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[Music] hello North Dakota and welcome to our daily press briefing got some good news today so the lighter day maybe today for all of us but want to start off right away with the news today the Department of Health confirmed 14 additional cases of The Cove in 19 and this is a comes on a day when we had our record or our record number of tests taken 835 tests taken 14 over 835 1.6% that's our lowest we've had in this thing and what that means is we continue to have a very flat in this case even declining rate now we understand and we'll talk this in a little more depth as we go through this that we did do the some of these numbers included in here from operation drive-thru which in western North Dakota where we were doing more broad-based testing of people that didn't have symptoms so the pool of people that we were testing was perhaps you know a less of a target audience so likely that we would have a lower percentage but we did learn some very valuable things out of that test which we'll cover but the other piece right in the lower center of this graph which I want to highlight is also that the 16 currently hospitalized this is good news that we're down to so two more people that are out of hospitalization and this is a number we'll continue to highlight in the weeks ahead is number of hospital beds because again from a strategic standpoint the whole point of everything that our country is doing to try to reduce the spread was to not get in the position that we saw in Italy that we saw in the New York metro area where you were actually an area ran out of medical care and when you run out of medical care particularly at the highest level of Licensing when you don't have enough ICU beds or in intensive care critical access type caregivers that can manage that with all the sophisticated equipment that's where you can save lives is it that high-end of care and and so again trying to make sure that we can deliver the best possible care to all North Dakotans that might need it if we have a spike due to this highly contagious and and for for those that are older or have underlying health conditions a highly deadly disease but the good news is then as we've said before we know that we've got at least twenty-six hundred beds identified in the state within we're gonna you're gonna hear plans about how we're gonna scale up from there but again sixteen over 2,600 this is less than one percent of the beds hospital beds in the state of North Dakota are currently being used for kovat and so for those that think that the state isn't doing enough to slow the spread I would ask them again to keep looking at the numbers and understand what we're trying to manage which is we're trying to manage capacity of hospital care this is the the two curves we talked about one is the the curve and the line flattening the curve which we're doing and then raising the line for the hospital care so then the other piece which and we'll get to in a second in two slides but let's just take quickly look at the the number of new cases the raw data the numerator here which again shows that the twelve cases that we reported today but if we go to the better piece of data where we're taking a case is positive cases versus test taken this is the positive test rates those remain low and because of that wider spread testing over the weekend you're actually seeing that curve flattened out by comparison again for those that might be watching and are nervous about you know what was going on the New York metro area both New Jersey and New York had test positive test skates rates in in the forties like forty to forty six percent of the people tests that were positive when you're in that situation and with the possibility that every person that has it may infect two more that's when you get into that exponential growth that's not where we are right now at all and it certainly shows that on the next slide that we have and this is our slide that shows again above the line is the active cases that we're managing below the line is those that have recovered or those that sadly that we that have passed away due to the Cove it 19 but you'll see if you net out the new cases of that we had for today the 14 new cases versus those that have recovered we actually went down we actually went down in number of active cases that's the first time that this has happened that active cases have gone from 54 to 53 so super encouraging news that we at least had one day on on our March most other states have seen this line continued just climb skyward but again given the lagging aspect of this the data I wanted to say thank you to everybody that's been practicing all the guidance that we've been given because we're benefiting today from actions that people were taking several weeks ago whether that's closing schools or businesses or personal care businesses all of that reduced activity is paying dividends today and so one other piece of data that we want to address too at the front end here is relative to rate by counties because there has been you know some concern I think people get stuck on the numerators where we see stuff on social media which is hey how come we're not doing more for Cass County because Cass County's got the most number of positives newsflash Cass County's our most populous state okay so when we get done with this we are likely going to have the most number of cases in Cass County what we're really managing in terms of what's this hot spot is whether or not the the cases that you have the positive cases over the tests that are taken or over the population so this is the positive rate and you can see on the the slide here on there that with Cass County at four point three percent is got a far lower rate than some of the counties in that we have in Western North Dakota particularly Montrell which jumps out at almost 17 percent rate so again that's where we're focusing some of our task force and strike teams right now is into Montrell and working in conjunction with chairman mark fox dr. Monica mayor and MHA nation Scott's a turmoil the whole team up there that we're working with again to try to make sure we're addressing they the outbreak that that and we're working there with all of the you know tribal officials and local officials there to make sure that we're doing a great job working together to protect everybody in North Dakota so again we're doing a great job on getting testing done there has been tests now taken in every County if it's white on this slide that means there's not yet a positive in that County if there's no numbers in that County those are the counties that don't yet have a positive that doesn't mean that that there isn't that there isn't kovat disease in those counties it just means we don't have a positive test case yet and we'll talk a little bit more about that but I think next up I want to talk a little bit about our guidance that we keep giving that we want to repeat every time which is what we call North Dakota smart and again this is what's working so today again this is just a thank you to everybody that's doing these things avoiding discretionary travel when people have an opportunity to go to the grocery store don't make it a family outing if you can you know send one person with a list even better yet if some places are still doing delivery or you can get pickup but the order online and go pick it up I want you to get to the gathering and groups of ten or more we know that again were social social beings but again gathering in ten or more as is as part of the guidance that we're giving right now we want to restrict that the again following state and local authorities whether it's the again thank you to all of the business leaders business owners that are that are doing the the hard work of closing their restaurants their bars their gyms and other places you're all making a difference you're all heroes and you're all saving lives again the CDC guidance this week we're seeing more and more of this