Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Senator Schumer Hold Media Availability on COVID-19

March 14, 2020

Video available at: https://youtu.be/rKzcfiiw24Y

Mayor Bill de Blasio: To hear of the death, the first New Yorker to die related to coronavirus. This is a very painful moment. This is a moment we all knew would come. That doesn't make it any easier. I want to say at the outset our hearts go out to her family, our condolences to them, and we will do all we can to support this family in this really difficult moment.

I'm going to speak to this situation and some other updates, but want to say at the outset how grateful I am. And we'll talk about in a moment how grateful I am, how grateful all New Yorkers should be to Senator Schumer for the work he's done on our behalf. You'll hear from him in a moment. I'll give some updates. Senator Schumer will offer his remarks. We want to ask questions, then of Senator Schumer while he's here, he has to depart to some other things. And then I'll continue with our Health Commissioner, Dr. Barbot with updates and a Q & A. Also want to thank our Deputy Mayor Raul Perea-Henze, and our CEO of Health + Hospitals, Dr. Mitch Katz. But back to this very painful situation. I think people know by now, 82-year-old woman, who on top of what she went through with coronavirus, previously had been diagnosed with emphysema. And I know way too much about emphysema. My own father suffered from it. And she had been hospitalized for emphysema previously, recently, before then being later hospitalized for coronavirus. She went in the hospital last week, one of our first cases and has been in critical - was in critical condition ever since. So again, our hearts are with our family and we also have to offer thanks to the people, the good people, the staff, the team, the doctors, nurses that Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, who did all they could do to support her and help her.

Want to give the overview very quickly and obviously as we have been unfortunately having to predict the number of cases, continues to grow in New York City. As of 10:00 am today we are at 183 cases and that is 29 new since we gathered together late yesterday afternoon. So again, 183 cases now in New York City. We're going to give you more information as we get it and we solidify numbers on hospitalization levels because obviously this is crucial to what's going to happen going forward. The latest numbers we have, and this is now based on 6:00 pm last night, so this is a different number than the timeline on the 183, and I'll always try and differentiate for you. But as of 6:00 pm last night we had 30 people in New York City hospitalized related to coronavirus, 30. And of those 30, within those 30, 19 as of 6:00 pm last night were in the ICU. And we can say so far based on our experience, about 80 percent of our total hospitalized cases, so of those hospitalized approximately 80 percent are over 50 and-or have preexisting medical conditions. That five conditions we've talked about previously and we'll continue to get more information as we go along. But we are seeing and it's a sad, sad reality and we saw it play out in the death of this woman today. Undeniably those who are in the greatest danger are those who are older and particularly those who are substantially older folks in their seventies, eighties and those with those serious preexisting medical conditions. That is the community we are most concerned about and keeps playing out time and time again. That's where the most severe problem is.

Another update, I'm going to tell you what we have here and the actions being taken to address it. We have a -- and I'm going to give you some information. We did not have every detail yet and we are still doing some notifications and actions so this is purposely partial information until we have further confirmation. We have a new confirmed case member of the FDNY, from a firehouse in Brooklyn. The member worked from Sunday through Tuesday, went home on Tuesday with symptoms and we'll get you the exact details on that. Tested positive late yesterday. While on duty the firefighter did not respond, I'm going to say again, while on duty did not respond to any medical runs or treat any patients. As a matter of precaution, 31 members of that firehouse will be quarantined immediately. Those who had worked with the member directly and the member is now quarantined at home. Other members of the house who were not in direct contact will take over the operations of the house. It's being cleaned right now. The firehouse will be fully operational and up and running at full capacity by 6:00 pm. There are other fire resources in the immediate area that obviously can cover any need in the intervening time. I spoke directly to Commissioner Nigro who's confident of the coverage levels that are available.

And you know, we've been very clear about the fact this is going to go on for months, this crisis. We are very clear who is most vulnerable, those older folks with preexisting conditions. I want to just say something I think is now a moral imperative for all New Yorkers, which is to protect those older New Yorkers who have those preexisting conditions. To really think about those who are most vulnerable among us and take actions accordingly. That means in your own life, even though you want to visit your older relatives and they really cherish those visits. If you're sick, if anyone around you is sick, it's not the time to visit. But that doesn't mean don't stay in touch with them. Call them, get on FaceTime, whatever else. There are older relatives who need support and we don't want to leave them alone, but we have to be smart about never subjecting them to anyone who might be sick. And when you are visiting with someone older and or with preexisting conditions, all those basics, washing your hands, using the alcohol-based hand sanitizer, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, social distancing, even when you're visiting, keeping some distance, we really need that. They need it. And even down to the point of everything that is available in our stores. Want people to remember, of course people are stocking up, but there's older folks in your life, neighbors, folks you worship with, family members of course, who may be low on supplies, share with them. Because we can't have those folks go without the things they need. So, everyone's got to think of this. And I said to you all yesterday and other times we're going into a full crisis footing. This is a wartime dynamic. We have to think about helping each other in different ways and it will take the people to solve this crisis, not just the government. So, we have to look out for each other.

Okay. Just a quick few sentences in Spanish, and then I want to say something about the actions taken in Washington as a preface to introducing Senator Schumer

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish:]

So, we've talked a lot about the problems we're seeing at the federal level. And I will note again what we are waiting for from the administration in Washington. But I have to start by commending Senator Schumer for his actions, which had been crucial. He has been constantly available, supporting the needs of New York City in New York State. He has intervened on numerous occasions on our behalf and obviously worked closely with Speaker Pelosi on the stimulus bill, which is a major step forward.

It is still astounding that the administration has not moved an aggressive program of testing. We are still waiting on FDA approvals for a number of companies. We are still waiting for direct support for testing. We are nowhere near where we need to be as a nation and I'm going to keep talking about the need to go on a wartime footing and nationalize or mobilize key industries. There is no reason on earth that the companies that produce ventilators are not on a urgent 24/7 production line right now to get ventilators produced on mass and distributed where they're needed in this country. There's no reason on Earth that there are not enough surgical masks in different parts of the United States or face guards or hand sanitizer. This all needs to be federalized in whatever way possible and production needs to be taken to maximum, immediately while we have a chance. And there's no inkling of that from the federal level.

So, the Congress, the House is acting and Senator Schumer is acting and we're waiting on the rest of the Senate. And I want to also note as astounding to me that the US Senate did not stay in session yesterday to be able to receive the action by the House and move immediately. I know Senator Schumer and I are united in that thought and that's not to say the least his doing that is Leader McConnell, but it just makes no sense. I mean this is, I think we've directed a lot of ire at the President and the federal agencies. But let's be fair, how on Earth did the US Senate go out of session in the middle of a national crisis and a global pandemic. That said the action the House took, and I know Senator Schumer was instrumental in, I believe the Senate will act on, parallels a lot of the things we've been calling for here and a lot of things we actually do here. Obviously, this is a city that now guarantees health care for all our people. I am heartened to see the legislation include free coronavirus testing, even for those who are uninsured. That is a major step forward. 14 days of paid sick leave, absolutely crucial, up to three months of paid emergency family and medical leave. These things that are finally happening that we need desperately, food security actions for students and vulnerable populations. We need all of this. I'll state the obvious for the future. These are policies we better put in place permanently, if we don't have paid sick leave nationally, if we don't have universal health care on a much more extensive level, good luck dealing with the epidemics and pandemics of the future and they are coming.

