Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Tomorrow, Governor Murphy will be here to lead the daily briefing. Throughout the past week, he has been fully engaged in our response to this public health emergency. In fact, he was with us on the phone during our briefing that we just had as staff, and I know we are all looking forward to having him leading our team in person tomorrow.

As Governor Murphy announced a short while ago, based on guidance from Commissioner Persichilli, we are recommending the cancellation of all public gatherings throughout New Jersey of more than 250 individuals, including concerts, sporting events, and parades. Governor Murphy reported to us that he spoke directly with the leadership of several of our sports teams and large venues in the state, and they are all supportive of this decision. And for any events that do take place, we encourage attendees to keep the six-foot buffer between themselves and others.

Our full efforts must be put to aggressively mitigating the potential for exposure and further spread, and social distancing is an important part of this strategy. We ask you to continue urging your listeners and viewers to keep doing the right thing to protect themselves and others to help prevent or slow further spread of coronavirus.

Since yesterday’s briefing, we have received six new presumptive positive test results. Our cumulative statewide total at this moment is 29 and there have been no further deaths reported related to a coronavirus case. Commissioner Persichilli will give more detail on these new cases.

Assistant Commissioner Neuwirth and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program Coordinator Dr. Lis McHugh are with us today, as well as Colonel Callahan and Education Commissioner Dr. Lamont Repollet to answer questions. Additionally, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Doug Fisher and Homeland Security Director Maples are available to answer any questions you may have that fall under their purviews of leadership.

With this, I’m going to turn the briefing over to Commissioner Persichilli.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Thank you, good afternoon.

We all have been saying this is a rapidly changing situation and clearly the world is a little bit different today. The WHO, the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic. A pandemic is an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in a population that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people. The WHO’s announcement does not trigger any new funding, any new protocols or any new regulations, but it is an acknowledgement of the disease spreading across several continents. It is not an acknowledgement that the situation in New Jersey has worsened to the point where we would say the risk is anything more than low.

The Trump Administration has taken steps to ban foreign nationals entering the United States from European countries other than the UK for the next 30 days, and to restrict all visitors to long-term care facilities that are not medically necessary. In the United States, large gatherings are being cancelled to prevent the spread of transmission. I’m sure you all know that New York Governor Cuomo cancelled the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. The NBA has suspended its season after a player tested positive for coronavirus, and college campuses are sending students home.

Governor Murphy has just announced the cancellation of mass gatherings of more than 250 people. This step is important because these large events bring people from multiple communities into close contact with one another, and that has the potential to increase COVID-19 transmission. Also, local school boards are making decisions about school closures. We may see more school closures. This step, along with hand hygiene promotion and social distancing are well-established methods to prevent the flu transmission. Data suggests that early implementation of these types of initiatives can reduce the spread of the flu, and in fact was used during H1N1.

In front of us we have a different circumstance, a novel coronavirus. So, we will continue to monitor this situation on a daily basis and keep you informed as to our decisions on school closures.

As you have heard from me in the past, cases will continue to grow around the globe, the nation and in New Jersey. Today we have six new positive cases.

A 16-year-old female from Englewood is currently hospitalized at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. We received that positive from LabCorp, a commercial lab, so therefore we have very little information on this case.

A 66-year-old female from Montclair Township, Essex County, currently hospitalized at Mountainside Hospital. All of their statuses, by the way, is unknown since we just got these. This particular case, exposure to COVID-19 is pending.

51-year old male from Butler Borough, Morris County; admitted to Chilton Medical Center, does have an exposure to COVID-19.

A 23-year old male from Bridgewater Township, Somerset County may have been exposed to COVID-19 through a close contact with a Pennsylvania resident who has been deemed to be presumptive positive.

A 53-year-old male from Manalapan Township, Monmouth County; currently hospitalized at CentraState and identifies as an exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19.

We have a female resident from Teaneck Township, Bergen County, age unknown. Specimens were collected at Holy Name Medical Center and we do not know whether she is currently hospitalized. She did have an exposure to COVID-19, exposed to a confirmed case at a synagogue carnival. We have notified the New York State Department of Health and all attendees of the carnival on March 1^st should be self-quarantined.

Based on the positive cases that we’re seeing, we’re beginning to assign risk categories to our counties. Let me go over them with you.

Currently, Bergen County has 13 presumptive positive cases. That is still considered, based on the population of Bergen County, to be moderate risk.

Burlington County has 2 cases; the risk is identified as none to minimal.

Camden County 1 case; risk status none to minimal.

Hudson County 1 case; risk status at this time, none to minimal.

Middlesex County 2 cases; risk category none to minimal.

Monmouth County has 5 presumptive cases. That risk is considered above minimal but not quite moderate.

Passaic County, 1 case; none to minimal risk.

Union County, 1 case; none to minimal risk.

