Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability on COVID-19

I thanking the men and women of the NYPD and the parks department and all of the agencies that had our enforcement agents out yesterday all over the city and large numbers out there protecting people's lives by making sure there were no large gatherings by making sure that social distancing was being enforced I am so appreciative for everyone who is out there from all those agencies who are giving out face coverings and I know people really appreciated that a great effort yesterday and only a beginning because as more and more members of the NYPD are coming back on the job some of whom of course were sick some of whom are still fighting against this disease or even in the hospital and our thoughts our prayers are with all of them all the people who work for this city on behalf of you who are still fighting this disease our hearts and prayers are with all of them all of you all of your families but what I am so proud of yesterday was a strong effort across the whole city by the NYPD the Parks Department all these agencies to make sure that these rules are being forced to make sure people had what they needed and this is just the beginning more will come as we get more and more personnel back and we're going to deepen these efforts there a more and more efforts to give out those face and coverings more and more efforts to educate people but as I've made very very clear and Commissioner Shea has made very clear more and more enforcement efforts as well in every single part of the city now I have to put that in context we of course need enforcement as part of life but the big story here is what New Yorkers have done right there's always going to be exceptions there's always going to be some people who don't get the message or are thinking about themselves and not other people but the vast majority of New Yorkers have really risen to the challenge powerfully I want to thank you it's been amazing to watch how carefully vast majority of you are going about social distancing how many people are already wearing face coverings not perfect yet but by the way this is something we would never have imagined just a few weeks ago but when you go out there you see I've been enable it's all over the city in the last week or two noticing that the vast majority of people were in face coverings and we're gonna make that easier and easier but people are doing it right overwhelmingly we need people stick with it we need anyone who hasn't gotten the memo to get the memo because that's the only way we're gonna get through this but New Yorkers you have a lot to be proud of and that's the big story here now it's important to always remember the direct connection between what you do and what happens to the whole city and what happens to our future comes back to those indicators we go over each day now on Friday I talked about what we had seen over the last few weeks and it's overwhelmingly good news we know we're not out of the woods yet but it's good news for sure but today I want to focus on the challenge what today I want you to understand that when I talk about the danger of this disease reasserting it's not an idle idea it's not an idea somewhere someone just thought about but it's never happened it's an idea that unfortunately comes from the real-life experience that we've seen in other parts of the world this danger that if you let your guard down the disease can reassert and setback everything so when New Yorkers think about the question I hear so often from people how do we get back to normal I want you to think about it is every one of us that gets us back to normal it's your responsibility it's my responsibility is all of our responsibility to get back to normal we all play a role in this effort and when you think about what would it mean if we didn't do it right what should we be afraid of what should motivate us not just going to want to do the right thing and we want to get back to normal what should be motivating us to be aware of to be worried about that will keep us keep us on the mission keep us focused I'll come back to that ugly word that dirty word I mentioned the other day boomerang that's the word I want you to think about when you think about what could go wrong I've told you a lot about what's gone right but I want you to look at that image of the boomerang get it in your mind and think about that's the thing you do not want we cannot afford a boomerang with this disease in this city now it's a ferocious disease I think we've all established you know you all have seen painfully so many of us experienced in our own families their own lives why it's such a dangerous disease and this is not as easy I'll just walk away and leave us alone and go quietly into the night know we're gonna have to fight it back if we want to rid ourselves of it look the danger is bounce back a boomerang where disease seems to be going away and then reasserts and the cases come on more and more and the numbers go up and more and more people are afflicted and that would set back a restart and a recovery by a long time and I'll give you real examples to show you what's happening some other places where that's exactly the problem they had they jumped too soon in various ways and then their restart and recovery took a lot longer so now the question I'm sure you will ask yourself as well what can I do to make sure we don't have that boomerang to make sure we don't have that happen here and the answer is that we need to stick with what's working we need to understand that the restrictions in place are working and that they only get relaxed carefully and slowly there's no on/off switch here it's not like you have all the restrictions one day in the next day you're back to normal I don't think people even expect that anymore I think people understand we'll be fighting this disease in different ways for quite a while doesn't mean we can't start to get more normal but it means job one is to beat that the disease so since it's not on off we would do things in careful stages and make sure that each step we take is working before we take the next step we have to do this to protect our people we have to do this to make sure our hospitals are not overwhelmed and they can be there to save our lives we have to do this so we can restart and recover now I told you when I talked to you about this image and I now hope it's really in your mind the boomerang it's not abstraction because it's actually happened in other parts of the world I want to give you those examples so the place to look as to Asia because they have been through many experiences that prepared them for the coronavirus many parts Asia went through SARS and the bird flu and different challenges and we can learn from their experiences it helps us to understand our future and how we can get it right and what not to do as well so many many parts of Asia have done smart strategies but they also have made those missteps at times that are instructive to all of us and the smallest misstep the smallest weakness is exploited by this disease so I'm gonna give you three examples of a boomerang and we can learn from each one first let's go to Japan and the lesson of Japan is don't come back too early this is a raging discussion in our own country right now as some states are rushing to restart it looks to me like some of them are doing it without a lot of evidence without a lot of health care indicators to tell them what's really going on and I'm hoping and praying for them that doesn't backfire horribly on the people of those states in Japan there is the example the region of Hokkaido and it was a region that had initially experienced with the coronavirus and then late in February after having only about 70 cases this region declared a state of emergency for three weeks there was a lockdown in Hokkaido and again I've emphasized just three weeks at which point it seemed like the disease had been contained now we all know three weeks is not a long time so after three weeks the lockdown was lifted on March 19th and it wasn't lifted gradually it was lifted rather abruptly so schools were reopened public gatherings were allowed again there were still some restrictions but some of the biggest indicators if you will some of the places where people get together the most like our schools and public gatherings those were the places that somehow were allowed again almost instantly 26 days later there was a surge in cases again in Hokkaido and guess what they had to do very sadly that to go right back to stringent restrictions and that's what they're still experiencing now so that's one case study of a place that thought they had it beat didn't necessarily wait a long time to make that conclusion and then went very fast back until restart and now unfortunately are paying for it now let's look to Hong Kong Hong Kong is an example example of how even if things look better small levels of activity can suddenly grow into something much