so towns can see what others are doing for summer events. We also recognize that many towns have cookouts, concerts and parades on the 4th of July. While these events are not able to go off as originally planned, we know some have adapted. As an example, a fire station cookout changed from in-person dining to takeout. And parades can be altered from a destination event to a longer, more spread out parade that enables people to view it from their front yards or their cars. On June 26th, the event guidance we announced last Friday will take effect, allowing for events of up to 150 people for an outdoor venue and 75 people for an indoor venue. Given proper capacity and spacing requirements are followed. While our cherished summer moments will look different, the traditions and the spirit of summer in Vermont is alive and well. Another staple of recreating in Vermont is opening Friday, our state parks. The agency of Natural Resources has been working to get the parks ready for visitors this Friday, and they will be fully operational. The parks have launched a modernized web-based reservation system with new features for making reservations easier. While traditional park services and amenities have been scaled back a bit, the parks will still offer day use activities, tent and RV sites and lean to camping. Successful state park programs, like the Check Out the Parks Library Pass Program and the Venture Vermont Outdoor Challenge can help people explore their home state in new ways. Travel restrictions and quarantine guidelines may reduce the number of out-of-state visitors visiting the parks, but that only provides greater opportunity for Vermonters to enjoy the beautiful outdoor landscape right in our backyard. Vermonters have made a lot of sacrifices over the last three months and worked creatively together to find new ways to do business, to recreate and to support each other in these trying times. We hope this summer we'll see continued support of our local communities and businesses as we all look to find new Vermont adventures waiting to be discovered. With that, I will turn it over to Commissioner Shirling for more on summer safety. Commissioner Shirling. Thank you, Secretary Shirling. As the Secretary highlighted, there's a lot to do outside in Vermont in summer, as we keep talking about it, these briefings outside activities are preferred over inside with the COVID conditions. Still in existence here in Vermont. With that, we encourage folks to be outside. Unfortunately, yesterday, there were the concerts of events in South Burlington and Albert, where we appear to have lots of voters or swimmers. So it's an unfortunate opportunity to reiterate safety guidance around swimming and boating as we encourage folks to get outside. So five points to keep in mind. Knowledge is first, know your ability, know the water temperature, know the weather. Weather changes, especially in the summer, pretty quickly. The hot conditions that draw people to being outside and being in our lakes and rivers, streams, also creates pop-up thunderstorms that can dramatically change the weather in just a short amount of time. So be mindful of that, be mindful that while water temperatures still are a little chilly in some places, and know your ability. Don't swim alone, ensure that you use a buddy system, that someone always knows where you are. Be mindful that on the water distance is deceiving. Things that look like they're in close proximity often are not because of that deception that occurs when looking at water and distance. File a float plan so that others know where you are, especially with small craft, if you're out in a canoe or a kayak or an outboard or a small windsurfer or a sailing vessel, ensure that people know where you're going and what time you're anticipated to return so that if those timelines are missed, that folks can be sent out to check for you. Ensure that you've got personal floatation devices. They're required for anybody on a vessel under the age of 12 years old, and they're required to be on board, at least for every person that you're taking underway in addition to having a throwable device. So be sure to have those with you when that's ready. And finally, ensure that you're following the rules of the road. Take a motor safety class. They're required for anyone born after January of 1974. And be mindful that alcohol and swimming or boating often do not mix too much of one and leads to tragedy in the other. So again, encourage folks to get out. Enjoy our lakes, rivers and streams. Enjoy boating, enjoy swimming, but do so safely and keep those key tips in mind. And more information is available on the Department of Public Safety website. Thank you. Now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for healthy. Good morning. Our holiday messaging to stay healthy is rather simple. Continue to follow the four rules of thumb to protect yourself. Protect those who are vulnerable to serious illness and to prevent spread of the virus. I think you've heard these once today. In education terms, we call this planned redundancy to reinforce the concept. Wear facial coverings around others if you can. Keep six feet apart. Wash your hands a lot. Stay home when sick. But while the messaging is rather simple, Vermonters have been hearing it like a broken record for months now. And maybe for some of you, it's becoming background noise. So I want to take a few minutes till we mind us all why it is important. COVID-19 is new to the human race. We know a lot about it, but we're also learning and day to day we learn more, but we also learn more about what we don't know yet. It feels like forever, but our total Vermont active experience with this virus is just about four months. So what do we know? We know it's highly contagious, though a bit erratic and a little bit unpredictable at the same time. We know it spreads very easily from person to person, especially people who are within six feet of one another. It spreads more efficiently than the flu virus with one person able to infect two to three others. It spreads through respiratory droplets, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or even talks. And there's increasing evidence it can spread in aerosols, which can linger in the air that we breathe longer than the droplets. You get it when the droplets land on your mouth or nose or possibly when inhaled. It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it, and then touching your face, which we all do way more than we realize. And it can be spread by people who are not showing any symptoms. So how bad is it really? Well, we all know that COVID-19 is especially dangerous for certain groups like older Vermonters. People with chronic conditions and for children and in adults who have suppressed immunity. As of today, 56 of our fellow Vermonters and more than 125,000 Americans have died in just the past four to five months. And there are nearly two and a half million people who have had the virus and those are only the ones we actually know of. Like some other infectious illnesses, many people are likely to experience only mild illness. But many others, some apparently healthy people, have become seriously ill and even died. Back in the beginning, I once said that this pandemic will soon turn out to be like the opioid epidemic. Everyone will know a friend or a family member who was ill with it or how it affected people in their own community and God forbid perhaps someone who died from it. And at the outset, I emphasized repeatedly that 80% of those who get it will have mild illness and that is still true. I do wanna emphasize that when you look around the country now, the biggest age demographic of those who are getting tested and positive are those ages 18 to 44. Ages where we all think we're a little bit more invincible perhaps and aren't gonna suffer very much. But what I would like to modify about what I've said in the past is that mild illness means no hospitalization, no complications, certainly no death. But it doesn't necessarily mean an easy time. I've been most impressed by hearing stories from people who both I know or people who have written to me discussing how the virus really knocked them down and how much worse it was than the flu or anything else they had experienced. Now I'm not saying this to strike fear in the heart of everybody who's listening. I do wanna say it though because while I always want you to protect the most vulnerable, it's not a bad idea to also protect yourself. I really sincerely believe you owe it to yourself to try and protect yourself until we have a vaccine. If we can learn a lesson from Sweden where they've tried to let the population achieve herd immunity by just letting themselves get infected, it's that that is not a winning strategy. So why is this an important reminder? As the state reopens and more of us are outside being active, seeing family and friends, gathering groups at events like barbecues, on the lake, or even at a protest, the risk of transmission does increase. But as I've said before, please do some of these things. Your soul needs it. But choose wisely, understanding what activity for you in your particular circumstances is low risk and what we mean assuming too much risk. Even though Vermont is fortunate to currently have a low level of virus circulating in the state, that's not the same as zero. And this achievement can be fragile. But I'm very hopeful and cautiously optimistic. But the way to stay safe is not through top-down edicts. It must be a people-powered effort. And that means taking personal responsibility. If you're doing your part, thank you and I do sincerely appreciate it. If you can do better, understand that I recognize having been a primary care physician for so many years, that behavior change is hard and it can take