:

Acting Governor Oliver: Epidemiologist, Dr. Christina Tan; Assistant Commissioner of Health for Public Health Infrastructure, Laboratories, and Emergency Preparedness, Chris Neuwirth; Hackensack Meridian Health Regional President, Dr. Ihor Sawczuk; Attorney General Gubir Grewal; State Police Superintendent, Colonel Pat Callahan, and Director of Homeland Security, Jared Maples. As Governor Murphy and I announced last night along with Commissioner Persichilli, we identified our first presumptive case of coronavirus in New Jersey. That individual, a male in his thirties, is currently hospitalized and stable at Hackensack University Medical Center in Bergen County.We are working with our partners in New York closely to carefully trace all points of contact for this individual. Additionally, a second presumptive case has also now been identified. The Department of Health along with our local and federal partners is working hard in responding to these cases. And Commissioner Persichilli will speak more to both of these in just a moment. In addition, the administration has issued immediate restriction on all state related business travel, all international travel is suspended for our state workforce until further notice, and previously approved international travel by our state employees is cancelled. All domestic, out of state travel on state related business must be approved by the governor’s office including same-day travel, whether that be to New York, Washington, DC, or elsewhere. And we advise caution of our employees traveling to any area with known impacts of community spread of coronavirus and COVID-19. I would like to reiterate two things that the Governor and Commissioner both said repeatedly on Monday: One, this case does not come as a surprise. Our state has been prepared for weeks for the eventuality that one of our residents would test positively for coronavirus. We put in place a plan for preparedness and rapid response and that plan is working. As you know, Governor Murphy assembled an interdepartmental taskforce, and that taskforce communicates on a daily basis. Second, and more importantly, the threat to public health in New Jersey remains low. We urge residents to remain calm and it bears repeating; this is cold and flu season, and residents with respiratory ailments are more likely to be suffering from a cold or flu, not coronavirus. Lines of communication remain open to all. Anyone with questions or concerns should first visit the Department of Health’s coronavirus information page at nj.gov/health or call the state’s toll-free public hotline at 1-800-222-1222. And as a reminder, the surest way to protect yourself and others is to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, to cover your cough or sneeze, and to avoid touching your face, your eyes, your mouth, your nose. If you are feeling sick, take a day off from work or school and call your doctor or local healthcare practitioner. These are all simple things and common-sense things, and they are our best defense. As we said, the overall risk of coronavirus is low. If you feel under the weather, it is most likely a seasonal cold or flu, not coronavirus. From the governor to me, commissioner Persichilli, and to everyone that is standing up here with me, our teams across government, we have been preparing for this for weeks. And because of that, we are being aggressive in our investigation and in ensuring public health. I’m gonna now ask Commissioner Judy Persichilli to further brief you.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Thank you, Acting Governor Oliver. As I said in the past, given the expanded testing and continued spread of novel coronavirus worldwide and in the United States, it would not come as a surprise that we would have a positive case in our state. We were notified last evening of our first case. I’m here to report this morning that we have just been notified that we have another presumptive, positive case, which will be sent to the CDC for confirmation. When I say, “Presumptive,” I mean the sample was tested in our state labs in West Trenton and is being submitted to the CDC for confirmatory testing. State and local public health officials, authorities, are proceeding with their investigations and responding to these activities in our recent notifications. Here’s what we know so far about the individual: The case is a male in his thirties who’s currently hospitalized in Bergen County and is currently stable. The individual developed symptoms on March 1st and then sought medical care late on March 2nd first at an urgent care facility in Bergen County, and then was sent the hospital ED, emergency department, and was subsequently admitted. The hospital appropriately placed the patient in an airborne isolation room since his arrival, and the facility has since been continuing appropriate infection control precautions. From the time he became symptomatic, the patient had limited close contact