worse so by early March it looked like Hong Kong was pretty much done with the disease and normal life resumed traveller started returning home to Hong Kong people were allowed to go out again nightlife started again obviously very very active nightlife in Hong Kong a city very much like New York City lots of bars lots of restaurants clubs people went back out and in late March the cases started to surge what happened the government had to now in Hong Kong put a variety of new restrictions in place restricting travel restricting gathering schools all sorts of places people went those restrictions had to be asserted again and then in April even more had to be added so again an example of a city very much like ours that found they had to put back restrictions and then go even farther the last thing we want to see here again our job is to have a clear steady march forward as steady as it can be when the time comes to relax restrictions relax them and get it right once and for all and never have that boomerang effect one more example Singapore now Singapore has been lauded for doing a lot of things the right way early on in this crisis by the middle March there were relatively few cases Singapore was getting a lot of praise for a very strong focused effort to address this disease but again not every part of the equation apparently was considered in Singapore and one of the things that typifies Singapore's is a number of migrant workers and they live in dormitories the dormitories were allowed to fill up by late April there are hundreds of new cases of the coronavirus and the government had to impose a two-week stay at home order and now has even increased restrictions on schools and restaurants and other types of public gatherings so three case studies what they have in common is they're all examples of the dangers that exists if the restart goes the wrong way and if that boomerang effect is allowed to happen and it's a reminder that we have to be vigilant because even a small number of cases can lead to that resurgence if the right restrictions aren't in place it's also a reminder that what we're building up the massive testing apparatus and tracing apparatus and the ability to isolate people quarantine people that has to be stronger and stronger all the time to make sure we put the disease in check and keep it in check so the bottom line is we have to get this right now testing as I said testing is the key testing has always been the key and I'm going to talk to you now about something exciting happening right here in this city to make sure that we will have what it takes for wide scale testing as of this week we have begun the process of producing test kits here in New York City and this is a first in our city's history because this was not a place like so many other parts of America that thought we had to have our own medical supplies and medical equipment built right here but we've learned a tough lesson that we have to create and we have to protect ourselves that's why we're going to have a strategic reserve going forward for New York City to protect New York City so for the first time we are producing now test kits in New York City and this has had to be put together very quickly a lot of partners brought together a lot of different moving parts that have to be made sense of has never been done before so we're really an uncharted territory creating these test kits in New York City and I will tell you like so many other things we've been working on there'll be moments when we have to figure things out sometimes there'll be times when we have to try something even if it doesn't work try something else until we get there because we are in uncharted territory but we are confident that we're in progress we're confident that we're going to have test gate production in this city that's going to be a key part of what we do going forward now at one point I talked about a test kit and I use an analogy to a cup of coffee if you want a cup of coffee with milk and sugar you need a cup you need water you need coffee beans you need sugar you need cream you need all the things that allow you to make a cup of coffee the way you want it well a test kit has something in common with that you need three parts for a test kit for the PCR test the diagnostic test for the corona virus you need the swabs to take the actual sample you need the transport medium which is what keeps the sample in place on the way to the lab and you need the screw top tubes to protect the sample from any contamination so what the lab gets will be accurate well the good news is these screw-top tubes are something we have plenty of access to but the two challenges were the swabs and the transport medium the fluid that you actually keep the sample in so the swabs well a painful painful irony that the entire world experienced a shortage of these swabs starting over the last month why because almost all of them were made in northern Italy that turned out to be one of the epicenters of the global crisis we realized we had to find another source the global market wasn't working there weren't sources around this country that were reliable enough so we decided we would make our own and this small piece of plastic here it it's long I want to remind you that way this works is it is put literally by a medical professional well up your nose so it is a very careful effort that has to be done by some of those what they're doing but this seemingly simple piece of plastic actually proved to be a complex matter because it has to be done just the right way and it has to be kept sterile in packaging like this until the point when it's actually used on a patient so getting this right proved to be actually a complex matter but again there's tremendous talent in this city and so many people so many companies so many partners who came forward and said we want to get this done because we know it'll save lives in our city so our local partner is print parts a 3d printing company and they are using designs like this one that have been clinically validated in this case we found a partner in the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and another partner in envision tech which is a medical 3d printing firm so we put together a coalition of different organizations to help us get this right now how many when well 30, 000 will be delivered by this Friday and then we'll be on a track thereafter for 50, 000 a week now I mentioned what's called the transport medium this is the fluid that the samples are kept in our local partners the Albert Einstein College of Medicine a great New York City institution they worked with what you might call a recipe which is follows a CDC approved protocol and the first batch of this transport medium will produced this week in New York City still has to go through a validation process so that's going to take a little more time but by the week of May 17th we will begin to pair the locally made swabs with a locally made transport medium and then like that cup of coffee will have all the pieces come together and for the first time in the city's history we will have our own test kits produced in large numbers right here in the five boroughs in the meantime we're not going to wait that initial set of 30, 000 swabs that will be delivered by Friday we will hair with an interim source of transport medium from outside New York City and that pairing will happen Friday May 8th those full test kits will be delivered wherever they're needed to be part of our widespread testing effort by the week of May 10th so this is all growing all the time and more and more pieces are going to be brought into play so that we can get to that widespread testing to help us go on the offensive testing tracing isolating quarantine of all the pieces needed to fight back this disease and avoid that dreaded boomerang now we've talked about testing from the beginning first time I asked the federal government to help us get testing was on January 24th that request that plea was ignored we still are waiting for the federal government to help us now we need their help with lab capacity we're still not getting the help we need and we're going to keep fighting for it but I want to take a moment to appreciate the people who work in those labs you know we've been rightfully talking about our health care heroes our doctors our nurses all the health care workers our first responders are essential workers of folks in the grocery stores and supermarkets and pharmacies all the people out there doing such important work but let's talk about the people actually help us know if someone has this disease or not the lab techs let's talk about them all the people work in the labs we depend on them and they are unsung heroes too and I want to thank everyone of course it works in the private labs because we're depending on them but I want to highlight those who work in our public labs and I want to say give credit where credit is due I was on Friday evening you know of course the 7:00 p.

