►
Description
Buncombe County Press Conference on Coronavirus (COVID-19) from March 16, 2020.
A
Okay,
hello,
everybody.
My
name
is
Stacy
wood,
I'm,
the
HHS
Health
and
Human
Services
public
information
officer.
Thank
you
all
for
being
here
today,
a
couple
of
housekeeping
items.
We
have
a
couple
of
different
ways
that
the
media
are
tuning
in.
They
are
tuning
in
via
web
through
zoom
and
a
call-in
line
serves
a
map.
Ofyou
will
be
over
at
that
station,
moderating
questions
as
they
come
in
and
we
will
address
those
during
the
Q&A
if
they
have
not
already
been
addressed
during
this
media
briefing.
A
C
C
K
E
Welcome
everyone
in
good
afternoon
again,
my
name
is
Fletcher
Tov
I
am
the
public
health
emergency
preparedness
coordinator
first
off.
Thank
you,
everyone
for
being
here
as
partners
and
allies
in
our
community
response
efforts
ensuring
that
we
get
accurate
and
beneficial
information
passed
to
our
Mountain
community.
E
Last
Thursday,
we
declared
a
local
state
of
emergency
in
Buncombe
County
in
the
face
of
the
kovat
19
pandemic.
Since
then,
we
have
made
significant
progress
in
our
response
efforts
to
include
standing
up
our
Emergency
Operations
Center
and
working
in
lockstep
with
the
city
of
Asheville
and
city
and
Buncombe
County
school
systems
to
prepare
for
the
school
closures
mandated
by
governor
Cooper
via
executive
order
on
Saturday.
E
E
The
mayor
of
Boston,
drew
a
great
comparison
yesterday.
He
reminded
all
of
us
that
Saint
Patrick's
Day
is
a
celebration
of
our
community,
overcoming
hardship
through
social
solidarity.
That's
what
we're
asking
for
from
the
families,
communities,
businesses
and
visitors
to
Buncombe,
County,
social
solidarity
and
shared
sacrifice,
shared
sacrifice
to
protect
the
most
vulnerable
and
to
take
steps
to
effectively
lessen
the
impacts
of
kovin
19
on
our
Mountain
Home
social
distancing
is
a
specific
strategy
proven
by
data
to
severely
lessen
the
impact
of
high
consequence
pathogens
in
the
coming
weeks.
E
It
will
be
a
critical
step
in
flattening
the
curve
when
we
talk
about
flattening
the
curve
we're
talking
about
the
impact
of
a
surge
of
cases
on
our
healthcare
systems
capacity.
We
use
social
distancing
in
order
to
slow
the
spread
of
the
virus,
to
prevent
a
huge
spike
in
the
number
of
people
getting
sick
and
needed
medical
attention
all
at
once.
E
If
that
happens,
we
as
a
county,
but
also
as
a
state
and
a
nation,
don't
have
enough
hospital
beds
for
everyone
who
would
need
them
so
three
or
mitigating
measures
we
flatten
out
that
spike
over
time,
so
that
it
never
overwhelms
the
capacity
of
our
hospitals
and
healthcare
systems.
That's
our
goal
again,
thank
you
for
being
here
as
partners
and
allies
as
we
work
together
during
this
unprecedented
in
a
rapidly
evolving
situation,
with
that
I
turn
it
over
to
dr.
Tony,
Baldwin
superintendent
of
Buncombe
County
Schools.
H
Thank
You
Fletcher
to
my
left,
I'm,
going
to
ask
Miss
Lisa
Payne
to
join
me.
She
is
the
director
of
child
nutrition
and
on
my
right,
I'm
gonna
ask
my
suzanne
Swanger,
who
is
our
associate
superintendent
in
charge
of
curriculum?
This
morning,
I
employees
reported
to
work
a
regular
work
day.
There's
an
extensive
amount
of
planning
discussion,
preparation
taking
place
as
I
speak.
We
had
two
significant
projects
of
distribution
that
began
early
this
morning
and
will
continue
on
over
the
next
several
hours.
H
The
first
is
the
distribution
of
food
through
our
child
nutrition
program,
I'm,
going
to
ask
mrs.
Payne
to
give
you
details
regarding
that
and
how
we
made
every
effort
and
continue
make
every
effort
to
accommodate
our
students
now
in
their
homes
and
then
I'm
going
to
talk
about
the
second
distribution,
which
is
also
important,
and
that
is
our
distribution
of
laptop
devices
as
we
move
as
quickly
as
possible
into
a
virtual
learning
platform
for
computers
at
home.
H
G
Thank
You
dr.