with other New Jersey residents outside of the healthcare setting. The New Jersey Department of Health in conjunction with the local health departments are in the process of identifying healthcare, household, and other close contacts of these cases. These contacts would be assessed as to their level of risk, to exposure to the case, and other close contacts would be asked to self-quarantine and monitor for symptoms for a period of 14 days. While we are still investigating the patient’s possible exposure to the virus that caused COVID-19, at this time, we do not have information linking this patient to the Westchester COVID-19 cases. I know even one case of COVID-19 is concerning to the public. There currently is not a vaccine to treat COVID-19, but there are steps you can take to protect yourselves. You’ve heard this repeatedly: Wash your hands frequently during the day for at least 20 seconds, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer at 60 percent, cover coughs and sneeze, staying home when you’re sick, avoid close contact with people who are sick, avoid touching your eyes, your nose, or your mouth, and clean frequently touched objects and surfaces using regular household cleaning spray or wipes. For individuals who have recently returned from china, Iran, Italy, and South Korea, where CDC recommends you avoid all non-essential travel, CDC and the Department of Health are advising that they self-quarantine, self-monitor, and practice social distancing for a period of 14 days from the time the individual left the area with widespread or ongoing community spread. Yesterday, we also issued a notice that any New Jersey resident that attended religious services or religious events at the Temple Yom Israel in New Rochelle, New York on February 22nd or February 23rd to self-quarantine until March 8th. Self-quarantine is an important public health tool used to separate and restrict the movement of people who may have been exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. As COVID-19 spreads across the United States, we will expect more cases in New Jersey. Currently, we have eight persons under investigation and awaiting testing. So far in New Jersey, we have tested 13 individuals. 11 were negative. And as of a half hour ago, two have been reported as presumptive positive. However, these numbers are changing rapidly as the number of providers contacting public health to request testing is expanding. The Department of Health has been monitoring this global outbreak since January to ensure our preparedness at all levels throughout the state. Our teams continue working around the clock to respond to this and any potential cases that come our way. Our internal management team continues to meet daily and assess our response. The New Jersey Coronavirus Taskforce chaired by me and compromised of other state departments and agencies, is coordinating all state efforts to ensure that we are taking a whole of government approach as the governor says. We continue meeting weekly and working with each other on a regular basis. We’ve been hosting conference calls and meetings with local health departments, hospitals, school superintendents and college presidents. Members of our business community have been on calls with us. And local and county officials have been in constant contact for our preparedness efforts. We continue working with these groups to address all the stakeholders’ concerns. We are planning more calls with stakeholders such as long-term care facilities and childcare centers next week. Our coronavirus webpage available at nj.gov/health is updated regularly with FAQs, fact sheets, travel advisories, and guidance for businesses, universities, schools, and healthcare providers. We encourage residents with questions to call the public hotline run by New Jersey Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222. Trained healthcare professionals are standing by 24/7. They can answer your calls in a variety of languages. So far, the call center has responded to more than 1400 calls. Again, while any case of COVID-19 in our state is concerning, most New jersey residents are still at very low risk of contracting COVID-19. As we are still in the midst of flu season, it is more likely individuals with respiratory symptoms such as sneezing and coughing and temperatures have the flu or maybe the common cold. Unless you have traveled to impacted countries or come in contact with someone who is known to have COVID-19, your risk remains low. We cannot say this enough. Please protect yourself and others from the spread of respiratory viruses by washing your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, covering coughs and sneezes, and please stay home if you are sick. Again, we understand the public is concerned, especially now that two cases have been identified among our residents. But we have and continue to take all steps available to us to protect our residents. Thank you.

