It's. Thankless, it doesn't get the acclaim but. It's another crucial. Part of how we make this city work and how we protect people our. Correction, officers, have. To show. A lot, of agility. A lot, of creativity in doing the work they do because remember it's not just, the. Work of Public Safety it is the work of redemption the. Entire concept, of why we call it Department of Correction is, to. Help people come. Back from their mistakes. Never. See the inside of a jail cell again, and. Honor correction, officers do amazing, work to achieve that kind of goal every single day. So. To everyone, at the department correction is our correction, officers all the employees at department Corrections. Appreciate. What. You do it is not easy in normal. Times it's been a lot harder during, this pandemic it's been a tough tough time for. All of you I know. But. You keep showing up and you keep. Making. Sure everyone is safe and you keep doing that work of redemption and. I. Want to thank you and I ask all. New Yorkers if you know. Anyone in your life who works, for the apartment correction please give, them a special thank you this week, because. They do so much for all enough all of us we don't get to see it that often but it's it's. Something we depend on a lot please give them a real heartfelt thanks. Okay. Now. Time. For the daily indicators. And. Again I'm looking, forward to us working together continuing. That strong discipline, approach you've all engaged, in to get these numbers go down together steadily. Today. We. Have progress, it's not perfect, progress, but it's damn close so this is a good day, I want. To see even better days and I want us to string them together because that's our pathway, to. Opening. Up reducing, restrictions. And taking, the steps towards the restart, so. Let's go over the indicators, number one daily number of people admitted to hospitals, for suspected, kovat nineteen that is down. From. 109, to 79, isn't that good to hear only 79, people now for those 79 people they. Are. Dealing with real challenges, I never want to belittle even, if a single person has to go into the hospital for a covert nineteen but thank God compared, to where we were only 79, people as of. The latest. Measure. The. Daily number of people and I see use across our public hospital system for svet suspected, Cove in nineteen that has gone down as well from 599, to 567.
Again Still 567. That's a lot of people but. It has gone down noticeably. And that's great, now. One. Thing went in the wrong direction but I will say thankfully, only by one percent so you. Know still, a good day's percentage. Of people tested, positive over 19 citywide, of, 15%. To 16% over. All. Right. Direction. Let's. Dig, in and go farther. Let. Me offer a few words in Spanish. Este. Bureau's no. Hace Riviere con. Do de. Ello. Snotty-nosed mer essence, a ver lo que esta. Pasando. Vamos. A estar mass. In, for models. Con. Cada examine. Que. Hacemos. íbamos. Hacer, muchisimas. Mass. Examiners. Gratis. En. La, semana que, vienen. Cada. Examine. Nas, ba ayudar. In esta, bataya e. Leva. Adar. A Karen, your keno la, información y. Seguridad. Que. Marisa. Okay. With, that we, will turn to our colleagues in the media and please, let me know the name and the outlet of each journalist. Well. Now begin our Q&A as a reminder we also have dr. Barbeau dr., katz and senior, advisor Jay Varma on the line first. Question today goes to and Rousseff from WNBC. I'm. A good morning good morning everyone, hope you're all doing well yes, good morning Andrew how you doing. My question is about the testing, you. Have set. Out benchmarks. For testing before and then acknowledge, that those benchmarks. Despite the best intentions were. Not met so I'm wondering first, of all what. Assurances, can you give New Yorkers that that. 140,000. Number first, responders and 140,000. Number for everyday New Yorkers will actually, be met and then, assuming, you do hit those numbers, what, is that information, supposed, to tell us. So. A hundred, forty thousand. That the city of New York will do with bio reference, labs I'm, totally confident. That, that will get done on the schedule we've laid out and the, details will be filled in in the next few days the. Hundred forty thousand, that we have been putting, together with, the US, Department of Health and Human Services and, the Centers for Disease Control I feel. Good about it because, all the steps have now come together. And. The. Mechanical. Process has been agreed to, and. I expect that testing, to start next week it still involves, the. Federal government, I think. Andrew you would agree it's it's been an interesting ride dealing, with the federal government during this crisis, but. On this, one things. Have been moving very steadily in the right direction and, we've, gotten confident, answers from the federal government about the ability to have this up and running for. Next week and to hit those numbers so. The. 240,000. Pools I feel good about that will get us, 280,000. Of the, antibody tests, right there in addition to all the other testing, that will be going on. Again. It is, a part, of the puzzle if we had Andrew if we had the perfect world it would be.