So, I hope this is a wake-up call to our nation that we need to go a lot farther. With that, I have to express profound thanks to Senator Schumer. We in New York City, I hope all 8.6 million New Yorkers know this. If this man were not here and was not taking care of us and watching out for us, not just on this issue, but on so many others, we would be in so worse shape, but he is indispensable. And he is a guy in his -- I'm going to say something, Senator, I think you should appreciate. His name originates from a word that is translated as guardian. And he has been our guardian in this crisis, he has stepped up in an extraordinary fashion. It's my honor to present to you the Minority Leader of the US Senate, Senator Chuck Schumer. And I will bump you right. There you go. That's right. Good.

Senator Charles Schumer: Well, thank you, Mayor. And thank you for the good and long work that you are doing as well as the hundreds of thousands of city workers who work for you in health care and first responding in all the other places where we need the help. So, what we passed last night or what the House passed last night is a lifeline. I'll get into the details in a minute. But we have a crisis in this country as seen by the unfortunate death last night. And I am really glad that Congress took action and our action was aimed at families, working people who were affected and need the help most desperately. And we passed the kinds of things that matter to them – free testing for the coronavirus. You do not want -- these are the six things – we do not want people who are – who might have it, but say the doctor will charge me a couple of hundred dollars. I'm not going to go and then walk around with it. We strengthened food assistance to both the elderly and the kids who were not in school for whatever reason. And that's their best meal and they can't get it. They are safeguarding the medical benefits. That's FMAP. I'll get to that in a minute. That's the real biggest benefit for New York directly. We enhance unemployment aid. If you're unemployed, all those poor people, you read about Broadway and Barclay's center, what are the people who collect the tickets or who clean the place up or who sell the food going to do? They don't have jobs, paid family leave, sick leave won't help them, but we've greatly expanded and made more flexible unemployment benefits so they can get them. And then there is paid leave, both family and sick leave. You get 14 days of sick leave, you get full pay and then you get another three months of family leave for yourself or if your kid’s home, if your spouse is sick or whatever else.

So those are good things. Very good things. Now, despite President Trump's downplaying the issue, pointing fingers of blame at all people like the press, calling it a hoax, tell the family of the woman who died that it's a hoax. And basically, just not stating the facts correctly. He was forced to go along with what Congress wanted. First the original bill, which dealt with the vaccines and getting our own health care agencies up and going [inaudible] remember, called for $2 billion. I called for $8.5 billion. The package we passed was $8.3 billion. Last Thursday, sorry, last Tuesday, I said he should declare an emergency so he can use FEMA and the dollars that FEMA has. He just said that yesterday. And maybe most importantly, these six things are what Nancy and I called for, Speaker Pelosi and I called for Saturday, last Sunday. And these are the six things in the bill.

No giveaways to oil companies or other things they were thinking of in the White House. So now, it was disgraceful that Leader McConnell left town last night. The Congress, the House was debating and voting. We could have had this done already, but he left. But now I am calling on Leader McConnell to move this package immediately when we return on Monday, as is. No new amendments to help some special interest. Nothing. Everyone's going to have a lot of good ideas. There's going to be a third package and a fourth package and a fifth package. But if we add things to this, has to go back to the House, back and forth. The people of New York and the people of America can't wait. So, Leader McConnell, let's get moving. Pass this package as is, ASAP. And I hope they'll do that.

Now, for New York. There are lots of benefits for New York, but none is bigger than what's called FMAP. And I have over the years I've been in the Senate used FMAP to channel money at times of need into state and local governments. And New York does better than just about anybody else because we have the large -- FMAP is Medicaid and we have the largest Medicaid population in the country. And traditionally the federal government pays 50 percent of Medicaid and the State government and the localities together pay 50 percent. In almost all states, it's only the state government. In New York and North Carolina, the locals have to pay. We have raised that amount to 56.2 percent. That's what the federal government will pay so the State and local share goes down concomitantly two 43.8 percent. That will mean $6.2 billion for New York on an annual basis. It's done quarterly. If you went to the quarter and still have the virus, you get it for the whole quarter so you can prorate it by one quarter. If you know, luckily enough, there is no coronavirus by the fourth quarter of next year, it'll be three quarters of the amount I give. And we divide the money between the State and the localities. New York City will get over $1 billion and that will be -- it will enable them, since it will help pay their Medicaid to use other dollars that might've had to go to Medicaid, to go to all the needs that you were talking about.

Mayor: [Inaudible]?

Senator Schumer: Well, I am a Brooklynite. We say next, when other people say this. 2020, fourth quarter of 2020. I always confuse that with my staff – this year, next year, this week, next week. I forgot who's right, which one is right and which one is wrong. Okay, so it’s fourth quarter of this year, 2020. The City gets a billion. The other counties and localities in the state get $400 million, the State gets $5.2 billion. There's a lot of money there. And it will be used to help our states and localities that are on the front line with all of their other expenses. It'll probably help the State review, solve some of their Medicaid problems that we've talked about previously as well. We used FMAP in 2003 when the fiscal, when there was a downturn and most notably, we used it very significantly and very successfully in 2008. And each time I wrote a provision into the law that localities could not be, they had to get a good share, a decent share of the money. And that's back in the law. And this time there's over $1 billion of employment benefits that go to the State. As I said, we loosened up unemployment, how quickly you can apply and under what conditions.

And then there's money in many other things. There's about $15 million from meals to seniors. There was money for all kinds of other things. And then there are all the things that we mentioned that go to New Yorkers, not to the city or state governments, that I mentioned before in terms of sick leave and in terms of paid leave, in terms of free testing, things like that. So this is really a lifesaver for New York during a difficult time, and that's what the federal government should do. So, I hope the -- I believe and hope the Senate will pass this quickly and then we will have to move on because there are other issues that we're going to have to deal with as well. This will not be the last coronavirus relief bill at all. Okay. I'll take questions on this subject if you have them. Yes.

Question: Me or Kate?

Senator Schumer: You.

Question: Okay. Not that you're describing is in the Senate bill you [inaudible] Monday or is it separate?

Senator Schumer: It's in the house bill and that's what sending – being sent to the Senate. Same bill.

Question: How much would Long Island get?

Senator Schumer: Long Island would get in the hundreds of millions I would think. Or the high tens of millions each county. They're the next two biggest counties in terms of Medicaid. I'll get you those numbers.

Question: My question is, I guess it's more for the Mayor or it’s about coronavirus –

Senator Schumer: We’ll do questions for me first because I’m –

Question: [Inaudible] some discrepancy on the number [inaudible] –

Mayor: Yeah. The Senator has to go onto other things –

Senator Schumer: Okay. Yes, ma'am?

Question: The free testing and hand soap [inaudible] is that already in [inaudible] –

Senator Schumer: That will take effect once this law is signed into law, but the president has said he will sign it.

Question: Have you been tested for coronavirus?

Senator Schumer: No, I have not been exposed.

Question: The family leave, can you just talk a little bit more about what that means and is it only if he gets sick with the coronavirus?

Senator Schumer: Yes. Yes.

Question: Okay.

Senator Schumer: We would have liked to have permanent family leave. That's a goal of mine. I know the Mayor agrees with that, but this was - and we originally, actually put seven days of paid sick leave as a requirement. Not family leave but sick leave. But the Republicans wouldn't go along with that but –

Question: [Inaudible] to get a confirmed. Like does it have to be a confirmed case of coronavirus since we're still at this period [inaudible]?

Senator Schumer: It doesn't have to be a confirmed - you have to show on family leave that you – if your child is home, if your loved one is home, if your parent is very sick, it would apply to all of them. And unlike most family leave where you get off but they can't fire you, here you get two-thirds pay. And by the way, one of the other advantages of this is it helps the economy because all these people who are out of work or not working might not have gotten paid and that would be a real crimp on the economy for all of us. They're going to have money in their pockets.

