Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan COVID-19 Briefing Transcript April 8

Mike Duggan: (00:00) Every state in this country. The city of Detroit now is doing more than a thousand tests a day between the fairgrounds and our 15 minute tests. And so the restrictions that were in place when the state only had 125 could afford to be loosened. And so yesterday Dr. Khaldoon issued an order that if you are not using the state lab, you don't have to go through the patient under investigation process. So I would say to the doctors in this community, if you're writing a prescription to go to the fairgrounds, you no longer have to go through the PUI process. Now, we still only want prescriptions for people showing symptoms, that I still have not seen evidence that the fairgrounds testing, the methodology is reliable for people who are so early in their illness that they aren't showing symptoms, but it is now much easier for doctors in Southeastern Michigan to prescribe a test. Mike Duggan: (01:03) And this is going to be our goal. I want every single person in the city of Detroit who's showing symptoms to get tested right away. This is how we beat this when we know who's really sick and who's not, and we can separate the infectious from the non-infectious. So call your doctor, there are 30 of them in the city of Detroit taking new patients right now. If you've got a cough, you've got a fever, you've got trouble breathing and we are going to continue to ramp this up. And I know I'm thanking different people every day, but I have to make a note of two people, a council member, Janeé Ayers and council member Roy McCalister have been out on that fairground site nearly every day volunteering to move traffic, move people along, there under their mask you never noticed them. They didn't get any credit. They are just out there because they care about the people in the city. Mike Duggan: (02:06) And I just think we ought to acknowledge those two elected officials, council members, McCalister and Ayers for what they're doing every day. And if you, have their emails or their Facebook or Instagram, shoot them a note to say thank you for what you're doing. A report on the departments. We have 170 members of the Detroit police department that have tested positive for COVID-19, 52 members of the fire department but the numbers have changed dramatically. We have 369 officers quarantined but we have 421 that have returned to work and so the police department is staffing all the way back up now. The specialty squads are getting filled again as those offices are taken from the street, put it back on their squads because we can fill out our patrol cars and Detroit police continue to do an outstanding job and now in addition to fighting crime they are breaking up every group that's starting to form, which is a risk to all of us. Mike Duggan: (03:16) I've been talking to bus drivers for a good part of the morning and I want to thank the riders in this community. They are overwhelmingly adopting the masks as they get on the bus. They've been on the buses, our riders are using them and I think the bus is now a safer place to travel. The drivers today asked me to take another step and I'll be talking to the head of the transit police this afternoon, but they tell me that we have individuals who are clearly not going to essential jobs or to take care of family members. That the pattern of them riding back and forth is indicating that they do not have an essential place to go. It is not legal under the governor's order for you to be on the bus if you are not providing one of the essential services that the governor outlined. Mike Duggan: (04:16) You're working in an essential job, you're taking care of a family member, et cetera. And so I'm going to be working with the transit police to give our bus drivers the opportunity to flag individuals they don't believe are actually performing those jobs. And our transit police officers may question you politely and I hope you'll take it in the spirit that it's meant, which is to protect everybody. And if you're on your way to a job, you're on your way to take care of a loved one, we're going to support you on that. But we can't have people riding back and forth on buses who don't have a specific purpose. We are right now out in our first nursing home, so Denise Fair's crew is out testing the first one and we're going to see how that works tonight. Mike Duggan: (05:09) The staff members of nursing home are coming to our 15 minute testing center. Our volunteer medical students from Wayne State are in the nursing home taking swabs from each of the patients and sometime late this evening they will run those tests after the 15 minute center is closed and tomorrow that nursing home will know every single patient whose positive, who's negative, so they can handle that appropriately. We'll be doing another nursing home tomorrow and then from here on out, we'll either be doing a homeless shelter or a nursing home, one or two a day, every day to protect our most vulnerable citizens. Mike Duggan: (05:51) I want to talk a little bit about the numbers today. Denise Fair will give them to you, but we had 26 more deaths reported, 26 more of our neighbors, somebody's mother or father, son or daughter, friend and loved one. We lost 26 more and this is the hardest part of this job. But when you look at the trend lines, this reinforces what I said