Totally. Available. Universal. PCR, testing, diagnostic. Testing we. Had the perfect world. That's. What would tell us what we need to know when we need to know it that's what we should have had in the beginning of this crisis, or as, close to it as possible. Federal. Government has always, struggled. On the PCR testing I don't understand. It it is, the center, of the fight I first. Called for the. Help from the federal government, on PCR testing on January. 24th, I know others, around the country did as well and, the. The. Reality, of the testing is, the. Test kits. We. Know what it takes to make a test kit now, we have, an even easier way with the self swab the, self swab testing we. Know what it takes to analyze a test in a lab, these. Are knowable, things these are things that can be acted on by the federal government this, is another area where the president has hesitated. To use the defense production act to the fullest I don't understand, why for the life of me our. Country, was not prepared, for this and we don't make the things we need in the United States of America and this is absolutely. A negative, result of globalization. A. Real. Indictment. Of all the decisions, made over the decades to ship manufacturing. Out in the, United States and it has to be reversed bluntly and we're. Leading the way right here in the city by creating our own capacity in as many areas as we can to produce our own things but. Still. The federal government isn't getting it right on the PCR testing and they still need to and they still need to use the defense production act and to get us what we need but until that day Andrew. We. Will do, as much of the diagnostic, testing as we can and we. Will do as much of the antibody testing as we can because both tell us something about our usable, in our tests and tray strategy, and in our pathway, to a restart. The. Next is chante from The Daily News. Good. Morning mr. mayor wanted, to follow, up about homelessness, on the subways. Colleagues. Of mine who have been on the ground have found a number, of homeless people, refusing. To go to shelters out, of fears, of contracting, the virus there, and instead. Sort, of setting, up on buses, so, I just wanted to get your thoughts on, the possibility that, the problem is basically relocating. From subways to the buses, my, second question would just be if the. Outcomes, you've seen from the subway closures, are giving, you to reconsider, your, opposition to calls from, some home advocates, who, have pressing. For the city to provide single hotel rooms to, every homeless person thank you thank, you. Shot. I appreciate the question but I actually, would say that. In both instances. The. Results, were seeing in the first two days. Entirely. Validate. The heavy outreach, strategy, and the. Fact that. When. Provided. The choice the right way and when there's lots of support there, a lot, of homeless people will, choose to go into safe. Havens and shelters this, is something commissioner banks has been talking about for, years, and again. This crisis. And the specific, plan with the MTA is putting a point on it but I remember, I remember. The first press conference we did in Tompkins, Square Park and, we can get to the exact date of that when we announced, home, stat and, how. Revolutionary it, would be to put a huge, amount of outreach workers, on the. Task of bringing in homeless folks off the street and just, investing. Whatever it took to gain, the trust of homeless folks and, disrupt. The negative patterns of their lives and give them a better way and. Over. The last three years that strategy has been proven and proven and proven again which led to our journey home strategy, we announced in. December. To end permanent. Street homelessness. This, new approach is striking. To me because, it is creating, the, kind of positive disruption that's causing, homeless. Folks to make that decision to come in so. No. You. Know the results, are speaking for themselves people, are going, to safe havens in shelter, again. If there's ever a specific, situation where our outreach teams believe, a hotel, is a better option that's, that's. There for them but, we. Want to help people, Sean remember, this is not like someone. Just needs a roof over the head these are folks who for whatever reason their. Lives ended up bringing them down to the street, on. A permanent basis many. Many, of whom have either, a serious mental health issue or a, substance. Abuse issue or both you can't, just take someone like that them into hotel would no support and call the day that takes intensive. Support which is what safe havens do in particular. So. No I would focus on the strategy, we have now and as for the. Homeless. Folks. Potentially. Going on the buses that's something we have to disrupt as well it's we have to help people to the, better options the. Buses. The. Subways. Are for essential workers this is an emergency that's what they're for.
People. Who need help should get help, so. I am certain we can work with the MTA to address, that issue and keep maximizing. The offer of help and as we do we see more and more people taking it that's a very good sign. Next. Is Marshall from CBS. Mr.. Mayor how are you doing today good, Marshall how are you let me let. Me say I like the haircut I hope, you didn't do it yourself anyway, moving on, this. Is a social distancing, question. Yesterday. The family, of the, 15, year old involved, in that incident in the 75 in the Bronx said. The police social distancing, arrests, or the new stop, and frisk I wonder, how you feel about that but also what are you going to do about this what will the new guidelines, be for the NYPD are, you gonna tell them you, know just not, to issue summonses. And make arrests just to give up masks, and sanitizers, and advice and messaging. Well. Thank you Marsha. First. Of all I want to affirm that thank God I didn't, give myself a haircut or the, people in New York City would not be able to look at me as I give them these updates so I'm happy. You like it though that's a that's a good sign. No. This is I look, I. Predicted. Someone, would try to, make this. Parallel. And there is no parallel I feel bad for any, family. That is suffering in any way, and. There. Was one particular incident, on the, Lower East Side that was just patently, unacceptable. I said, it the. Commissioner, Krishna Shay said that the officers been modified bears. No resemblance to, what policing, is supposed to be in this city and has nothing to do with the. Corona virus it's just inappropriate. Activity by an officer, remember, the vast majority of officers do, their job do it well do it respectfully, the vast majority, of interactions, between our police in our community go, well and you never hear about them so. The number of times that, people are, talking. About a video that's troubling, is still a very very, rare occasion. That doesn't. Mean we don't have more work to do a number of leaders of communities, of color have said to me they are concerned, and they want to make sure that, we are actually continuing, doing the work of leaving the past behind because the past was absolutely, unacceptable, in, the way communities, of color were policed.
But. We have made a huge amount of progress over these years and we're going to continue to, what. Happened, with stop and frisk was a systematic. Oppressive. Unconstitutional. Strategy, that. Created. A new, problem much bigger than anything it purported to solve this. Is the, farthest, thing from that this, is addressing. A pandemic. They're. Dressing the fact that lives are in danger all the time by, definition our, Police Department needs to be a part of that because safety is what they do now. The vast, majority of interactions, around this pandemic. Our. Officers, reminding, people what they do ask him to change their behavior people be they respond. I've had this conversation with Commissioner, Shay and chief. Monahan the vast, majority of New Yorkers when an officer not, only police officer any of our enforcement officers says hey I need you to create more space hey I need you to put that face, covering on people do it. Some. Incidents, have occurred that have nothing to do with social distancing, and we should not forget that there's entirely different, activity, going on police, still have to fight crime and they still have to address conditions. And neighborhoods when neighbors. Call in with a complaint. But. No. We're. Gonna make the protocols, clearer and clearer, but. It's that hierarchy, I've talked about several times the thing we're going to be particularly intolerant, of is larger gatherings those are just downright dangerous. When. People are too close together we're going to help, make sure that they create. More space we're going to help make sure people wear face, coverings. Very. Consistent, with what our police do to protect, in general but. We're gonna keep refining, the protocol, to make it clearer for everyone involved it's a whole new world we're dealing with we never had to deal with this in the past this is a new world it'll take time to get it better and make, more sense of it but I'm confident. That we'll get it done. Next. Is Julia from the post. Good. Morning mr. mayor and everyone else on the call um two, questions for you on the. Do e. One. And the fact that. It's. Final. Don't. You think that parents and students deserve know. How. Seventh graders are going to be applying for high school next year and then, I'm looking for you to respond, to remarks. By Chancellor, Carranza, at a panel discussion recently, he. Questioned. The ethics of screen schools, and, told fellow administrators not. To quote waste a good crisis, in pursuit, of a change. So. The. Specific, I don't, know the specific, panel, discussion, you're talking about. So. I can't I can't respond, to. Comments. I haven't seen the context, we've. Been. Clear. In this administration that, we, are. Reading. The admissions. Process across. The board and we're. Asking, important. Questions about. What. Is fair and equitable going, forward, many. Things, are going to be reevaluated as. A result of this crisis, it's, a whole concept. I've been putting forward that we are not just going to bring New York City back with the status quo that was there before but we're going to try and make, a series, of changes that favor equity and fairness, we.
