Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces 20 New #VaxtoSchool Pop-Up Sites

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced 20 new #VaxtoSchool pop-up vaccination sites to increase vaccination rates among school-aged New Yorkers. On September 21, Governor Hochul announced a total of 120 sites will be established over a 12-week period statewide. The Department of Health is working with localities, community-based organizations, and healthcare centers on-the-ground to establish these sites in all regions of the state. Partners, host sites, and outreach efforts are tailored to the communities they are built to serve. New locations are established on a rolling basis, and more sites will be announced each week over the 12-week period.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for continuation of the COVID story, and it'll be really nice when we get to a point where we can take all off topics and not have to focus on this, but until that time, we're going to make sure that the people of New York are fully apprised of what we're doing to fight this pandemic and also reinforce our priorities, and our priorities will continue to be keeping kids in school, making sure that we get people back to work safely, and to reopen New York safely. So we're continuing our focus on this and we all know the answer is getting more people vaccinated.

Here's our update. Our daily infection rate, stabilizing. If you look at the numbers, 2.58. Statewide, it's good. There are some regions of our state which could be doing better, and we're watching those closely to see what's going on and also deploying more pop-up services to those areas of the North Country. New York City, quite extraordinary when you think about this had been the epicenter, and I see from my daily walks around the city. Incognito, of course. And I do see so many people wearing masks, and people really adhering to, and I stopped in a restaurants being asked to show that they've been vaccinated. So I believe that's one of the reasons we have such great numbers in New York City. And I will also say when I'm speaking to people elsewhere, this is also a selling point for the City of New York, as we bring back people to here, to their jobs, but also to our entertainment venues, our theater, our concerts, and let people know that this is a very safe place to come. And when we start getting the international tourists back in November, I think this is going to be another reason they're going to come to New York City and New York State, as opposed to others.

Our New York City numbers, as I said, are very good. Manhattan. 1.1, that's great. And even Staten Island's doing very well in particular, given that they had been quite a bit higher in the past. So making good progress there. Daily hospitalizations, we have to make sure that we focus on this. It looks like a little plateau, but I'm not going to declare it a plateau. I want to watch those numbers more closely, but the numbers are basically the same as what they were last week. And sadly, we lost 38 people to COVID. So this is still deadly serious, and we're still at a point where we're seeing hospitalizations.

You know, 2,200 is a lot of people who thought they were just going to go about their daily lives and they contracted the virus, and now, they are struggling and suffering in a hospital, and our prayers go out to all of them. Also our regional hospitalizations, we're still in a good place. And we're watching to make sure that that ICU beds available is always going to be around those numbers. Hospital beds available have been stabilized, and that's important. Any area of the state that we see as a lessening of the availability, we will deploy people to help out, we'll find out what's going wrong there and what they need from us, because this is really important that people have the beds available to them in the event they need to be hospitalized.

So we're going to continue our vaccination, our school updates, our daily vaccination update as well. The numbers are looking better. I'm really pleased to see this, that we now have 18 and older, we have at least almost 83 percent last week. Now that has gotten even higher. So we're getting in the right direction. Still not happy with our young people, and I'm not sure what other argument I can make to the parents of these 12 to 17-year-olds, other than what are you waiting for? Your kids need this. Your kids needed this vaccination in order to enter kindergarten, and they should be getting flu shots, and there's a lot of other ways that we can protect our children. And I really am just beseeching parents to do what's right for their kids and not let them be one of those children who end up in a serious condition in a hospital or even worse yet.

So, we're going to continue focusing on the young people, and that's why I'm continuing our pop-up sites. As I mentioned, we'll have over 120, I'm adding 20 more pop-up sites. And this draws a lot of attention to it, makes it a lot easier, there's no reason why parents can't sign a permission slip and get it to the administrators. And let the kids get vaccinated while they're even at a school or a community center. And that's been successful, and I thank all the elected leaders. I mean, there has been such a unified voice of all the elected officials that we've reached out to and said, we'd like to do this in your community. And it's been, it's been very, very encouraging to see the support we've had there. We've always talked, for the last five weeks I've been on the job, about the breakthroughs. Watching those closely. Hospitalizations are stabilized, but our cases are, you know, .7. Now you need to know that it's truly the unvaccinated people that are populating our hospitals. I mean, unvaccinated people have a 10 times higher risk of developing severe COVID versus someone who's not. So the focus should not be on these breakthroughs, but it's a reminder why we are still wearing masks and why we're still being careful.