a while. But as you remember from when I started, it comes down to just the four simple things for all of us to have on our to-do list every day. Wearing the facial coverings, keeping six feet apart, washing hands frequently and staying home when sick. I'd like to look at some slides now just to show you our current experience in Vermont. As of last evening, 1184 cases. Still no change, thank goodness, in the 56 deaths. The slope of our curve, obviously continuing to be along the lines we'd like to see it in spite of some recent outbreaks. Now, as we anticipated, there've been a couple of new clusters around the state in addition to the outbreak that started in Winooski. The count in Winooski stands now at 114 as of late yesterday evening. A total of four new cases since June 21st. No major changes in any of the other characteristics of this outbreak from what I have reported previously, so I won't repeat them. Looking at what we call the epi curve, you can see that obviously the peak was in early June and even with additional cases occurring sporadically through this later part of June, we are clearly on a downward and stable slope. And as I've mentioned before, for an infection that has an incubation period of 14 days, it takes time to see it totally peter out. But we're clearly on the right course. These are the total experience, not just Winooski but our state experience. You can see how that looks. And then finally, we'll just look at the final slide of the syndromic surveillance test positivity rates. In spite of some outbreaks are still very, very low, way under 2%. On Monday, I reported an outbreak in Rutland County. This outbreak is associated with an employer in the Fairhaven region. The case count is now up to 12 and the testing of the workforce is ongoing. There will also be opportunities for testing in the community later this week, which will be announced. This investigation is early and ongoing and I do not have further details to share at this time. I also reported a Wyndham County family cluster and I'm happy to report that at this point, no new cases have been identified beyond the family. Testing has been ongoing and is being offered again today in Brattleboro. I'll turn it back to the governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine. And with that, we'll open it up to questions. Calvin? Thank you. So governor, this might be a question for you or maybe Secretary Curley, but so this week we've seen companies that weren't necessarily affected by the executive order, I'm thinking national life, darn tough socks. They've had to lay on some people this week. I'm wondering if this could be an indication of maybe a second wave, if you will, of businesses kind of affected or if there's sort of an economic impact there. Yeah, I'll ask Secretary Curley to comment as well, but from my standpoint, I wouldn't say it's a second wave. This is the wave. I've been forewarning that this is going to have economic ramifications. That's going to affect all of us in some way and no one is going to be left untouched. Some are going to be more harmed than others, but again, all of us are going to feel this. And I think this is an indication, whether it's national life or darn tough socks or the many, many restaurants and hospitality sector lodgings and so forth, we're going to feel the brunt of this. That's why this economic package that we first initiated and provided to the legislature is so, so needed. And we need to get this out the door as fast as we can to protect these other businesses and so that they can survive when we get to enter in the corner and bring more people into the state that they can thrive as a result. But we're going to feel this for quite some time and it's up to us, it's not lost upon us to find ways to provide for new opportunities for businesses and invite more of these businesses into Vermont as a result, as we've tried to do over the last three or four years. It's just going to be more apparent that we have to put it on the front burner as soon as we can possibly can. Secretary Curley. You nailed it. I have nothing to add on that. I guess my only other question is if we're seeing these companies that weren't directly affected by the capacity or the restaurants or hospitality, do you think that we could see maybe more companies like Darn Tough manufacturing or office jobs fold? We're not full, but yeah. Sure. Yes, I do. And in fact, we're not just reliant on what's happening in Vermont. We are faced with what's happened regionally as well as throughout the country and throughout the world as a matter of fact because we have to sell these goods that are being manufactured in Vermont. We're again not on an island and it will have a ripple effect across all sectors. I believe. So again, it just makes our case that we need to provide relief just as quick as we possibly can. And it's not going to be enough to be perfectly honest and blunt. This is going to hinder us in many ways over the next year or two. But again, if we can all pull together think creatively and about how we can do things as efficiently as possible and then welcome more businesses, more people into the state. I think we'll be a lot better off. Just continue to the same message that we started three or four years ago and highlight that. We're going to move into your announcement yesterday about unemployment insurance. Is there a way to kind of quantify the impact it's going to have on businesses that are paying into that tax in the near future? Yeah, I'll ask Commissioner Harrington to comment as well. But from my standpoint, we had to, we based this on 2019 data when things were pretty good, but we need to provide relief in any way we can to some of the businesses. And this is a way of doing that as well as a little bit of relief for those who are going to have to apply for unemployment or continue to be on unemployment. So we thought this was a good move. It's not the total answer in any respect. But again, just to try and continue to be sensitive to the needs of business and the lifeblood of the revenue coming into the state and that we disperse from there. We need it for to keep government going. So the stronger they are, the stronger the businesses are, the stronger we are as a state. Commissioner Harrington. The timing is certainly appropriate and certainly helpful for those businesses that are struggling. This is an annual determination. So it follows the annual recalculation. And in this case, the number that was calculated does not take into into consideration what has happened as a part of the COVID-19 pandemic. And so it does look at the calendar year of 2019 and makes the calculation an annual determination of the rate. And then the only other piece that I'll put out there, you know, the positive piece here is that this will provide relief for employers over the next year. The caveat or the concern there will be what does that calculation look like in subsequent years when it does include the COVID-19 pandemic numbers for unemployment. So we're also monitoring those as well. But the positive piece at this point is that it will provide relief for employers over this next year. So what point would you reassess that if you're concerned that any kind of a, the hit to business is going to last months maybe even into next year and further when you reassess whether the trust is going to... Yeah, we'll continue to take and assess that, but it'd be a year from now. That would be the plan to keep us on the same timeline that we have in previous years. I would just want to remind everyone, we were in pretty good shape. We were at a point not too many years ago. Where the unemployment trust fund was depleted, had to take a loan from the federal government, had to repay that loan. So there was nothing in the fund. Rebuilt that to over a half a billion dollars in the fund before the pandemic struck. At this point in time, we have a little over and Commissioner Herrington could probably give us the exact number. But I think it's around $325 million in the fund right now even after 90,000 people applied and now there's still well over 40,000 on unemployment. But the good news is our fund is still intact. We may get through this without depleting it, which would be great news for us. Without other states like California, it was three or four weeks ago, five weeks ago, they already took a loan out from the federal government because their unemployment fund was depleted. We're in good shape in that, you know, the fiscal prudence over not just this administration, previous administrations put us on the path to doing that in legislative action, trying to make sure that we have all our funds in place and are strong and to account for things of this nature and when they come up. So we could be proud of that. Mr. Herrington, do you have the exact number at this point? Of the 20th of June, it was 342,398,835. And so again, and we provide this in our daily report to the legislature, but you can see that we are in a much healthier position than many other states. And that is due to a number of different factors like the governor said. All right, we'll go to the phones and start with Greg at the Bennington banner. It's star six to unmute, Greg. Thank you. Thank you very much. My first question, perhaps for the governor and perhaps for Commissioner Herrington, I have two questions, but that's okay. Sure. On different topics, I'll try to be brief with both. For the governor, perhaps for Commissioner Herrington, the additional $600 weekly benefit allocated through the CARES Act is due to expire on July 31st. There are undoubtedly people who will still need that additional funding after that runs out. My question is, what's the current guidance from Washington on whether an extension is the offering? And given the