happening which is great that it's becoming commonplace here the that that everybody is wearing cloth face coverings went out in public I'm sure that one of the things that we're going to see when we talk the new normal I think a lot of us when we grew up as his kids none of us ever know knew what a bike helmet was never wore a bike helmet people that ski didn't wear helmets and now sort of the world we're living in it's a lot of people wouldn't understand that for your kids it's smart for them to be wearing a bike helmet when you're skiing it's great to be wearing a helmet I think for a while coming out the back side we're gonna see masks as part of the new normal as we get back to work and so people that might be putting that off I'm sure there is as we speak right now all kinds of fashion masks being produced camel masks you know reproduced Halloween masks whatever it might be I'm looking around the room today there's some colorful ones in the room that are out here today so again we just want to say that that is another way to protect yourself your family and others and there's a lot of stuff online if you say hey where do I get a mouse can afford a mouse even the CDC's got videos on how to make masks out of a lot of t-shirts or cloth or sheets or rubber bands there's a lot of ways to do it and where it can even a cotton covering can make a difference again one of the big ones which we think is working this message is getting through but if you're sick stay home if you got symptoms you know that you know coughs sneezing temperature stay home if you feel that you need your condition of course call your medical provider and those others that we really want to make sure that we're helping them avoid contact is older Americans who've got underlying health conditions are risk I hear every day great stories about people that are taking care of their parents or their neighbors so that those people that are more vulnerable don't have to go into high contact situations and again practicing great sanitation and hygiene habits one way to stop community spread is with hand hygiene again if you're touching any thing that is a what you'd call a public public location you know people keep asked me why do I keep mentioning ATMs and gas pumps well long before the pandemic came around there was a study that was done about where germs collected in America and places that lots of people touched but what we're never often saying guess what was number one and number two ATMs and gas pump panels so there's actual data behind that as well so anyway when you're but if you're grabbing the door going into a supermarket again whether you're wearing wearing gloves or or using a hand sanitizer washing your hands all of that's really important to avoid the spread and again if you think you've touched a common area the advice then is make sure you're not touching your face because that's how you could transfer it from a surface to your hands and into yourself anybody that knows anybody or has talked to anybody and I've had a chance to visit with some friends last night to friends last night in other parts of the country who had friends that have passed away from this disease other people that have not passed away but have gone through this illness been hospitalized and come out the other side and I want to again if you don't if you're not in a position to know anybody that has either died or been sick from this thing I would encourage you to really get up to speed because this is not something that anybody would ever want to have I mean this is a you know people describe this is you know someone in the later stages there's someone putting a pillow over your face and smothering you to death because it is a affects lung capacity and breathing capacity so again really deeply grateful for all the people that are taking this deadly disease serious and and taking care of those around us so again what we're doing here in North Dakota targeted action the smart action is slowing the spread a flatten the curve we're saving lives that is working and again there still continues to be some murmur out there I thought perhaps that we had that some of this would have stopped after dr. Fauci on Monday talked about states like North Dakota what we're doing is functionally equivalent and totally compatible with other states orders so we know that the the the numbers speak for themselves that it's working here and again we have from the start said that this isn't as much about what government says it's more about what individuals do and we continue to applaud and acknowledge that North Dakotans understand that they have an individual responsibility and thank you all for taking out that visual responsibilities seriously and exercising all of these smart practices next up I want to talk about operation drive-in as you heard earlier we had two locations on two days Saturday and amadon Sunday and Gladstone North Dakota in amadon North Dakota 367 samples were collected on in Gladstone 368 so about equivalent in both of those in southwestern Public Health North Dakota National Guard and the in people in slope County and Gladstone Fire District helped on Sunday one of the reasons why we did this because why did you do this we wanted to test people more broadly across the community people that were not showing symptoms there had really been almost none of this none in the entire US and at least in North Dakota we saw an opportunity because the time we selected Slav County at that time there wasn't a positive in the county by the time we got there there was one but one of the things we did learn was that three we had three positives in slope and three in Gladstone half of the people that we tested there that came back as positive had no symptoms so I guess I would just say we take a look at the numbers that were showing across the state of North Dakota if you're going to extrapolate that as a as a baseline maybe a low conservative baseline because these were areas that were late to where the spread was occurring you could likely assume that for every person that we've that has been tested with symptoms that's shown up on our list there's at least another one out there that doesn't have symptoms and this can make a real difference in and again when we talk about you know saving lives we know that at least in one case one of the individuals who had no symptoms who tested positive was in a close contact with someone who was would be considered have underlying health conditions due to some recent health conditions you know that again probably created an opportunity that individual with the underlying health conditions to test that negative but now we can separate those two and maybe save a life that way so that's you know fantastic we we know that when we're building our models that this understanding that there could be twice as many people out there is what we're catching that have have symptoms and you can be have no symptoms and you can still be a spreader and if you have no symptoms and you're in contact with a lot of people and not following the rules that's what you'd be called a super spreader and we that's what we're trying to avoid because that's where some of these outbreaks in other states have been traced back to a symptom at a symptomatic people that that we're not following guidance so today switching to the next topic we want to go to the executive orders and we have two executive orders the first executive order today touches on two important organizations and one of those organizations is our Public Service Commission and people in North Dakota would likely know that our Public Service Commission is independently elected three members currently those positions are held today by Brian crotches Julie Fedorchak and Randy Chrisman and these folks do the important work that they're doing and inciting and permitting infrastructure across our state as one of the things they do when they do that they hold public hearings sometimes those public hearings go on for hours or days they do a fantastic job of getting input from the public but now during this particular time it's important that we continue to get input from the public but we do it in a way that protects the public so in this executive order it is it it removes the require
