world. i'm john king in washington. you're watching cnn's continued coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. the global coronavirus case count eclipsing 1.5 million now. in spain the death toll climbing above 15,000. in italy, 100 front line doctors have now died trying to save others. in india, hundreds of containment zones in place and you cannot go outside without a mask in the two largest cities there, mumbai and kaka. the coronavirus count, more than 32,000 infected in the united states, more than 15,000 lost. just yesterday, 1,973 americans perished. again, that is the highest day-to-day total since the start of the pandemic. the economic fallout is beyond massive. another 6.1 million americans now say they're out of week. in just six weeks, nearly 6.8

million americans have filed for unemployment. that's roughly 11% of the entire american work force. the economic ripple effect is why the president hopes, he says, that he can open the country sooner than most thing. the press secretary will brief the president on attempts of an airline bailout plan. new cdc guidelines issued wednesday for essential workers could offer a test case what a return to work may look like for all workers. when will that be? the experts say we need a ton of more testing first. the president says asap, but he does add we have to be careful. today dr. anthony fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, says yes, by summer life could look somewhat normal, but he warns there is a lot to do between then and now. >> it can be in the cards, and i say that with some caution, because as i said, when we do that, when we pull back and try

to open up the country as we often use that terminology, we have to be prepared that when the infections start to rear their heads again, that we have in place a very aggressive and effective way to identify, isolate, contact, trace and make sure we don't have those spikes that we see now. >> here with me to share their insights, chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta and professor remoin. professor, let me start with you. we're at this incredible moment where if we look at the data accidendata, there is a plateauing, more deaths in some places. is that conversation premature or is it time to start? >> i think it's premature, and i know that's not what people want

to hear right now because people have been homebound, they're going stir crazy, and they're starting to wonder about how long this will last. it's not going to last forever, but it's going to last longer than the next few weeks, john. i think that's something that's become pretty clear. what's important to emphasize, john, is the picture you're seeing on the screen in terms of these tragic numbers, in some ways they reflect people who became exposed to this virus two to three weeks ago, maybe, depending on how you look at the trajectory here. which also means how we're behaving right now will sort of affect the trajectory two to three weeks from now. that's how long it takes between exposure to potential hospitalization. most people won't need hospitalization, but if you do, it's typically 10 to 14 days after exposure. so if you let up now, john, two to three weeks from now, we'll pay the price for that. now is not the time to be thinking about reemerging. again, i know that's hard to hear, but i think that's what

the data shows us. >> dr. remoin, that's part of the psychology of this exercise, if you will. i want you to listen to a little more of dr. fauci. he essentially says what sanjay says, that there may be a point where we can at least talk about a limited reopening of the american economy, but we can only have that conversation three weeks before the end of april. >> it is more likely we will progress toward the steps of normalization as we get to the end of this 30 days, and i think that's going to be a good time to look and see how quickly can we make that move to try and normalize, but hopefully, and hopefully, by the time we get to the summer, we will have taken many steps in that direction. >> dr. remoin, when you look at the data, whether it's national numbers or state numbers, do you see enough hopeful signs that you believe if everybody listens, follows the guidelines until the end of the month, that in three weeks, the end of

april, we could start to have that conversation, or are you pretty convinced already, no, no, we're going into may and beyond? >> i think this is exactly what sanjay was just saying which was we've made so many gains by having a really good national effort at social distancing and doing everything we can to flatten the curve. but if we start to open up, we're going to see these numbers rebound. we don't have a population immunity to this virus. we don't have vaccines, we don't have therapy eutics and we don' have serology or wide state testing for acuity in this state. we don't have any of these things in place, so any kind of flattening of the curve certainly reflects efforts that have been very successful at pushing down the number of cases of the virus, but that will all be for naught if we start to open up too soon. we need all of these things in

place. scott gottlieb, others have put together plans and outlined the steps that are needed and all the infrastructure that needs to be in place in order for us to be able to even consider this. and i understand, too, just the same way that sanjay does, this is hard. this is frustrating. but lives are at stake. we're seeing the impact of the lack of social distancing and the lack of early action throughout the country at this point and throughout the world. we have to let the global data speak. >> what i hear from both of you while we have our conversations and every other health expert that comes in, whether at the federal level, the state level, the city and town level around the country, if you want to get to that point, one thing they need is to know more about the population in their community, whether it's our country or a small town out there, and they say they need more testing. that's the frustrating part. i want you to listen here, sanjay. it's the president of the united states saying we've made progress in leaps and bounds.

