>> Well good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today.

I'll start today with an update on our COVID-19 numbers.

As of today we've had 1 million 12 thousand 343 cases, 338 new cases reported since Friday.

427 people in the hospital and sadly, 13,412 people who have died.

We remember those we have lost to this virus as we continue to support the loved ones left behind.

We can stop the dying with vaccines.

The director of the CDC said just last week quote nearly every death, especially among adults due to COVID-19 at this point it is entirely preventable.

The Delta variant of this virus is beginning to infiltrate our state and is more contagious and dangerous are unvaccinated people or phone mobile.

Currently there's an outbreak in bladen County among people who are not vaccinated and doctor Cohen will tell us about that in a minute.

As of now about 55% of our adult population about 81% of our 65 and older population are vaccinated that's progress but we need to do better.

The covid vaccines are safe and effective almost entirely eliminating the chance that you would get seriously ill or pass on the virus.

That means that getting this vaccine, not only protects you.

But it also protects your family, your friends, your classmates, co-workers everybody around you.

Everybody who's gotten the shot has a reason.

I got 9 so I could safely hug my adult daughters and get back to traveling across the state meeting face to face with North Carolinians from all over to encourage more people to get their vaccine.

We announced the your shot at a million summer cash drawing and the cash college drawing several weeks ago.

Today we have our first winners.

In a moment, there share a bit about why they got vaccinated and remember we still have 3 more million dollars drawings and 3 more college scholarship drawings for ages, 12 to 17.

You're automatically entered if you've got your shot and you're in or twice, if you got your shot after we announced this contest.

So there's still time to get your shot and be entered twice to win.

And if you don't win cash, you'll still be winning by protecting yourself, your loved ones.

Against this deadly virus.

So without further delay would like to announce our first drawing winners.

Our first winner of the your shot at a million summer cash drawing.

Shelley why and from Winston Salem Shelley is a mom of 3 or 3 children here today with 20 years of teaching experience.

Her husband bill is here with her today along with their children.

Here's a good one for you about shelling.

When the Department of Health and Human Services first called her to tell if she was the winner.

She didn't believe it.

She wasn't convinced until she got on a video call with doctor Cohen and as the former attorney general of the state it's good that Shelley had regard up to avoid scams.

Have Shelley come up where you know you're right behind me already right right, okay.

I shall tell us a little bit about your reaction to winning this thing.

>> So obviously I was overwhelmed, not believing it I still I don't believe it who believes that you're going to win a million dollars.

It's absolutely unbelievable or family still in shock.

>> Hold your children the allowance might go up a little bit.

Shelley tell us a little bit more about.

Why you chose to get vaccinated to protect yourself from COVID-19.

>> Well, my husband and I have aging parents that we weren't getting to spend much time with I love to teach children and I wasn't getting to do that in person.

So I just I wanted to do my small part to be able to stop the spread of this vaccine with all of that I've seen happening with COVID-19.

I wanted to be able to get back to spending precious time with those that I loved and those children that I love to teach.

>> Shelley is there anything you'd like to share with people who may be on the fence about getting vaccinated.

>> I would say please do not because you have the chance to win a prize.

That's not why I got vaccinated like I said I got vaccinated because I wanted to be able to spend more time with my family extended family and honestly it terrified me that I might spread that to someone I love or to a child.

So I would encourage you please please do get your vaccination.

>> Thank you so much Shelly for sharing your story with us appreciate you bill and the children being here and thank you for choosing to get vaccinated in doing your part to put this pandemic behind us for good.

Now I'd like to invite doctor Mandy Cohen our secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human services to share a short update and to announce the winner of our cash for college drawing.

But Coe.

>> Well thank you governor and congratulations Shelley and Bill.

When you made the decision to get vaccinated I'm sure you didn't imagine that you on top of protecting yourself and your family from COVID-19 that you'd also win a million dollars regret ripple you're here and we hope that Shelley and our cash for college winner inspire more North Carolinians to get vaccinated as the governor said we need to do better here in North Carolina areas of our state with low vaccination rates are seeing increased COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in bladen County where only 33% of people are vaccinated there's now a critically high level of viral spread.