Were Already in the process of doing that when it came to school admissions, so certainly. The screen schools are being reevaluate. And. Will more say on that in the future. On. High school admissions look everything's been disrupted, here on, a just. Seismic, level of, course. With, each passing, day we're able to do, more and more to clarify to students. And parents how, things are not go in the future so. Admit. And certainly will be addressed and will be addressed soon but. I want. To remind everyone that we've had to remake, the entire school system in the last few weeks to. Create online. Education, on a massive scale for the first time and the focus in recent weeks has been making. Sure that was up and running fully, and getting, kids. The. Technology. They needed I remind, everyone and, anyone if there still is a child, it doesn't have that free, iPad as a public school student call, 3-1-1 we'll get it to them right away and also, for children with. Disabilities in, our non public schools, religious. And independent. And private schools we, will get them a free iPad as well and again any family can call 3-1-1. But. Our protis has been getting, the education system up and running this new approach. Making. Sure we're focused on high school seniors, because. That's, the, most sensitive piece of this equation helping everyone who can graduate to graduate and starting. To build a pathway to the summer and then next year. But. As we're. Able weren't, filling. In more of the blanks and we'll certainly have a lot more to say on admissions soon. Next. Is Juliet from 1010 wins oh. Hi. Good morning mr. mayor how, you doing. Today good. Morning Juliet. Are you are you going to present me with another problem to solve today. No. Maybe tomorrow ok. Good you're taking take one day off once in a while ok. But. Listen no thank you for the acknowledgement on, the encampments actually, we're. Hearing about more locations. So I'll keep you posted, but. My questions, today are as, follows. What, options are you reviewing, to. Avoid furloughs, and layoffs there, is a lot of concerns, about that from, working. New Yorkers and the. Other question, is we, had Yankee President Randy Levine on, 1010, wins talking about plans for the possible, resumption of baseball, he's. Hopeful there could be some kind of opening. It now you stay 'i'm now, I know you're a Boston, fan but, given that baseball, can be a very good thing for the city do you think you'd find your way there for, a first pitch, yeah. You know. Juliet. I am a huge, baseball fan and. I'm. Getting to the point now you know I just, saw that ESPN, is gonna start broadcasting. South. Korean, baseball and I'm like I need baseball, in a lot of us need baseball I'll, watch it anywhere any, country, any how but.
Look I would love nothing more. Than. To see baseball come back to New York City and I. Would happily, go to Yankee, Stadium and be part of that first game. It. Would be a joy, and the same with Citi Field for the Mets. I. Don't. Think that's coming soon I think, we have to be honest about it I think it would be the the day that baseball comes back to New York City is going to be an extraordinarily, positive. Moment, and I. Will celebrate with Yankee fans and Met fans alike, but. I think we need to set our sights in, a realistic place. As. We think about restarting. And. We see this from the good examples, around the world and the bad examples, and the good examples, around the country and the bad examples, you. You start in smart. Purposeful, ways you, start where you can do the maximum. Social. Distancing. You. Got. To be careful the more people you put in one place the greater the danger until, you're really knocked down this disease so the kind of chicken and egg here Juliette you want, the. Perfect time to really reopen, big, events as always when the disease has really been beaten back to you know next, to nothing. So. And. The danger, with big gatherings, especially, as that could be one of the things that propels, the disease back and gives us that boomerang we we really don't want the example, of New Orleans and, Mardi Gras you. Know big gatherings. Cause, problems. Could. You have baseball, without fans. Or, with you, know a limited, number, of fans yeah there's different things to discuss. But. I, want. To really emphasize. We're, not there yet and, I. Think those bigger, gatherings, and bigger events, gonna be one of the last things that will really fit the equation, as we restart, and this, one I put in the better safe than sorry category. I want, to see baseball come back badly, but I want that the day that baseball comes back everyone is really confident, that it's the right thing to do so, when, it comes back I will unquestionably, be. There joyously. With all other baseball fans, Yankees, and Mets alike. Quick. Point on the encampments. Again. Those are not acceptable, in New York City so Juliet if you find others we want to hear about right away or anybody, anybody, watching. Now if, you. See, homeless. New Yorkers setting, up a, semi-permanent. Place to live we will not allow that just, call 3-1-1 we'll get NYPD. And, homeless services and sanitation, over there to clean it up immediately we need those reports so we can make sure that nothing like that happens on. The, furloughs and layoffs Juliet. This is the last thing I want to do literally, the last thing I want to do and, the. Key, to, avoiding furloughs. And layoffs is in. The. Hands, of the President and the Congress. So. Far. Conversation. I had with Speaker Pelosi on Sunday, suggests. That, the house will present, a, stimulus. For that. Is very, respectful. Of our. First. Responders very. Respectful, of our health care heroes very respectful, of our essential, workers and very, respectful, of cities and states that will help us fully back on our feet that's, what we need. Senator, McConnell has been disdainful, of, helping. Out states. And cities in need the. President, has gone from silent. To now he's, throwing all sorts of perverse. Conditions, on he's literally talking now about wanting. To get a tax, break to the wealthy for. Capital gains tax as a. Precondition. For helping our first responders, and our. Health care heroes it's, unbelievably. Wrong it's inappropriate, it's.