yesterday. We're seeing the beginning of a glimmer of light and so those who are tracking the number know that on Sunday we had more than 30 deaths in the city on Monday 29 on Tuesday 25 and today 26, that is a large number, but it's not growing, it's not doubling. We are seeing the curve beginning to flatten out. I've spent a good part of the day on the phone with the CEOs of big hospital systems and they are telling me they are seeing the same things that with admissions to hospitals, we're starting to see a little bit of flattening out. Mike Duggan: (07:15) And so I used to run a hospital. If you have a 500 person hospital, you'd like to have a hundred people be admitted and a hundred people being discharged every day. If you had that, you'd have the same number of beds and the same amount of staffing. When more people get admitted than are discharged, you start to run into crowding and what we had here was 125 people admitted a day, a hundred being discharged, 150 people admitting a day, a hundred being discharged. That was the anxiety you were hearing from the hospital is that COVID-19 was driving up the admissions to the point where we were getting crowded where people change surgery suites to patient beds. What they are telling me now is we're starting to see a shift. We're still increasing the emissions, but now maybe it's 160 admissions, but 140 are getting better and are being discharged. Mike Duggan: (08:10) It's still going up, make no mistake. It's still going up, but it's going up more slowly than what we have seen and I just spoke to [inaudible 00:08:19] who is the head of the field hospital at the TCF center and as you know there are a thousand beds there. They are going to start. The plan is now to add 25 beds on Friday, 25 beds on Saturday and ramp up the first 200 or 250 beds and see what happens. There was a time when it looked like we might've had to ramp up a hundred or 200 beds at a time. It's early to tell, but if we do this right, we might not have to have a thousand beds at the TCF center, but the trends that we're seeing, it's not because the doctors and the nurses do anything different. They've been doing a phenomenal job for day one. Mike Duggan: (09:08) The reason this is flattening out is because of you. The people of this city have been honoring social distancing. Every place I've gone today I'm seeing people wearing masks. It is so encouraging, but when I see the 67 degrees in sun, it scares me because you know how they keep showing you these projections it's going to go like this and hit the apex and come down? It's a bunch of nonsense. That's not what happens. If you look at what happened in Italy, if you look at what happened in Spain, if you look at what happened in Germany, it flattened out and they said, "Oh good." And it dipped, and then it came up and then it started to dip and it came up. It doesn't go in a straight curve and there's no doubt that what happens is it starts to go down a little bit and people say, "Oh, good, it's over" and they start to congregate. The reason the infections go down is because... Mike Duggan: (10:03) ... we're separating from each other and the virus has nobody to jump to. It starts to die out, but as soon as we start to cluster again, the virus has a whole lot of people to go to and it spikes back up. Mike Duggan: (10:17) The only country in the world that really saw the kind of trend that they're talking about that went like that was South Korea and you know what South Korea did? Very good social distancing and very aggressive testing. We are trying to change those strategies, but whether the TCF Center needs 250 beds or a thousand beds, has nothing to do with [inaudible 00:10:43] who's running the center. It has to do with the people in this community. Do we care enough about each other that when it's 67 degrees and sunny, we don't go and gather together and give this virus new energy? Because we are starting to weaken it and if we don't give it new energy by clustering, we're going to continue to be successful. Mike Duggan: (11:12) And with that, what I'd like to do is the men and women on the front line all along, in addition to the police who've done such a great job have been the firefighters and the EMTs. They've gotten more and more work. They've had to work overtime. You've never heard any drama, you haven't heard about ambulance delays, you haven't heard about people not showing up for work. You haven't heard about sick cause. These men and women just show up every single day and protect you without any drama. Sometimes when you don't squeak, you don't get attention but I don't ever lose sight for a second of what they mean to us and I'd like Fire Commissioner Eric Jones to talk about what his department's doing and how they're going about fighting this disease. Eric? Eric Jones: (12:04) Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. So I'm deeply moved and grateful for the professionalism and heroic actions of the members of the Detroit Fire Department. They have not faltered during this crisis. They are showing up and serving. If they are exposed they are fighting aggressively to return to work. Medics and firefighters are obviously on the front lines in this battle and we owe them our sincere gratitude. Eric Jones: (12:29) I have numerous stories of medics and firefighters before the implementation of the rapid testing, calling repeatedly to check their