Question: What should be done to help the businesses that putting [inaudible] –

Senator Schumer: In this package is money for small business lending. We would like to get grants to small business. We couldn't get that through the Republican side, but we're going to try to get that in the next package.

Question: Dollar amount?

Senator Schumer: I think it's – I'll get you the number, I think it's in the tens of billions. It's either 30 or 50, I can't remember which one they ended up with. Okay. Yes?

Question: Is there any provision for part time workers or –

Senator Schumer: Yes, the part time workers would get paid their part-time salaries under both the sick leave and the paid family leave. Okay. Thank you, everybody and thank you, Mayor. Nice to see you all.

Mayor: Thank you.

Senator Schumer: [Inaudible] elbow bump.

Mayor: There you go. See? New habits. And Senator, thank you. You are allowed to do it, elbow bump, everyone is. Senator thank you, and thank you to Speaker Pelosi. Thank you to all the members of the house delegation.

Senator Schumer: Nancy Pelosi did a great job.

Mayor: She sure did.

Senator Schumer: [Inaudible] really proud.

Mayor: Amen. Thank you.

Senator Schumer: Used to [inaudible] 10 - 15 times a day the last week –

Mayor: God bless you. Thank you to Senator and again, Speaker Pelosi, an outstanding job. The members of our house delegation from New York really stepped up and you know, we have not been used to a lot functioning on the federal level in recent weeks. This is something that actually is progress and is moving, but we have to see the Senate move on it on Monday and the president sign it immediately. With that, I want to just turn to Dr. Barbot for a moment because she has some guidance to give New Yorkers because again, we have to constantly get the message out about how people should handle this situation.

Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Thank you. So, as the Mayor said, today we are announcing our first death related to COVID-19 and it's a difficult moment for the City and especially for the individual's family and our hearts go out to this family. And we are committed to providing them ongoing support during this painful time. I think it's an opportunity for us to be clear that with this outbreak we should not be surprised if we see additional deaths. I think it's a reality that we have to be clear with New Yorkers about that all of our efforts clearly are directed at ensuring that we minimize harm to New Yorkers, especially those that have these chronic underlying illnesses, but that we can't predict the behavior of the virus in all individuals. And so that's why it's incumbent on all New Yorkers to change our behavior so that when we say, don't go to work if you're sick, don't send your kids to school if they're sick, it has implications beyond the individual, beyond the individual's family, beyond the individual’s community. It has implications for all of us.

So, we need to make sure that New Yorkers are clear that if they are having symptoms, they should stay home. They should contact their providers if they're not getting better and that in this situation it's important for us to be testing those that really need to be testing. The social isolation that we are putting in place is really only going to work if New Yorkers change their behavior. And I think the last thing that I want to say because I can't say it enough, is the importance of frequent, thorough, consistent hand-washing, as well as covering your hands – excuse me –covering your mouth and your nose when you cough or your sneeze. Ensuring that you've got alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you are not close to a water source, ensuring that you don't shake hands, and I think it's okay for us to remind one another to say, uh huh, not shaking hands, glad to do the elbow bump. People are getting creative. But the point is, now more than ever, it's important for us to change our behavior and I don't want that message to be lost because, you know, as I've said in the past, we're in this for the long haul. I think our best estimate is sometime in September. We are always hoping for it to be shorter. We can't predict if it's going to be longer. So, these are things that we need to put into place on a regular, ongoing basis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Okay. Let us take some questions. Go ahead. Katie?

Question: I just wanted to ask, you said the number in New York City is 183 cases, but the state has it at 213, can you explain the discrepancy?

Mayor: Sure, if that – I have not seen the latest State – the State is getting results in obviously from a variety of labs and they have oftentimes information ahead of us and they share it with us and we update our numbers. So, at this point it's going to be a rolling basis. There's a lot of different sources of testing out there. We're going to update our numbers every time we confirm them. But honestly this is what we had at 10:00 am, it's not 10:00 am anymore.

Question: With all due respect before the press conference – I mean because we have put this out, this is being broadcast live on television in some cases, shouldn't that have been checked by [inaudible] or some of your team [inaudible] –

Mayor: Katie, again, with all due respect back, we're going to give the numbers that we have that we have confirmed as the latest. It's sometimes the State will have something that we have not yet confirmed, but let's be clear, if we update an hour later or two hours later, it's actually not changing anybody's lives. We're going to give the best information we have once we've confirmed it, but it's equal, bluntly, that we know we are in a crisis and I want you guys to have accurate information. We're not going to give you something until we're sure. This is the number as of 10:00 am. We're going to update it constantly.

Question: When did the woman pass away? What borough did she live in? Dr. Barbot?

Mayor: Yeah. I don't have the exact – do you have that? We don't we don't have that. We'll get you that as much as we can. Go ahead.

Question: What advice for New Yorkers who are HIV positive, are they in the category where –

Mayor: Oh, absolutely compromised immune system. Doctor or either one, whoever wants to jump in?

Commissioner Barbot: To the extent that individuals have the five underlying chronic illnesses that we have laid out and have additional diagnoses, they are certainly at risk. But HIV in and of itself with a well-controlled viral load - they don't have a standalone category. What we now know is that most individuals who are surviving with HIV are actually more likely to die from the leading causes of death that we all die from, which include heart disease, which is one of the major categories that we're concerned about. As one of the chronic illnesses that puts people at risk for COVID-19 bad outcomes. And let me just say again, to reemphasize, we've been saying that those that are at greatest risk are those with those five underlying illnesses and who may be above 50. But I also don't want us to lose sight of the fact that they're not the only ones that are at risk. This is a situation where every day we're learning more information and we're going to adjust our guidance as we learn more about what's happening here in New York City. But for now, that piece of information hasn't changed.

Mayor: [Inaudible] all get it right [inaudible] HIV/AIDs [inaudible] can we clarify the difference, sort of the spectrum, because I'm assuming – compromised immune disease [inaudible].

Commissioner Barbot: Nowadays, having HIV in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean that your system is immunocompromised. If you are well controlled, you're on the appropriate medications, you're controlling your viral load.

Mayor: But If not –

Commissioner Barbot: If not, then certainly. Yes.

Mayor: So that’s what we have to be clear. It’s a qualitative reality –

Commissioner Barbot: Correct.

Question: [Inaudible] press conference that you mentioned setting up drive-through testing centers. I know that's happening in New Rochelle. Can you talk about what sort of streamline testing?

Mayor: Sure.

Question: Are there going to be fever screening [inaudible] the way China is set up [inaudible] –

Mayor: So, we are discussing that literally today. The – look we saw in South Korea for example – every place is different. Let me be the first to say, and every scenario is different, but in South Korea, you know, very powerful results from an aggressive testing approach, that said that requires having the testing capacity. So, here's been the conundrum from day one and I think this is what the history is going to show at the end of this. If it – you know, I keep coming back to if our press conference was – first one was January 24th and we were calling for testing capacity then, you know, what a different world this would have been if the federal government in the first half of February had moved testing into as aggressive a stance as it could have been all over the country. I think we'd be having a very different reality because it would have allowed early on to do the testing, do the follow-up, isolate people, you know, do the tracing, all the things we needed to do.

There's a really fair argument that now we're in such an advanced place that testing can't play the same role it used to. But this – I would argue as a layman, the South Korea example proves that there is a strategic value that can be done, it can be achieved, if you have mass testing ability. So, we'd love to get to that point and we're on every possible source. I like the idea of the drive-throughs, if it’s done – and I think the State is doing this – on a prioritized basis. It's just a way of streamlining getting to the people who need it most. I would love even more to have the massive capacity to go deeper and deeper into the population, still prioritize, but much deeper into the population. So, if we can get the capacity levels up higher, I'd love to see the drive-throughs here as well.

