good morning and thank you all for
tuning in and for being on the phone you
know a few days ago on a conference call
with hospital providers
dr. Reggie Washington a good friend and
one of our great medical leaders in
Denver from st. Luke's Presbyterian
Hospital reminded all of us on the call
that quote this virus isn't going away
anytime soon is going to be with us for
a while and that statement from dr.
Washington became very foundational to
me am I thinking about our path forward
and recognizing that this is gonna be a
long marathon one we are going to have
to run together it'll be a while before
we get back to living the way we want to
and that reminded me of the advice I
have given my own children as they've
grown up we must do what we need to do
now so that we can do what we want to do
later I know our residents are anxious
about what next week will look like in
Denver given the governor's phase
relaxation of the statewide stay-at-home
order beginning on Monday I've also had
to decide about Denver's stay at home
order set to expire on April the 30th
these health orders have been about
stopping have never been about stopping
the cove at 19 completely they've been
about targeting about a target big a
bending of the curve of infections and
hospitalizations so our health care
system could avoid being overwhelmed
with desperately sick people and thanks
to these public orders and thanks to the
serious sacrifices of our residents many
indicators show that we are making
progress
in this effort but our long-term public
health challenge continues and so does
the equally daunting challenge a
restoring
our economy from the state we have four
pillars of a statewide approach creating
a mask wearing culture protecting
vulnerable populations testing and
tracing and physical distancing
throughout all of this dimers had to
grapple with unique situations and
unique challenges our population size
our density our demographics the number
and various sizes of our businesses and
the number of large entertainment
cultural and sports venues in fact the
metro area has many of the same
challenges Denver does compared to the
other parts of the state and the
governor has been supportive of our
efforts to address these unique
challenges after very careful
consideration particularly in
consultation with fellow mayor's in the
metro area and public health guidance
particular to our city and a very
talented and dedicated staff here at the
city and frankly a great deal of Prayer
I decided to extend Denver's stay at
home order until May 8th and while we
are flattening the EPI curve Denver
specific metrics of new infections
hospitalization rates and mortality
suggest we are not completely out of the
woods so we need a little more time to
scale up our testing and tracing
capacity and to provide our residents
and businesses the kind of specific
guidance they're asking for let me say
again that the governor's guidance has
been helpful for the entire state and
every elected leader is approaching this
from the same place doing what is best
for the people of our communities and
the whole Colorado not for politics
we're going to have to take an approach
that looks to open up the economy in
phases which is an approach Denver will
take and the governor has also
encouraged local jurisdictions to adopt
measures specific to our communities
extending the
order to mate will give us more time to
do the things that are necessary for our
community to reopen safely and in stages
will also give us more time to crap
proper guidelines regulations and
enforcement procedures and to
communicate that guidance to the public
the may ape date will also for our
residents and businesses the time they
need to prepare themselves for life
after stay at home the enforcement of
any stay at home order issued by the
city and state requires local
enforcement we are expecting to see the
precise language of the state Public
Health order and additional guidance
soon which will be critical to guiding
our work since we lack a coherent
national strategy that supports mass
testing it is up to the states and local
cities to do what Washington can't seem
to appropriately manage it is very
encouraging to hear on Wednesday again
the governor confirmed it with me
yesterday that more testing is on the
way to our state our public health
officials in Denver feel that 1,000
tests a day on top of testing for those
who are symptomatic should be an
immediate goal for our city I can I've
confirmed that this is an achievable
goal with Denver health alone soon
reaching the capacity to do 750 tests a
day so this is about a coordinated
approach around testing and it's about
accessibility for all Denver residents
who may need testing and we will be
working closely with our private health
care systems to supplement and to
increase that testing capacity we are
also going to identify and cross trained
staff to implement case management
including contact tracing and monitoring
and case investigations as well as
increased coordination with our regional
public health partners so contact
tracing can happen across borders to
overcome the disease we will need to
prepare for future outbreaks and that is
why testing contact tracing and
procurement of additional PPE are so
