Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, there’s a lot to report on and a lot to tell you about today. But the first thing I want to talk to you about is something we all need to focus on this crisis – and that is hope. And I'm going to be talking about it a lot, because there's a lot of reason to hope. No matter how tough it's going to get, there are so many reasons to be thankful for all of the people who are helping our city, all the good people around the city, all the good people around this nation who are helping us. We are not alone in the least. And I got an incredible, incredible experience today this morning in Queens. It was two parts, really. The first part was visiting our EMS Station 50, meeting some of our extraordinary EMT’s and paramedics. They have literally in the last few days gone through the biggest surge in 9-1-1 calls in the history of New York City. And I’ve got to tell you, these brave individuals, they were so strong in the way they were dealing with this crisis. They were confident. They believe that their training and their partnership, their comradery, were going to serve them in this crisis no matter what. They let me know they were up for any challenge and they were also very grateful that help was arriving.
And that's the second part of what I experienced this morning at Fort Totten in Queens. It's a FEMA staging area now. And I met EMT’s and paramedics, came from all over the nation to help us in our hour of need – folks from states all over. You know, at one point, I was talking to these EMT’s and paramedics. I was thanking them on behalf of all 8.6 million New Yorkers. I was telling them what it meant to us that they had driven from all over the country in their ambulances and how powerful that was to us and how that gave us such a good feeling in this city – what it meant to our brave EMT’s and paramedics that this help was coming. And at one point I said to them, please call out the states you're from. And I just had – a shiver went up my spine. I felt this sense, this really profound sense of appreciation and faith as I heard this roll call of States. You know, Kentucky, and Alabama, and Indiana, and Illinois, and California, and Michigan, one after another, people called out the names of their states with pride, and they were so proud to be here in New York City, and they knew that New York City had often been there for them. The FDNY have been out many times around the country helping other parts of this country during natural disasters and that is appreciated, and people wanted to return the favor.
So, it was really something stirring about our nation at this moment that people are rising to the call in such a powerful way. And that helped, those hundreds of EMT’s and paramedics, and the 250 ambulances that are coming or here already. And I got to watch so many of them roll out of Fort Totten. That's amazing what that's doing immediately to help us to deal with all the emergencies we're facing around this city. Want to give a special shout out to two guys from Kalamazoo, Michigan. I had a good talk with them, Andrew and Jeff, and they literally gotten their rig and had gotten their ambulance in Kalamazoo and drove all the way to New York City, and they were just ready to go to help us out. And so special thank you to our friends from Kalamazoo for being a part of this.
I spoke earlier today with the President and a group of key members of his administration that he had gathered. They were having a strategy session and they called to ask me what was going on in New York City and how the federal government could continue to help. So, it was the President, Vice President Pence, the FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Director, Admiral Giroir, who's the head of the Public Health Service, the equipment czar, Peter Navarro, the President's senior advisor, Jared Kushner, who's obviously a New Yorker, and knows a lot about the city and cares about this city. So, we got into a very detailed conversation about where we stand. First of all, I thank them deeply for what they did for the NYPD and they called it operation blue bloods. I think that's a great name. Helping the NYPD to have the protective gear they need at this moment. Deeply appreciate that special effort the White House made. But the real difficult part of the conversation was talking about the days ahead.
We went into great detail about a number of New Yorkers in ICU’s. The number we projected coming up this Sunday and Monday. The facts that were so powerful and challenging about what we're going to face next week. I talked to the president about the need for ventilators. I talked to them about the need for N95 masks and other PPE’s. I talked to them in detail about the personnel reality, and the whole group of leaders assembled, the fact that even with the equipment, you always need the personnel all these doctors and nurses and extraordinary healthcare workers, we need more and more help. I talked to the president about the expansion of beds, and I will say the president knows something about real estate in New York City. And I talked to him about the fact that we had 20,000 hospital beds just a month ago, and we're going to be adding up to 65,000 more to handle this crisis. And that's going to happen all in the course of about four weeks. And I think he understood that that will be a herculean effort. But I said to him, we believe we can do that, taking a huge number of public spaces, converting them, hotels by the dozen, that we can actually build out that capacity, but it won't save us unless the personnel is there.