ent that public hearings are held in specific locations meaning that they can hold a virtual public hearing and talking the Public Service Commission getting input from them and with their full support on this there's actually now with people working from home at home people from from you know from a dispersed geography will be able to attend electronically I think there's a chance where we've seen this happen in other areas over the years such as when we were doing oil leasing auctions and we went from on-premise Don we actually increase the number of people that were participating and so there's a optimism that we might actually be able to increase public participation through this but this gives them the flexibility to not be required to have to have a physical specific location and still be able to get that public input the second one which is still part of that same executive order relates to the land commissioner the land commissioner reports to the state land board the land board is comprised of five elected officials Attorney General Stenehjem secretary Jagger treasurer Kelly Schmidt and superintendent basil ur and myself the land commissioner manages all the state lands that are held across the state many of you would know that that's at statehood that was section 16 in section 36 in every township at least in the western half of the state the state still owns most of those lands and they're held for public auction the current way the law rights right now is that there has to be a a public auction physically located at the county seat in today's world of online auctions and broad participation this is a requirement a piece of red tape that probably could be waived any way but it we're waiving it right now through executive order and again would expect that with the all the still required notification and transparency that we could even maybe get more participation in these so those are related suspending some requirements for the PSC and for the land commissioner we had already issued executive orders on March 30 allowing public meetings and hearings to be conducted by remote means that as applied to school boards and City Commission's but this takes care of the sections of state law that were specific to land board in the PSC the the next one we want to talk about which is an interesting one again these are still things as you know we had the executive order a couple weeks ago asking all agencies to identify red tape that we could get rid of one of the things that came up was that we had agencies and and institutions in this case institution of higher education underneath the North Dakota university system that had PPE as in personal protective gear and that could be for food service workers but we're not soothing serving food and the kind of the college it could be for athletic trainers but we don't have any athletic teams going on but there's turns out there's a lot of PPE masks and other equipment in the university system they wanted to donate it to the health department current statute doesn't allow agencies to donate stuff to each other you have to forfeit it to the surplus equipment team at at the state of North Dakota and then they sell it back to everybody else so it goes through a process of in and out as opposed to directly and this so this those rules remain for all other types of equipment but relative to the nation's of PPE and medical supplies we can bypass that streamline that and whether it's the North Dakota university system or other agencies that may have PPE they're now going to be allowed to donate those supplies directly to the Department of Health to be used in the in the in our medical cash which can be used to support the kovat fight across the state ok next up more good news hand sanitizer we've talked about this we said we'd be back with some more news we know this has been in short supply on local store shelves and of course as usual North Dakotans entrepreneurs and innovators aren't waiting for others to come up with solutions now we are aware there may be more but we're aware of four vendors that are making hand sanitizer in the state three of them are supplying the product for sale to the general public and you could contact them directly for payment and pickup times but two of those are in in Bismarck and Mandan Dakota pharmacy on mean in Bismarck is supplying about 200 small bottles a day you can pick that you pick those up pay for those through the drive-in window they're also distributing hospitals nursing home and businesses and they partnered with the local liquor shop will Willy will liquors to obtain the alcohol ingredient of course that's one of the the germ killing aspects of hand sanitizer entrepreneurs Marlowe and Alice Anderson demandin who are well known for all kinds of great things they do in this community but certainly known nationally for the national day calendar they're selling sanitizer at their awesome computer repair office at 7:12 West Main Avenue in Mandan the ethanol they're using is coming from red trail energy and Richardson they're producing a lot of sanitizer and then in bismarck teaming up with other companies maple river distillery out of castithan in big coils LLC which is an oilseed processing plant using their facility to make it so that's what's happening in the western half the state in the Red River Valley there's two going on red pine distillery in Grand Forks working to fill the needs of facilities that are at highest risk such as hospitals clinics and assisted living and first responders if they get their production up they'll be selling to the general public but thank you red pine for serving all of our healthcare in that area and then proof distillers which we've mentioned before in downtown Fargo is producing and selling 300 gallons a week of high and medium quality hand sanitizer they're getting the new biomass solution out of Grand Forks supplying a hundred thousand gallons of high quality ethanol to proof artisan distillers and you might say what does ethanol have to do with it well turns out an ethanol plant is actually just a giant still it's a way to make alcohol receiving bottles from Cass clay and a company in Wisconsin so they're they haven't they have them but if you've got bottles save them because some of this may be in bulk and we get to learn all kinds of things during a global pandemic but it turns out that these products are not licensed by FDA or by a Food and Drug Administration they're licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms because these are primarily alcohol so if you have questions call ATF okay but again great examples and fun North Dakota entrepreneurs and innovators stepping up to help meet a critical need and supply next topic amended travel quarantine given the global pandemic that we're in it's important that we try to minimize exposure to people who have traveled from places with widespread disease and that's why we put in over a week ago or state health officers should travel quarantine for citizens returning from States on the CDC's widespread Cova nineteen lists and this was meant it really aimed at snowbirds Spring Breakers and other travelers returning to North Dakota during this time of year we are a net in migration state there are more people returning to North Dakota than are leaving North Dakota and and and that was working well we heard from lots of snowbirds who came back to North Dakota and were enjoying a couple of weeks at home before they entered their more regular routines so we thank everybody for that compliance yesterday minnesota was added to the CDC's list with widespread cove at 19 which raised a lot of questions for residents living along the border the Red River Valley anticipating that at some point if they keep adding people