Home Entertainment Cooper eases restrictions on outdoor entertainment venues :: WRAL.com

Cooper eases restrictions on outdoor entertainment venues :: WRAL.com

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Cooper eases restrictions on outdoor entertainment venues :: WRAL.com

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As of today, we have 195,549 lab confirmed cases, 1168 new cases reported since yesterday, 905 people in the hospital. And sadly, 3286 people who have died. We remember all those we’ve lost to this cruel diseases. We keep their loved ones in our thoughts. Right now, I’m pleased to report that North Carolina continues to remain stable In our key metrics. We want the level of cases to be even lower, which is why safety measures like a massacre requirement and show social distancing arm or important than ever. When we ease restrictions, that means our efforts are working and to ease them mawr or prevent us from having to go backward, we need to double down. It means we have to be committed mawr than ever to what works. Wearing a mask, washing their hands, waiting six Pete apart from others at the end of next week. The current executive order is set to expire on October 2nd. Today we are announcing that because of our continued stability, we plan to take another step toward phase three in the coming days. If our progress holds, that step will mean larger outdoor event venues will be ableto open at 7% capacity, starting next Friday on October 2nd. We share this news today so those outdoor venues with seating capacity of more than 10,000 can begin preparations that are key to safely reopening their doors to have a limited amount of socially distanced fans, we’ll continue analyzing our data and indicators as we determine how to move forward safely in other areas that may be included in the new order on October, the second in it, we hope to ease some other restrictions while keeping in place. Safety protocols like masks and social distancing, as covered 19 has struck our country and the entire world. We know that many small businesses have faced unprecedented hard times. Most of them want to do right by their employees and their customers, and that has forced tough choices. Today we offer more help. I am pleased to announce that my administration will stand up the North Carolina mortgage utility and Rent relief program that will direct $40 million to small businesses. This program will use Federal Cares Act funding to cover rent, mortgage and utility costs for qualifying businesses. This initiative will offer help to small businesses that lost revenue between April and July because of CO vid 19. This assistance will be one of several state and federal efforts that aimed to keep people in their homes on their jobs. As we fight this pandemics monetary effect on our state small businesses are the backbone of our economy, powering our local communities and giving back in so many ways they deserve our support. And this new initiative can help them, whether this tough time but substantially more help is needed for small businesses and Congress and the president must act as soon as possible. And I want to take a moment to recognize another group of hard working people whose dedication to our state is helping us through this pandemic. Our North Carolina National Guard has stepped up once again to support our food banks due to continued shortages of volunteers, along with record demand for food and our food banks. I’ve directed the mobilization of 125 North Carolina National Guard soldiers to support at least 10 food banks across our state. I have visited two of our food banks in the last few weeks, and they raved about how important the work of these soldiers has been. The need is clear and overwhelming, and that’s why I’ve ordered their activation again. Already. The guards food bank operations distributed 5.6 million meals and 322,000 school lunch meals from the pandemic start in March until last month. It is critical that we keep food banks up and running, getting meals to those who need them. And we’re grateful that the Guard members are ready to help our communities and our state. And I’m thankful for all North Carolinians are doing that. They’re doing their part to prevent the spread of Cove in 19. You’re gonna hear from Secretary Cohen today about another way you could help with our new exposure notification app. Slow cove it and see this new out gives us another tool to slow the spread of the virus. We have seen our strength and team spirit on full display these last six months. If we keep up our commitment, we can drive our numbers down even Mawr and put our state in position to come out of this pandemic even stronger. Along with Dr Manako and our secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, we have thebe. Parchment of commerce is Senior Assistant Secretary David Spratley and emergency management director Mike Spray Berry, Cameron Larson and Monica McGhee, or our sign language interpreters and Jackie and Jasmine material, our Spanish language interpreter’s. So I’m now going to recognize uh, Dr Cohen, Dr Cohen. Well, thank you, Governor. Since the beginning of this pandemic, our local health departments have been working hard to quickly identify and research people who may have been exposed to Cova 19 in order to get them. The support in the resource is they need to protect themselves and their loved ones. Today, I’m excited to announce a new tool to support that work and help people know as quickly as possible if they’ve been exposed to Cove in 19. Our new slow cove, It and see APP is now available to all North Carolinians as a free download for mobile devices in Google Play or Apple APP stores. The slow Covidien see app uses Bluetooth technology