admission after the exams were extended first responders. closed to june at the earliest. and this is his reasoning why. at least 50 universities and colleges have dropped their testing requirement in recent >> that's going to give them access to test iing and rapid months. response results to the test. and i think that's imperative top of the hour now. i want to welcome our viewers in if, in fact, we're going to slow the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington and the transmission of the disease this is cnn's continuing coverage of the coronavirus down within those stores as well as within our communities that we operate in. pandemic. a wild and sad marker today. in addition, it's going to give there are now 2 million them access to get in the queue confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide. we'll hear soon from new york's to receive personal protection governor, andrew cuomo, his state, of course, hardest hit here in the united states. equipment, which has been very difficult to do. also this house the president of the united states holds a call with industries like health >> ufcw, john, says that 30 of care, intel, and intelligence its members have died already from the coronavirus. industries after a morning of it's impacted thousands of them as well. horrible economic indicators in the united states, retail sales >> thousands. contracted and an emergency loan program about to run out of money as of today. this is a serious issue. the big warnings for americans now out of work -- this is going dianne gallagher, thanks for keeping track of it. very important to watch this to kill smalltown america. play out. south dakota one of the the sputtering economy is why the president is eager to get

places where cases are going up. the country back to work. white house sources say the the chief medical doctor is president is set on a may 1st overseeing a clinical trial on date to reopen. hydroxychloroquine in the state. many doctors and scientists, doctor, thank you so much for joining us. though, even some on the i want to start with just president's team, say the country is simply not ready, not looking at the -- if you look at enough people have been tested. the food and drug administration the five-day average in south says some new antibody tests are dakota, in which we're going state by state, saying are they not reliable. today the world health flattening, are they curving? organization says, quote, it is that is troublesome to me, and getting on with the job, that i'm sure you, when you look at it, that arrow pointing up. after president trump announced the united states will now is that a result of the withhold funding from the world smithfield plant? is it primarily that, the one health group. cluster, the one problem? there are global questions about the wisdom of that decision in or is there a broader statewide the middle of a pandemic, but issue? >> yeah, it's a great question, the president's fury comes from john. thank you. his insistence that the w.h.o. i think it is very specific and cannot shout loud enough about the virus in the early weeks of unique to the individual systems. when we look at south dakota as the crisis. a state, we're a population of dr. deborah birx last hour about 880,000 individuals across the entire state. echoes the boss. >> once this is over, we'll be and when we look at sioux falls, south dakota, where the able to look back and say, did smithfield plant is located, china and the w.h.o. say and do that's 180,000 individuals. we're lucky in south dakota in everything to alert the rest of the world to the nuances of this that we saw a lot of this coming virus? because when it first explodes, on the coasts, and a lot of the someone had to have known that

there was human-to-human stay-at-home and social distancing we've been doing, and transmission. you really have to go back and we really started doing that ask yourself, why wasn't there before we started seeing a this level of transparency when surge. so, we've seen our curve this virus exploded? flatten, and we're really only i think people would have prepared differently if they had seeing trickling of cases in our known the level of transmissibility of this virus. medical centers. and then we suddenly had a spike with smithfield. >> and america's most popular so, it is a very unique hotspot state, california, governor within the state of south gavin newsom says it's too early dakota. >> you mexsioned sioux falls. to tell when his state will be the mayor there wishes the mayor able and ready to reopen, but he would be more aggressive. says it will be science, not i want you to listen here. i had him on several days ago politics, that guides his before we knew about the decision, this as the number of cases in california alone tops smithfield plant. then he was saying he wished the 25,000. nearly 800 people have died. governor had more teeth, or a close to half of those deaths statewide order, as opposed to a happening in los angeles county. statewide recommendation. joining me now, dr. aneesh listen to the mayor. >> the growth that we've seen in our covid cases, really in the mahajan from harvard ucl medical last week, has been a bit center. doctor, thank you for being with staggering. right now we're doubling and us today. you see the case numbers. we've been doubling every four you see especially the l.a. days for the last 18 days. county issue, and you see the governor trying to balance what all political leaders are trying i would rather be chastised for to figure out right now, how do we continue to suppress this being overcautious than virus while we think about chastised for saying, why didn't reopening? what is the current state of you act, mayor? play? are you optimistic or do you see >> the governor correctly notes any signs of worry?

