November 24, 2020
Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you all for joining us this holiday weekend, this holiday week briefing, press briefing, a week when many Tennesseans will step away from their usual obligations. I know at my family, Thanksgiving will be very different at the farm this year, and it can be disheartening, in fact, when we enter a holiday with as much going on around us as is happening right now. It'd be safe to say that Tennesseans are weary of the anxiety of 2020. But I'm reminded that Scripture reminds us that we do not have to be anxious, but through prayer and with Thanksgiving, as we make our requests made known to God, that peace of God is ours. Maria and I are blessed beyond belief to serve the 6.8 million Tennesseans who call this state home, and we will be praying for those Tennessee. And my prayer is that we, Tennesseans can, in fact, this Thanksgiving, in the midst of all, find peace that surpasses understanding. Yesterday, Maria and I had the honor of serving at a nonprofit in Spring Hill. And we were reminded that no pandemic can keep all of us from being a blessing to our neighbors. This nonprofit was called the Well an organization that distributes hundreds of Thanksgiving meal kits to families in need. Food banks and nonprofits all across our state and our nation are seeing a record requests. And this could be an opportunity for your family to start a new tradition in 2020 that fills a void that many of us are feeling this year. Before we get started, I do want to acknowledge Friday's court ruling regarding a provision in our pro-life law that prohibits abortions based on gender, or race, or a down syndrome diagnosis.
Governor Bill Lee:
The court's ruling will truly save precious lives. In Tennessee, we value the lives of those with different abilities and we will continue to pursue the other provisions of that law as well. While most of this year has been kind of all hands on deck regarding the public health and economic crises in our state, it's also time again for us to prepare for the upcoming legislative agenda in 2021. Of the next coming weeks, we will be offering a preview of policy proposals that'll streamline Tennessee government and that will allow us to be better stewards of taxpayer money. One of our administration proposals highlights a group that's been highly visible throughout this year, and that is members of our national guard. We will be unveiling the Reemployment Act to better serve these public servants. Currently, Tennessee law provides no reemployment protections for service members who are called to state active duty.
Governor Bill Lee:
We're calling for service members to now be protected when they go on state active duty for issues like responding to natural disasters or their response to COVID-19. Our soldiers and our airmen shouldn't fear losing their jobs during or after a state deployment. And this simple change in our law will ensure the very best in Tennessee choose to serve in the guard. We're grateful for their service. We look forward to working with members of the general assembly to make sure that our soldiers and airmen can pursue and keep great careers. This is one proposal. We will be previewing other proposals in the weeks ahead. And we look forward to unveiling our full agenda at the State of the State Address.
Governor Bill Lee:
Now, we want to move to the health portion of our briefing. I've asked Dr. Wendy Long who heads up the Tennessee Hospital Association to join me. The Tennessee hospital association has been an incredible partner in making sure that we have the resources in this state so that all Tennesseans can have access to care, whether it's care for COVID or care for a heart attack, or a stroke, or an accident. And Dr. Long will also be sharing about a new campaign from area hospitals to educate residents and remind them about the importance of mask wearing and how it needs to be a habit that we all adopt this winter. Dr. Long.
Dr. Wendy Long:
Well, thank you, Governor, for all that you and your team are doing to lead and support Tennessee's COVID response. I also want to take this opportunity, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, to express my sincere gratitude to all the healthcare providers who have worked so tirelessly to address this pandemic. As I look back on the last eight months, we have tackled a seemingly endless array of challenges, from shortages of personal protective equipment, to laboratory testing delays, to ever-changing treatment protocols, just to name a few. Through it all, there's been an unprecedented level of collaboration across sectors. And once fierce competitors in the healthcare industry have worked together to combine forces in the face of a common enemy. Hospital workers have, over and over again, put their own safety on the line to care for their communities, and they continue to do so as cases and hospitalizations show no sign of slowing down.
Dr. Wendy Long:
We continue to set new records every day for the number of patients in Tennessee who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Over the course of just the last two months, we've seen a two-and-a-half fold increase in the number of hospitalized COVID patients. And today, COVID patients make up 34% or one out of every three ICU patients. For context in July, when cases and hospitalizations were also on the rise, COVID positive patients comprised only 19% of total ICU patients and only 6% of all floor bed patients. Hospitals have been attempting to preserve access to other critical healthcare services while taking the needed steps to meet the growing needs related to COVID by converting other types of units in the hospital to ICU beds, by doubling up patient rooms, increasing patient to nurse ratios, retraining and reassigning healthcare providers from administrative and outpatient roles to direct inpatient care, and recruiting recently departed or retired staff back into the workforce.
