COVID-19 Updates: April, 21 2020Orange County Health Department Press Release
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kristin Prelipp, Communications Manager and Public Information Officer kprelipp@orangecountync.gov or 919-245-2462 LINK TO MEDIA RELEASE
Orange County, NC is Ready to Strike Back at COVID-19
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HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. April 21, 2020 ? Congregant living facilities -- long-term care facilities, nursing homes and group homes -- are at high-risk for COVID-19 infections. Anticipating the need for a quick response and ongoing support at the local level, the Orange County Health Department (OCHD) and Orange County Emergency Services created a public health strike team.
Launched in in early April, the strike team is comprised of staff from OCHD, Emergency Services, as well as representatives from UNC and Duke University Hospitals. The newly formed team brings expertise in public health, community para-medicine, communicable disease prevention and epidemiology to high-risk facilities. Equally important, the team provides ongoing education and guidance to those who work at these facilities.
Orange County Health Director, Quintana Stewart says, “We remain deeply concerned for the staff, residents and families who are affected by this outbreak. This team enables us to respond in the moment and to be proactive as we move through this crisis.”
Orange County’s boots on the ground are Landon Weaver, community paramedic, Jim Gusler, Orange County EMS training coordinator and, Zin Lyons, a public health nurse from OCHD. The work of the strike team has been noticed at the state level. On Friday, April 10, Dr. Tripp Winston, director of North Carolina Emergency Medical Services asked Orange County Emergency Services to document their model so that it can be shared with the rest of the state.
“This is the ideal team to respond to the crisis. I call them my energizer bunnies,” says Kim Woodward, the county’s emergency medical services division chief. “They’re prepared to be in this fight to protect the residents at these facilities as well as any resident or visitor to Orange County.”
The goals of the unit are to assess, educate, test, and support. Initial contact includes a visit to the facility to assess their operations, and, if needed, provide guidance on sanitation and social distancing. This includes fit-testing of N-95 respirators, a type of personal protective equipment (PPE) used to protect the wearer from airborne particles and from liquid contaminating the face. Testing of all residents and staff may take place when a facility has two confirmed cases of the virus. All efforts are in line with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.
The communicable disease and epidemiology team at OCHD prioritizes visits with facilities that have been deemed to be at higher risk. Zin Lyons explains, “During our initial visit we do a baseline assessment of the facility. Do they have what they need in the way of information and personal protective equipment (PPE) or other supplies? If not, we provide both education on the spot and we work to get the supplies they need. Even if they seem well prepared, we want them to know that we’re here to support them. This is all about getting the right resources to the right place at the right time.”
Kirby Saunders, Emergency Management Coordinator, explains, “Being a member of the strike team has its risks, but the team members have each other’s backs. They supervise each other to make sure they are using best-practice safety with their PPE, suiting up before entering and decontaminating upon leaving.”
The strike team members are understandably tired. Yet they remain hopeful and their morale is high. “We’re lucky the county had community paramedics in place and already connected to community before all this hit,” says Lyons. “That’s made it easier for us to do our jobs: give peace of mind of mind to employees, families and residents. And, we’re here for the duration.”
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Key Points (Week of April, 20 2020)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
CDC also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.
The U.S. Surgeon General has an easy to follow mask tutorial (linked here) using a bandana and two rubber bands: Cloth face coverings should—
Cases & Outbreak Status
- North Carolina is still seeing an upward trend in our cases, so although it’s not as steep as other parts of the U.S., or globally, we do need to continue to maintain our social distancing, follow stay at home orders, and continue to be diligent about our health and the health of others.
- Orange County has 189 cases and 3 deaths as of today.
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More in-depth information on the outbreak
As we move through this pandemic, here is some more in-depth information on where we are and how we push through towards recovery:
In general, viruses work by replicating and jumping to new hosts (humans) until they runs out of fuel (also humans). - The replication rate varies for viruses. For COVID-19 the replication rate is 2-3. This means if uninterrupted, each infected person can infect 2-3 other people. And those 2-3 people will infect 4-6 more people and it will continue into an exponential spread of cases. We’ve already seen this happen.
- For COVID-19, the number of cases will not stop increasing until we as a population reach 50% immunity. This can happen one of two ways: immunity or from a vaccine.
- The vaccine is about a year away so we can’t plan on this method right now.