to the the list you know that we might find that all of our neighboring states are in that so today we are announcing some some amendments to that quarantine to provide more more clarity but these apply to all states because we're anticipating that as this moves on that every state may have that designation but first of all from an exemption standpoint the if your workers in essential critical infrastructure areas is defined by homeland security they were already exempt and then others that were exempt people commuting to and from North Dakota for work or for essential supplies and services immediately when Minnesota went on this list we had all kinds of people saying hey I'm a nurse I live in East Grand Forks but I work at Altru in Grand Forks can I still go to work answer is yes people in Fargo because they may get their drugs at Walgreens in Moorhead and they said hey can we go to Moorhead and if we go can we come back answer is yes so we've also included in here people engaging in outdoor activities such as walking hiking biking running driving for pleasure hunting or fishing going to available parks or other public things we know that our border cities of Wahpeton Breckenridge Fargo Moorhead Grand Forks East Grand Forks a lot of those trail systems are interconnected with bridges and going back and forth so if you are going out for a bike ride or walk with your family and you cross over a park bridge that takes you know park on the other state and you come back again that's all exempted we also have got some questions about out-of-state fishermen we know that we did close the paddlefish snagging season in northwestern North Dakota at the confluence of the Yellowstone the Missouri but as we head in the walleye season and particularly with the great fishery we have around Devil's Lake in particular in over 400 and some fantastically stocked lakes in North Dakota we were actually people that don't fish may not know this but we have had a lot of people in Minnesota buying North Dakota fishing license in the last few years because of the great fishing here right now there's very few out-of-state fishermen coming this early if we need to reevaluate this will in May but right now out of state people coming here to fish in our state are exempted from this right now as long as when they're doing this their remaining six feet apart if we've said before we see people start bunching up on bridges will close fishing on bridges we see people bunching up at boat ramps we can close boat ramps will continue to working with a game and fish to try to do this on a targeted a targeted basis but the key thing here is using common sense if you've got a exception to this rule and you say well you know here's my common sense thing like I live in South Dakota and but our post office is in North Dakota because we actually have if you look at the map of zip codes there are zip code areas where people that live in another state but they have a zip code that happens both with South Dakota and Montana if you have to drive into our state to pick up your mail that would be considered essential so the whole point of this is just use common sense and if you come up with some you know intricate thing that you think you're being blocked on doing this let us know because this is meant to be the common sense order for for how we want to manage this with with travel but again if you are traveling here coming back I've been talking about the exemptions but if you're coming here from a high state that the CDC's considered a I'd spread State and you're coming back from Florida or Arizona Snowbird still coming back the 14 day quarantine still applies no we're not offering exemptions for that next up is a a we've got a guest speaker today we're really pleased to have with us eric hard meyer bank in north dakota president and CEO he's going to talk to Savona bout some of the great work that they're doing and and I want to again thank Eric for his leadership he's been president the bank I think coming on 20 years now and during that time the Bank of North Dakota is more than doubled in size it's had a record I think 16 or 17 years of record profitability part of the way they've been able to do that is through really managing the cost side and I think you can see on the slide that one of the ways they've kept the cost down is that are using Eric's picture from high school graduation as on this slide but great work Eric you and your team thank you and we're now we'll hear from Eric hard Meyer the youthful Harry Card Meyer well thank you really appreciate the opportunity to be part of the press conference today so let me first say that you know Bank North Dakota does have considerable experience financing disaster recovery efforts we've actually been doing this since 1997 with the flood in new Grand Forks and also as recently as the flooded Minot you know we do understand that the scale of this is enormous but the blueprint that we figured out in terms of financing these you know will apply here as well and we think the first thing that you know people should be aware as it is really important to utilize the federal programs and let them do their job first the the scope and magnitude of these federal programs are sides that you know North Dakota just can't compete with nor should we we don't want to duplicate efforts and the programs that we have seen that come out support small businesses is you know nothing less than impressive at that point B&B will assess you know our role as often is the case there will be gaps there will be places for the Bank of North Dakota to follow up with and it really is our intent to come out with a program that will you know supplement what the federal programs are doing so you can look forward to seeing that in the days and weeks to come certainly we know that the Bank of North Dakota has a role here we are the only state owned bank in the nation and we are here to serve you know North Dakotans and will do so with you know the all the ability that we have the experience we have and the relationships that we have with the North Dakota banks out there that help us to deliver these programs every day one thing that we wanted to announce today is that the bank North Dakota is going to provide assistance to the banking community in delivering the payroll protection program I know that the governor has talked about that in previous press conferences but of course that is you know the liquidity lifeline that the federal government will be providing through loans by SBA and delivered by North Dakota banks and what we have determined is that there is a role for the Bank of North Dakota to assist these banks as they run into you know either liquidity problems share volume or just wrist size that they're not willing to take the Bank of North Dakota stands ready to purchase you know these PPP loans as they're called and I think most of you know that this program became available last Friday and I'm happy to tell you that the North Dakota banks have been getting after this in a way I think that you can feel proud of the communication between the banks between the associations has been incredible SBA has been you know challenged by this but I think that you know they're they they've come with every resource they can and are trying to work through the technical issues as we worked with the the banks across the state what we have determined is that there is going to be significant interest in this program you know through the first a week or so we are aware that there's up to 4,000 loans that have been or will be processed totaling just over a billion we think that might be the start of it this number could grow significantly as more of the technical issues get resolved and so that's why the Bank of North Dakota has determined that you know there is a role for us to play here to help these banks as they want to continue to deliver this program and may run into as I said a liquidity or a volume we continue to work with the student loan Colvard that has loans with the bank in North Dakota through yesterday we have worked with over 4,000 borrowers deferring their payments for up to six months we will provide interest rate relief that is coming and as we compare our program to what the federal program has delivered we find that our our benefit is superior to that of the federal government in terms of our permanent reduction of student loans and so you know governor with that you know I'd stand for any questio
