Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability

May 27, 2020

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, good morning, everybody. This city continues to move forward because of all that you are doing. Again, I express my thanks every day for New Yorkers who are doing so much to fight back this disease, get us past this crisis and on to better times. We've talked a lot about the crucial new pieces of the equation. More and more testing, and our tracing program. Tracing contacts so we can contain the disease further. We've made some big strides the last few days on these fronts. Some real improvements are happening day by day, and that's exciting because that means we're getting closer every day to getting to a better situation for the people that city.

So, to review – look, a few days ago we wanted to get to 20,000 tests per day in New York City. That was something that for months alluded us. Being able to get to that basic level, 20,000 tests per day. We hit that number ahead of schedule. Now as of today, we are at 27,000 tests per day capacity and growing. We're well on our way to our goal of getting to at least 50,000 tests in the coming weeks, and then we're going to go and surpass that. The testing initiative now has over 180 sites that are either up and running or have been announced and are on the way. So, to get easier and easier for more and more New Yorkers to get testing, and that's going to help us move forward. And then tracing, as I said, the goal originally was to have a thousand contact tracers trained ready and on the field by June 1st. That number will now be 1,700 by June 1st, and then we'll grow from there. We are going to get to the level of 2,500 contact tracers in the first half of June. And then as I've said, we are ready to go to as many as five to 10,000, that's what will help us beat back this disease.

So, those pieces of the equation are moving every day, improving every day. Now it's time to talk about the next piece. And when we think about what has made us strong, it is the testing being more available, the tracing being there for people who need it, for the contacts being traced with each person. But then it is the ability to take care of people who are found to either be symptomatic or who test positive. It's so crucial to think of why we need to take care of folks in that situation because if we take care of them, we help them to get well. But of course, we also help them to not spread the disease. Now, any individual who test positive for the disease, anyone who's symptomatic, we've been telling you for months, there are things you have to do, because once you know you are symptomatic, once you know you test positive, you know there are things that you can do to make sure that you of course take care of yourself, but also that you don't spread the disease inadvertently. And that's not easy, because we're New Yorkers. We are used to being close to the people in our lives. We have close knit families, people live close together. We are used to spending time with the people we love, and the people are important to us in our lives. So, the notion of finding out information that affirms that for a period of time, you need to keep some separation. Well that's not typical for us. That's not easy for us. But the goal here is to safely separate for a very limited period of time. And I want to emphasize that. The period of time that people need to safely separate is only up to 14 days in some cases less. It's not forever by any stretch of imagination. But if you do it right in those 14 days or less, you really help them start to make sure that the people in your life are safe, and that the disease doesn't spread more throughout the city.

So, everyone has a responsibility here when they're in that situation to think about everyone around them, what you need to do to protect them. But we want to take care of you, and all the people in your life, and that's where the take care point comes in. We can do a lot to help you because think about it, if you're able to safely separate and be at home, well, okay, then you still need help, right? You need to make sure you're getting medical attention. You need to be able to check in with medical personnel as you're progressing or if there's a problem to address it. You need food, you need all the basics to get to you. You might need prescriptions. How do you do all that? Well, we are setting up an apparatus that will allow us to support you. If you're at home and you can isolate properly at home, then this apparatus will support you safely separating at home. If you have to be in a hotel, we'll be able to help you as well. But just to make clear at home, we can account for the whole range of needs, meals, prescriptions and medication, physical health support, mental health support. People are going through so much, and we have to make sure that people have that support as well. So, there'll be regular contact with our test and trace team. There'll be phone calls in person visits when necessary. Text messages, you name it to stay close, stay connected. And who does all this work, who makes sure you have what you need, these are the folks we call resource navigators. They help you safely separate at home.

Now, all of this is free. I'm going to say this many, many times today and the days and weeks to come. Every bit of this service is being provided for free, because this is how we help people. This is how we overcome this disease. If you end up knowing you need to separate from people at home but you need that support, the last thing you should have to worry about is how am I going to pay for it in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression, we don't want you to have to worry about that. We don't want that to stand in the way of you being able to have that separation you need, so all the services being provided for free and the resource navigators will be there to make sure you get what you need. 200 resource navigators are being brought on citywide. They will be your point person for anything and everything you need when you're in that period of separation. Now, the navigators are going to come from all the communities of this city. We have brought on 15 community-based organizations as you see there on the screen. These organizations will actually hire the resource navigators from local communities. They're going to be familiar with all the neighborhoods of the city. They’re going to speak the languages of all the neighborhoods of the city, be able to connect with people. That initiative is starting right now. Those navigators will be on the ground next week starting their work as the contact tracing starts to grow, and ramping up so that we'll have plenty of capacity to reach anyone who needs that help.

Now, that's the way to think about if you have to safely separate at home, okay, you're not alone, you're getting a lot of support, everything you need. There's someone there to address people, checking in with you regularly, making sure you're okay. But that also gives you the ability to ensure that the people in your life are safe because you're separated from them the right way. But what if you can't do that? What if a hotel is a better option? Well, that's going to be true of folks who live in very cramped circumstances. Who live in smaller apartments where you just don't have any space to separate from the people in your life, from all your loved ones. That is true if you have a multigenerational home in many cases where there's just lots of people in the same space, and of course the concern for our elders is paramount here. We've seen what this horrible disease has done to the oldest New Yorkers, and particularly those who have preexisting conditions. So, if you have a loved one in your home, and they're older, and you want to protect them, you clearly might be better off going to one of the hotels to make sure there's no risk to the person you love. So, right now, we have 1,200 hotel rooms right ago. And again, I’m going to keep saying that key word free. The hotel rooms are free. All the services that go with them are free. Anyone who needs that opportunity to safely separate in a hotel, we're going to be there for them. 1,200 rooms now, we'll be going more than double that number. We'll more than double that number to over 3000 rooms in the course of the next few months. But the bottom line is as many rooms as we need, we're going to have, so we're already planning on building that out, but here is the simplest rule in the world. Anyone who needs that hotel room to safely separate from the other people they live with, they will get that hotel room for free. This is how we protect people. And the same idea we talked about what kind of support you get when you're at home. Well, in the hotel, very similar approach. The whole test and trace initiative, and this take care part of it is predicated on notion of a lot of support, a lot of communication, whether it be from Health and Hospitals clinical staff, or the hotel staff. What does that mean? It means daily medical check-ins. It means meals, it means laundry. It means making sure you get, again, any medicines delivered that you need. It means mental health support as well as physical health support.