Inhuman. It's literally, imagine, a rich. Guy wanting, to take care of other rich rather, than wanting to take care of cops, and firefighters and, doctors, and nurses it's. Unbelievable. We're seeing things in this crisis, that you can't even believe are coming out of the mouth of the president United States, so. I would argue that, everyone. Who wants to see that stimulus, so we can be made whole so we can keep our whole workforce intact needs, to raise their voice whether they're a Democrat Republican. Whoever. You are, raise your voice and our heroes need to raise their voices to remind, everyone in Washington of, the. Fact that we need them. To be on our, payroll serving. People they deserve to, be. Doing. The great work they're doing and having the confidence in the security they will do it for years and years to come, but. Juliet if you take seven point four billion, dollars, out of any budget which. Is exactly what we're dealing with now and even. Worse without, a stimulus, we'll. Lose more money because, there won't be a restart. There, will be lost revenue. More and more the, state if they don't get the help they're, gonna cut us more and more this. Situation, goes from bad to worse really. Quickly, right now any. Any. Government. Anywhere, missing. Seven point four billion dollars, would have to make a lot, of tough choices but, it gets a lot worse if we don't get the stimulus. So. It's, the last thing I want to see furloughs, and layoffs but. If we don't get to help we're going to be having to make a lot of really, really tough and painful decisions, here in this city. Next. Is Henry from Bloomberg. Most. Mayor how are you doing today, doing Henry how're you. Good. You know I saw, 1969. Mets Baltimore II game the other night two to one McNally, versus, Koosman, I, would. Recommend, it a second. Game of the World Series. My. Question, has to do with this report in the New York Times today that says that a. Large. Number, of cases. Nationally. Emanated. Out of New York City, New. York City was sort of the source of. Spreading. The virus. Nationally. To. An extent, that was previously. Unrecognized. I'm, wondering, whether, you. Or the health commissioner has any. Thoughts. About this, whether, you. Know what, does it say if anything. About. Federal. Policy, about, city policy, and about. The nature of this virus. Well. Henry. III don't have, seen the specific, reporting you're referring to but I can say this much, the. Fact. Is that we know this virus, came from. Multiple, parts of the world into the United States. So. Of, course, the question will, be what. Was done and was not done to stop the. Introduction, into, our country and then. The second question has, to be what. Was done or not done, to stop, the spread once it got here and that comes back to testing, there's no question my mind, had. The testing, been in place. That. We asked for the end of January if it had been in place in, February. This. Entire, scenario, for, the city would have been different. And much much better so. That. To me is. The. Story of what happened here there were choices made or not made that. Could. Have profoundly. Changed. The trajectory of this entire, disease in the city and in this country, but. After that you, know I think it's clear when something, is introduced. You. Know at the kind of level it became introduced, of course it was going to spread from, one place to another and, now.
We're Dealing with the results. Of that, the. Lesson. We have to take from this is you. Know if we ever dealt like with anything like this in the future is to be really clear about, what, would need to be done to keep a disease out of this country but most especially what would need to be done here, to stop it once it got here with every. Forceful, federal. Response, and local response available. But. I would also say while we're trying to analyze what happened. How. About we get the federal response right now again, two, things the federal government, really needed to do in this crisis, testing. And. Support. The cities and states right. Now failing. Still on the testing, and. Failing. To step up to support the cities and states so. We'll. Look back and we'll have plenty of time to analyze what was what, I'm shocked by Henry is the same mistakes are being made right this moment and this. Will determine whether this disease continues, to spread or not and I, think we need to take every opportunity to. Stop at deadness tracks now we can only do that with really. Full, federal, support we still don't have it. Next. Is a boo from Bangla Patrika. Hello. Mayor how are you how, you doing thank. You. So much. You. Expressed. The frustration. And anger our. Day before yesterday, about I think yeah. About, the, president. Who is, not. Helping the inner city what is the alternate. Plan if you, don't get any, support. From federal, government, and then. Number. Two. You. Know the city is closed though might be in the future city will be opened, what, is the plan well how will be the style, of say, about a restroom and bar, nightclub. You. Know I mean if it's open then how, it will be open it will be like same, like crowded or it will be a different kind of shape what. Would be the, new you. Know the. The style, and system a, great. Question, abou I thank you for that. So. I think it's fair to say the restaurants, bars nightclubs are one of the most sensitive pieces, this equation, we just talked earlier about Yankee. Stadium Citi Field you know there's really big gatherings, that's probably. The single. You, know most sensitive piece of the equation when you bring a huge number of people together but. The. Restaurants, and bars nightclubs. Combined. Lots, of people and usually very limited, space. So, there's, a lot, of good ideas around, the world now about, how you could. Bring. Them back properly, I can't. Give you the exact timing we're not there yet we. Will say much more in the coming days about what we are seeing in terms of the sequencing, of each part of our economy, and the restart this is part of why we have our advisory groups helping us now who represent, each of the industries of the city give. Us real world advice about what they're going through what they need. But. What I can tell you is there's going to be different times for different types, of businesses, and different, conditions for each type of business and, it's. Going to be steady and careful, so. When you think about what we were used to just a few months ago with restaurants, and bars and everyone's super close together and it's. Part of the energy we love about this city that's.