m.

clapping for all the healthcare heroes I went to Interfaith Hospital in Brooklyn a wonderful institution earlier in this decade a lot of us in Brooklyn fought to protect interfaith Hospital from closing thank God we all did work with the community in the community stood up strong to protect in her faith and their faiths been front and center in this crisis I talked to some of the the folks at work at Interfaith some of whom I knew from that first fight to keep it open and we were talking about everything that had happened there and a couple people from the lab came forward I said hey don't forget about us don't forget about the lab workers so to all the lab workers first of all in all the 56 hospitals in New York City they've been a part of this fight in all the lab workers in all the private labs all of you are also heroes in this effort I want to express my deep thanks to all of you but I want to especially thank those who have worked in our public labs so first of all at the New York City Department of Health the public health lab you've heard more and more about it's been a crucial part of this equation more than 200 staff worked there for the last two months they have literally been working 24/7 it's been a big part of how we fight back to have the public health lab non-stop getting results for New Yorkers who need them I want to thank dr.

Jennifer Reichman the assistant commissioner Department of Health and the director of the lab and her entire team job well done and at Health and Hospitals our public hospital and clinic system more than 1, 000 lab professionals have been in the forefront our public hospitals have been the frontline of this crisis I want to thank the technologists the technicians the pathologists everyone was part of those HNH labs you've been amazing you've worked non-stop you've been strong and focused and it's helped us to make the progress we've made with this disease so far special thanks to kenra Ford the senior assistant vice president of lab services and her entire team thank you so much so remember when you're thinking of all the reasons to be thankful to be a New Yorker right now think of all the heroes we thank every day but think of here that some of the heroes we may not think about as much think about those lab workers you only get the answer to the test because of them and we only find the ways that we can fight back this disease because of the information they give us and they never stop they work around the clock so thank you to all the great people work in the labs now we're going to beat back this disease we're going to do it with testing tracing isolating quarantine all these strategies that work I'm going to do it on vast scale but in the meantime we continue to fight that other part of the crisis that horrible reality of people have lost their livelihood struggling to make ends meet in so many cases struggling just to get food on the table remember the estimates before the corona virus were about 1.

2 million New Yorkers and it's a very sad reality 1.

2 million New Yorkers experienced some amount of food insecurity at any given point in the year and that's that's a horrible number to begin with or something we've been trying to fight back for years now that number even though we don't have all the facts yet and we're still trying to understand the sheer impact this horrible crisis on everyday New Yorkers that number may have grown by a million it could be as many as two million or more New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity now or who will be experience it in the coming weeks so we have to help people right now and from the beginning I've been painfully aware there's a lot of New Yorkers who now have to ask a question they never thought they'd ask and that question is where is my next meal coming from and the answer from the city of New York the answer from your city government is we will be there for you no New Yorker will go hungry no matter what it takes we will provide food to everyone who needs it so food delivery is a big piece of this because there are a lot of people who can't get out they're seniors they're vulnerable folks and maybe people with disabilities whatever it is there's reasons why they can't get out can't get the food and particularly in this tough environment there are a lot of people used to depend on other people to bring food for them who can't right now or dependent on members of their family who are the breadwinners who don't have an income right now so we made it our business to do a massive food delivery effort for those who are most vulnerable again I want to emphasize a lot of people need food right now our people who just weeks ago consider themselves solidly middle class or working-class everything was if not fully under control in their life certainly something like where your meals were coming from was under control a lot of people have felt a horrible disruption in their lives and we have to make sure each and every one of them know no matter what you go through we're gonna be there for you there is no shame and asking for the help you need and we want to make it as easy as possible for you and your family currently we are at capacity where we can deliver as many as 3.

1 million meals per week our goal is to keep ramping that up as high as we need it to be if needed we can take that capacity as high as 1 million meals per day a staggering number but we can do that if that's what we need to do to keep people safe and to keep them fed here in New York City so we continue to expand our get food program and particularly our delivery program but to do this to keep expanding what I need help at the community level so I'm going to today be asking people to join in who can help us in this endeavor we need more personnel at the distribution sites so if you're a nonprofit organization a community-based organization there are a lot of great ways we can partner with you first of all we need to immediately find an additional 300 staff members who can manage distribution sites so we're looking for nonprofit partners with that skill that ability of man to site we need you to come forward right away we need help actually preparing meals look we are now at a point when I'm talking about going as high as a million meals a day where all of the places we're preparing the meals are getting maxed out so we need commercial kitchen capacity and this is an opportunity to work with a number of nonprofits and businesses that currently don't have the ability operate normally we want to bring you back into play as part of this very noble effort to feed your fellow New Yorkers we would love to get people who represent all the communities of this city so we're interested in any organizations that can help us particularly feeding folks with some of the foods are more used to in the East Asian community South Asian community Caribbean community that will help we're going to make sure people are fed if we can help people to have some of the foods that are familiar with in the process that's even better and we need help with delivery in specific neighborhoods well we need more personnel and insourcing available meals in those neighborhoods the more we can do locally the better off we'll be having the kitchen capacity having delivery all happen locally the the more local obviously the less traveling allowed the more efficient the speedier of the better so I'm gonna name some neighborhoods where we are particularly looking for help we're looking for help in Melrose in Washington Heights in Howard Beach South Ozone Park in Gravesend Sheepshead Bay in Morris Park in North Shore Staten Island in Flushing in Jackson Heights in East Chester and in Sunset Park and we're particularly looking for providers who can help us by producing at least a thousand meals a day we've put out a request it's online right now anybody from a nonprofit organization or anybody who thinks they can help us with these immediate needs so we can really expand this meal program intensely please go to nyc.

gov slash nonprofits nyc.

