REMARKS
Remarks by Vice President Pence and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Briefing on COVID-19 | Baton Rouge, LA
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: July 14, 2020
State Emergency Operations Center
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, first off, Governor, thank you for the hospitality. More importantly, just thank you for, really, a seamless partnership. I want to say in front of your team, in front of these members of the Senate and the House, how grateful weve been for the continuous communication.
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GOVERNOR EDWARDS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, we did.
And anyway, thank you so much for the partnership. The Baton Rouge surge testing is not lost on us that there are only three of those in the country, and one of them is Baton Rouge. The concept that were going to, I think, pilot for you all on the pooling testing here at a federally sponsored site, were excited about that.
And so we just appreciate the attention and the help that you all have given to Louisiana.
We would be in much, much, much worse shape were it not for you and your leadership and your task force.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks, Governor.
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DR. BILLIOUX:
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But at that time, we realized that we couldnt really have testing just be done disorganized, have people sort of stand up their own testing. We needed to coordinate. And so, in April, what we did was stand up something called the Testing Action Collaborative, where state leadership brought together private sector partners, private labs, hospitals, health systems, but also research institutions that had testing capacity but were not used to doing clinical tests.
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THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Its a very big deal. And we told the governors yesterday, but they never talk to anybody in the press, so (laughter). Were going to announce it.
So, Governor, thank you.
GOVERNOR EDWARDS: Thank you so much. Great to have you. And youre headed now to the home of the national champion LSU Fighting Tigers. (Laughter.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That, we knew. (Laughter.) Thanks, everybody. Great reports.
END