- So, around half of our population has to get sick and recover to stop the spread. But we want to spread out all of the infected cases over a longer period of time to “flatten the curve”. This ensures hospitals and healthcare are not overwhelmed on the same day or the same week or in the same month. It also ensures that if you end up at hospital you can get the care you need without supplies being wiped out.
This is where the stay at home orders come into play. The reason we are in ‘stay at home’ type orders for 30 days is that it is two isolation periods of 14 days, back to back (rounded up). - In theory, if everyone is staying home, two isolation periods is enough to slow down the spread significantly so that fewer folks are flooding into hospitals and healthcare systems and are able to get the care they need without limits.
- However, folks have not been super great at staying at home. We must continue to hang tight and follow the orders as closely as we can.
- Gov. Cooper has said that there are three metrics [testing, tracing and trends] that need to improve for the state to consider moving towards lifting “stay at home” orders:
- Testing: Identify who has COVID-19. Work with private and public partners to increase testing capacity, expand testing sites and address supply challenges.
- Tracing: Act quickly to stop spread. Ramp up staffing and technology to determine who has been exposed when someone tests positive.
- Trends: Know when to dial up or down social distancing. Analyze new data, including number of new cases, hospitalizations, deaths, protective equipment, supplies, hospital capacity and more.
All of this to say: please stay the course. This is uncharted territory for us all (unless you also lived through the 1918 Pandemic Flu) so recovery will not be instantaneous. We have a long road ahead, but we can do it. Following the World Health Organization (WHO), CDC, and our state/local health department experts we can get through this. |
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North Carolina COVID-19 CasesThe North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports 6,951 COVID-19 cases, 427 hospitalizations and 213 deaths as of April 21, 2020. For more information regarding live updates (NCDHHS updates the site every morning at 11 a.m.), please visit the NCDHHS website.
Orange County Health Department also has a COVID-19 dashboard webpage, with information on COVID-19 data in the county. The dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Thursday. There are currently 189 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Orange County, and 3 deaths.Orange County will not be sharing any patient demographics about positive COVID-19 cases. Information that identifies a person who has or may have COVID-19 is protected by NC’s communicable disease confidentiality law, G.S. 130A-143. When the information is maintained by a local health department, it is protected by HIPAA as well. The address alone is sufficient to make the information individually identifiable, even without the name. Therefore, the information must be managed in a way that complies with these laws. We will not ever share race, age, sex or zip code. Social distancing is extremely important to limit the spread of COVID-19. Included below are infographics in English, Spanish and Chinese that give tips on social distancing. Orange County encourages residents to practice social distancing along with other steps, such as proper hand washing, to combat the spread. Spanish, Chinese, Kinyarwanda, Chinese and Karen versions of the graphics below are available here. |
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Use of Cloth Face Coverings to Help Slow the Spread of COVID-19
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The CDC recommends everyone wear a face covering when they go out in public. This will keep COVID-19 positive individuals who are asymptomatic and may be unaware they are infected from spreading the virus. For more information, please visit our website. |
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Easy DIY No-Sew T-Shirt Face Mask-Video
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COVID-19 Internet Service Offerings
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In response to COVID-19, more commonly known as the coronavirus, many North Carolina residents are being asked to work and learn remotely. To help ensure they can access high-speed internet, the NC Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) has compiled a list of new and existing free or affordable service offerings from vendors across the state.All information can be found on NCDIT's website.
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Orange County Head Start-Early Head Start
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Currently, the Orange County Head Start-Early Head Start locations in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough are closed due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. They're still continuing to take and process applications for the 2020-2021 program year.
Pregnant women and families seeking Home-Based services for children up to age 3 and families seeking Center-Based services for children ages 6 weeks-4 years old are encouraged to complete an online application at www.chtop.org. Once submitted, they will be contacted by phone to complete an admissions interview and to receive instructions on submitting supporting documents.
If families are unable to apply online, they may leave a message requesting a telephone interview at (919) 490-5577 Ext. 248. Messages will be checked daily. |
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DonationsThe Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is requesting donations to support the COVID-19 response. We know that our community members want to support this effort, and you may be able to help in a safe way. We are not asking the community to go out to shop for these items, but rather to donate materials that you already have. More information is linked here. |
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COVID-19 Community Resources
For more information on COVID-19 community resources in the county, please visit our webpage. Resources on specific topic areas, such as food access, education, housing, and others, are all accessible on our website, or at the links below.
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