s but just as a kind of a finishing statement I would say that you know we at the bank fully understand and appreciate the unique role that we play in in North Dakota and you know have our sleeves rolled up and ready to go to work figure out how it is that we can best serve North Dakota to get us through this really unique uncertain time so with that back to you governor thank you Eric thank you and your leadership team for all the great work you're doing and stick around for the question and answers which will do do at the end but again it we're so fortunate in North Dakota to have an institution that's on such a solid footing and that's got a hundred year history in our state of serving the citizens to North Dakota and it's got deep experience with disaster recovery particularly when we come to this time where so many of the federal programs involve assistance some of which are delivered through our local community banks so want to also thank all of the local community banks in North Dakota and all of the banks we have we have one of the strongest set of banking partnerships in if you take our state compared to any other state and take a look at the number of local community banks and the strength of their balance sheets were in great shape and one of the reasons is because of their partnership with the Bank of North Dakota so thanks Eric and your team next up I want to talk about some other business topics and we've talked about this before but there are so many opportunities during this time of really I'll call it financial calamity to access new programs but that takes entrepreneurs and innovators whose businesses are closed got to be entrepreneurs another way and be proactive in another way which is learning everything you can about these programs and tomorrow we're going to have our fourth business briefing tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. this is a statewide available dial in the session is free you can register at nd chamber.com we want to thank the sponsors the greater North Dakota chamber clear for everybody watching you do not need to be a North Dakota a greater North Dakota Chamber member to attend there the host we thank them for this but it's free and this is an opportunity for us try to reach everybody in North Dakota there they're helping host it the Department of Commerce is delivering the content tomorrow so hear from Michelle comer Eric hard Meijer and many other folks 97% of the people that listened last week 2,200 people dialed in last week 97% on survey agreed it was was agreed or strongly agreed the session was of Alba used for time really well organized well delivered great content 1,100 people have registered so reserve your space now for tomorrow 11 a.m. Central Time business briefing at nd chamber comm we want to also talk a little bit about behavioral health which we do we've committed to do this at every every session I know that there is an article I think that came out in the forum that talked about increase in overdoses we've talked about this that the risk of a period of isolation and change with schools closing businesses closing layoffs occurring that this is going to challenge our society as a whole and human beings are social beings and our social groups are have always been an important part of our identity and they teach us skills that help us thrive and feeling socially connected it's more important than ever and while we're again doing the the distancing the physical distancing we want to make sure we're maintaining the social connectedness and staying social has got connected has got a lot of health benefits many many studies talk about that if you are you know connected to others with strong relationships that improves your quality of life at boosts your mental health people live longer people recover faster from illnesses decreases our risk of suicide so many many health benefits from that and this is not just a few there's over 148 studies with over 300,000 participants indicated that individuals with stronger social relations had a 50% increase likelihood of survival this remains true across a number of factors whether its age gender initial health status cause of death etc so we want to be grateful that we're living in a time of technology where we can connect by virtual means and again lots of ideas out there whether it's on parents lead org or other places were new forms and new ideas about putting together virtual parties to celebrate birthdays virtual work together getting together with friends last night I participated in a call with about 25 classmates of mine they were calling in from all over the world and it was super interesting and super valuable to learn about what was happening in their world and again we can all do that there's a lot of free products that are out there to allow people to to do that but of course if you don't want to learn new technology you can always pick up the telephone write a letter leave a note for a neighbor those things are all there I do want to give a shout out to Li age 7 that the Eli Fox chairman Mark Fox he had a birthday party last Saturday they're practicing all their good physical distancing so it was just the mom and dad and the chairman and a brother but over 300 people sent Eli wishes on Facebook and he got lots of lots of video happy birthday song son to him so again as where kids might be grieving because they're missing milestones important days like birthdays there's ways we can come with new ways to celebrate that and again starting right here in Bismarck that hashtag world of hearts a great example of using social media to build connectedness I think that we saw that it was a phenomena that started here sprang up here spread across the country and eventually around the world to help create that experience of connectedness as we all go through something challenging we've never been through an affirming that we're all in this together and so again if you want to learn more about social connectedness and ways to connect again behavioral health nd gov /co vid 19 I want to also mention again just a special note today on Wednesday of Holy Week it's you know critical that we continue practicing physical distancing recommendations and avoiding in-person gathering I know that many many many the vast majority of churches across the state are following this guidance by offering online or virtual resources to include the spiritual support that they're providing for their congregation and you can find those in your church's website you know go on a Google search traditionally holidays like what's coming up you know typically this weekend there have been Easter holiday with school off on Friday and Monday and traveling the grandparents and and all of the traditions that that we the people might have had during that that timeframe and those are going to those traditions are being disrupted this year but again I ask people to plan ahead think about how you can continue to practice that physical distancing in order to keep our our communities healthy and and again with today for begins Passover and tomorrow Mont and tomorrow Monday Thursday Friday Good Friday Sunday Easter Sunday during this time again the desire for conductance is going to be there but we're at that point again where we have not yet faced the steep part of our curve and and again I would remind people again an example I've used before of the funeral that happened in eastern Canada where people said it's okay it's just one funeral it's really important 60 people a lot of a small congregation came down