Now, you talk about period of up to 14 days, it's not forever, but for that period of time we're going to make sure you have what you need. How do you get to a room? Well, obviously if you're identified as someone who has tested positive or is symptomatic through our test and trace initiative, they'll be able to, people involved in the contact tracing will be able to refer you to a hotel room, make all the components come together, get you the transportation you need, etcetera. But what if, for example, you go in to a doctor's office, and this the doctor who says, wait a minute, you know, you're symptomatic or the doctor tells you, they in fact did the test with you, come back and say the test is positive. It's important that you safely separate, its important you go to a hotel. Well, the doctors of this city, any doctor, any nurse, any physician's assistant in private practice, in a hospital, anywhere, they can arrange for you to get one of these free hotel rooms, and the support that goes with it. So, any health care provider all over the city, they can simply email CommCareCP@nychhc.org. This is a simple process through which any health care provider can make sure that you get the hotel room you need, if that's the best way to protect your loved ones and help you through this situation.

Now, let's say you don't have a doctor, well we’ve said many times, any New Yorker who's in the middle of an urgent situation needs to check on what's going on, wants to talk to a health care professional who doesn't have their own, you can always call 3-1-1 and get connected to a health care provider, to an Health + Hospitals clinician. But specifically if you know you're symptomatic already, if you're know you're symptomatic, you know in a living situation that you can't safely separate from others, you can call directly to our COVID hotline to get connected to the hotel program, and that number is 844-692-4692. When you call that number, if you say, look, here's my situation at home, here are my symptoms. Doctor will evaluate it with you, and they say, yup, that's time to go to hotel, then all of the wheels start in motion and we make sure you get the support you need. So, again, it's test, it’s trace, it’s take care, they all go together. Testing is so important in and of itself, but testing has much more impact if the contact tracing then leads us to anybody who might have been affected if you test positive. So, we can immediately get to them and make sure they're in the right situation and it all comes together if people are actually taken care of, if they know that if they need to have that safe separation, that the support will be there. That's going to encourage people to take advantage of it, that's going to make them comfortable doing it. It's going to make them feel okay if they either need to stay home alone, away from the other members of the household or need to go to hotel. People need to know that they'll be taken care of, they need to know the support will be there, test trace and take care, that is the game plan. Now we want to make sure as this whole initiative keeps growing, that we're always listening for what people need, people from different types of communities. We're always listening to make sure that the services are provided the right way, that they're responsive to people, that there's any problem it's addressed, so we're forming a community advisory board. We want eyes and ears, we want people to help us always think about if we're doing this the best way, the right way, are we reaching everyone we should reach? Are there problems? Are there hesitations? Are there reasons people don't want to participate? We need to always understand that and address it. So, we're getting members from 60 great organizations around the city. These are organizations that do so much good at the grassroots level. They really represented a wonderful cross section in New York City, they'll be meeting twice a week with our test-trace and take care of team and they'll be guides helping us think through how to keep making this the very best effort it can be. I can't emphasize enough how important this will be in beating back this disease cause remember the coronavirus thrives when there isn't that ability to find each and every person who needs help. But when every single day you find more and more people who need the help and get them the help they need and that happens faster and faster and better and better, that keeps constricting the spread of this disease. That's why I'm so excited about this initiative, I think it's going to reach very, very far and have a profound impact on hastening the day when we end this era in our city and the evidence is there from around the world. Other countries that had very creative and aggressive test and trace programs and the take care component as well. That was the magic combination, test trace and take care done consistently done energetically with lots of resources, lots of personnel. That's what has worked around the world and that's what's going to work here in New York City.

Now, all of this of course is to help protect New Yorkers, keep us healthy, keep us safe, constrain this disease, and one day rid us of this horrible challenge. And obviously it's all about hastening the day that we can restart and go through the different phases of restarting. And I'm very, very excited about that process because things are getting better each day because of your efforts. And that's hastening our ability to start reopening our economy, getting people back to work, getting them back to their livelihoods, we are going to do this the right way. And last night I had a really powerful conversation with leaders of some of the largest businesses in New York City. And I'll tell you something, it was fascinating to listen to people from some of the businesses that really are synonymous with this city that are some of the biggest employers that are businesses that make New York City proud. And their optimism about coming back and coming back strong and what I kept hearing about their thinking was of course they want to see continued progress on the disease and they are very, very focused on this test, trace, and take care of program as a crucial piece of the strategy. But what I heard was people recognizing that the values of New York City, what has made New York City great continue to make a great and we'll make a great in the future. This was the single biggest takeaway and I was meeting with a group of folks who they were perfectly ready to tell me if they had a different point of view, but I asked them just open field and what do you think and when I kept hearing was they want to come back. They want to come back strong; they want to be here in New York City. Why? Because the talent is here because the ability to bring talent together that that creative impact of bringing great talent together. Yeah, the short term we're going to have to be smart about how we do it. But the point is doing everything remotely has its limits. You cannot achieve the same creativity, the same teamwork, the same common purpose when everyone is remote. And I think that is becoming clearer and clearer to some of the leaders of some of our biggest employers here in the city that they are looking forward to the day when they can continue to bring more and more people back and get that creative spark going and really bring out the talent base in New York City that has been our greatness and has helped make these companies great. So, a very, very inspiring conversation, everyone's thinking safety first. Everyone wants to go through the stages, the smart way, but a lot of optimism about how we can do it, how quickly can do it, and how quickly we can forward.