that even if you had a statewide >> well, we are very fortunate order to stay at home, these in california that the smithfield workers would have stay-at-home orders, the been exempted because they are essential workers. they are food processing workers. safer-at-home orders, have they would have been going to helped us flatten the curve work anyway. do you know what was being done here. at that plant? we are seeing more and more were there any state requests or patients coming into our hospital and our public any business? were people being screened for hospitals, but not at a very temperature, for example? high rate. so, we're able to keep up with were any precautions being taken in advance, or is that an the demand, though the demand is after-the-fact, oh, i wish we still high. had? >> you know, i don't know the >> and so, let's just look at it again. you look, 10,075 confirmed cases inner workings and was not involved in the processes at that plant, what they were statewide, 366 deaths. doing. we're here as a health system, but when you look at the five-day rolling, which we look kind of take care of those individuals that do become ill. at to get a sense. i do know that the state any one day could spike or drop department of health does and you think you're out of the woods, so you look at a more significant contact tracing and that we are able as a state to five-day moving average of cases. and again, at the very end really do that careful contact there, a little bit up, but if you're in the public health tracing. so, when one of the smithfield community and you're trying to average that out, are you employees is diagnosed as convinced that trend line is positive with the covid virus, heading in the right direction they're able to identify all of or does the last day or two have you a little worried? those contacts and recognize >> well, you know, we're not yet those individuals and get those sure. we need a few more days to know. individuals isolated as well. >> as you know, the i would say another week before hydroxychloroquine debate has we can really understand whether we are now getting to the place been somewhat controversial because the president talks

about it from the white house where there are fewer new cases podium. you are now doing a statewide happening. as you know, when new cases study in your state. occur, there's a lag time for just map out, when will you know the patients to get sicker and if this is effective? then come into the hospital, and then there's a lag time for the >> yeah, and that's really the most terrible outcome of death. beauty of science. and so, we are somewhere in that science is not political. science is trying to answer a space right now here in california. question. and what we're trying to answer >> so, i'm mixing a bit here, is the question around hydroxychloroquine. does it work or does it not and forgive me, i'm mixing a work? little bit of public health with so, sanford health with our politics, in the sense that research arm started a couple california is one of the states that acted quickly, acted months ago looking at the earlier than other states in disease as a whole and trying to enacting stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and the like, identify different areas where different therapies might be and you appear to be in better effective. shape than, say a new york or hydroxychloroquine is one of those that has the potential to say a new orleans or a detroit, prevent the virus from entering michigan. the human cell. and now you have the so, what we decided to do there conversation -- our new is look at patients who are reporting is that the president is determined that may 1st is exposed to the virus and then his date to essentially say, go offer those patients ahead, states, you have your own hydroxychloroquine or placebo flexibility, you have your own calls, but please get about the and look to see if they develop business of reopening. even in a state like california, the disease or not, and if they which is in better shape than do develop the disease, is it some places around america, do less severe or is it no less you think you're ready on may 1st, or do you think you need severe, depending on whether they received the

from a public health standpoint hydroxychloroquine or not. more time? >> well, we have to do what's >> and you will know the answer to this question when? how long does it take? right to protect the public and health care workers. >> so, the beauty of this part, may 1st would seem premature to with the prophylaxis, is that lift the stay-at-home orders. it's a short time frame. local modeling, regional it's about 14 days from when you're exposed to when you would modeling suggests that if we present with the illness. were to lift the stay-at-home we're going to register about orders at this stage, we would again see a resurgence of 2,000 patients. because we can do it statewide, we would anticipate to get those infections at a high rate. and so, as governor newsom and patients registered relatively quickly and then be able to have others have pointed out, what we results within six months. need to do is reopen in a staged >> well, i hope you'll come back manner and very slowly, at a to us when you have those results. time when we understand that we as you know, in part because the president likes to talk about have sufficient hospital it, a lot of people are asking capacity to take care of the question. so, when the science speaks, please come back and let us patients that may spring up and know, doctor. thank you very much. get infected as we do so. >> will do. thank you. >> appreciate your work. you've also heard that we thank you very much. up next, the way for some absolutely need to understand how we're going to do a better americans expecting those stimulus checks and aid for job of testing. their businesses. we have to test in the community and then contact trace and >> these are unprecedented quarantine people who are sick. times, and i have no idea if without doing that, it would be too soon for us to talk about we're going to, as a business, if we're going to survive this reopening. >> dr. mahajan, thank you for pandemic. smithfield plant over in sioux your time and insights today. more importantly, thank you and falls getting the coronavirus,

