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From YouTube: Buncombe County COVID-19 Update (April 16, 2020)
Description
Buncombe County's COVID-19 Update for April 16, 2020. For local, accurate information concerning efforts on COVID-19, please visit https://www.buncombecounty.org/countycenter/news-detail.aspx?id=18543
A
Good
afternoon
and
welcome
to
the
April
16th
community
update,
my
name
is
Stacy.
Wood
and
I
serve
as
a
public
information
officer
in
the
emergency
operation
center.
As
a
reminder,
this
community
update
is
also
available
in
Spanish
on
the
Buncombe
County
Health
and
Human
Services
Facebook
page,
which
can
be
found
on
Facebook
at
BC
HHS.
A
Today's
updates
come
from
dr.
Jennifer,
mullendore
Buncombe
County
medical
director
and
interim
public
health
director
Fletcher
tove
Buncombe
County
Health
and
Human
Services
Public
Health
preparedness,
director
and
Taylor
Jones
Buncombe
County
Emergency,
Services
Director.
We
will
get
started
with
an
update
from
dr.
mullendore.
B
B
The
availability
of
testing
continues
to
improve
through
commercial
labs
so
that
there
is
now
more
availability
than
there
was
last
week,
and
we
expect
this
progress
to
continue
results
for
these
tests
are
returning
more
quickly.
Thanks
to
streamlining
of
processes
by
labs
at
the
local
health
department
level,
we
continue
to
have
access
to
tests
through
the
state
lab
of
Public
Health.
B
B
The
second
focus
is
on
contact.
Tracing
contact
tracing
is
a
basic
public
health
practice
of
identifying
and
interviewing
the
close
contacts
of
individuals
with
kovat
19,
assessing
them
for
symptoms
of
illness,
connecting
them
to
testing,
if
indicated
and
isolating
them
from
others
to
prevent
the
further
spread
of
illness.
B
B
B
C
C
The
proactive
steps
Buncombe
County
has
taken
over
the
last
several
months
have
been
effective
in
safeguarding
our
community.
So
far,
I
like
to
take
a
moment
and
give
a
brief
timeline
of
what
those
steps
have
been
public
health
began,
its
messaging
and
education
campaigns
for
kovat
19,
then
only
known
as
a
novel
coronavirus,
On
February
5th.
On
March
3rd,
we
moved
our
epidemiology
team
into
a
weekly
operational
cycle
on
March
9th
Public
Health,
formally
established
a
joint
information
center
on
March
12th.
C
We
began
implementing
local
restrictions
on
March
25th,
who
issued
the
first
iteration
of
our
stay
home,
stay
safe
order
since
standing
up
the
Emergency
Operations
Center
we've
also
supported
City
and
County
Schools
in
delivering
480,000
meals
to
our
schoolchildren,
establishing
isolation
in
quarter,
quarantine,
housing
solutions,
establishing
our
ready
team
call
center
in
establishing
a
homeless
shelter
at
Harrah's,
Cherokee,
Center,
and
all
that
time
our
County
communicable
disease.
Nurses
have
been
working
tirelessly
and
relentlessly
to
test
and
trace
cases
of
covin
19
and
protect.
All
of
us.
C
Kovan
19
has
had
an
unprecedented
impact
on
our
community
and
on
our
individual
lives,
but
Baulkham
County's
response
has
also
been
unprecedented
to
match
it
as
we
look
ahead
and
strategize
how
we
can
slowly
start
to
reopen
our
community.
The
Emergency
Operations
Center
is
working
aggressively
to
increase
our
local
testing
capacity,
to
expand
our
contract
tracing
capabilities
and
to
establish
standards
and
triggers
for
data
trends
and
leading
indicators
of
how
our
response
is
working.
C
C
C
While
we
are
looking
to
plan
for
the
future,
we
must
remain
vigilant
and
steadfast
in
our
current
efforts.
Now
is
not
the
time
to
relax
measures
and
not
the
time
to
take
not
take
these
measures
seriously.
We
still
risk
overwhelming
our
healthcare
systems
and
our
ability
that
could
come
through
this
as
a
stronger
community.
C
C
C
This
means
that
we
can't
predict
with
a
strong
degree
of
certainty
when
we
can
start
easing
these
restrictions,
but
rather
we
must
evaluate
and
assess
numbers
and
trends
on
a
daily
basis
and
act
accordingly.