gov slash non-profits okay few more things so next Sunday a very very important day every year Mother's Day it is a day that we cherish in our family it's a day when everyone remembers to express their deep appreciation to in our case the mothers in our life but every family remembering how much we owe the moms and our families now this is not going to be a typical Mother's Day to say the least and unfortunately we've gotten some practice here because so many other crucial days in our year from all different faiths all different communities have overlapped with this horrible crisis we went through Easter Passover now Ramadan everyone's trying to figure out how to maintain our traditions and everything that is so dear to us in the midst of this crisis well we're going to have to improvise again for Mother's Day now Mother's Day for so many of us means gathering together in fact it's a day when our moms expect everyone to come together stop what you're doing and just slow down and appreciate the family and appreciate the mom in your life but to appreciate mom this year it means keeping mom safe it means doing things differently and that's particularly true if your mom happens to be older we want to protect all the moms of New York City and the way to do that is to show love and appreciation in different ways we used to all flock home to mom this is not the year to do that it is the year to show love and support in different ways in fact normally the gift we give to mom is to all show up this time the gift we can give to mom is to give her some space and help her stay safe so you can celebrate lots of other ways FaceTime Skype zoom there's so many ways you can celebrate you can also do that old-fashioned thing we call a phone call which mom's still a pre very much fact many moms are like you could call more often they'd like that you can go outside mom's house and wave from the sidewalk you can do all sorts of things but let's remember how important social distancing is for everyone and let's remember protecting mom's health should be the number one thing we think about on Mother's Day our moms have brought us through everything and the way we honor them is to remember what it's going to take to fight back this disease and bring them through safe and sound and we can do that together now want to talk to you something I talked about on Friday and it's such a powerful tragic story but also a powerful story of human devotion I talked about a paramedic from Aurora Colorado Paul Carey and we lost Paul he came here to help us and we lost him to the corona virus and amazing how small a world it is so Aurora Colorado is also where New York City's emergency management commissioner Dan Creswell comes from and four years in her hometown she served in the fire department and she served with all carry and what a shocking coincidence that he ended up coming to New York City to help us in our hour of need and then so painful that this disease has taken him well first of all my deepest thanks to the entire FDNY family firefighters the EMTs the paramedics everyone at the FDNY and my deepest thanks to the NYPD after Paul was lost they gave him a tribute and treated him as one of our own and a lot of you may have seen the images but a powerful powerful respect shown by our first responders to one of their own who didn't come from here and was only here a short time but gave to New York City so much and all of our first responders honored him as if he had been a lifelong New Yorker and I know the Kerry family was deeply moved by that I also want to thank that New York Daily News Daily News put Paul on the cover yesterday and very moving tribute to him and you know the thing that goes on the cover of the newspapers send such a powerful message so to think that one of the most prominent newspapers in the country honored this man who came here of his own choice to protect us and serve us that was a very beautiful tribute so thank you to everyone of the Daily News for doing that and thank you again to Paul's family and we will remember him and we will memorialize him but so important to remember this great example of heroism now we have a example of heroism and Paul we have an example of people doing the right thing every day in New York City it has become something we are so proud of to recognize how many people are just doing what's right to protect other people to be compassionate for other people to care about other people to recognize the depth of this crisis and be there for their fellow New Yorker that's what everyone should do anybody any everyday New Yorker and especially anyone in a position of authority anywhere in this city anywhere in this country should feel in their hearts what New Yorkers have gone through and asked the question what can I do to help just like our heroes do well let me talk today unfortunately about someone who did the exact opposite of that and I was shocked when I heard this the White House economic advisor of Kevin Hassett he says there's talking about the stimulus program talking about what's needed to get New York City and all cities and states back on their feet yesterday morning he says well everything appears to be happening safely and literally this is a quote he says there is a chance that we won't really need another stimulus a phase for stimulus listen to those words there's a chance we won't need it well let me tell you something Kevin why don't you come to New York City why don't you go to Elmhurst Hospital why don't you talk to our first responders why don't you talk to the families who have lost their loved ones although the icy use where hundreds of people are still fighting for their lives terms of your desire which is pretty transparent to save money rather than to protect people to risk the future of New York City and the state and so many cities and states around the country it is outrageous that anyone with a position of authority and our federal government could even breathe these words because it's disrespectful in every way is an absolute misunderstanding of what has happened here and what continues to happen and the fight were still waging and how much it's going to take to get back on our feet this year and next year and the years thereafter I was disgusted when I heard these comments because it sounded like the comments not only of a cheapskate but someone who just didn't care so I hope President Trump will renounce these comments immediately I don't know why this guy is his economic adviser we could say something like that the president needs to speak up and say that's absolutely unacceptable right now we know in the Congress intense effort is going on to create a stimulus why because what's happening in cities and states all over the country right now red states and blue states red cities and blue cities is mayors and governors unfortunately are having to cut back more and more as soon going to really affect the basic services we all depend on the kind of cuts were talking about will lead painfully horribly to furloughs to layoffs of public sector workers who are the backbone of our cities our state's the people keep everything going the people we need even more in a recovery and here's the painful reality I want you to take in listen to these very dangerous comments from this White House official and then translate it into reality if there is not a fourth stimulus and if that stimulus does not amply provide for the needs of cities and states this year and next year then the very people who've been our heroes the very people have been saving our lives those doctors those nurses those firefighters EMTs paramedics police officers the people keeping this place going the people keep it going all the time the sanitation workers the educators all the people we are depending on for a restart and a recovery their futures will be compromised imagine if the very same doctors and nurses working our public hospitals or the very same EMTs and paramedics who were such heroes in this crisis imagine if after fighting through this battle months from now they had to face furloughs or layoffs here and all over the country if we don't get help from Washington that is what will happen and I'm talking about one place one city right here already seven point four billion dollars in the hole because of a crisis we didn't ask for and we didn't create came to us from another place but all of you have fought heroically through it I just want to see everyone a wash and show a little bit of respect for what New York City has gone through and so many cities and states around the country have gone through and just do the right thing and help us back on our feet okay we're going to go over the daily indicators and as I've said the reality of these indicators is what's going to determine our future and directly lights – all you do we've generally seen progress not quite enough yet we have to keep at it so today progress generally still more to go first indicator daily number of people admitted to hospitals for a suspected co19 that's up and that's that one troubles me but it is the truth up from 92 to 113 but the other indicators are down daily number of people are nice to use across half our public hospitals for suspected Cova 19 down from 677 to 645 percentage of people testing positive for kovin 19 city wide down 21 percent to 20 only a little but still down Public Health lab tests for Cova 19 percentage down 50 percent to 33 percent we keep putting together good days I want to put together great days and consistent days but we're clearly moving in the right direction let's stick with it let's stick with it because it's working but job one is to get through this steadily constantly and get to the point where we can start to get to normal while at the same time job two is always there never let that boomerang happen so avoiding that boomerang that's up to you and that's up to all of us here at City Hall to make sure we are prudent and careful in the steps we take you keep doing your part and you're doing it great New York will keep doing our part we will not let our foot off the gas until we're sure it's time that's how we keep the boomerang from happening that's how we move steadily forward together a few words in Spanish hemos hecho muchísimo Progresso a los números an behad Oh gracias a los s vs.

de los ninos pero si se abre la ciudad muy pronto Averroes puede volver más fuerte puede haber una segunda andhe soul obama's Abril de nuevo cuando se seguro ich Wanda estamos agarose de que podemos prata hair and Westra gente with that we will take questions from the media and I always like to remind people please remind me of the name and outlet of each journalist well now begin our Q&A as a reminder Austin a line we have police commissioner Shay health commissioner dr.