Essex 1, Morris 1, and Somerset 1; all considered none to minimal risk.

The reasons for giving you the risk categories is again to emphasize the fact that overall in New Jersey, we believe the risk is still low. There are 37 persons under investigation. These individuals will be tested at our state lab. We do not know how many specimens are at the commercial labs.

We have to accept that as the response to the virus continues there will be disruption in our daily lives for the short term. Some schools will close; events will be cancelled. Some individuals will need to self-quarantine and there will be other steps taken to protect the residents of New Jersey. I know this causes concern but this is all part of a response to reduce the impact on our state. We’re working around the clock, and our Public Health and Emergency Preparedness Response Teams are coordinating throughout government as well as throughout the healthcare sector and other local public health partners.

We certainly will get through this but we have to work together. The public has a large part to play as well. Individuals at increased risk for COVID-19 complications due to their age or severe underlying medical condition, such as heart disease, diabetes or lung disease should be taking steps to reduce their risk of exposure such as avoiding large gatherings and avoiding for sure individuals who are sick. It’s important people in these categories speak to their healthcare provider about their risk, what medications and supplies they should have on hand if it is determined that they have to quarantine; and have a plan for when to seek care before an outbreak actually occurs in their community. If you have loved ones that fall into these categories, please encourage them to take the steps for their health and to limit their exposure.

As the situation is different in communities around the state, the guidance that Public Health will be providing will depend on the picture on the ground. For example, Bergen County will be taking different steps to limit exposure, like a county right now like Salem where we haven’t seen any cases. Each community is unique and appropriate mitigation strategies will vary based on the level of community transmission, characteristics of the community, their populations, and their capacity to implement strategies. Communities that have isolated cases or limited community transmission and no widespread exposure might be implementing different actions than a community that has widespread or sustained transmission.

We are monitoring the situation closely as I’ve said, and continue to provide guidance for public health and healthcare professionals and communities to be able to effectively respond to any additional cases that may be identified in our state. Thank you.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Commissioner Repollet.

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Governor Murphy, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli, other cabinet members and I have been working in concert on all issues related to novel coronavirus COVID-19.

To date, 182 districts have closed or are closing for professional development related to COVID-19. Twelve districts have closed or are closing for precautionary cleaning. Nine districts have closed due to possible exposure to COVID-19 in a school community. Three districts have closed or are closing because of confirmed exposure to COVID-19 in the school community, and one district has closed due to a presumptive positive case in the school community.

My team and I have proactively been working with our district leaders to help keep the community informed and prepare in the event of school closures. In the past week, we have held a Superintendents’ Roundtable to discuss school preparedness and planning for potential increased spread of COVID-19 and released guidance regarding requirements for public health-related school closures; hosted conference calls with a broad range of stakeholder groups to strategize on COVID-19 preparedness. These calls included non-public schools, faith-based community organizations, charter schools and districts operating preschool programs.

The NJ DOE serves on the Governor’s Coronavirus Taskforce chaired by our Health Commissioner. We established a School Preparedness Subcommittee to convene a range of stakeholders to identify challenges and opportunities in coronavirus planning. Through these conversations we have identified some common concerns.

Internet access for virtual leaning: we’ve seen a lot of innovative solutions developed and implemented at the local level. For example, some districts are looking to provide both internet-based and paper-based home instructional activities. Some schools can preload instructional material on laptops that students can take home.

Lapse in food security: local schools, the New Jersey Department of Education and Department of Agriculture all recognize the importance of preventing a lapse in food security in the event of a school closure. We have advised school districts to consider options available to their community to continue providing service for students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. In collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, we are exploring every flexibility available from the United States Department of Agriculture for schools to continue providing meals.

In order to provide swift communication with the field regarding closures, we will update the New Jersey Department of Education website with district school closures twice daily. Our website is www.nj.gov/education. I repeat, www.nj.gov/education. We understand the significant impact that COVID-19 has on the school community and will continue to support them as we combat the spread of virus and keep our families safe. Thank you.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: At this time we’re going to hear from Col. Patrick Callahan.

State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan: Thanks, Lieutenant Governor. I’ll just take a minute to assure everybody that the state Emergency Operations Center is activated and staffed. The primary reason for that is to support our counties and municipalities, whether that’s with a resource request, information. Tomorrow morning myself and the command staff here at Emergency Management will have a conference call with all 21 county OEM Coordinators as well as our state Emergency Management Planners from our respective departments across the state, for those departments to brief out so that our message is one voice, it’s clear. And if they have any questions or need anything from us we will remain open 24/7 to address any needs that come through the Emergency Operations Center. Thanks, Lieutenant Governor.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Okay, Q&A and you’re first.

Q&A Session:

Reporter: The 16-yaer-old female in Englewood, you said that her positive result [inaudible]?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Yeah. When the specimens go to the commercial lab there’s a real lag time before we get any information on the case. When it comes directly to our lab, we collect that information at the time that we get the specimen.