toe, let users know if they may have been exposed to someone with Cove in 19 helping them to act quickly to protect themselves, their family in their community. Before I explain how it works, I want to be clear about what it does not do. First. It does not collect, use or share any personal information. It does not use GPS or know your location. It does not know where you are. It does use Bluetooth, which is like radio waves and on Lee knows if your phone has come into close range of another phone that also has the slow cove it and see APP. It uses an anonymous string of characters that change every 10 to 20 minutes to represent your phone. They’re never linked to your identity or location on Lee to the date and the time. So what does so slow Covidien see do to make sure that you can know very quickly if you’ve been exposed to Cove in 19 which is gonna help us slow the spread of this virus? Here’s how it works. If someone tests positive for Cove in 19 they can get a unique, randomly generated pin to submit into the APP. The voluntary and anonymous reporting system will then notify phones with the APP that were in close contact to your phone that they may have been exposed in the last 14 days. That allows users to quickly act to protect themselves and their loved ones and their communities. And if you need to isolate or quarantine, the APP can connect you with guidance on checking symptoms and getting support. Downloading the Slow Cove it N. C. AP is easy and free. I downloaded it to my phone last night. It’s available in English and Spanish. It lets you play an important part in protecting your friends, loved ones, coworkers and community as we move around Mawr. Slow Cove It N C is a powerful tool to help us slow the spread in North Carolina, and the more people who use it, the better it works. So go right now. Take out your phone, go to the APP store and search for Slow Cove, it N. C. And download it right now for free. There’s also another powerful tool to stay healthy, and that’s Ah, flu shot. The flu vaccine is the single best way to prevent the flu and its complications. It lowers your likelihood of getting sick, and if you do catch the flu, it’s likely to be milder than if you weren’t vaccinated at all. Each year, scientists and health experts developed seasonal flu shots to protect against three or four strains that research suggests will be the most coming during this upcoming flu season. The vaccine works by triggering your body to produce protective antibodies that help prevent the flu. Now is the time to make a plan for you and your family to get your flu vaccine, which also helps us in our fight against Cove in 19. Contact your health care provider today or visit vaccine finder dot org’s to find a convenient location near you. So get your flu shot. Download Slow Cove it N C. AP help us. Keep North Carolina as healthy as possible. As always, practice the three W’s wearing your face covering over your nose and mouth, waiting 6 ft apart and washing your hands often wear weight and wash. And whatever your reason, get behind the mask. Thanks, Governor. Thank you. Dr. Cohen will now take questions from the media. If you can identify yourself in your organization, please, and we’ll take the first question. Our first question comes from Rebecca Martinez, with W u N C Hello, governor Artist is Rebeca Martinez from W. U N c. I appreciate the time to ask a question. I understand that the Andrea Harris um, racial equity task force to improve, uh, I guess reduce racial disparities. Uh, people impacted by cove in 19. It was released, uh, today and I’m just, like who? Or Dr Cohen can speak thio the major findings and how they plan thio make improvements that based on their recommendations. So this task force has a group of people that I have appointed from all over North Carolina to analyze the racial disparities that we know are there and our health care system, education, economic system and environmental justice. They’ve begun meeting going over data, and they’re planning to make some recommendations of for our administration and likely for the state Legislature as well to help us attack this. This pandemic is shining a light on these inequities that we know have always been there. But we’ve seen co vid hit our communities of color harder, and this should provide us, uh, information that we need to to make those important decisions. Uh, I don’t believe that there has been any report. I know they have had several meetings, and I’ve gotten some updates on those meetings. I don’t know if there was a particular issue that you wanted to bring up. And Dr Cohen, do you have anything that so if you wanted to ask, follow up questions about any particular issue? But they’re working and we look forward to their, uh, finished product. Follow up from Rebecca Martinez. W UNC, Thank you very much. I’m sorry about that, E. I mean, today they were discussing options around access to health care, economic opportunity and business development, etcetera. I guess I understand that they’re speaking a lot about topics that are important. And I’m just wondering if there’s been, um, I guess Do they have clout to decide how their goals will be met when they’re available? Well, they will make recommendations at the end of the day, and we hope that they one of the reasons I appointed the strong task force not only did I want them to make recommendations, I wanted them to help implement them. And some of the recommendations may be able to be done administratively. Some may have. We may be able to adopt some safeguards or regulations that would help. Some recommendations may need specific legislation in front of the General Assembly. Uh, will take all of that when it comes from their report. And we