with kovat including some deaths so again it could be a life-saving choice to figure out a way to provide both familial and spiritual support to each other in ways other than in person closing topic or two topics before we close to go to questions unemployment update yesterday Tuesday 1844 employment claims that brings us to 42,000 362 claims since March 16th there's more data available on the jobs and the website but I would include that we've talked about this again wanting to get the word out but it's called the pandan pandemic unemployment a system assistance I'm sure it'll turn into an acronym PUA but pandemic unemployment assistance those for self employed independent contractors in gig workers that just went live on April 4th we've had 2568 of those claims filed and and in 620 four of those yesterday so the word is getting out on that and so again would want to encourage people that if you in the past thought hey I'm not covered by unemployment you might be today so check it out yet jobs in decom closing with another piece of good news yesterday you were all here part of the launch of the care 19 app this is an app to help facilitate contract contact tracing contact tracing is the goes hand in glove as where I said yesterday we've got a quarterback and receiver you can have a great quarterback like Carson Wentz if you don't have great receivers to throw to I mean we do all the testing we want but when we find a positive we need to make sure we're following up with contact tracing to find out who that positive has been in contact with and make sure that those are being quarantined or or being isolated to stop the spread and the way we can do that is right now that's a very manual process with people making phone calls as we've described some people that work in health care are being asked and required by their employers to keep a paper log of who they've been in contact with so if they ever do test positive they pull out the paper log and they go well here's where I've been and here's where I saw we've got technology anybody that's got a smartphone in their pocket anybody that's got Google Maps or Apple Maps or any mapping tool on your phone your phone is tracking where you're going so in an anonymous way within care 19 distracts none of your data you don't have to provide your own personal information you don't have to provide a credit card you don't have to login you don't need a password it anonymously tracked your data it assigns you a 36 digit random number that is tied to that location data and if and when down the road you find out that either you're positive or somebody else around you is positive you're gonna be able to use that data to help protect and save lives and so again we have two ten thousand and two hundred five people have already downloaded the app we know that understand just before I came up here that South Dakota is gonna adopt it and go live with this maybe as early as tomorrow and I know that the Tim Brookins who was here by a phone yesterday online was the developer from proud cow proud proud the developer the bison tracker of those 15 thousand people have used the Bison tracker you know the kind of app were talking about that he's already gotten a call from the chief operating officer from the state of Iowa and I know that Nebraska and Wyoming have also heard about and are thinking about this as well so we could see this spreading around I think there were I mean well I know there was hundreds of news stories in far away as the Japan Times wrote a story on this app so to say that it's going to get interest just in the Midwest it's already getting international interest because these are the kind of tools that could help us slow the spread in a targeted way as opposed to these broad-based where where we have to close down the entire economy this is a way for us to be very targeted particularly on the back end as we're coming out of this the virus will still be around and we're still going to have positive cases pop up we're still going to need contact tracing we need contact tracing all the way through to when we've got a vaccine and that could be what 12 to 18 months from now so this is not a tool for the next few weeks this is a tool that could could really help the nation navigate its reopening so excited and again thank you to the care 19 team and Tim Brookins Darren laybourne Microsoft proud cowd everybody that worked on that with that we'll open for questions news flash we've parently answered all questions today so there'll be no we just that we did that great of a job know who's going first Jeremy Jeremy Jacob Tom Lane when do I go to my left first is that what happens usually okay all right oh okay that's weird because usually I would go to the right first but except for the basketball people have know me in basketball know that I did I got a good left hand so okay okay Jeremy so I was wondering if you could define essential supplies and services as they relate to the amendments to the quarantine order the original tool that we used was the homeland security list and we would just refer people to that Homeland Security's got a list of all the essential services and and when we were talking about the travel the original travel amendment had exceptions for people in essential services so you know that includes energy healthcare agriculture food pharmacy all of that stuff but isn't the new amendments that isn't that for I guess that would be for people going across the border for groceries or that that sort of thing yes all the common-sense stuff if you live in a border city and you're coming back and forth and getting groceries or one way or the other that's all the common sense but we the the prior order already encompassed the idea that if you were well Minnesota wasn't a hot spot state till yesterday but it it it had covered for the fact that if you were coming from a hot spot to be a nurse in North Dakota you could come and work and didn't have to quarantine for 14 days if that in those exceptions where that happened the providers were testing those people before they put them on the floor but we did have inbound medical people that were coming from states before so that's all carried out in the exceptions just to be clear it applies now to people who are seeking essential services and supplies now to not just workers right yes yeah I mean if you're a consumer and yeah Xavier a consumer and your pharmacy is on the North Dakota side and you live in Minnesota or vice versa you can you know fire away we're we need to treat the metro areas as effectively as we can as one community because that's the way it works so we're not trying to create a barrier where there isn't one along those border cities we've actually got a town in that's not as well-known as Fargo or Grand Forks or Wahpeton Breckenridge on me but I was there last year during the flooding on the Montana North Dakota border where the line actually runs down Main Street she was actually part of the town is in Montana and part of the town is in North Dakota this does not apply to you can go back and forth to either side of that town without that applying the school was on schools on one side of town the post office on the other one the school was flying a one-state flag the post office flying another state flag but it's the same community okay I think it was going to Jacob governor around the time there were about 70 to 80 positive cases in North Dakota you said we should expect that number to jump tenfold in the coming weeks with the coming weeks now passing and we haven't hit those numbers is is that more of a reflection of the models being used to project or is that more of a question of the amount of testing in the state I think it's a reflection of the fact that great work that North Dakotans are doing to slow the spread I mean I think that if you look at you know any of the models from two or three weeks ago they they would have had us into the climbing part of the curve by this part of April but it's as you saw it today we're we're flat right now and that's a that's a great place a great place for us to be but it reflects that the strategies and strategies are working Tom and then Layne governor loves to chatter on the western part of the state about masks and the possibility of some kind of order we got the CDC that has recommended masks now we've got a sheriff in Riverside County California who's saying he's gonna arrest people that don't wear a mask you get with me appetite at all for an order to wear mass I don't have an appetite for an order because I think again they're not not we don't have enough law enforcement in this state really to take care of the people that are breaking the law much less you