And the county is back in the red zone, younger people make up most of the cases which are coming from one zip code.

This is completely preventable.

More than 99% of new COVID-19 cases in North Carolina are in people who are not fully vaccinated vaccines protect you from COVID-19 related hospitalizations and death as well as complications from the virus.

Many who have had COVID-19 including those with mild or no initial symptoms struggle with long-term affects like shortness of breath, chest pain and brain fog.

And with the stronger and more contagious covid Delta variant spreading you cannot afford to wait to get vaccinated rigorous clinical trials among thousands of people ages, 12 and older have proven that the vaccines are safe and effective.

More than 151 million Americans have now been safely vaccinated and protected from this serious illness virus-related hospitalizations and deaths getting a vaccine is the best way to protect your family and your community from COVID-19.

And that's exactly what our cash for college winner.

Did I know she's going to inspire other young people to do the same.

So please welcome 14 year-old Vanya Martinez.

Vanya how do you feel as the first big winner of the cash for college try.

>> When I first got the phone call I thought it was a total lie, I did not believe it.

And then known as I know it's real is it was exciting that same time crazy because I started a summer job.

So I could save for college.

>> And so maybe you can share with everyone why did you choose to get vaccinated.

>> Well after seeing so many people suffering that are young and the last.

Some loved ones really close to me.

I didn't Rice research on it and I decided to get the vaccine because it was a for me it wasn't for my family and it could like maybe people that guardian there on the fence for covid they wouldn't covid winning them hard you know, and it would be safer for everybody.

>> Well, I knew we couldn't be more excited for you and for your mom who is here as well and we're excited for you to have this full scholarship to College of 4 years of high school to go where you can be thinking about again we hope to maybe see you one of the UNC schools here in North Carolina, but really anywhere you want to go and so if you haven't already gotten your vaccine.

We hope you do as soon as possible make sure you go to my spot dot NC .gov to find a location near you thank you governor.

>> Thanks doctor.

Cohen and thank you tawnya your work to research the vaccine and then go with your mom to get your shots is so helpful as we try to beat this pandemic and get life back to normal.

You just heard from our first 2 winners about why they chose to get vaccinated yeah, they won big prizes, but even without the walk they protected themselves and their families from COVID-19 and that's truly winning.

As I've said we'll have 3 more drawings over the summer.

So if you haven't been vaccinated yet there's still time to take your shot at a million.

The vaccine is safe and effective and free and we have plenty of it for everybody.

So make the time talk with a friend who's already received their shot or talk with your doctor if you still have questions and remember go to my spot dot NC .gov to find a vaccine can seem location near you.

Also with me today is North Carolina emergency management chief of staff will ready Brian Tipton David Payne our sign language interpreters behind the scenes, Jackie mature and Erica coogler our Spanish language interpreters at this time, we'll take some questions from the media will start with those in the room and then take questions from those who are on the phone with us today.

So we'll take our first question.

Any any questions from media.

You can head to the Mike that would help us thank you.

>> Been Sessoms of the news observer.

So some of the announcement of the the lottery winners on how confident are you that vaccination rates will increase going in the coming weeks.

>> So we know that we saw a significant jump in vaccine rates in Ohio after they started their cash drawings to try to get more people vaccinated some of the other states across the country have big gun the process as we haven't haven't seen that much of the game yet we're hoping that today's announcement of these winners to show people that yeah you can win this.

We've got to pull out all the stops to get this done.

So that's what we're doing and whatever brings people into get their vaccinations we want to do one of the things I know we have to do is to do this one person, one household one telephone call.

One shot at a time.

That's where we are right now and we hope this ends up some more interest.

>> Just one quick follow-up you mentioned earlier the Delta variant and public health for experts expected to be the dominant variant go into the fall.

You know that's nations plants going across the state.

You know how concerns in North Carolina Carolinians be and what can expect in terms of what it's like as it becomes more dominant.