Question: Okay. Just to clarify, is it still as a I think it was March 10th, the Health Department's protocol was each and every test had to be approved by the Department of Health. Like a health care provider has to call – call the hotline and say, can I do this test? Is that still the case now that [inaudible] labs come online?

Commissioner Barbot: So, I want to build on what the Mayor said with regards to testing. Now that the commercial labs are doing the testing, we are sending guidance to health care providers to really focus testing on those who need it. You know, at this point in time, having increasing testing capacity is really important for folks who are significantly sick and not getting better. There may be other jurisdictions where they're still not sure if they've got community-wide transmission and there is a different purpose for that. But in our situation, we know we've got widespread community transmission and so we need to focus, as the Mayor says, on testing people who are sick and not getting better.

Mayor: But the question was approval –

Commissioner Barbot: Oh you - they don't need our approval.

Mayor: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Barbot: They used to. Yes, they used to.

Question: When did that change?

Commissioner Barbot: We can get back to you. But the reason why they needed our approval was because CDC was very strict on limiting who it was that was able to be tested and so CDC gave us very strict guidelines about who was eligible for testing. But now that's been lifted.

Mayor: Yeah, that's really, this is a strangest thing I think for all of us to recognize. It feels like we're going through months or years of history, but it's actually only days. I mean, so we're talking about it's less than two weeks that we had the ability to do any testing of our own here. And yeah, it was really tight in the beginning. I mean, that's the irony. You know, the need was so great and we needed flexibility and speed and creativity for the federal government. We had a super tight regimen restricting. That's obviously gone out the window and now there's finally movement. The FDA approval for Roche was a very good example that there's finally a recognition of the need to expand. But there's so much more to do. There's a bunch of laboratories that still need that FDA approval. There still should be many more tests made available directly from the federal government.

There's so much more to do to put this on a really strategic footing, and you know, I'd like to see the whole federal government involved. You know, I think FEMA is starting to get involved because of the state of emergency. That's good. It should have happened already. VA, we talked about yesterday, one of the points that Dr. Henze made, you know, the Veteran’s Administration could be a part of this too with their capacity, the military, there's a lot of pieces to the equation that need to be advanced if we're really going to do the kind of testing we need and get the kind of supplies and medical capacity we need. We need an actual full federal response and we're still not even close.

Question: What would it take for you to consider closing the schools?

Mayor: It's going to be a day by day examination of all the facts. The –I talked about the CDC guidance sound, don't know if you were here yesterday, but I urge you to take a look at that.
It expresses the sheer complexity that attends to this, particularly when you're talking about such a vast number of kids in such a densely packed city. The – and we're going to have further conversations internally today. The pure public health strategic consideration is straight forward about closing the maximum things you can close. On the other hand, there are very, very pertinent health and safety dynamics. When you close, you create a series of additional new problems in terms of health and safety. When you close, you potentially compromise the hospital system and the health care system by the impact it has on health care providers who would hold back and not go to work, stay with their families, stay with their kids. Let alone, of course, the impact on children's education, but I think a very sobering fact is hundreds of thousands of teenagers without adult supervision. I think that's not just about health. It is. It's about all the other impact that has on their life. It is about the impact on safety. You know, we just have to look at a whole picture. So, we're going to be doing that constantly. But I think we have a lot to balance. And I'm holding where we are right now.

Question: [Inaudible] policies in the state of emergency that you've enacted or considering –

Mayor: The first policy is what we ended up in an absolute agreement. And I heard that there might be some misunderstanding of this. I want to clarify. I can't even, someone's going to have to help me on which day was which because they're all blurring together. But when I was on a New Day on CNN - was that Thursday morning? You know, on Thursday morning and we obviously Wednesday night was a seismic night, right? We saw just a huge amount of movement just on Wednesday night in this country, in this world, in terms of changes in our society. On Thursday morning, we were still trying to find a way to keep certain institutions open on hopefully a more limited basis, but even within hours as we compared our options, and then I consulted with the Governor, and he and I compared options, we agreed that we had to move to a more aggressive restriction. People have to understand this stuff is not days anymore. It is hours.

So, there's absolute unity between the City and State on the specific strategies. We'd agreed together that there had to be that 500 or more-person limitation. We agreed that there should be an effort to reduce capacity by 50 percent for everything else, because we wanted to try that, and see what it would do and see if it would work rather than shut down everything, which I think again comes with real unintended consequences. And this was before we knew that there would be some federal relief and we're going to factor that into the equation, if we see it's real, bluntly. That people are getting some economic aid that's going to also affect the equation. But even just Thursday, that was not a given.

So, all of these pieces are moving. Obviously, the State and City are unified on how we handle a school that has experienced a contamination or I should say a case and how we decontaminate clean, etcetera, get a school up and running. This is a constantly evolving situation, but we do believe in keeping as you know, keeping the unity of the State and City strategies to really consistent. And that's something that Governor and I are both committed to, but that means also one day at a time. And if we're not sure we're ready to implement a strategy we hold to get more information.

Question: Isn’t it hard to make that argument when the two largest school systems outside of New York City, LA, and Chicago, and Illinois making the decisions for Chicago and the LA unified school district, making the decision to close schools, the largest making the decision not to.

Mayor: Right –

Question: But you can now model it off of those two places?

Mayor: We don't model off anyone else. I mean, I'm not saying that to be disrespectful to the question. I think New Yorkers would agree there is no place like this literally –

Question: We modeled the restaurant grading after California –

Mayor: That’s not the same thing my friend. Hold on, hold on everyone. We're coming around but we are actually calling on people. Work with me, over here still. We have particular conditions and we have to look at the whole picture. That is a day to day assessment. There's going to be differences of opinion. There's going to be new information. We’re going to make decisions based on the facts and based on all of the factors. And again, I refuse to belittle the impact this would have on our health care system, which is the thing we care about the most. Absolutely the most. But I also am not ignoring all those other factors because I know a lot about kids and families – whose phone please? Someone want to turn off their phone, please?
Come on dude. I know you're deep in your art there, but you got to pay attention. There are so many factors to consult. Please look at that CDC guidance. It gives you real sense of the complexity.

Question: The guidance says eight weeks is the recommendation because of community spread to seniors. And I can't, like –

Mayor: I hear you, I hear you. But we are factoring in everything. And here's the problem again, the CDC says this, I'm not praying at the altar. I appreciate it analytically. So what happens to those kids?

Question: Their home, their parents have the ability to make decisions if the announcement is made today?

Mayor: What happens to those kids? Just tell me over – let's assume we're talking the entire rest of the school year, which is a very good likelihood. Like are they going to do? What's a teenager going to do?

Question: I'm not an expert at that. And we know –

Mayor: I'd like your personal opinion.

Question: Parents make the decision.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: Ask their grandparents system and ask neighbors to step in. That's what we did in the Bronx. I was growing up with the issue of childcare –

Mayor: So, and I'm going to tell you what else happens, and I guarantee it, and I've talked to a number of other parents who agree and people who work in this field and agree it's not a day. It's not a day, it's not a week. My tremendous fear here is when we shut down, if we shut down, we will not see this school year again. So now we're saying kids are going to have these months and then the summer and then we don't know when schools come back. So what are they going to do? They are going to go out in their neighborhoods -- they are not staying indoors. They're not staying in isolation. Guarantee. Teenagers? Guarantee they're going to go out and create all sorts of new social networks, all sorts of opportunities for spread. Families are not going to stay in their apartments. They're going to start socializing or coming up with something because they just won't be able to resist it. And you're going to have another version of the problem. And then people say, oh, the health care workers, why not just have centers for their kids? Okay, so we're going to congregate a lot of people in those centers. It gets more complex. That doesn't mean at some point, I might not say at any point -- now I factored in all the equations and I've decided we've reached that tipping point, but I'm not there today.