Barbeau foods our Garcia EDC president James Paget and senior advisor dr.

Jay Varma first question today goes to Roger from 1010 wins good morning mayor I'd like to ask about the eventual reopening of New York City it's going to happen obviously at some time there may be workers either older workers or workers with pre-existing conditions or those with pre-existing conditions and their families who are reluctant to go back to their workplace does there need to be legal protections in place to protect them from job discrimination well it's a really interesting question Roger clearly look there are tremendous protections right now in New York City against discrimination we have one of the strongest human rights laws in the entire country and we're very proud of that we absolutely want to make sure there's no discrimination as we begin our restart so I think it's a very fair question the restart will have to come with really clear rules again it will happen carefully and in stages we have to make really clear what's expected the people what types of businesses will begin in what fashion which ones will handle will be handled later so I think it's incumbent upon all of us here the city to get the message out clearly from the beginning but absolutely important to say no discrimination of any kind will be tolerated we need to make those rules clear from the beginning and we also need to let people know if they do experience a discrimination that they can turn to the city and that's always true by turning to our Human Rights Commissioner calling 3 1 1 so great question we will be making sure to get information on that out as the restart really does begin next is Shawn from The Daily News good morning question for both the mayor and police commissioner Shay can you say how many fines were given out for social distancing violations yesterday also where any arrests made in that context but also be interested in hearing the police commissioner's perspective on how well social distancing is going over at parks yeah I just will start by saying NYPD did a remarkable job as did parks enforcement and employees from a number of agencies we had out both in enforcement efforts and in efforts to educate and give out free face coverings so I think it was a strong day I was monitoring throughout the day and saw enforcement actions happening all over the city but I think the numbers also say that a vast majority of New Yorkers are following the rules as has been true throughout so commissioner do you want to elaborate sure I I would echo that in terms of you know we had a lot of help yesterday and we appreciate all the other agencies that were working alongside us in part specifically yesterday we issued 43 summonses we had an additional eight outside of parks for a total of 51 now not every single one was a socially distancing but the the majority were so that's a total of 51 summonses we also see six motorcycles in an incident and the 114 precinct in Astoria Park two of those motorcycles turned out to be stolen too many summonses to count for four motorcycles in that incident as well as other incidences city that's more for the moving violation and driving wrecklessly type of scenarios and in terms of arrests on the I'm aware of three arrests citywide okay next question is you of from the city hi mr.

mayor I wanted to ask you about the HRA benefits offices as we understand it the the police that supervise those offices are no longer barring access to individuals if they refuse to accept or wear a mask no no I couldn't hear that they're saying no longer and then I couldn't hear your words clearly they're no longer allowed to bar people from entering the building if they refuse to wear a face mask or face covering and I'm wondering if you can address that because it kind of contradicts in the city's other messages huh on this yeah I don't I have not heard that before yo of and I want I think it's abundantly clear that people need to be wearing face coverings and particularly in an enclosed space we've been abundantly clear that for example a supermarket grocery a pharmacy you go in if you don't have a face covering the manager the owner can send you right back how is just not fair to other people so I believe that makes sense at a public office – again we are trying with all benefits to any kind of benefit program including things like food stamps snap etc to get people do all this online or by phone so there really is not a lot of reason to go in person into an office we're discouraging people from going to an office but if you do go into an office you need to be wearing a face covering I don't know the details we'll follow up our team will get you more later on today but the clear message needs to be people need to be wearing a face cover next is Christy from WCBS 880 hi good morning panel and Mayor bright question was just that piece of pottery boards that we were talking about in class I know Christy I'm having trouble hearing you Christine see I don't know what's going on with your phone could you start again and speak slowly so I can hear you yeah so my question is about the advisory boards I'm not sure I got all that and I just want to say to all our colleagues in the media please we're sometimes having trouble hearing you and whenever you can call in if you have hard lines it helps or whatever kind of phone line or headset or lack of headset whatever will make the calls come in clear so we can hear you is appreciated but on the advisory boards Christy I think you're asking about the sector groups that we have put together these are going to represent all different parts of New York City in the sense of different industries different key elements of life in this city I am going to be personally meeting with each one obviously remotely starting with the two groups that will represent key elements of the business community the small business community and the community of larger businesses in this city but there'll be a number of other organizations there on this number of other advisory groups I should say they're all coming together this week they'll all be announced this coming week and get immediately to work and they will be crucial to the restart to begin with advising on how we go about the restart properly and then they'll stick with us going forward as we have so many decisions to make and we want that input we want the ideas we want to test different things and see what they think about them so all of those will be announced in the course of this coming week they'll get started immediately and then we can give you some progress reports as we go along on the they're doing next is Gersh from street slug mr.

mayor everyone on the call how are you guys hey girl I wanna ask you about the open street launch mr.

mayor and obviously Commissioner Shea it was very noticeable how few NYPD officers or crossing guards were needed to safely create the space for the public now we talked to DoD Commissioner trottenberg on Prospect Park West who said the administration's thinking had evolved on open streets in the eight days since she and the NYPD testified that such a plan was impossible now clearly yesterday proved that it is possible so can you talk to us a little bit about the administration's evolution on policing open streets and did you get a chance to experience one of this open streets yourself mr.

mayor Gersh look first of all what was deeply a concern to us weeks ago was that all of the agencies we depended on for enforcement starting with NYPD we're really experiencing tremendous trouble because so many of their employees were out and obviously first and foremost our concern was for our police officers and all our public employees who were fighting against this disease but it also meant that a lot of agencies couldn't do what they normally could and I am still fundamentally a believer in enforcement in all things we had a good first day with a limited sample size I don't think anyone yet can say that we know exactly what it's going to take to enforce these things going forward but I can say one absolute evolution is that a few weeks ago we did not know what kind of capacity we've had in terms of returning officers and how many more would get sick each week and one thing another like we didn't know enough about where this disease was going and overall we've seen a lot of progress on that front that means we have a lot more ability to enforce and that gives me a lot more comfort going forward with these open streets but you know day one from what I could see went well certainly a hopeful we're looking to expand it's gonna be great but it always will require enforcement we'll find out how much by doing it and I think it's also fair to say with more and more knowledge of the open streets and warmer and warmer weather more and more people come and again that's where you do need enforcement for sure I saw the open street on Prospect Park West it looked like things were going well sure Lane reported that the open street by Carl Schurz park was going well so definitely a good day and a good concept and we look forward to broaden it next is sydney from Gothamist hi mr.