So, we had a very good conversation. I was thankful for the help we’ve received, and I immediately told them just how much more we're going to need. And I told them we will fight every minute of this crisis to get through it, and then we will turn around and give everything we have and send our heroes to other parts of the country to help. And I really appreciate the conversation because it was detailed, and it was sober about the facts. But I was also clear with them that I believe at this point we have to come to a recognition that anything short of a full mobilization of our military will not serve this nation sufficiently. Just going over the situation in New York City and pointing out, imagine for a moment we had 20,000 hospital beds, we're talking about needing three times more that, just to get through the next four weeks or so. Imagine that pattern in other parts of our nation. What that's going to mean for the ability to build out our healthcare system and protect our people in many places simultaneously. The only way that can be achieved is with the leadership of the United States military. They have the talent, the logistical capacity, the professionals that can play a crucial role. There's no other way it will happen.
So, I had a good and respectful conversation with the President, but I also had an urgent conversation with him. I told him, I just think this is the only way we're all going to be able to get through this and save as many lives as possible is to use the military much more deeply. I reiterated to the President what I talked to him about several times last week. The fact that we need personnel right now, and we need military medical personnel right now. And that I had asked repeatedly, and in writing many times for help by this Sunday. We had asked for military medical personnel, 1,000 nurses, 300 respiratory therapists, 150 doctors. These numbers, I've been over with the President, with the Secretary of Defense, and with General Milley numerous times. They are quite familiar with request. I had a follow-up conversation with Secretary Esper, and General Milley again this afternoon. I'm going to be talking to the FEMA administrator again to reiterate that this is crucial, and he will have the ultimate say over whatever military medical personnel are made available.
But again, it comes down to this. This is a wartime dynamic, and everyone in Washington has to understand that right now, too much of what's happening is on a peacetime basis. There's a disconnect, and I want to just be blunt about that. We're in the middle of a war. We can feel it here in New York City. I could feel it this morning when I stood with those good men and women, those EMT’s and paramedics went all over the nation. It didn't feel like business as usual. It felt like we were in a war and people were coming to save us. We need a lot more of that, and other parts of the country will need the same. It's not going to happen unless we get on a war footing. So, it's the mobilization of the military for sure, but I also think we have to remember in the wars of the past when we were really fighting for the survival of our nation and our ideals, we called upon all Americans to serve, and I think it's time for that in a different way now. I think it's time for our nation to enlist our medical personnel on a national basis. We don't have the same kind of draft we used to have, but we're going to have to create something new right now at this moment in history to enlist all available medical personnel around the country, and I mean civilians. Anyone with medical training anywhere in the country who can be spared by their city, their town, their state to come to the front. And right now, it's New York City, and we see it starting in some other cities as well. But I guarantee you, all 50 States will have their own battle. The only way we're going to get through this truly, if we're going to save every life we can save, it means taking health professionals of every kind with every skill, every training, no matter where they are in their career, and enlisting them in a national service, creating something we just don't have right now, but we could have, and we need to have.
So, that's what I talked to the President about it, the secretary of defense, General Milley, going to a place we've never been before, because we are actually dealing with a crisis we've never experienced before, and we have to innovate. We have to see possibilities that we just didn't see before, if we're going to really protect and serve the American people. So, I hope these conversations will lead us to another place, because right now I've been really honest about the numbers. I do want to give the president credit. I told him the numbers, and I could tell there were some real silences during the conversation, and some real acknowledgement of just how tough it's going to be in the weeks ahead in New York City. But we know there's other places about to face this same reality. If we're all starting to fully, deeply recognize the extent of the crisis, then let's act like one nation. Fight this crisis together, enlisting everyone possible into this cause whether they be the men and women of our military and our reserves, or whether it be civilians who could bring their extraordinary skills to bear where needed most, it's time for that in this country.