now trying to say now we got a police every citizen I mean we're not a police state we're an individual responsibility state and I would encourage people that again if you I would encourage employers if you've got an employee that's working at a checkout lane in a grocery store and they're seeing a hundred people a day I would make sure they're wearing a mask in addition to the plexiglass I would make sure that you've got separation so that those carts are six feet apart I would put arrows on the floor and make sure that people are going one way down the aisle and not two ways I mean I would do a bunch of common-sense stuff that businesses can do and again you know everybody in health care has always worn masks I mean we've had you know Dennis back when they were open they're open now only for emergency they were always wearing masks people under people in health care understood the value of masks and I think that we're understanding now that with the with the highly contagious nature of this that masks can be a real deterrent in slowing the spread and when you slow the spread then you can again save lives so it would encourage encourage people to do that when they're in situations particularly if they're going to be close to people that are not part of their pod that's the new word I mean if it's your own family unit so you don't have to wear a mask around the house with the people that you're already exposed to but if you're a you know coming to work I would make sure that your co-workers that are going back to their own pods you're either 6 feet apart from them like we are here or that you're wearing masks I mean that would be common sense for right now and that another way very inexpensive way because the one thing about wearing a mask is it's it's something that you can do that's occur to see the others and it doesn't really restrict your freedom I mean that's the other thing when I talking about using the bike helmet thing on the backside I mean having having bike helmets as an option for kids saves lives but it doesn't stop where a kid can bike I mean you know maybe we'd been even more crazy when I was kids in terms of building ramps and jumping if we had helmets I'm not sure but maybe it would promote more dangerous activity but I I think that we have a a you know they're what coming we're gonna see masks being part of the culture where maybe we thought hey that's just something that goes on in China but I think and they until there's a until there is a vaccine I mean you might there might be a recommend about you next fall you might be seeing elderly people with underlying you know conditions choosing to wear a mask every time they go out might be a smart decision for them if we if this thing is still if the virus is still running around in its you know deadly uncontrolled fashion okay Lane governor we were informed that a Bismarck child care center has had multiple providers test positive for Kovan 19 and now all of the children that go there are being tested as well does this change your stance on keeping the childcare centers open right that's the first I've heard of that so I know that our Department of Health team and our Human Services team will follow up on that but we're doesn't change our position I mean one of the great news the great things I mean there if there's a blessing in this worldwide pandemic is that this is has been a if you're under the age of 20 the mortality rate of this thing is a rounding error around the world in those cases that have occurred usually had an underlying health condition and so not saying there's there's zero risk but this feels a lot more like you know the for the younger generation this is certainly something that is that they can get through and and having those child care centers open for critical workers that's how we keep our health care workers our first responders and everybody in the workforce to be able to protect those that are most vulnerable but I say we will I mean will absolutely when we hear something like that whether maybe we're confirming whether there are positives there we will absolutely be following up and then that's where we can try to bring the sort of the strike team testing and to make sure people get tested so that we'd so that that one outbreak doesn't turn into everybody going home and affecting their families and their families infect their neighbors I mean this is why this you know we don't ever want to get complacent because you know we're always one day away from an outbreak here during this time that we're at right now but you know today was a good day but we have to up be continued to stay really really alert in terms of how we're managing this Dave and then Jacob this is for Eric hard mark okay question for Eric Eric can you hear us yeah I can hear you radio land legend dave thompson has a question for you Eric you mentioned that maybe there was some kind of technical issues in terms of rolling out the paycheck protection program is it basically can you describe them in relatively simple terms applying for it or is it problems what's getting the money out thanks for that question Dave no really the problem has to do with more of a technical system issue with the ability of SBA to handle you know four thousand different banks sending in applications over what they call their eat ran system so it was more scale than anything and it's just having to work to through some of those bottlenecks as we understand it you know these loans are starting to be processed now greater rate and the money starting to go out the door so it's just really a you know a delivery system with a system that had never had to go through that kind of scale before thanks Eric and I understand we are having a little technical difficulty with questions online but so apologize to those media from around the state but if we got one coming in from ask Mike 14 absolutely had a little staff I I see it Milan Tufte is here in Milan do you want to come up and answer that one did you catch the question so the question about why I think testing is still limited across the the state in the country it's because we're in a national pandemic and some of the supply chain has been impacted there's a lot of demand for testing and and we in North Dakota should be fortunate and and proud that we have been able to open up testing to so many people I think the other question that is asked our health care workers prioritized and absolutely health care workers are prioritized for testing and their employers allow them and help them get the testing so that they can return to work and feel safe that they're not spreading disease and and again part of that question was the presumption that we had health care workers quarantined for 14 days I had not heard that if we do I guess I would ask those health care providers to reach out to the Department of Health and let's have a discussion because we're trying to make sure that we can test health care workers and get them back on the frontline but thank you my Linh Tom then Jacob so my questions for Eric as well hey back to you Eric so bankers are working overtime in fact I was able to get ahold of one banker Sunday night about 10 o'clock at the bay which surprised me are you saying that Bank of North Dakota is gonna be able to help these smaller banks with the overload of