important
despite what some of our leaders say we
must be prepared for covet 19 to
continue and worst-case scenarios
include an outbreak during the winter
flu season and given that fact I want to
call on our representatives in Congress
to work toward a more thorough testing
system so we can get ahead of the curve
listen this has been tough for all of us
but I also know is even tougher for our
residents to manage their lives with
some hope of certainty its government's
job in times like this to provide
certainty to speak truthfully and to
base our judgment on the best health
care guidance we can not on politics
I've told people from the beginning that
we're going to make mistakes not every
call will be spotless but I've said
before I'm going to err on the side of
saving lives I want to thank my fellow
mayors from around the region all the
Metro public health officials and Denver
City Council for their support an
agreement to extend our stay at home
order on May the 8th the metro mayors
and public health officials have been
phenomenal partners during this
situation and really shows how in
challenging times this region does
indeed pull together forward so we're
going to take this time to do this right
to do what we need to do now so we can
do what we want to do later in just a
couple of weeks I want to thank all the
residents for staying strong for a
hearing to the orders it really does
mean more than you will know and this
dedication that you've shown hopefully
we reward all of us in the near future
with that I want to turn it over to our
public health administrator Bob McDonald
to provide more about what we're looking
at going for Bob
Thank You mayor before I give an update
on where we are and what we're hoping to
achieve in the next couple of weeks I
also want to thank all of my
counterparts throughout the region all
the public health officials throughout
the region who have been invaluable to
me in the recommendations that I make to
the mayor
so as the mayor pointed out we are not
there yet we're making great progress we
hope to achieve a great deal in the
upcoming weeks specifically with respect
to building out a workforce that can
enhance a response to an enhanced
testing protocol we hope in the next
couple of weeks and believe that we can
achieve a thousand tests per day that's
going to give us great insight into
where we are with battling Kovach 19 we
have built out and identified a
workforce of over 100 people who we hope
to train and will train in the next
couple of weeks in preparation for that
we've partnering with Denver Public
Health and Denver Health and Hospital
Authority and other city agencies that
are going to help us out with attaining
that goal we also want to be clear that
where we stand and with the guidance
that we're going to provide to everybody
that this impacts and we're not there
yet we want to put some very targeted
guidance together when we stood do start
easing up on restrictions so that
everybody has a clear understanding of
what they can and what they can't do and
we're reaching out to many people in the
private sector to get their insight we
want to collaborate on that so there are
all the things that we are going to
accomplish in the upcoming week so that
as we ease up we're gonna be ready for
that we're going to evaluate our efforts
every step of the way
just just where we need to but this
additional time is going to put us in a
much better position to be ready for
easing up on restrictions thank you
thanks Bob we're gonna go ahead and open
it up for Question and Answer at this
time yes Lance Hernandez with Denver
sevens just wanted to ask the governor
the governor is opening up the state do
you feel as mayor or as health officials
for the City and County of Denver that
perhaps the governor was moving too fast
again Lance thank you for your question
the governor is responding to data just
as we are and I believe that's why
they're taking the appropriate time to
put the orders appropriate for us to
roll this out to ease ourselves back
into this slowly but again what I'm my
prison my optics are focused on Denver
and the uniqueness of our population and
our economy and how we need to roll this
out slowly with all of the protections
and guardrails necessary to do it in a
safe manner the governor has been a
partner and I'll tell you that his
guidance was very helpful it actually
helps us to accelerate and maybe even
not have as long of an order as we might
we initially thought we would need but
the orders are going to be important and
it's going to be important for us to
adapt those orders to Denver and that's
what we're pairing to do thank you I do
this not just with Denver I can Bob talk
a little bit about how the city plans on
getting to 1,000 tests per day is there
a timeline is there like a goal where
that that testing sort of milestone will
be reached can you talk a little bit
about how the city's going to get there
well I think the capacity is there now
one of the things that we've learned
over the last couple of weeks is that
and you might recall this very early on
public health guidance even from the
federal level was to not have people
rush into the hospital to get tested not