obviously do not want this to be a report that stays upon the shelf. We want it to be active. We want to be engaged in these issues. And we look forward to trying to implement the recommendations when we have them from this task force. Next question, please. Our next question is from Michael Perchik, W T V D. Good afternoon, Governor. This is Michael. Perfect with ABC 11 in Raleigh. Thank you for your time. Uh, it’s a two parter at this point. Uh, do state health officials see any outbreaks related to Jim’s reopening museums, Aquarium to playgrounds, reopening and based off that data, what does that lead you to believe? Moving forward for the potentially opening of bars, nightclubs and movie theaters. All of these specific places and events have different levels of risk, and the health experts have made recommendations based on the various levels of risk and the people of North Carolina. Most of them have been working really hard to get our number stabilized. The mawr that happens, the more we can ease restrictions, and the more that we can do. And I’ll let Dr Cohen address that specifically Dr Cohen. Thanks, Governor. Yes, as we look at our metrics and you can always follow along with us on our dashboard, that is updated. Every single day we look at that was same four key metrics. We look at our surveillance data, which continues to decline across the state, which is good news. We see our cases are holding steady. Of course, we’d like to see those decline even further. We still see a high level of viral spread. The White House task force, uh, indicates that we are orange on a green, yellow orange red scale. So we’re not red, which is good. We’re getting better too orange. But we wanna be heading towards that green area. Um, in terms of our hospitalizations, we continue to decline. And our percent of tests that are positive also has been, uh, improving, as we have have seen us at around 5% over the last number of days. So overall, we see some stability, some improvements, and again as the governor said. That’s a lot of hard work. Um, but I think what we know is is this is not a final destination. We have to keep working to keep that stability and to further make progress. Um, and so I encourage everyone to do those three W’s to make sure that you’re wearing a mask to keep social distance and then we’ll be able to continue to make progress as we go forward. Thanks. Follow from Michael. First his hi just thio clarify at this point, have health officials been notified of any specific outbreak tied, uh, to the reopening of Jim’s museums, Aquariums or playground? Michael So right, we’re still in that period. We were looking at our metrics to understand, did those easing of restrictions which just happened about three weeks ago, Is that starting to show up in any of our metrics? So we still have some time here to look at our our numbers and our trends, which is why we are are continuing Thio. Evaluate those. We haven’t heard of a specific outbreak yet in any one of our of those scenarios, but again, it’s still pretty early. Thanks. Next question. Please. Our next question is from Don Von with the News and Observer Hi Don. Far in the News and Observer. Thanks for taking on questions. Uh, that’s a viral spread and being orange. Do you have any, um, data for the state? If there’s evidence that spreads that outdoor events or indoor events that are passed that, um, I guess more than a few weeks ago, um, whether that’s through contact, tracing or anything else and then to clarify on the ultra venue capacity, um, that it’s only 10,000 or more. And why is it that number? Specifically so on the outdoor events, we wanted to make sure that we’re talking about large outdoor arenas where there would be plenty of space for social distancing and looking at sizes of stadiums across the state. Uh, the 10,000 number was determined to be a good number. Uh, the 7% capacity leaves plenty of room for social distancing, but not just that. We think it’s really important for these arenas to have separate entrances, to not have places where people can congregate to make sure that only families or people who live in the same household sit together. And that there is significant social distancing and mask wearing, and I know that, uh, the Department of Health and Human Services has had numerous conversations with colleges with professional sports teams and others who would be wanting toe open their doors to have 7% of capacity of fans and the coming weeks. We do believe that outdoor events are safer than than indoor events, and therefore that’s why we’re concentrating in that lane. As to any of the outdoor events that have been held and whether there is anything specifically with those, I’ll let Dr Cohen address that. Thanks. As we look at our trends across the state, obviously we’ve held mass gatherings to be at a low level, so we haven’t been seeing those large gatherings, which is a good thing. I think that has been protected for our state. We are seeing our our level of virus spread be lower. Um, we still have a lot of work to dio, I would say when I look across our state the particular parts of our state that we’re looking at and paying attention. Thio are the northeast parts of North Carolina as well as now the Sandhills region and couple of the counties on the South Carolina border, and what we’re noticing is that it it isn’t necessarily any one thing that is driving, um, the infections. Sometimes it can be related thio, a religious gathering or a family event or, um, spread within your own household s. So I think it’s really important for us all to remember about wearing masks when you’re with anyone who is outside of your family unit. You share a roof with, um, even if it’s your extended family, even it’s when