condition of the unemployment fund that you just outlined, is it possible the state could be creative to fill the gap? A couple of things, Greg. First of all, I'm not sure that there's going to be any correction from the Congress in between this time. It doesn't sound like it to me. Maybe a better question for the congressional delegation, but we're preparing that this will go away, the $600. That's why we're working so hard to try and open up the economy in a safe manner to bring as many people off unemployment as possible and try to grow the economy back to where it was pre-pandemic. So it's essential that we do that and again provide relief to those businesses so that they're there when this other money runs out to put people back to work. So it all has to work together, but I'm not sure that we should rely on the feds, at least in the short term, because they're going on break fairly soon. And I'm not sure that there's consensus on extending that amount of money. Anything else, Commissioner Harrington, on that issue that I missed? No, Governor. Yeah, no, you're correct. We have not heard anything in terms of an extension. It certainly is a point of conversation, but to this day there hasn't been any indication of an extension. So the question about being creative with the funds, there are very strict guidelines over how money in the fund is utilized that have to be used for benefits. It also is based on what the maximum weekly benefit amount or the determined benefit amount is, which is another annual determination and calculation. And that annual benefit amount will go up from $513 as a maximum to $531 as a maximum of July 1st. But otherwise, we don't necessarily have the ability to be creative or arbitrary in terms of how the fund is utilized and what type of benefits we would offer out of the fund. Yeah, I think we all realized the $600 was a tremendous benefit to the number of people on unemployment in the PUA throughout this time. But I don't think we can count on that in the future. You have another question? I do, I do. This one is more of a health statistics question, this might be more for Dr. Levain. The presently Vermont has a retransmission rate of about one, according to what I have seen on the internet in the past day. The neighboring states, however, have lower retransmission rates. And several of those, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maine, make mass use mandatory for customers as well as employees and people in public spaces. So as the state continues to try to speak it, aware that that activity raises the overall risk of transmission, is there any more thoughts in making that mandatory rather than recommended for customers and people in public places? Yeah, Greg, I had talked about this over the last few weeks. And it's a point of controversy for many. Now it's become more national than anything else and I continue to worry about enforcement of the action who has to do this enforcement, whether it's the shopkeepers and so forth. We came up with a plan where we allowed municipalities to determine whether they want to become more strict than we are, and a number of communities have done so. Did have a poll that was conducted by the grocers and retailers that they provided to us in the last couple of days. I did look at it quickly. I haven't studied it, but it's very close, in fact close enough so that they decided not to give us any indication or have a recommendation for us. I still would hope that we could do this by guidance and education. People do the right thing. At the end of the day, I believe wearing a mask to protect others is a strength. It's not a weakness, it's a strength because you're helping other people. And if you can wear a mask, I would ask that you do. Do so, I do. If I go out, if I'm in public, I wear a mask because I want to protect my fellow Vermonters. So we'll continue down that path. I haven't made a decision on the mandatory portion, but before we turn the spigot a bit more for some of the retail locations we'll do so, I do want to remind folks that we have taken action mandatory on any public transit, which I think is a good idea as well. So that's been mandatory, allowing for municipalities to take action, local control, take that into their own hands and require it, has been fine. And having retail operations do it on their own is fine as well. And I think what we need to do, and I plan to talk about this with our team a bit more in the next few days is to come out with a better plan to inspire others to do the right thing and more of an education type of approach. But regardless of what we do, we'll work on that. Mr. Levine, anything you want to add to that? I don't want to add anything to what the governor just said about the facial coverings. I wanted to just comment on your original part of your question, which referred to the transmission rate you called it, which is really an R with a subscript key. And so that comes off of a specific website and we're actually, we like the methodology on that website and we've referred to it previously. We haven't referred to it recently and the reason for that has to do with the fact that there's a special footnote that they include and they actually call out two states, Alaska and Vermont. And they call out these states saying essentially that the number is less reliable when the number of cases is small. And admittedly when we got states around the country that are reporting four to 5,000 cases a day and we reporting usually in the single numbers, if not a slight bit more, it makes the number that they calculate unreliable and they talk about a confidence band or a confidence interval. The confidence interval, even though one is the number that you mentioned, which is what they list us at, is 0.6 to 1.5. So I think you can see that that's such a broad band that the reliability of the number one would be suspect. And they will freely acknowledge that. So I'm not trying to distort anything about our data or anything, just trying to explain to the public at large that you can't really use their calculation with our current low number of cases in Vermont and have a reliable result. Thank you, I'm sure that people might look at that website and not see that, so I appreciate the explanation. That's all the questions I have, thank you very much. Thank you, Greg. Thanks. We'll now go to Mike at the Islander. Good morning, Governor. Good morning. During a protest this month in Vermont, three members of the Vermont State Police, while in full uniform, each took a knee as about 200 people stood around them chanting. Protesters who remain standing were carrying signs that said among other things, no cops, defund the police, demilitarize police, and abolish police. A reader is wondering, Governor, if those are the positions of your administration and what was your personal reaction when you saw the video circulating of a State Police Commander and two troopers kneeling at the protest? I didn't see that particular video, Mike, but I can say through all the actions I've seen from our law enforcement throughout the state, and that's both municipal and state police taking action like that, I think is a sign of leadership. I believe that they sensitivity to what the message is and was, and I think rising above some of what they must have been feeling at the time, I think, again, is a sign of strength for us, and I think we're better off for it as a result. I think it did temper some of the frustration that we've seen across the state, and there wasn't the violence that we've seen in other states as a result. So I think the approach that law enforcement took on this was, again, well-meaning, meaningful to many, and did temper some of the frustration and violence that we've seen in other parts of the country. The funding police, the militarizing police, or abolishing police. No. Follow up to Mickner-Sherling. The state police used to have a policy about prohibiting political activity and remaining neutral, and I think growing to police when you were a member also chief didn't want officers being active in protests like it's broken at a bunch, abortion clinics, congressional offices, defense contractors, or recruiting stations. I'm just wondering if and when did the state police change its policy? Thanks for the question, Mike. I wouldn't say this as an active political statement, really more solidarity with folks around the nation and in Vermont, and a sign of that solidarity that we all want things to be improving and we want law enforcement officers to be a trusted part of the community. But they are taking a knee, and when people call up, maybe file a complaint, are they gonna have their complaint to field it as neutrally as somebody who might be on the other side? I'm not sure I'm entirely following the question, but again, I show a solidarity with folks that are looking for the modernization contemporary law enforcement in Vermont. I think it's less political and more of a human statement. Well, I mean, the signs we're saying, things about defund the police and things like that, I mean, is that your position then? What do you think of the 30% satin-brown police that just proposed? Well, not to stay on this topic for too long, but as I've said in prior press events and I've testified, I've electrically drove the last couple of weeks. The phrase that the governor uses most often is that there's far more that unites us than divides us than I think on this topic, the same is true. When you hear people talk about defunding, in some cases it takes the form of the discussions that are happening in Burlington, but most often it really is about investing in the area that are going to have the most impact, positive impact on our communities. And we put forth a slate of modernization initiatives, including a modernized