Baldwin
I'm,
proud
to
stand
in
front
of
all
of
you
today
and
tell
you
that
this
morning,
Oakley
elementary
West
Buncombe
elementary
Emma
Elementary
Johnston
elementary
Pisgah
elementary
Owen
high
school
hominy,
Valley,
Mountain,
primary
Weaverville,
elementary
estie's,
elementary
North,
Windy,
Ridge
and
Woodfin
elementary
that
we
had
one
hundred
and
ninety
nine
employees
go
to
work
and
were
prepared
to
start
feeding
breakfast
at
7:30
a.m.
we
had
some
of
our
community
sites.
G
We
did
have
buses
or
yellow
buses,
and
our
bus
drivers
are
taking
food
to
them
and
we
have
Google
Docs
that
are
changing
every
few
seconds
that
the
principals
are
able
to
reach
community
have
a
call
center
at
my
office.
I'll
give
that
phone
number
eight
two,
eight
two,
five,
five,
five,
nine
three
two.
If
you
know
of
any
area
eligible
children
that
are
in
need
of
food
ages,
basically
birth
to
18
years
old,
feel
free
to
call
that
number
and
they
will
get
added
to
that
site.
G
F
F
We
have
been
training
teachers
for
the
last
two
to
three
years,
but
better
implementing
elearning,
types
of
situations
this
school
year,
so
teachers
are
in
their
classrooms
today,
just
solidifying
plans,
I
know
many
worked
over
the
weekend.
We
haven't
a
wonderful
website
that
will
come
live
today.
That
has
resources
for
families,
because
families
have
questions.
What
does
e-learning
look
like?
F
How
do
I
navigate
the
work
in
my
home
that
happens
in
a
school
building,
and
we
know
that
a
face-to-face
teacher
in
a
school
day
can't
be
replaced
by
home
learning,
but
it's
important
for
students
to
continue
learning
and
we
are
working
on
getting
those
devices
home
this
afternoon
and
for
families
who
may
not
be
able
to
get
to
the
school.
We
will
have
buses
deliver
those
devices,
they
just
need
to
call
their
school
buildings
and
let
the
principal
know
when
we've
got
plans
for
that.
F
Our
virtual
website
will
launch,
as
I
mentioned
and
with
great
resources.
We
also
have
take
home
kits
with
paper
materials
and
manipulatives
for
the
younger
learners
for
K,
through
3
students
and
the
meantime,
parents
can
be
relaxed
and
having
school
at
home,
look
like
reading
and
writing.
We
can
do
that
at
any
time.
While
we're
waiting
on
our
virtual
platform
to
go
live,
we
will
be
very
sensitive
and
very
very
flexible
with
our
families
and
our
staff
and
continue
communicating.
D
Our
two
main
goals
right
now
is
number
one
to
feed
our
children
and
number
two
to
educate
them
to
continue
with
at
home
learning.
As
best
we
can.
We
have
sent
home
packets
with
our
k5
elementary
students,
those
went
home
Friday.
Those
will
be
ready
for
use.
Today
we
have
given
the
start
date
officially,
as
tomorrow
we
have
sent
home
devices
with
our
secondaries.
That
would
be
our
six
through
twelfth
grades.
Those
went
home
Friday
and
we
have
lessons
in
canvas
and
they
are
ready
to
begin
that
work.
Also,
we
are
distributing
laptops.
J
I'll
go
through
the
feeding
details
that
we
have
from
our
auxilary
Department
beginning
tomorrow,
at
11:30
to
1.
We
will
have
four
delivery
sites
which
will
serve
approximately
500
meals
on
the
first
day,
500
lunches
and
then
they'll
also
have
500
breakfasts
that'll,
be
there
as
well.
Those
four
delivery
sites
will
be
Pisgah
view
Hillcrest,
Klondike
and
Livingston,
and
then
we
will
have
a
drive
through
site
at
Isaac.
Dixon
elementary
school
that
drive
through
site
will
have
approximately
200
with
200
bagged
breakfast
for
the
next
morning
and
that'll
be
from
1
to
4
p.m.
J
If
families
or
students
need
to
be
not
able
to
access
food
or
not
able
to
access
those
sites,
we
do
have
a
hotline
number
for
them
to
call
3,
5,
0,
6
thousand,
and
that
will
set
them
in
contact
with
our
individuals
that
we'll
be
able
to
take
down
their
name
their
address
and
then
we'll
begin
to
expand
sites
and
definitely
be
able
to
get
food
to
those
students.
We're
also
going
to
put
our
social
workers.
They
will
be
at
each
of
those
delivery
sites
and
our
drive
thru
site.
