Mayor Bill de Blasio: It’s Friday – what feels like has been an endless week. I know so many New Yorkers have really felt this week. It's been very, very difficult. We've lost a lot of people. It's been a tough slog already. We've also seen just so many examples of heroism and strength, and the very best in New York City. And particularly from our frontline health care workers. And I want us to, just from this point on, understand how much our nurses, our doctors, everyone in the hospitals is going through. What a shock this is to them to go through what is basically battlefield type conditions compared to just a few weeks ago. What was a lot more normal life in their hospitals. Now, they're dealing with very, very painful realities all the time, but they're doing it with skill and with passion and with compassion. And we really need to thank them always, and we need to support them, and we need to get them a break, and reinforcements, and all the supplies they need. And we're going to be talking about that today. The things we're doing to try and reinforce, and support are noble, extraordinary health care professionals.
And what's abundantly clear to me is we've all been focused so much on, on supplies, on equipment, on ventilators. We need to focus increasingly on our health care personnel, both everything they're going through and how we help them now. But the fact also we're going to need a lot more people. We’re going to need a lot more highly trained health care professionals to get us through this in the coming weeks. I spoke a few hours ago with President Trump and Defense Secretary Esper, and over the last few days I've been talking to White House and the Department of Defense about the personnel needs that are facing our public hospitals in particular. And I have asked them for help with additional medical personnel as quickly as possible from our military all over the nation, from the civilian sector around the nation. I have made very clear we're going to mobilize everybody in the health care community in New York City, but we're going to need help from outside to get through the sheer magnitude of the crisis ahead.
The day that I've identified to President Trump and Secretary Esper and other federal officials that I think is the crucial date to think about is Sunday, April 5th. Meaning, as I've said, we're getting through this week. It's tough. We have what we need for next week, but it will definitely be a very hard week. But after next Sunday, April 5th is when I get very, very worried about everything we're going to need. The people power we're going to need, the equipment, the supplies, obviously the ventilators. I'll keep updating you regularly about what our situation looks like, but I want to put down that marker right now. And I've put down that marker to the White House that that is a decisive moment for the city of New York. We need to make sure that we can get to that day ready to face the week after that, and the week after that as well, and right now we're not there.
So, look, I've been trying to work with the President and his team. We obviously have to be, at this moment, working in common cause on behalf of New Yorkers. That doesn't mean we agree on everything to say the least. But I will always say when the White House does something to help us, I will be thankful and I'll give credit when due, and when I think they're missing something, I'll say that too. I do think the notion that any, any messages being put forward, that this will be over by Easter. It's just unfair. It's not true. It's not accurate and it's going to mislead people and raise false hope. I've been honest as I know the facts to be – that April will be tougher than March. May could even be tougher than April. And if that becomes less true, if things get better, I'll be the first to say it. But I don't want people to think this is going to be easy when it's not going to be. I think people need to be ready for battle, and the hard truth helps people gird themselves for what's ahead. And it is a battle, but it will be over. It will be over at some point in the coming months. And then we'll start that, that long recovery. But we will come back strong.
The numbers, every time I have to tell you about this, it’s human beings who are afflicted, the people we've lost, it is painful and it's shocking. 25,573 cases in the City of New York. We remained the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States of America. I look forward to a day when I can tell you that's no longer true. But today that is true. 366 New York City residents have been lost. 366 of our neighbors have been lost. And I want to note that this is becoming personal for all of us in our neighborhoods. All of us have experienced this pain, and it's coming home certainly to our city government, to our agencies that are out there serving people every day. I think you know, just in the last few days, we've lost a principal in our public school system. We've lost a custodian who works at police headquarters. We've lost a member of our Department of Transportation team, a member of our Department of Corrections team. And sadly, we are sure to lose more of our colleagues, and that's painful. Some of the most senior members of the NYPD leadership have been afflicted by the disease and are fighting it now.