your colleagues for everything you're do every day to keep us just one plant getting knocked safer. we greatly appreciate it. out knocks out 5% of all of our cannot say thank you enough, sir. >> thank you. >> thank you. production for pork. and you just heard it right there again from the good there are similar issues in doctor. it is the groundhog day line of beef. there's similar issues in dairy. this pandemic -- we must have we need to have policy that will more testing before we can spread things out and make reopen. it's necessary to have aggressive testing in order to mid-to-small farms more viable. reopen. so, what is it going to take to get there? cnn's senior investigative correspondent drew griffin has been following this testing issue since the start of the pandemic. drew, in the most powerful, advanced -- we are supposed to be the world's most exceptional nation. you just heard the doctor again. how are we doing on testing? >> reporter: you know, the bottom line is, mixed to not very good. we have caught up with testing in these hotspot areas where doctors and patients who are ♪ sick needed to know immediately in nearly 100 years serving the military community, in the hospital if they are sick we've seen you go through tough times with covid-19 or not. and every time, you've shown us, you're much tougher there still are supply issues. there's still nose swab issues. your heart, courage and commitment but the labs have basically caught up, the bigger labs, has always inspired us and now it's no different

commercial labs say they have dropped their backlog. so, we're here with financial strength, stability and experience you can depend on but this is just, again, john, for those people who get a and the online tools you need doctor's order to basically be because you have always set the highest standard allowed to test, the sickest of the sick. and reaching that standard is what we're made for we are nowhere near the testing ♪ that the rest of us have been asking for. you know, my kids got a little fever. do i get them a test or not? it's really not that widely available. and then the next phase of the testing is, are we doing enough testing to allow people like donald trump and his advisers to actually know if we can open up different portions of the country or not? one of the hotspots, the mayor, mayor de blasio of new york says he's still having problems with testing. listen. >> federal government still has not provided testing to this and reaching that standard is what we're made for how do you gaveeno® happy 24/7? with prebiotic oat. country. it hydrates and softens skin. that's the central problem they have to fix. you know what we're doing now, so it looks like this. john. we're creating our own tests and you feel like this. here in new york city. we just couldn't wait any aveeno® daily moisturizer longer. i think a lot of other places are going to have to do the same get skin healthy™ thing.

>> and the problem with that is, john, if all these individual states, cities, areas, start doing their own testing and coordinating their own testing, as homes become schools will that information, that at&t has created a $10 million dollar fund much-needed data, be sent to to support distance learning tools, curriculum and resources federal authorities to decide to help educators and families keep school in session whether or not there is enough testing to open up in new does anybody know what this book is? jersey, open up in oklahoma, or hi class. good morning. good morning. not? because the key to keeping kids learning, more tests are coming on the market. it's a matter of where is the is keeping kids connected. coordination? where is the national databank to look at these tests? i just don't believe we are there yet, anywhere near close. >> drew griffin, been on top of this from the beginning. drew, appreciate it. you make the case. we need a national moonshot, not a 50 states trying to do the best they can in the middle of a pandemic. drew griffin, again, thank you very much. up next here, an explosive outbreak of coronavirus inside one south dakota food plant. (hero girl) and you want to make sure to aim it. (everyone) ohhhhhhh! (hero girl) i ordered it for everyone. i think i have the exact amount.

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organization just last hour add a little more health to your day... saying is regrets president trump's decision to withhold with nature's bounty. u.s. funding for that agency. it also says, though, it will get about the business of doing its work during the pandemic, this as we see global condemnation of the president's decision and some tensions even within his white house team. the head of the centers for disease control saying this morning he would not have cut off funding in the middle of a global pandemic. >> i think it's important at this point that we leave the analysis of what could have been done better and what maybe we did well to once we get through this. >> i'd like to do the postmortem on this outbreak once we get through it together. >> also today, sources in the white house saying the president is determined to have his team give him the green light to reopen the american economy on may 1st, and his team is trying to find ways for the president to get to that goal. one of the other top scientists on the white house team, anthony fauci, says maybe we can get there by may 1st, but he says it will not be one size fits all.