Question: Parents we talked with them -- I'm sorry, teachers we were talking to yesterday, say that the students are distracted anyway, the teachers are on edge. Some of them saying that they want to, thinking about protesting and not even coming to school next week. What is your response to that? And another parent that we talked with also says, you know, we're doing these parent teacher conferences on FaceTime, but you know, you're keeping us away from teachers and from these buildings. But if we have it and we give it to our kids, they're going to go back into the school and give it to other kids and teachers anyways?

Mayor: So again, let's, I understand the questions fully but, but this is true of everything in our society. I think there's also being -- there's a bit of tunnel vision on this question. Dr. Barbot has said to us a thousand times in just two weeks if you're sick, stay home. That's true for whatever, because again, so the kid who even -- say you have no school, if everyone who feels that way got their wish, then be careful what you wish for. Now you have hundreds of thousands of teenagers trying to figure out what to do. We have to deal with them wherever they are. If they're sick, they have to stay home no matter what because again, what are they honestly going to do? They're going to go out and about. So, whatever's going on, you've got to keep your sick children home. If you're an adult, you got to stay home. There are some things that are rules no matter what. We need people to do that right now, no matter what. If there's real adherence to that, and I think people are taking this pretty damn seriously right now. Then the kids who do go to school so long as school is up, there are going to be kids who by and large, there's a consciousness that they are not going to school sick. If anyone gets sick, we're sending them home, et cetera, et cetera.

But for the teachers who don't want to participate, I would only say this to them. Right this minute, this is a fact in New York City -- first responders, yeah there’s a challenge out there, but they're showing up for duty to serve and protect people. Health care professionals are showing up. Sanitation workers are showing up. City workers are showing up for duty. Overwhelmingly teachers are showing up for duty. Everyone who works in school buildings, even with that drop-off from Thursday and Friday, Thursday we were very close to regular attendance. Friday, we had a big drop off. But as we said, over 600,000 maybe 700,000 kids got served. So, the teachers who feel differently, they have a right to protest all they want. And they know what their contractual rules are and they have to make a decision. But there are rules of employment and the folks who are showing up and doing their work are the vast majority. That is the fact.

Question: [Inaudible] businesses, we've got -- we're with Channel 11 and we’ve got about a dozen phone calls this morning. Workers at Macy's Herald Square saying that they did test positive and people just don't know what to do because they're just told to go home. Nothing’s [inaudible]. Are you aware of that and what should coworkers do if someone is tested at the workplace?

Mayor: Sure, I'll start and then various doctors may want to jump in. The CEO of Macy's was actually in this room. Again, I'm losing track of days. What day did we meet with the CEOs? Does anyone remember? Was that Wednesday or Thursday? We'll come back. Thursday? Okay. And raised similar points. Very good. We obviously, Macy's is such a crucial institution in this city. And this is why the testing tactically could be important. Boy would I have liked the testing in February, you know, the beginning of February where it could have played a huge strategic role, but it still plays absolutely a tactical role at minimum, that allows you to know enough to make the adjustments in a workplace, for example. So, I would love us to get to the day where we could get the testing so extensive that we could answer that kind of question. Obviously, if someone was sick in the workplace and had a negative test, it would tell everyone something very important. Someone is sick and had a positive test, we'd want to know who they were in direct contact with. Not, were they in the building at Harold Square, you know, on the first floor. That doesn't affect the eighth floor. You know, we want to know who they were in direct contact with. And those folks of course should be isolated. We need to get to that point. This is why we keep saying every hour and we keep pushing the federal government and trying to appeal at all levels of the federal government for more and more help on the testing because what you describe is what we want to go.

Now for here and now, and I'll segue into one of our doctors. Right now, I think the common sense is if someone's feeling sick and they are at home, don't go to work. And you feel sick at work, get out of the workplace immediately. And you don't assume just because someone felt sick, because remember you can feel sick from a lot of things, you can't go like, oh, someone felt sick, now the whole place has coronavirus. It has to be a process around it. We want people to get out of there immediately. And then from there, the normal testing and Dr. Barbot will go into greater detail. But to finish, typically we want to see if you have, I'm going to say it and you'll correct anything you don't agree with or you can refine, cold and flu type symptoms. Get home, isolate, gets better, that's great. Doesn't get better. Doctor's office or medical facility or Urgent Care, BioFire test. That's 26 more, in my words, typical diseases. You got one of them, you don't have coronavirus. You don't got one of them. Now we definitely want to test you. That's my simple progression. Doctor, will you refine? We'll come back to -- let's get this part right.

Commissioner Barbot: So, the advice in that situation would be as follows, because of the fact that we don't have diffuse access to rapid testing on site, right? We need people to make common sense judgements. And so, in that situation, if someone is diagnosed as having COVID-19 the first -

Mayor: Can I stop you? Could you go back first, to the person who is just sick, [inaudible]?

Commissioner Barbot: If the person is just sick? Go home, don't come to work.

Mayor: And then what is the regimen for figuring out what's going on with them and what it means for the rest of the workplace? So, what I reviewed, is that right? Or do you want to vary that anyway?

Commissioner Barbot: So, okay, let's start from the beginning. I work at Macy's and I have symptoms. I take myself out of circulation because Dr Barbot, as the City's doctor has said, and let me just clarify this here. Initially we were saying 24 to 48 hours. I'm now extending that because what we're learning is that many people do get better in that amount of time. So now I want New Yorkers to wait three or four days. If you're not better in three or four days, I want you to reach out to your doctor. Your doctor will then make the clinical decision to understand if you want to have a BioFire or if it's indicated to have BioFire, BioFire positive stop, do not pass go. Go back to work when you're fully asymptomatic. BioFire negative, your doctor makes a determination you need COVID-19 testing, COVOD-19 testing positive, go home, stay home for the 14 days.

In the meantime, your coworkers, because we know that there is a lag in the test turnaround time -- use good judgment, which means if you are symptomatic, we want people to self-monitor, right? What that means is that if I know that I didn't share utensils, that I wasn't, you know, holding hands with the individual that had you know, general contact in the office, then what I would do is monitor myself. Am I feeling like my throat is getting kind of raspy? Am I developing a little bit of a cough, a little bit of a fever and as I've been saying since the very beginning, have a low threshold for staying home, right? I stay home, I take Dr. Barbot’s advice. If I'm not better in three to four days, then I get tested. Because the reality is, as we've been saying, we have to assume that coronavirus is everywhere and 80 percent of the people are going to be having mild symptoms. And we want to reserve doctors, offices, emergency departments, we want to reserve testing for people that really need it.

Question: Yeah. So, this is more of an economic question. Obviously, you focused on the issue, but there's a tremendous economic impact. [Inaudible] the social distancing. I know you created a small business loan program. Businesses that I've talked to haven't been able to apply and it's just a survey online. Is the City doing enough to help small businesses? And are you worried about the effect that this is going to have on the City's economy?