Acting Governor Oliver: Thank you, Commissioner Persichilli. At this time, we will hear from Dr. Christina Tan, who’s the state epidemiologist and she oversees Communicable Disease Services at the New Jersey Department of Health.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan: Thank you and good afternoon, everybody. Just really briefly, the complete clinical picture of COVID-19 is not fully understood at this time. As we know, reported illness have ranged from mild to severe including illness resulting in hospitalization and death. And while information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China recently suggests that serious illness occurs in about 16 percent of cases, which means that the majority of cases do present more with milder symptoms. Older people and people with certain underlying health conditions, like heart or lung disease, diabetes, seem to be at greater risk for serious illness.Worldwide, there have been very few cases reported in children. And of those reported, the illnesses have been mild. Much is also known about how the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spreads. Current knowledge is largely based on what is known about similar coronavirus which are very common. Generally speaking, coronaviruses are a common cause of mild to moderate upper respiratory illness. Most often, person to person spread is thought to happen among people who are in close contact, meaning defined about six feet with each other occurring mainly through respiratory droplets when an infected person sneezes or coughs, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. Again, this is a rapidly evolving situation and risk assessment of COVID-19 will be updated as we have more information. While we currently have two presumptive cases in New Jersey, the risk still remains low for our general population. But it is still slightly higher for those New Jersians who have traveled to areas where community transmission of COVID-19 might be occurring and for those who have had close contact with confirmed cases. The increasing number of cases in other states and now in New Jersey make it more likely that we will see more cases in the near future, particularly since more people are being tested as the commissioner had stated. New Jersey, we’re no stranger to emerging infectious diseases. And as we are a hub for global travel, over the last 20 years, for example, New Jersey has seen imported cases of SARS, viral hemorrhagic fever, and Zika Disease, just as kind of our more recent examples. But also, back in 2009, we experienced the H1-N1 pandemic when, over the course of a year, we had over 3000 confirmed H1-N1 cases mainly impacting a younger population. Similarly, as COVID-19 continues to evolve worldwide and domestically, we are carefully monitoring the situation and learning more about COVID-19 every day and adapting what we need to do as needed. Right now, we are seeing the different areas of the United States are going through different stages. For example, in California and Washington State, there is evidence of sustained community transmission in which these states are taking additional steps to control COVID-19’s spread. In New Jersey, we’ve just started to identify our first two presumptive cases. And here in New Jersey and surrounding cases, we have not yet identified sustained transmission in community settings. There are public health strategies that can help contain communicable diseases such as COVID-19. Right now, as we have started to get COVID-19 cases, we work with local health departments and healthcare providers regarding contact tracing and assurance of appropriate infection control processes in healthcare facilities. But again, we do expect that we’re gonna see more cases. As that happens, we are going to have to shift toward different strategies that help mitigate the spread in the community because we’re just, similar to what more heavily impacted states are doing right now, because we have to be mindful of prioritizing our healthcare resources. Community based interventions can help slow the spread of coronavirus. And those interventions might include the personal protective measures that the commissioner had mentioned, ’cause everyday preventive steps like hand hygiene. There are also measures to increase social distancing such as social distancing in the workplace, and school dismissals, for example, and environmental measures such as enhanced cleaning of frequently touched surfaces. With that, thank you. [pause] Those are my remarks.