>> it probably would be a rolling entry into it with some states actually doing nothing different because they're still in a really difficult situation, and you would not want to relax any of the physical separation guidelines. and others, that would be doing really much better. so it's not going to be a one size fits all. >> cnn's kaitlan collins now joins us live from the white house. kaitlan, interesting there, two top scientists on the president's team both trying to work the boss, if you will, through television interviews. dr. redfield saying, i wouldn't have picked this fight right now, i would have saved it for later. and dr. fauci, knowing the president wants to gin up the economy, making clear, we've got to be very careful here, don't try to do a national plan. one size will not fit all. >> reporter: yeah, it's notable what dr. fauci said, because what you're seeing that's so different about this deadline that the president has set of may 1 is that it's very different than when he had that easter deadline, something that

concerns about the nation's aides spent days trying to talk food supply are growing after an him out of and eventually outbreak at one of the country's succeeded, of course, as the president did back off of that. largest pork processing plants they are not doing similar with in the united states. this deadline. as of tuesday, 438 workers at instead, they're working to try the smithfield plant in south to please the president, but dakota had tested positive for also not erase the gains that coronavirus. they've made from social those numbers alone account for distancing. when it comes to the w.h.o., nearly half of the state's cases. though, most people in the the smithfield plant is now president's world figured he was closed indefinitely, but it's going to move forward with this important to point out that food after last week he announced he processing plants are not the was going to put a pause on that only vulnerable part of our food funding. and then in the same briefing supply chain. just a few minutes later, he there are farmers and grocery said he was just going to review store employees who are also at putting a pause on it. risk. let's bring in cnn's dianne so, many people saw this coming, gallagher. she's tracking the story for us. what he did yesterday. but john, what was so notable how concerned should people about that is the president's watching be about the reasoning for doing so. possibility of food supply he not only criticized the interruptions or shortages, w.h.o. for taking china at its word, he also criticized them for praising china for being dianne? >> reporter: i think we should focus on that word food supply transparent. but john, that is something the president himself has done. interruption. this does not mean that you need and when i pressed him on this to go to the grocery store and yesterday in the rose garden, he did not offer any answer on that inconsistency. panic-buy meat and horde it in you were criticizing the w.h.o. your freezer. please, don't do that. for praising china for being that's not what we're talking transparent, but you also about at this point. praised china for being what we are talking about is transparent -- >> i don't talk about china's these various interruptions we're seeing at every level of

the food supply chain, from the transparency. farmers, who at this point have >> in january -- >> well, you know, if i'm so good to china, how come i was more product than they know what to do with because they can't the only person, the only leader sell it to the meat-packing and of a country that closed our borders tightly against china? processing facilities because they've closed down due to >> reporter: now, john, what's also notable about what the workers that are dealing with president said there yesterday the coronavirus, workers that is he repeatedly pointed to the are dying from the coronavirus. and then you have the grocery fact that his administration was negotiating a trade deal with stores that can't get the meat china in january, talking about eventually from those meat the tweets where he repeatedly packing facilities. there is ample stored meat at praised the chinese leader after this point. conversations they had and however, the big concern are weren't pushing them on these workers at every single questions they had about the level. and in speaking to the unions, transmission of the virus either. now the president has put a hold on it. the question that they want answered is, are we essential you see people like the cdc workers or are we sacrificial director disagreeing, but others in the white house did encourage the president to do so. workers? there is serious concern about >> and the president can say he the amount of protection that's didn't say something, but your question was spot on, and we being afforded to those who are working in processing plants and counted. we counted more than two dozen grocery stores right now, john. times in january and february in fact, the ufcw union the president praised china, including its transparency. president has asked authorities he also on several of those occasions said the world health to organization was doing a fantastic job. kaitlan collins live at the white house. keep at it. keep at it. keep at it. today is april 15th.

it used to be tax day, right? but the irs is delaying that deadline because of coronavirus until july. so, instead of tax refund checks, people are waiting to get their stimulus checks. plus, tough economic news today. retail sales down 8.7% for march. that's the worst drop since the government started keeping track. greg ipp is a chief commentator for the "wall street journal." greg, the checks. it's been a big question. we had the direct deposit over the weekend. now for people waiting for their checks, we learned overnight, those who are going to get it in the mail are going to get the president's signature on it. let's leave the politics out of it a minute. people can make that judgment at home whether that's appropriate or not. how important is this money when we see yet another sign? last week it was unemployment claims, now it's retail sales. the economy is floundering. >> yeah, and we are -- i mean, this economy generally produces about $55 billion of gdp per day, john. you've got to cut that number by a third right now. that's how bad it is. we saw a big drop in retail sales and in industrial

production in march. and that's not the halfoft, because big shutdowns only began partway through march. we're going to see bigger drops in april. i think the second quarter is virtually a write-off for our economy. the question then becomes, well, what do you do about it? now, you've raised the fact that people are going to start getting their stimulus checks this week, but right now, the issue is that they can't really go out and spend them, because they're being told to stay home, to socially distance, to avoid nonessential travel. so, you essentially, you've got all this money. you're not able to spend it. so, i don't expect that that will have a near-term impact on the economy, but as governors start to contemplate how to reopen the economy, hopefully in the next month or two, you're going to want people to go out and spend. then that money will be really important, especially to one of those many millions of people who got laid off. >> all right. and to that point, i just want to put up some stats here, because you know, we think of this in washington, sometimes we forget the real america. people need this money and they're looking for it.