Not Happening, right away to say the least. Restaurants. And bars we've got to help them back, but. Figuring. Out when that can begin is something we have not finalized. But we'll say as soon as possible, and then. Inevitably, with, some initial restrictions. So different ideas are out there about. Capacity. Within a restaurant, bar how. Many people could be allowed in. Different. Ideas about restaurants, compared, to bars or nightclubs, that's a whole discussion they may not be treated equally because of different realities. Outdoors. Is, an interesting and promising, possibility. To. Rely, on more, of the service being outdoors. You still need precautions. But that's an interesting option we're looking at. Face. Coverings. Gloves. You, know a. Number. Of specifics. To make the experience, safe now we. Have to see that that can be done in a workable manner and also for each business they have to decide if that's a set. Of conditions they want to reopen with or whether they want to just keep focusing, on. Takeout. And delivery. But. We will put together a plan that gets very specific, about. The when and the how and the conditions, and the precautions and that's going to grow with time but, don't expect anytime, soon. The, kind of crowded. Bar or a restaurant that we knew before it will be here one day but it will not be soon on, the. Question. Of what we would do with no stimulus. It's. Just tragic, horrible, math, I. Want. People to think about seven point four billion, dollars, what a staggering. Number that is and. You. Know a lot of people look at the city budget like oh you could do this you could do that you, know seven. Point four billion dollars, means a whole. Huge. Swath of things have to be cut and. Again. If, there is not a stimulus. And. If it's not a very generous, stimulus, the. Situation, gets worse because the lack of stimulus, hurts. Restart. And recovery. Then. There's less revenue, so. The problem we have now the seven point four billion becomes a much bigger problem. If. The state isn't made whole, they've already caught us eight hundred million on top of the seven point four billion so really right now they hit we've taken a seven point four plus eight hundred which, is eight point two billion. There. Would inevitably be, really. Substantial, additional, state cuts it just gets worse and worse and worse and then we. Have to think about all sorts of things just to balance a budget by law we must balance our budget so. It is a very. Tough picture, and it should motivate everyone. To fight every, day to. Get that stimulus, and to put pressure on the, President and Senator McConnell look if the president itíd states had said we.
Gotta Do stimulus four we got to make the cities in states whole we got to replace their lost revenues he said those three sentences, it would have been done already and we. Would be much more strongly back on the road to recovery this, is just a sick game that. The president will not open his mouth and say we, will make the cities and states whole that's. All he has to do and the Senate will follow, but. He's playing politics, so. Everyone. Who cares needs to raise their voice and the. More the voices come from you, know a whole range of our society, obviously Republicans and, Democrats and people from every walk of life in every industry the. Faster, we will get this done. Next, is Gloria from New York one. Mr.. Mayor I want to talk about this. Antibody, testing, effort you're announcing. Specifically. With so much debate. And discussion, going on around how. These. Antibody, tests, are being done and what the results actually show. The. Problem, of, positives. And some. Of these tests not being properly vetted by the FDA, so. What is the guidance, that's my first question that. The city is using what, what is the test to be specific, and my. Second, question is, about homeless. Engagements. Last night out, of three out, of 361. 218. Excepted help is the, city recording, what happened, to those other people. So. That's, a really good question Gloria. And, we'll. Have Commissioner. Banks follow up with you. So. Again. On the 218. 289. 361. Is a stunning, figure to begin with because I've been watching this situation. Over the last three years with the home staff initiative, and again well. Over 2,000, people have come in and stayed in and remember that that base we work from this is again as commissioner, Banks talked about yesterday this, is not everyone, who's ever been out on the street panhandling. Or. Someone, who's homeless. Very temporarily, or someone who lives in a shelter we're talking about the essence, the most painful, tough part of the problem is, permanent, Street homelessness. 3,500. To 4,000, people at any given moment a horrible. Tragedy we have to fight. Against. That backdrop, well. Over 2,000, people in the last three years have come in stayed. In never gone back to the street so. 2,000, over three years is actually pretty amazing compared. To the universe we're dealing with and compared, to the history of the city where there was never anything like that that never even got close in, previous, years, to. Bring in that many people this is the single most intensive. Effort to reduce Street. Homelessness in the history of the city. 2,000. Plus. In three years I'm telling, you you heard yesterday's, figures last night 218. In. One night, now. That doesn't mean everyone will stay in permanently, of course but. If you had 196. Accepted shelter and 22 went to the hospital that's an amazing. Start so. I want to emphasize just how promising.