everybody needs to be tested and and
there you could run the risk of people
bringing in the when they're infectious
bringing that into a hospital setting
apparently we did a very good job with
getting that message out to the public
because now there's a hesitancy or or
people don't know
that the capacity is there now and the
systems are set up to take many more
people to get that testing done and so
we're working with our partners at
Denver Health and Hospital Authority and
many others in the medical community to
get that word out that that we're
expanding on that capacity we have
expanded on that and we're ready to take
more people for that we're setting up
the protocols and the messaging for that
so I believe what we're there we need to
market it more aggressively so that more
people are aware when when they could go
and where they can go question let me
just say this to follow up on that good
point I used the term coordinated very
intentionally because I believe the
power in this opportunity of opening up
our economy is is is strengthened by a
coordinated approach of working with
employers employees institutions to get
employees tested particularly those who
are symptomatic employers who may say I
want to know if my I want all my
employees test it before they come back
the goal of course is not only to make
sure that we have safe environments in
which to go back to work in but also to
grow consumer confidence and if people
know and you know restaurant a or
facility B that you know companies have
taken two steps to protect their
employees and their customers then
hopefully consumer confidence will grow
as well and thereby strengthening the
economy I'm sorry you want to follow
taking place is that that Denver Health
or is there gonna be another site in the
city where people can drive up to what
is that going to look like
clearly Denver Health will be a part of
it but the goal is to have a diversity
of opportunities for people to be tested
around the city and around the metro
region quite frankly and you know there
are going to be some other new wrinkles
there I won't talk about them now but
hopefully we'll make it real convenient
for residents all over the city of
Denver to get tested those who are
symptomatic and those who maybe are part
of an employment program to get tested
before going back that's what we're
gonna spend the next two and a half
weeks really focused on and drawing out
and building and creating that
opportunity this is Nelson Garcia
with 9news do you have any concerns
about confusion amongst the public with
different orders being issued by the
governor and local attribute yeah I saw
something we spent a lot of time talking
about Nelson and we hope to bring some
clarification to it the reality is that
right now and for all residents the
current order that we're under will
remain in place in Denver Colorado in
Denver and you'll may see other cities
follow
I shouldn't say follow but be a part of
the same strategy going forward and so
the way we're operating now in terms of
staying at home business is not opening
unless they are essential operations
will remain in place until May the 8th
we will set up a system to where we can
answer some other critical questions
about that going forward but the City
Attorney's Office and our communications
teams are going to be working
fastidiously to make that happen
please this is Kyle Clark with 90s if
it's possible to get into question for
Bob McDonald governor has made clear
that he wants an aggressive enforcement
of the workplace limits in terms of the
number of people in the workplace does
your health department have the
bandwidth to do all the things you need
to do and scale up testing and be the
primary enforcers on workplace limit you
could meet your phone's please getting
some feedback please mute your phone
Thanks
thank you for the question Kyle you know
you you raise a good point about
resources being stretched I do believe
we're going to be able to do that
successfully you know every step of the
way this has not been an effort solely
followed out or carried out by the
Department of Public Health and
Environment we've had many partners
great partners throughout the city
safety and Community Planning and
Development exercise and licenses and
many many other departments that have
stepped up to assist with every decision
every step of the way including
enforcement so I do believe we're going
to be successful with doing that that
being said we rely on the public
we rely on employees if they see
concerns to call that into 3-1-1 we've
been very successful in employing rapid
in our response with following up on
those concerns when they come to our
attention
31-year he talked about communicating to
the public new guidelines as they come
out where can we see what currently is
in place what's going to be changing
where can this all be available and how
soon do you plan to have guidelines for
businesses that we're thinking they
would be open May 1st yeah I appreciate
that Nicole very good question let me
clarify again Denver's order stay at
home order did not expire until April
30th so even with the governor's move
for toward opening or easing the opening
of the state this weekend
Denver's would have remained in place