Dr. Wendy Long:
Hospital capacity has always been a concern, but we're running out of levers to pull. And at this rate of growth, it will impact other critical services that are important to you and your community. Hospitals in many areas of the state now have little to no bed availability and are having to divert patients to other locations that are also filling up quickly. This impacts not only access for COVID-19 patients, but for all types of hospital care, including surgeries, heart attacks, strokes, and trauma. Hospital staff are exhausted both physically and emotionally as COVID deaths in Tennessee top 4,300. That's over 4,300 Tennessee lives lost to COVID with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in just the last several months.
Dr. Wendy Long:
We often talk about healthcare workers being on the front lines, but really hospitals are the last line of defense against this disease. Every Tennessean is on the frontline with an opportunity to do your part in fighting this pandemic, by wearing a mask and social distancing. These past several months have taken a toll on all of us as we cope with the stress of quarantines, social distancing, and other public health measures related to the pandemic, but we can't let our guard down now. While nothing short of total isolation completely eliminates the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19, we know that wearing a mask and social distancing does greatly reduce the risk
Dr. Wendy Long:
Masking makes a difference, and we ask that you please wear a mask when you're around others beyond your immediate household. We also joined the governor in asking that you consider ways to celebrate safely this holiday season by limiting the size of gatherings, incorporating virtual visits into your holidays, and assuring guests are masked and able to social distance whenever gatherings do include individuals beyond your normal household. These considerations may seem like they put a damper on our holiday cheer, but with extremely promising news regarding future vaccine availability, it's looking more and more likely that our celebrations will be back to normal next year. Let's take those extra precautions this year, so there are no empty chairs at the table when we gather next. Thank you.
Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you, Dr. Long. Dr. Piercey, would you like to give a health update?
Dr. Piercey:
Thank you, Governor. Good afternoon. Yesterday, we had a big expanded testing event at our health department statewide specifically at 35 different sites, we had extended hours and extra personnel there. I'm very pleased to report that we tested over 16,000 Tennesseans at those sites yesterday. That's more than double what we normally have on an average day. So, the next question is, if we did the testing, when are they going to get their results? Those results should start coming in tomorrow, because our average turnaround time statewide is two days. We are aware of a couple of labs in the state that are currently having some issues, their turnaround times are a little bit longer. We were able to make some special arrangements with other labs that are running a turnaround time plus or minus two days. And so, if you got tested yesterday, you should be getting results starting tomorrow.
Dr. Piercey:
This expanded testing is really important, because it's another one of those tools that people can use to inform themselves as they start to make plans for the holidays, whether that's at gathering or going out and patronizing businesses. It's another tool that we can use to help inform our populace. So, please, and you've heard me say this before, please have a low threshold for getting tested. Even if you feel well, if you think you've been exposed, if you've been in a high risk environment, like if you go to one of those gatherings, please take the opportunity to get tested. We will be doing another one of the expanded testing events next Monday, the 30th. And so, we'll get you more details about that. Probably the top line today for me is vaccine update. There are a few new pieces of information that I want to share with you as well as an update and reminders on how we plan to do that.
Dr. Piercey:
We are getting new information multiple times per day. We are in very frequent contact with our federal partners, particularly those in Operation Warp Speed, as well as directly with Pfizer at, not only just through normal distribution channels, but also the pilot that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. I want to reassure you that we are 100% prepared to receive an immediately distribute vaccine as soon as we have it in hand. Now we did get a couple of new pieces of information yesterday. One is that we've known that Pfizer will likely be the candidate that we get first, the vaccine candidate that we get first. And we thought the Moderna product would be two or three weeks later. Got word yesterday that it should only be one week after Pfizer. The other thing that we learned yesterday that it's looking like right around December 15th when we may get it. It might be a couple of days before, it might be a couple of days after.