Acting Governor Oliver: Thank you, Dr. Tan. I’m gonna now ask Chris Neuwirth, the Assistant Commissioner for New Jersey Department of Health.

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: Good afternoon. As we expected, there are many individuals who are interested in being tested for novel coronavirus. Currently, the state lab is the only laboratory in New Jersey conducting tests. As of this morning, we have received a second test kit from the CDC to test an additional 216 patients. We are only testing individuals who meet the CDC criteria for persons under investigation and who have been authorized for testing by the CDC. The timeframe between a patient arriving at a healthcare facility to receiving the novel coronavirus test results can be up to 72 hours considering the necessary approvals, specimen collection process, transportation of the specimens to the lab, and the associated lab processing times. In our effort to increase testing capacity across New Jersey, we will be sharing guidance for licensed clinical laboratories to establish their own capabilities for novel coronavirus testing. Once external laboratories are authorized to conduct testing on their own, we will re-evaluate PY testing criteria to reflect our enhanced testing capabilities. Please continue to monitor nj.gov/health for the latest information and guidance for laboratory testing. Thank you.

Acting Governor Oliver: Thank you, Chris. Now, we have with us today Dr. Sawchuk. Dr. Sawchuk is an MD and the Regional President of the Northern Market for Hackensack Meridian Health.

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk: Thank you and good afternoon. Last evening, Wednesday, the New Jersey Department of Health notified Hackensack Meridian Health that a patient at Hackensack University Medical Center tested presumptive positive for COVID-19. Rest assured that our team of dedicated healthcare providers has taken every precaution in treating the patient. We are working closely with the New Jersey Department of Health in accordance with protocols provided by the CDC including isolation of the patient, use of dedicated equipment, and appropriate personal protective equipment. Our patient’s resting comfortably and is doing well. Hackensack Meridian Health continues to screen patients in accordance with CDC guidelines. We are routinely engaged in emergency management practices and prepared to manage confirmed cases of COVID-19. Thank you.

Acting Governor Oliver:Thank you, Dr. Sawchuk. We have with us as well Attorney General Gubir Grewal.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal: Thank you, Governor. I wanna thank Governor Murphy, Acting Governor Oliver, Commissioner Persichilli for their leadership in respect to the state’s coronavirus response. I’m here in my role as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer for New Jersey and as the individual responsible for our state’s consumer protection efforts through our division of Consumer Affairs. I’m here with the simple message for any business or person that seeks to profit from consumer fears of this coronavirus. Simply, don’t do it. We take seriously allegations of price gouging. We take seriously allegations of those who might be making misleading claims with regard to the efficacy of certain products to treat or prevent the spread of the coronavirus. And our investigators are out there in the market now spot-checking pharmacies and other businesses for this type of conduct. But unfortunately, I have to report that we’ve received a number of complaints over the last number of weeks concerning businesses who are engaged in price gouging on products ranging from surgical masks to hand sanitizer. And today, we’ve issued ten complaints or ten warnings to these businesses to cease these practices. So, if anyone suspects that a business is engaged in this type of conduct or making misleading statements, I encourage them to visit the website for our Division of Consumer Affairs, njconsumeraffairs.gov. You can get more information there about scams that we have identified in the wake of this public health crisis. And you could also report businesses that are engaged in improper conduct. It’s simply unconscionable that businesses in our state, to include pharmacies, are seeking to profit off of the fear of the public at this particular moment. So, we stand ready. Our inspectors stand ready to root out this conduct and to hold these bad actors accountable. Thank you.

Acting Governor Oliver: Thank you, Attorney General. We’ll now hear from Colonel Pat Callahan, the Superintendent of our New Jersey State Police.

Colonel Patrick Callahan: Thank you, Governor. I’ll just briefly re-echo my remarks that I gave Monday, just a few short days ago, with regard to the State Police’s role. I know some folks in the room might wonder what the State Police have to do with the coronavirus or with Ebola or SARS. Our role as one of two states in the whole country that serves as the Office of Emergency Management is why we’re involved when I speak about preparedness and mitigation response and recovery. As the Commissioner indicated and the Governor indicated, we’ve been preparing for this for several, several weeks now. That is the primary pillar of emergency management, regardless of the hazard or the disaster. So, the efforts that we lend toward preparedness and mitigation will hopefully make us much better in the response and the recovery approach. As the Commissioner indicated, it’s probably the second presumptive case has been identified, we probably can expect more in the state police and all of our partners assembled today and throughout the state remain poised and prepared to handle the situation with the utmost fortitude and diligence. Thank you.

Acting Governor Oliver:Thank you, Colonel. We’ll have a brief Q and A. Yes?

Reporter: [Can you clarify inaudible in New Jersey]

Acting Governor Oliver:We are still doing investigatory work with those two individuals. So, we’re not prepared at this time to give you that type of information. But in the following days, maybe we can respond to that. Yes?