Even people who have been vaccinated. And vaccinations have really been established to be proving to be 90 to 95 percent effective. So, another argument why people should be vaccinated. And we'll watch these breakthroughs very closely though.

We've also made sure that we have the boosters available, I mentioned this last week and now we can get them out there. Only for Pfizer - we have to reinforce that. I have to continue waiting. I was a J and J back in March. So we're hoping that those approvals come through soon.

We know that the CDC has recommended them for people who've had their vaccine at least six months ago, 65 and older - living with medical conditions, high risk settings, or work in high risk settings as well. And that's important because that's a lot of people in that category.

And I've already spoken to clergy this morning, talking about how we can bring pop-ups to their churches again, and their religious facilities to make sure it's a lot easier for their members, particularly the older ones to get the booster shots as soon as possible, really important.

Again, we're confident about the supply. This is something I've had conversations with our manufacturers about and our pharmaceuticals to make sure we have them available. So everyone who's in one of these occupations and the CDC is helping us clarify who these individuals are - first responders, concrete staff, education, staff, food and agriculture workers, correction workers, postal workers, transit workers, grocery store workers. These are just some of the examples of high risk occupations, but I'm also hopeful that this will actually be broadened even more because, you know, we know in New York City, people are in situations where they're getting to their job and they're in a subway or on a bus, and we're having conversations about a more liberal interpretation of this, but this is what the CDC is recommending right now.

So far, we've had over 200,000 boosters administered when this started for the people who are immunocompromised. And we want people to know that there's a website out there, NY.gov.boosters - If you want to find out where you can get them and your eligibility as well. So we're focused on the booster shots intensely.

Again, my number one job as governor is to keep the people of this state safe. And that is why we were very firm in adhering to the vaccine mandate that as of Tuesday, actually midnight on Monday, Tuesday - healthcare workers, all across New York in health, hospitals and nursing homes were required to be vaccinated. It was the right thing to do. I will stand with that.

It was hard to do though. It's, it's hard to force people to do something that you truly wish they would do voluntarily. But I kept focusing on the people who, when they get sick, someone's in a car accident, they present themselves to a hospital. Or an expectant mom is making sure all her family members are vaccinated, so when the baby comes home that the baby will be safe. And yet they're not sure whether or not the person taking care of them - physically close, in charge with their safety and their care - they need to know that that person is vaccinated as well. That is something we owe the people of our state and that's why we held firm on this.

So basically right now, all healthcare workers must be vaccinated - for people working in hospitals and nursing homes. And the vaccination rates are going up. I just took office August 24th, it's hard to believe. 77 percent of people in hospitals were vaccinated. That number is now 87 percent, but that number is going to go up because those were the numbers that are fully vaccinated. If you see the number at the top, it's 92 percent. 87 are people who are fully vaccinated, which is great, but we needed to have people vaccinated with at least one dose by the 28th, and that is the number we hit was 92 percent.

You will see that number go higher quickly because what we're finding is, you know, as more people are furloughed or suspended that number is going to go up. But that was the exact day that we put the mandate, the effective date, in place.

And I have to say to all the healthcare workers and especially those who are a little nervous about this and anxious, and didn't do it up until recently. I thank you for doing what was right. I thank you for caring about the people that look to you for their healthcare, their lives, the attention you give them.

And this is truly a profession that I have such respect for particularly after seeing what they did over the last year, starting in March of 2020 - extraordinary work. And I continue to honor that and respect that. And I believe that this is the right thing to do, and I commend everyone who stepped up and have been with us throughout and I can only do what I can do to encourage more people to realize the powerful feeling it is to help people in their greatest time of need. And I want to attract more people to going to this profession and receive the training they need, whether it's a CNA or whether it's a fully licensed nurse or doctors or so many careers and the whole ecosystem around healthcare, the people of your state look to others to take care of them. And this is something I want to make sure that we're encouraging.

Nursing home staff. Similarly, we hit the 92 percent, on the exact date of the mandate. And that's up from 71% when I first took office. And let people know that this is not something that I'm going to deviate from, I'm going to hold firm.