criminal justice and public health system back in January, that very closely parallels the kinds of things that are being talked about around the country. And not just heard the Burlington issue and answer that directly. I do think that is a misplaced effort. I do believe that there are investments that can continue to be made in this city that they've got a decade long history of being innovative in everything from body cameras to policy to the mental health outreach and social service provision together with police officers. I was talking earlier today as we were doing a COVID briefing around some of the strategies that we were using in our 10 or 12 years ago when the opioid epidemic really started to unfold where we were bringing public health nurses, social workers and others outdoor to door to try to have a positive impact on the trend and the curve we were seeing in opiates. And I think the opportunity for Vermont to do the same thing on multiple topics. So well, I would not favor a cut in the budget in Burlington because I believe there is an underinvestment there, like in many areas of government. I do very much support the idea of investing other dollars in more targeted approaches earlier on, prevention, education, outreach and intervention and again, some of the things that we were talking about earlier this year in modernization. All right, we still have about the- Just to be clear, so you don't see any potential disciplinary action against the state police commander and the two troopers that the committee, no, not at all. All right, Mike, we've got a move. We still have 18 folks in the queue and it's about noon. So just as a heads up to everybody, Lisa from the AP. Lisa, AP? Hi, thanks, this is a question for the governor and Commissioner Sherline, our related question. So the Senate is taking up a couple of bills or probably gonna get final approval to a couple of bills that are related to police reform. One would expand chokeholds by police and require police intervene if they see other officers using prohibited restraint and then a second bill would require agencies to comply with reached data recording requirements. Do you support those and what do you think of them? I'll comment first then as Commissioner Sherline to give further comments. From my standpoint, I think there's a lot of good in those two bills, but obviously I just want to reiterate what I've said numerous times over the last three or four years. It's just passing one body at this point. It still has to get through the Senate, go to the house and then we'll see what the bills look like in the end. We think there is some areas of improvement that we could make, but the body cameras are something that we promote, we agree with. There's other areas where a lot of agreement, if you go back to my state of the state or the budget address, I can't remember which. I talked about there was a pilot program where we had embedded mental health counselor in the state police barracks in St. Albans. It was a great pilot program that was successful and we wanted to promote that and enhance that and bring it to other barracks throughout the state and we had planned on doing that and I know there's a lot of talk about that in the Senate as well. So there's a lot of areas of agreement with us. We think we can always improve. And so again, there's far more that we agree with and don't and I think we can get through this. Mr. Shirley. I recovered the bulk of it. There is more in those bills that we agree with and disagree with. I think there's a couple of nuanced areas where I've been talking with legislators in public testimony over the last couple of days about potential enhancements or modifications. Of note, the state police and other agencies around the state already prohibit what are called actually necro strength chokeholds is a more of a pejorative term unless certain circumstances are met. It is important for the public to understand that one of the things that we testify to is that there are, in circumstances where, the unfortunate circumstances where legal forces require or necessary that a chokehold may be or a necro strength may be a better course of action than using a vehicle or a fawn or firearm. So there's that one tiny caveat that we've testified to is the unfortunate reality of some violent encounters. Again, those are very rare. But the bulk of the rest of the bills and the components are either already things that are in policy here at a state level or are things we are supportive of. Okay, but it's mainly that necro strength issue but you have to think about it. Yeah, it's clear, supportive of the ban with a tiny caveat that there are, it's not an instance that we've ever run into before but it's not something that the door should be completely closed on because there are occasional instances around the country where an officer is in a fight for their lives or someone else's life and it's a hand to hand struggle and a necro strength may be the area of last resort. So I don't want to overemphasize this but I think for transparency, those listening should know that that's the area where we've testified there needs to be just a tiny sliver of opportunity for those things not to be completely, for that door not to be completely closed. I mean, the basic analogy is this, in a scenario where using a firearm, if it is an appropriate use of force, a necro strength should also be an appropriate use of force. Again, it's incredibly rare circumstance. Okay, thank you. April, WCAS? The governor thought we saw this past weekend some visitation and long-term care facilities and there was some kind of creative solutions for how to do that is what we're visiting the windows and things like that. How has the administration been discussing that solution for maybe patients who are bedridden or can't necessarily get off and go to a certain point to meet with their family? Obviously, we've been talking about this for quite some time and so we didn't forget those in our long-term care facilities, that's why we put the guidance forward. We certainly are looking for as much creativity as possible so that we can get those who are in those community settings back with their families so that they can get some of the emotional relief both sides need, as a matter of fact. So I may ask Secretary Smith to comment further on this. Thank you, Governor, and thank you for the question. Obviously, what we announced last week was phase one. There's gonna be several phases along this line that will allow sort of a gradual reopening of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. I will say this, it probably won't be like it used to be. But nonetheless, we're gonna be opening up as much as possible. We talked about the next phase includes gradual loosening of restrictions on group dining, group activities and non-essential workers entering the facilities. It includes an increase in visitation. Those next phases will be linked to the level of the virus in the community as well as those next phases will be linked to a more enhanced testing protocol to make sure that we can ease those restrictions and still make sure we have a good handle on the virus as we're moving forward. Through these phases will require the ability to keep appropriate staffing, strict standards, and access to PPE will see as we move forward here. But I can tell you, right now, there are groups meeting on how we're going to enhance our testing protocol at long-term facilities so that we can move through these phases in the most expeditious way. So stay tuned. You'll hear more shortly. Connecticut just announced the 14-day quarantine. Just curious that those governors reach out to you for any advice or perspective. They have not. Okay, thank you. Joe, the Barton Chronicle. That makes me wonder in the works right now and distributed quickly and also is there a pre-vaccinated and ordered? I'll let Dr. Levini answer that. I would say our target is 100%. Then we prioritize from there, obviously, to try and protect the most vulnerable first. That was very well said. The preparation is already beginning, even though we're not even close to having anything on the market that's passed the requisite efficacy and safety trials to make sure that it would work against the virus in most people and be safe for them to take. The Health Department and others across the government have set up a working group that is looking at every aspect of vaccines, so not just how to acquire them and making sure we acquire sufficient quantity, but all of the logistics that go around how to administer them and make sure that we don't run into problems on the supply end with having the appropriate amount of syringes or needles or refrigeration capacity, et cetera. There's a whole host of things that go into what I would term vaccine science that we're well aware of. The Health Department runs an incredibly large vaccine program across the state, across all ages, so we need to apply that vaccine science and our knowledge about what it takes to effectively do this on a large, large scale, which, as the governor said, ideally would be 100% of those who would like to have the vaccine should be able to access it. Again, we talk often in terms of herd immunity and needing 60 or 70% of a population to be exposed or to have had antibodies against the virus till we know that it won't be transmissible that great in the population. But when it comes to a vaccine, we really look to vaccine the entire population that needs to have a vaccine to benefit from it. And so that would obviously not force anyone to have a vaccine who doesn't choose to do so, but at the same time, the last thing we'd want to do is have to ration a vaccine because there wasn't enough available or because our state could not obtain enough. Fortunately, the