a top state searching for stimulus, west virginia, mississippi, arkansas, louisiana, people going online and searching for information about the stimulus program. top questions, where's my deposit? when will the track arrive? how do you get a stimulus check? how do you track a stimulus check? is the stimulus check a loan? on the last one, the answer is no. but you see these questions and it's a snapshot into the idea that people are not only worried about a pandemic, they're worried about keeping their lives afloat. >> well, absolutely. i mean, the hardship this is causing on the economic front, never mind the health front, is unbelievable. we haven't seen numbers like this since the great depression. the international monitory fund is expecting the economy to contract by 6% this year, which is double the worst year of the so-called great recession. and that is why things like these stimulus measures are so important. i think the one thing we need to keep in mind is that there's a sequence of events that has to happen here. we need to get the epidemic under control, and there are,

you know, scienigns that that i happening. only then can we start to lift some of the lockdown measures we have. that's point at which these stimulus measures really need to kick in. as i said, people will need to have the money on hand. in the meantime, they've got bills to pay. they've got to keep their electricity on. they've got to get their phone bill paid. so, the stimulus money is very important for that. the other thing we haven't talked about, john, is that a lot of the effort of the stimulus has been to keep businesses solvent and afloat, especially small businesses. strong incentives not to lay people off. the key will be when those lockdowns start to get lifted, will businesses be around and able to call back all those people they laid off? >> well, to that very point, that's when we're going to move on to. greg ip, thank you for the insights and being here today. congress being told -- greg just mentioned it -- the loan for small businesses is about to run out of money. congress approved billions for those loans, but it could be gone by the end of today, the administration says. millions of small business

owners depend on that money and loans like it to stay afloat during these uncertain times. we bring in the owners and a restaurant in boise, idaho. thank you both for being with us. i just want you to give us a snapshot for people watching. you're a small family restaurant in boise. take us through the then and the now in terms of -- i saw the notes about your restaurant. a community place, a large lobby so people can socialize. and now, only takeout, right? >> that's right, yeah. either a takeout or delivery services through all the programs like uber eats, doordash and things like that. >> yeah, we had to evolve very quickly. and like he said, we went from that dining, people coming in and eating with their family to really anything digital, mobile, pickup, delivery, looking at family meals that they can cook at home. so, we just had to adapt very quickly. >> and so, the reason i'm so grateful you're here is to get the real american experience.

because we can put numbers on the screen, and we will now, of the impact on business -- lost output by companies -- this is what wall street and economists look at. this is what the treasury department looks like. if you have 0 to 19 employees, you're losing $35 billion. you see 1,000-plus employees. these are the big economic numbers that, you know, the economists and the policymakers need to go through. you are there on the ground. what has this done in terms of income for you? and how many of your employees have you had to say, you need to go until we can figure this out? >> yeah, i mean, the impact was immediately devastating for us. the first two weeks, it was an immediate 60%, 70% loss in sales. so i mean, that right there, we just barely had enough money coming in for the small staff that we actually had to reduce down to. we went from about 17 employees, now down to eight employees. so, it was a big decrease in our

staff. pretty much 50%. and then all the money that we're getting in for the little business that we're now getting, it's just covering the payroll expenses. >> just covering the payroll. we're sehowing video you sent into us and we're grateful for it. the staff -- i assume, all the notes say you're having a pretty good time. now your staff part-time working. i'm assuming they are, a, desperate for the work, for the money, but also just to see their friends and colleagues. >> yeah, definitely. like he said, we had to significantly reduce the hours, so full-timers became part-timers. but yeah, they are grateful and very happy to still be working, you know. so, that is a positive that we do still have a staff and they are working. it's just less hours. >> and in terms of government assistance for you, coming through? >> yeah, yeah. we are fortunate enough to work with our local community bank on the day that they started to

accept applications, the previous friday. and we received funds two days ago, on monday. so, at least it was a quick turnaround for us, for ten days, as far as getting the application in, then getting funds in. so, we were fortunate on that front. so now we can get those funds, use most of it for payroll, bring most of our staff back and find some projects for them to do. we really need to start thinking outside the box so we can use those hours more wisely. but with that other revenue coming in, we can pay the bills that we've fallen behind on, for sure. >> great. it's great to hear from both of you and we wish you the best of luck and we're glad to hear the government money is getting to you. we'll take you live to albany, new york, the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, his daily briefing. >> my own personal bias to the way we do this. people who haven't noticed. i have an annoying personal habit that my children remind me of often, my staff, too. they reminded me this morning. people love to give you their opinion on what they think -- i think this, i think this -- and