mayor I hope you're doing well I wanted to ask about going going on for that bit about routing in parts again I know that you've expressed them the vast majority are doing it well and vast majority of the other subject well but I just wanted to ask about some of the what seems to be a little bit of possible unequal enforcement and what the city is doing to avoid that and there was this particular photo you know Christopher Street the pier there where there are very large gatherings and I am wondering also what well how to approach this enforcement issue when it's hard to tell I guess and people are gathering women with people in their households there yeah do you have any response or comment on that absolutely first of all I know you mean the terminology in good faith but I want to contest your terminology instantly because this is literally a life and death matter no a gathering is a purposeful group of large numbers of people we've seen examples of that as part of funerals or religious observances or sports activities or parties barbecues those are gatherings in some cases you know dozens of people hundreds of people even thousands of people that's job one is to absolutely not allow that to exist anywhere in New York City at this point while we're going through emergency and I've been very clear and the Commissioner Shay's been very clear we won't tolerate that and we are going instantly to break those up in anyone who persists is going to get a summons or worse what we see in some places is a large number of people in a small area and our job is to make sure they practice social distancing even if it's a large number of people in a small area people have to practice social distancing if not they're running the risk of a summons I heard there were some real issues in Hudson River Park I instructed the Commissioner this morning to make sure there were extra patrols today in Hudson River Park we're not going to tolerate even small groups of people not practicing social distancing now I want to affirm if people live under the same roof this is a matter of the truth I think New Yorkers understand at this point this is not business as usual this is literally about life and death if you live under the same roof you do not have the same social distancing requirement and we've talked about this incessantly because you're already in such constant contact so the family is gathered together in a park close together that's because they already have been gathered close together they should not come in contact with anyone else they should keep distance from everybody else the couple lives under the same roof they are already connected to each other it's a different reality but they should not come in contact with other people they should keep the six feet so there are some things you see well you could say oh look at those people that are close together but there define ibly members of a family people need to be honest about this because it's not cute to say oh we're all together or we live under the same roof if you don't because you're literally endangering the lives of the people around you and then everyone else's lives because of potentially spreading this disease so the NYPD and Parks enforcement all the enforcement folks out there are very very clear no gatherings and even if you see small groups of people too close together we're going to separate them and if people have any desire to resist they're going to suffer the consequences commissioner would you like to speak further to the question of what happened in the West Village yeah Thank You mr.

mayor so I think you summarized what we're facing day in and day out our priority is certainly large groups gathering for whatever the activity is and then it gets slightly more challenging when you when you bring up people in households out trying to get a little bit of exercise and you know in close proximity to each other because they are constantly in close proximity to each other but maintaining that six week for mothers the East Village a couple other places in the city too we saw some incidents we certainly seen some incidents of Domino Park in the last couple weeks and we will be out again in force today and going forward to make sure that people are practicing that safe distance also that people are wearing last without in public so it's it's more of the same unfortunately for New York City they can expect it but I would just I would just reiterate that we had tens of thousands of interactions with people all across the city yesterday most of them all without having to issue any type of enforcement activity whether it's just summons in her arrest so I think again New Yorkers are exhibiting extreme patience for the last two months we're going to ask for a little more of it but we will be out there in force to remind them that you know for everyone's safety they got to practice these social business standards next is furn from the Jewish voice fern you say fern are you there hello fern are you there okay let's get someone else and come back for a little bit back to you next is Ashley from the New York Times all right how are you how you doing you fine thank you I wanted to ask the police commissioner and you about a couple of things one yesterday in Harlem there was a memorial for a young man who was killed about a week ago and there was a really large crowd and the officers seem to have the street shut off I'm wondering for you know these these kinds of vigils are pretty common in this in the in the warmer months and also in the winter and I'm wondering if the police commissioner or you have any specific kind of social distancing guidance for officers who are in communities where you have overlapping public health crises in this case gun violence and the corona virus and and where there's there's still some some very strong mistrust of the police and then the second thing I want to ask about the incident on the Lower East Side where there appears to be an officer officers appear to be making an arrest and one of them comes toward a group of bystanders pointing his taser and apparently with his hand on the trigger you hear it clicking and he also sounds like he uses it in word I'm just wondering if the CCRB are the NYPD will be investigating that incident and what happened there I'll start and just say that Ashley first of all any any incident where there's any potential of something inappropriate unquestionably will be investigated I don't know any of the details of this one it's the first I'm hearing but there will unquestionably be a careful look at what happened there and the Commissioner can speak to it more but on the question of a memorial we have to get clear to people that no such as should be happening we're at a point where when you start to attract large numbers of people that chance of social distancing being maintained is minimal and it's clear from the guidelines that both the state and the city have put out that we do not allow gatherings it is too dangerous it's too much of there's too much of a possibility it will spread the disease and harm people in the community and I find it particularly painful and frustrating if it's a funeral or memorial something honoring someone who's passed away the the the ridiculous painful reality that by gathering actually more people might pass away more people might lose their lives it's unacceptable in every community so no we cannot allow such gatherings to begin with we have to not allow them to be created to begin with us just they have to be stopped before they even get started and that is the rule we will apply all over this city commissioner yeah actually regarding the the Harlem Memorial I am not familiar with that incident I will certainly have somebody look into it but but I think that you know that's the irony of this situation this isn't an NYPD policy this is now law its law passed down through executive orders that there are to be no gatherings and it doesn't specify what the gatherings are for here unnecessary non-essential gatherings and that would certainly encompass what you're referring to so your answer we will be out there enforcing it wherever it happens across the city and we just urge we continue to urge New Yorkers to to work with us and listen and the last thing we want is well-intentioned gatherings that wind up causing more harm regarding the incident in the East Village when I mentioned earlier 51 summonses in three arrests that was the three arrests I was talking about it it started out as a social distancing enforcement there were three arrests made from that incident I am aware of the the video that's out there it's being investigated currently by our Internal Affairs Bureau as a result of that very preliminary investigation that's our own there was one officer modified and and that's where we stand right now the next question is Andrew from gay USA good morning mr.

