Buncombe County Government, NC Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates, 23 Jul 2020

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From YouTube: Buncombe County COVID-19 Community Update (July 23, 2020)

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Buncombe County's COVID-19 Community Update for July 23, 2020. Dr. Jennifer Mullendore, Medical Director/Interim Health Director presenting.

For Spanish, visit https://youtu.be/tfKvFvhmCyY

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Good afternoon and welcome to the july 23rd community update on buncombe county's, coveted 19 response. My name is stacy wood and I serve as a public information officer here in the emergency operations center.

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This community update is available in spanish on the buncombe county, health and human services, facebook page and that can be found on facebook at bchhs.

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All of our community updates can be found on the buncombe county government youtube channel or on facebook at buncombe gov. Today's update will be provided by dr jennifer mullendore buncombe, county medical director and interim public health director.

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Spanish interpretation of this community update is provided by some salt lake and american sign language is provided by our asl contractors ashley and regina. Thank you all for your vital contributions to buncombe county and archiving 19 response and now we'll get started with dr mullendore.

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Good afternoon, buncombe county continues to see a sustained increase in the number of new cases of covid19 reported to us daily. As of noon. Today, there have been 1292 lab, confirmed cases of covet, 19 and buncombe county residents.

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This is an increase of 300 new cases from the same time. Last week, sadly, 43 of those individuals have died as a result of their infection. 37 of those individuals were residents of long-term care facilities.

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We continue to see that a majority of these new cases are in younger adults, currently 57 of those with lab confirmed covid19 in our county, since the start have been between the ages of 18 to 49., as I've mentioned before the way to tell whether a rise in cases is because of increased spread in the population rather than as a result of performing more tests is by looking at the percent of tests that are positive in north carolina as a whole.

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Nine percent of covid19 tests performed are coming back positive. This percentage for the state has ranged from eight to ten percent. For the past several weeks in buncombe, county we've seen an increase over the course of this month in the percent of tests on county residents that have come back positive at the end of june, two percent of coveted tests on county residents came back positive two weeks ago. It increased to four percent and for the past two weeks it's been at five percent.

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This indicates that we are seeing continued spread of the infection in our community.

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Since the start of the covet 19 pandemic, there have been outbreaks at 12, long-term care facilities in buncombe, county public health considers a long-term care facility outbreak over when it has been 28 days without evidence of continued spread of covid19 within the facility.

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Currently, there are 10 active outbreaks in long-term care facilities in the county.

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Public health is navigating this complex terrain of covid19, where change is the only certainty we do this by using data and research to chart our course by identifying critical intersections, trying to anticipate roadblocks and adapting to changes as needed along the way for many weeks now, buncombe county and our clinical partner western north carolina community health services has tested an average of 850 people a week for covet 19 at community testing sites.

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Testing was made possible as a result of a tremendous effort by many community partners, and we are grateful to those agencies who have stepped up to assist during the community testing events due to challenges with staffing and capacity wnc. Community health services is no longer able to be the clinical partner for community testing sites.

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Additionally, with cases increasing and wait times for test results through the previous model coming in much higher than the recommended hour or less time frame, adjusted adjustments need to be made to community testing for a more effective model to serve the residents of buncombe county.

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The county believes the testing is important and we are committed to making sure that everyone who needs testing in our communities has access to testing testing resources are dynamic and we need to recalibrate our testing model to better serve our residents.

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Community testing will be paused for a short period of time. While we pull in resources to staff, streamline and improve processes. This is simply a readjustment period that is not unique to buncombe county moving forward. The county's mass community testing efforts will be performed by buncombe county government.

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This means that the county will provide coordination and implementation of all community testing functions from site logistics and safety, screening and registration, specimen collection, lab contracting and notification of results.

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This new community testing model will be built on best practices and successes, seen in other north carolina counties who have also had to adjust and pivot to further refine their testing efforts.

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The goal is to have community testing back online in early august.

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We are working hard to get these new and improved testing sites back up and running people who have been tested at previous community testing sites should refer to the guidance given given to them at the testing site about how to receive their test results.

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More information on how to access those test results can be found on bunkumready.org.

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We have heard concerns that this is some sort of attempt on our part, to keep numbers low, to bring in more tourists, and that is simply not true.

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We have to pause while we replace the services that our clinical partner was providing for our community testing, and while we implement new actions to improve the screening and registration process and go online with a new lab partner to ensure a significantly shorter time for results.

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Buncombe county public health has been directed to continue testing. We believe in testing, and we want people to have access to it. If they need it, we will provide additional updates on community testing next week in preparation for the new format.

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I also want to put in perspective the role of our community testing sites within the context of all testing for covet, 19 being performed on residents of buncombe county for each of the past two weeks, over four thousand six hundred covid19 tests were performed on buncombe county residents.

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This is data that comes directly from the state. Less than 20 of those tests were collected at our community testing sites. Testing is widely available in our county. Through primary care providers, community health centers urgent, cares hospital systems and pharmacies, while our community testing sites are being revamped. Access to testing is available in our county.

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Public health, health care providers and school officials want everyone to focus on preventing covid19 from spreading in the first place. You can do this by staying at home as much as possible and not participating in activities that put you and your family at risk.

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If you feel you must leave your home or must attend a gathering with those outside of your immediate household, please wear a face covering and keep six feet apart from others.

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This is the way that we will stop covin, and we need your commitment to do this. Please try to encourage those around you to focus on preventing the spread of covet as well.

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Please assess your need for testing if you think you might have copic 19 or have been in close contact to someone with covet 19, regardless of your symptoms, the buncombe county, covid19 self-checker is one resource you can use. The self-checker can be found at bunkumready.org.

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You may also contact your healthcare provider or use the state's find my testing location app to find a testing location and a reminder, as we approach august now, is the time to make sure children are up to date on their immunizations covet is not the only infection we should be worried about during this pandemic. Immunization rates have dropped across across the country, and we need to do all we can to turn this around.

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Please talk to your medical provider or call the buncombe county immunization, clinic at.

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Again, just to reiterate limit your activities outside your household and follow the three w's. If you must go out, wear a mask: wait, six feet away from others and wash your hands.

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These practices will help us all get back to school and work and will keep more people healthy and safe in buncombe, county daily events may seem unpredictable and, yes, coronavirus is new, but the challenge of protecting public health is not. We depend on you and your actions to help us get through this pandemic.

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Through collaboration with our community. We can increase the impact of everyone's hard work.

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Thank you and stay safe.

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And thank you for tuning in to today's community update next week in an effort to work around the governor's schedule. We will be providing the community update at 3 pm on facebook, live and remember the three w's, if you're out and about wear a face covering wash your hands and wait six feet apart.

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Thank you and have a safe and healthy.

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