return to work status and I'm happy to say since the implementation of the rapid testing we have 63 members that have been returned to work. I have pictures of medics and firefighters on the street standing in front of their rigs with the City of Detroit flag. Business is continuing to be handled. Eric Jones: (13:03) We had the eighth battalion and the fourth battalion last night on a building fire rescue four year old twins. They're not stopping. We have firefighters on the East side, squad three in particular, that are receiving numerous runs to convalescent homes and they're going there multiple times a day delivering compassionate care. But we also have the dispatchers handling the COVID related runs and our fire inspectors who are out checking for essential business compliance. Our training academy and Dr. Dunn ensuring that our members remain updated on the latest medical protocols and protective measures. I'm so proud of Dr. Dunn. I know the mayor is so thankful to him. His work load has expanded exponentially. He's now the medical director for the Detroit Police and DDOT and he hasn't missed a beat. Our logistics team working in concert with director of procurement Boise Jackson to keep the city's inventory robust, and this is probably what I'm most proud of. Right before the crisis really hit, the mayor was concerned that we had several public facing employees and he wanted to stand up a team that could go out and professionally assess our 9,000 city employees and present in a calm manner directions whether or not they needed to go to a clinic, if they needed to be transported, if they needed to go home, if they needed to seek help from their private doctors. We implemented internal COVID response team manned by our EMS supervisory team. Eric Jones: (14:55) Right after the meeting I went and met with President Gagliano of the EMS Officers Association and to date they have assessed over 481 city employees. They've done an amazing job. They continue to do a job and they should be recognized for that. The DFFA leadership, I cannot tell you how grateful I am to them. I've had several conversations with President Gayheart and he's working with the administration, he and the executive board so that we can get through this crisis. Eric Jones: (15:34) Finally I want to recognize my executive team for working around the clock to keep the department safe and our department functioning at a high level. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mike Duggan: (15:45) Thank you commissioner and we're going to keep working on protecting our business base so that we have a strong economic engine in this city when we do start to come out of this. We've initiated a number of programs that have already been very successful, but the single biggest program in the country is the $350 billion that Congress passed in what they call the Paycheck Protection Act. Basically what it says is if you've got a company or a nonprofit of less than 500 employees, they will basically pay eight weeks of your employee's salaries. If you keep them on or if you laid them off and you bring them back, they'll pay those salaries for eight weeks. It's basically a way to keep your business going another eight weeks and to keep you from losing your employees to other positions. Mike Duggan: (16:44) A lot of our companies have already applied and if you figured this out, you've got a bank, you're going through the Small Business Administration. That's great. We think that's terrific. We want to make sure every Detroit company takes advantage. But if you are having trouble figuring this out, you need some technical assistance and you're a Detroit company, Charity Dean and our team are leading an effort that can give you help to get through that process to make sure every Detroit company gets this and we want to make sure the Detroit companies get in before that $350 billion runs out. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but when you start to spread it over every small business in this country, there's going to be a lot of small businesses that are at the end of the line when the money's run out. So Charity Dean came forward and said, "I want to do something for Detroit companies to make sure they have every resource possible to qualify for this funding." With that I'll turn it over to the head of our Civil Rights and Inclusion Division. Speaker 1: (17:48) Thank you Mayor. First I'd like to say thank you to everyone that's working hard during this time. We really have a special message today to businesses in Detroit. You are the backbone of our city. We need you to survive and to succeed and we want to help you do so. Speaker 1: (18:08) So since mid March we have been working very diligently on a number of programs for Detroit businesses. We talked earlier this week about our Feeding the Frontlines Program, which still is in need of Detroit restaurants to sign up and folks to make donations. Today I want to talk about the Technical Assistance Program that we want to make sure every single Detroit business in the city of Detroit that wants to apply has the resources to apply. The SBA Program, the size of the loans, it starts off as a loan and then it can turn into a grant. So the size of those loans can equal up to two times a business' average monthly payroll plus an additional 25%. The loans become forgivable if the businesses the loan for payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utility costs and if they maintain their employment and compensation levels for eight weeks after the loan. Speaker 1: (19:05) So as the mayor indicated, if you are a business with 500 employees or less, you are eligible for this program. What we want to do today is if you are a Detroit business and you need help applying for this program, we want you to go to Detroitmi.gov/sbahelp. If you go to that website, you'll learn about the program. The information and eligibility information is there but we've got amazing partners in Ascenture and DTE Foundation, the Accounting Aid Academies and many more that are ready to provide technical assistance one-on-one for Detroit businesses. Speaker 1: (19:41) So that website again is Detroitmi.gov/sbahelp. All of the other programs and resources for Detroit businesses can also be found on the city's Detroitmi.gov/COVIDresources page. Thank you very much. Mike Duggan: (19:58) So if you've got this SBA thing figured out, that's terrific. Please don't call us. Mike Duggan: (20:03) But if you've got a company and you haven't figured it out, go to detroitmi.gov, hit the button for help with the SBA loan, and we will be there to help you access that money. Mike Duggan: (20:17) And finally, our last speaker who is now, I guess on social media, the best known city health director in America with their skills with making masks, Denise Fair. Denise Fair: (20:33) Thank you, Mayor. So again, thanks to the first responders who are ensuring our safety workers who are providing us with the essentials that we need, and those who are working day and night to help us fight against COVID-19. Denise Fair: (20:47) So as of today, there are 5,834 confirmed cases and 247 confirmed deaths. Again, 5,834 confirmed cases and 247 confirmed deaths. Now this is 333 more cases than I reported yesterday and 26 more deaths. I just want to make sure I provide my condolences to the residents in the loss of their loved ones. Now today, if you go to our website, you will find a new category on our website and that new category is race. So we now have positive cases as well as death by race, and the data's available for the majority of the cases, so what you'll find is that race is unknown for about 40% of cases in Detroit, and both the state as well as the health department have access to this information. Denise Fair: (21:47) The results are sent to us by the lab as well as through hospitals and oftentimes we just don't have that race information. So I want to make sure that was clear, but again, that information is now available on our site, and we are reporting based upon what we know. So to slow the spread, we must continue honoring the Governor's stay-at-home order and traveling only when necessary, going out in public again only when necessary, making sure that you're keeping a safe distance of at least six feet apart from each other, whether you're indoors or outdoors, and also disinfecting surfaces, and of course washing your hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based sanitizer. We all should know too that covering your nose and your mouth with a scarf or a homemade mask is beneficial in helping to slow the spread of this virus. Denise Fair: (22:38) As I noted yesterday, you could be completely healthy and still could be a carrier and not even have symptoms, so that's why it's so important to make sure you are staying home or again, when you're outside, making sure that you are using a mask. And I know Detroiters, you're listening. Yesterday I was in Southwest shopping for groceries and I was so amazed to see pretty much everyone in the store, including the children, including the store clerks, they all had masks, and again, it was really reassuring. In fact, I wanted to say thank you to everyone that I saw. Denise Fair: (23:12) So I do want to keep this momentum going and and encourage everyone, particularly now that the weather is changing, today it's about 70 degrees and it's sunny, but just please be patient, stay the course. We are going to get through this. It's going to be a long road ahead of us, but we need to keep going and keep moving forward. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to the Mayor for questions. Mike Duggan: (23:34) Okay. Anybody have any questions? Larry Spruill: (23:37) Mayor Duggan, this is Larry Spruill, WDIV Local 4. You mentioned that there is a positive, you're seeing positive signs as far as the cases here in metro Detroit. Nationwide, they're mentioning that the next couple two weeks will be the worst that the country has seen. Are you concerned that those numbers were changed and that we will see a drastic decline here in the city? Mike Duggan: (23:57) Again, it's still going up. It's getting worse every day. It's just not going up at the rate that it was, and yes, I'm, I'm extremely concerned. I got up this morning, looked out the window and saw the sun shining and the warm weather, and every one of us cringed. I don't remember my life ever cringing because we had a sunny day. We are making progress but I get up every morning afraid that people are going to get complacent and start to gather again, and this virus is going to take off on us again. I'm very concerned about it. Larry Spruill: (24:33) One more question for you. Also, you had the thousand dollar fines and plays. With Easter coming up this weekend, a lot of churches have to go to streaming