and then we have doctors saying, even when they send me kits for testing, i love them, i don't have all the pieces. >> you saw them exponentially by anybody by far, and i think it will end up being a big strength. >> it's incredibly frustrating. there is a lot of hype about this device, it was wonderful, and then when they showed up, expectations were set really high, as they should be. to have 13 of these devices and have no way to use them, i'm banging my head against the wall. i really am. it's really frustrating. >> reporter: a republican governor in the relatively small state of new hampshire, but that's part of it, too. hey, the president says or the white house says it's time to gradually reopen. should we do that if you do not have a comprehensive testing paradigm in place? >> no, we shouldn't. testing was, is and will remain

very important, one of the cornerstones of this entire strategy, and we'll have time to really look in the rearview mirror and say, why was testing inadequate at the beginning? there are things that i think are happening now which are going to be beneficial, but this increased testing has not been applied uniformly across the country yet. i think that's what you're hearing from the governor of new hampshire there and in other places. i talk to people on the phone every day in various places around the country. you hear the same thing. testing is ramping up but it needs to be applied uniformly. there is a list of things, to professor rimoin's point, what needs to be done. some of this is from professor gottlieb and others. you need to make sure they can be confident of patients, make sure they're not redlining, that we see a substantial reduction in cases. but states have to be able to test everyone with symptoms. they have to be able to test,

they have to be able to trace and they have to be able to treat, as greg murphy says, the former attorney general. we're going to get through this. i think it's important for people to know that, we're going to get through this, but in order to open up these states again, these states have to feel comfortable that they have actual, functional testing. not just the tests themselves but something that translates into a reliable, quick result for a patient. it doesn't matter how many tests we're sending to a lab or how much capability is being defined, it's what matters to the patient ultimately in terms of getting them tested. >> and, dr. rimoin, we're continuing to learn about this especially now that you have in at home in the united states and trying to track china and europe beforehand. the scientists say we're going to get april, it's going to get

warm, it's going to disappear. that obviously has not happened. there is some evidence that says the coronavirus may transmit less efficiently in areas with higher humidity. a decrease in cases with increase in humidity and temperatures should not be assumed. so we should not just decide in spring, it's warmer, we're good. >> absolutely. we don't have enough data. and what we do know is the data that we do have is global data that suggests that it is spreading in areas that do have these conditions that should be more favorable in principle to stopping spread. so we really just need to follow the data. decisions need to be based on science and evidence that we are seeing, not on conjecture. and we risk everyone's lives, millions of people, if we do not

do our best to keep people safe and to have policies in place. everybody is looking for a way to open up soon. and i understand that. it is very frustrating. it's scary. it is difficult for people. but we're all trying to save lives here. that is the purpose, and so we have to follow the data. >> dr. rimoin, dr. gupta, i very much appreciate you helping me sort through where we are today. the east coast, of course, bearing the brunt of the country's coronavirus cases right now. live tracker here of the deaths by county throughout the united states, and as you can see, a lot of red on the right, northeast part of your screen. new york clearly the epicenter, but the task force is keeping another close eye on other potential hot spots. >> we are concerned about the metro area of washington and baltimore, and we're concerned right now about the philadelphia area. >> our message to the people of the philadelphia area is now more than ever, practice the

social distancing so that philadelphia and, to some extent, even pittsburgh do not have to endure what other communities before them have had to endure. >> at last official count, philadelphia had nearly 5,000 coronavirus cases and 78 deaths. philadelphia health commissioner dr. thomas farley joins us now. dr. farley, you're grateful for the attention, i guess, from the white house but you think they got their numbers a little wrong. >> we're grateful for the attention. philadelphia has definitely been hit hard like many cities in the northeastern part of the country, obviously new york city being hit the hardest. we have 78 deaths. that's 78 more than i'd like to have. our mortality rate, though, is one-tenth of new york city, and i've been a little more optimistic in the last two or three days that our case count each day has been more or less stable. cases are growing, deaths are growing, we're not out of the woods by any means, but i'm hopeful the social distancing we put in place a few weeks ago are showing some signs of working.