Want to take a moment to just offer my sorrow and condolences to the families of some of our public servants that we've lost. Dennis Dixon, the custodian I mentioned at One Police Plaza; Irene Weiss, a community assistance in the Parking Meter Collections Department at Department of Transportation; David Perez, an investigator at the Department of Correction; Kious Kelly, a nurse manager at Sinai West – this is not one of our public sector organizations, but obviously our voluntary hospitals to us are our brothers and sisters in arms, and to have lost a nurse on the front line of this struggle is very painful for all of us; and Dez-Ann Romain, principal at Brooklyn Democracy Academy. Everyone's feeling these losses deeply. We look forward to the day when we don't have to talk about falling comrades, but that day is still a way off and we have to be clear about that.
The human toll is what matters. And for everyone who says it's about the economy, and getting the economy back up, that's just wrong. It's about saving lives first. That's what we believe here in this city. And it's about keeping our hospitals going and keeping our health care system going. I want to remind everyone, you cannot have an economic recovery if our health care system isn't working. You can't have an economic recovery if hundreds or thousands of people are dying. You can't have an economic recovery. If city governments and state governments are going bankrupt. That's the reality we're facing right now. So, I want economic recovery. You want an economic recovery, but we better deal with the problem first. And that's my message to the president and everyone in Washington.
The stimulus bill voted on today, an important step forward, but we sure as hell need more if we're actually going to stave off the full extent of this crisis. If we're going to keep our city running all our vital services, our health care running, our state running, our ability to keep our health care system intact, our ability to save lives. We are not where we need to be yet in terms of the support we need from Washington. And if that support doesn't come, then anyone who harbors the illusion that we can have an economic recovery, is putting the cart before the horse to say the least. Recovery only comes when our people are whole, our people are safe, our health care system has recovered, our city and state governments are working. We're a functioning nation again, that's when we go into recovery.
The economic impact already vast hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers already unemployed. When all is said and done, I think soon, unfortunately we'll find as many as a half-million New Yorkers might've lost their jobs in recent weeks it’s inestimable. My parents who were from the World War II generation, they would tell me stories of the Great Depression, and my older relatives would as well. The only thing that I can compare these last weeks to is that time. And I don't say that with any joy, it's just a fact. In the Great Depression, there was unemployment as high as 25 percent. In this city, in this country, we're seeing that level begin to be approached. Right now, that's the extent of the economic crisis. We have to be honest about it. The fact is that people are being hit real hard. And yes, the stimulus bill does provide some crucial direct relief to working people. That's very important, and I commend everyone in the Congress, the House and Senate who did that. But that impact that people are feeling right now, it is vast. It's why we're preparing right now to make sure that people can't afford food, will have food. And we're working every day to make sure that whatever those basic needs people have, they're going to get them, even if they don't have any money left. But we've got to take another step to recognize just the sheer extent of the pain, the suffering, the challenges that New Yorkers are going through as we suffer this massive fast economic decline.
I think if ever there was a time, there should be a rent freeze, it is now. So, for the millions of New Yorkers who live in a stabilize rent, stabilized housing in this city, normally you wait until later in the spring for the Rent Guidelines Board to make its decision on what rent levels should be for the upcoming leases. What we've seen here, to me, makes clear that we need a rent freeze for everyone who’s rent stabilized and we have to talk about all the people who are not rent stabilized as well. But for everyone, who is rent stabilized, since we have a mechanism, we need to have a rent freeze. But the only way to do that is with the help of the State of New York. And I would like to see the state immediately join with us and they've been very cooperative on so many fronts. We've worked on so many issues together and come to a common agreement on the way forward. So, we will be working with the State starting immediately, requesting the opportunity to suspend the rent guidelines process for calendar year 2020. If we are able to get State agreement to suspend the rent guidelines process for this year that will effectively create an immediate rent freeze for new leases, that's something I think we have to do given the sheer severity of this crisis.