Mayor: Hugely worried. Again, what we think of as a normal timeline, just I want everyone to erase your brains and neuralize yourself and you're now in a whole new world where the stuff that happen -- that used to happen over a month or a week now happens in a matter of hours. So this situation is changing so constantly it's almost impossible to make normal sense of. So now again, we're on that kind of wartime footing where we have to see things very differently. Two days ago, in terms of understanding the economy and small businesses in particular, you would say something different even then versus what you say today. We're obviously deeply concerned about what's happening in the stock market. We're deeply concerned about the overall trajectory of the economy, if we're going into a major recession overall. But then the other factor is what is the federal government going to do? They are the central actors economically in terms of the kind of relief they can provide, stimulus, et cetera.

What's happening in Washington now with the House is real progress. I would not say it is comprehensive, but it's real progress. Senator Schumer just told you there's more coming behind that. To the extent that deepens and deepens and deepens and you know, almost in the style of the New Deal really reaches deep into people's lives. Direct grants to small businesses, all that kind of thing. That's when I think we're at the point where you can really, really protect people and their livelihoods. I don't think we're there yet. So, we have to understand and is in my decision making, I worry about a tipping point and I think I've been clear about it. We are one part of the big national equation, but we're a very prominent, crucial part of it. And what I do not want to inadvertently exacerbate is that very slippery slope into a full-blown economic recession.

Again, we're just one part of the equation. But we have to be very smart about what this part of the equation does. Full blown recession is going to have ramifications far beyond the coronavirus. Coronavirus I take very, very seriously. Coronavirus is going to be over at a certain point and the vast majority of people are going to come through it. But if we have another Great Recession, which we are literally to this day still feeling the effects of the last one, we could be playing with that fire right now. I think people have to be sober about it. There's also a societal breakdown question, which is very much in my mind. And the public health folks are doing their damnedest here to bring all of their knowledge and all into the equation. But the equation has gotten much more complex in the last 48, 72 hours because now it's not just a question of public health. It is a question of the potential of fundamental societal of degradation. You're talking about simple things like businesses that will close and never come back. You're talking about the potential of a full-blown major recession. But you're also talking about dislocations that could be much deeper.

The object lesson is Italy where you're talking about things that will have years and years of effect, and people's lives that will never be the same in a much deeper kind of way. So we're trying to figure all that out. And what I don't want is those dominoes to fall so quickly that employment recedes drastically in New York City, that basic services are compromised. Remember you know, right now in Italy there's only pharmacies and grocery stores. That's pretty much it. And I'm not saying we're on that track because I think we are much better set up to address things in Italy, but I'm also a realist about how quickly things can change. And I think trying to hold the line at a higher level, again, my view, protecting the health care system, protecting the transit system, and to the extent we can I want to protect the schools. So all of these pieces come together and everyone's watching and people are taking cues from the decisions of government and the more radical our decisions, the more radical their behavior will be. So, these are things that we have to factor in.

To the small business question. I want to understand what's in the House bill. I think there sounds like there's some substantial small business relief. Our programs are brand new but we intend for them to act quickly. So, I want any information. If you can share it with our team, if you have cases, examples that can help us with quality control, those $75,000 – up to $75,000 zero interest loans, we want to get those – we are liquid, the City of New York is liquid right now. We want to get money in the hands of those businesses. The grants, which I think I'm right in saying, up to $6,000 direct dollar, direct grants, we want to get it to anyone who qualifies. If our system is not on a war footing itself, we need to fix that right now. It should be a fast, fast application turnaround.

Question: [Inaudible] this week [inaudible] –

Mayor: Again, we're trying to get, not surprisingly, on that full of war footing. I want to know what you're hearing and please share the specifics. I'll go with the team today to analyze what the turnaround time is. It has to be very fast. No question. Anyone who hasn't gone first?

Question: Well, I've also heard that there's been some employees who've been complaining that their employers are forcing them to go to work and they feel like if they don't show up to work, even if they're feeling sick, like they might lose their jobs. And I'm wondering if there's any way that the city can help these people understand that it's more important –

Mayor: Well, again, I'm going to ask everyone in the media, your questions always help us, but your specifics help us more. You don't have to shout out in front of a room, but I'd beseech you, if you know of specific cases, you can say it quietly to our press and communications team. We need to know these things so we can go at the individual situations and fix them. The messaging as – I mean, again, I had a number of the biggest employers in New York City in this room 48 hours ago, couldn't have been clearer. And to their credit, they agreed that sick people should stay home. They agree that anyone that got sick at work should go home. They agreed that they should maximally telecommute. We had one of them – MasterCard, they said they were close to a hundred percent telecommuting at that point, if I remember correctly. They agreed on staggered schedules. I don't hear a lot of folks in the private sector not getting the memo right now, it's pretty clear. But if someone doesn't get it, private sector especially – public sector, we have a reality of, we are here to protect and serve people so we need to stay at our post no matter what. But clearly even we're saying if you're sick, stay home. But if a private sector entity is telling someone, come in, even though you're sick, first of all, they're idiots. Second of all, they're doing something dangerous and we need to know about.

Question: In the same grain – I spoke to Uber drivers and yellow cabbies and they're saying, ‘there's no way, if I don't draw, I don't get paid, what do I do?’

Mayor: Correct. And that's where the – so again, separating the small businesses where for a number of them we have grants and loans that we can help with, much, much more important. The state I know is doing some important work. And the federal government's the ultimate. So everyone here is a mature adult. We understand the hierarchy, the cities – any city can do something, states can do more, federal government can do unimaginably big things because they print money, right? I mean it's just reality. And we saw it in the New Deal and we've seen it in other crises and wars and everything. The federal government, at this point, I mean, is there anyone who's seriously talking about debt or deficit anymore in general in the United States, let alone in the middle of a pandemic? No.

So, the federal government could do what the hell they want right now and they could provide massive relief to small businesses and employers. I think the legislation that we understand, the stimulus does some of it. What I want to know is, is it anywhere near what we need? And I'm heartened by the Senator's point that more is coming soon. That is the ideal way to address the situation. Folks who have not gone once – just want to do a last call. And now we will start around again, but hold on, I have an update. Hold on. Standby. Standby.

Okay. We have a – this is a one of our public schools. I. S. 27 on Staten Island. I had gotten a report on this before coming in, but it wasn't complete now we have more. We have a confirmed case of coronavirus, but is a student who, as I understand it, was not in school, I think, all of this last week. We're going to confirm that, but was not in school while symptomatic for sure. Did stay home, which is very good. The protocol that the City and State agreed on, is now in effect. So the cleaning will happen now. The contract tracing will happen immediately. And at this moment, that school I. S. 27 on Staten Island, we will reopen Monday. And the school community has been notified. Okay. Yes?

Question: [Inaudible] not in school all week.

Mayor: Not in school all week. This last week. Katie?

Question: So, I wanted to ask about closings, not schools but other City facilities and then the cleanliness as well [inaudible] I've received questions from people about senior centers. If the Department for the Aging [inaudible] senior centers because some facilities have been closed, some have stayed open. And then secondly, you know, City-run pools and gyms, I've heard people who say there aren’t appropriate cleaning supplies. Are there any kinds of plans to mitigate that? And then –

Mayor: Katie, you and I are going to be working together a lot. I think you know my – I beseech you, collegially, just one at a time and I'll give you answers to each, but just help me to be accurate.

So let me – I need to do a reality check. Doctors, because this is – I was literally getting these questions from people the other day. I want to make sure. The pool itself, which I think across the board is chlorinated in New York City – the pool itself, the water in the pool, I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask the experts, can you can track coronavirus from the water in the pool? No is the answer. Okay. So, and we have also said not through drinking water or other beverages, not through eating food. But to Katie's question in a pool facility, a locker room, or whatever it is, you – of course, contact concerns, etcetera. So your question, I want to go back to your question is, is there sufficient cleanliness and should they be open?