paperwork that they have to get these things out is not onerous in fact they really streamlined the process to to minimize the amount of paperwork coming in and going out that needs to happen there is some documentation that we need to occur but you know by and large what SBA is done here making these you know unsecured loans has really streamlined the process greatly but where we're able to really help the banks is you know some of them quite frankly have reached you know limits in terms of how many they can do the volume the scale the risk that they're willing to take and so that's where B and D will come in and help those banks take some of that off of their books and allow them to make more loans and stay within their risk parameters thanks Eric Jake up and then we have another one online governor you make a lot of sports references you clearly miss sports as a lot of us in this room do and as much fun as it is listening to you talk about NDSU football my friends and I in Grand Forks are wondering if you have any comments on the prospect of the NHL playing some games in North Dakota well I think that would be a fantastic if that happened I did see an article the other day that most of the und hockey team was planning on returning next year I mean we talked about Class B a lot but I mean I think we had a real shot at bringing home another national championship with a fantastic hockey team they had this year and so it's great that those folks are coming back again next year because I know we'd love to have everybody see that see that group of talented players make a run again but we certainly have the facility I mean we know the thing we'll said Center is better than many of the arenas in the NHL and so I'm assuming that's where you're suggesting they'd be playing but that would be the fun of that that would be fun of that could happen and if we have to go outside I guess we could we could pull her on mystery Alaska kind of a game outdoor game all right movie reference for people watching Helene you're next to the non line oh sorry Mike were you actually great on line then Lane we Hospital and by not at least in the number of positive Kovac 19 positive patients from the hospital Florida New York Washington state are always important pieces by City and and thank you these things are so rather than okay we'll turn that one over to my Linh because I know we've been been working on this one so for us here at the state of North Dakota we have taken a stance on what information we are trying to we are releasing because we are entrusted to protect people's safety and and the information that they share with us if the Minot hospital determines that that's information that they have received approval from their patients to release that's up to the Minot Hospital I think the main thing we should all assume and understand is there are people that are asymptomatic that are in your community that do have kovat 19:00 and we need to make sure that we're not stigmatizing these individuals we need to make sure that we're good neighbors and we need to make sure that for us as health care professionals that we are entrusted with information that is sensitive and isn't necessarily allowed to be personally identifiable in my land also on the zip code question or we do we have that up somewhere don't have it up yet okay so we're working on the zip code because we know other states have done zip code but there we've got so few people in some of our zip codes it might actually share too much so we're taking a look at that or how we might group those zip codes but yeah we want to be as transparent as possibly we can while still protecting data but I want to protecting that personal health data but I want to really emphasize what my linh said which is everybody's got to assume that there's Co vid everywhere including those that are not symptomatic which is what our testing in Western North Dakota on the on the operation driving proved where half the positives came from people that that were reporting no symptoms so assume it's everywhere act accordingly we've got time for one more okay I got I got one in the back over here and then back to lean I'm gonna do two more all the way back over here collected at a Madonna Gladstone are included in today's results how many the 7:35 I wouldn't try to do can what will get you that thing I think we had about what two sixty were in yesterday's is that sound about right so does that mean maybe it was spread over two days but we'll get you the information of how that was how they were spread Lane in reference to the project drive-thru were you surprised to see only six positive cases and with the big turnout are you planning on expanding that anywhere else in North Dakota right not surprised pleased to see the low number of positives but also not that we want to find out that there are hey Seema asymptomatic meaning people with no symptoms are out and about but I think it's a good reminder to all of us that in that case where we did sort of a wide cast a wide net that half the path the people that came up positive didn't have symptoms I think that's a that was good learning for us and anybody else that's building models will we do it again I think where we want to take that if we have extra testing resource like we did for a couple days last weekend where we had some more capacity than we had demand coming in from the medical providers is we want to be able to use that in more of a strike team approach so if we have a hot spot we can come in and test a lot of people your example of a child care center if we got a breakout in a rural area we could move in if we got a discover a positive in a nursing home like we already had done prior to this one in Fargo where we tested all hundred and twenty residents and sixty staff after a positive you know one positive was found I mean I think that's another way we want to use that extra resources is kind of a strike team full of testing followed up by contact tracing around there which again Rex it brings us back to you know care nineteen Apple App Store Android come in a week download it and help be part of it let me close with just a note of gratitude and again I I think this is a something I wanted to just share which again gratitude leads to resilience and so the note of gratitude here is at a time when we're thinking into their computer screens and maybe that's because hey you're at home you're working from home and you got your computer screen you've got TV screens you got streaming going on cable channels going on there is real health benefits to unplugging for a while and it's really hard to do in the 24 hours news cycle but I think someone sent me a picture the other day of a you know crocus trying to pop its way up out of the ground in through a little snowbank and I you know we look outside I hear more birds chirping every day I think at this time in North Dakota in spring times always one of optimism I mean our agricultural roots in the state get people to start thinking about getting back in the field and getting into the ground and the whole cycle of life that's that is happening and I guess I would encourage everybody when you if you unplug for an hour take a look at the beautiful state of North Dakota take a look at the amazing place that we live and I think what you can add to that is something that I have which is wonder just true Wonder and awe about what a beautiful place this is and and with that can that can also give us the strength and the optimism that know that together that we're gonna make it through this and today was a good day we're gonna have some certainly we'll have some more bad days ahead of us but today was a good one one day at a time with a lot of wonder a lot of gratitude that that'll help drive our resilience and we'll get it done but thank you to everybody in the state that is practicing their individual responsibility and doing it well to save others so be smart North Dakota stay home stay healthy stay connected thank you [Music] you you