Okay. Now, as we continue to fight this disease, as we work towards this restart, let's of course always think about the horrible physical toll this disease has taken. The people we have lost, we think about them all the time. The people who are still suffering. The folks who we worry about, particularly because they're older and they have those preexisting conditions that we want to protect. The physical reality is always in the front of our minds, but as usual, the mental health reality often escapes our view, and this is something we should not allow to happen. We know the history of this country has been that somehow mental health has been too much of a taboo subject, but the mental health challenges of coronavirus had been profound. People have felt scared, anxious, confused, isolated, and they need more support than ever. And they need to talk about it and get it out and know that someone's listening and someone cares. This was abundantly clear to me yesterday I toured Queensbridge houses with some wonderful leaders of our cure violence movement, community activists who had done so much to keep neighborhoods safe. I talked to a lot of the residents of Queensbridge houses, largest public housing development in the city, in fact, in this country. And what I heard over and over again was people feeling the burden of having had to stay in so much of feeling the confusion about where things are going. But the thing I heard the most was the sadness over those they've lost the fact that it wasn't even possible to mourn properly in the middle of this crisis. People are carrying a weight, it's a very deep weight and it's a very real weight and we have to address it now and going forward. We've talked before, there's a lot to do this summer going into the fall, particularly for our school children. And this is a time to think about mental health in general and it is mental health awareness month. So, everybody this is a time to reflect, to think about how we support all those people, those health care heroes, those first responders, they'd been through a lot. How we make sure that mental health services are available in the places that are doing such important work. Our hospitals, our shelters, the places that serve young people, including a homeless youth, making sure that we're attending to that, not just the physical needs but the mental health needs as well. All month long we're going to be talking about mental health and of course our First Lady is going to lead the way that's been the focus of her work over these last six plus years. That's what the thrive initiative is all about, making mental health as widely available to people as possible. Mental health services that people need, mental health information they need. And it's a reminder this month and every month, if for any reason you need trained counselor to talk to 24/7 multiple languages and yes, for free, always for free call 888-NYC-WELL you are never alone in New York City. If you need mental support or someone in your life needs mental health support and you want to talk about how to get it to them, call 888-NYC-WELL.

Okay. Before I go to our daily indicators and our thresholds, I want to talk about something that's been going on over these last weeks that we've talked about from time to time. And it's not, it's not the same as the human impact and the health care impact and the lives we've lost. Those are so much more important than anything we can talk about when it comes to dollars and cents. But we do have to come to grips with the fact that on top of the health care crisis, on top of the economic crisis, we are now in a fiscal crisis here in this city. It is not the responsibility or fault of anyone in these five boroughs. We didn't ask for the coronavirus and we have spent so much time, energy, heart, soul and money fighting back the coronavirus and often alone without the help of our federal government, but New Yorkers have done it. And when you think about it, what's happened here, this, see what's happened in cities all over the country, what's happened in States all over the country is the burden has been born by cities and States to somehow make sense of this crisis to go at alone in so many ways. And to fight back a disease that really is part of an international pandemic, of course, it should be the responsibility of the federal government first and foremost to address this and yet here we are waiting once again for action. We're not hearing from the President; we're not hearing from the Senate majority leader. In fact, I spoke to Senator Schumer yesterday, there's literally no schedule for the fourth stimulus bill to be voted on. This is the stimulus that would actually help cities and States that would actually help us back on our feet and help us deal with this crisis. Literally no vote scheduled, but here's the challenge, while they're not acting in the Senate, while the President remains silent, our fiscal situation has gotten worse. I originally reported to you last month that between the current fiscal year and the one that begins July 1st we had $7.4 billion in projected loss revenue because of course the economy is not functioning the way it normally does and that's taken away all the money that we use to provide services to all of you. $7.4 billion, we now have a new estimate that we have just published and I'm very sorry to have to give you this news, but it's not shocking to me that things have gotten worse. We are now $9 billion in the hole between the current fiscal year and the one that begins July 1st. $9 billion and we project unfortunately beyond next fiscal year additional lost revenue that will hold us back further. There is literally no way that we can solve this problem without federal help or without having to make very, very painful choices that will affect the quality of life in this city. Our building provide basic services and how many people we're able to employ to support you in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of a moment where people need that public support and help more never in the middle of a moment where we were spending billions of dollars to protect your health and safety, to make sure you're fed, to make sure there's a roof over your head. This is the very time where we're not getting the help from the US, Senate or the President and we are getting to a point of really tough choices. We have to pass a budget by law by the end of June. So, we have about four weeks.