So if you're waiting. What are you waiting for? Because we're not changing our position on that, which has been firm, and truly the only state in the nation that came out and mandated this. But we were hardest hit. We, everybody knows somebody who had COVID or succumb to COVID. This is personal for us as New Yorkers. And that's why we wanted to make sure that we may have been first hit, but I want to make sure we're the first ones who declare victory over COVID and this was an important start.

The vaccination rate for adult care facility staff that starts, it goes into effect October 7th, that'll be home health care agencies, hospices, adult, adult care facilities. And so the numbers are trending upward, and I think we're going to hit even higher numbers. I know, I'm sure we'll hit even higher numbers as October 7th rolls around.

So a lot of people had opinions on this and I am so grateful for the support we received from, for example, the nurses union, I spoke to Pat Kane, the Executive Director of the New York State Nurses Association.

We spoke to, I called so many hospital leaders over the last few days to just touch base, see how you're doing. Do you need some help? Are you going to be okay? And it was universal. The support we receive from the hospital leaders, the representatives of the unions, the nurses in particular, I thank them for having the courage to stand up for their members who were vaccinated and to encourage others to follow suit. So thank you.

I just want to convey my deep gratitude to all of you who did the right thing. And in order to mitigate any potential effects on delivery of healthcare in our state, we had to take some steps and we were bold. We let people know that we are preparing to amass, an army of people if necessary.

And part of that was even bringing the potential for the National Guard, which we did not have to deploy. We had thousands of student nurses that were available to be deployed and anxious to get some hands-on experience, bringing in people whose licenses had lapse because they had retired, you know, getting them available.

So one more step we took this past week was an executive order, that's suspended for 30 days, the requirement that there be pre-authorization of the medical care for insurance purposes. And why does that matter? Because there are so many licensed healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses and others who spend a lot of time having to do this paperwork.

When in fact, when there is, if there is a crisis, they could be deployed by their hospital to actually be on the floor and help people. And that's what I want to make sure that we just broadened the available pool of people to help solve this if we got to that point, but I would say we did not see that. We did not see a situation.

We still have our 24/7 operation center. And I think Kathryn Garcia and our entire health team for putting this in place. I mean, we knew what we need to do. We've been through crises before I've set up operation centers to deal with all kinds of crises and in my various roles I've had as a public official and you get that together.

You let the people affected know that if they need help, you call, you call and we'll help deploy people. So we work with them to let them know that we will help them with whatever they need.

We found that not a single healthcare facility reported being closed since the mandate went into effect and making sure that they know that, you know, continuing forward, we're going to keep this maintained and to deploy the resources if they need them, and I'll also be briefing our congressional delegation tomorrow on this to make sure we've answered all their questions that have been regular contact with our state leaders as well.

So here's the message. We got through a difficult week. It wasn't easy. I thank people who stepped up and did the right thing. And we're going to continue monitoring this and my number one priority again, I'll keep saying it because it is so true. Protect the people of this state. Protect their access to healthcare and be there to lend the support in any situation where that is compromised.

We've come too far my friends, we've come too far. We could not slide backwards. We're getting through this, we're getting through it together. And I thank everyone who really just understood the necessity of the mandate, who are willing to help, help their fellow New Yorkers. And that's what I love so much about this state, the willingness to do whatever it takes to take care of our fellow neighbors. And so, thank you.

Kevin Duggan, amNY: Good morning, Governor. Thanks for taking my question.

Governor Hochul: Good morning, Kevin.

Kevin Duggan, amNY: How are you?

Governor Hochul: Very good. Thank you.

Kevin Duggan, amNY: I wanted to ask you, since today is also the Port Authority's monthly meeting I wanted to see if I can get your stance on two of their current projects, one being the LaGuardia AirTran and do you still support pushing that forward, since it was [inaudible] you're your predecessor? And the second project I'd like to get your take on is 5 World Trade Center, which some people are pushing to be fully affordable housing. Right now it's slated to be 25 percent affordable. so just like to see what you what your stance is on those two projects.