>> i just want to put up the last five days. on saturday your cases went up 18%, sunday 22%, monday up 11, tuesday up 13, wednesday up 12. so in that stability, every one of these is a challenge, obviously, is every one of them is a human life, either going through sickness or worse. but in that stability, especially monday, tuesday, wednesday, that shows signs that what you're doing is at least helping. >> what i follow is not the cumulative counts which will always go up, but the daily counts. the daily counts in new cases has been stable for about five days now. the daily counts for deaths have increased each day, and deaths will lag from the case counts. but i'm hopeful the case count is some sign that we're flattening the curve and that we can protect our health care system and protect people. >> and take me through your experience in the sense that -- i'm with you, and we certainly all hope you don't become a hot, hot spot. obviously everyone has a problem in terms of supply chain, in

terms of resources, in terms of lessons learned from densely populated cities like yours that have had to deal with this before you at a higher level. where are you? >> well, you know, testing has been a huge problem with us from the beginning. it's still a problem for us. it's a problem not just at the individual level for diagnosis, but it's a problem for us to have the data to know where this virus is moving. if we had more testing earlier on, we could have had an earlier warning sign and perhaps put in place earlier smarter social distance measures. and we're having problems with personal protective equipment for health care workers. the health care system could come under strain. we put in place a lot of safeguards. at the moment it's looking like we can manage the surge, but it's been tough to prepare for that point. we're by no means over this. the numbers still continue to rise, but just in the past two or three days, for the first time i'm starting to feel a little more optimistic that the steps we're doing is making a difference. >> that's good to hear a little more optimism. we could hear that right now.

dr. farley, best of luck in the days ahead. >> thank you. dr. sanjay gupta and anderson cooper have another coronavirus town hall tonight. "coronavirus facts and fears" tonight on cnn at 8:00 p.m. there are a lot of people like me who are just wondering how long this is going to be. what are you going to do? did you know diarrhea is often caused by bad bacteria in food?

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new and stunning evidence today of the dreadful toll the

coronavirus is taking on people all across the country. new labor department numbers out this morning show more than 6 million americans filed for unemployment reports -- unemployment benefits, excuse me, last week. that brings the total new jobless claims for the past three weeks to 16.8 million. in an interview just last hour, federal chairman jerome powell said, yes, the situation is incredibly bleak right now. he believes conditions, though, will improve. >> when the virus does run its course and it's safe to go back to work and safe for businesses to open, then we would expect there to be a fairly quick rebound as people do go back to work and start resuming normal levels of economic activity. i think most people expect that to happen in the second half of this year. >> the president today plans to detail a new task force to focus on the coronavirus economic challenges, including the delicate question of when at least part of the economy can reopen. and the senate is debating today how to add even more money, $250 billion or so, into a program

designed to help small businesses keep afloat. but there are some partisan differences there that need to be worked out. that's going to take a bit. joining me now is business correspondent christine romans and the leader for economic research at smith futures. christine, let me start with you. when you look at these numbers, it was 3 million, then 6 million, then 6 million again. the infrastructure of the employment system is just not built to handle this. >> no, because these numbers are unthinkable. who would ever build a state unemployment office to handle 400,000 jobless claims? in north carolina, they're used to 300 a week. they got 400,000, the governor said. the infrastructure is just not there to handle this kind of flood. every one of those numbers is a person who has bills to pay, and they are basically the social sacrifice for the big public health problem that's happening here. so it's really just an unusual, unthinkable situation to be in and there's no playbook for it.

you'd like to believe what jerome powell is saying, that there could be a quick economic response someplace down the road, but right now these are people who have been laid off and still haven't been able to secure their unemployment benefits just yet or just now started to get them. so i think we have a really kind of tough few weeks to get through here. >> martha, to that point, the first priority is helping people who are in desperate need, individuals, and then there's all these businesses. all this money is designed to keep the businesses afloat. the president hopes they keep their employees, but at least to keep them afloat. you see the senate back in today. they said $250 billion more just for small businesses. how much money are we talking about being essentially printed by the government and put out just to keep a foundation? not to keep the economy strong, by any means. >> i think one thing that's really important to think about is these aren't stimulus plans, they're support plans for the economy while it's in a medically induced coma and we can bring it back.