So, this week I asked the State of New York for help. I asked the State of New York to give us a fallback, to give us a safety net and that is borrowing authority. It's not something we want to use or intend to use in the first instance, but it's something we need as a last resort if our federal government isn't there for us. If we're going to maintain basic services here in this city, we need some capacity to borrow. After 9/11 in the middle of that crisis, Mayor Bloomberg went to Albany, asked the Legislature and the Governor to support New York City and provide borrowing authority – they did. New York City handled that borrowing authority smartly, wisely – got us through that crisis, got us to the point we were just a few months ago before this pandemic, a strong city, economically strong, providing so much support to our people, safest big city in America, highest number of people employed in the history of New York City. That's where we were in February – that recently – because this city has been smart in its stewardship of our resources, smart in the way we serve our people and grow our economy, we need to keep doing that. So, we've asked the state for that borrowing authority. By the way, the State has granted itself the very same borrowing authority. In April, the State granted itself $11 billion in borrowing authority. There was no debate, there was no fanfare. It was obviously the right thing to do to give it that fallback while we're all fighting shoulder-to-shoulder; city and state together and all cities and states together for the right kind of stimulus because no one wants to borrow. What we want is our federal government to step-up for it – us all of us – as it should in a moment of crisis and we'll keep fighting for that. Well, look, I've asked Albany for this borrowing authority so we can protect our people and I know a lot of people are stepping up in the city and saying that's the right thing to do; a lot of folks in our labor community have stepped forward and let leaders in Albany know how important it is to protect working people and to keep working people, working by having this authority as a last resort. So, this is a city unlike the city we knew decades ago; decades ago, New York City went through a lot of trouble and we learned a lot of valuable lessons. The city of today, a strong, careful, smart city when it comes to our finances; this is a city that can and must move forward, that can and must provide basic services. Let's keep fighting for that federal stimulus. That's the right way to do it, but in the meantime, let's get that borrowing authority from Albany to make sure we have that fall back and to make sure we can protect our people.

Now, let me turn to our daily indicators and thresholds and again I'm going to refer to the structure we're using now and this again is an example of the success that has been achieved in this city that we're talking now in terms of these thresholds. So, the first one is the daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – remember, we want to see that beat under 200 individuals a day. That is a level that is sustainable if it's under 200 a day. Look at today's report, 55 for a city of 8.6 million people – only 55 people admitted to the hospital for suspected COVID-19. That's really good news. Now daily number of people in our Health + Hospital’s intensive care units - so this threshold, we want to keep that under 375. We have a little more work to do – we're at 431 patients today, but we're confident that number can continue to go down and we'll continue to go down. So, more work to do there, but on the right track. And so important, the percentage of people tested citywide who are positive for COVID-19, again staying under that 15 percent threshold is what we want to see. We are at 8 percent today and that is so good to see every day we're in single digits. So that progress is because of you; don't let up. Keep at it with the social distancing, shelter in place, wearing the face coverings. Let's be smart as we get ready for the next phase, let's do things the right way and that's what gets us to the next phase.

Okay, a few quick words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks Spanish]

And with that we will turn to our colleagues in the media. Please let me know the name and outlet of each journalist.

Moderator: Hi, all. Just a reminder that we have First Deputy Mayor Fuleihan, President and CEO of Health + Hospitals, Dr. Katz, Executive Director of the Test and Trace Corps, Dr. Long, and Director of Isolation for the Test and Trace Corps, Dr. Johnson on the phone. With that, I will start with Katie from the Wall Street Journal.

Question: Good morning, Mayor de Blasio, and everyone on the call. I have two questions and it has to do with our small businesses, our restaurants, and bars here in the city. San Francisco just announced a plan to open up streets and sidewalks to diners including free permits and California has had more guidance for businesses for weeks. With more people going outside and it will probably increase as the weather gets warmer, when can the city see some sort of dining plan if it's an outdoor plan? And then the second question is I know the NYPD has been targeting certain bar heavy areas, nine I believe. What are those areas? Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much, Katie. I love the phrase bar heavy areas. That's like one of those government designations that always impressed me. We will get you a list; obviously the Upper East Side was an area of particular concern, Katie and that got a lot of attention. But I will get you, if we have in the course of this press conference, the list of bar heavy areas. I will turn to Freddie Goldstein who will take great interest in this matter and will get me the list if we can now, but well otherwise we'll get it to you right after.

On the outdoor dining question; this is really an important question. I'm glad you raised it. We've been talking to a lot of folks in the restaurant and bar industry. There's a lot of excitement about this possibility. Now, it's not in phase one as it's structured now and again, right now we are on track with phase one to begin in the first or second week of June. But we are looking very intensely at what we can do with bars and restaurants, but again, with a safety-first attitude. I really respect the wonderful work that's been done in California and in San Francisco particularly. They do have a very different circumstance for many, many reasons. So, we look at other people's ideas and approaches, we look at them all over the world, but we know our circumstance is particular and we are very much in a safety first, health first approach. So, we're going to figure out how and when we could reopen bars and restaurants; how much outdoors is going to play a crucial role in that. I think it is a very, very encouraging possibility to lean to the outdoors. But even with that, we got a lot to figure out in terms of social distancing, face coverings, protocols, and what amount of capacity you could create that would make it worthwhile because bar and restaurant owners have been really clear - they need a certain level of capacity for it to be economically viable. So, we are working on that. It is not part of phase one but it is something we'll have more to say on soon.

Moderator: Next we have Gersh from Streetsblog.

Question: Mr. Mayor, thank you for taking the call. How are you doing?

Mayor: I'm all right, Gersh. Gersh, I feel there has been no cooking updates. I feel alone, I've gained no information from you.

Question: I owe you a couple of breads and some pizza dough. I admit that. You know it's funny I wanted to follow up on –

Mayor: You keep saying that, but I've seen no bread, Gersh – no bread at all.