J
So
if
families
have
additional
needs,
our
social
workers
will
be
there
too
to
be
able
to
support
them
and
connect
them
with
some
other
community
resources.
We're
working
with
our
volunteer
partners
as
well,
mana
and
YMCA.
Those
will
also
be
available
on
site
plus
there's
others
in
the
works
today
to
provide
additional
resources
for
our
students.
We
also
will
probably
be
able
to
staff
most
of
those
sites
with
some
type
of
technology
support
we're
going
to
have
a
technology
support
individual
there
to
support
families
as
they're
able
to
work
with
these
devices
and
connectivity
issues.
J
We
want
to
make
sure
that
we're
supporting
them
through
that
process
as
well.
The
hotline
will
also
have
some
additional
extensions.
If
families
have
issues
with
academic
support,
that
will
be
six
one.
Seven
five
is
the
extension
that
they
will
connect
with
if
they
have
technology
issues
that
they
want
to
speak
with,
someone
that'll
be
six
one,
eight
one
and
then,
if
they
have
unique
student
service
needs
with
a
nurse
dietary
issues,
social
work
or
counseling
or
mental
health
that'll
be
six
1:33.
K
So
as
dr.
short
and
mr.
Kasdan
mentioned,
Asheville,
City
Schools
has
been
preparing
for
cope
in
nineteen
for
several
weeks
now
and
we
have
essentially,
as
dr.
Schwartz
shared,
we
are
flying
the
plane
as
we
are
building
it,
so
things
could
change
potentially
and
we,
our
goal
is
to
keep
our
families
as
informed
as
possible.
The
best
way
to
receive
information
about
Asheville,
City
Schools
and
the
proactive
steps
we
are
taking
throughout
the
coronavirus
is
to
visit
our
website.
Asheville
City
Schools
dotnet,
slash
coronavirus
or
check
out
our
social
media
platforms,
specifically
Facebook
and
Twitter.
B
Good
afternoon
I'm
jennifer
mullendore,
the
interim
Health
Director
for
Buncombe
County.
Today,
Macon
County
Public
Health
announced
a
presumptive
positive
case
of
kovat
19
in
a
person
who
visited
Buncombe
County
last
week.
This
is
the
first
known
presumptive
positive
case
of
kovat
19
associated
with
Buncombe
County.
B
B
B
Today
represents
an
unprecedented
time
in
the
history
of
Buncombe,
County
and
our
nation.
At
this
time,
and
over
the
coming
days
and
weeks,
government
officials
will
have
to
make
difficult
decisions
to
protect
the
overall
health
of
our
community.
Today
we
will
begin
to
implement
recommendations
that
increase
social
distancing
in
our
community.
B
The
effects
of
these
measures
on
our
entire
community
are
top
of
mind
and
we
are
working
diligently
to
ensure
that
their
needs
are
met
as
a
resident
of
Buncombe
County
and
specifically
Asheville
as
a
parent
and
as
a
physician
I
have
been
heartened
by
the
response
and
support
that
we
have
seen
so
far
from
our
local
health
care
providers,
health
systems,
schools,
human
service
agencies
and
many
other
community
partners
working
together.
We
can
make
a
difference,
but
we
must
change
our
behaviors.
B
B
If
you
or
a
family
member,
have
fever
and
cough
or
difficulty
breathing
call
your
health
care
provider
or
in
urgent
care.
If
you
do
not
have
a
health
care
provider,
please
do
not
show
up
at
your
health
care
providers
office
or
at
the
urgent
care
without
calling
first
do
not
go
to
the
emergency
room.
Emergency
rooms
need
to
be
able
to
serve
the
most
critically
ill
if
you
are
having
a
medical
emergency
call
911
your
symptoms.
B
If
you
do
not
have
a
health
care
provider
or
cannot
afford
to
be
seen
at
an
urgent
care
call,
our
Buncombe
County
communicable
disease
staff
at
eight
two,
eight
two:
five
zero
five
one:
zero
nine
to
speak
with
one
of
our
nurses.
If
someone
doesn't
answer,
leave
a
message
and
know
that
they
will
get
back
to
you
as
soon
as
possible,
people
with
symptoms
of
kovat
19
should
not
come
to
our
health
department.
C
C
We
have
received
lots
of
requests
and
queries
about
whether
we
have
had
any
confirmed
or
presumptive
positive
cases
in
our
facilities
and
speaking
on
behalf
of
the
entire
region,
where
we
provide
services
we
have
had
none
to
date.
I
fully
expect
that
to
change
the
case,
that
became
positive
in
Macon
County
was
not
a
surprise
to
us.