Reporter: So, is there a drawback from using these kinds of labs from your perspective when you’re trying to do contact tracing?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I’ll let Chris elaborate. The commercial lab advises our communicable disease service of any positive results. It just requires a few additional steps to get the local health officer involved and to do the contact tracing as compared to if it came right to our lab. Is there anything you want to add?

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: That’s correct. There is no lag. The information is transmitted to the Department of Health which is in constant communications with local health departments who do the associated contact tracing. So, there is no…

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Just a few extra steps in the process, I guess.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: Commissioner, you had indicated in your comments that the Governor has announced that no gatherings of over 250. The statement he put out and what the Lieutenant Governor, the wording was people should not go to these gatherings. If social distancing and mitigation is the best way to control community spread, which makes sense, why aren’t we mandating this stuff? I mean, is there a concern that people are going to get nervous and ratchet up the hysteria? It’s pretty high already. If we mandate it, wouldn’t that be the most efficient way to deal with this?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Wow, that’s a great question. The first part of it is we’re recommending to people that they cancel any gathering over 250, recommending that people not go. The bottom line is and the question came up, what if it’s a wedding where you’re going to have 250 people? What if it’s a private event? Part of the personal responsibility of those people is to consider the impact of having 250 people in a contained space for a period of time. I think that we’re allowing a little bit of leverage for that, a little bit of leverage for religious events, but we’re really asking people to make their own decision.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: And with all due respect if I may follow, you said yesterday I believe your primary responsibility is to protect the safety and health of the people of New Jersey. If somebody’s got to cancel a wedding or scale it down, wouldn’t that be included in that mindset?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: From a public health perspective absolutely.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: So, why not mandate it?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I think that we’re as close to mandating it as we felt necessary at this time.

State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan: Dave, can I just follow up for a second? Just on that recommendation from the Governor to again, to cancel those large – it is just a recommendation, not a mandate. But under the state of emergency declaration it could get to that point where the Gov obviously has that authority and would delegate that either through to myself, to say, MetLife Stadium, horse tracks and all of that. But right now it is strictly just a recommendation. Thanks, David.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Yes, and we haven’t gotten there but I think that the administration and particularly Commissioner Persichilli has effectively communicated out to all stakeholders in the New Jersey family. And what is happening is many of those that run large venues and sporting events, just as people are self-quarantining, many of the sponsors of these events are making the choice to postpone their events. So, I believe that’s why we don’t feel that at this point in time, but it can come as Colonel Callahan pointed out. But we are effectively communicating with every conceivable stakeholder in the state and people are making decisions to postpone their events.

Reporter: I wanted to follow up real quick on the cases from yesterday. Have you seen any evidence from the cases from yesterday on community spread and is there any additional evidence right now?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I’m sorry, I don’t have that information with me today. Send that to Alex and I can get it for you later. I just don’t have it in front of me today.

Brenda Flanagan, NJTV: We talked to a doctor today from Holy Name, and he said that they’re sending specimens to one of the labs because they’re getting faster responses than when they send the specimens down to the state lab. The word he used for the state lab was ‘inundated.’

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: Currently the state lab does not have any backlog of specimens, so the characterization that we’re inundated I don’t think is accurate at this time. I don’t understand the specifics of the lab and the process that that physician is particularly using. But I can assure you right now that the lab capacity for the Public Health and Environmental Laboratories is appropriate for the volume we’re seeing currently.

Reporter: Mostly for Commissioner Repollet probably. So, if the suggestion is that gatherings of 250 people not happen, a day at school in lots of places is more than 250 kids. So, are we getting to a point where we are going to expect a stronger direction from the state as to what public schools should be doing or private schools for that matter?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: So, 250 students – we don’t have 250 kids in a classroom; we have them separated throughout the entire school. We are now currently looking at the students, based off of this social policy right now, looking at the students in cafeteria, making recommendations. We’ll be making recommendations tomorrow to our school districts to modify their schedule and to actually have lunch within the classrooms, so we can kind of make sure we’re on the same page with the Department of Health recommendations.

Reporter: If schools would need to go virtual for a period, which they’re being told to prepare to do, we’ve spoken with a number of parents who say they can’t work from home. They’re trying, they’re scrambling to come up with some kind of backup childcare plan because they can’t necessarily… They may have to burn all their sick days, take unpaid leave. Do you have anything to say to these parents who are struggling with this?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: We’ve talked about this.