>> If you are unvaccinated you should be concerned and particularly with this new Delta variant.

It is shown to be more contagious and even more dangerous than the regional COVID-19 virus so getting your vaccination however protects you from this variant in from COVID-19.

The numbers every day as we look at them become more and more stark and more and more obvious that being vaccinated protect you from the becoming seriously ill and dying it also protects you that if there are some breakthrough cases of people becoming positive even after vaccination but almost all the time the the illness is less serious and you have a low chance of passing it on someone else.

So we hope that people will look at this and see that this is something that is still here and it's moving through our population of unvaccinated people and it shows we need to get our vaccines.

Now.

The other questions.

>> Yeah, hi, this is Bridget Chapman was CBS 17 what impact have you seen so far from doing the lottery with these vaccination numbers and how is it showing to quite literally literally be paying off.

>> But going on might let you address that.

>> Thanks Bridget.

So as the governor said when other states that first did this it was earlier on in our vaccine effort so I think they did see a larger bump, but I would say is we've seen a leveling off of our vaccinations where we were on a downward trajectory.

And so we we hope with today with introducing Shelley and Vanya to everyone to folks can actually see it is real we're hoping that folks will say oh you know what I may have been putting that off maybe today's the day and I hope it is it's more important than ever for folks to get vaccinated or my folks were doing a lot of things to make sure that folks can get vaccinated sure the cash drawing is one of them were also offering $25 cash cards.

In 34 counties and different vaccine locations because we also recognize that some for some folks they have to take time off of work that means gas money we want to make sure compensating for them for their time and their money.

I want to remind our business is that there is tax credits available from the federal government if they give folks time off from work.

So again all of these things I think we put together makes us able to say look vaccines are here they're safe.

They're free they're effective and they're easy to access close to you so we're encouraging want to go to my spot dot NC .gov to find a vaccine location close to them, thanks.

>> And a follow up with that so if it with at leveling out right now if you don't see an additional bump in vaccination numbers going forward will this have been worth it.

>> Well I think that we're throwing as the governor said everything at this and we we never know which individual action will make the most difference in so you're going to continue to see us do everything from making vaccines convenient to encouraging businesses to use us federal tax credits to this drawing to the $25 cash cards.

So you can see we're pulling out all the stops because it's so important for the health of North Carolina going forward and not just the health of individuals but really the health of our entire state.

As we think about our future.

The other questions the room.

>> Hopes are good morning governor doctor come at a home with WRAL.

When you look at those rural counties, especially the ones you mentioned playing in this short small numbers of vaccination rates there.

What more can be done in those communities where you're seeing the cases go back up and especially if young people just aren't getting vaccinated.

>> You know I think this does have to be done one person at a time one group at a time.

>> We even have people who are going door to door to talk about their experience of getting the vaccine.

We're continuing to talk with community leaders ministers and we're working really hard with general practice doctors to incentivize them to talk with their patients about getting the vaccine and making sure that they are compensated for for their time I think it is critical, you know it it's unfortunate that people are going to start seeing even more their neighbors get sick in going into the hospital.

And hopefully this is enough for people to understand that these vaccines are safe and affected.

10's of millions of people across the world have gotten these vaccines and the data is very strong is to safety.

The effectiveness is phenomenal.

When you think about how protected you are from COVID-19 and its variants back getting this fires that getting the vaccine.

It's important to do doctor Cohen would you want to add anything to that okay.

>> As a quick follow-up to that if those numbers keep going up in those counties with the low vaccination rates and the case's going up will restrictions need to be put back in place.

>> You know we don't want to go there with vaccines.

We have the way out.

And we hope to continue to do everything we can to convince people that this is the way not only to protect ourselves and our families but the way toward a strong economy because we see the vaccinated people are going out and doing the things that they were doing I'm doing most everything that I was doing before because I've been vaccinated and feel confident that the vaccine is going to protect me and I've gone in and the restaurants and that helps the economy and people are traveling that helps the economy so we're hoping that getting more people vaccinated will get us where we need to be okay we've got to go to the phones now.