I want to go back to the topic that's been on people's minds so much and it should be, which has all the equipment and supplies we're going to need for our hospitals to get through this crisis. As you know, on the crucial lifesaving issue with ventilators. We do have some progress and I do want to give the Federal Government credit and thanks for having gotten us 2,500 of ventilators in the course of the last week or so. Each ventilator at any given moment can save a life, keep someone going who can find their way to recovery with the help of our extraordinary medical professionals. But we have stated from the beginning that the number we need in New York City is 15,000, 2,500 helps a lot and it helps us right now until I see evidence to the contrary, I am sticking to this number because I believe is based on fact. 15,000 is the number we need,
I have reiterated that to President Trump and other key members of the administration. The President made a comment about New York State I think it was last night questioning the number of ventilators needed. I think New York State has been exactly right and asking for the number they have, which they've said is at least 30,000. When you look at the growth of this disease, not just in the City, but also in the suburbs, in other parts of the State. Governor Cuomo was exactly right to identify that number of ventilators we need them here in New York immediately to stave off this crisis. We are clearly in this city, in this state the very, very center of this national crisis. And the Governor said, and I've said once the crisis starts to pass, we will absolutely make sure that ventilators and supplies and personnel we'll get to all the other places in our country that need help.
But I want to be clear those ventilators, we are not kidding about that number, that is about savings lives right now. I spoke to the President earlier this afternoon about not only the medical personnel but also the situation at Elmhurst hospital. And we spoke about this on Wednesday night as well. I wanted him to understand very personally just – how hard it is for our health care workers, what they're dealing with, why we need so much more in the way of personnel and equipment and supplies. And I do want to say the President knows that area, his family coming from Queens and he made very clear, he's familiar with Elmhurst Hospital and the area around it. I want to keep asking the President to keep Elmhurst Hospital in mind and realize that today it's Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, tomorrow it's going to be other hospitals in this City and soon it's going to be hospitals in other parts of the country. And since he can understand and relate to the borough Queens let that be the touchstone, let that be the example that moves the President and the Federal Government to maximum effort immediately. Now, today we saw some progress and again, I will always praise progress, the President put out the statement having invoked the Defense Production Act related to general motors. That's a step in the right direction, I'm very happy to see it, but now we have to go a lot farther. And I would urge the President to use the full power of the Defense Production Act to mobilize industries across America to produce the maximum number of ventilators and other crucial medical supplies. It's quite clear this crisis is spreading rapidly around the country.
We as a nation did not have the supplies and equipment ready. It's not just this crisis it's whatever happens in the future we should produce now while we have the chance, all the ventilators possible to save our people. Obviously to make that happen, the military will be needed in every sense, the logistical capacity, the ability to move material without question, the finest ability in the nation to get things where they need to go and to deal with the toughest conditions that's our military. In addition to the extraordinary personnel that can bring to bear, the military needs to be mobilized fully our standing members of the permanent military reserves national guard this – has to be the ultimate team effort. And there's no Americans more ready to serve than the members of our military, the commander in chief now needs to make that call and get them into this fight, immediately.
Questions has have come up this week, rightfully about – Personal Protective Equipment, the PPEs that our health care professionals need, our first responders need I’ve talked about the amazing effort at the Brooklyn Navy yard. You’re going to see a lot more of those homegrown efforts to create a lot of the supplies we need, but obviously what we need most is to help with the Federal Government and the supplies to come in from all over the country. Even in some cases from outside the country, the mass, the gowns, the gloves, the face shields we need them in huge quantities going forward. We have enough of the personal protective equipment again to get us to that crucial day of Sunday, April 5th. I will update you constantly if that crucial demarcation line changes, but right now we must keep getting more to make sure we can get passed Sunday, April 5th.
Here's the distribution that's going on as we speak, just to give you a sense of the sheer magnitude. And this is all what's being done by the City of New York and our agencies right now, our Department of Health, Emergency Management, Health and Hospitals, all our agencies working together. As we speak 20 trucks are on the road delivering to our hospitals this includes a grand total of 1 million surgical masks, 200,000 N95 masks, 50,000 face shields, 40,000 isolation gowns, 10,000 boxes of gloves this is all happening right now as we speak. Tomorrow trucks will be delivering 800,000 more N95 masks and 2 million more surgical masks, and this is going to be constant from this point on. We've had a really amazing outpouring of offers from New Yorkers and people all over the country offering to get us supplies like this who have sources of their own companies that they can draw on.