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Yes, we did talk about it. Judy and I, we speak often, I think daily regarding the concerns of our district. And we notice now we’re looking to maybe within our preparedness plan have a contingency plan within that so we can actually have school districts or schools that may not have these exorbitant amounts of exposures within their communities, to be able to have some schools open up, whether it’s half-day, depending on the circumstance. So, right now we’re looking at all options in regards to making sure A), we provide our parents relief in regards to childcare; but more importantly also for food as well, too. So, we’re looking at a lot of things. We’re currently working with a group, a taskforce of superintendents that we have convened to make sure we actually get information from the ground, to make sure their concerns are heard a lot easier versus from the top down. So, we’re considering all options and we’re going to try to make sure it’s a seamless transition for a lot of our parents, whether it’s half-day, whether it’s school closures. And we’re also looking at possibly nonprofit organizations within the community. So, everything is on the table. This is relatively new when it comes to our schools. We’re pretty much creating a new educational system and everything is on the table.

Reporter: So, I think Atlantic City is scheduled to hold a referendum on a change of government on the 31^st. Now, obviously you’re the state’s point person in that regard. Is there any discussion at this point about cancelling or rescheduling that referendum.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Of course, yes. Our Division of Local Government Services of course is the pinpoint for overseeing Atlantic City. I think that as we just saw last week in five national elections that none of those states shut down elections, including the state of Washington which is probably the biggest cluster in the country. I don’t anticipate shutting down the vote on the 31^st of March, but as the Commissioner has indicated, we are hour by hour, day by day taking a look at what happens. If it has to come to that we’ll have to consult with the Attorney General, a number of other different entities within the state government to determine what will happen. But as of today we have not advised Atlantic City to shut down that referendum.

Reporter: Commissioner, do you know if any of the people that have tested positive have ridden NJ Transit, any mass transit locations and if so what measures are being taken?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Yeah, I don’t have the tracing of all of the people. That’s an overwhelming task and it’s not information that I would get on a regular basis. When there’s contact tracing, if it is identified that there is public transportation involved, that information then would go to NJ Transit. And as you know, we’ve stepped up and amplified the disinfecting of all of our cars and trains as a result.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: Commissioner, could you talk a little bit about… I’m reading a lot about the fact that a lot of people expect a lot of spread of COVID-19, not only in New Jersey but across the country. Could you talk about is that the case and if so, why it’s important to show it down with regard to health facilities and opportunities to get people into hospitals and that whole situation?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Sure. I’m going to start and then I’m going to let Dr. McHugh talk a little bit about the curve and why you want to flatten that curve and why it’s important. It seems to be that particular people are getting hit pretty hard by this virus, that they do require hospitalization. It’s about 15%. The others, about 80% I guess, maybe a little bit more are able to stay home. But for that 15%, they require specialized rooms, they require full personal protective equipment on the caregivers; they require an intensive level of care in our hospitals. So, the importance of flattening that curve is to hopefully decrease the amount of people that are being exposed at all or are having major symptoms and overly stressing our hospitals. Most of our hospitals are working at capacity. They may have licensed beds but their staff beds are pretty full. So, they’re working at how they would handle a surge particularly in their isolation rooms and in their intensive care units. It’s best if we flatten that curve, hopefully decrease the spread and have fewer people exposed.  Dr. McHugh, do you want to talk a little bit more about that?

Infectious Disease Epidemiologist Program Coordinator Lisa McHugh: So, I can just talk briefly about when we talk about flattening the curve, perhaps what that means. And so, in epidemiology we use something called an epidemic curve and it’s simply plotting the number of cases by some timeframe over a period of time, and you’ll see that kind of bell-shaped curve that many people are seeing on the news stations. And so, what we’re trying to prevent with social distancing and mitigation activities is that rather than having that very strong peak, you try to bring the peak down and have it come out over several weeks, rather than having it over a shorter two- or three-week timeframe. And what that does is it may not limit the number of cases that we’re seeing but it tries to flatten out or limit the number of cases that are occurring in a certain time period, which means that our hospitals will have time to recover and to actually try to prevent some of that surging that we’re already seeing. I think it’s important to also understand that we are trying tour best with some of the actions to really protect the most vulnerable, which we know are those who are older in age and have underlying medical conditions. And so, those are some of the people that we want to prioritize to be able to get the care that they need, to be able to get the testing that they need at the public health laboratories; and to make sure that even though there’s not a treatment there are things that can be managed maybe slightly clinically different and to make sure that they’re getting priority care, to make sure that we don’t have some poor outcomes. So, I think that that’s really where everyone needs to remember that that’s where our focus is, is to try to protect some of our most vulnerable populations.

Reporter: How many people can get tested per day for coronavirus and what is the recommendation if there’s community spread for how much testing capacity we should have?

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: So right now, we can speak to what the capacity is for the Public Health and Environmental Laboratories. Right now our capacity at the lab is approximately 40 to 60 tests per day, testing of individuals per day. And that is appropriate again, given the volume of the specimens we’re testing that meet the CDC PUI criteria. I can’t speak necessarily to the LabCorp and Qwest capacity or that of the other third-party and commercial laboratories, but what we are seeing is that the capacity of New Jersey’s diagnostic laboratory testing overall is increasing as more people need testing.