i often will stop them and say, okay, before you tell me what you think, tell me the facts. just give me the facts first, before your interpretation of the facts. so, i like to start with just the facts. just give me the facts. and that's what we do in this presentation. here are the facts. no opinion, no filter. and then i'll give you an opinion, but i'll tell you what my opinion, versus the facts. so, just the facts. it is an annoying personal habit because people want to tell you their opinion -- i think this. i know. but to me, the facts first. then we'll do your opinion. total hospitalizations, collected down, still in the 18,000, but a click down. good news. that's a fact. it's a fact that it's good news. it's not my opinion. you see flattening of the curve, all these new expressions that we never used before. plateau, flattening, rounding.

net change in hospitalizations, down. that's good news. three-day rolling average -- because remember, any one of these days of reporting, this is a new reporting system. it's imprecise. i wouldn't bet the farm on any one day's numbers. but a three-day average starts to be a little more accurate. icu admissions is down. that's good news. intubations are down. that's very good news. just on a real-life level. when a person is intubated, they're on a ventilator. 80% of the people will never come off the ventilator, or thereabouts. so, that's good news. a little reality check. you still have on a day-to-day basis about 2,000 people who are

being diagnosed with covid. so, we're out of the woods. no, we're still in the woods. the good news is we showed that we can change the curve. good news is -- great news, in my opinion -- we can control the spread. that is great news, because can you imagine if we couldn't control the spread? if we did all this and the spread kept going up. so, we can control the spread. but you still have about 2,000 people a day who are new diagnosis coming into the hospital system. so, it's still a serious public health issue. lives lost yesterday, 752, which is the painful news of our reality day after day, and they are in our thoughts and prayers. you see 707 in hospitals, 45 in nursing homes.

people are interested in those numbers and how those numbers are changing. but you see the terrible news, it's basically been flat over the past several days. again, the number of death is a quote/unquote lagging indicator. it's almost disrespectful to put it in scientific terms, but these are people who were probably intubated. they were on a ventilator. and then, again, a period of time on a ventilator, normally has a bad outcome. the total losses, total number of deaths number. the cdc changed guidelines in how they want information reported. they want deaths, and then another category of probable deaths. which is a new category that's done by the local department of

health or the coroner. so, we're going to rationalize those new reporting requirements with local governments and get that information out as soon as we can. we're also, since we have a little bit of a period to take a breath, we're going to contact nursing homes and facilities to find out if there were other people who passed from covid who were not necessarily in a hospital or a nursing home, because there is a sense that there may be additional people who passed away, and they weren't included in the count because they weren't in a hospital, they weren't in a nursing home. so, we'll be going through that. but basically, the health care situation has stabilized. the tears of overwhelming the

health care system has not happened, thanks to the phenomenal work of our frontline workers, thanks to all of the additional capacity that the hospital system created. over 50% additional capacity in one month. just think of that. thanks to the work that our federal government did -- army corps of engineers providing the beds at javits and "comfort." by the way, javits, which is 2,500-bed capacity is the overflow valve -- about 800 people have gone through javits. so, thank you very much. and that was a great service that was done by the federal government in a very short period of time. so, we have that stabilized. people are still getting infected but we have the infection spread down to a manageable number. we have accomplished that. people are restless. we have to talk about the reopening of the economy.

how do we do this? we have to build a bridge from where we are to the reopening of the economy. well, what does that look like? let's say that where we're going, it's not a reopening in that we're going to open what was. we are going to a different place. and we should go to a different place and a better place. if we don't learn the lessons from this situation, then all of this will have been in vain. we're learning a lot if we're willing to open our eyes and our ears. so, we're going to a different place, which is a new normal, and we talk about the new normal. we've been talking about the new normal for years. we're going to have a new normal in public health. by the way, the way we have a new normal in the environment, a new normal in economics, a new normal in civil rights, a new normal in social justice, right? this is the way of the world