We need it all is the answer. And everyone who wants to help us anywhere can call this number and let us know what you can get us and how soon, and we will follow up immediately. The number to offer supplies and equipment to help the people in New York City is 833-NYC-0040 again, 833-NYC-0040 and we appreciate the help and we need it now. A few more updates, Elmhurst Hospital, as I said, we all understand has been a hit so hard, it's been the epicenter of this crisis. The doctors and nurses, all the staff fighting so hard and they need reinforcements and reinforcements keep coming each day. Today the Health and Hospitals ascent 64 additional clinicians to Elmhurst hospital that's registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physicians. 64 more clinicians sent today within the hospital, 45 members of the ambulatory staff have been moved over to work on urgent COVID cases. Tomorrow 105 additional nurses will be sent to Elmhurst hospital. So this is what we're going to be dealing with in the days ahead. Moving people, moving materials moving equipment where they're needed the most and trying to get more and more brought in all the time. But Elmhurst is the first in everyone's mind and we're making sure that reinforcements are sent constantly. Obviously yesterday the ventilators that were sent the 40 ventilators to back up, additionally their supply needs we will keep doing that. So, everyone, Elmhurst you will always get resupplied with everything that we can get you. We've talked recently about where what we're seeing around the City what information we have about the spread of this disease.
Our Health Commissioner will be part of this press conference, so she can certainly speak to as many of the details we know. But what we know for a fact is the disease is widespread around New York City, all five boroughs across the board community spread means community spread everywhere. What we also know is testing patterns have vary deeply around the City it's really been different depending on where you are and some parts of say there's been a lot more testing and other parts less testing. And some parts of the City testing has really been focused on folks with the most severe cases, in other parts of the City testing was done on a lot of people who now we would say would not be priorities for testing that will affect the rates of positive cases in each neighborhoods because the testing patterns have been uneven.
We're always looking to figure out what is the exact truth and what do we need to know strategically. But the information we have now is skewed in some ways of course by the realities I just explained to you. But we are going to try and put out information, we put out the borough numbers. Now Department of Health has put out a map showing what the pattern is, and this is on the Department of Health website, what the pattern is around the city. But again, this information only tells you part of the picture because the testing patterns have been so inconsistent. We're going to keep digging down to figure out if there are any particular areas that need particular strategic approaches. We know what's different around the city is that some areas have a greater concentration of hospitals others have less. That's part of what's going on in Queens for sure with Elmhurst, whether there's fewer hospitals that people are going to, but we've got to get to the bottom of any deeper trends that we can act on and we will keep doing that and then keep reporting the facts as we know them.
Couple of other quick points, our jail population we will continue to reduce our jail population to address this crisis to ensure that any inmates who can be appropriately released, particularly those with real health concerns that we act on we know we have to do this quickly. I mentioned that because of all the efforts over the last few years, but also this recent release effort that we now have for the first time since 1949 under 5,000 inmates in our jails, that number will continue to go down in the coming days. As of last night, 375 inmates had been released, by tonight that number will be at least 450. We are working with District Attorneys and the State to additionally work on release of the appropriate inmates that they have a specific jurisdiction over. So, we'll constantly update you on what's going on with that situation. But again, as of tonight, at least 450 will have been released.
Related to our parks and the question that's been on everyone's mind about what's going to happen going forward with our parks and the question of whether we're seeing compliance and commitment to social distancing? Overwhelmingly, the answer is yes and this is coming back from the NYPD, Parks Department, and many other agencies. We're seeing the vast majority of New Yorkers do the right thing, observe social distancing, take it seriously, spend only the time that they have to be outdoors, outdoors, and then get back indoors. But we are seeing in the last day or so, we have seen some noncompliance that is really a concern. We obviously have to think about the warmer weather coming ahead and we need to make sure that people understand this is really, really serious. So, the NYPD has been instructed, of course, to educate people, warn people, move along if people need to be moved along, break up groups and make sure there's no gatherings. I want to be very clear that at this weekend we're going to make a decision on whether we need to start instituting fines for anyone who is noncompliant. We have not made that decision yet. We'll make it this weekend. Fines of up to $500 per incident are being discussed right now. This means if any of our officers – NYPD or Parks or any other agency tells you, you need to move along, you need to move along. If they tell you to break up your gathering, you need to break up your gathering. It does not mean you can break it up for a few minutes and then come back. It doesn't mean you can tell the officer you're not going to do it. We're going to start to bring heavier enforcement to bear if people don't pay attention to the nonstop guidance that we've all been giving, and our officers are giving, and our health experts giving, and the national news media has given. Come on, you've gotten enough information to know you have to practice social distancing. I know it's not easy. I know it goes against everything we're used to doing. No more team sports, no more social gatherings in the park, no ganging close together, unless it's your own family members or the people you live with under the same roof. Those are the rules and people really need to follow those rules. If you don't follow those rules, then what it's going to say to me is we start to have to use much more serious penalties. I don't want people to be penalized in a time when there's so much economic distress. I don't want people to be penalized who are trying to make sense of a new painful reality, but I need people to listen and understand this about protecting yourself, your family, and all the rest of us. So, we'll have more information on that over the weekend, but I am asking my fellow New Yorkers to take it seriously or else there will have to be more severe measures. Obviously, the same point about playgrounds. After tomorrow night we're going to make a decision on whether to keep playgrounds open. It will be directly related to the level of compliance we see, whether we can keep them open or not.