to be frank, i think 250 billion may end up not being enough. we know that small businesses are already struggling, they're already going out of business, and it seems likely the federal government is going to have to spend likely trillions more dollars to keep workers and businesses going. >> and what do we know, and i know there are a lot of things we don't know right now because we don't know how long this closure is going to last, we don't know how long we'll be going through this. but to listen to jerome powell, the president likes to say it will switch like a rocket and the united states will go back the way it was. as we know, the american economy is human driven. americans are scared. even mlb is talking about doing it without fans. he says it's going to take a while. >> the behavior of people wanting to travel or go to events or even go to a restaurant, it's been utterly changed by the concerns about this disease. no one should think the

government can wave a wand and all of a sudden the economy is anything like it was before this happened. that awaits either a miracle therapeutic that has over a 90% cure rate or broad use of the vaccine. >> bill gates sounds like he makes sense that we're not going to take off like a rocket. >> more stringent public health measures were able to recover much more quickly with respect to the economic situation. also, consumers just aren't going to go back out and start spending until they feel safe and that's why i come back to we need to be thinking about economic policy as support rather than stimulus. we're probably going to be in this situation for a really long time to come, and i think workers and businesses need to start adjusting to that reality, and the federal government needs to help them do that. >> and, christine, help, if you

can, connect the pieces. i know a lot of this we just can't answer right now. but canada, a smaller country population, but their outlook is bleak. they put money into the economy just like they do here. airbus says they'll stop production everywhere. there is a global piece of this puzzle that's hard to wrap your mind around. >> usually when you have a crisis or recession, and i'm sure we're already in a recession, there is someone around the world that is a global leader and you just don't know who is emerging as the global leader yet. the consumer spending part of it is so important here. our polling yesterday said 16 million americans said at the end of april, they would not feel comfortable going back to their normal routine. that's why you have to have testing, you have to have therapeutics, you have to have contact testing and quarantines possible so you know who can go back to work in important jobs,

so a staged reentry so people are comfortable and they know their government and states are going to protect them to the best interest of everybody, not just for getting people's businesses up and running like a switch. >> martha gimbel, christine romans, appreciate your insights. you might remember william waller was laid off of his job due to a big loss in demand for oil. he tried the phone, he tried the local unemployment office, tried all those things over and over again. he said after his interview here with cnn, he was in contact with someone who put him in direct contact with someone at the texas oil commission. he is now in contact with someone who will get him back his job. good job for those trying to get him the help that he deserves.

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joe biden can turn to the general election now. he enters this new chapter in the lead. here are the new numbers. if the election were held today, 53% of voters say they favor former vice president biden, 42% support the incumbent president, president trump. biden has the edge on several big issues. he leads on when it comes to handling the pandemic, the lower class. but trump wins over who would best handle the economy. now that he is the presumptive nominee, he's reaching out to bernie sanders and his supporters. sanders suspended his campaign yesterday. biden's outreach includes calling his former senator colleague a good friend. >> he's inspired and energized millions of supporters, especially young voters, to join him in championing a progressive

vision for our country. he didn't just run a political campaign, he created a movement. and that's a good thing for the nation and for our future. while bernie's campaign is ended, i know his leadership is going to continue. >> with me to share their reporting and their insights, sa learn lerna of the new york sometimes, tony olorunnipa of the "washington post." you have a margin of the incumbent president of the united states and part of what you do is reach out to sanders, right? >> i think that's right. democrats and those on joe biden's team are feeling particularly good because they see joe biden demonstrate strength in some of the areas that helped democrats win back the house in 2018, those

suburban swing districts. that being said, he still has work to do. he tends to poll much lower with young voters, with liberal voters, the kind of voters that make up the core of bernie sanders' base and the democratic party. he says he wants to unify the party but he also says he's staying in this race to capture delegates and increase the party platform at the convention. who knows if there is a convention, who knows when there is a convention, but i think that is a delicate line to walk, to want to both push the nominee and unite the party. it will be an easier task than in 2016, largely because biden and senator sanders get along much better than senator sanders and hillary clinton did, but it's still a tough political line he has to walk now. >> and new reporting from our friend jeff zeleny saying biden gets this. they're going to start the outreach to sanders immediately. even today they're going to reach out, try to do some things