you’re when you’re at um, when you’re at church, we wanna make sure that folks are wearing a mask and saying Social distancing in all of those settings. Um, we know that any time that you could be close together, particularly if you’re indoors, those could be higher risk setting. So we encourage everyone to take the precautions, um, that we’ve been talking about over and over, and I encourage you to download the slow cove it and see app because if you are in a setting like a larger venue, it is really hard to do contact tracing. We don’t necessarily know who’s been next to who, but this app could be very helpful. So download the slow cove it and see app for free right now as another tool to help us slow the spread. Thanks. Question. Please follow up from Don von News and Observer. I think you’re taking a follow up with the venues. Could large outdoor venues like Dicks Park or other places where there have been festivals that don’t have actual structure feeding be included? And then for the for the new app? Is there a certain number of people that’s needed for a critical mass for it? Work well, thes would be outdoor seeded arenas that would be included in what we’re talking about. Uh, the parks are open for people, but they’re still subject to mass gatherings within the park’s we still want, uh, we want people thio, keep wearing masks and stay social distance. But we we certainly don’t want mawr than 50 people outdoors gathering together. So within the park’s people are still subject to the mass gathering limits. And I’m gonna let Dr Cohen asked the APP. Answer the question. Thanks Don. As faras the app, I think the more folks who could download it the better, right? If more folks have, Um the the APP means is going to be able to signal to you if you’ve had an exposure. So the more people the better. We’ve actually been targeting at first and working very closely with our universities and our colleges where we know that folks are living closer together in dorm like settings or in apartments. Um and so I think those are the places where we know we can probably get a good amount of folks to download this. And I wanna thank partners across the state on many, many universities who have been working with us very closely to encourage students, um, at their universities in college to download this. But we want this to be for all North Carolinians. So what really want you to go to your phone right now? Go to the APP store. Very easy free download. Slow cove it and see you don’t put any personal information into that and it sits on your phone. It’s just another tool to protect you. Thanks. Next question, please. Our next question is from Sharon Van Zweden with spectrum. Uh, thank you for taking my question. This is Sharon Van Sweden from Spectrum News one. This is for Dr Cohen. Uh, there’s been a lot going on at the C. D. C. This week with them putting up and then taking down information about the aerosol and the virus being in the air. What is your take on that? Hi, Sharon. Thanks for the question. I think we’ve talked about how this virus spreads and remember, it spreads from particles that come from your mouth or your nose and then obviously go move through the air and then could land on other surfaces or people. And I think we’re debating some semantics here of of Air Reno. The particles travel through the air. The question is, how long did they go in the air? I think the important thing for us all to focus on is we know what works to prevent the spread, and that’s this, the CDC director said last week in his congressional testimony. We know masks work. Um, we know it prevents the those those virus particles that come out of your mouth and nose from spreading. It’s why it’s important to put your mask over your mouth and your nose, so I don’t think we should get caught up in the semantics of can’t. How long does something hang in the air? Use this mask. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Protect your community. Thanks. Next question. Please follow up from Sharon Van Sweeten Spectrum News. Yes. This is for Governor Cooper. Thank you, Governor. My question to you is what special provisions are you directing to the Board of Elections For safe distancing for the, uh, election day. And are you encouraging people to vote by absentee ballot or by mail in voting? The State Board of Elections and the executive Director have taken a lot of steps to make sure that voting iss safe. I know that they have worked with the Department of Health and Human Services. Thio provide those guidelines. I know that emergency management has provided personal protective equipment to our state boards of elections. Eso that we can make sure that people can exercise their constitutional right and do it safely. You know, I would encourage people toe do one of two things. Number one to vote early in person, which you could do beginning October the 15th. And you can go to your county Board of Elections website to find out where you can go to vote early in person beginning October 15th or to vote if you don’t feel comfortable going in person. Vote. No excuse absentee by mail, and you can go online to the state Board of Elections website and request an absentee ballot, and it will come to you and you can fill it out and have it witnessed and mail it back in or bring it in and you can go online and tracked what happens to your ballot to make sure that it gets accepted. S. O. I think the board has done a good job. I think both of those ways are safe ways and secure ways for people to cast their ballot. I didn’t mention Election Day, but if you haven’t done either one of those by Election Day, uh, please make sure you go in person and vote on Election Day. I think the idea is try to reduce the number of