Dr. Piercey:
And of course, this is all subject to change, but we have been told that we are targeting around a December 14th, 15th date to get our first doses here in Tennessee. Again, we are ready to deploy those immediately upon receipt. And the first people who will get those is what we call our phase 1A participants. Phase 1A will be frontline, healthcare workers and first responders, those who are the most likely to become infected or be in contact with infected individuals or infected materials. So, those are people like in emergency departments and in ICUs, some in procedural areas, those doing mass testing events, those first responders, who, when they roll up on a scene, they don't know about who's infected. And we need to know or we need to make sure that those folks are protected, so we can keep our healthcare workers on the front lines and taking care of those in those very important roles that Dr. Long mentioned. We will be moving through our phases as the supply allows.
Dr. Piercey:
I just mentioned we don't know the number of exact doses. We've been given some ballpark estimates, but as soon as we have the supply, we will start progressing through those phases. If you need a refresher on what those phases are, I encourage you to take a look at our plan that's posted on our website. I will take this opportunity to reiterate it is a draft vaccine plan. It is a living, breathing, working document that we update on a regular basis. And so, that's found on our website. Finally, again, please hear me, this is our top priority. This is the one ray of hope that we've got. And so, we are putting a ton of effort forth to make sure we get it to you as fast and as safely as possible. And we'll continue to update you as we get new information. And finally, as we head into the holidays, please be careful when you're at home.
Dr. Piercey:
We've known for several weeks, if not months, now that a large percentage of our cases are coming from household and community spread. Not only those who live in one's household, but when you have people over for a dinner party, or a sleepover, or a backyard cookout. As you're moving into the holidays, please remember that you can take precautions even inside your own home, that will reduce the risk of transmission. If you can avoid a gathering, you should consider doing that. If you can minimize the number of people, particularly outside of your household, you should consider doing that. And when those people do come, you can take precautions there just like you would elsewhere, spacing out, moving outdoors, wearing masks when you're not eating. All of these basic common sense things that we can all do, even in our own households to reduce risk. Finally, Happy Thanksgiving.
Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you, both. Thank you. I want to also just echo Dr. Long's comments about our healthcare workers and our hospitals. It's about our healthcare workers and our hospitals and our providers across the state. They're doing incredible work. We know because we work with them every day to make the decisions that will keep healthcare available in our hospitals, to Tennesseans throughout this pandemic. So I especially want to thank Dr. Long for being here today. And we're happy to open it up to questions.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, Governor. I know you were calling for people who are retired healthcare workers last week to step forward. Is there any ... and this may be a question for Wendy. Is there any call for more people, people who are just volunteers who want to help out in that healthcare system?
Governor Bill Lee:
Wendy do you want to address that?
Dr. Wendy Long:
We are definitely interested in any and all volunteers that would have an interest in assisting in hospitals. The most pronounced need, of course, is for nurses, respiratory therapists, but there is a mechanism through the state, for those who are interested in volunteering to make it known that they would be interested. And then, for those individuals to be matched with hospitals.
Speaker 1:
And what exactly would the volunteers be doing? Maybe not exactly, but could you tell me just like a general idea if they would help fill-in or something like that?
Dr. Wendy Long:
I think it would all depend on the background and skills of the volunteer. I mean, the greatest need for sure, is for licensed healthcare providers.
Speaker 1:
Is there any other way that you guys are looking for people like that? Are each individual hospitals looking for help?
Dr. Wendy Long:
Well, virtually all hospitals have been going out and attempting to rehire folks that may have recently retired, bring them back from retirement or to identify other individuals who may have left the workforce for whatever reason, to see if they can entice them to come back to help with this particular emergency.
Speaker 1:
How many people are we talking about, that are coming back out of retirement to help during the pandemic? I don't know if you have that off the top of your head, but-
Dr. Wendy Long:
I do not have that off the top of my head, since for us has been a hospital by a hospital, sort of recruitment.
Speaker 1:
Okay. I've got some questions for Governor, if that's okay.
Governor Bill Lee:
Let me add to that too.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Governor Bill Lee:
We actually did an executive order that expanded and loosened requirements and regulation around medically trained personnel to move into other spaces so that it would expand this capacity. Dr. Pearcy could speak to the particulars of that, but there's an effort to expand the number of folks that come in and they may not treat, but they might do something that would allow others that are licensed and capable to provide more treatment.
