Transcript:
Chairman Becker: Good morning, I am John Becker the Board Chairman. As everyone knows we have had a positive case in Madison County. We are here today to give the public some information. I’m going to turn the press conference over to Eric Faisst, our Public Health Director and Dan Degear, our Emergency Management Director then I’ll open it up for questions. With that, Eric…
Eric Faisst: Thank you Chairman. Good morning, my name is Eric Faisst and I am the Director of Public Health for Madison County. Yesterday afternoon, we were alerted to our first positive COVID-19 case in a Madison County resident. That individual is currently in mandatory isolation, my staff is working to identify any other individuals that have come in contact and those individuals will be placed in quarantine. Since this morning, we have received notice of two more positive cases. Fortunately, those two cases of people were already in quarantine at the time and will remain in quarantine. We will follow up with those individuals of anyone who may have come in contact with them.
We are also aware that there was a college student that tested positive. That college student tested positive out of state and had notified the university. We are working closely with Colgate University to identify any additional contacts the student may have had. And we are working closely with them and those individuals will be quarantined.
We are also working with our health care providers to expand testing sites. We are working on one for Tuesday and we are finalizing details to get that information to you. I do want you to know that the test site will be by invitation or appointment only. We want to make sure that only people who are at risk of COVID-19 are being tested and so it will be by appointment only. We ask individuals to contact their providers if they have any questions. Their providers will go through and determine whether or not they meet the criteria and they can be referred to that appointment. But it will be by appointment only. We don’t want to overwhelm the health care system and make sure we are testing only individuals who need to be tested. Again as a reminder, our message from the beginning has been: It is important to practice social distancing and good personal hygiene to help prevent the spread of germs. If you are feeling sick, stay home, contact your provider. If you are seriously ill, call 911 but otherwise call your provider first if you are feeling ill. Do not go to the hospital. We ask that you call first. We are trying to keep the hospitals from being inundated so they can care for the people they need to care for. Hospitals are still caring for people under normal conditions and we ask you to understand and respect that. For us to focus on those who are at risk, those individuals that meet certain criteria should be tested. We are focusing testing on people with the symptoms of COVID-19, that being: cough, fever, shortness of breath that fall into one of these categories:
1) come into close contact (same office or classroom) with another person who is known to be positive.
2) Has traveled to a country that the CDC has issued a Level 2 or Level 3 Travel Health Notice; or
3. Is currently under quarantine; or
4. Has already tested negative for other types of infections (rapid flu tests, respiratory panel).
If you think you meet some of these criteria, please contact a health provider first and we will go from there. Thank you.
Dan Degear: Good morning, the Madison County Office of Emergency Management is still working with our partners in Public Health, County administration and County IT to ensure preparedness for what we are now facing. My team and Emergency Management has been working diligently in supporting the supply need for those battling on the front lines. Supplies are hard to come by. The world wide supply chain that we are accustomed to rely on is now stretched to the max and then some. We are taking lessons from America’s greatest generation. NASA’s Gene Kranz said “I don't care about what anything was designed to do, I care about what it can do.” We are taking this lesson and currently identifying alternative solutions with supplies that are available. I would like to quickly thank those who are often forgotten about, the unsung heroes who are keeping our community safe each and every day. Their daily tasks have not stopped and now we are asking them to do even more. These are the professionals in EMS, fire, law enforcement and those in our Oneida Dispatch center. Here in Madison County, we are truly blessed to have the best in the business and we appreciate people keeping them in your thoughts. Thank you.
Chairman Becker: Okay, we are opening up to questions.
Reporter Questions: The condition of the three confirmed cases, do you have their condition currently? Are they feeling well?
Eric Faisst: They are feeling well. They are mildly symptomatic but they are feeling well.
Reporter: Were there any connections to those cases and the confirmed case at the college? Do you believe there were any connections?
Eric Faisst: There is no connection.
Reporter Questions: What do you recommend for individuals who might not have an immediate health care provider or a doctor that they go to regularly. What should they do if they are feeling symptomatic or if they wish to get information about this.
Eric Faisst: There is currently a hotline at the Upstate Medical Center, we would have them call that for guidance. The Upstate triage hotline is 315-464-3979. They can start there. If they don’t get through there, they can contact us here locally at the Madison County Health Department at 366-2361 and afterhours we have an on-call service that if you call our main office, we will follow up with you as well.
Reporter: Can you please restate that the individuals that currently are in the County and are confirmed cases, do you have their ages by any chance?
Eric: I do not.
Reporter: And was that one individual yesterday and two new ones today?
Eric: We got alerted to the first one yesterday afternoon and the other two we found out this morning. We received their lab results this morning.
Reporter: Those lab results were from Wadsworth?
Eric: No, I believe they were through private labs.
Reporter: Do you know how many tests you have pending? And are they all going through your department?
Eric Faisst: The tests don’t go to our department, we get the notification. We have 70 people who have been tested in Madison County. Of those 70 tests, 25 were negative, 3 positives and we still have 42 that are pending.
Becker: No other questions? Okay, I want to thank Eric and Dan and everybody, as Dan said, who are the unsung heroes who are still working—911, Office of Emergency Management, Eric and the Public Health Department. They’ve had logistical glitches but we are working with them. As we do in Madison County, we improvise. We are asking the public to do your part—social distancing, wash your hands, rediscover your family, go for a walk but keep your distance from other people. It doesn’t mean you can’t go outside or that the world is ending as we know it. People on Facebook want to know where these folks are from--it doesn’t matter. They are from Madison County and we need to pull together as a family, as a county, and get through this and we will. We just have to follow the rules, practice social distancing and keep your hands washed. Thank you.
Reporter: One last quick thing: any recommendations for the businesses who are shutting down tonight, the non-essential employees. Anything you would recommend to them?
Eric Faisst: We recommend what we recommend to everybody about social distancing. For more specific details, go to our Madison County website for more detailed guidelines for businesses and a variety of others, nursing homes or individuals. I would direct them to go there. That information is quite detailed and updated daily as we get new information. As you know, things change hourly and we understand and appreciate people’s concerns. We are trying to stay on top of that and give you the most accurate information. I would ask that you avoid getting your information off social media, and to look to people who do media for a profession--the CDC, the state and our local website. Thank you.
Chairman Becker: We are urging everybody to make sure they go to our official website here in Madison County, the State’s official website, or our official Facebook page to get the most accurate information. Any other questions? Okay, thank you everybody for coming this morning.
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