for an additional four days and so we're
extending that order out to Maine the
8th again what we know today is what
will be in place up until May 8th and
it's important people understand that
the businesses that have been permitted
to open up until are during this stay at
home order considered essential
businesses will continue to operate
those who have not been allowed to open
will still not be allowed to open in
Denver Colorado until May the 8th excuse
me may 9th the as we roll through May
9th so midnight May 9th word thank so
there's a large cleanup set to take
place in five points on April 30th and
you've stated your goal is to get people
into shelters I spoke with the Colorado
Coalition for the homeless this morning
and they said that shelters in Denver
hovering near capacity so I'm wondering
what your thoughts are on the city
setting up a safe outdoor location where
people can set up their tents and the
city provides restroom things and other
amenities to keep people safe yeah I
appreciate the question and I'm gonna
bring bread a Fisher up here director of
housing but I can tell you
foundationally that we are working very
hard to continue to create indoor
opportunities for residents of Denver
who are experiencing homelessness at
this time we don't see a reason for us
to create outdoor sanctioned campsites
as you're alluding to in our city of
Denver we're not going to move in that
direction but we are gonna continue to
work hard to create opportunities and
doors for our residents just answering
that question this is Britta Fischer for
Denver and part of what we continue to
do is to gain protective action rooms
and please to say that people who have
been living outside have been part of
the outreach effort and been connected
to some of those rooms so I think we
continue to work on every support
possible including hand-washing and and
back portal it's that are outside right
now and understand that there are
demands for more but we continue to try
to meet the needs that we have with both
rooms and expanded auxilary shelters as
well as some of those hand-washing
stations and portal lots around the city
of Denver somebody else hi this is Mike
Lynn from the Colorado independent mayor
hey Mike what will Deborah look like on
May 9th
the state is taking small steps and then
larger steps are you gonna be caught up
with where the state is on May 9th or we
be sort of starting all over again the
actual public orders coming out from the
state in terms of public orders and his
executive orders of the governor and how
they roll out will be helpful to us to
measure and prepare for May 9th when we
we open up the city as I've said from
day one this is gonna be baby steps this
is gonna be a phased in process and so
we'll see where the state is and we'll
modulate our rollout accordingly but you
can expect again this is a marathon
we're gonna be in this for a long haul
and we're gonna roll out accordingly
that we believe will be safe
with the proper protocols for any
industry that's allowed to open their
doors there may be some on May ninth
that are not allowed to open quite yet
because we have to put other measures
and protections in place but we're going
to be as transparent as possible once we
get those orders from the governor the
team will go to work and begin to lay
out how we will roll out Deborah
strategy with the Denver Business
Journal um I was wondering if you could
just kind of walk through your thoughts
on this governor Poulos said he didn't
want to extend the stay-at-home order
for one reason because it's very severe
economic pain on people yeah how did you
kind of arrive at this how did you
balance out the need the public's health
and the needs of people to earn a living
particularly as we see more and more
surveys saying businesses are going to
be closing it for good orders David
right yeah we've always recognized that
unfortunately there are going to be some
some casualties to this across our
economy and I'm not just talking about
Denver but I'm talking about worldwide
and we know and I'm know I'm in regular
contact with small businesses big
businesses almost on a daily basis
talking about what's happening during
kovin 19 and the economic impact from
from what's going on we start with the
founder foundational belief that one
we're about saving the city and saving
lives in this city that's first and
foremost
my team and I just talked about that
yesterday let's get back to our wire why
is to save lives and to keep as many
people safe and healthy as we can
secondly of course it is about how do we
make sure that we can continue to
protect the community going forward even
with the presence of the of the cogut
virus in our community and at the same
time begin to open up the economy to to
try to move back to some semblance of
normalcy or whatever the new normal will
be and once we get back to saving lines
we understand it we got to ease into
this and though it's difficult we have
as a society become practice that
rebuilding economies that have child had
been challenged through recessions
we know we can bring back the economy we
know that we can build rebuild
businesses we know that we can start new
businesses what we cannot do is replace