federal government understands those principles as well and are trying to do similar planning while there's time now before a vaccine would become available. Does that answer your question? Maybe even the whole country COVID and idea for that not everyone will want to be vaccinated? Yeah, I can't give you the number and probably would be higher than 70%. As you know, when we have kids going into school and continuing through grade school, we want to have 95 or more percent vaccinated against the condition like measles because of the severe consequences getting measles could have. I'm quite confident that even though there are a number of Vermonters included in the national, what we term vaccine hesitant community that have concerns about vaccines, it would not amount to such a huge percent that it would impede our ability to really help the majority of Vermonters and prevent the spread of this very novel virus amongst the population. I have the County Courier. Hi, Governor. I want to ask today about the numbers being published by the DRR as well as the Health Department. Health Department on your website is publishing the total number since the pandemic began as well as the total number of breakdown by County. The reports are on DFR's website are broken down on a per population basis and those are for current cases. So number one, I'd kind of like to know what does it take for a positive case to turn into a recovered case? And then, number two, I'd like to know why in the state isn't being a little more transparent as far as current cases per county. In order to figure that out, at least here in Franklin County, you have to kind of divide by a million to figure out what the population is and here in Franklin County, it's pretty easy to figure out that there are two current cases. But a lot of that is because we all knew that Franklin County was stuck at 99 cases for a long time. We got three more, one of them died, we're down to two. So at what point can we expect that that current case count is a little more transparent and easy to find and how is the state coming up with what a current case is? At what point does somebody be jump-recovered? I might ask Commissioner Levine to comment and I would just remind everyone that on Fridays we'll have Commissioner Pichek on who will do some more modeling and some of those questions might be able to be answered by him, but Commissioner Levine. Yes, I'll do my best. The data that you see on Fridays is clearly active cases and it has a specific purpose in mind, well, many purposes, but the one specific purpose we highlight has to do with travel and the need to quarantine or not quarantine coming in or going out of the state and put a level playing field across the region so that we can compare apples to apples. I don't think there's any effort to be not transparent about anything. I think the biggest effort we have in the health department is making sure we're providing information that is useful to people and that they wanna see. When it comes to how do you become recovered, bottom line is there's several ways that happens. Number one is through the extensive contact tracing process and the Sarah Alert process and the communicating that goes back and forth between people who have been identified as having the virus. So if there's knowledge because of that communication that the person is recovered, that is considered recovered. There's also a metric of how many days have elapsed since the time the patient first had a positive test and I'm not gonna say this specific because I don't have it in the back of my mind right now. It's either two weeks or 30 days but it basically allows you to be put into that recovered category as well. The reason there's always a delta and what you see on the first slide that I present between the total cases minus the deaths not equaling the recovered is because many of those cases are new cases and they still fall within this window of time where they are active cases so they can't have recovered yet by our definition. Number nine recovered per county and even per town would be a whole lot more important and more informative than the number of people total that have gotten it in Franklin County since the pandemic began because the first 99 that had it has been recovered. They're no longer an issue for the general public. So when they start publishing that current infected, known infected number. We'll get back to you on that, okay? We'll talk to our data people. Thank you, appreciate it. Sean, the Chester Telegraph. Thank you. This is for Secretary Friend. I'm understanding that the Vermont NEA is asking the state to convene a statewide reopening commission for the schools. They're saying that it's unrealistic for school districts to plan in isolation and for the agency of education to plan without input from people on the ground and New Hampshire is doing something like this. Is Vermont going to follow suit with that? Thanks for the question. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. I'm going to attend a meeting with Vermont NEA later on this afternoon. But I think to the point at the state level we've been very collaborative involving a lot of stakeholders in the production of our health guidance. I think the question now is how to implement that guidance. And I'm not convinced that that input would not be best harnessed as a local level. And I think districts are going to have to do a lot of planning to implement the guidance. I'm not sure to what extent implementation should be guided at the state level. We're certainly there to support. But I think there's going to be a meet for a lot of community engagement at the local level and perhaps that's the concern. But I'll find out more as I engage with them later on today. Is there any way that you can let us know where that's going? Sure, absolutely. Thank you. You're welcome. John, VPR. Thanks. Question for the governor. The legislature is working on a number of issues including an active 50 bill. It's had a bumpy road, but it is still actively being amended and in natural resources. What do you think of that bill? And in particular, the forest fragmentation piece that would require 250 reviews for roads longer than 2000 feet? Yeah, we have concerns about some aspects of the bill. We've been working with the committee, with the chair. In fact, over the weekend, we had a number of conference calls on this and trying to come up with solutions where we can work together. As you remember, in the beginning, we had provided an active 50 bill to the house. I believe in the Senate as well, but where we had some collaboration with some of the environmental groups, trying to find a way to work together to get common agreement on what would work best for Vermonters. We again are hopeful that we'll be able to implement some of the parts of the bill that we think are essential and work with them on others. Obviously, it has to get through the Senate and then we'll see what happens from there, but we're an active partner in trying to at least have a voice in this discussion and thus far, we're doing so. But we'll see what happens. I know I believe they're going to be debating this bill this afternoon. There was, it's a bumpy road as you described. I think they tried to attach it to a housing bill previous to this which wasn't germane. And so now they're going to take a different approach. But we'd like to see something, something passed that would be helpful to Vermont. Extension of active 50 on this part of pregnancy is that if you have to go through it, a tanking. Yeah, we have concerns about many parts of the bill and there are other parts that we think would be tremendously helpful. So we've been, again, trying to pursue some of the helpful parts, figure out what we can agree to, unite on and try and get something passed. Do you think it's a tanking? I think it's very complicated and there's ramifications as a result of that. And then a very quick question about revenue. When do you get them next? I should know this, I know, but the next revenue projection, and I think that goes sometime in August, but you have an eight, an eight. Well, we'll get some on a monthly basis. Are you talking about the quarterly? We're talking about, yeah, the budget bill now that they want the next, I think it's annual revenue projections to. Oh, for July. Yeah, to come up with the next budget for the next full year budget for the three quarters budget. Again, I'm not sure that we'll have all the numbers by the time they come back from the recess, but maybe Secretary Young is on the line and could comment on that. Yes, I am, Governor, thank you. Normally, the emergency board would be meeting on or around July 15th to meet with the state and legislative economists to finalize the revenue forecast for the FY21 and 22 budget. The legislature is putting that off with our support until August sometime, probably mid-August, but we will have the best number of available for us as we wrap up our work on the full FY21 budget. So that's the revenues for purposes of forecasting and working on our budget. On the monthly days, as we look at our revenues, then there is a monthly press release that comes out, and if you don't get that, we'd be happy to put you on our distribution list. Nothing, I get that. I just wanted to know when the big one was coming, but thank you very much. As you might recall, we did extend the filing date and so that's what's made it a little bit more problematic in terms of how much money revenue is coming in even from the tax returns. Thanks, John. We'll go to Kat at WCAS. Questions, just to clarify a few details about these clusters that have come up. What kind of business is this in Fair Haven? Is there any sense of how the virus got there? Dr. Levine. So Kat, I really