Question: I am socially distancing, Mr. Mayor, socially distancing. Good you took the call right after Katie’s question because I actually wanted to follow up exactly on what she asked, which is I have to say Mr. Mayor, you always, you often say in these kinds of, when, when changes are being asked of you that New York has unique circumstances, other cities, you know, do what they do and we study it and etcetera., but then after a certain amount of time passes, you have a great ability to see what other cities do well and then adapt them as you did with open streets. You know, we now are the nation's leader in open streets and you're doing it in a way that other cities had in a very small way pioneered. So, what is different with the restaurant thing? As you know, the weather is improving and these restaurant industries, the members are telling us that the window is going to close on them because they only have basically through September to really make that happen. So, what's different? Can you talk about why we can't expedite this?

Mayor: Yeah. Gersh, I think your observations a good one, but I take it as a badge of honor honestly that we look at what other people do – often honestly in circumstances that are more propitious. I mean, let's face it we've been the epicenter of the crisis here in this country. We have the toughest conditions, the most, you know, the most densely populated place that's been in the middle of this whole fight. We have a lot here that makes what we do very, very sensitive. Small steps can have a very big impact when you're talking about over 8 million people and job one is safety and health and not allowing that boomerang. So, I really think it is actually exactly right to say we're watching what other people do; we watch a lot of people do things in easier circumstances and then we decide what makes sense for us. The open streets is a great example. I did not think it made sense when we didn't have enough NYPD officers and all of our city personnel. Now that they came back, that really contributed great work with the council, great work with communities. When we started it, we we're able to start it safely and the proof has been in the pudding. It is a great idea, Gersh, and it's working real well and it's been executed safely. So, I think the parallel with the bars and restaurants is very, very clear. I would love them back up and running immediately, but the safety ramifications of bars and restaurants are very different than the phase one industries. What's phase one; construction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, but only with things like curbside pickup. Calibrated to make sure that as we bring back hundreds of thousands of people, we do it safely and we don't hit that boomerang. Bars and restaurants implicitly come with much closer contact. We have to figure out how to do it right, how to enforce it, how to make it viable. So, I know people want to get going, I respect it. As soon as we feel it's right, we'll be ready to act. But first, we’ve got to get phase one going. It's just, there is an important part of sequencing to keep everyone healthy. So, that's how we're going to proceed.

Moderator: Next we have Matt Chayes from Newsday.

Question: Hey, good morning, all. How are you doing?

Mayor: Good, Matt. How you doing?

Question: Good. Two quick questions for you. First, how is rideshare, like Uber and Lyft, going to be different during phase one reopening? And second, to what extent are you going to be restricting more streets than currently to bicycles for phase one?

Mayor: Let me come to that. But first, if you'll just forgive me for a second, Matt, I have the coveted list of bar-heavy areas that Katie asked about. And again, this is a sort of the historic reality, but, Katie, we will obviously watch if there's other places that need to be addressed. So, this can change according to what we see happening on the ground. But the formal bar heavy areas are, the Upper East Side, the East Village, the West Village, the Lower East Side, Williamsburg, Long Island City, Astoria, Hell's Kitchen and City Island. There's our formal list.

Matt, look we are going to in phase one focus on those industries that I've talked about and obviously get them up and running the right way. So, in terms of how people get there, the initial estimate is it's going to add at least a couple of hundred thousand people into the workforce in the five boroughs. That's an area – that's a reality of concerns we talked about yesterday. I want to make sure will well coordinate with the MTA and that makes sense. Right now, in terms of the basic structure of transportation, we have what we have. In terms of any changes we might make with rideshare or bikes, you know, we're still evaluating if that makes sense and if there is something specific to change in the here and now. But it's all connected, we're trying to make sense of what's the right way to get people around in a new circumstance. I think that's an important consideration. Now, I think it becomes an even bigger consideration when we go to phase two. So, the answer is still assessing, but we will have more to say on it.

Moderator: Next we have Brian from Crane’s.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Hey, Brian. How are you doing?

Question: Good. I wanted to ask you, close to 300 New York businesses called Reopen New York have defied the State and City and are reopening. We wanted to know what your thoughts are on that and if the City plans to take any action against them?

Mayor: Yeah. I mean, the City and State are totally united on the approach to reopening. And I would urge everyone to look at the facts, this city has beat back this disease really impressively because of everyone's great effort, but we are far from done. And if we do this the wrong way and the disease reasserts, then you will go in the opposite direction, more restrictions, even more we could have than what we have right now, and that's the last thing anyone wants. So, we're going to do this the smart way. Anybody who reopens in defiance with State and City orders, of course we're going to enforce. And if we have to, we’ll summons. If we have to, we'll get a commissioner's order and, you know, the place will not be allowed to be open in any way, shape or form. So, I'm a little confused when we've seen steady progress. I'm looking at the State indicators, you know, five out of seven now completed. We're confident that we'll get there in the first half of June on the contact tracers. We've only got a little bit more to go on the hospital beds, that's coming along. I've been really clear about the City indicators and thresholds. They're moving exactly where we want. I don't know what people need to hear to understand that things are moving because we're doing this the smart way. If we keep doing it the smart way, we get to that phase one reopening, do that, we can get to the phase two reopening, which really is a vast amount of the economy back in the game. But if people jump the gun and they don't follow the rules, that's the best way to guarantee we don't get to our reopening. So, of course, we're going to enforced us and we're going to enforce it aggressively, because we have to get this right.

Moderator: Next. we have Jillian from WBAI Radio.

Question: Good morning, everybody. I'd like to ask some follow ups on my eviction questions from last week. You made your preferences very clear, but as a practical matter, what can and will the City do, including the timeline and grace period you mentioned? And also, what authority does the City have in the context of the Governor's power? Thanks.