Governor Hochul: Right, and I will tell you I'm operating things little bit differently here. I've had many conversations with Rick Cotton and we'll be looking for their recommendations and what they're doing at the board level on moving forward. My personal views on the AirTran is that this is something that can be examined. In terms of our priorities right now, I need to make sure that we have the resources. Our funding has dropped significantly for many of the projects that have been on the table but I also know that we need to continue building our way out of this crisis. So I'm looking closely at that. I'm well familiar with all the details, all the questions surrounding it, I'm familiar with the cost and I'll be having more conversations with the Authority on that directly and hearing from the people that we've charged with responsibility of helping us come to the right decisions. With respect to, what was the second question? World Trade Center? I think it was on World Trade Center? Affordable housing. I'm going to have that conversation and find out what the recommendations are and do what's best, but I will tell you, regardless of where it is, I have had conversations with out Commissioner of Housing as recently as yesterday to talk about the desperate need for more affordable housing all over the state. This is not just downstate, not just Long Island and the city. It is all over the state and we're going to be presenting a very bold, comprehensive plan to address those critical needs right now and not just what i saw in places, Queens, where people were wiped out of their homes because of that hurricane but people have been living in substandard housing for far too long. So that issue has the full attention of my administration and we'll be reporting on our priorities and how we're going to execute them in the very near future.

Jimmy Vielkind, WSJ: Good morning, Governor.

Governor Hochul: Good morning, Jimmy.

Jimmy Vielkind, WSJ: To go back to the health care vaccine mandate, I'm wondering, and some statistics if you can provide them, how many workers have been dismissed or separated from their jobs as a result of noncompliance? I know we got the 8 percent number, to how many people from that reserve pool have been deployed if any at this point? And we're hearing from hospitals that they've paused elective surgeries. Any response to that? And then the final part of the same topic here is different facilities as i can reckon in my reporting are handling the religious exemption question differently. Some have kept those people on the payroll working. Some have dismissed them. What is your advice to facilities, and if the court on October 12 sustains the religious exemption or overturns it that could lead to more positions vacated, and what's your plan for that?

Governor Hochul: That's why I'm keeping the operation centers standing, because you're absolutely correct and when we when we do win in court, and I feel very confident of our ability to win as there has been long precedent for the responsibility of a leader in state government to be able to protect the health, welfare and safety of the residents, and that's exactly what we're doing with this mandate.

I'm confident we're going to win. In fact I've had many conversations with our religious leaders. I know Cardinal Dolan and all the bishops of New York, for example, have said that they're not granting any religious exemptions, and that is their policy and I believe that people are claiming that from the Catholic side of the world which is where the lawsuit started. They should be paying attention to that if that's the true basis of their exemption.

We are staffing up and we're getting ready for a possibility of more people who have been granted this leeway from their employers. It's not something that we have control over. Some are people who have been furloughed pending the outcome. They have used their own discretion because the exemption has to come from the employer and the employer has to confirm that it's legitimate. You can't just self-affirm that you have this exemption, that you're entitled to this. So that's a temporary situation which will be resolved. We had hoped that we'd be in court this past Tuesday which was originally planned but the judge moved it. We'll be looking for in-person arguments that will be decided on the papers. So that'll be coming up very shortly but we're ready for that. We're prepared for that.

As far as the numbers who were willing to be deployed if necessary, I was really excited to see the number of people who were willing and what I mentioned before, student nurses, there are thousands of student nurses who easily could have been and still can be put into situations to supplement the help needed as well as the individuals who came forward to us to offer their assistance. I've also been hearing from the organizations representing the hospitals that by simply the executive order I signed a couple days ago, it freed up even downstate over 3,000 healthcare workers by removing the requirement of preauthorization for the next month. I don't have the exact number on upstate but speaking to HANYS, they said that that was a great help. I talked to the Greater New York Hospital Association and HANYS.

So they're grateful for this. They know that these people have now been made available in their own organizations which is the easiest way to do this. But we've been having conversations, possibly bringing in nurses who had come here from the Dominican Republic. There were 200 people that were here, had left, and we are hitting every possible way we can to make sure that we are not short staffed.

Elective surgeries, yes, every hospital has to have their own emergency staffing plan in place, not just related to COVID, not just related to this particular staffing circumstance, but you know, if the whole department comes down with the flu on the same day they all are required to have this, and some of them are activating it and for some of them that means delaying some of the elective surgeries on a temporary basis. So yes, I'm aware that that's going on

In terms of how many people have been either suspended or furloughed depending on what the institution wants to do, those numbers are being kept by the individual institutions. They're not required to report them to us but we can just ask people for that information but we don't have a hard number. We only know the State numbers which are several hundred I believe but we can get you those numbers of people who are in facilities that we directly run, SUNY upstate, SUNY downstate and other facilities that we have direct control over.