That Is and the, more we do that the more people who decide to stick with it you guys see that street population, shrink on. Those. Who did not accept help, we. Keep coming back remember. Think. Of how individualized, the approach is. God. Forbid URI were, Street homeless, the. Outreach, workers, would know us by name. In. The vast majority of cases and they'd, be continuing. To work with us coming back you, know time after time dozens at times hundreds, of times even trying to win our trust trying to get us to come in figure out what we need to come in so. Commissioner. Banks will fill in the blank for you but I would pretty, much guarantee, that some of those people last night who weren't. Willing to come in were known to department of homeless services and, they're gonna keep engaging them and just, keep coming back because the persistence, is working that's what was the missing link in previous strategies the, persistence, works here, on. The the antibody, test we will give you all the specifics, of which, test were using, as I said we're working with bio reference, labs on the city tests the. Federal. Initiative. With the CDC, and HHS will, be done with quest Diagnostics. So, to really, leading. Well-respected. Testing. Entities. We. Will get you exactly which tests each is using. And. And, with it will of course be guidance, for everyone about what. The, test tells you what it doesn't tell you we've been explicit. About this the. Test doesn't tell you everything it tells you something and it's not a perfect, measure it. Does not mean you don't have to keep practicing social, distancing, and and using. PPEs depending, on your profession. But. It gives you some confidence some, knowledge and it helps in other ways as terms of our bigger fight against the corona virus so we'll give that information to everyone who gets tested. And we'll give them their own results and, make. Clear to people what kind of follow-up makes sense depending on their results. But. We. Want to be very transparent about. What. The test is what it means what it doesn't mean and what. The results are we're getting as we go along. Next. Is Mark Morales at CNN. Everyone. How you doing today hi. You. Good. I wanted, to follow up on the, social, distancing. Questions, and specifically. About what was discussed yesterday I know, we were talking about releasing. Data, as, far as someone's as go for. The month of April, and I wanted to know when. Is that going to happen what are you what is the city going to be releasing, the summons, data related. To social distancing. For. The month of April and if, you've seen the data what, does that show you so. I have, not seen it I expect, to see it very shortly it will be released for sure I want. To remind everyone, thank, you I've, been given the update it will be released tomorrow that, is sort certainly shortly so, I'll see it today it'll be released tomorrow. Here's. What we know we. Know there's eight point six million people we know we've been at this crisis about two months and we. Know that in very few instances has, there been a need to give summonses, that's the good news there's. Certainly been some times we had to give some ones as when, they were needed they were needed but, we will give you that breakout.
It's, Still such a small number that I think it tells us something but it doesn't tell us anything, nearly. As important, as the fact that there has been. Intensive. Effort by the NYPD and other agencies, to. Educate. And to enforce, and now, also more and more to give out the face coverings, and. The. Vast majority of that has worked and the reason we know it's worked is because, we can see it in our daily indicators, we can see how much progress has been made with the social distancing, we, can see it with our own eyes the. Way the vast majority of New Yorkers are, applying. Social distancing and putting on the face coverings so, vast, majority, of cases this is work but, we will give you that data tomorrow. It'll. Show the facts as they are but it'll also be against a pretty small sample size because summons, has not been something we've had to do too much but we won't hesitate to do it when we need to. Next. Is you're from the city. Hi, mr. mayor I wanted to ask you about the subway, sweeps. Do, you have a sense for what percentage, of the homeless people at, the end of those train lines are. Being engaged and. And. What type it's. Kind of a similar, glorious, question, about what what type of accounting, is it for what happens, to them. But you also, mention. That it, sounded, like offering. A hotel, room was. One of the options, that they'd, be. Given in certain cases. Can. You just say in which cases, and have. Any of the homeless people actually moved to hotel rooms from. The subway so. Again I'll, have a commissioner banks. Give. You more detail but I can give you just overview let me ask from. Freddy goldstein that just if we have yesterday's, numbers to on number. Engaged. Yeah. That'd, be helpful on, your. First question. Joe. Of. So. Again I've, said it I'll, say it again. 361. Were engaged last night by our homeless homeless outreach teams and NYPD. 218. Of the, 361. Accepted. Help. 196. Went to shelter 22, went to the hospital so when we say accepted help it means that they actually left, the scene, with. Our teams and, were taken someplace else where they could get help so, a huge percentage. The. Remainder, did, not accept help. But. Again we know a lot of them and. We'll, keep working on them and I, need people understand, that these are human beings each one is different you. Know you don't win every time but you, keep at it you do get a lot of people to move and I, think we're seeing more and more in this crisis, more and more street homeless people are choosing. To accept help and, I think it's in some ways related to all the changes that are happening and all the disruption, of our normal life pattern it's actually, opening up a lot of homeless people to the possibility, of accepting, help and that's that's a good thing. To. Compare to the. Night before two. Hundred fifty two were engaged in 139. Accepted. Help. So. High. Levels of engagement both, nights and in. Both cases a, majority, accepted, help that's a very striking result. Again. There. Seems to be, in. My humble opinion an over focus, on. The. Hotels. The. Hotels, seem. Like in many of our questions here I think the hotels are being put on a pedestal that's, just not the, reality and. So let's try and get it clearer, here. Hotels. Work, for some things they don't work for everything when. It comes to, a, homeless. Person who needs help right now, this. Is different than if someone's in a shelter, setting let's just try and get this tight here someone's in a shelter setting congregate.