now. we're moving to a new place, more challenging place, but also potentially a better place. well, when is this over? i say -- personal opinion -- it's over when we have a vaccine. it's over when people know, i'm 100% safe and i don't have to worry about this. when does that happen? when we have a vaccine. when do we have a vaccine? 12 to 18 months. who determines that? the federal government has to test the vaccine, fda. it's a big gap, 12 to 18 months, yes. i say the sooner, the better. anything we can do to work with the federal government to get the vaccine done faster, we are all in. we want to use new york state as a laboratory? we are ready, willing, and able. anyway, the new york state department of health can work with the fda to reduce that testing period, we are all in and energized and creative and ambitious about it. and so, anything we can do to accelerate that vaccine we will do. you need a place to test it in

large numbers? i think of new york. but that's the ultimate end, right? we have a vaccine now. we don't have to worry about this. by the way, we'll probably have to worry about the next public health risk at that time, so don't forget everything we learned. besides the vaccine, there's a possibility that they develop a medical treatment. so, we can't prevent you from getting the virus, but we have a new medical treatment. and if you get the virus, don't worry, it's no big deal, you go and you get this medical treatment. that's another way of having a natural end, right in and that's what convalescent plasma is all about and the antibody testing to find people who had the antibody and then injecting the antibody into a person as a treatment method. maybe the hydroxychloroquine works. now, this has been a very politicized topic. i have done my best to stay 100

miles away from politics in all of this. if i -- everybody wants to see hydroxychloroquine work. everybody. well, the president says he believes it works. but he's not a doctor. right. well, he says he believes it works, but he's not a doctor. well, find out. find out. and everybody hopes that it works. and everything new york can do to test it, we will. we are now testing hydroxychloroquine. there are a number of hospitals that are doing it. it's not a government decision. it's not a political decision. the medical doctor decides. and if a medical doctor decides it works, fine. we have an executive order that limits the prescription of hydroxychloroquine only because we don't have enough. and there was such a demand on it that people who needed it and were using it can't get it. so, if the federal government sends us more, we will dispense

more. it's a pure supply-side issue. or maybe they develop another drug that they figure out has an effect. that could happen between now and the vaccine, and we all pray that it does. but until you have a vaccine, until you have the medical treatment, what do you do? how are you building the bridge? well, it's going to be a phased reopening, right? and during the phased reopening, the priority is make sure you do no harm and keep your eye on the public health issue. that is what is key in all of this. so, it's going to be a calibration of reopening based on public health safety and that infection rate, because what we have done and the reducing of the infection rate is a pure function of what new yorkers have done and what people across the country have done. when you relax that social

distancing, you could very well see an increase in the infection rate. so, it's all a calibration to the public health, but it's going to be a gradual increasing of economic activity in calibration with the public health standards. the single best tool to doing this gauging, right, is large-scale testing. test, trace, and isolate. that's what everybody's talking about. what does this mean? it means you test. you find a positive. you trace back who they were with, where they were. test those people and you isolate the people who are positive. it's in our doable, it's just very, very hard to do, and it opens this new world of testing. and this new world of testing is a new world to all of us, by the way. there's diagnostic testing. are you positive or negative? there is then testing for

antibodies. were you exposed? if i find out that you were already exposed and you had the virus, now you can go back to work, because you had the virus, you have antibodies. antibody testing, once you have the antibodies, you can help develop convalescent plasma, where they can take your blood, take those antibodies, use it as treatment. there is saliva testing, which is faster and easier. it's not blood testing. it's not a swab. it's just saliva. but that's a new form of testing that's just being developed. this finger prick testing, which is less invasive, but also being developed. there's full blood sampling testing, which is obviously more intrusive. but to do the testing, you need testing equipment. you need swabs. you need vials. and you need all of these things at a capacity that does not now

exist. where do you do the testing? we've been doing testing in hospitals. frankly, that's not a great place to do testing. you don't want people walking into a hospital emergency room who may be positive for covid. our drive-through locations are better, but how do you bring that to scale, all right? and then, even if you have the equipment and the testing site and the personnel to do the testing, where do you get the labs to test all of these tests? this is a whole world of questions that nobody has ever seen before. the bottom line is, well, you need large-scale testing, let's do it. we can't do it yet. that is the unvarnished truth. i know because new york has been doing this since this started,

exploring this new world. we have done more tests than any other state. we've done over 500,000 tests, which is more than the other states that are near us combined, okay? so, we've been very aggressive here. but in all this time, we've only done 500,000 tests. now, that's a large number of tests. yes. but this is over a one-month period. and even 500,000 tests, you're talking about a state with 19 million people, right? so, you get a sense of the scale of what we have to do here. we cannot do it without federal support. and i've been saying this for days. if you have a state that has a lower need, yes, they may be able to do it.