Mayor; Thank you very much, Jillian. Very important question. Jillian, look, we have pushed many a time for the State to change its approach to tenants and often with success. You know, many times sitting right here, I pushed for the State to allow tenants to use their security deposits to pay the rent – the State finally did that. We pushed for extensions on evictions and the eviction moratorium – they did that. We need to go again – you're absolutely right, there's more to do, and I want to see the State expand the eviction moratorium through this crisis, passed this crisis at least several months. But I think it is true that when the voices of tenants and the voices of the City are heard in Albany, that we often see those changes. So, we're going to keep fighting for that. I want to make sure all City agencies are doing all we can to keep people in their homes, to stop evictions. There's a lot we do all the time to do that in normal times, we'll keep doing that. And I want to emphasize, Jillian, anybody who is faced with eviction can call 3-1-1 and get legal help right away, because we do not want to see evictions in the middle of this crisis. So, we will use every tool we have to support individual tenants to stop evictions. All City agencies know they should do anything and everything to stop evictions and we'll keep working on the State to get the changes we need.

Moderator: Next we have Jeff Mays from the New York Times.

Mayor: Jeff?

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: How are you, Jeff?

Question: A question – in terms of the budget deficit, you know, there's been some critique about that the City hasn't dug deep enough for cuts and other budget saving measures. I'm wondering if you think there's more to be done on that front in order to help the City close its budget deficit?

Mayor: Jeff, you know, in the executive budget in April, we did between a variety of cuts and savings measures $2.7 billion – that's a lot of money. We, obviously, have shown the ability over a years to make a variety of savings, actions, PEG programs, whatever it takes. Right now, we're getting to the point where if we have to sustain further cuts, it's going to start to affect all agencies. And I've said that at the level we're at now, Jeff, $9 billion in missing revenue. That leads us to a horrible place where we would be cutting back basic services, cutting back personnel, furloughs, layoffs, things we do not want to see, things that go against everything that we believe is right for New York City and would only contribute to the economic crisis and the hardship of our people. So, right now, what we need is to get that stimulus done in Washington. Every city and state in America, I believe, truly deserves to be made whole. We did not do anything that caused us to lose billions upon billions of dollars in revenue. The federal government owes it to the cities and states of America to make us whole so we can lead this recovery. And Albany can help backstop that by giving us the borrowing authority, which, by the way, Jeff, is multi-year authority, because this is going to be a multi-year crisis. That $7 billion we're asking for could be used at any point over years. We, again, only would use it as a last resort, but I want to be clear, the upcoming fiscal year, a huge budget problem. The next fiscal year, I can tell you right now, is also going to have a huge fiscal problem. We're not going to see the revenue recover anytime soon. So, we're going to do everything we can to keep the City moving forward. But a strong recovery correlates to having those basic services in place and keeping our public workforce strong. If we have no choice, we will make tough decisions, but it won't be that – it won't help us recover if we have to make those tough decisions.

Moderator: Next, we have David from Gothamist. David.

Mayor: David?

Question: Hi, can you hear me? Hi, can you hear me?

Mayor: Yes. Can you hear me, David? David.

Question: Okay, I can hear you now.

Mayor: There you go.

Question: Can you hear me? Okay, great. Good morning. I have a question for Dr. Katz on contact tracing. You mentioned previously that the contact tracing program will use a DOH mandatory quarantine order under a [inaudible] if it has to. Can you give me an example of what triggers a forced quarantine into a hotel and what happens if someone refuses a hotel room for a variety of reasons?

Mayor: So, let me start, David, and then we'll turn to – Dr. Katz is on the line, Dr. Ted Long, who's Executive Director of Test and Trace, and Dr. Amanda Johnson who is running the Take Care initiative which is focused on the need for – isolate those who need that help, that safe separation. So, any of them can jump in. But I want to really make clear the approach we're taking, David – we believe the vast, overwhelming majority of New Yorkers are going to act the same way they've acted throughout this entire crisis. If you had asked me at the beginning, was it going to be easy for people to stay home or to do social distancing or to put on face coverings, I'd say these are really going to be immense challenges. But overwhelmingly we have seen New Yorkers abide by these rules because they understand it’s about their safety, their family’s safety, everyone they care about and their entire community. And people have really been paying attention and doing what's right. So, we take a positive view here, David, the positive view that once folks know this is what will keep everyone safe. No one wants to inadvertently infect a member of their family and risk lives. No one wants to see one of their elders in danger, but folks need to know they will get the support. And that's particularly the crucial work that Dr. Amanda Johnson and her team are doing when we say Take Care. We're really to help people know this'll be a very positive, supportive experience, well facilitated, everything for free so that folks are comfortable if they have to isolate at home or if they need to go to a hotel. So, that's where I see this going. I think the overwhelming reality will be a positive voluntary approach. If we don't find that we always will consider all other options. But I want to accent the positive because that's what we've seen from the people of this city. Dr. Katz, Dr. Long, Dr. Johnson who wants to jump in?

President and CEO Mitchell Katz, Health + Hospitals: I'll start, Mr. Mayor. I think you've explained it very well. This is not a new issue. It has often been necessary in public health for people to isolate or quarantine and our experience overwhelmingly with other diseases such as tuberculosis is that people do the right thing. And simply knowing that there is an order that can be made is another way of telling people, look, you need to stay, you don't want us to make any orders, it's really not necessary, it would have the same effect if you would just stay in your room. I don't think this is going to turn out to be a problem for us.

Mayor: Dr. Long. Dr. Johnson will you want to say?

Dr. Amanda Johnson, Health + Hospitals: I can [inaudible] –

Mayor: Go ahead.