mayor and this is for you and for Commissioner Barbeau you signed a law in 2016 in TRO 552 a to mandate that the Health Department and other agencies provide demographic surveys to all persons served including about sexual orientation and gender identity but we've been given no data on LGBT people hit by Kovac 19 will you direct that the health department provide that data there's a kind of a thirst for it among the LGBT service groups and AIDS groups yes thank you very much for the question certainly I think that's the right thing to do and you're right we've long thought it was important to put out information to show people what's really happening and how we could all work together to protect people commissioner would you like to speak to this yes yes yes we are obviously committed to transparency and ensuring that all new yorkers are counted during this pandemic and we will work with our partners to ensure that as data is available we certainly report on it we do health opinion polls and certainly that's an area where we're looking to provide more information about how our LGBTQ community is being affected by this pandemic and so we will be following up good thank you fern from the Jewish voice do we have you back for him yes but can you hear me yes thank you thank you yes Thank You mr.

mayor concerning testing in this question I go to the health commissioner as well the city is now providing centers in local areas with because people who go to be tested I understand their priority has been given to people over the age of 65 people had symptoms the question is people just go down without making an appointment that's number one number two concerning health insurance will they be required to bring their health insurance card will these tests be provided for free and thirdly especially for elderly vulnerable people will the places be crowded in other words will they will they be afraid to go down will they be you know measures taken to make sure that you won't get so close to each other after testing sight yes these are great questions and thank you so much so I'll give you the examples from the two sites that I've been to a week ago at the Morrisania health health clinic in the South Bronx and yesterday in Coney Island at the Ida G Israel clinic both run by our Health and Hospitals Corporation and I was very very impressed by what I saw so first of all the testing is free you do not need to have an insurance card I want to make that very clear the testing is being provided and again first priority is on older New Yorkers and anyone with those pre-existing conditions like diabetes lung disease heart disease the focus is on those who are most vulnerable but anybody who comes of course will be tested free you do not need an insurance card and people are socially distanced in line and tested individually so there is real care taken to protect people during the testing process itself let's please spread the word because this is the beginning of a much bigger effort to test New Yorkers across the board you're going to be seeing more and more testing in the city but these sites are for people from communities who need the tests and real care has taken to keep people safe next is Louise from New York 'old from there mr.

mayor New York old hello yes Louise go ahead yep all right thank you hey there mr.

mayor I'm hoping you can share that what you know about the expanded testing criteria the governor outlined last week I'm guessing it isn't up and running yet since I know of a number of essential workers from an EMT and airline steward to restaurant donors and local pharmacies yet none of them have heard a thing so if all when the time comes how will essential workers be notified will it be through your upcoming public awareness campaign will the Health Department reach out to them is the Health Department even aware of every single person emergent that needs to know and also mr.

mayor have you any details about the pharmacies that are participating in the testing process you know total numbers locations and such Louise thank you for the questions so a couple of things want to make sure all New Yorkers understand we've got the diagnostic testing the what's called PCR testing which is to tell you right now anybody do you have this disease right now or not and that is the focal point of our effort to do massive testing and tracing building up in the month of May that's going to be the main thrust that's what's been used in one form or another around the world as parts of successful efforts to contain the disease and move to a restart so testing on a big level widespread level tracing each contact following up with people in need their own testing isolating and quarantine e anyone test positive that has been the game plan that has worked in much of the world that's what's starting to grow in the month of May it will start to be very widespread we still need that federal support to be able to have all the lab capacity we need but that's the core the game plan Louis what you're referring to is another piece of the puzzle the antibody testing two announcements in the last two days the governor made an announcement about a state initiative which was focused on certain health care workers first responders I think you're right farm the that initiative the antibody testing that again is a kind of testing that we've said is imperfect the antibody testing tells you something that doesn't tell you everything about what you've experienced before the state is doing that on a wider level we've announced collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control will be ensuring ultimately and I hope this is responsive to your question we'll be ensuring that all New York City first responders all New York City health care workers who want that antibody test they will get it it will be administered through an effort put together by the CDC and expenses and staffing etc covered by the federal government details will be announced shortly but that's been agreed to so that will be literally any and all health care workers and first responders the state has other initiatives they're working on and certainly you can get the information from them but that is different from the really community-wide widespread testing that we are going to be building out over the coming weeks it's time for two more the next is Reuben from Cambodia good morning mr.