We
knew
it
was
going
to
happen,
and
so
I
don't
want
the
community
to
be
alarmed
or
surprised
when
those
announcements
come.
It's
our
job
to
be
prepared
to
to
handle
these
along
those
lines.
C
I'd
like
to
emphasize
a
few
things.
Most
importantly,
we
have
restricted
visitation
in
all
of
our
facilities.
The
visitation
at
this
point
time
involves
screening
at
the
front
doors
and,
as
cases
become
more
prevalent
and
identified
in
our
community,
those
screenings
and
restrictions
will
increase.
That
is
for
the
patient's
protection
is
for
our
health
care
workers
protection.
So
that
we
can
continue
to
provide
the
needed
services
that
our
patients
will
continue
to
demand
both
forc
Ovid
19
and
for
other
illnesses.
C
So
please
bear
with
us,
and
we
ask
that
you
severely
self
restrict
your
visitation
as
much
as
you
possibly
can
and
certainly
do
not
come
to
the
hospital.
If
you
have
any
respiratory
symptoms
whatsoever,
as
dr.
mullendore
emphasized,
we
ask
that
everybody
reached
out
to
their
primary
care
providers
when
they
have
symptoms
or
signs
or
questions
about
the
illness.
We
have
in
addition
to
that,
a
virtual
platform
by
which
we
can
take
some
questions.
C
It's
available
at
the
mission
health.org
II
website
under
virtual
clinic
so
mission
health,
dot,
o-r-g,
slash
mission,
I'm,
sorry,
virtual
clinic.
We
are,
of
course,
gearing
up
rapidly,
as
are
many
other
facilities
in
the
community,
to
offer
more
widespread
availability
of
testing.
We
understand
the
public's
concern
about
this
and
we
believe
that,
in
order
to
help
stem
the
tide
of
this
local
impact
of
the
pandemic,
that
we
have
those
facilities
available,
we
have
more
testing
available.
We
are
going
to
announce
more
broadly
in
the
next
few
days,
where
and
how
that
testing
can
be
achieved.
E
In
light
of
these
recent
developments
and
in
an
abundance
of
caution,
Buncombe
County
is
strongly
encouraging
the
limitation
of
any
large
public
gatherings
and
asking
the
restaurants
and
bars
to
proactively
limit
services
to
takeout
and
delivery
delivery.
Only
this
is
not
a
request
that
we
take
lightly.
We
are
acutely
aware
of
the
impacts
and
secondary
impacts.
E
E
This
morning
we
were
on
a
call
with
actual
independent
restaurants,
the
Chamber
of
Commerce
and
tourism,
Development
Authority,
to
coordinate
these
plans
to
make
sure
we're
moving
together
in
the
same
direction
in
this
impactful
time
for
our
community
and
we've
been
impressed
by
the
willingness
of
most
businesses
to
proactively
take
steps
to
mitigate
community
congregation
and
we've
seen
many
business
leaders
limit
ours,
reduced
capacity
and
even
shut
down
and
we're
asking
everyone
to
continue
assisting
us.
This
can
mean
the
difference
between
life
and
death
for
some
of
our
most
vulnerable
family,
friends
and
neighbors.
E
We
know
tomorrow
is
Saint,
Patrick's,
Day
and
again
we're
asking
the
businesses,
citizens
and
visitors
to
Buncombe
County,
to
avoid
crowds,
avoid
congregation
and
avoid
exposure.
Some
businesses
and
childcare
facilities
must
make
the
difficult
decision
whether
to
stay
open
limit
hours
of
operations
are
closed
altogether.
We
recommend
that
these
businesses,
nonprofits
organizations
and
facilities
that
do
choose
to
stay
open,
follow
the
recommendations
of
the
North
Carolina
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services
in
the
Center
for
Disease
Control,
on
best
practices
for
how
to
limit
risk
of
exposure.
C
E
So,
prior
to
their
opening,
we
had
a
close
coordination
between
them
and
our
Emergency
Operations
Center
to
make
sure
they
were
prepared
for
the
situation.
You
know,
anticipating
traffic
flow
issues,
congestion
in
the
parking
lot
and
other
safety
features.
So
we
have
we're
trying
to
coordinate
those
as
we
see
public
testing
sites
open
in
the
community,
we're
also
pushing
really
hard
to
later
this
week,
open
Buncombe
County
run
community
testing
sites
and
we'll
have
more
information
on
that
later.
B
So,
as
of
10:30,
today,
our
agency
Buncombe
County
community
staff,
have
tested
10
inch
of
individuals.