Or the I'm sorry yes, you know.

>> Not going to show us a newspaper and was the connection.

>> Nosotros aqim surveyed said that the vote is split so that on the scene looked need to.

>> Especially on the big effort that you have made.

>> It's sort of window to put siendo that of course but we're now East Latino Isis pond.

Only 8% of the population is Latin American.

Cameras that it was a central theme is it going to see only that his school and that is but instead is that he got in the second, most personally appointed.

>> What else can the news media and the leaders of the communities do to increase these numbers.

>> We are deeply concerned about the lower rate of vaccination an hour latinx Hispanic community.

But it's one of the reasons why in North Carolina when we began this process that we decided to go our own way in create our own database which gives us a lot more information about who is getting the vaccine.

And where they live we've been able to use this data to concentrate our efforts on these communities, I'll let doctor Cohen talk a little bit about some of the things that have been done.

>> Well thank you I I want to say that we have made incredible progress in vaccinating are Hispanic and latinx community and it is because of the partnerships with communities and I particularly want to thank our community health workers.

We have hundreds of community health workers, many of them from our Latino and Hispanic communities who have just done incredible work as a governor said this is about having conversations with your community with your friends and family I particularly want to also think on many of the church leaders and within the Latino Hispanic community who have been incredible throughout this effort and what you see in the numbers actually we are vaccinating at a higher rate within the Latino community than they represent in the population which is very rare.

If you look across all the states in the United States.

So I think North Carolina has has found that our work on those partnerships and that's what we're going to come after and I'm so grateful for Vanya and her mom I miss Martinez for being here today, we're so grateful that they decided to get vaccinated and are sharing their story about why folks could get vaccinated so I'm hopeful that story as well will help others to be inspired to get vaccinated today.

Thanks.

Lewis, I have one other question.

>> Yes, as it goes to Hollywood, he said that he couldn't us.

>> About the concerning about that sort of the farm workers.

>> If you see, but I just said it was calm pulse, eat them at Lubbock one a Imus but what Imus a CIA just more we send us a Seattle's compass.

>> It is difficult for them to move out of their campsites where they work.

So is there any efforts being made to reach them.

>> And this is a critical issue that we must make sure for that because agriculture farming is one of our leading economic engines in North Carolina, it's important that the people who are doing the work are protected and I'll let doctor Cohen talk a little bit about the specific efforts that are going on.

>> Hi there thanks for the question and we have had a particular focus on our farm workers and I want to thank our farm workers for participating in our programs in fact we've had phenomenal response in some of our farms we've seen a 90% uptake of vaccines in the farms we go to the farms to do the vaccination as well as partner with the Department of Agriculture and others to make sure that when folks are coming into our state they have access to a vaccine right when they're coming into our state and it's really been a great partnership and remember it's not just something that's in the eastern part of our state, but also I want to acknowledge the western part of our state that's done terrific.

Work as well it we're never done I mean, and that's why we're here today to make sure we're encouraging folks to get vaccinated but I think we have definitely again it's those partnerships that have allowed us to be successful.

Let's go to our phones now.

>> First question on the line from Brian Anderson with the Associated Press.

Hi governor and I think only the time and congrats to the winners there I just had 2 quick questions for you governor Cooper.

We know that the CDC extended the eviction moratorium saying it it's likely the last month we'll do that extending it by one month through the end like will you do the same to near the CDC or let it expire at the end of June.

Second question is governor ASA Hutchinson of Arkansas.

He said this weekend that it's incentives don't work.

Reality will and I'm curious if you share that sentiment and think that hospitalizations and cases can rise to the low vaccination rates in these communities.

>> Well as for the second thing reality is already here we're seeing people get sick, go to the hospital and die when it could be prevented.

So we know that the more people who get infected and who die now the more reality that is for so many families friends, business associates and others across the state.

So we we've got to continue pushing because we don't want to see another death related to COVID-19 and we have the answer in our hands which is vaccines.