lives that have been lost and if that's
our paramount focused and let's do
everything we can to protect lives first
and then do what we know how to do best
and that is to rebuild the economy and
we help companies get started again we
could will do those things we'll do
everything we can to help every business
every entrepreneur to get started again
in the new economy but let's first start
by protecting lies view and then use
again
well County is taking a vastly different
approach than Denver are you concerned
at all that what they're doing they
influence the behavior of people in
Denver no I believe first and foremost
have faith in the people of Denver to
help us do what we need to do necessary
so we can do what we want to do down the
road
secondly as every community just as
Denver every community has to do what's
in their best interests and so while
Denver's taking one path another city
and there may be cities more immediate
Cerreta mmediately surrounding Denver
then well County I have to take
different steps than the city of Denver
hey listen I celebrate that they had to
make their own decisions on that I'm
gonna do we're gonna do what's in the
best interest for Denver and the people
who come into our city mayor Jessie Paul
here at the corner to son one of the
things that the governor said this week
was that the modeling that he seen shows
that the language homework order by or
continuing it by two or four weeks
doesn't change as a negligible effect on
the ecological bed usage on the effect
on the healthcare system it sounds like
you're seeing different modeling you
talked a little bit about why you think
we're not out of the woods yet I know I
think you take it you take a look at the
broad brush in which we are approaching
this issue it's not just continue to
bend the curve or to decrease the
infections that's extremely important to
us but it's also how do we when you lift
our hands how do we look at this more
broadly and further down the road how do
we build into our way of living ours
systems regular testing and regular
access and to coordinated testing so
that as we enter into different seasons
we are doing we are set up to protect
residents and we can avoid future peaks
or at least not large of a peak our
grade of a peak going forward and so you
heard me talk about yes let's increase
now let's have an understanding of what
the gross capacity of testing is in our
city let's make sure that we coordinate
accessibility of that testing for
whoever needs it regardless of their
ability to pay regardless of what
station they come from in life let's
make sure that people have access to
that testing all over the city of Denver
and then thirdly let's make sure we have
a system to do contact tracing which is
critically important as the testing who
do people have contact with let's make
sure we're able to track them down let's
make sure they are informed let's make
sure we begin to box this virus in we
are no longer working to be driven by
this virus we are working to get on top
and to drive this virus know where it is
and to begin to minimize its impact in
the community that's what we're focused
on we have done the work necessary to
create a plateau to begin to decrease
the impact of this virus now we need to
box it in and make sure it's it's at our
whim that it becomes our Punk and we're
not its Punk anymore
and the other question is is my clip
this is my clit when again how confident
are you that that may 8th is a hard date
that you can accomplish
everything you say you need to buy that
time yeah we're gonna work very hard to
get there Mike we got a lot of work to
do I'm not going to mince words with
that the team knows we had a lot of work
to do you know there were other dates we
looked at but I think it's important has
always been important to me that the
region work in concert and if we can get
the majority of the region on a
particular day to try to work together
then may 8th became that date and I felt
much more confident that together we can
get there particularly we're all focused
on similar objectives and goals testing
contact tracing and making sure we know
how to help businesses adhere to the new
realities around the new executive
orders of the governor once they're
published working in concert with the
region I think a lot of people saw the
we bridge is requiring customers to wear
masks inside essential businesses now is
Denver considering something like that
does it have anything in place and
particularly get all the social media
report to see about people flooding
parks without masks these days and you
know how do you look at what the city
absolutely has to require with math yes
I've asked our public health and our C
Attorney's team to look at doing a
mandated mask-wearing strategy in Denver
until we order something which I hope to
be in short order I'm gonna ask everyone
everyone if you're going outside to walk
the dog put on a mask put on a face
covering if you're going to take your
trash out door put on a mask put on a
face covering if you're going to just go
take it and walk down a trail put on a
mask put on a face covering and
certainly if you're walking into a
public location a grocery store that see
your doctor for critical care put on a