Reporter: What is the recommendation if there is community spread? Like how much do we need to prepare for? Is 40 to 60 not enough?

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: Again, it’s enough right now today based on the volume that we’re seeing. And as we expect, as more cases come on we’re going to need to continue expanding testing capabilities. And we’re working aggressively with hospitals, universities and third-party commercial labs to ensure that the testing capacity is appropriately scaled as the situation continues.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: There’s also a lot of discussion on who needs to be tested. Even if people are showing symptoms, so they’re symptomatic and maybe have had a nexus but are presenting very mild symptoms, the question is do they really need to be tested? And that’s a question that’s being discussed nationally if not internationally because it doesn’t change the treatment. And that’s a really important aspect of all of this. Testing positive does nothing to impact the clinical treatment of the patient. There’s no vaccine. Treatment is all supportive care and symptom care. And so, the ability to look at testing and the impact of positives can maybe show us the progression of the disease but I have to emphasize that it doesn’t impact the treatment.

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: We want to ensure that those that need the testing are able to receive that testing. And those are individuals who are sick, hospitalized and should be prioritized to receive that testing. When you test individuals indiscriminately, asymptomatic as well, you flood the system with an enormous amount of specimens that need testing that otherwise would make it more difficult to prioritize and find those individuals that are positive. So, we want to ensure that those who need the testing get it, those who are sick and hospitalized get the testing they need, and that the resources that we have on hand are appropriately allocated to those that need it most.

Reporter: I just wanted to ask you, Lieutenant Governor, what changed between yesterday and today to prompt Governor Murphy to issue that directive for gatherings of 250 people or more to be postponed or cancelled?

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: I think that Governor Murphy has been on top of and focused on the coronavirus and the implications for his state, for the state of New Jersey. I believe that as he monitors the situation on a daily basis, as he receives data from the various administrators in state government, I think he was now moved to understanding and making the people of New Jersey understand that because so little is known about transmission and you know, we know very little about this coronavirus. So, he is seeking to safeguard, use the deliberate precautions that we know can tamper down the potential of transmission. And I think that he has been guided by the scientific data that we have thus far.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: Commissioner, we’ve heard a lot of discussion about people who are at risk, having immune problems, heart disease and so forth. That’s pretty clear. But then there’s this other category of older people. I’ve heard 60, I’ve heard 70, I’ve heard 75 to 85. What do we know about the immune system of human beings and when it starts to be less effective and put people at risk potentially for something like COVID-19?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Well, we do know that your immune system weakens over time and that’s why we always used to say 70. Particularly with this virus I think it’s down to 60, be more careful. I don’t know the exact age that the immune system starts to weaken. We know that some people it doesn’t weaken at all. So, out of an abundance of caution, the older you are your system weakens a bit. Just be careful.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: Does it matter in terms of your overall health, diet, exercise, sleep?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Sure, you have to take good care of yourself. You have to have adequate sleep, a good diet, exercise. These are all things that we’re constantly urging people to be involved in. And you know that diabetes and hypertension, heart disease and cancer are still leading causes of debility and death in the United States.

Reporter: I have a question for the Assistant Commissioner. Earlier this week you encouraged the federal government to release medical supplies from its strategic reserve.  Governor Murphy has also played a role in sourcing medical supplies. How are those efforts going? Has the federal government released anything?

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: They’re going positively. Just earlier today we’ve been in constant contact with our counterparts at Health and Human Services and we’re actively moving forward with procuring supplies from the strategic national stockpile.

Reporter: And just a follow-up on that quickly. Commissioner or anyone, are state workers being instructed to work remotely or when is that expected to happen?

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: I think we described yesterday that Governor Murphy has created an executive order, and our Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission is being guided by that. There have been some steps taken to accommodate those that we believe should work from home, but there is no blanket directive that of the 30,000 state employees they should all work from home. But yes, we are monitoring that as well.

Reporter: Are any of the currently positive cases or the pending tests healthcare workers? And are you confident about protecting healthcare workers now and going forward?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: As far as I know there’s two that are healthcare workers. One has been treated and discharged and one remains in the hospital. And we’re really concerned about healthcare workers, particularly those that might be exposed at a doctor’s office, an urgent care center where we know the vigilance perhaps – someone just walking in, the vigilance perhaps is not as strong. We’re also concerned about our healthcare workers in emergency rooms. That’s where we’re seeing the most walk-ins that could cause a problem. That’s why the stockpile of PPE is so important to us. And we are getting reports from hospitals that they’re concerned about their inventory, and we’re following up on every single one of them. The protection of the healthcare workers is so important, because if they have to go into quarantine it won’t be one or two – it’ll be a unit of healthcare workers. It’ll be 10 to 14. That’s a problem.