A lot of people are still struggling with paying rent.

It's one of the reasons that we put the hope program in place and have funded programs in larger counties across North Carolina every County is now covered with the hope program funding and we know that this money is going directly to landlords to pay for tenants who are behind if they're below a certain income.

We are looking at the data.

We're looking at what the CDC is done and I'll be making a decision this week on whether we extend the moratorium.

Next question please.

>> Follow-up Brian Anderson Associated Press.

Again, and forgive me one of the things with the whole program is we're seeing a lot of people who are unaware of it and million with it and I know through these news conferences you all have tried to get the word out he's sort of explain any additional efforts are unique efforts to to get people aware of this h#*#*#* hole program and just to close the loop on the eviction moratorium have you made a decision and just not announced the Henri still not yet decided.

>> We're scared.

Yeah, we're still looking at all the data to make a decision this week on whether to extend the the moratorium.

We're still gathering information.

What was the other part of your question, I'm sorry Brian.

>> To get the word out about the hope for you and we're seeing more about that if you really like that.

>> We've been working with a lot of community groups people who work in legal services where people come for land at 10 land or tenant issues.

I think more and more people are learning about the program.

We won't landlords to talk to their 10 it's about getting involved in this because landlords get paid when they get involved in it.

So we're continuing to work hard to to get the word out on this and regardless of whether the eviction moratorium is extended we think it's important to get this money out there to keep people in their homes with the lights on.

Next question please.

>> Our next question is from Karen Hicks with wbtv hi thank you for taking my question I want to see if there are any new goals that you guys will be announcing, I know there was that goal to get to 70% vaccination by the 4th of July like that's not going to happen so wanted to see if there are any upcoming polls when it comes to vaccinations in our state.

>> Well when we announced our vaccination program we we wanted to get to 2 thirds.

Adults vaccinated by July, the 4th the president has said it at 70% even better.

I think we will not make either one of those at this point we want every person that gets vaccinated is a success so we want to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

That's that's our goal to get it as quickly as we can as fast as we can and make sure that it is easy and available.

And then we've got all things that are working I really believe that encouraging doctors who see their patients frequently to get them involved in recruiting their patients to get vaccinated if they haven't they are.

It's a mob the most if not the most trusted Advisors that we have out there so we're continuing to push that effort even providing a doctor Cohen maybe want to talk a little bit about compensation for doctors that we're using to try to encourage them.

>> Sure thank you governor, so first we announced last week that we recognize that there is valuable time to council a patient not just administer the vaccine itself and so through or Medicaid program we are starting to pay our providers for their time counseling a patient talking them through answering those questions so that just started on last week and that that is for all of our Medicaid population and we're looking into other ways in which we can make sure that we are recognizing the hard work that our dock to sit doctor offices and their practices are doing to make sure folks feel like there is a a trusted place they can go to receive their vaccines were recruiting new providers each and every week and will continue to do that and recognize their hard work.

Thanks.

Next question please.

>> Our final question today from Vanessa Rubin with wcnc.

>> Hi good morning, everyone and thanks for taking my question.

I wanted to see if I can get a little bit more specifics on something that doctor Cohen said a couple minutes ago doctor Khan I think he said something like 99% of the new covid cases are in people who are unvaccinated I was just curious what that time frame is that is being considered new is that like over the last week or the last 2 weeks of this month.

And you have any rate we're vaccination or and vaccination but people who are going into the hospital or for any of the death.

>> Thanks Vanessa and let me follow up with you specifically on what that time frame was looking at so I I don't I don't know that off the top of my head, but what I would say is that nearly all of the cases nearly all nearly all the cases are from those run on vaccinated so weak, it will flow through that nearly all the hospitalizations and sadly nearly all the deaths are from folks who are unvaccinated but will help make sure that you can have that time frame that that we're looking at thanks.

>> Thank you.

All for joining us today very grateful that you're here congratulations to the bulk of the winners and just remember everybody's a winner when you get a vaccine.

Thanks a lot.