cannot convey the name of the worksite as that would be identifying to the individuals who work there and who are actively isolating and quarantining, nor can I say how the virus got there not because there's anything to hide. So often it's really not possible to understand how a case became a case, even though you try to elicit as much of a story as you can and make some connections, it often just is challenging when the virus is at a very low level across the population and can spring up at any point. Fair Haven community know what your business it is. Imagine for people are wondering if they've had contact with this business and what that might mean for them. Yeah, no, obviously if there was a public health consequence of not letting them know, we wouldn't want to face that. So I wouldn't want them to be concerned that they can't go about their normal lives at this point in time. Again, using all of the four rules of thumb that we've always pointed out. We're concerned that this business may lead to other cases in the community. I mean, people go home, they go to work, they go home, that and they interact with other people. Yeah, no, at this point in time, the investigation's ongoing, but we don't believe there's a concern. I'm curious just because we've had other locations identified when cases show up, I think long-term care facilities, correctional centers, things like that. Why would businesses be... Right, no, you are correct. When there's a facility of that sort, we do usually convey that information. In this case though, conveying information can be very highly identifying and injurious to the population and not respectful of requirements that we have to follow for not disclosing information. Who would have it, just the... Well, but oftentimes if I might disagree, you are based on people's knowledge of the facility alone. So again, we have to be protective of personal health information and have respect for the people that did not choose to become ill with this virus. So this is not a chitag of business and that people would have been shot. That's correct. There are even those in the New York border, are the cases, remunters, are people from New York who work in court? So we're trying to sort through that as we speak. We're working very closely with the New York State Department of Health as well. Okay. You know, this is another example, as we've said many times over the course of the last several months where the virus does not respect the border. Often there are people who actually live in another state but seek care at one of our own hospitals because it's closer than anything to where they live even though they live in a different state. And in this case, just like in many cases, there are people who work in one state and live just across the border in the other state. But all the cases that are for people who live in Vermont will be recorded as Vermont cases. And New York will likewise list the cases that are from New York residents as New York cases. Question on the Wyndham County Family Cluster. How many cases are in that one? That's one family. But how many cases? I can't really release the number of cases. Why not? Again, when we live in a small state with small towns and when the number is below a certain level, our statisticians tell us that that's no longer protective of personal information. So suffice it to say it's not a large number. Like below 10, I mean we're just trying to get it like small, the amount of large and small can mean different things to different people. Yes, well below 10. Okay, got it. So then how do you define a cluster? Like what's the threshold of cases before it becomes an outbreak? Yeah, so a cluster is generally as in the case we just discussed about perhaps within a family, within a household, not distributed across a population so much. And an outbreak is generally spread beyond one local household. There's a number of public health criteria that are pretty laborious to go through to be honest, but they involve number and they involve the degree of transmission beyond one particular source, if you will, one particular household. Time check, it's 12.30 and we still have 11 callers in the queue. And while it's Alan, B.T. Digger. Hi, Dr. Levine, CAT-invited job of CAT-invited through what type of business this is, but can you at least say that the manufacturing business or a retail business in the area of an area? Yeah, again, I can't really divulge any more information that I have. All right, so moving on. I wanted to ask about the, if it looks like the fatal opioid overdoses have increased quite a bit this year over the last year. I'm wondering what do you think is causing this and how is this favorite bonding? Going to let Dr. Levine again weigh in on that, but I do want to remind everyone some of the statistics. We, and I keep track of this as well. It's in my weekly reports about the number of ODs regarding opioids and we saw a dramatic drop during the pandemic, an incredible drop. And then when things started to open back up, we're seeing those numbers increase. So it looks as though in some respects that it's increasing and it is at a very, very rapid pace getting back to where it was pre-pandemic. But I wouldn't say, and Dr. Levine can probably give the numbers, but I wouldn't say that we're over what we were last year. It's just a matter of that increasing rate since the pandemic began. It looks like in April there were 17 fatal overdoses April 2020 and in April 2019 there were eight. So that does seem like that we might be over last year and at least in some areas of time. So I'm glad you gave us a chance to talk about this problem in general, this issue and I'm sorry I delayed, but I had to get my numbers. So there's two sets of numbers. There's fatal overdoses and then there are just overdoses that present either to EMS or to a healthcare setting that are non-fatal. So if we look at the non-fatal overdoses compared with March of last year, they were nearly double in March of this year. If we look at fatal overdoses, they also doubled as you just pointed out, going up to nine and 17 for March and April of this year, whereas last year they were four and eight, March and April. So that's for both months, there were 17 in March and April combined? No, no, 17 was April, nine was March. Oh, I see, okay. So keep in mind things began with COVID in early to mid-March and then things began to accelerate later in March and in April. So these are, this is early numbers in and it's hard to make definite correlations and causality, but at the same time, we know based on our own experience and national experience that there probably is some relationship here with having a pandemic and all of the behaviors a pandemic imposes upon us, if you will. So number one, whether you have an opioid use disorder or not, I can't find too many people who haven't said that this doesn't stress them out and so stress is obviously a very potent factor and if you're already using pharmacology drugs to respond to stress in your day-to-day life and then you impose one of the biggest stresses the population has ever had to live with, you could see that that might change and exacerbate some behaviors. It can also lead to more, not just anxiety but depression and we know that those are often associated with substance misuse as well. We know that people who use injection drugs often are living in a very isolated way and that alone makes them at a higher risk of having an overdose and perhaps of dying from an overdose. The pandemic has only exacerbated that because now they may not even have another individual with them while they're injecting and that used to be, if you will, a safety net for the person because there'd be someone there who could administer naloxone, help resuscitate them, guide them, be with them. So just having a support network has changed when you're in a stay home, stay safe kind of law climate and the normal groups that you would be with are no longer as coalesced as they usually are and then we get down to people who exploit things like pandemics. So certainly those who deal in drugs would find this to be perhaps a time that they could actually capitalize on it, maybe make more money, charge more. Maybe the supply routes aren't the same for an individual who has become dependent on a certain supply route and they have someone else that they're purchasing from so they know less about that drug. They don't know that it's the same type of drug they've been always purchasing from the same person because it's a totally different supplier. So maybe there's a propensity to having a worse outcome just because they got some drugs that they actually didn't know it was mostly fentanyl as opposed to what they've been getting before that was less. I do want you to understand though that the prime antidote, if you will, is naloxone and naloxone has not dried up as part of the pandemic. It's obviously still available for everyone who needs it and we took some special precautions because we know that in the homeless population there's often been an issue with substance misuse as well and we wanted to make sure that that population who we were now making all efforts, full-bore efforts to house had ready and continued access to naloxone. We also opened up the website that I've mentioned at a few press conferences during the pandemic, vthelplink.org. Another potential causal link, if you will, is recovery centers are no longer in person. Like everything else in our society they had to, at that point in the calendar year, not have a public face, if you will. Didn't mean they stopped being helpful, stopped doing business, that people who had counselors and people who had support colleagues broke those ties but at the same time it was much more challenging because they were lying