Speaker 1:
Anymore thoughts on a mask mandate? I know there's still more calls in national media and from people all across America, that are saying governors should step up and create a mask mandate. I know that's something that you've said in the past, you didn't want to do, but does it look like it's getting more towards that level, especially as hospitals are reaching this capacity?
Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah, what's important for all of us and all of us know this, we all remember it, masks are an incredibly important component of mitigating the spread of the virus. Masks and mask mandates are two different things. We believe that a localized approach to granting authority to officials, to impose restrictions in their counties is important. It's a strategy that Dr. Burks has said was appropriate, that many have said is a better approach than a statewide mass mandate. It's important to remember a couple of things, 70% of our residents in the state of Tennessee are currently under a mask requirement, 80% of Tennesseans say that they wear a mask according to a Carnegie Mellon study, they say they wear a mask most or all of the time. There are different strategies for the same outcome. We all agree that the outcome of folks wearing a mask is incredibly important in the days ahead, we encourage Tennesseans to do so.
Speaker 1:
Especially in those rural counties where, I mean, I've even driven out and just walked around and seen people not wearing masks in public places around other people.
Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah, but we-
Speaker 1:
Do you have messages for them?
Governor Bill Lee:
The message is, that we need every Tennessee and to take personal responsibility. We see people not wearing masks all around us, but we also see a lot of people wearing masks. And what we will continue to say to them is, "If you want to do your part to help join other Tennesseans to mitigate the spread of this, please join with us and wear a mask."
Speaker 2:
Governor, you mentioned the mask mandate, but there's also been other recommendations on the White House reports that we get, including restrictions and capacity and stuff like that. Can you explain why we don't follow those restrictions here in Tennessee?
Governor Bill Lee:
So, we believe that this pandemic has wreaked havoc on people's lives, their health and their livelihoods. There is a balance that we must carry forward to protect Tennesseans' lives and to protect their livelihoods. And there are multiple strategies to that, and we are pursuing what we think is the right strategy going forward. We have had many recommendations from the White House. We've worked with the White House throughout this pandemic. Some of them we've taken, some of them we have not. They've been very clear that they would give recommendations, but they're also very clear that states know their own state and they should make their decisions themselves, and that's what we've done.
Speaker 3:
Hey Governor, how you doing?
Governor Bill Lee:
Hey, how are you sir?
Speaker 3:
Doing fine. Were you aware that Hogden Mayanda had a consulting contract with Chattanooga's EPB and is the fact that he had such a contract a concern, and do you envision making any changes on that front, particularly with high-level commissioners and well-paid employees, who presumably are paid a decent wage?
Governor Bill Lee:
As you know, Mr. Mayanda no longer works for our administration. And state law actually allows state employees, so long as they do not have a conflict of interest to have alternative streams of income. So, it's allowed under state law, but you'll have to ask him further questions about that, because he no longer works for our administration.
Speaker 3:
Were you aware that he had such a-
Governor Bill Lee:
I believe it was disclosed in his disclosure statements when he came on board.
Speaker 3:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And the free housing he got at a residential home at the state's old main prison, that seems a little odd. Apparently it was supposed to be a temporary thing, but it stretched for a year, what's ... is there a policy change that may be necessary for that or?
Governor Bill Lee:
It's certainly as the other, it's allowable under statute and you make accommodations for employees in different settings and that's what happened in that case.
Speaker 3:
So, you're okay with continuing [crosstalk]
Governor Bill Lee:
He doesn't work for us anymore, so-
Speaker 3:
Well, I know, but going forward, this is a guy who was not even in Department of Corrections and they are living rent free.
Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. Well, what we'll do is, we will follow the law and employment law in this state, and we'll make sure that anyone that works for the state does so only under the law set forth by the state.
Speaker 3:
And that allows them to do that. To live rent free or at least the policies.
Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. Well, we need to be certain and we will be, that every employee is employed under the current statute, as it exists in the state.
Speaker 4:
Hey Governor, I got a couple of questions for you. You've urged people to rethink Thanksgiving plans, we've heard multiple comments today about limiting gatherings. What about Black Friday? Should people be staying, maybe shopping online, rather than going shopping on Friday?
Governor Bill Lee:
I think, folks throughout every single day, whether it's today, Thursday, Friday, every day, we are living our lives, we're we are making about how we do so. So, I encouraged Tennesseans to make wise decisions every day.
