right I am joined tonight by dr. Jeanine
Khaldoun our chief medical officer and
captain Emmett McGowan the commander
here at the State Emergency Operations
Center what here today because we have
identified the first presumptive
positive case of corona virus in
Michigan we're taking every step that we
can to mitigate the virus spread and
keep Michiganders safe I've signed an
executive order declaring a state of
emergency in order to maximize our
efforts and assists local governments
and officials to slow the spread it's
crucial that Michiganders continue to
take preventative measures there are
easy things that we can do to lower risk
and the risk of transmission wash your
hands often for 20 seconds at least
practice touching your face less often
replace handshakes with elbow box cover
your mouth when you cough or sneeze
I know these sound simple but they work
and they will help mitigate the spread
the main goal of these efforts is to
slow the spread of the virus not to stop
it it has moved into Michigan and I urge
all Michiganders to take these
recommendations very seriously
to share this information with their
friends and family and co-workers for
those of you who have questions the
Department of Health and Human Services
has set up a new user friendly website
at www.att.com/biz
the task forces are focused on Education
Health and Human Services our economy
and workforce and state operations
they're already meeting to discuss
further preventive measure
that we can take the coronavirus has the
potential to impact our lives in nearly
every aspect of our lives
so these task forces will help us slow
the spread in those particular areas dr.
Joan a khaldoun and the team at MD HHS
have been hard at work
we're Michiganders we're tough we know
how to take care of each other we will
get through this but for now please make
sure your families and friends are
taking every preventive measure
available to keep yourselves safe talk
to your friends and your family and your
coworkers and encourage them to make
smart choices we and state government
will continue our work to take every
necessary precaution to keep Michigander
safe thank you with that I'm going to
pass this over to dr. janae khaldoun
will now talk more about MD HHS's
efforts Thank You governor as the
governor mentioned today we learned of
the first to presume positive cases of
Kovach 19 here in Michigan these tests
are performed at our safe laboratory
here in Lansing while these tests still
have to be confirmed by the CDC we are
proceeding with the public health
investigation and response as if these
are positive cases so again there are
two cases that we confirmed today one in
an Oakland County resident who had a
recent history of international travel
the other is a wayne county resident who
had a history of domestic travel we are
working very closely with our local
public health partners to learn more
about these cases so we can do
everything we can to protect those who
may be at risk these are the first known
cases of
19 here in the state of Michigan it is
very likely that we will see more cases
and that there will be community spread
we need everyone to do their part to
prevent the spread of the disease as
much as possible as the governor
mentioned washing hands with soap and
water for 20 seconds every time
appropriately covering sneezes and
coughs sanitizing frequently new
surfaces often and staying home with you
are ill all businesses employers
hospitals schools and universities
should be making plans and proprietary
for this disease we've been working very
closely with our partners across the
state for several weeks on these
preparations for those who are elderly
or who have chronic medical conditions
you should consider postponing any long
travel staying away from crowds and
making sure you are not going on any
long plane rides this is a rapidly
evolving situation and we will continue
to do everything we can at the state
level and working closely with our local
and federal partners to protect
Michiganders what that would be happy to
answer a few questions
at this time we're still working with
our local health department's to
identify more information
so as part of our local health
department response our local health
departments will be working to identify
who may be close contacts of these
individuals and making sure they are
appropriately tested if necessary and
monitored
well it means that we are going to take
all reasonable and necessary steps and
there is a lot of authority within that
moving forward with the task forces I
believe that we will have probably some
additional steps that we'll be able to
share with you tomorrow as we reconvene
and pull everyone together I know that
we have presence in our state
well we're gonna make decisions based on
the facts as they present and based on
best practices we're going to keep
Michigan or safe and we're going to be
prudent we started we opened up this
State Emergency Operations Center a few
weeks ago and an abundance of caution
and I'm glad that we did we've got all
of the experts at the table I'm actively
in conversation with the White House and
my fellow governors and I think that
we'll have additional steps probably to
share with you and in the coming days
they're both middle-aged female
thank you