on telephones and technology and not on person-to-person help. So I think that probably accounts for a little bit as well. And the last thing I'll point out though is I don't want anyone to come away with the thought that lack of access to medication-assisted treatment was a cause and led people to persist in their habit of utilizing drugs that are dangerous instead of using MAT because all efforts were made to still continue the supply of MAT, if you will, make it accessible for those who were on it and no longer required in-person visits to get a prescription. And there were a lot of very effective ways of getting the drug, like buprenorphine, to the person. Also our hubs didn't shut down. Obviously there are people who needed to go to hubs to get methadone and other treatments and support. Those continued on in the way that they've been continuing till now. So a lot of things that we can hypothesize might be related that a pandemic would produce but hopefully a lot of things that we've tried to at least put into play that would allow people to have some modicum of safety during this process. We're gonna be watching these numbers really closely because obviously we're no longer in as restrictive a climate now in terms of stay home and we would hope to see some moderation in those numbers but clearly like so many things about the pandemic this is another potential tragic outcome that just reflects the challenges that everyone no matter what their own personal circumstances is going through. Thank you so much for all that info that was kind of set in there. I guess my only other question is not about the illicit drug use anymore, just the regular commercial COVID-19 testing. I'm wondering if that commercial testing, those results will be integrated into the state results so that we will be able to know the outcomes of people who are getting tested in doctor's office or wherever. Yeah, so majority of those results should actually be included in the results that we see every day. There's a reporting requirement for this illness and I wouldn't think that too many results have escaped our attention. Okay, good to know. That's it for me, thank you so much. Tim, from our business magazine. Hi Governor, if there's time I'd be interested to hear what your reaction is to the drivers down in Caledega. But for Suzanne Young, I was looking, you mentioned the revenue numbers and one thing that caught my eye from the main numbers is that the personal income was not really down very much, only 4%. And is there some reason for that? Maybe these are ways that counted for, obviously the consumption taxes were way down. Is there some other sort of technical reasons why the personal income actually wasn't that bad? I'm not sure I have the answer to that question or I guess my fingertips, but I do have a report from our economists that I can refer to and get back to you on that, Tim. But I think many people have been filing more than we thought would be filing and that may be part of it. Yeah, given the unemployment number it's so high. Okay, great, I'll look forward to hearing very more about that. Thank you. Tim, in regards to NASCAR and the race the other day, I saw the aftermath and some of the pictures associated with that and for those who didn't see, it was all the NASCAR drivers, teams in unison pushing the car of the only African American driver in NASCAR to the starting point. And it was just a incredible moment when you saw NASCAR really taking a leadership role in all of this and trying to promote the unison that we need to see across our country. And I think it was just a powerful moment for all of us. The picture spoke 1,000 words. Yes, good afternoon, Governor. Thank you for taking these questions. I'll shift gears to the census since you opened the conference on the topic. You mentioned that Essex County is having the list response rate in the state and I see the rest of the Northeast Kingdom is not far behind. Do you have any notion on why the region is trailing the state so significantly and will the state be taking any additional steps aside from this type of awareness effort to bring the response rate up? Well, I can see Jason has been waiting patiently to answer that very question. Thank you for the question. The Northeast Kingdom is definitely what we would consider a very unique geographic location. You do have a variety of people who have second homes, in some cases third homes. And within that, our goal with the census is to make sure that we are dealing with occupied households. In working with the US Census Bureau, what we will also be doing is making sure that we review what those are with the local community to make sure that we are accurately reporting who is where. Once that has been determined, we will then also increase outreach efforts to the community to make sure that they participate. That, of course, again, is because geography is rather large. Right now, of course, we're asking people to do it online in some cases that might not be the best means for them to utilize it based on their geography with broadband limitations. So we are asking a variety of situations to hopefully make a positive outcome. You had a question? Okay. And can you just reiterate a bit why really residents should care? It was one of the consequences that the kingdom might lose representation in the state legislature. It was undercounting. That definitely would be one of the considerations. The census participation is a constitutional item and it allows everybody to have representation. If the numbers are not where they are at once the census completes its report and gives it to Congress and also to the president, the next remaining step is to then bring those numbers back down to each of the states. The state will then have to examine what it looks like if there is a decrease in the amount of people who have participated. So it's also not only a representative type of item, it's also a financial and fiduciary specific consideration to examine. Right now we're going through a lot of, I would say, circumstances that require us to have money coming in from the federal government. The CARES Act would be one of the best and from my standpoint as the commissioner of library is I can give you a small tidbit on how that could be impacted. From all those able to receive a 56,834 dollars and 12 cents for 196 public libraries, some K through 12 and also higher ed to figure out what we would want to do with that. And looking at that, one of the things that made me very, very, I would say unhappy would be that they used the 2010 census records which meant that Vermont had a 60.3% participation rate and so that allocation is based upon what they actually had. So all the things that we do now need to be considered high or unless participating because we won't have another time to do this until 2030 to make any adjustments. So we need to pay as much attention to having people please participate and complete their census. Thank you. Guy Page. Two weeks ago, you said that if the legislature passed S348 to vote by mail bill, you would take a look at it then. You passed last week without any of the amendments proposed to protect against possible fraud or valid harvest abuse. Has S348 reached your desk yet? And if so, do you think you might be showing? A couple of things. One, I have not received the bill that I know of. We've been waiting for that for the last week or so since the past. I did say publicly that if it, as long as it was as we thought it was, I wouldn't stand in the way of it passing. And I may have differences of opinion as to why that is. But again, I made the pledge to let it go through and will not be vetoing it if it comes over as was planned. But we haven't seen the bill yet. Erin B.T. Digger. Any updates on the Chittenden Regional Testing? If it's all been conducted and is there one of the results? Is this in the Correctional Facility? Yeah. Yeah, Secretary Smith. The Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington is being tested today. I think we'll have most of the results in by one o'clock. They'll run through the lab tonight. We'll have the results tomorrow. Why I'm here, I'll just say there is a new positive inmate case at Northwest State Correctional Facility. There are now new positives in one new positive in Northwest, one new positive in Chittenden, which we're testing today and one new positive from all three of these cases are new entries into our Vermont system at Marvel Valley. As you remember, we tested Marvel Valley on Saturday. It was negative other than the one new entry case that came into Marvel Valley. We'll be testing Marvel Valley again on Monday. The new positive case was detected at Northwest Correctional Facility on Tuesday, June 23rd. The inmate was brought into corrections on June 13th. They were tested on the 19th. It was returned on the 20th on June 22nd. When he came, when he was tested on the 19th and returned on the 20th, that test was negative. It was tested again on the 22nd. It came back positive. The inmate is quarantined as is all new entries into the system are quarantined. Contact tracing is underway as a normal case of this. I do want to say that, and I've said this many times, well, two other times. That's many, I guess, that our greatest threat with our Correctional Facility right now are new intakes coming in. As you know, we had the new intake from Florida that we ended up having to test all of Marvel Valley. We had a new intake from Pennsylvania that went to Chittenden, that we end up mass testing the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, and we'll see based upon what we find out with Northwest and the quarantine procedures there. We have discovered that we really need to change our intake method. We're putting too many facilities at risk