Question: Yeah, I mean, perhaps more important are the senior centers. I didn't mean to reverse my questions, but is there going to be guidance for senior centers run by the Department for the Aging, even through contracts, but then also just generally what the cleaning is at a lot of these City facilities?

Mayor: Yeah, so the broad answer, and we can get more detail – every agency has been sent repeated guidance on heightened cleaning protocols everywhere, every agency, every kind of setting. So that I have confidence in. The follow through – we're all, again, mature adults here. We know that each institution, each setting, each location needs to be monitored to make sure they're really following through and we're going to make sure supervisors are doing that. But I don't have a doubt in the world about the basic guidance. I definitely want to know more about the follow through and the monitoring. We will get back to you on that.

On the question of senior centers themselves and equally on pools or rec centers – we're going to look at each and everything in turn, but there are some real questions here about, again, how much are we going to compress society and where does it take us? For a lot of seniors, they have literally nowhere to go. So now if you take senior centers out of the equation and if you take, you know, potentially pools and rec centers out of the equation, you have just taken a whole lot of life away from people. We’ve got to make that decision very soberly. I worry about that. I worry about it for people’s overall health. And by the way, meanwhile, and this is something we've all talked about while we're dealing with coronavirus, what about everything else health wise? Someone who's not getting more exercise, someone who doesn't have a social life, the impact on mental health. We got to think about all of this.

But these, you know what – we're also not going to be reticent to close things we need to close. With senior centers, we have very strict protocols about no one is sick is allowed to come in obviously. But we're going to look at every piece of that equation to see if we want to go even deeper and those decisions will be made quickly.

Question: [Inaudible] I realized that the city's three public library systems, you do not control that, the City provides substantial funding to. So the New York Public Library decided to close their facilities this week, but the Queens and Brooklyn Public Libraries have remained open. I've heard from a lot of people that say that's very confusing. I wanted to know if you provide guidance to these libraries. Some people say it gives a mixed message because you're suggesting social distancing, but then keeping these facilities open while realizing that they are very important [inaudible] –

Mayor: The mixed messaging challenge is a constant. And, again, where do you draw the line? It’s something we're talking about daily. Is there a mixed message and telling our public servants who need to protect us and serve us that we need them at work, when we're also saying social distancing? Of course, these are challenges, right? If you want to do Italy – and I don't – you could shut down everything in sight and then you're still going to need a certain amount of public servants, but we're not there. We want to strike a balance and we're trying to discern that balance every day. We've definitely talked with the library systems. The library systems, again, play a crucial role for young people, for seniors. They can practice social distancing like any place else. They can make modifications. But I think there is a massive fallacy in this discussion. As you keep closing, what do 8.6 million people do?

And this is real world. We want our young people to be safe. I don't think anyone wants to see a bunch of young people outside getting into other types of danger. So now what are you going to take away from them? If you take away their schools and you take away their recreation centers and you take away their life, where are they going to go? What are they going to do and where do you strike that balance? As opposed to the qualitative, which I think is the real question right now. So it's fine – no one's happy we don't have sports or theaters or you know, a lot of those things, but we can at least acknowledge those are less vital to human life than a lot of these other institutions. Less daily, if you will, less basic. I'm sad those things are gone, but we can deal with it.

But we have to figure out where that balance is. So today I say to the library systems that stayed open, I think they did the right thing. But they're obviously doing a lot of measures to make the adjustments. And it's almost like the – your first question follows your second question. You know, we're going to put everything else that's still surviving up on the board every day and say, are we holding or are we making a change and how far are we retrenching? How far are we retreating and where's that point we should not go past?

Question: [Inaudible] about the libraries closing, did you express any concern about that?

Mayor: Yeah, I disagree with it. But they had made the decision without consultation with us, which was a mistake in my view.

Question: You said we're not Italy. Are you confident we're not going to be there in two weeks as some projections have suggested? And can people still really be going to bars and clubs and venues with half capacity? Is that a responsible thing to be doing right now?

Mayor: Again, daily reality. The Governor and I have talked about this and we’re going to keep talking about it. We are reserving our rights in an ever-changing situation to take any standard and intensify it, you know, to go to deeper closures, whatever it may be. One day, I'd love to be able to stand before you and say we're going to be able to open things back up again. I don't think that's anytime soon. And that sobriety is affecting my decision making. When I talked about openly the schools yesterday – you know, I don't think there is such thing as temporary closure. So, it's fair to say every day we're going to be evaluating and we're going to come up here with adjustments. Private institutions are going to make their own decisions. When we decided – the Governor and I had a deep conversation about this 50 percent concept, and we did it – and I've talked about this in the past, I'm going to use this to make a parallel. History shows us that in crisis relatively few people have a perfect, absolutely tried and true plan. A lot of times you have to take your best understanding and then implement it and see what works and what doesn't work in real conditions. I often refer to the New Deal, which a lot of us put on a pedestal today. Some of it worked perfectly and brilliantly and other pieces of it were absolute failures instantly, and those things were done away with, and we don't even remember their names in history. But I assure you, I've read the history, there was a bunch of initiatives that did not work and they got rid of. We're going to try this. We think the 50 percent could be helpful in this sense. People still have some employment. Businesses don't have to fail. And I assure you, a failing business today, a number of them will never come back, and I don't like that one bit. People still have some place to go, but with distancing. But we knew – I knew, I'm sure the Governor knew that just that very limitation would cause some places to choose to shut down, and lo and behold, we see that. There have been bars and restaurants and companies that say, if I'm at a 50 percent limitation, I'm stopping right now. That's their choice. But I am not ready today at this hour to say, let's have a city with no bars, no restaurants, no rec centers, no libraries. I'm not there. And we will make that judgment every hour of every day. The other thing too factor in – the Italy question. I don't think there's anyone who knows that answer perfectly, but I will tell you a couple of things I think are just plain fact. The trajectories, very different – they were in – they went from nothing to full blown crisis with extraordinary speed.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Excuse me?

Question: [Inaudible] you’ve only conducted 2,000 tests –

Mayor: Again, I think you can – I'm very comfortable. I'm very comfortable. It's not just about the test, it's about everything that happened there and the speed and ferocity with which it happened, the concentration of it, the way it spread. Look, we're talking about the United States of America – look at the pattern. It's not the same pattern as Italy. That's just a fact. Also, bluntly, with all due respect to their health care system and their government, they don't have the capacity across Italy that we have in New York City. There's no parallel. There's no place in Italy that has the capacity in New York City. That is a fact. That does not mean we're not very sobered by what happened there. But in other European countries – so, let's compare modern industrialized countries – there's no two countries that had the exact same experience. That's also a fact. So, I'm going to argue to you that I think the level of preparation here was entirely different and the follow-through has been entirely different, but that does not mean we don't look at that with extraordinary concern. And we're going to have a discussion today and make decisions and another one tomorrow and the next day for the duration.

Okay. Few more and then we'll be done.

Question: [Inaudible] go back in schools. Your worst-case scenario is coming up in April, with a forced 10-day closure of schools because of the Easter break, spring break. This is your worst-case scenario in that kids are out of school, they don't have libraries to go to, they’re in the park –

Mayor: They do have libraries to go to right now, but go on.

Question: They don't have the public library to go –

Mayor: Again, did you hear – respectfully, I'm not trying to mess with you, I'm trying to get accurate. You just heard your colleagues say that Queens and Brooklyn are open right now. I want to make sure we’re –

Question: [Inaudible] that kids are out of school with very little things to do. Is there a consideration that schools would be closed after that break? Is that a pilot you're looking at?