I did talk to the President about the ventilator situation, as I mentioned, and the 400 ventilators that we found out late yesterday would be coming in time and be in place by Sunday morning. That was the number I mentioned yesterday that we absolutely have to have to ensure we could protect everyone in need. Those ventilators came out of the federal allotment that went to New York State, I want to thank both the federal government and FEMA and New York State for quickly making those 400 ventilators available. So, the good news is we will get through Sunday, but the tough news is what I told you yesterday is still true, we will need 2,500 to 3,000 more ventilators next week, during next week to get through next week. I explained this to the President and his entire leadership and everyone heard it and everyone took it seriously and I said, I'm not going to sugar coat this, it's a very tough number to reach. I know everyone's fighting to get more ventilators, create more ventilators, and manufacture them. But for all those folks who are about to arrive in hospitals around the City whose lives we must save their simple need is not for us to talk about it, but to find those ventilators somewhere, somehow. And I put that clearly on the table and said to the leadership of our Nation that it is, I think a National priority to find those 2,500 to 3,000 ventilators and get them to New York City over the next seven days. So, we talked to also here in New York City about other tools we're going to use the BiPAP machines, which are something that could be really helpful ensuring that for some patients they can be kept off the ventilators or at least for a period of time. We're getting some of those in, we're training staff and how to use them – that will be a part of the equation that will help as well. The fact is people want to help us, as I said, from all over the country. If you can help anyone out there, if you can help please go to our website, nyc.gov/helpnow or call 833-NYC-0040. Folks all over the nation that want to help, we're particularly – if there's anybody anywhere who has a ventilator they can get to us that is particularly important to anyone who's a medical professional wants to come here and help us, we have the accommodations, we will immediately plug you in, we need your help right now.
Now, I want to talk about some new guidance. And I want to emphasize that I start and— we'll talk more about it with the questions with the media, with our Health Commissioner, Dr. Barbot – but I want to emphasize that we, throughout these last few months, this city, this state, this nation, the global community of nations, the global medical community, everyone has been trying to learn as rapidly as possible everything they can about the coronavirus. And we still know there's a lot we don't know, and that's a really challenging reality one of our heroes at this moment, our Nation, someone I'm very, very proud of as a New Yorker is Dr. Anthony Fauci. And even with that wonderful, reassuring voice and that knowledge and that wisdom, he’s first to say there's a lot we don't know, but we are learning every day and every week more. We're trying to act rapidly on what we learn, sometimes you reach that point when there's just enough confirmation, enough new information to say, okay, it's time to do something different. So, there've been studies recently on people who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and whether they could transmit the coronavirus to others. One particularly important study coming out of Singapore yesterday, our Health Department, our health care leadership have looked at these studies. There's been several in the last week or so, and I've come to a conclusion that it's time to advise New Yorkers to do something different. I want to emphasize what I'm about to tell you is very, very important, but it does not in any way change the basic guidance that you've received now over many weeks. The most important things are still the basic hygiene covering your mouth when you cough and sneeze, wash your hands a lot, use hand sanitizer still that's the frontline way to protect yourself. The social distancing that’s the way to protect yourself and everyone around you and that must be observed no matter what. And we've obviously put shelter in place here in place in New York, and we have strong enforcement through the NYPD and other agencies and we're even now at the point of finding people who do not abide by social distancing. So, all of that is just as important as it was before, but now we're adding a new important point we're advising New Yorkers to wear a face covering when you go outside and will be near other people. So, let's be clear, this is a face covering, and again, we'll talk about the details in a moment, but it could be a scarf it could be something you create yourself at home, it could be a bandana, it does not, not need to be a professional surgical mask. In fact, we don't want you to use the kinds of masks that our first responders need that our health care workers need. Don't use those can't be clearer, leave those alone, leave those to the people who need them the most who are saving lives. But you can create a face covering with anything you have at home right now any piece of cloth— and that will give the protection to others. And I want to emphasize this I think there's been, you know, a certain amount of misunderstanding and we're all dealing with so much information and so many things that are kind of tough to understand and confusing. The reason for this guidance is because the studies are showing that some asymptomatic people, some pre-symptomatic people appear to actually be transmitting this disease. We don't have perfect evidence it doesn't conform with what the initial showed us weeks ago, but it does seem to be more and more evident. What that means is when you put on that face covering you're protecting everyone else. You're making sure that, you know, you don't inadvertently, if you happen to have this disease and you may not even know it, you don't end up giving it to someone else. Now, remember, with community spread with the projections, we've told you over half New Yorkers will contract this disease for everything we know. It means that a lot of people are out there right this minute don't even know they have it, we want to make sure that anyone who doesn't have to get it doesn't get it. So, face covering is just a simple way to protect other people and to reduce the speed of that community spread, and hopefully keep a number of people from being affected who don't have to be affected. Again, you can create your own version you can be creative and put whatever decoration you want on it. It can be as homemade as you want, but that's what we want you to do something homemade, not something professional, not something from the supplies we need for our heroes and that's going to help protect everyone.