online. Most some churches are also talking about doing outside services. What do you have to say to those establishments? Mike Duggan: (24:53) So we need to talk about that. The Governor, I know, is dealing with and Mark Totten, our legal advisor, is dealing with the legalities of that, and we'll get direction from the Governor and enforce appropriately. Larry Spruill: (25:07) Thank you. Jim Kiertzner: (25:15) Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Jim Kiertzner with Channel 7. Yesterday you said that the city at the end of this fiscal year could be $100 million with a deficit. Given everything that's going on, have you started to take a look at cuts? Could there be layoffs? Could there be furloughs? Could there be pay cuts? And how does that reconcile with the discussion about possible hazardous duty pay? Mike Duggan: (25:41) Those are really good questions, Jim, and you could be part of our cabinet the way you're asking them. So those are the questions that we're evaluating. We have the good fortune and that we set aside for Detroit a huge rainy day fund. I'll get more into the intricacies of the budget and then you probably want to know, but the way the plan of adjustment was structured was that we spent $50 million in demolition only if we had it. So the $50 million was always optional. Mike Duggan: (26:14) Our budget has been doing so well. We've been spending $50 million in demolition every year. We've had to shut down demolition virtually completely. And you know, I can go back and talk about the need for a blight bod issue, but it is becoming apparent that we desperately need that. But between shutting down the demolition program, dealing with the rainy day fund, and then we're looking seriously at other jobs that can be cut. Are there furloughs that need to be done? Do executives need to take pay cuts? All of those things are being analyzed. We will not run a deficit at the end of the day. We will balance the budget, and the problem isn't just this year, it'll be next year too. Mike Duggan: (27:01) I mean, the city of Detroit's revenues come in when the auto plants are operating. They come in when crowds are going to sports events and movie theaters, when they're eating in our restaurants, when they're going to our casinos. And all of those sources of revenue are down significantly right now. And so, do I think by July 1st in our new fiscal year, they'll all be up to a hundred percent? No, I don't. And so we're going to have to not just make cuts this year, we're going to have to adopt a budget next year. Mike Duggan: (27:32) But all I can say to you is this. This administration came in in 2014 in the middle of bankruptcy. We came in when their street lights weren't working, the ambulances weren't running, the grass wasn't being cut in the parks. We understand what it means to balance the budget in tough times and rebuild services, and I said to all of them, we're going back to 2014, but I don't think there's a group of city team in the country that knows more about how to come back from a financial crisis than the team that you have right now in the city of Detroit. Jim Kiertzner: (28:09) We got an email early this morning. It looked like it came from a Henry Ford Health Services employee. We asked for confirmation from Henry Ford Health Services. They didn't, what do I want to say, substantiate it or deny it. The long and the short of it was an email that went out to all employees telling them that if you show symptoms of COVID-19, don't stay out of work for 14 days, stay out of work for only seven days. And if you can still work, we want you to come back with those COVID symptoms and work with COVID patients. It's a seven day stay home rather than 14 days. Mike Duggan: (28:55) This is the first I'm hearing of that. I'd have to look at it before I could express an opinion. Jim Kiertzner: (28:58) Okay. If that is the case, where does that put us in the city of Detroit? Mike Duggan: (29:02) Again, I don't react to something without being informed. So this is the first I'm hearing of it, so I need to see exactly what the memo says. Did they get a test at Henry Ford and the test was negative and they... Without knowing the memo and talking to [inaudible 00:29:19], I don't know how to respond to that. So if you'll share the email with me, I will talk to [inaudible 00:09: 28], but I want to give you an informed answer. I don't want to give you an uninformed answer. Jim Kiertzner: (29:33) Indeed. Thank you, sir. Larry Spruill: (29:37) Mayor, one more question for you. In light of everyone is talking about how this virus plays a factor with the African American community, metro Detroit is majority African Americans. What is your reaction or comment to the city and to the African American community being affected by this virus? Mike Duggan: (29:56) You know, we've talked about this here almost every day. Nine years of my life at the Detroit Medical Center. Mike Duggan: (30:03) ... nine years of my life at the Detroit Medical Center. I was running the hospital system that saw more uninsured, more Medicaid patients and probably more African American patients than any hospital system, certainly in the Midwest, and we fought this every single day. The life expectancy of African Americans is shorter than it is in Caucasians, that chronic disease, whether it's hypertension, whether it's diabetes, whether it's asthma, whether it's heart