Michael Gartland, NYDN: Good morning, Governor. How are you?

Governor Hochul: I'm doing great.

Michael Gartland, NYDN: I have a question on Rikers. We learned that Mike Gianaris and some other State legislators are calling on you to immediately release another 164 inmates under Less Is More provisions, and I'm wondering if you think that's the right thing and i was wondering if you could talk about some of the politics here. Mayor de Blasio has kind of, you know, asked you for help, he's blamed [inaudible], he's, you know, pointed to State court system as not being helpful, you know, and i think many people would say this is, this problem squarely falls on his shoulders. So can you talk about Gianaris's request in that context as well, the politics here, and whose shoulders the blame ultimately?

Governor Hochul: Well, if you're looking for me to point blame at somebody, I think all of you who follow me for the last five weeks know that's not how I operate. That does not get us where we need to get. I understand there is always politics dynamics going on and people will do what they want. I will never let that be the basis for me to make any decisions.

I will be looking forward to responding to the Deputy Majority Leader's letter. It was signed by I believe 38 individuals and every one of them knows that I've done more, I'm the elected official who's done the most to assist to this situation in Rikers because it is a tinderbox. I spoke about this a number of times in press conferences, what I know to be the situation there, and just last night I spoke to representatives from the corrections officers. I have a lot of thoughts on this. Fifty-five percent of corrections officers are women. There have been many assaults on women in that facility. This is unconscionable. We have to take dramatic steps now to alleviate the pressure cooker that's there and here's what I've done.

First of all just, this past week I signed an executive order which gave us the authority to have remote hearings. One of the reasons there has been a backlog, more people in Rikers than there had been pre-COVID, this is not a new phenomenon but because people could not go into court, we could not have jury trials because of the spacing requirements in the facilities. There's been a lot of reasons why COVID exacerbated an already bad situation. So we're dealing with the fallout from that. I had to take a strong position and say, let's get the backlog cleared out by allowing the judges and the defense lawyers or the legal aid and the defendants the option to get this resolved and get the disposition much sooner. So that's in effect right now, so they'll have their day in court much sooner.

We also signed the Less Is More legislation which was, everyone thought that, you know, I would not do that and thought that was going to be controversial. Doesn't matter - it was the right thing to do, and what it did was make sure that people who are in Rikers and other facilities who are simply there because, yes, they'd paid their debt to society, but while they're out on parole the committed a technical parole violation. Those people were released immediately, 201 people released under the law I signed just about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago.

I also offered that we could transfer people and there are people who had 90 days or less on their time. We've transferred over 128 already into the Department of Corrections custody, New York State. The New York City corrections commissioner or officer, he worked closely with our commissioner of corrections, great relationship. Again this is another example where when you're not in battle mode you can actually get things done, so we've been working with the City on this and I just met with our corrections commissioner yesterday to talk about not just the 128 that have been transferred - we have several hundred more that are in the category of being released. We're doing about 40 a day right now just to manage the proper and safe transport of people to other facilities but we have the capacity in our State prisons and I've offered that.

And in addition, you know, we're going to be looking at the situation of the women inmates and what our capabilities are there, and I'll be talking about that a little bit later, perhaps today or tomorrow.

So I think that you can hear from this that there's never been such direct action. It's not standing here and holding a press conference and criticizing everybody. That doesn't solve the problem, and the problem is real and the state of affairs in Rikers right now is a crisis and when crises occur, the State needs to assist even if it's technically a City facility. I get that. I get it's the responsibly of the City, always has been, always will be, but if I can just bring resources to the table or help with some of the solutions we'll get there.

Finally, with respect to the content of the letter from representatives from the Legislature, if they want to change the effective date beyond what they passed this past spring, they want to come back to Albany, let's have that conversation. I'll sign if they want to make it early. I did release everybody who is eligible to be released under that law already, and that's why we had over 200 people released day one, 201 people.

I did act as if it were in effect already on that date and people who had already done the time necessary. For example, if your violation would have required you to be incarcerated for 30 days but you'd already been in Rikers for 60 days, okay, you're done. So we actually did act as if that was in place for purposes of releasing over 200 people.

But I'm happy to work with the Legislature. We worked with them on Less Is More to get it signed, and if they want to come back to Albany once again and change the effective date of what they wrote, let's have conversation. Zack?