Reporter: And are there plans for those healthcare workers? Nurses can’t just go home to a house full of kids if they’re exposed. What are some of the steps that you know of that the hospitals are taking now?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Well, if the healthcare worker goes home on self-quarantine, we suggest to them to employ all of the social distancing interventions with the immediate household, not have visitors come into the house. And they also get a risk category. They’re either high, medium or low; they’re either active or passive surveillance. And then, we have initiatives for every single one of them.

Reporter: Commissioner, I talked to a number of frontline healthcare workers today, and they said that they feel their employers do not know how to prepare them to deal with and test the coronavirus and protect themselves. So, in light of what you just said, are you making efforts to make sure healthcare providers are better prepared and making those decisions known to the frontline workers? What are you doing?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Yeah, those are great questions. We’ve met a number of times with the New Jersey Hospital Association in terms of evaluating their readiness for this particular situation. And we actually met with them way before we had our first case because we had set up our original Taskforce the second week of January; and I think we started having daily meetings on January 24^th. We’ve heard that as well, so this afternoon I’m going to have a stakeholder call with a number of our unions that have healthcare workers as their participants. So, I’m going to hear firsthand the information that they’re getting and we’ll be following up on that.

Reporter: I have a question about some of the cases you might have seen already. I think today a 16-year-old. I believe there was a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old confirmed in New Jersey so far. I don’t know if the 16-year-old is hospitalized, I’m not sure if you said that. But the question is those are typically the low-risk population, right, just given their age. I don’t know if they have preexisting health conditions or not. Are you seeing in New Jersey cases where the low-risk population, the young and healthy are still being hospitalized because this virus is so severe?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: That’s a really great question. Lisa, do you have the breakdown? Because we have noticed younger individuals which is a little bit different than some other areas of the nation. We track that, do you have it?

Infectious Disease Epidemiologist Program Coordinator Lisa McHugh: I don’t have the exact numbers for you but I can say generally a lot of the younger individuals that we’re seeing are mostly people who have been seen in an outpatient setting and are being tested. I’m not going to say definitively but I don’t think any of them have been hospitalized. If they have been it’s been for a very minimal amount of time. Again, I think some of the cases that we are seeing that are requiring hospitalization are in some of the categories that we’ve already mentioned, some of the older adults with severe underlying medical conditions. And so, I think the trend that has been reported from other countries and other states is certainly something that we’re seeing. I will also mention that this is a very limited subset, so having less than 30 cases, it’s very difficult for us to make very definitive, broad statements about what we’re seeing. I think we will continue to monitor that from an epidemiologic perspective on a daily basis and track what that looks like. But at the current, with this very small number we’re seeing similar trends to what we’ve seen in other places.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I can answer the question actually. This is not exactly up to date and it’s very small numbers, but we’re seeing a peak at 27 to 36 years of age and then 57 on. So, that 27 to 36 is a little bit higher. I don’t have the percentages but it’s a little bit higher. I do have the percentage, 7%, but that’s a different circumstance.

Reporter: A question for Commissioner Repollet. You mentioned earlier in your comments about school lunches and breakfast and making sure that that continues. So, I was hoping that you and perhaps Secretary Fisher could talk more about what’s being done in that regard and what could be done to make sure that service continues?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Yeah, so there are certain challenges for us as far as agriculture, and Doug can talk more about that in regards to waivers. I know that we’ve submitted waivers to the US Department of Agriculture for us to be able to have districts be reimbursed. So, that’s one aspect of it. The second aspect of it is what happens when the schools close and you don’t have these waivers, what are some of the things you’re going to do? So, that’s the creativity, the outside-the-box thinking that a lot of our superintendents and district leaders are looking into, to be able to look at food banks, look at nonprofit organizations. But Doug can jump in and tell you exactly more from an Agriculture standpoint because that sits in his department, but from our standpoint we have been working collaborative and hand-in-hand to ensure that that food security piece is very important.

Department of Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher: Obviously this is very important. We’re working with Commissioner Repollet and the Department of Education, the Governor’s Office, Health, everyone. We want to make sure that there are sites for the children to be able to eat. Right now, we’re working on non-congregate sites. We’ve already received a waiver from the USDA for a couple programs but that only applies to 41 districts. That’s the state Summer Food Program and the SSO programs. We’re looking for a second waiver, we’re expecting to get it very shortly which will allow the USDA to then have the districts to be able to serve under the National School Lunch Program, which is something that they very much know how to operate under. And that will encompass all the free, reduced and paid children to get their feeding at a non-congregate site or other sites that they’ll be working on. But we have to get the clearance from the USDA and we’re submitting that right away. We’re hopeful that we’ll have that. We expect to get it. That will really answer the question about feeding programs.

Charlie Stile, The Record: I do have a question. What prompted the Governor’s change of heart overnight? Was it the rapidly evolving set of events outside the state? We saw the NBA, the Commissioner mentioned that; actions in New York; cancellations around the country. Did he feel that it was time? Did that force his hand? Was there a concern that the state might look like it’s a little slow to react if it didn’t react and call for what you did today?