Speaker 4:
On another note, the President has kind of indicated that he's allowing the Biden transition team to begin. Do you now consider Joe Biden the president-elect or have any words for him?
Governor Bill Lee:
I don't know that the President ... I think administration, maybe Department of General Services is moving forward with transition plans. There is a process, both in the election side and in that side that is playing out on the national front. We'll watch that play out. I've been pretty focused on what's happening right here and not nationally.
Speaker 4:
So, you're not ready to acknowledge the president-elect?
Governor Bill Lee:
I think, when the process is complete, then that'll be the time.
Speaker 4:
Okay.
Speaker 3:
On inauguration day?
Governor Bill Lee:
I don't know when that process will be complete. We can watch and see.
Speaker 4:
One other question, I have to ask you about schools since I'm here. When school districts start, when students start coming back after Thanksgiving, a lot of school districts are closing, not because of transmission within schools, but because of staffing issues. Do you have any like thoughts or recommendations for those districts or anything sort of in the pipeline that you might recommend for them?
Governor Bill Lee:
Well, let me just say this, districts have worked incredibly hard to ... In fact, why don't I ... I'll let you answer this after me, but let me put my two cents worth, and then I'll let Commissioner Schwinn make comments about that.
Governor Bill Lee:
Districts have worked incredibly hard through this pandemic. Teachers have worked incredibly hard and I'm very proud of the work they've done, 75% of our students are in-person. The beneficiaries of that are students. We all know that kids do much better in person than they do online. Especially those kids who do not have access to the resources to do online learning. So, we're encouraging districts to do whatever they can to keep their schools open. Even returning Thanksgiving. That being said, they do have decisions to make on their own, staffing decisions are incredibly important. I think the state has worked with districts to develop a stream of substitute teachers for example, but we're going to work ... we want to support school districts. That is our goal is to give them every support that we can give them to make the decisions that they need to make, but to make every effort to keep kids in school. You want to add to that Penny?
Speaker 4:
Perfect timing.
Commissioner Schwinn:
Hi, nice to see you. So, I think the only thing I would add is, that we continue to talk with superintendents and district leaders twice a week on our statewide calls. And I think what we hear from them, as well as in regional meetings, is a desire to keep buildings open for as long as possible because of the benefits. And because as you said, we're not seeing that spread happen as a result of being in school. Certainly, what we're also seeing, is that superintendents are working closely with their teams, around what is helpful within school buildings to limit any kind of spread.
Commissioner Schwinn:
We are seeing stronger and stronger quarantining practices and certainly safety procedures in our schools. We continue to be very encouraged by what's happening in our districts and certainly proud of the efforts. I do expect that many of them will continue that focus. We are talking about this kind of real strong push between Thanksgiving and the holidays, as being a critical time period for our districts, so that they can be as shored as possible going into the new year. But I do expect the majority of our schools to stay open throughout the remainder of the school year.
Speaker 4:
Since I have you Commissioner, some are calling for maybe loosening restrictions or requirements for subs in different districts, where they're really struggling to get subs. Are there benefits to that or is that something that your administration would support?
Commissioner Schwinn:
Yeah, so we have been really encouraged by the creativity across our districts. A couple of examples specifically related to substitutes, is that there has been some flexibility to ensure that folks who have been screened and fingerprinted, and certainly from a security perspective, but also folks who have been maybe retired teachers, who are coming back into the profession. We have scientists, biologists, et cetera, who have the academics, but maybe don't necessarily have that pedagogy in terms of practices for teaching. Those are really great opportunities to bring people into the profession, allow school buildings to stay open and allow children to have access. We are also seeing some creative solutions in Southwest Tennessee. We're seeing some districts who are working with college students, who are now out, as you know, for the semester. Who can come and provide tutoring services and after-school supports and certainly allow for some different modeling and movement within buildings, that allow for classroom teachers to focus on those core subjects and students to remain in school in-person.
Speaker 4:
One last thing.
Commissioner Schwinn:
Sure.
Speaker 4:
You said that there's going to be a push to keep schools open after Thanksgiving, but we know that the state's two largest districts will be remote, will be virtual. What do you have to say to Shelby County or Metro Nashville?