as we quarantine at individual facilities. So what we're looking at is trying to find a quarantine procedure that concentrates quarantining at one or two facilities in the state. So you would come in, you'd be quarantined for 14 days, you would be multiple day tested along with that from zero to three to seven to 14 days. You would be multiple day tested, the days can alter, but multiple day tested as we move forward. We just have to make sure, as we did during the height of the pandemic, to make sure that our facilities are clear of this virus. We gotta make sure that we take every effort to make sure it's not reintroduced into the correctional environment. So we are looking at putting up a new quarantine procedure that has multiple day testing and is concentrated in one or two facilities throughout the state. That means that you would be coming, you'd be quarantined in a single cell for 14 days and you would be multiple day tested during that time period. So Marble Valley was tested, Chittenden was getting tested today and then the work bus will be tested in the near future? We're determining that right now because the person was quarantined in a single cell during that time period. We'll determine whether, as normal course, we do an investigation on this just to make sure there wasn't any exposure. If we felt there was exposure, the whole facility would be tested. And then you touched right as well as the NBA? We are, and by the way, I forgot to add that we will be testing facility-wide one facility a week. So starting in the next few weeks we'll be testing facility-wide whether there's a positive or not facility-wide testing on correctional facilities one a week. Yeah, so it kind of gives like a baseline as a matter of exposure at each prison? Just to make sure that we aren't missing anything. Yeah, okay, thank you. Eric, the time's arduous. Yes, about this Fairhaven cluster, do we know if the business is still operating and if the workers there were following the state guidelines before the Delta place? The information we have is that there was nothing that we know of at this point in time to indicate that there was not an adherence to the appropriate protocols that we've outlined. I don't know as of today if the business is still operating or not. We're continuing to go through testing of the workforce so I don't know if they're shut down and awaiting the word or if they're still operating. Steve, any KTV? Can you hear me? You can. Thank you. A quick one for the doctor and then a couple for the governor if I may. How about just a quick one? How about a quick one for me and give him the other two? Okay, how about if some of the outlets that have three or four people questioning give us a few questions. But anyway, Dr. Levine, with a number nationwide, with a number of cases going up and the confirmed fatality rate going down, wouldn't it suggest a diminution in the policy of the virus maybe perhaps something akin to like Mueller's ratchet? So you've just voiced a theory which I certainly can't accept or refute. But I would hypothesize my own theory is that because such a higher percentage of those who are testing positive are in the younger age demographic and may represent just a lack of adherence to the kinds of four rules of thumb that we've talked about now that people can be out and about and they're taking that very liberally. I'm thinking that maybe that's why there's less of a case fatality rate because all through this pandemic, when you look at the fatality rate in that below 50 age range, it's quite small compared to obviously much, much older age ranges. So I think it's just more people being infected who were a little bit lax and took their liberties a little too extensively getting out of a lockdown type of situation. And now they're susceptible to the virus but fortunately not susceptible to the worst outcomes. I see, thank you. Governor, you just mentioned the NASCAR thing without mentioning the fact that there wasn't any news that it was kind of like a hoax that every garage door had a pull down on it for well over a year. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if it was a hoax. I believe what they determined was that somebody had provided a news maybe months ago in that one garage area. I don't think it was commonplace throughout the garage but in just that one garage. So I don't know if I call it a hoax but it certainly wasn't what everyone thought it was. But it doesn't preclude the fact that it was a proud moment for NASCAR and what they did in the statement they made in reaction to that. I think that was powerful enough. Yeah, anyways, back to Ramon. Have you had discussions with Amy Tatco? Is she the AOT COVID-19 public information and public outreach manager? She is a PIO I believe of agency of transportation but not COVID related. And are you aware of, did you direct the AOT to start allowing some graffiti in state and the directive says that the AOT personnel now the policies changed regarding covering graffiti that certain types of graffiti will be allowed and certain types disallow and that the AOT personnel is supposed to take pictures and send and if they think it's questionable isn't that allowing like some political messages to be painted up in an estate with no billboard laws are we now gonna allow certain types of political graffiti or politically correct graffiti? Happy to look into that for you Steve. Yeah, I just happened to get a directive here and this is what it says. Happy to look at it. In discussions with the governor's office the policy has been changed immediately and that these voices need to be heard and they wanna use this as an opportunity to advance discussion rather than censoring it and they're not supposed to fan. Are you referring to the Black Lives Matter in on the State Street and one possibly on Church Street is that what you're referring to? No, this is a statewide directive that went out to all AOT supervisors or employees. I'll be happy to take a look. Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you very much, both of you. Courtney, Local 22. Good afternoon. Governor, just a quick question regarding the single use product law or the plastic bag ban that will go into effect on July 1st. I'm just wondering if you have any comments on this and how it will work with some places not allowing reusable bags due to the pandemic? Well, again, this was an initiative passed by the legislature that was put into place. I don't know if Julie is, Secretary Moore is on the line, but we've- I am governor. Okay, well again, we are allowing, there was provisions in the law to allow for those to use up whatever stock they have and they would be able to provide paper bags at that point. So it doesn't, I don't know of any institution that is not allowing a recycled or using reusable bags this point, but maybe Secretary Moore has more details. Working with retailers to spread the word that there is CDC related guidance that indicates that there is no greater risk associated with reusable bags than any other surface contamination. And we've heard positive response from a number of retailers in resuming these of reusable bags, although in some instances requiring customers to bag their own groceries. As the governor indicated, paper bags remain a viable alternative to single-use plastic bags. And we are making allowances to allow retailers to continue to use any stocks they may already have of plastic bags. Thank you. April, throw in your free press. Hi there. My questions were actually already answered. So just listening in and thank you so much. Thank you April. And Jack, NECN. It seems like you saved the best for last. I have a question, Governor, for you, but perhaps this Secretary currently wanted to weigh in that might be fine. I suppose the way that Vermont appears to people from the outside, Governor, you have been very upspoken, very articulate in your calls for making the state an ever more welcoming place. I wonder though with the state parks opening on Friday, one of our state parks, one of the most beautiful is named Can't Kill Care State Park. And that's three words, each word begins with K. So we have three Ks in the name of one of our state parks. And I'm just curious if there's ever been any thought given to looking at that name, especially in the times we're in, if maybe it might be time to revisit that, or did you have any thoughts at all on that? I would be happy to let Secretary Curley answer that question. But as well, I guess I wasn't fully aware of that. I don't know where that came from. I'm sure our librarian might be able to have a better understanding of where the origin was, or maybe Secretary Moore, but Secretary Curley, anything you want to add to that? Apparently it was a boy's camp from the early 1900s that the state then took over. And so it was a private boy's camp years and years and years ago that had this name. I don't think our state librarian is aware of this one either. Secretary Moore? I can speak to that, I'm sure having heard. Certainly, Jack, this is a concern that we've discussed and debated, and it's a challenge in that it reflects the history of that particular parcel and how we acquired it, and at the same time recognize the challenges with its name. It's something we've had active conversations about before, and I'm sure we'll going forward and are aware of the concerns folks have expressed regarding the name and what possible alternatives there could be. Yeah, we'd be happy to look into that, obviously. And maybe just, at the very least, changing the K to a C for camp, that might help a little bit. Well, thank you very much. Thanks, Jack, that concludes our question. So that was the best for last. Thank you, Jack. Take care. Well, thank you all for tuning in, and we'll see you on Friday.