Dr. Johnson: – And just echo the sentiments expressed by Mayor de Blasio and by Dr. Katz. I think my experience as a primary care doctor does reinforce that people are willing and ready to do the right thing if you support them. And so I want to bring the same approach and try to understand what the barriers are, what are the realities faced by new Yorkers that are preventing them from doing what they would want to do, and bringing all of the resources we have to bear as a City, as a health care organization to make this a possibility for them, and see them through this very time-limited period that is going to enable us to reopen the city and have them get back to their families and their communities. And so, it's the investment in things like food in the hotel or food delivery, access to medication, access to mental health support and physical health supports, as we've mentioned before. You tell us what it is that you need to make the right choice. I want to take on responsibility for making that work for you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. Alright.

Moderator: Next we have Mark Morales from CNN.

Question: Hey, everybody, how you doing today?

Mayor: Good, Mark, how are you doing?

Question: I’m doing good. So, I had a couple of questions. One was, did we have a count as to how many local businesses have so far gone out of business or won't be reopening when June 7th rolls around? And the other is about enforcement. There's more cars on the road, there's more people out. And I know a lot of stores have not opened up yet, but how does enforcement change now? Is it still quite as stringent or is it going to be more targeted like say in those bar areas that you mentioned or in religious communities?

Mayor: Yeah. Thank you, Mark. Very good question. So, let me say the – on the enforcement side, we're going to be going through in the next couple of days, the way our agencies are going to approach the enforcement. So, I think that the State has set up – I just want to sort of put it in frame here – the State set up very clear indicators. We've set up clear indicators and thresholds. So, that's telling us where we are. We're going to watch those every single day. We're not there until we're there. I keep saying I'm confident from everything I'm seeing, first or second week of June. But everything's going to be based on these objective numbers and it's a lot of different measures that all have to hit at once. And I think that's a really good high bar that has kept us safe. I think the fact that we've come this far as directly related to setting that high bar. Now as you open up, what we're going to do is, of course, we'll pay special attention whenever we see a problem area. We had some issues in some parks. We've found some good ways to address that. We've had some issues with some bars. We've found some good ways to address it, but this last weekend, you know, three-day long weekend, we had very few issues between parks, bars, restaurants, beaches. We just didn't have a lot of problems because I think people, one, are overwhelmingly doing the right thing and, two, when they see that there's some real enforcement out there, it works. We're not trying to be heavy handed, we're just trying to be present and that has been working.

So, now what happens in this next phase is, you know, you're talking about a very substantial number of businesses in phase one, many more in phase two. In phase one, the State rules about the exact way to comport yourself as a business are very clear. They're very helpful. We're going to now be putting the enforcement behind it. So, each agency designated for a certain type of business will go out in the very beginning, communicate with those businesses. We're talking to a lot of them now to figure out what they need, how it's going to work, what they're concerned about. But once they start, we'll be in regular touch, inspections as per usual, going out to make sure that all the State protocols are being followed, and everything that we need is being followed. And we're going to, again, have the spirit of, we want to make it work with businesses. We want them to succeed, we want the economy to restart, so it's going to be light touch and a lot of communication and problem solving focused. If we see a problem, we want the business to address it. We don't want to penalize, we want to fix problems. So, that's what the enforcement will look like. But a lot more detail will come out on that shortly.

On a number of businesses, Mark, I don't have a specific number for you today. I'll get a sense from our small business team what we're seeing. Look so many businesses have been thrown for a loop, but I'm hearing across all of our advisory councils with the business community, the vast majority want to come back and believe they can. And, you know, I think there's a huge amount of pent up demand that has kind of come out last night. It was very interesting, Mark, talking to folks in the retail sector. These are larger businesses, but they say what they're seeing around the country is a huge amount of pent up retail demand that kind of exploded once stores could open again. And they expect that here as well. So, we know some businesses are going to have a very tough time coming back, but I don't want to count them out yet. Small business owners are incredibly resilient and I think a lot of demand will start to be unleashed very soon. Phase one especially in the retail sector, you know, with the pickup model. But then phase two is, you know, a fuller opening. And I'm confident a lot of businesses are going to find the way back as a result of that.

Moderator: Last two for today. Next. We have Rosa from The City.

Question: Hi, can you hear me okay?

Mayor: Yeah. Rosa, how are you doing?

Question: I'm okay. How are you Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Good.

Question: So my questions about testing – two pronged. First, is H + H concerned about false negatives in antigen testing? I understand what you're supposed to do with, relatedly, like with a positive test, you stay home. But if you have a negative test for COVID, for having it right now, not the antibody test, what should you be doing with that information? Does that change your plans in terms of seeing other people or going out to do some kind of work? I mean, so those questions are kind of – that's a two prong kind of thing. I've heard that antigen testing can have like 29 percent false negative. What does that mean for basing decisions off of this?

Mayor: Rosa. Great question. I'm going to turn to Dr. Katz and Dr. Long, but let me just quick frame and say you're really hitting something very, very important here. We have said throughout this process, whether it's antibodies that should, with a good antibody test, tell you if you've been exposed before. But that doesn't tell you to change your habits. You still need to take precautions. You still need to observe social distancing, face coverings, PPEs if you work in certain areas. The same with a negative diagnostic test, it doesn't mean ballgame over. It means at that moment you don't have the disease. But you still should take all the other precautions because that's what keeps people safe. And on top of that, Rosa, if you're symptomatic, even if you haven't taken the test, you need to take precautions. So I think you are raising a real important question that we have to keep telling people, stay safe no matter what the test result is the answer. But to your specific question about false positives, Dr. Katz, Dr. Long?