disease, whether it's chronic kidney disease, is much higher in the African American community. The reason that I started the heart hospital and built it at the DMC was to try to erase the gap in the quality of healthcare available in the City of Detroit versus in the suburbs. And what the coronavirus is doing is exacerbating the racial health gap that has existed in this country for a very long time. And this is what I know Denise Fair and I and Joneigh Khaldun wake up every morning. Mike Duggan: (31:14) We know that members of this city are more vulnerable to dying from COVID-19 than Caucasians. We know that and that means it's that much more urgency that we need to where masks, we need to practice social distancing because the consequences are greater. And I hope when this is over it causes the country to really examine the question, why these racial disparities have been allowed to persist. Speaker 2: (31:49) Oh, last question. Is there anything the City of Detroit is doing differently in regarding to addressing this issue or dealing with this issue? Mike Duggan: (31:55) I'll let Denise Fair talk about the things that we have been doing to deal with racial disparities in the City of Detroit. Denise Fair: (32:03) Thank you for the question. So I think this is an ongoing discussion. As the mayor mentioned, this is nothing new in that we have a city that is predominantly African American and we need to make sure that we're having conversations with this population. I know I've had conversations with clergy, I've had conversations with schools, with every district. We're providing a lot of education because it takes a village. And if I can meet with you personally, I will. If you have ideas we want to hear... We definitely want to hear from people, but it's going to take some time. We're still learning about COVID-19 and we have a ways to go. Speaker 2: (32:44) Thank you. Mayor, just two questions from Christine Ferretti at the Detroit News, wanted to know if there's any update on the potential for hazard pay for first responders. Mike Duggan: (32:57) We're analyzing that right now and I have been actively lobbying Congress. I've talked to Senator Gary Peters and if you follow this, Gary Peters has been the leading voice in the negotiations for the so-called Stimulus Four package to assure hazard pay for first responders across the country. So at the federal level I'm taking an active role in pushing it. I also have our team analyzing our situation. We're trying to figure out how to cut $ 100 million in expenses because if we run deficits, the Financial Review Commission is still around. The City of Detroit could still lose self determination of our finances and nothing in the state law says if you have a health crisis, you don't have to balance your budget. Mike Duggan: (33:49) And so what we're trying to do is find the right balance between doing something, which I would like to do for the police officers, the firefighters, the EMTs and the bus drivers that are facing the public every day, and also dealing with the reality that we could be laying off some of their colleagues in other departments. And so we're trying to balance that. And I think in the next day or two we'll reach a conclusion. Part of it is, I'm trying to see how realistic the effort is to get the funding federally. I was really pleased to see Treasury Secretary Mnuchin back the idea of the Stimulus Four package, including payments, hazard pay for first responders. If the feds look like they're moving on it quickly, I think we will just get behind that and support it strongly. If it looks like it's going to get bogged down, we're going to have to look at doing something in the interim here in the city. Speaker 2: (34:48) Okay. And our last question was whether or not there's been any further thought or consideration of a curfew or park closures? Mike Duggan: (34:56) I'm talking to our police commanders every day. Our problems are not in the parks. In fact, I talked to all of the district managers today, the police are doing an outstanding job of patrolling the parks. We've taken down the basketball hoops in the areas the police have identified were problem areas. Today I texted the governor because when we took them out of some of our parks, some of the games migrated over to Belle Isle and she tells me that they'll have the hoops down on Belle Isle today so we don't have the natural congregations, but the police commanders and I are talking continually. Friday we're going to have another meeting, but I am going to defer to the judgment of the precinct commanders and Assistant Chief White, who are in the field. Mike Duggan: (35:41) So far, they're telling me that people are using the parks in a responsible way. Our problems are more crowds gathering at somebody's front yard in the neighborhood or gathering at gas stations more than we're seeing in parks. And our problems are not necessarily after hours anymore than during the day. So we talk about it every day. So far, the people of this city have overwhelmingly been cooperative, and I know you can see a posting on one group on social media. It does not reflect the fact that the vast majority of this city have been really caring about their neighbors and trying really hard not to spread this disease. Speaker 2: (36:23) All right, that's it. Mike Duggan: (36:25) Is that it? All right. Thank you all very much. Mike Duggan: (36:27) (silence)