mask put on a face covering you may save
a life
yeah Bob McDonald
yeah okay yeah I want to respond to go
back to the question about what weld
county is doing and I and I couldn't
agree more with the with the mayor that
that we need to do what's right for
Denver you know we are looking at what
other what other counties are doing and
we get input from them I I'm not going
to speak to the details of what weld
county is doing but we're going to do
again what's best for Denver we're going
to try to align with the region and with
the governor where we can but we're
certainly not going to defy or be less
stringent and what the governor
implements and so that's how we're going
to continue to move forward in alignment
where we can doing what's right for
Denver being in alignment with the state
not being less restrictive than the
state so I just wanted to revisit that
so play that clarify said thank you for
doing that apparently I responded to the
question without fully understanding
what's happening in well County but in
terms of defining the orders of the
governor my statement is about being
within the guidance of the governor and
in partnership with the governor and we
have tried to do that on every step that
we've taken I would not be standing here
had I not communicated with the governor
what we were moving to do in Denver
Colorado and that quite frankly it's an
honor and in appreciation for his
guidance that we're able to develop this
this blueprint so that not by any
stretch of the imagination am I am i
advocating that someone defy the orders
of the the state and the governor he has
been a tremendous partner and it's been
a tremendous leader and let me just say
this clearly because I love the the fact
that some people try to create conflict
where there is none Colorado is very
fortunate to have jared Polis as our
governor at this point in time he has
led truthfully he has led with
transparency and he's led through
science he believes in science and he
has listened to his public health
leaders as they have advised him on
decisions to make
I can I can tell you I talked to him
just about every day and this is someone
who wants to do it absolutely what's
right for the people of Colorado
and I'm grateful for his partnership his
guidance has been tremendously helpful
during this time and I want to make sure
that that's very clear in Denver and by
no means is going contrary to governor
we are using what he has given us as a
foundation to modify it and make it work
for the people of this city any other
questions Jarrett Lantern and if again
yes lantern and my apology I know that
Jefferson County has extended their stay
at home order two until May 8th tri
counties meeting at 12:30 the assumption
is that they may be do the same thing if
they don't there may be a situation
where businesses on one side of the
street have to close or remain closed
and businesses on the other side of the
street may not have to we've heard from
viewers that are concerned about that I
don't know if you know anything about
Tri County that I don't know yet I know
that they're meeting at 12:30 but can
you address that concern you know what
Tri County probably health officials
well and and and excuse me the body
there as they make decisions these are
tough decisions for everyone and they're
gonna do I believe what they believe is
in the best interests of their their
community we also all of us have talked
regionally and maybe Bob can talk about
the fact that public health officials
have been on regular conversation almost
daily as well as elected officials I
can't tell you enough about the mayor's
around the region County Commissioners
who have weighed in and been tremendous
and helping us think this through but
these communities are gonna have to do
what's best for them and I'm hopeful
that we have a line date but in the
event we don't it's a reality we'll have
to deal with at the time and we'll all
get through it the good thing is we're
not talking about June 8th
we're we're talking about six weeks out
we're talking about two and a half three
weeks and I think we will survive during
that time you want to have any comments
there okay thank you there thanks Lance
he made the desk honor from wet word so
these are really tough times but Broncos
been that kind of a fun moment last
night with the picking of Jerry Judy
would love to hear your thoughts on the
draft joy yeah you know I'm a look over
and Evan dryer I was so excited to
finally sit down and work on something
else other than covet 19 and the draft
was coming on it was 554 and Evan dryer
calls me from the office and I said man
you are so lucky
it's 554 and you're early I am so
excited I want to say very publicly
Thank You Las Vegas Raiders for not
drafting Jerry Judy we got the best wide
receiver in the entire NFL Draft I was
hopeful fingers were crossed that we
would get Jerry Judy I think we just got
an all-star future ring of Famer
in Denver and if he's if and when he
develops correctly he and Courtland
Sutton with Deshawn Hamilton and other
talent on the field you got a team an
offensive squad that can do some very
special stuff with Drew lockers
quarterback exciting pick for the
Broncos well done John you took my notes
thank you thank you