President Katz: Thank you Mr. Mayor. We are aware that this test, like all medical tests is not perfect. So clinical judgment is always required. When I've taken care of patients with COVID, even if they are negative, if I strongly believe they have COVID because of their symptoms and exposures, I'll still tell them that they need to isolate. So it has to do – what steps you take depends on what is the likelihood that your patient has COVID. And the test is very useful, but it's true that if they're very likely to have COVID, that a negative test does not make that impossible. As you say, Mr. Mayor, making sure that everybody maintains social distance and face coverings is a great way for us all to protect one another. And we will make decisions about isolation based on best clinical judgment and the test. Thank you.

Mayor: Mitch and Ted, I might have misheard the question because I thought it was also about false positives. Freddi Goldstein's handed me a note that she thinks it's also to refer to primarily about false negatives, which is obviously a very real issue. I still think all roads lead to the idea of you're taking precautions no matter what and if you are symptomatic, you're acting on it. But talk about false negatives as well.

President Katz: Well, again, I'll start and Ted – so my answer was about false negatives. False positives. We don't again, no test is perfect, but if that test comes back with evidence of a COVID antigen, we're going to ask that person to isolate, definitely. The question though, does come up what to do when you think somebody has COVID based on their symptoms and or exposure and the test is negative test. Test is not perfect and we will, Mr. Mayor in those cases ask people to still isolate.

Mayor: Ted, you want to add?

Dr. Ted Long, Health + Hospitals: Yeah, no. The only thing I would add to that we look at your symptoms right then and there when we're first seeing you. So we're not waiting for the test results to come back. If you're symptomatic and your doctor believes that you keep your family safe by either self-separating at home or going to a hotel. And then if the result comes back but your doctor still believes that you have the coronavirus we're going to treat you as such.

Mayor: Thank you.

Moderator: Last question for today. We have Robert from Bronx Chronicle.

Mayor: Robert? Robert, can you hear me?

Moderator: Just, we've almost got up. There we go.

Mayor: Robert?

Question: Can you hear me?

Mayor: There we go.

Question: Okay. I caught the virus on the subway in March, coming home from one of your press conferences. I recovered quickly. I took the antibody test on Saturday, May 16th from BioReference in a free – which is a free City provider in the Bronx. When I tried to get to my results online, I was transferred to a patient portal which requested, I agreed to an extremely long list of terms which included to becoming one of BioReferences patients, allowing them to share my information with third parties, which they could not guarantee the security of my information, that they could change the terms of the agreement at any time, which included an area that mentioned payment of services. I refused to those terms and called BioReference where I was told the only way to get my test results would be to agree to the agreement. What is going on? You said you go in, get tested and get test results. How do I get my test results? Who is BioReference sharing information with?

Mayor: Well, I appreciate the question. I'll turn to Dr. Katz, but first say, first of all, I'm glad you are better. And that's what matters most. But I, this is a very fair question to make sure there's not some confusion. So Dr. Katz, in terms of obviously all positive tests in New York City from all sources are reported to the Department of Health, but in terms of the individual getting their test results how do we address this question of the terms and conditions and make sure that someone gets their test results or if they have a concern about the terms and conditions there’s someone to talk it through with?

President Katz: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I may also ask Dr. Long to help because my experience has not included this. When my patients have gotten testing, they're able to look up the results themselves through our MyChart application and find out what their result is. I've had multiple, my patients who've gone for testing and looked up their own results. I can see their results and call patients with the results. I'm less familiar with the antibody program. Dr. Long, can you explain?

Dr. Long: Yeah, so BioReference is a laboratory, so we'd have to know the specifics about where you were tested to understand the link to the laboratory. They're not a provider though. So we'd be happy to follow up with that offline. But just to emphasize with Dr. Katz was saying, anybody that gets a test in our system or part of our program, you're in our system. A clinician is going to call you to talk about the result. But starting on June 1st, through our program, for anybody in New York City who has a positive PCR or diagnostic tests, our traces are going to call you, explain everything and see what you need to either safely, self-separate at home or go to a hotel during that one phone call. So if you could give us specifics, happy to look into it, but our program is going to be calling everybody [inaudible].

Mayor: Yeah, Robert, I'm glad you raised it. The team will follow up with you. As I was saying, I think one of the issues here in the language that you experienced was because it is a requirement for each testing company to share the information with the City Department of Health. And so that language probably referred to that. But I understand your hesitation about it. We need to make sure that people are not in any way confused by that language. So I think you've raised something here that if you experienced it and you were concerned about it, probably other New Yorkers are too. So I'm glad you raised it, I thank you for that. And Mitch, Ted, let's look carefully at the tests that people are taking through the Test and Trace initiative and make sure that if there's any accompanying language, it's clear to people and not confusing and not in any way off putting, because that obviously would defeat the purpose. So Robert, thank you for raising it. We'll talk to you about your specific situation, but also I think this will help us make sure there's not confusion for other people going forward.

And let me wrap it together today and simply say, the whole idea here is to make sure people are tested, that they know testing is more and more available. It's free, it's easy, it's something they can do quickly. It’s something that is going to be more and more available in their own neighborhood. We want to keep building out. The tracing, obviously all of that is a free service. The tracer identifies the contacts in someone's life who they've had a close contact with, quickly connects with those folks. Those folks get a test, any support they need. Again, even folks who are symptomatic get addressed because we want to protect them obviously in the people around them. And the Take Care initiative, so important, all free, supporting people either in their home or in a hotel. The idea is to make it a seamless process. Whatever you need, it's there for you. It happens quickly, it happens well and you know you're being taken care of. We keep doing that over and over and over again. That's how we beat back this disease and that's how we move forward in this city. And everyone will be a part of it. Everyone will be supporting each other during it, just as New Yorkers have done so far and so well in getting us to move forward in this crisis. So, this is how we take the next big step. Thank you, everybody.