Shelter We've talked about and there's, a need for more social distancing, that's a case where we are using. The hotel's we've. Been doing it more and more to, make sure there's enough space and we. Choose according, to the person and what they need and some people do better because. They. Can handle a hotel situation, other people, can't. So easily handle a hotel situation, many are folks who need a lot of support, and. Being. In the shelter with fewer people, can. Be the better and healthier, option, and that's what's worked on every single day. The. Folks. Who are street homeless and. Have. Been, spending a lot of time either. On the street or subway or both, are. Many cases dealing with really, extreme problems, and. The. Goal is not to just take, them and leave them alone somewhere but the goal is to get them the intensive, help they need that's the entire concept, of the. Safe haven and that's a concept, has been proven, now for three years to work, think. About you'll have someone, who is Street, homeless with. A very, high inter connection to, serious. Mental health issues and/or. Substance. Misuse. They. Need a, safe, place. They. Need a lot, of support. They need a lot of medical care they need mental health services and/or, substance misuse services. It's. Not snap your fingers you. Know instant, gratification they, were living, in a subway or a street and now they're in a building and they're fine and they're going back to normal life it is a process it takes time and energy but. We've seen a lot of success. So. You don't just take someone and drop them someplace you take someone someplace where they can get the intensive, help they need as part of their rehabilitation. As part of getting them to a better place, that's. The whole reality, as I. Said if there's an instance where a hotel, for any particular reason makes, more sense of course, that option exists but, when you're talking about people coming off of the, streets, I, don't. Think that's the typical option, the typical option is safe, haven or shelter and again commissioner banks will get you more later on. Next. Is Jeff maze from The New York Times. Hey. Good, morning mr., mayor just, two questions, some. Of the city's black, elected officials police, reform groups, even. Some of the police unions, are warning, that the social. Distancing, enforcement, is dangerous. Untenable, and, it's, only, a matter of time before some. Sort of tragedy, occurs. Are. You concerned, about one, of these incidents. Becoming. Something, tragic. And. Then secondly. Commissioner. Shea I believe, suggested. That, when. The weather gets warm there. May be a plan to limit the. Number of people can go into parks, is. That something, that you, are working on or have discussed, with the commissioner or plan to put into place. Thank. You Jeff. Yes. On the second piece yes. Commissioner. And I have had extensive conversations. With, members of. Both. Our, teams and. Other. Agencies, as well and. There. Are certain, parks. Where. The, justa configuration, of the park, lends. Itself to overcrowding. And we're, working on strategies right now to, address that and, we'll have more to say on that tomorrow. But. There's no question, that in, a, kind, of toolbox, of approaches. That we could use. To. Help make sure that social distancing, works. If. We've got some parks that are just the way they're set up is it's just too, easy to have crowding, we can't let that happen and we have to limit the number of people going in and we'll again we'll talk about how we're going to do that and it's not that many places honestly, but wherever that is the case we're going to work. With a protocol, to do that well take some experimentation it'll take some. Effort. To make sure it works but I think it's a good direction on.
The. First. Part of your question look, the this is our job to avoid these tragedies, and the. Reason. That. I do this work and I know it's true for Commissioner Shea and so many people here is to fundamentally, change things. We, have fundamentally, changed policing, in New York City there's more change that, has to be made but. Before. We came here, policing. Was based on a very punitive, approach. Heavy. Reliance on stop and frisk heavy reliance on arrests. There, was not. Value. Put on deepening, relationships. Between, police and community, there was not a value put on retraining. And, we've. Been doing all these things and we're gonna do a lot more we've, retrained the entire police force in de-escalation, we obviously put body cameras, on every patrol officer, the. Entire strategy, now is neighborhood, policing and building relationship. Communities, we have de-emphasize. Arrests to a huge, degree let, alone getting rid of the. Vast vast majority of stop and frisk nothing. Has changed in this crisis. The. Whole mission is to protect people's lives and avoid the tragedies, of the past. We, have a new threat that we have to put front and center and this is where I part company, from. The. PBA and some of the activists. As well simultaneously. And I'm very comfortable parting, company from both with all due respect to them. The. Way you keep, people safe in New York City is to use the finest police force in the world to. Protect people that is a fundamental. Truth and when. Confronted, with the biggest crisis. We've ever known, we're. Not gonna sideline. The NYPD, we're gonna use the NYPD, to the fullest but, with smart protocols smart, training. Figuring. Out what works and doesn't work and. I am NOT making my decisions, based on a, very. Few interactions, that were handled poorly or went bad I'm making my decisions based on the. Millions, of interactions that are going right and the. Fact that clearly, this city is moving in the right direction on, social distancing, and shelter-in-place. And it's making us safer and it's saving lives we're here to save lives I'm not gonna sacrifice saving. Lives. Because. People. Are fearful of something that loomed. In the past I, want. To protect people in every way but it begins with protecting, them from the clear and present danger of this disease, so. I hear the concerns I hear the criticisms, there's been some very positive. Constructive. Ideas from. For example Public Advocate Jumaane Williams or. Brooklyn. Borough President Eric Adams have talked about bringing. In a lot of additional elements, of the, community to help with. Educating. And. Supporting. Efforts of social distancing, I think that's a great idea we'll have more to say on that soon as well, but. No, the NYPD, has to lead the way in keeping people safe and fighting, this disease is job one and that's what we're going to do. Time, for two more today, next, is Christina from chalk beat. Hi. Mara thanks for taking my question I wanted, to know if there are any plans to systematically. Treat, test. Teachers. To. Contribute, to being able to reopen school. And what role also, the. Subway system will play in reopening. Schools obviously. Now there are shutdowns and, lots of students, and teachers rely. On them to class. Important. I would. Daresay profound, questions, Christine, and I appreciate, it on the second, one look. Everything's. Going to interact here I am. A firm believer that we can get to a full reopening, of schools in September, but I want to keep giving. People a window into, my philosophy, developed through, constantly. Talking to the experts and and, looking. At the conditions in our city and thinking about how we mix, all these factors together the right way my worldview, is its, mission critical to. Get our schools up and running in September, its, mission critical to get our economy started, as soon. As we can do it safely and then build it out in a safe careful, manner. All, of that is going to require the pieces, fitting, you. Know carefully. In each case and each step. Being proven, before. We take the next step so. You're, absolutely right it's hard to have, that full reopening. Of schools without. The. Subway system being, more. Available. To our students, and if people work in schools.