We
have
received
70
reports
of
testing
by
local
healthcare
providers,
so
per
state
guidance.
When
providers
conduct
testing
at
their
clinics,
they
are
to
send
us
a
CDC
form
so
that
we
are
aware
of
the
number
of
testing.
So
adding
that
up
it
would
be
80
individuals
have
been
tested
as
of
10:30
this
morning,.
I
L
C
From
our
perspective,
this
is
a
rapidly
changing
situation.
We
have
many
many
more
test
kits
available
to
sample
sample
patients.
I,
don't
know
the
exact
number,
but
I
do
not
believe
that
that
will
be
a
limitation
in
the
near
future.
We
are
actively
pursuing
a
variety
of
different
measures
to
increase
the
testing.
We
are
utilising
not
only
the
state
lab
now,
but
we're
utilizing
commercial
labs
which
greatly
expand
our
capability
and
capacity.
It
doesn't
do
much
for
the
turnaround
time
at
this
point
in
time.
C
I
E
E
We
are
having
that
discussion,
but
right
now
we're
asking
for
buying
it's
a
big
ask,
but
we're
in
this
together
we're
asking
them
to
be
proactive,
follow
the
CDC
guidance,
followed
North,
Carolina,
Department,
Health
and
Human
Human
Services
guidance
in
our
guidance
as
Buncombe
County,
Public
Health
again,
as
we
all
know
by
now,
this
is
changing
day
to
day,
so
that
guidance
made
may
change
by
the
end
of
the
week.
But
right
now
we're
not
mandated
and
we're
just
asking
for
cooperation
to
again
to
protect
our
most
vulnerable.
L
B
So
I
think
that
if
you
read
the
governor's
executive
order,
it
is
quite
possible
that
that
guidance
will
change
when
it
comes
to
school
closure.
What
I
would
say
is
there's
still
a
lot
about
Kovan
19.
We
do
not
know,
and
one
of
the
things
we
do
not
know
about.
It
is
how
children
are
involved
in
the
spread
of
the
infection,
and
so
unfortunately,
that's
something
we're
going
to
have
to
learn
as
we're
as
we're
experiencing
this
outbreak.
I
would
say
my
concern
about
school
closure
is:
where
are
the
children
going
when
school
is
closed?
L
Then
one
follow
up
for
the
school
systems,
so
we've
gotten
a
lot
of
messages
specifically
from
bus
drivers
who
are
worried
about
their
jobs
as
well
as
substitute
teachers,
because
they
rely
on
that.
Sometimes
it's
like
their
primary
form
of
an
income.
Can
you
all
touch
on
at
all,
specifically
bus
drivers
and
substitute
teachers
and
if
they
won't
be
getting
paid
through
this.
H
D
We
are
using
our
bus
drivers
to
help
deliver
our
meals
and
we
also
just
left
a
meeting
with
our
administrators
with
our
principals
in
outlining
job
duties
for
all
of
our
staff
members.
We
are
encouraging
all
of
our
staff
members
to
do
their
work
remotely,
if
at
all
possible,
if
not
possible,
then
we
will
have
our
buildings
open.
There
will
be
some
modified
schedules
and
all
employees
will
have
an
opportunity
to
do
work.
A
Okay,
hello:
this
question
is
from
Mackenzie
wicker
with
Asheville
Citizen
Times.
What
will
the
county
be
doing
to
help
those
in
the
community
who
find
themselves
out
of
work
as
businesses
temporarily
closed
due
to
Kovan
19?
Well,
the
emergency
response
include
actions
to
prevent
folks
being
evicted
so.
E
We've
been
talking
about
the
secondary
impacts
of
copán
19,
particularly
on
our
local
businesses,
and
particularly
employees,
who
might
be
hourly
wage
workers
as
part
of
the
emerging
operations
center.
We
are
opening
up
a
working
group
to
address
specific,
specifically
addressed
that
issue
led
by
our
economic
services
team,
to
connect
those
individuals
to
resources
through
local
partners
through
state
and
federal
resources,
and
make
sure
we
could
connect
them
to
any
possible
resource.
We
can.
A
Okay,
we're
not
seeing
any
come
through
if
you
can
continue
to
send
your
questions
to
HHS
Pio
at
Buncombe,
County
org.
Throughout
the
day,
we
will
compile
them
and
collate
a
response.
Hopefully
that
will
address
the
majority
of
your
questions.
We
will
plan
daily
media
updates
at
this
point
and
we'll
be
as
communicative
as
possible
throughout
this
again
an
evolving
situation
at
this
point
if
there
are
no
more
questions
from
the
media.