Another area, and it pains me to say this and it's probably a pretty limited phenomenon, but it has to be addressed. I've spoken to religious leaders of all backgrounds and I want to thank them. So many of our religious leaders have really taken a lead and said to their congregation, said to members of our faith communities that we have to act differently now. A vast majority of houses of worship have stopped their traditional worship service. If they could, they went online, they went on the radio, whatever they could do, but they've stopped gathering people, understanding the nature of the crisis. We've had extraordinary support from the leaders of major Christian denominations. We've had extraordinary across the board, rabbinical support from all the different elements of the Jewish community, and the same is true other faiths as well. A small number – a small number of religious communities, specific churches, specific synagogues are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it's been so widespread. So, I want to say to all those who are preparing the potential of religious services this weekend – if you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services. I don't say that with any joy. It’s the last thing I would like to do because I understand how important people's faiths are to them, and we need our faiths in this time of crisis, but we do not need gatherings that will endanger people. No – no faith tradition endorses anything that endangers the members of that faith. So, the NYPD, Fire Department, Buildings Department, and everyone has been instructed that if they see worship services going on, they will go to the officials of that congregation, they'll inform them they need to stop the services and disperse. If that does not happen, they will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently. Again, that will begin this weekend. Again, I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but anyone who's hearing this take it seriously. You've been warned, you need to stop services, help people practice their faith in different ways, but not in groups, not in gatherings that could endanger people.
Finally, on remote learning it is a huge new endeavor. It's a challenging effort. Yesterday I have to say, I was really upset when I heard from one of our reporters that a couple of major broadband providers apparently were making it more difficult for certain households to get the internet service they needed so that our kids could participate in distance learning. I made very clear we would act if Charter Spectrum and Altice did not resolve these issues. I do want to give you good news and I do want to give these companies credit for acting quickly. Both have now said they will waive the rules that were the problem. They will not hold back service from families with students who need to learn online. And now more of our students will be able to learn. So, that is a good step and I want to thank our colleague in the media who brought that forward, so we could act on that.
And finally, just to say to another group of people, I've tried to really take time to thank people and then I'll say just a couple of quick words in Spanish. You know, there's so many people to thank and I’ve talked a number of times and I'll keep talking about our doctors, our nurses, our frontline medical staff, but there's another group of unsung heroes who are the clinicians who are staffing our 3-1-1 Health + Hospitals hotline. That's more than 750 clinicians, they work at literally all hours of the day. This last week already, they've taken 23,000 calls just in a week and what they're doing is helping New Yorkers to understand what they need to do in this crisis, how they can address whatever they're experiencing. And what's in fact the case is that 90% of these calls, the answer is hearing from a medical professional, understanding what's really going on and how to handle it – 90 percent of these calls, the advice was to stay home, see it through or see it through to another point in time and then call back if the situation got worse. For those who needed additional care immediately, our clinicians were there to direct them immediately to where they needed to go and make sure they had the information they needed. Those clinicians are doing something crucial and they've helped give people the confidence that if they did need to stay home, it was after having talked to a capable medical professional to get that advice. That's really crucial because that's been helping people to feel that peace of mind. To do the right thing, to be able to make the right decision cause a public servant, a professional was there to help them. So, thank you to those 750 clinicians, you're doing something very important for all of us.
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