That. Says, to me how important, it is to keep tight with our current strategies, if. You. Value the reopening, of school in September, and stick with the social distancing, stick with the shelter in place stick with the strategy that were put on a face covering and all the things we're gonna do to. Keep that working is about driving down the Z's and then that, handoff, as I said to an intensive. Testing, trade strategy, that, keeps driving down the disease more. We. Do that intensely, enough May June July August. That's. The Gateway to reopening, schools fully I would, also argue that's the gateway to expanding. Subway service again and doing so many other things. So. Yeah. There's a deep interconnection and, I. Think, the job is to get those pieces to align through, the hard work we're doing now, on the. Testing. Of teachers we, have not obviously defined. All the pieces yet of what a reopening of schools looks like but. I think a lot of testing, will be a part of it by any definition, and. The. World I'd like to get to is one, where there's, maximal, testing available for. School communities, to give people confidence, that. They. Can come back into the school community and and really know what's going on and that anyone who for whatever reason still, might need to be isolated, is isolated, in a timely fashion so. What that looks like when, that can be done how that can be done those are blanks we need to fill in but will. Testing, play an important, role in the restart of schools absolutely. Last. Question for today it goes to Aaron from Politico. Hi. Mr. mayor a couple, quick questions about the antibody. Testing. Have. You received no information or, assurances. As to the reliability of the results, of these, tests, I know just a couple weeks ago the Health Department put, out an. Alert essentially, saying not to rely, on them there's. Anything changed between now and then and then, can you just give some more details of who is, eligible, you. Said people. In the neighborhood of prioritize, but, how. Do you define that exactly, and beyond that is everyone, eligible, if you have to hit other criteria, Thank. You Aaron. So. We'll put out the eligibility criteria. Look. We've. Got a good thing which is testing, but. I don't want to see people. Start. To go too far, for testing, especially in a world where we're going to start to make it more and more available in more and more places so I want. There to be a sense of localness, to this. That's. Why it's so important to have a priority for. Residents. In you know nearby communities. This. Is to reach a lot of people it's also for the research purposes, I talked about and if. You're talking about, you. Need to do thousands, of people at each test site you know you can do that in so many parts of the city in, in.
A You, know an area within walking distance of, the test site even you could get enough people to reach, those goals so, I. Wanted, to be very local. People. Will call and reserve. Preference. Will be given to the local area obviously there's additional testing, and people, can get to it from places. That are somewhat farther we're, gonna allow that but it's not our preference our preference is for it to be as local as possible just to minimize travel. Because. We know more and more testing is coming behind it we're obviously in a intensive. Ramped up now. On. The, reliability you, know I think it's a great question I think it's really important that we are clear. This. Test is not the end-all be-all said, it a bunch of times we'll say it every single day it will be they'll be written materials, given to people they'll be reminders, given by the healthcare professionals, we. Are not promising, people a Rose Garden here we're not saying the antibody. Test is, the, last word it's not but. It tells you something. The. Most. Effective. Tests, and obviously we're working with bio reference, and quest Diagnostics. To make sure that we have the test that we believe are the most fine-tuned. If you will the most specific. To indicating, that you've had kovat 19:00 and. You've been exposed to it previously. We. Will announce, exactly what those tests are and and give, information about the nature of them but. We would only utilize. As the city of New York we'd only work with, partners. Who agreed. To use a test that we have higher, confidence, in, in terms of its specificity. Identifying. The presence of coveted 19 previously. In someone's. Experience. There, are some other tests out there that, I think are less reliable. We're. Not going to work with those so. We, will be clear about reliability. Levels but. Even with that said that. What we know what we don't know what we can know is if you've been exposed to the disease and you. Came through it, that. Tells you something that, is helpful it tells you something about, your. Experience, it tells you something about your resiliency. It's. Helpful to know it. Does not change, the fact you still need to take precautions, we'll, keep the lending all those precautions. Because. We, don't have the hardest evidence, that, you couldn't get the disease again, we. Don't have a lot of evidence that you will get the disease again or, it's likely but we can't say definitively you, won't so, we're gonna keep telling people to be careful and safe because of abundance of caution. Certainly. If someone. Has been, exposed to disease that's important, again for knowing, who could be candidates to provide. Plasma. For that kind of treatment for others and the, research, is the research and having facts, about people helps, us on a research level to understand disease as I said to understand it demographically, by occupation, all sorts of things we need to know.
So. We'll. Keep putting all those qualifiers, on, and. If someone comes to get testing they're like oh wow you know if I get a positive, it means I don't need to wear a face covering anymore or, if I work in. A hospital I don't need PPEs will say instantly, no you still do. Till. This is over you still do. So, we'll keep putting all those. Qualifiers. On but, it still helps it still, tells us something and again, as we get the final specifics, out there will will give a lot of detail on which tests we're using and what it means and how we're going to move forward. All. Right well everybody. I'm. Gonna finish. Where I started, on a word again, synonymous. With our city confidence. I feel. A lot of confidence today myself and. I. Have been taking in so, much information from day one. If. I was not convinced. We're on the right path I would tell you you'd be able to see it in my face I am 100%. Confident. That we. Can and will beat this disease and. I. Am even more confident. Because of what I've seen you do, there. Is an interesting line in life between confidence, and arrogance. Arrogance. Is when in many cases you, aren't backing it up with the facts. In. This case I have. Confidence, and New Yorkers have confidence because we're actually proving, to ourselves into, the world that we can change the, real of, what's happening in the city and. We can be back this disease is happening literally every single day and the indicators, go over each day show it and, you can see it in. The life of the city that things are getting better because. People did the right thing, so. There. Will be doubts along, the way there will, probably be some setbacks even. But. You. Don't have to wonder about New Yorkers you, don't have to wonder about our basic nature you don't have to wonder about our toughness, our. Strength, our. Compassion. For each other you don't have to wonder about the ability New Yorkers to do big things it's. Playing out on the great stage right, now it's playing out before our very, eyes, and. I, am confident, we're moving in the right direction and please. I know, it's not easy I know, it's too, long a battle, but. We. Will get through it do. What you're doing do it even more. Spread. The word about the power of social distancing, of wearing those face coverings, of, staying home to the maximum extent possible it's. Working, let's, keep going and that's the way back to normal thanks, everybody.
2020-05-19