Governor’s Press Conference: June 16, 2020

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VIDEO DESCRIPTION: A Khmer genderfluid person with dark skin and black hair, wearing a dark gray short sleeve shirt, standing in front of a black background, looking at the camera

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:  Picture of Governor Newsom sitting with hands on a desk, looking at the camera

WHITE TEXT: Governor Newsom, Press Conference, June 26, 2020

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Picture of Governor Newsom

Governor Newsom:   I want to start with addressing the concern about the rise in COVID-19 cases on the rise.  Right now we have plenty of tests available for everyone now to take and that way you can be sure if you have the virus or not.  We strongly encourage everyone to be tested.  The results from the tests allow us to know which counties in California have an increase and where we need to focus our support and which counties have the virus contained and are doing well on their own.    I want to introduce you to Dr. Angel.  Dr. Angel is responsible for communicating with the state of California which counties need to be closely monitored due to a rise in positive COVID-19 cases.   Support for these counties can be in the form of providing more tests, provide more resources, and if their hospitals are at full capacity can work with other health centers to share services and ensure that each patient receives the care that they need to recover.     We actually do not want too many people with positive cases to be in one area at the same time.  When that happens the likelihood of spread increases.  We want them to be isolated and separated to get a better control on the virus.  Additionally, if other people who are vulnerable and then enter a space with several patients who are already COVID-19 positive, then those who are vulnerable can easily get the virus. That is why having facilities with a few patients at a time in different locations (not all at one location) is best, reducing the change of spreading the virus.  Lance is the director of a company that makes face shields, plastic shields, to protect workers.  This company can make the PPE that people need for protection of spread.  This company has been doing well at making PPE equipment readily available.  Southern California, one county called Imperial between Arizona and Mexico, we see that many tests given that they had a large number of COVID-19 positive cases.  As you remember, we want more people to take these tests so that we can know where the virus has come from and where it is going.  Please take the tests so we can better understand and track this virus.   I know some of you are tired of staying home or want to go out.  That is fine, you can go out but keep your masks on.  With your masks on you can help prevent the spread of the virus. Your safety is our priority.

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Latent Interpreting Media Ready to Post: Q&A , June 26, 2020 https://youtu.be/9Hkt0hN1P3s

Q:Will you be closing businesses due to COVID-19 on the rise?

A:We don’t plan to close all of California, but possibly specific counties and specific area/businesses where we can track the virus has spread from that location.  We need to keep wearing masks and practicing social distancing. There are many counties that have a small number of COVID-19 cases, we are mostly concerned with counties that have a higher number which is where we need to enforce our guidelines more firmly.

Q: Do you know where the virus spread in Imperial County has come from? Possibly from Arizona?

A: We just started distributing tests in that area.  The information from these tests will help us identify the source of this spread.  We need more people to get tested to help us get more accurate information if it is from community spread from inside or outside the county.  That needs to happen.  I want to encourage you to stay home and stay safe.

Q: Will we continue to use blood test, donated blood, or people who need infusions will we use their blood and test them for the virus?

A: That would be an easy way to test but at the same time I can’t do that without letting the person know.  The law says that if someone’s blood is identify as COVID-19 positive, we must let them know.  We can’t just test without their knowledge and results must be shared.

Q: I am concerned about how often you change guidelines which may cause confusion with all the last-minute changes such as wearing a mask or not wearing a mask, etc.

A: We try to get information up as quickly as possible.  Everyday new guidelines are posted, which means the old guidelines are no longer used.  Look online for the most current orders.

Q: I am curious if the numbers have gone up because of the recent protests and being in large crowds?

A: I want to introduce Dr. Angel to answer that question. Dr. Angel: hard for us to know because we are taking tests and trying to figure out exactly their contact tracing if it is specifically from the protest or from a family gathering or from being out shopping. So we need protesters to get blood tests so we can see where their positivity came from.  It could be a number of factors, hard to say it is only from the protests.

Q: As we see a rise in the number of deaths, how are you doing with encouraging people to stay home and stay safe?

A: Yes this is something I have repeatedly emphasized the need to stay home, wear masks, we have seen 79 people die from COVID-19 this past week.  I have already warned people to be careful, I set up an order that if you go out, use a mask, I already asked people to stay 6 feet apart and to stay home as much as possible.  People are not following these guidelines.  This is important if you are feeling sick that you get tested and that you isolate.  Do not interact with others or you could spread your symptoms to other people.  Wearing a mask and keeping your distance is so important.

Q: Do you have guidelines for people who want to have a small social gathering with family and friends.

A: Yes we have posted this, needs to be small in number, wear masks, keep your distance, we have already shared this information many times.

Q: I know the state of California has been trying to get legislation to pass a budget that allows for billions of dollars for working with COVID-19 but the budget that was approved was greatly cut to only allow millions of dollars.  Do you think the approved budget is enough for our needs in California?

A: Of course we will accept the money given at the same time hope our legislators are watching our progress and see that we need more funds to fully address the challenges that we face.  We will have to wait and see how we do with what we have.

Q: What about people who are farmworkers as they are at high risk especially with possible contamination of the food production?

A: We have specific organizations that focus specifically to farmworkers. I know there are a lot of worries that people are coming over from Mexico and bringing more cases of the virus into the US but this is not true. We have an organization that focuses on making sure that our farmworkers are well taken care of.

Q: My question is about New York with their high number of cases, have you talked with New York about their process, how they dealt with the virus there and what we can do here?

A: I support all of the decisions made in New York. We here in California look at all current information by looking at our Nowcast to see how many people have COVID-19 all over California.  People who have COVID-19 as a state and how many in each county, we keep these numbers separate yet look at both.  We have state guidelines and we also have county-level guidelines.  We still want everyone to wear a mask and maintain 6 feet distance.  The numbers are what decides our guidelines and what we will do.

Thank you for watching and I encourage you to keep wearing your masks, keep your distance, stay home, and stay safe.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: This transcript is a back translation of the Latent Interpretation and is not intended to be a verbatim reproduction of the original message.

For questions, comments, and feedback, please email latentimedia@gmail.com

Thank you!