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: I don’t think that is what guided Governor Murphy at all in recommending that events of 250 plus be postponed. I think that, and I definitely know he is not looking at what other governors are doing. He is prioritizing what will potentially thwart this disease from affecting and infecting residents of New Jersey. That’s what he’s been guided by. And as I said, each day we learn more, and I think we’ve now come to the point in New Jersey, particularly because when you look at the cluster like in Bergen County, we know that many of those folks were at the same congregate gathering. And we want to avoid that in New Jersey. That is what the Governor was guided by and the science that we have thus far. But I can assure you, Governor Murphy does not look at other states and other governors. He looks at the state of New Jersey, the health and welfare of the people that live here.

Charlie Stile, The Record: I was thinking more though of the total, the atmosphere. You had the President as well giving a national address. There was breaking news right up through the night, like we mentioned the NBA. There was this total atmosphere that things had gone up another notch, that this was going from just a yellow alert panic to maybe red. And maybe it was time for New Jersey to get in with that.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Absolutely not because initially what we heard from Capitol Hill was this was going to be gone when it got warm. And obviously that is not what is happening. Governor Murphy is guided by the best data he has available to him and also the concerns of constituents. So no, I don’t think that he’s… I think you’re trying to describe has he jumped on the large gatherings because of other people doing it? No, that is not what has guided him.

Reporter: The public health emergency declaration, can you detail what are some of the… These are recommendations to avoid gatherings. Can you legally mandate do not gather? Can you tell churches, houses of worship to stop? What can you do in terms of schools? What legal powers are left to you now?

State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan: We can. And that recommendation, if agencies or institutions choose not to follow it, we do reserve the right to come in and go, “You’re not having that event. You’re not having that wrestling match, basketball game, concert.” But we think that the recommendation in and of itself should be taken under advisement and people take it seriously. I hope we don’t have to get to the point of authority of that declaration. But we do reserve the right to do that.

Reporter: With regard to the Princeton party, that was such a large group of people at 47 there. Has the Health Department taken a particular interest in that party? Have you had more dialog with Princeton health officials about it?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Not any more than the interest in every other case, the contact tracing of every case. And I just want to talk about why today and not yesterday. We’re in this exactly one week. One week ago, we had one case and now we have 29. The trajectory alone, looking at that in relation to the trajectory of what has happened in other states I think is the motivating factor for us to step back and say what further mitigation strategies should we undertake? It’s 1 to 29 in one week. That’s a pretty steep increase, not in relation to the rest of our population but in relation to absolute numbers.

Reporter: And I had a question for the Education Commissioner. Summit Schools have announced that they are closing they plan for about three weeks. Is that the most that you have heard any school district cancelling classes? And do you expect that some others are going to follow swiftly?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: So, we assess school closures daily. We have executives, County Superintendents in constant contact with the superintendents throughout the state and we get information regarding that on a daily basis and timely. So, information like that, it feeds up and we notify the Governor’s Office. We’re aware that school districts are doing professional development that had been planned months before based off of the calendar. We understand a lot are taking an opportunity to create preparedness plans and making sure these preparedness plans are with the whole entire body versus top-down. So, we encourage that. And we also have the snow days. We have, you know, obviously it was a warm winter so therefore you have built-in snow days. So, as a result of that, people are using those built-in snow days to ensure that they can provide an adequate plan that will provide for the safety and well-being of their students.

Reporter: Do you anticipate the school sessions to go well into summer to try to make up these days or are you not that far?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: No, we actually provided… The Department of Education in consultation with the Governor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, we provided guidelines. And part of those guidelines, we looked home instruction and we broadened the definition for home instruction based off of public health concerns. So, as a result of that, that kind of mitigates some of those reasons or rationales for the 180 days. So, therefore we gave them enough flexibility to allow them to work within those parameters to ensure that they could provide the continuous instruction for their students in that event. And they use, whether it’s virtual school as I talked about before or paper. So, they’re coming up with creative ways to ensure continuity of instruction.

Reporter: [inaudible] Bergen County cases? Can you give more information about what that gathering was and where, and has everyone who was there, everyone who had contact with people been notified or investigated?

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: I can’t give specifics and perhaps Commissioner Persichilli can. But we do know that a number of people who have been affected have connections in West… Yeah, that is what we know. We know that several of them were tied to events that happened at their temple, and that is how I am describing connected. And I don’t know if Judy has anything further to say.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Yeah, there’s a couple of index cases that were back and forth from New Rochelle and we’ve pretty much connected all of them. And that’s exactly what public health does, the contact tracing – where were you? What did you attend? Who else was there? What was your close contact? I mean, it is actually an investigation.