Commissioner Schwinn:
I think it's the same thing we say to all of our districts, which is we firmly believe in local control and we will do everything we can to support any district to provide the best quality opportunities for their kids. In the case of all of our districts, our four big urbans, two open and two who are going to have remote learning, we certainly continue to stand ready to provide that support and have been doing that in any way possible.
Speaker 5:
Hey Governor, how are you doing?
Governor Bill Lee:
Good.
Speaker 5:
The university of Tennessee has recently adopted a rule that would allow a COVID vaccination requirement for students, once vaccinations are available widely and everything like that. Was wondering, are you in favor of that kind of requirement? And do you foresee a COVID vaccine requirement at the K-12 level for students and/or staff, and what would that look like?
Governor Bill Lee:
So, the University of Tennessee, of course, makes that decision on their own. And, we support local decision making and that decision is theirs to make. As you know, in the university setting, there are a lot of requirements for students for vaccinations. That's a part of going to universities, especially those in congregate care. So, that decision was the university's. I do not foresee mandates for school systems in Tennessee.
Speaker 5:
Okay. What is your thought on there's legislation right now that would actually create some exemptions for COVID vaccines? I think it might actually mesh with what you're saying. Are you in favor of creating more exemptions for vaccines during a pandemic?
Governor Bill Lee:
I'm not sure what legislation you're talking about, but what I think about vaccines is they're going to be very important for us in this state to curb the spread of the virus and to ultimately, really be able to handle it. There's been tremendous work to develop these vaccines. And we're surprised, frankly, even the health officials, many of them, by the speed and accuracy and safety of these vaccines coming online. But vaccines are a choice, and people have the choice and will have the choice in this state as to whether or not they should take that vaccine. That will be our strategy and that is what we think will happen all across the state.
Speaker 5:
Do you have a rough estimate, and this might be Dr. Piercey, of how many vaccines we might get next month? I think Senator Alexander said maybe 40,000 or something like that.
Speaker 6:
[inaudible].
Dr. Piercey:
Yeah. So I am a little hesitant to give you the number because the number fluctuates pretty widely. I think we would be comfortable somewhere in the 80 to a hundred thousand dose range. Remember, it's two doses and so you have to divide that by two, so the number of people. So that would be the first traunch. What I don't know is how fast the next supply will come. If it comes in two or three days, then we could build up a supply pretty quickly to get all of our phase one A. So I'm a little hesitant for the numbers, but what you've heard from Senator Alexander is probably as accurate as anything as I have.
Dr. Piercey:
Andy, about the freezers, so we get a lot of outreach about this ultra cold storage. As a reminder, the Pfizer vaccine requires a minus 70 degrees Celsius storage, which is minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. That's really dangerously cold. And because our state has a very wide geography and very sparse populations, it really doesn't make sense for us to put things in a centralized big freezer. There are some of those freezers statewide, but what we plan to use is what Pfizer recommends and manufacturers themselves is what's called a thermal shipper. It comes in about a two foot by two foot cube, and right in the middle is the box of the actual vaccine. It comes in 975 vials per box and it sort of looks like a pizza box. It's flat and wide, and that's packed on dry ice. There's a specific table about how often that dry ice has to be recharged, but that is what we intend to use so we can mobilize and distribute vaccine faster than having to keep going back and forth to a stationary freezer.
Speaker 7:
Governor question for you. So we got a joint statement today from a group of hospitals warning about our rising numbers, the concern about slim availability at hospitals, and the potential for that to go to zero. Wanted to get your thoughts about this, with the holidays coming up.
Governor Bill Lee:
Our thoughts are that we have a very serious health pandemic in this state and that we are... The reason that I had Dr. Long, who is the head of the hospital association in this state, is because we want Tennesseans to know the urgency with which we implore them to engage in personal responsibility around this. Because at the end of the day, that is going to make the difference in the spread of this virus until we get a vaccine.
Governor Bill Lee:
It is serious, we do have healthcare capacity challenges. I will say the state has pursued pretty heavily, in the last several weeks, ways to partner with providers to increase that capacity. The executive order I talked about that loosened restrictions on workers, $50 million in support for staffing, for hospitals, the expanded network of COVID-19 specific nursing homes that allow hospitals to offload patients into those facilities. Those are few examples of that combined with a very strong, aggressive testing strategy, that combined with the other measures that are being taken in the state and our partnership with our health providers is the way that we are addressing this. We have a serious challenge ahead of us, but the teams across the state are working to address it.