lines on to try to make sure this is safest possible. But I feel good about where they are in things that they’ve done. Next question please. Our next question is from Richard Craver, Winston Salem Journal. Well, mhm. Hello, Governor. This is Richard Driver with the Winston Salem Journal. I was just wanted to make sure on a couple of things. One. What was the reasoning about the timing of the issue with the outdoor facilities? It was just sort of a follow through on the complaint that you heard from the parents of the collegiate football players at ST in Carolina and the like and then at the same time. Um, is there any other type of indoor outdoor venue that you would consider before October 2nd? So, as part of Phase three, the department health Human Services has looked at and continued to look at the potential of allowing large outdoor arenas toe have more fans than the mass gathering limit would provide. And I think what they’ve decided is because our numbers have continued to be stable over a period of time that they have felt mawr comfortable. If the particularly these arenas have a good safety plan that they can let a small number of fans into the stadium, we will be announcing next week about what is going to happen with the order that ends on October. The second we hope and believe that this large event venue issue will be in that particular executive order. The reason we chose to announce that today is because we’ve heard from these venues that they need timeto print tickets. Thio tell their fans the procedures of all that that has to go on in order to make sure that everybody is safe. So we told them that if we continue thio sie stable numbers, uh, that it is likely very likely that you will be in this order. That would begin on October the second, the new order and that you would be allowed 7% of occupancy for any arena that’s over 10,000. There may be other issues that will be addressed in the next order. We hope that that will be the case, and we’re continuing to analyze the data and are making decisions about that. And I would expect an announcement on that. Sometimes the first of next week. Got anything you wanna add to that, Dr Cohen? Okay. Next question, please. Mhm. Our next question is from Rose Hoban, North Carolina health news. Hi, Governor. Secretary Cohen. Thank you for taking our questions. Um, this morning are yesterday the Inspector General at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report noting that North Carolina has been lax and its oversight of nursing homes related thio safety and emergency preparedness. They found a number of instances of noncompliance with safety requirements that, uh, you know, given that we’ve had a high death toll from cove it in the States nursing homes, what’s the plan about better enforcement of safety regulations in these facilities? First, one of the hardest things about this pandemic has been the loss of life and our our in our nursing homes, and I know that all of us take that seriously. It’s one of the reasons why that our administration has provided testing personal protective equipment, making sure that rest homes and excuse me, nursing home facilities are inspected and the efforts that our administration has taken as even been cited as a national model in some instances. But we know that with congregate living, that virus can mawr easily spread. And this administration is working hard to prevent that and working hard to save lives, and we considered a priority. But I’m gonna let Dr Cohen specifically address that as well. Thanks, Rose. As we’ve talked about before in terms of our oversight of nursing homes. We do have a part of our department that goes in and surveys to understand if nursing homes are doing what the rules have laid out and in terms of infection control related to co vid, we completed surveys of all of our nursing homes actually a month ahead of schedule, and continue to serve a nursing homes to make sure that inspections are going well there to make sure that they’re following the protocols that are needed, uh, to protect both the patients who are there as well as the staff. Thanks. Next question, please. Oh, Rose Hoban, North Carolina Health news. Um, can you be more specific, Dr Cohen, on some of the things that you folks are doing and also some of the things that you found like, what are some of the problems that have needed to be mitigated that, you know, you’ve been pushing nursing homes on Thanks, Rose. For that, I’d have to go back to the team Thio, have them follow up with you on the specifics of what we found. I know that there have not been any citations that have required us to do an injunction of any of the nursing homes. But certainly I know we’ve had citations where they we asked them to improve their infection control protocols, but we’d be happy to go back and do that as you. As you know, that’s publicly posted. Thank you. Next question, please. Our final question is from Brian Anderson with The Associated Press Hi Governor and High Doctor Cohen. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to you both. Governor Cooper Senate candidate Cal Cunningham recently said he’d be quote hesitant to take the coronavirus vaccine. Do the what he feels is a rush process under the Trump administration. Do you share that skepticism on? Secondly, we know that of the 4000 college students that have tested positive, Dr Cohen’s department told us last week that only one individual was admitted to a hospital. Uh, and we also know that there’s very minimal cases in the school settings, which is 50 cases, nine clusters and no deaths. What science can you say that does? It is okay for fifth graders to come back for daily in person classes, but not sixth graders. Well, first, I would uh, take a vaccine for co vid if it is approved by the FDA. But when Whenever it’s my turn, I know that we’re gonna be coming forward with the vaccine plan and the frontline healthcare workers and seniors and others, uh, will be part of that plan. But I think there are a lot of eyes that are going to be on the data that comes about from testing vaccines. And I’ve talked to Dr Cohen about it. She has talked to people all over the country. Obviously, there’s a lot of desire for a vaccine and but also a lot of desire to make sure that that vaccine will be effective and safe. So, yes, I think it’s going to be important. And one of the things that’s gonna come out of all of this is we gotta make sure that we continue our efforts getting people vaccinated, not only for Cove in 19 when it comes, but all other diseases that are out there. We particularly with our Children, not in school. Many of them have not gotten vaccines that they need. We need to make a real push in order to make sure that we’re protecting people’s health. I’m gonna let Dr Cohen address the issue regarding, uh, Children in school. Hi, Brian. Because we talked about last week when we talked about K through five and allowing K through five to be able to move forward with a Plan B meeting that you could have slightly more kids in the classroom. The reason we made that differentiation was based on a number of studies that we’ve been looking at. Some are international. Some are here in the United States. The biggest study was done in South Korea that looked at different ways in which virus spread amongst what it seemed to be like kids under the age of 10 which corresponds to fifth grade and then Children 10 to 18. And it does seem that kids who are over the age of 10 seemed to spread the virus more. Similarly, two adults, whereas younger kids, seem to spread the virus less often, they get it less often, they get less sick, and they spread it to others less often doesn’t mean not at all. And we say that because it’s really important that we have safety protocols in place in no matter what plan a school is choosing. I think it’s really important as we think about school re openings. It is not just about the metrics, it is about those safety protocols. And no matter whether you’re choosing Plan A or Plan B that there are extensive safety protocols that takes time and work to implement and are very important and I think protect both our students and our teachers. And I think the fact that we have been a successful here in North Carolina of having low numbers of clusters, um, is because we’ve had those safety protocols in place. And so I do think there is a differentiation between, uh, students who are under the age of 10 or up up Thio grade five and above again. We’re still learning from this. The data will evolve as well, our recommendations. And so we’re making the best recommendations we can at this moment. I think the other piece I want to point out is also about the benefits. We talk about the risks a lot, but remember is we think about the benefits of in person instruction. We also have a lot of data to show that in person instruction has a lot of benefits, particularly for our elementary school Children, which makes sense. They’re not quite as as a savvy with technology. I’ll say my my first graders, a okay reader, but not a great reader. Yet she’s still learning to read instead of reading, toe learn and so right we need more of that in person instruction for our younger students again, as we make each of these decisions balancing risks and benefits. Thanks. I think we have a follow up next question. Yes, yes. Follow up from Brian Anderson with The Associated Press. Yes, thank you. As I’m sure the two of you can attest to, personally, the nose swab test can be a bit uncomfortable. And we’ve seen increased interest in a saliva test. I’m just curious if either of you can explain who can get a saliva test, a test and how many are available. And just to clarify on the announcement on outdoor stadiums. Are you saying that this isn’t an announcement going into effect? This is just a release for the planning purposes as you’re still waiting on the next couple of days for the trends. That’s right. Uh, we plan for this change to be included in the order that would take effect October the second. So we’re not talking about any changes until October. This the second on also with the caveat that our numbers continue to look good until that time. So I’ll let Dr Cohen address the other issues. Hi, Brian. Thanks for asking about saliva test. Yes, there are a number of labs across North Carolina, her looking at saliva test. It tends to use the same platforms that the nasal swab or the nasal for Israel swab uses so often they’ll have to take some of their machinery out of use in order to move over to saliva test. I know a number of our hospital systems and other labs have been doing that and have already brought up capability to do the saliva test. Um, it just depends on the lab and what they have available to them and what decisions they make. So we do think that we have both the saliva test as well as the standard swab your nose tests available here in North Carolina. And there’s Mawr coming onto the market every day, and we’re working with the federal government on some or of the rapid test availability. So we’re still waiting on some more information from the federal government on that. But again, new things coming out in the testing space all the time. We incorporate that into our work to make sure that folks in North Carolina have a diversity of testing options available to folks. Thanks. Thank you for being with us today. Everybody remember the www stay safe out there. Thank you.

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