but when you have a state that has to do a large number of these tests, i'm telling you, we can't too it without federal support, and i've said that from day one. we will coordinate, and we have been coordinating all of the tests in our state. that's how we got to that 500,000 number. more aggressive than i think anyone else. we have 228 private laboratories in this state. we will coordinate with them. we'll make sure that we're not competing with ourselves, because there are a lot of groups that are now testing. new york state department of health developed their own antibody tests, and that test is going to be very important, and it's in our control, because we'd actually do those tests. we don't need a private lab. we don't need anybody else. with those tests, it will go to about 2,000-per-day capacity, and that is a finger prick test,

so it's not terribly invasive. even i can endure the pain of that one. we've asked the fda to approve a state test that could get us to 100,000 people per day. to give you an idea, that's then 500,000 a week. if you don't work the weekends. and i don't know if you do and i don't want to raise something i don't know about, but 500,000 a week. we've only done 500,000 to date, right? so you get a sense of how powerful that would be, if the fda approves that. we're going to prioritize the antibody testing for first responders and essential workers. and this is important. we've all been saying thank you to the health care workers, and that's nice, but i've been talking to george gresham through this, the head of 1199, which represents many health care workers. his point has always been the gratitude is appreciated, but we

need support. the health care workers need support. they need the ppe equipment and they need the tests to make sure that they're not getting infected, or if they are infected, what is their status? and he's been exactly right. more than thank you. actions more than words, right? nurses, the same thing. nysna, they've been doing a great job. they need support, they need the equipment. they need time off. they need to recuperate. and the first responders, the nypd. pat lynch, who represents the nypd, has said to me from day one, my guys need support. guys being gender-neutral. they're out there every day. they live in the downstate area, and they work in the downstate area. many work, live in nassau, suffolk, westchester, rockland, orange, and they're working in new york city. they need not only ppe

equipment, et cetera, they need testing. they need to know if they've been infected for themselves and also, they could wind up being spreaders, if we don't know. and pat lynch and the nypd have been extraordinary here. okay. make them a priority for the testing that we can do and we can control, and that's the antibody testing, and we will. so, the more testing, the more open the economy. but there's not enough national capacity to do this. i've been speaking to governors across the country. every governor is now in the same situation. i was speaking with governor pritzker of illinois. he has some companies that do this testing in his state, but everyone is in the same position. and we have to be clear on this who does what between the federal government and the state government. the states cannot develop

national testing. there's no simple answer to it. it's basically controlled by private-sector companies who have been doing it at a reduced volume, because that was the world. you didn't need such a high level of tests. so, the private-sector companies only developed to the capacity that the market demanded. this is an entirely new market. and then when you talk to the private-sector companies, which i have, they'll say, i can't increase my volume. i can't get enough swabs. i can't get enough vials. i don't have enough machinery to manufacturer it or test it. they need chemical agents that are part of the test. many of these chemical agents aren't even manufactured in the united states, so there's an international supply chain. all this to say, it is very hard

to bring this to scale quickly, and we need the federal government to be part of this. testing capacity to me is like what ventilators were over the past month. all of a sudden because of this virus and the respiratory attack, we need massive numbers of ventilators. i never heard about ventilators before this. i now know more than i ever wanted to know about ventilators. but it came out of blue. they're very hard to manufacture. there's a whole supply chain. they're a sophisticated piece of equipment. and you just -- it's very hard to get them manufactured quickly. no one is to blame on ventilators. no one is to blame on testing. i know we're in a political world. well, who's to blame? who's to blame? sometimes there's nobody to blame, you know. on this testing situation, there's nobody to blame.

just how do we now do it? how do you scale this up and scale it up quickly? because we want to phase the reopening as fast as we can between now and a medical treatment and a vaccine, right? that's what we're doing. i do know this -- along my lesson of ventilators -- the answer on testing is not what happened on ventilators, which is 50 states competing against each other to buy testing capacity from these private-sector companies and the federal government, which is also buying testing capacity, competing against the 50 states. that is not learning the lesson of what we did before. so, partner with the federal government, 100%. but we need that partnership to do this. once you test, then you have to

trace the contacts. so, we test bernadette. bernadette turns up positive. okay, who were you with over the past week? what family members were you with? who do you sit next to in the office? you now have a list of 30 people. if it's bernadette, even more, because she's highly social, has a lot of friends. now somebody's got to run down that list of 30 people, from one positive! it's a detective-investigator in the public health space. that is a massive undertaking. it's intelligent, but it's massive. and that is an army of tracers. so, testing. you have to get that up to scale. and then tracing. yes, but that's a massive

undertaking that we