together. this is sanders saying last night, i'm going to work with joe biden, but joe biden has to come to me a little bit. >> what we're working on right now is how we can best go forward together. joe is not going to adopt my platform, i got that. all right? but if he can move in that direction, i think people say, you know what, this is a guy we should support and will support. >> here in our poll total is some of the numbers that suggest this should be important to biden and it's important when it comes to the general election. these are among white voters. white non-college voters. joe biden gets 33%, but donald trump the president, gets 63%. whites with a college degree -- i'm sorry to interrupt the conversation. governor andrew cuomo with his daily briefing on the coronavirus. >> -- and understand where we are on our scope of the journey through the situation. it's been 18 days since we closed down new york. i know it feels like a lifetime.

i tell my daughters every day, it's only 18 days since everything closed down. it's 39 days since the first covid case in new york. if feels like a lifetime. it's 80 days since we had the first covid case in the united states. 80 days. it's been an intense life-changing 80 days, but that's what it has been. when we started this situation that we are still in the midst of before people get complacent, the end of march, the white house task force, coronavirus task force, was still talking about 1.5 to 2.2 million deaths, okay? the best-case scenario with, quote, unquote, mitigation efforts was 100 to 240,000 deaths in the united states,

which is breathtaking. for new york, there were a number of models that were put out that we are following. the most frightening was columbia university. that said we could have 136,000 people in new york city only who would be hospitalized. not infected. we had the mckenzie model, which suggested 110,000 people could be hospitalized statewide. we had a second scenario from mckenzie which is 55,000 people hospitalized. and then the gates foundation, thank you very much, funded the ihme study which said a high point of 73,000 statewide. any of these scenarios are devastating for new york.

because, remember, we only have a 53,000-bed capacity system statewide. 36,000 beds in new york city. so any of these scenarios are problematic. luckily the current trend, if it continues, and if we continue the flattening of the curve, we're at about 18,000 people hospitalized right now. we've increased the capacity of the system dramatically. we have moved pieces around the state like never before. our health care system has done a phenomenal job in doing an insurmountable task. our federal partners, the army corps of engineers, they have really just all done a great, great job, and our theory, and i believe my job as governor, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but prepare for the

worst. now, about a 90,000-bed capacity in our system overall today. even 90,000 beds, as you see, doesn't compare with the most problematic scenarios. 90,000 beds, we can handle the mckenzie moderates in the area. we don't make the mckenzie severe scenario at 110,000. i believe at 90,000 we have a plan to get to 110, converting dormitories, et cetera, et cetera, but it would be a massive undertaking and a massive scramble. we do make the gates funded projection model. the columbia university model we can never -- that would just be a nightmare. that is the one that keeps me up at night because you couldn't get anywhere near that projection.

but all of the statisticians said, look, we don't know how effective you can be at closing things down and social distancing, because we've never done it before. but they all said that's the chance to so-called flatten the curve if you actually got people to comply with all these measures, and we have never seen it done before in this country and we don't know if you can do it. so that is the big "if" in the equation. and that remains the big "if" in the equation. you can flatten the curve. we are flattening the curve by what we're doing, and we're flattening the curve so far. we should all be concerned, especially new yorkers. well, we're flattening the curve, that's good news. it is good news. well, now i can relax. no, you can't relax. the flattening of the curve last night happened because of what

we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that. this is all a direct consequence to our actions. if we stop acting the way we're acting, you will see those numbers go up. and i show the projection models because we can't handle the worst-case scenarios. we can't even handle the moderate-case scenarios with all we've done. so it is essential that we keep that curve flattened because we don't have an option of handling the curve if it goes higher. the additional good news is the hospitalization rate does suggest that it's coming down and we are flattening the curve. we had 200 net increase in hospitalizations, which you can see is the lowest number we've had since this nightmare started, actually. a change in icu admissions is

the lowest number we've had since march 19th or so. so all of this data suggests that we are flattening the curve so far, and the numbers are coming down so far. number of intubations is down, the day-to-day average of intubations are down. so far our efforts are working. they're working better than anyone projected they would work, and that's because people are complying with them. there are always two questions. can you enact these policies, and can you enact these policies in a way that people will follow? we can enact a policy and people thumb their nose to it and continue doing what they're doing. so there has to be a social acceptance and adherence to the policy. new yorkers are doing that.