Zack Fink, NY1: Governor, as you have seen this week, there are a couple of people who are seriously considering running against you, and likely a primary challenge is coming. Number one, what do you think about that? Number two, do you think you should be given a little more time on the job before people start jumping in [inaudible]?

I've been an elected official for 27 years. I'm very confident in my ability to govern the state. I know the people of the State of New York have used phrases like "breath of fresh air" in terms of my leadership style and all I'm going to do is continue doing my job. I don't have the time to be distracted by all the political noise. I truly do not. I have to get this state free from the clutches of COVID, I have to protect New Yorkers, and everybody is free to do whatever they want. I've got a job to do and that's my focus. Marcia?

Marcia Kramer, CBS2: Governor, yesterday, the Broadway show, Aladdin, closed after just two performances because a number of people and the crew tested positive for COVID. I wonder if you're concerned with the State opening up and other venues opening up, from sports facilities and concerts and things like that, if you're concerned similar things could happen and what are you doing in terms of planning to combat that?

Governor Hochul: That's a good question because you want to continue on that trajectory where people are vaccinated, tested regularly, and it's safe to come out, and that is a very unfortunate situation that occurred. But I also know that vaccines would prevent that from happening. Again, you saw the breakthrough numbers. It is so minuscule, and if people are vaccinated, I know people going to sporting events have to be vaccinated, people going to restaurants have to vaccinated, so I would still say that we're taking the steps necessary to prevent that from happening and focusing more on the vaccinations and testing will just tell you, yes, you are positive - that doesn't help you because you've already contracted it or exposed other people, so that's what we're focused on. The only answer is more people getting vaccinated and people in shows being vaccinated, people at concerts being vaccinated, so they can feel confident when they're sitting in a seat for two or three hours finally enjoying an in-person performance that they'll be safe to do so.

Marcia Kramer, CBS2: Just wondering if you think there could be a time when, if this continues to happen, you might have to pull back, instead of 100 percent capacity, you might have a reduced capacity of some kind.

Governor Hochul: Marcia, I will always keep all the options on the table. We're watching this closely. A slide I showed a few weeks ago during one of my presentations showed the trajectory of what we went through last year, starting with the end of summer looking great, we're going to be fine, all's good, Halloween, Thanksgiving, the religious holidays, New Year's and super bowl weekend, just put us in a very bad place and thank God that was the time the vaccines were coming out.

I have said we should not end up like that because we now have the weapon to fight back with and that's the vaccine. So given that we have the vaccine and the boosters and more available testing and there's just more of an acceptance of these in order to go places, we should be in a better place.

But I'll always be prepared to do what it takes to protect New Yorkers and all options are always on the table, but let's just get more people vaccinated.

Juliet Papa, 1010 WINS: Governor, your thoughts on the nursing home, the proposed victims compensation fund, or reparations, for the nursing home residents who died of COVID?

Governor Hochul: Yeah, I know there was a little activity outside the building here yesterday, as there always is. It's a new concept. I'm always willing to go and talk to our legislators as we get back in session and see what legislation lands on my desk.

Andrew Siff, NBC 4: In terms of the mandate for healthcare workers, our understanding is that with hospital and nursing home workers, it's a flat-out mandate and you have to be vaccinated. For those in other settings, like the Department of Mental Health, even some prison jobs that involve patient care, there's still that weekly testing option that starts October 12. Why not make it a flat-out mandate for all health care workers?

Governor Hochul: Because what we were able to do with regulations from the Department of Health was to mandate it to all the facilities that they regulate. Those facilities are not governed by the Department of Health. So that mandate, those regulations did not cover them.

That being said, we have been working and continue to be working on regulations that would cover all those services being promulgated from the Office of Mental Health and other facilities. That is going to happen. That is happening. You know, we probably will be ready to announce it very shortly and have been working toward that.

But I agree there's no reason to have an exception. People need to be vaccinated. They should know that now. We will have the legal authority to announce that very shortly. I agree with you. They need to be vaccinated. Testing will not be an option.

I just have to get the regulations to make sure that when we get the inevitable lawsuit that we have all the protections and the defenses to make sure we can establish that we did this properly with the right authority. I did not have the right authority under what we did with the hospitals and nursing homes. Otherwise I assure you I would have. Thank you everybody. Appreciate your time today.