And a few other updates, we've talked a lot about the fact that there are more and more people need food because let's face it, even though thank God there is some federal help coming now through the stimulus bill, there's still so many who people lost their jobs, lost their income, don't yet have that help, are struggling to pay for food. We can't have that in New York City we have to help people more and more, I named a few weeks ago our foods [inaudible] Kathryn Garcia who's done an amazing job for the city on many other crucial missions. And her job is to make sure that food is available to everyone who needs it and to build out a bigger plan for the weeks ahead. She's working, especially now with Department of Education that had feeding sites up for our students, even though there weren't schools the way they've normally been, they were turned into sites to provide meals to kids in need of them.
So, we've got about 435 sites around the five boroughs where young people can go and get meals for free. They can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner all to go, grab and go, and they can bring them home and eat them when they're ready. If other people at home need food, they can get it for them as well. So what we're doing starting tomorrow is we're welcoming adults, anyone who needs food, anyone who's hungry can come to these 435 sites— you can get all three meals for yourself and your family for free. No one will be turned away, I want to really emphasize that there's no charge and no one will be turned away. You can go online nyc.gov and get the sites you can call 311, 24 hours a day and get the sites. But we know people are hurting, we don't want anyone to go hungry in the City, so there's 435 places starting tomorrow, not just for kids, but for adults as well everyone, everyone who’s hungry, has a place to go to get food. Just to tell you for kids and for families with kids, we're going to do the, the early morning hours for pickups at 7:30 to 11:30 AM and then from 11:30 to 1:30 for any adults who don't have kids with them you can go in that timeframe. So again, 7:30 to 11:30 AM for children and families with children, 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM each day for adults. And if you want to find a school in your area, you can text the word FOOD or if you speak Spanish, the word COMIDA to 877-877 and they'll get you to location.
Okay, couple of quick things. Small businesses this is a heads up to all the small business owners that starting tomorrow, the Federal Paycheck Protection Program opens up is a key part of the stimulus $350 billion loan program. It's for businesses and for nonprofit organizations that have employees up to a number of 500 people. So, it's a lot of businesses will qualify and we know how hard hit our small businesses and our nonprofits have been these last weeks – it’s been horrible. You deserve this opportunity to get these loans to keep afloat - build for the future. But here's the punchline; this is a first come first serve basis. So, first come, first served. Therefore, you need to apply as early in the morning tomorrow as possible. So, New Yorkers, the early bird gets the worm here – go to sba.gov – sba.gov. And these are loans on very good terms and they are forgivable loans and there's specific categories that you can get going online. They’ll talk to you about all the ways that these loans had been made flexible and forgivable, and they cover a lot of different things, not just costs related to your payroll, but also interest on mortgages, your rent, your utility payments, a very flexible program to help people through this crisis – so please sign up immediately.
I'm going to close now and I talked to you about a lot of reasons to hope, but I also always owe it to you to tell you when we've lost a friend and, and to mourn with. Particularly all of us in public service, when we lose one of our own, it hits home, especially. Our Department of Citywide Administrative Services, they've been doing so much work these last few weeks to help everyone else to get the help they need. Well, now, they've lost a dear colleague and a leader in that agency, Lenin Fierro, Director of Safety and the Vision Zero Director for Fleet Management at DCAS. This is an amazing story – he immigrated from Ecuador, a total New York story and American success story – immigrated from Ecuador, served 10 years in the United States Navy joined our team five years ago, helped get Vision Zero off the ground in its beginning to protect people and save lives; personally trained thousands of city drivers on how to drive safely – amazing contribution. To his wife, Brenda and his two daughters – we grieve with you and we have truly lost a great man.
And every New Yorker right now, we all have a story. We all know someone who we've lost or someone who's sick. Pretty much everyone could say that right now. We are doing all we can to help those who are sick and we are grieving for those we've lost and, and mourning with their families. But, as much pain as we're going through and, and even though the worst weeks are ahead, we, we just don't give in in this city; it's not who we are. I have to tell you with those EMTs and paramedics today I saw a resolve, I saw a toughness, I saw a belief that we were going to get through it and the same is true with our frontline heroes, our healthcare workers, same is true with the folks who work in the grocery stores and the pharmacies to make sure their communities are safe and have what they need. So many New Yorkers – by the way, the vast, vast majority of New Yorkers who are practicing social distancing, who are doing it right, who are looking out for each other – everyone has shown an incredible spirit of perseverance. I'm very, very proud of all you. I have no question we will see this through together. I have no question, in the end, New Yorkers will watch out for each other and every time that someone comes to our aid from around the country it’s going to give us that boost we need to fight our way through this crisis and come out together.