Reporter: [inaudible]

Acting Governor Oliver: As you heard Commissioner Persichilli say, we do know the movement of one particular case where he basically was traveling within the City of New York. The second presumptive positive case is still being investigated.

Reporter:[inaudible]

Acting Governor Oliver: Yes.

Reporter: [Inaudible] Is there any link to…?

Acting Governor Oliver: We don’t have that information at this time.

Reporter: [Inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: Correct.

Reporter: Can you elaborate on that?

Acting Governor Oliver: Yes. And then we are required to send the samples to the Center for Disease Control. And as our federal disease control center, they then will affirm.

Reporter: [inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: Yes?

Reporter: I have a question here. [inaudible] Hackensack? Or…?

Acting Governor Oliver: Yes. I’m gonna let –

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Yeah, let me clarify. We know a little bit more about the first individual. The second individual, like I said, we just heard about a half hour ago. So, the firs individual was someone who worked in New York. 30-year-old person. Worked in New York. Then was hospitalized in Hackensack. We know his movement was primarily in New York. Was not feeling well, came home to his dwelling, and on the night, about 10:00 pm, on the 3rd I think it was, he came to Hackensack. The second case I have absolutely no information on yet. It’ll be forthcoming. I just wanna share with you the process. When get a presumptive positive, because these are new tests, it’s a quality control aspect of the testing. But when we get a presumptive positive, the first thing we do is call the local health officer. The local health officer calls the treating physician, so that the treating physician can inform the patient or the patient’s family depending on the condition of the patient. That process, particularly when it’s ten o’clock at night, can take longer than we would like. But we try to hold that process private and confidential because we do not want – and this has occurred, that a patient hears about themselves on the TV before the treating physician, who that patient has that relationship with, has the opportunity to share that information. So, we need a couple of hours for sure from the time we get a positive to the time it’s released. So, the second case is just breaking. We felt compelled to tell you about it; we didn’t want you to leave here today and hear about it an hour from now. But I don’t have any information on it.

Reporter:Which county is it for the second case? Is it north or south?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:It’s in North Jersey.

Reporter:[inaudible]

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Not that we know of, but we haven’t done the investigation yet. But not that we know of.

Reporter:[Commissioner, you had mentioned earlier that people are being brought into the emergency room and isolated. Can you kind of take us through the process where a person feels sick, they call their own doctor, what happens at the point that they go? And where are they put? And what kind of  [inaudible]?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Certainly. The first step, and we’ve been telling people, “If you feel sick, and you believe for any reason that you may have COVID-19, call your healthcare provider. They’ll direct you to the emergency room.” Call the emergency room, ’cause the emergency room wants to know you coming in the front door. The minute you hit that front door, they protect you and the other patients and put you into a negative pressure room. Our survey of the hospitals in N New Jersey, every emergency room has the appropriate isolation room for these patients. And maybe, Dr. Sawczuk, you can talk about it from there? The infection prevention nurse is called, the infectious disease specialist. You can [laughing]…

Reporter: Doctor, could you give us your first and last name spelling, please?

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk:First name is Ihor.  Last name is Sawczuk.

Reporter: Thank you.

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk: When a patient comes to the emergency room, there are screening protocols; there are questions that are asked to determine if the patient is a positive screener. If so, then there are precautions taken for the patent and the team members. The patient is put into a negative pressure room and the policies and procedures are followed. Hackensack University Medical Center takes great care of its own team members. We’ve been drilling for biohazards since Ebola and we’re well aware of what it takes to manage these type of patients.

Reporter: Could you briefly just give us the policies and procedures? Do they wear protective clothing when the patient goes in? [inaudible]?

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk: They have protective clothing. They have an N-95 mask. They have the protection around the face and the eyes. And we use dedicated equipment in those rooms; equipment does not come in and out. And we use limited number of personnel to work with the patients.

Reporter: [Inaudible]

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk: Yes. They get specific training and they have ongoing training.

Reporter:Final question, if I may, sir, the negative pressure room; what exactly is that? How does that work?