Reporter: Commissioner Repollet, can you just go over the information about the school closures again? You said one was closed due to a presumptive positive case in the community?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Yes.

Reporter: And then, there were three because of, my notes might be bad but confirmed exposure. Can you just go over the difference there?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Yes. To date, 207 total school closures – 182 school districts are closed for professional development related to COVID-19. 12 districts are closed due to closing for precautionary cleaning; 9 districts closed due to possible exposure to COVID-19 in the school community; 3 districts have closed or are closing because of confirmed exposure to COVID-19 in the school community; and 1 district is closed to a presumptive positive case in the community. So, we’re working hand-in-hand to track this and we track this information daily. And we actually put down a rationale and provide that information up. As the Lieutenant Governor said, we gather information and every day we assess that information and then we create a daily plan as a result of the information we gathered the day before.

Reporter: Do you have [that school name]?

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: I don’t have that information right in front of me right now, but if you give your information we can get that to you.

Reporter: I’m sorry, I wanted to ask you about the difference between a confirmed exposure and a presumptive positive case in the community. What’s the difference between those categories?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Did you use the term ‘confirmed exposure?’

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: Yes, we put out information.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I’m not sure that that’s exactly… It’s probably indication that someone thinks they’ve been exposed, have gone to their physician and perhaps wants to be tested. What’s happening is we’re getting an awful lot of rumors around everything but definitely around the schools: “So-and-so’s mom went to something and…” so, I think that’s probably what’s causing some of the closures. We only deal with the presumptive positive cases because they’ve been tested and confirmed.

Reporter: Right, but to follow up on that, like on the website right now there are different sections that say ‘possible exposure,’ ‘confirmed exposure,’ and ‘presumptive positive.’ So, if I’m a parent checking that site I’m going to want to know the difference between those categories.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I don’t know what website that is. Oh, I’m sorry.

Commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont Repollet: We’ll definitely try to clarify that and put a definition page in there. But remember, we’re ascertaining information from districts. So, an example would be that a family member was at a party of someone that may have been exposed, so as a result that district is taking precautionary measures. Now, they can do that because as we talked about those built-in snow days, so as a result they’d use those days to close down to possibly do a thorough cleaning of the building; or use those days to actually make sure they have a preparedness plan.

Infectious Disease Epidemiologist Program Coordinator Lisa McHugh: I’ll add something to that. I think there’s a lot of this contact of a contact, right? So, I think it’s important to remember that a person is most likely infectious when they’re symptomatic. So, if you’re not in contact with someone when they’re showing symptoms it’s not the person necessarily who had contact with them, right? It’s the person that had contact with the person who had symptoms. And so, we’re getting a lot of contact of a contact of a contact, right? So, we understand the concern and the fear but I think it’s important to remember that when we do contact tracing we’re looking at individuals who have had contact with someone who actually was presenting with illness. And so, that’s how we conduct our contact tracing. And so, there are lots of people who are concerned, rightfully so, that they may have had exposures. But again, we’re looking at specifically those who have had contact with somebody who is at their most infectious which is when they’re symptomatic.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Okay, we’re going to take Charlie and then you and then we’re going to wrap it up so that Commissioner Persichilli can go back to her office and get some more data for you.

Charlie Stile, The Record: We’re going to do one and a half ‘cause mine’s real small. The 66-year-old man from Montclair, that case, did I hear you correctly or incorrectly that there’s no known contact with a COVID-19?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: You’re talking about the Montclair? 66-year-old female, exposure to COVID-19 is pending. The information is still, yeah, we don’t have it.

Charlie Stile, The Record: Okay, so you’re not sure whether that’s community spread or not.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Now remember, we get this information just about an hour before we get in front of you, so I know it’s not as complete as you would all like it to be. But it’s pending.

Reporter: To follow up on the contact tracing with the healthcare workers, any of them… Did they get exposure from New Jersey cases, and was the exposure on the job or in their personal lives?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: The two that you’re speaking about, I don’t…Do you recall? ‘Cause one was our first case, and like I said he’s been discharged but came from New York. So, I mean, I’m making an assumption now that it was New York. The second I don’t know. Do you know, Lisa?

Infectious Disease Epidemiologist Program Coordinator Lisa McHugh: I don’t think on the second healthcare worker we know exactly the pinpointed exposure to a confirmed case.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: Speaking of concerns and rumors, as you I’m sure are aware there are concerns, rumors, worries about people are going out and buying food, stockpiling water. From everything that we know about this virus, does it affect food or water? In other words, is that threatened at all?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: No, no.

David Levinsky, Burlington County Times: What would your advice be? What would your words be to New Jersey about this issue?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: I think everybody should follow a good nutritional foundation and make sure that they eat well and there’s no fear that any of this virus is transmitted by food or water.

Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver: Okay, thank you, everyone. And you’ll be briefed by Governor Murphy tomorrow, thank you.