they're acting responsibly and diligently, and we are saving lives by what people are doing today. our expression has been "new york tough" because every day is tough on many, many levels. i get it. but every day that we are new york tough, we are actually saving lives. and don't underestimate this virus. i think that is a mistake we made from day one. we used the collective "we," we used the global community. this virus is very, very good at what it does. we lost more lives yesterday than we have to date. we understand, and all the experts have said, dr. fauci said from day one to me, you will see the deaths increasing after the hospitalizations because the deaths increase the longer a person is in the hospital, the longer a person is

on the ventilator. i understand the scientific concept. i understand the data. but you're talking about 799 lives. the highest number ever. it's gotten to the point, frankly, that we're going to bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed. if you ever told me that as governor, i would have to take these actions, i couldn't even contemplate where we are now. and to put all of this in perspective, i lived through 9/11. 9/11 was supposed to be the darkest day in new york for a generation. we've done everything we can since 9/11 to make sure 9/11 didn't happen again. we lose 2,753 lives on 9/11.

we've lost over 7,000 lives to this crisis. that is so shocking and painful and breathtaking. i don't even have the words for it. 9/11 was so devastating, so tragic, and then in many ways, we lose so many more new yorkers to this silent killer. there was no explosion, but it was a silent explosion that just ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9/11. what do we do? we move forward and we do the work that we need to do. we're going to start an effort called new york loves, which is going to be a coordination of all the charities and

not-for-profits and foundations and people who want to help. there's been a tremendous outpouring of support from organized not-for-profits, et cetera, but also people just wanting to help. the best effort is if we can coordinate all those resources to make sure there's not duplication and we're actually addressing the right need, so the state department of state, rosanne ro sougarosato of state coordinates all profits, we will work with the local governments that need help. also let's learn the lessons of what we're going through now because we haven't finished going through it. let's learn how and why this virus kills, especially why we have higher fatality rates among african-americans and latinos and what we do about it. let's understand it but let's also address it. we're going to be doing more

testing in african-american and latino communities with more data. we're going to open new testing sites primarily in african-american and latino communities with suny albany, the department of health north will collect the test results but also collect the information we need to come up with policies to fix this. where do people live, where do people work, what is their socioeconomic status? where do they socialize? what are their previous health conditions? why do they have these higher rates and what do we do about it, and let's do that now. rapid testing and testing is going to be the bridge to the new economy and getting to work and restarting, right? we're not going to go from red to green, we're going to go from red to yellow. yellow is let the people who can go back to work start going back to work.

well, how do you know who can go back to work? test them. you have rapid testing capacity. we have to bring it to scale, we have to bring it to scale quickly. that's something that the state is working on as well as the federal government. let's also find a treatment for this disease. convalescent plasma which is plasma from people who were infected that can then be used to treat people who get infected, we need that plasma from people who were infected. we're starting a blood drive and asking those who have recovered from the virus to contact us and to donate blood so we can develop the con have less he not -- convalescent plasma treatment, and there is a website on the screen they can go to for help. we have to be prepared and state prepared. we have to have the supplies, we have to have the right laws, we have to have the right

procedures. because, remember, the 1918 spanish flu came in three waves. we're on the first wave. everybody is assuming, well, once we get through this, we're done. i wouldn't be so quick to assume that. this virus has been ahead of us from day one. we've underestimated the enemy and that is always dangerous, my friends, and we should not do that again. there's an article in the l.a. times that says the communities that have dealt with this before, like wuhan-singapore, are now seeing a second wave of infection. there is a theory that this virus can mutate and change and come back. so this is not -- we're in a battle, right, but this is about a war. and we're only on one battle here. even once we get through this battle, we have to stay prepared for what could come down the

road. we also have to start to repair the immense damage. before you start talking about restarting the economy, you're going to have to address the damage that's done to society today, which is intense. the economic damage. people who are now living no poverty, people have been without a check, without a job for weeks. and most people in this state live paycheck to paycheck. all we are doing everything we can on the unemployment benefits. you have family that are in true economic hardship and impoverished because of this situation. what do we do with the housing