Dr. Ihor Sawczuk: So, that you need an engineer for. [laughter]

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:I’m not an engineer, just play one on TV. [laughs] I’m not an engineer. But the negative pressure rooms actually turn the air flow into the room, not outside the room. In most cases, in positive pressure, airflows go outside and they go throughout the department. Negative pressure, it’s inside and shunted outside of the room. In the older rooms, there are six air changes an hour. And in the newer rooms, there’s 12. So, it’s constantly moving.

Reporter: Are these two people at the same hospital?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: No.

Reporter: Where are they?

Reporter: [Inaudible].

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: That’s incorrect. We definitely know Hackensack. The other is Englewood.

Reporter: Can I just add on that, [inaudible] investigating a possible case. Can you expand on that?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Well, we have about 11 or 12 possible cases being investigated right now. I can’t tell you every location, but we’re constantly getting called.

Reporter:[inaudible] traveling around New York, was he on the subway? [inaudible]?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:I don’t have that information yet. I don’t have that information, but we are working with New York, by the way, on any case that, like the Westchester, anything that traverses New York to New Jersey, we’re in contact with the New York health officials. So, I don’t have that information.

Acting Governor Oliver:      Okay. We’re gonna take one more question. This gentleman.

Reporter: [inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: The results? As soon as we get confirmation from the CDC.

Reporter: [inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: Oh, it will be several…

Reporter: [inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: Yes.

Reporter: Did you say that’s several days? Several hours?

Acting Governor Oliver: I said hours.

Reporter: Hours. Thank you.

Reporter: [Can you also give us some information…[inaudible]. Things can happen. What is the holdup with that lab that’s [inaudible]? [inaudible]?

Acting Governor Oliver: Chris Neuwirth will give you some more detail on that.

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: By close of business tomorrow, we will have guidance for those third party, external licensed clinical laboratories; the process outlined for them to proceed forward with bringing online the capabilities to test for novel coronavirus. As in New Jersey, the laboratories are licensed by the Department of Health. They have to go through a relatively short process to add the ability to test for novel coronavirus onto their license. And so, we’re working with those entities that would like to do that, so that they can come online as soon as possible.

Reporter:[inaudible]?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:How many…?

Reporter:Well, you said 11 or 12 investigations. I don’t know if that includes the two –

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Eleven. We’ve tested 13 individuals. 11 were negative.

Reporter: Commissioner, [inaudible]?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Oh. Well, I wanna make it clear.

Acting Governor Oliver: [inaudible]? They can’t hear you.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli: Right now, we have tested 13 individuals. 11 were negative. Two now positive. But Dr. Tan reminds me constantly that these numbers are evolving. As we’re sitting here now, more than likely, more tests are being done. So, that’s as of 2:30.

Reporter:As of your last check, how many test results [are you waiting back on that are not conclusive yet, not including the two 0:36:08] …?

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:Not including…? How many? Do we have none in the queue? None in the queue at this point.

Reporter:[I thought you said eight earlier].

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:Eight persons under investigation awaiting testing. Oh yeah.

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth: As of this moment, we’ve tested 13 individuals. 11 have come back negative. Two have come back positive. And right now, at the state lab, we are not testing any additional novel coronavirus specimens. The way the process works though, the communicable disease service, in consultation with healthcare facilities in New Jersey, are fielding calls and making determination in coordination with the CDC to identify others.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:But we have –

DOH Assistant Commissioner Chris Neuwirth:Right.

Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli:I’m gonna clarify the eight. We have eight persons under investigation. They haven’t been determined to go to testing yet, so I’m sorry for that confusion.

Acting Governor Oliver: And we want to let you know that the Office of the Governor is committed to being open and transparent with the public. As information that is verifiable has been provided to us, we will certainly be informing the public. We’re not hiding anything or keeping anything unreported and you can anticipate getting reports from the Office of the Governor when it is necessary. But I wanna thank all of you for coming this afternoon.