Our
primary
goal
is
to
safeguard
the
public
health,
and
another
goal
of
ours
is
reopening
our
community
in
our
economy.
As
soon
as
that
makes
sense
and
I
want
to
assure
everyone
that
we
are
working
diligently
and
hard
every
day
to
achieve
both
these
goals,
thank
you.
D
Good
afternoon
I'm
telling
John's
director
of
emergency
services
for
Buncombe
County,
we
have
engaged
with
our
partners
in
the
Emergency
Operations
Center
for
34
days
now.
During
that
time,
I've
seen
some
amazing
work
with
strong
collaboration
between
our
ESC
team
that
is
made
up
of
our
community
preparedness
partners.
That
includes
our
Mis
apologies,
our
state
and
federal
partners,
our
faith-based
groups
and
our
nonprofits.
D
Our
TAC
team
has
been
very
active
in
supporting
the
community
wide
efforts.
These
efforts
have
been
inclusive,
of
coordinating
and
establishing
special
medical
needs,
shelters
planning
for
alternative
care
facilities
at
both
the
University
of
North
Carolina
at
Asheville
and
in
DAV
Tech
allied
health
site.
D
D
This
was
a
ingenious
idea
that
a
BTEC
brought
to
us
in
the
Emergency
Operations
Center
to
set
up
a
functional,
nursing
skill
laughs
as
a
alternate
care
facility
and
then
using
the
assets
from
our
state
medical
assistance
team
to
set
up
that
type
of
surge
capacity
with
all
the
medical
supplies
that
will
be
needed
for
this
region.
We've
been
working
with
our
partners
BTech
also
to
build
a
EMS
ambulance.
Drivers
course,
which
is
the
emergency
medical
response.
D
D
We
hope
that
we
never
need
this,
but
we've
been
amazed
by
our
county
employees,
stepping
up
and
taking
this
40
hours
of
training
and
the
ABT
tech
instructors
doing
such
a
great
job
and
providing
them
with
this
training.
This
is
also
training
that
we
may
use
another
date
and
it's
been
very
valuable
for
our
Buncombe
County
employees.
D
We've
been.
We
have
developed
additional
ESC
plans
that
has
focused
on
pandemic
planning
for
detention
center
for
a
homeless
population
for
an
outbreak
and
our
long-term
care
facilities.
We've
done
point
of
care
planning
for
care
test
sites.
In
case
we
get
more
capabilities
to
do
on-site
testing
we've
been
working
with
our
Fire
EMS
and
law
enforcement
workers
all
across
the
board,
all
our
Public
Safety
workers
to
have
a
war
reduction
plan
and
have
a
plan
if
we
have
a
decrease
in
work
force,
how
to
step
up
and
back
each
other
up.
D
D
Currently,
there
is
a
need
for
non-medical
volunteers,
and
these
opportunities
can
currently
be
found
at
the
United
Way's
hands
on
Asheville
Buncombe
County
website.
I
would
like
to
thank
the
State
Emergency
Management
Director,
Michael
Sprayberry
and
his
team
for
the
increase
of
flow
of
PPE
to
our
health
care
providers
in
Buncombe
County.
D
We
were
able
this
week
to
put
out
58
thousand
units
of
PPE
to
our
health
care
facilities
and
health
care
workers.
In
addition,
we'd
like
to
thank
our
emergency
operation
center
partners
such
as
the
Army
National
Guard,
our
city
partners
at
the
city
of
Asheville,
a
Buncombe
County
school
districts,
the
city
school
districts
for
using
their
3d
printers
to
make
PPE
shoes,
our
County
Fire,
Chiefs
Association
for
its
instant
management
team
and
the?
D
D
Those
events
include
storms
of
the
past
weekend
that
come
tall,
severe
flooding,
tornadoes
and
hail
damage
along
North,
Carolina
and
South
Carolina
caused
loss
of
life.
These
are
things
that
we
should
always
be
prepared,
or
we
should
make
a
plan
for
times
of
disaster.
We
should
build
an
emergency
kit,
be
informed
and
have
a
family
safety
plan.
This
is
a
good
thing
to
do
while
we're
staying
at
home
and
staying
safe
to
find
more
about
how
to
make
a
plan
go
to
Buncombe
red
dot,
org
for
information.
Thank
you.