market. we did what we had to do to be ready but we have done a lot of damage in the midst that had to be undone. that's something we are working on immediately. we need the federal government to be responsible and pass legislation that helps. we have to stabilize the state and local government for this country. >> the past legislation that was enacted, we were told of $6 billion for healthcare. when we did our state budget a couple of weeks ago, we believed what they said and we thought $6 million was enough care funding, turns out when we read the language it was about $1.3 billion for the state of

new york. which is much different than five or six billion dollars. the funding disqualifies one-third of new york medicaid recipients. i spoke to senator schumer and gillibra gillibrand, this is no time for politics. this is a time to enact legislation that actually addresses the needs. i guess how washington is not here and not now my friends. we have a significant mental health issue that comes with what we have done. it is a growing problem. growing problem with a number of

domestic violent cases. if you need help during this stressful period and i suspect more people need help and acknowledge they need help. we have support line and we have thousands of people who volunteered to help and people should reach out and ask for it. we have to stay ahead of this virus. the numbers are coming down in new york city. you look at the percentage of surges around new york city, the natural spread and natural concentric circles are poor and suburban communities. west chester we had problems already. the first hot spot in the nation, new rochelle in west chester. now, we are seeing in rockland and nassau and suffix.

the overall point is you stay-at-home and you save a life. period. stay-at-home and you save a life. i know new yorkers. we are born and bred. the instinct is this is good news and we can relax and by the way i have been dying to relax and get out of the house and end this ground holiday reality. yeah, you are not out of the woods. now is not the time to misunderstand what's happening. we have done great things and we saved lives because we followed these policies. the moment you stop following the policies, you will go right back to see that number shoot through the roof. we are not prepared to handle the highest numbers in those

projectio projections. whatever we do, you can't take a 50,000 beds system and get it to 136,000 beds. an impossibility. i am a person who never says no and believe new york and do everything if we try. i am telling you we have to keep that down. we have to keep that curve down. we have lost many of our brothers and sisters. we didn't lost them because they did not get the best healthcare they need. the way i sleep at night is that i believe we did not lose anyone that we could have saved. that's the only solace when i look at this number and i look

at this pain. that has to be true. that has to continue and that is a function of each and every one of us have done. so new york is tough. yes, we are tough. tough means we are smart and we are disciplined and we are unified and we are loving. if you don't want to stay home for yourself, stay home for someone you love. that's what the stay-at-home is all about. if you want to have reckless disregard for your life, it is not about your life, it is about the healthcare workers who'll have to treat you in the your room and the vulnerable person who you infect and could kill by your actions. sometimes it is not about you, right? it is not about me, it is about we. that's where we are. questions?

>> we are not planning nursing homes of covid papatients. >> hundreds of thousands of new york have consistent report of can't getting through operators at the new york state, department of labor, this has been going on for weeks. what sort of assurances that you can offer residents they can get these benefits in times of hardships. >> the technology at the department of labor, the system just crashed because of the volume. it is one of those unan anticipa unanticipated. you have a government shutting down the private sector of the government. you have millions out of work. the next shoe to drop is millions of people calling in

unemployment benefit krarnicras the system because you got a hundred fold. we have 1,000 people who are working on personnel for that in coming system. think about that. 1,000 people working on processing applications or unemployment benefits. we are working with google to come up with an online mechanism that bypasses any phone certifications. the phone certification is important. you want to make sure people are applying so we are doing everything we can. the good news is when every you sign up, your benefits are going to be retroactive.

you will not rereceiceive the c i get that. it is not like you are getting the same benefit because you did not get through on monday and you did not get through on thursday. melissa has been working on this system. you want to update? >> last week there were 350,000 claims unemployment claims in new york. so far 600,000 of those claims have been successfully processed. you got over 200,000 that's in partial status. you go online and fill out the application. if you fill out the application in full, you are done. if you leave any of the fields blank, they'll tell you to call the system. you call the system to follow up. that's what's causing the crash in volume and the soystem goes down. we have been wondering from google between 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the system is going to go down to reboot. 7:00, the new applications going

online. at the end of that and you successfully filling it out. it is going to say you are finished with the process if there is in i information left blank, it will say don't call us, we'll call you in 72 hours. the governor says there has been a thousand people reaching out to you. they'll be reaching out to people directly. so hopefully starting today after 7:00, the system will be much better streamline. it is a volume issue that we never experienced. >> i will ask rob. he can speak about the financial stress that the state is under. so many of these things we never seen before. we never seen the