Mayor: I'm not doing projections because it's not responsible. I'm telling you where we are today and I'm also being as honest as I can be that that could change tomorrow or next week, because it's based on information every single day and that's just not about schools. That's about everything – everything. And we're going to be making, you know, big strategic decisions and when they're the kind that the City and State should make together, there has been a real commitment of both governments to make those decisions together. So, this is not something I'm going to project to you. I agree with you, the vacation comes with its own dynamics. I would also say that is different because it's something people have experienced every single year and are used to, as opposed to something that jolts the very fabric of the school system.

Okay. Anything else?

Question: A couple of questions – most New York households do not have cars and the President is setting up drive-through testing, as is the State. Is there a counterpart program for folks who don't have cars to be tested? And I have just another question –

Mayor: Yeah. I mean, I would say the notion to me is not just surely drive-through, but centers where people can be tested, whether it's drive-through or something else. But again, boy that would be nice if we could have the tests, right, on a really mass scale and could still prioritize. And I think I'm getting this right, doctors, that even the Westchester center is on a priority basis and a reservation basis. And that's where we would begin, by definition, until such time if we were so blessed as to have truly pervasive testing.

Question: [Inaudible] enforcing capacity as far as the restaurants? Are there spot checks?

Mayor: Yeah. That's – again, this is so brand new, but the goal will be to mobilize whatever appropriate agencies to start doing that kind of – just the same way we enforce everything else. I think we have something going for us right now, which is ubiquitous information. I'm sure there are people who want to get really, really close to their fellow New Yorker and are not heeding the warnings. But I think there's a whole lot of other people who are hearing this idea of social distancing and acting on it. I've had almost no one in the last 48 hours offer a handshake. Like, literally – it's amazing to me. I've been in contact with a whole lot of people and everyone's doing this, or they're doing this, or they’re doing something. I think rapidly people are understanding that I think a lot of stuff is just happening, so that's one part of it, but we do need to enforce and we do need to put a coherent mechanism in place. And I don't want to see a bar where everyone's crowded up next to each other and we have to step into that case. So, we'll have more how we're going to do that over these next few days.

Please –

Question: For the doctors, are you suspicious of the low rates among young people? Is that because they’re asymptomatic and they have it? Are you worried [inaudible] if they are symptomatic?

Mayor: If they are asymptomatic –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: This gets to the [inaudible] question, what we feel about spread when you are asymptomatic.

Commissioner Barbot: Yeah. So, I have been asked that question before in these press conferences and I think I've been clear to say that while it may be theoretically possible for people to spread while asymptomatic, they're certainly not the reason why we're seeing an explosion of people with COVID-19. We've been very clear to say that when people are symptomatic with fever and a cough, fever and shortness of breath is when they are most likely to be transmitting. And that's why we've been so clear that we don't want to test the asymptomatic people, right, because we're going to get potentially false negatives. And that's been the emphasis from the beginning.

Question: I was wondering, you know, we've gotten so much information about New Rochelle and we’re able to consider this and hotspot. Is there anything more you can say about specific neighborhoods in New York City? Give us any kind of specific –

Mayor: No, and that's a good thing. I did the breakout yesterday. It's obviously widely distributed. But there’s not – and I'm checking the doctors, because, again, what we said yesterday at 7:00 pm may be different than what we say today at this hour. The only cluster that I have heard of in the New York metropolitan area is Westchester. So, God bless us all, and we'd like to keep it that way. Widespread is a challenge, clusters are at deeper challenge, and, so far, it's only Westchester. But ask me in an hour.

Question: Do we know of the cases, the proportion of which are unrelated to community spread –

Mayor: What does that mean?

Question: Like, the 83-year-old woman was an isolated case and maybe then there was a chain of people that were tested around her. Like, how many individual people –

Mayor: I’m going to try and reinterpret and see if we're on the same page. So, travel – let me just go back to the beginning. Travel has – it's not – I would argue it hasn't entirely left the building, but it's basically it's community spread. And as you get deep in community spread, you cannot trace the origins. Right? So, you trace the contacts whenever you can and you isolate the contacts.

Question: [Inaudible] how many people – are you tracing their contacts?

Mayor: Everybody that we talk about when they have a confirmed case, we're tracing the contacts. We're trying to keep up, there's a lot of work to do. But the goal is, you know, obviously when you get it, as quickly as possible, you're tracing the contacts.

Question: [Inaudible] one of those is a case of community spread across the city.

Mayor: Again, I think – I'm really working with you, I think there's a definitional problem. And I'm going to try and the doctors are raring to get in.

[Laughter]

Unless you have – let me try this, doctors, you'll be my panel and experts – unless you have proof of a travel nexus, it is community spread, or you got it from someone already had it, but overwhelmingly they got it from community spread. So, it's almost like immaterial at this point. It's, all we need to know is – if someone has it, then we need to do the follow up. Is that a fair – simple – simple-ish – you can modify. You can add. You're allowed to add.

[Laughter]

Question: [Inaudible] presumably, some are husbands and wives, sons and daughters of people that were treated. How many unconnected cases are we talking about?

Mayor: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Barbot: I got you –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Barbot: But you can't do the back tracing. But yeah, in essence –

Mayor: [Inaudible] I’m sorry [inaudible] what do you mean, you can’t do the back tracing?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Barbot: So, by definition, when we are investigating an outbreak, it is – we have clearer lines of transmission when we have fewer people who are affected. And so, I think the cleanest example is with measles. Because it's a reportable condition, you know, when the measles outbreak happened it was because we had someone who came in from the outside where clusters were happening internationally. An astute clinician alerted us to the fact and we were able to in essence jump on that, right, and track down – this person had dinner with that person, went to the store with that person. And given the transmissibility, meaning that it's got like a 90 percent attack rate, we have a pretty good idea of who was where, when, and who was at risk. The challenge with something like COVID-19, especially as you get more community transmission, is that, because of the fact that the travel nexus now is pretty much irrelevant, meaning, it doesn't matter if you've been to China, doesn't matter if you've been to Italy, it doesn't matter where you've been because it's in over 80 countries around the world, and because of the fact that we're having transmission from other places in the state, other places in the United States, that web, if you will, that family tree of the outbreak gets ever more complicated and so you can't trace back. And so, that's why as this outbreak matures, the work of the disease detectives then becomes even more important for those individuals that are very sick in the hospital. And that's where, you know, we're going to start seeing a pivot to focus on those that are very sick and especially protecting our health care workers.

Mayor: I don't want there to be gray about sort of back and forward. So, what I'm trying to define clearly is when you have communities spread, where it came from, where in someone's life they may have made that contact is less pertinent. But we still, whenever humanly possible, want to know who might be most vulnerable we need to follow up on. That is still true. Now, volume is going to be a giant challenge, to the point Dr. Barbot made, and there's obviously cases that you have, you know, greater concern and lesser concern depending on the specifics, but I just want to sort of say wherever an individual got it along the way is less important than who they came in contact with who might be now vulnerable that we need to connect with.

Deputy Mayor Raul Perea-Henze, Health and Human Services: I think you said it all, but just to add – if you remember, at the beginning, we could trace the contacts back to the cluster in New Rochelle, because that became such a big hub that we could talk about the lawyer and some of the family and all of that. The way it looks right now is much more spread and we are constantly looking for any information that could lead to a cluster, which is what we want to avoid at all costs, because we don't want to have the situation that New Rochelle is having by just the explosion in one cluster.

Mayor: Last call and we are going to close down.

Question: Where’s the fire house in Brooklyn?

Mayor: We’re not saying the specific. Again, we're doing still some work on details and notifications. So, Brooklyn, details TBA, open again at six.

Thanks, everyone.