Mehra can you hear me yes how you doing hi how are you there's some criticism of you on Twitter over the weekend by elected officials I'd like you to respond to saying there's a Tale of Two Cities on the one hand you tweeted sharp criticism of a funeral Williamsburg and the next day police officers descended on the neighborhood giving out large numbers of summons I know you mentioned the distinction between gathering versus a bunch of individuals but those people who got the tickets the next day we're just a bunch of individuals out in the street yesterday there are many images of jam-packed parks in the city people not wearing masks you had no Twitter comment Assemblyman simcha – Steen wrote yet Hasidim were aggressively slapped with summonses of up to a thousand dollars for not wearing a mask Tale of Two Cities and YPD tweeted no mask no problem this lady in the park didn't have a mask we gave her a mask councilman Deutsch responded I'm confused when do you give a mask the one to give us some and so my question is why if you can respond to this criticism the politicians are saying that apparently there's one neighborhood that gets sharp criticism and the community called out by name while in other instances there's silence or the polite handing out of masks thank you yeah Ruben I just dispute that fundamentally there has been enforcement for weeks and weeks and look I love my city and I understand everyone looks out for their own communities within this city but I've alternately heard critique of too much enforcement are not enough enforcement in a variety of different communities so we want to make this an entirely consistent reality I wanted to be abundantly clear NYPD will be out enforcing and a number of other agencies will be out enforcing in all communities the same way period what I saw with my own eyes on Tuesday night in Williamsburg was absolutely unacceptable and was something that we had not seen on that scale anywhere and it was exactly what we cannot allow to happen and there have been other large funerals before in the community and we're not going to allow that to happen so we had a particular problem we had to deal with but we've had other types of problems other places and we're going to deal with everyone equally so again that hierarchy and I'm sure Commissioner Shea will add to this the worst thing is a large gathering and if it's dozens of people it's bad if it's hundreds of people it's worse if it's thousands of people it's terrifying and Ruben we saw on Tuesday night thousands of people in close proximity if they had not been broken up by the police they would have stayed for longer uh many of them did not have face coverings this means lives will be lost it is unacceptable but that's going to be true in any community you talk about a really large gathering absolutely unacceptable everyone's gonna get summons anyone who stays summons instantly again whether it's hundreds same thing doesn't same thing we're coming after all gatherings that is different than a bunch of people in a park who are distance from each other if they're small clumps of people are not distanced we're gonna go in and tell them you have to distance immediately if they don't they're getting summonsed each situation is looked at in degree if someone doesn't have a face covering we're gonna offer them a face covering someone says I refuse to have a put on a face covering they have a problem and they're asking for enforcement so it is going to be done equally across all communities one message that we have to save lives and anyone who is not following these simple rules is endangering the lives of everyone else Commissioner Shea yes I'm listening to the conversation I'm reminded of you know to thank the officers that are out there every day doing this work and across the city from borough to borough regardless of what neighborhood is in officers are out there doing their best to enforce this social distancing which is something six months ago we certainly couldn't have even imagined I think that I would agree every every situation is unique they do the best they can in certain situations first and foremost they're trying to correct their condition they're trying to educate people they're trying to get compliance the last thing they want to do is summons an arrest and that goes from the Bronx to Staten Island but there are there are some gatherings that we have said we are past the point of warnings and I think we've been consistent from the start we're out there across the city engaging people and we get varying levels of compliance and it and if it comes to summons then you know we're at the summons point but we urge New Yorkers to hang in there with us we are going to get through this but we just need your compliance we need your patience and we need you to continue to work with this and that goes whether you're in Williamsburg that goes whether you're in marketing or whether you're in Staten Island or Manhattan or anywhere else in between I think that you know you can always find a an individual that's not happy I rarely come across somebody that is happy after they've received the summons but I think that in the difficult circumstances that we are in when we certainly are the officers are doing the best they can in trying trying times last question for today goes to Gayle from impact on Latino good morning mr.

mayor so as we all know the immigrant committee community of New York City has been disproportionately economically impacted given the types of jobs that they had restaurant work hotels etc it's estimated a third percent of some of those businesses will not come back leaving this community in dire economic distress can you talk to us about any plans you have for providing economic support to this community that can't tap into the federal and state programs available to legal residents and u.

s.

citizens and then I have one more question on the health side do you have any estimates on how many Latinos are getting tested thank you Thank You Gail a very important questions so on the second question we're going to be able over time to put out you know more and more information based on community based testing community based testing is only started obviously in the last few weeks but it's going to grow intensely over time so we certainly can get you information about how many tests are being performed in our different centers and that tells you a lot about which communities are benefiting and these are the hardest hit communities obviously in terms of you know giving out data by individuals and their own demographics I'm not sure we're structured for that right now I'll have the team get back to you on that but we can show you how the testing is growing neighborhood by neighborhood but again this is a very initial piece of the testing program we intend it to be much more widespread as May progresses because we have to get into a very aggressive taste test and a test and trace strategy the way to beat back this disease further is to have very widespread testing very widespread tracing isolating and quarantine iing anyone who needs it and that's gonna be in all communities we're always going to keep a special focus on the communities that have been hit hardest but we have to expand that ultimately over all communities of New York City so whatever we can get you now to give you a sense of the testing so far we will get you will come back with the answer on what kind of demographic data we're keeping by individual on the question of small business well I think the fear is very real meaning the fear that so many businesses might not come back is unquestionably honest because we're all unsure of what the future brings and a lot of people you know going through now months where there's no income I'm very very worried for so many small businesses and I agree with you and immigrant communities there's a particular danger to those small businesses now Gail I would say to you history would tell us something else which is that small businesses in general are extraordinarily strong and resilient immigrants small businesses are legendary in the city for being able to take very limited means and build something I don't want to bet against our small businesses I don't want for a moment people to assume that a lot of them can't come back in fact I wouldn't be shocked if the vast majority came back we're gonna have to help in every way we can for the small businesses that can receive that stimulus support paycheck protection program again any small business that has not yet applied please go to the Small Business Administration website sba.

gov and apply for that money those are loans that in many cases can be forgiven and turns and turned into grants please if you need help a small business needs help with that application process call 3-1-1 that's a whole lot of small businesses and we want to make sure that they get that federal support in new york city gets its fair share now if you're talking about a business that is owned by someone who is undocumented and they're trying to stay on their feet there obviously are some special efforts that have been made to help undocumented folks most notably by the Open Society Foundations that's a big initiative tens of millions of dollars and it's being distributed by grassroots organizations that work with community immigrant communities that's where I think people can initially turn for help tiding over and eventually getting back on their feet I think you're gonna see more initiatives like that but in the end I think you know our job it kind of comes back to where we started Gail is the best thing we can do for immigrants small business is get through this as quickly as possible and as thoroughly as possible and make sure the restart happens as quickly as possible but in a sustained fashion where we do not have the restart interrupted at all and that's what we're focused on right now and that'll bring me to the close which again I will I will say the dirty word one more time boomerang that's the thing we have to avoid at all costs I tried today to show you something about this disease in the context of what's been done around the world this disease if it were a person it would be a very clever and very very dangerous person and the way to think about it in that sense is this is a disease don't turn your back on it don't give it an opening even the smallest opportunity and this disease might reassert and that's the boomerang but the good news is what we see is a lot of great examples around the world and we'll be talking about them going forward of what has worked and a lot of times what we see is what's worked is a careful steady approach based on real indicators smart steps forward smart steps to loosen up but always making sure that the loosening up is working working and not having the unintended impact of a backfire so we have lessons about that boomerang where places moved too fast or opened up too much and experienced that boomerang and a much longer setback we also have growing examples of where the restart was handled carefully and slowly and the right way and that's what we're going to be guided by so we will get through this but I want everyone to understand that that work of treating the right kind of restart is on all of us that effort to stop the boomerang we all participate in that if we do it the right way we can make sure that we come through this and move together as a city and get to that restart that we all want a need thank you very very much everybody.