Speaker 7:
With these numbers in mind, at what point do you say this strategy is not working, we need to readjust?
Governor Bill Lee:
No, I think there are no trigger points at which you make a decision. We know that we have a lot of levers, we have alternative care sites that are available, should we choose to employ them. Hospitals, frankly, have the greatest number of decisions to make around elective surgeries and the types of procedures that occupy beds through a pandemic. So I don't think it's a moment in time where you make a decision. It's a daily decision of expansion throughout this process. And I will say that over the last two months, a series of decisions have been made to change, to address, to expand, and we will continue to make those decisions.
Speaker 7:
You talk about those alternative care sites. Are those ready to go if the numbers keep going the way they're going?
Governor Bill Lee:
They are ready to go. There's about 500 beds available, but the greatest challenge with the alternative care sites is staffing for those 500 beds. The same challenges that healthcare providers have for staffing would exist with the alternative care sites, so those are a last resort measure to make sure that we actually do have beds if we get to a point that we need them. But we're not at that point yet, health care providers... There are a lot of stakeholders in the decision-making process around that, and we're not to that point yet.
Speaker 7:
Where are those sites? Are they the same sites you have previously-
Governor Bill Lee:
There's one in Memphis and there's one here in Nashville.
Speaker 7:
Okay. One last question for Dr. Piercey, actually. You had talked about the first people to get the vaccine when it gets here in mid December, roughly. I think some folks at home might be wondering when might they get it, has that timeline moved up?
Dr. Piercey:
Sure. So as I mentioned earlier, we will move through the phases just as quickly as our supply allows. So in that draft plan, you will see three components of phase one, and all the phases have to do with a priority of risk. So phase one is primarily healthcare workers and staff in not only healthcare facilities, but long-term care facilities, first responders. Phase two, you can think of it more as essential workers. Phase three would be children if we have a vaccine approved for children by that time, as well as certain industries, and then three and four just general public opening up.
Dr. Piercey:
As far as timeline goes, I think we will likely be able to get through phase one and possibly a portion, if not all of phase two, in the winter and early spring. And then phase two to three would be spring moving into summer and then widespread availability will likely be late spring, early summer. We've seen estimates of July, August for widespread availability.
Dr. Piercey:
The good news though, is even when we start vaccinating small numbers of folks, 100,000 200,000, I know that doesn't seem like a lot in the context of 6.8 million Tennesseans, that's 200,000 people who are not transmitting the disease. So we're going to start to see some measurable improvement in our case trends when we get some vaccines in arms.
Speaker 7:
Thank you.
Dr. Piercey:
Sure.
Speaker 6:
You have one?
Speaker 8:
Yes. You've mentioned that the hospital staffing is at a crucial point in Tennessee. To remedy this problem, are we going to have be like other states and allow COVID-positive people to treat COVID patients? And are we going to incentivize people to come out of retirement?
Governor Bill Lee:
What was the last part of that question?
Speaker 8:
If we're going to allow, like other states, COVID-positive people to treat COVID patients and going to incentivize people to come out of retirement?
Governor Bill Lee:
So I think incentivizing people to come out of retirement is equivalent to saying we would love for you to come back into the system if you are a trained healthcare worker, and that's happening right now. Dr. Long addressed that. We actually are calling on anyone who is a trained professional to re-engage in the healthcare system if they can.
Governor Bill Lee:
As far as COVID workers going back into facilities, that is an individual decision of healthcare providers, but to date that's not happening in our state. And I'm not sure there's any conversation about that happening at this point. And either one of you can correct that if that's not accurate, but I don't think there's any conversations about that in our state. She's going to correct me.
Dr. Piercey:
Sorry.
Governor Bill Lee:
I shouldn't answer that. I'm not an expert.
Dr. Piercey:
So having staff who are positive work in COVID specific units is allowable by the CDC. That is a practice that is being employed in some states that is starting to be discussed here amongst industry who are looking for staff and are desperate to get staff at the bedside. We have not made any official recommendations on that. That will be industry driven, but it is allowable by the CDC.
Speaker 6:
Governor, that's the time we have today.
Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you all. A lot of information, but thank you and thank you for the role you play in getting that information out to Tennesseans. Once again, we hope that Tennesseans have a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving. Thank you.