Morgan County officials hold news conference about coronavirus response

Morgan County officials hold news conference about coronavirus response

>>> coverage you can count on, waay 31 news starts now.

This is breaking news.

>> cutting into regular program for, decatur, morgan county officials.

This morning the state confirmed their first case in morgan county.

Let's listen in.

>> reasons that you all wanted me to come today is that morgan county has now been added to the list of counties in alabama that does have a confirmed case of the covid-19 virus.

Quite honestly, what this says is that we're not unique.

You know, this is obviously a community spread virus.

It's no longer just a travel issue.

And we're in it with everybody else.

We are part of alabama and we're in this concern situation just like everybody else.

It also bears that we are the importance of the social distancing and all of the things that our state officials have decided to do to try to assure that alabama does not have a severe situation in this manner.

Now, i know that one of the questions that i'm going to get is that, what are we doing about this?

Well, let me say that soons as soon as we're contacted that we do have a case, in any county, that we have investigators, they are called infectious disease investigators, who do immediately come onboard, make contact with the individual that has been identified to let them -- to talk to them about the issue, the qu quarantine, the mandate that they stay home.

Let me tell you up front that anybody who is a confirmed case does get a mandatory quarantine, from two days to the onset of their symptoms until at least 1 14 day or free from fever for at least 72 hours without having used anything to reduce that fever.

They are notified about this by phone.

The investigation does include anyone that they've been in contact with and many other things.

Sometimes shortly after that and sometime today an official legal quarantine will be delivered to any individual who tests positive for t ko covid virus.

It is to maintain the quarantine in their home or whatever residence they've chosen at that time.

So once again, we are in this with all of the alabamians.

We are -- you know, all the things that you all have been told over time are just extremely important.

We have to take care of ourselves.

First of all, we want to take care of ourselves individually, then certainly we want to take care of your families and, thirdly, we certainly want to protect everybody else.

Every person has contact with people in their lives, whether it's their children, their parents, their families, their co-workers, and nobody needs or wants to be the person who gives this virus to somebody else.

I would go on and add that the -- i think all the information about the virus has been out there in a tremendous amount.

We are still seeing that the predominance of the difficulty with the virus is in our older individuals and those that have immune suppressed condition or other coexisting conditions.

I would mention that morgan county, the population of morgan county is about 120,000.

The per percentage of folks over 65 is about 17.5%, which renders the fact that you have about 20,000 people in this county that are over 65 and, therefore, by virtue of their age, are in this high risk group.

That doesn't account for any of the folks that may additionally have -- they are younger than that, that may additionally have other pre-existing conditions.

We have a responsibility to protect each other, to protect ourselves, but certainly to protect each other.

>> thank you so much for the knowledge and experience that you brick durbring during a time lie this.

Appreciate that.

So while we now have a confirmed case within our area, now is the time for community to keep our families safe.

As we continue to practice social distancing, remember, cover your coughs and sneezees with a tissue, and watch your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Honor the mandatory state health orders issued last week by avoiding large gatherings of 25 or more individuals.

If you ill, keep yourself away from others.

Seek treatment if you need it.

If you have questions about what to do, refer that to the city guidelines recommended health tips.

The morgan county infectious disease task force has been planning diligently and continues to work closely to ensure that our first responders and front line workers have the resources and tools that they need to keep us healthy, safe, and well.

Your city government will continue to offer the uninterrupted services you are already receiving.

If you need to visit city hall, please visit our website at dec decaturalabamausa.gov for information on how to schedule an appointment.

Let's remember to be good neighbors by strictly adhering to guidelines we received from the alabama department of public health and the city.

Let's call our elderly community members to see if they're okay and let's support our local businesses through online or pick-up orders.

Together, we can win the fight.

With that, we'll take a few questions.

>> judy, has this person that has been notified, what events has this person been to in the last two weeks that you're aware of?

>> that information is not released to the general public for the safety and protection of that individual.

People that have a need to know are notified.

>> and has this person's work been notified, place of work?

>> i'm not aware of the background of this information.

That is handled by the security of the infectious disease staff but they would have taken appropriate action.

>> do you know where this person was tested, tested at the hospital here or another outside facility?

>> aactually am not sure about that either.

I will say that you know, people in morgan county, a lot of people in morgan county work in madison county.

People in limestone county come to morgan county.

So i will say once the cases are classified, they're classified by the residence of the individual, not by where they get tested.

>> have the proper people been in contact with this person also been asked to be quarantined for 14 days?

>> once again, that -- all of that is handled by the infectious disease group.

Our indeshes disease task force and is part of the interviewing process with them.

Again, basic information about individuals is not released.

For their safety and their protection as well as for the public.

But the mandate that they are quarantined and that these actions be taken is stringent.

>> do you expect for the number of cases in morgan county to go up within the next couple of days?

>> to be honest, probably.

I'm kind of surprised, again, once again, because we are so close to limestone -- limestone county has two -- has.

Madison county, as you're aware, has about 17.

I think we just had two more added to that.

I'm surprised, quite honestly, that we haven't had cases before now.

Will it go up?

If testing goes up, the number of cases will go up.

>> in general terms, what is the protocol if someone tests positive, for those immediately surrounding people, what's the protocol for other people that may have come in contact with them to be quarantined?

>> well, let me just say, one of the things that the state health officer has done and one of the reasons that our local officials have made such drastic moves is because you may be around people every day that already have this virus and that's why the social distancing is so important.

We would also like to believe that everybody does what they are supposed to do.

If that were true we wouldn't have closed the beaches, because our young people just, you know, they want to get together and, you know, it's just hard to get people to do that.

So a lot of the reason for the stringent guidelines is this.

Now, once again, emphasis is made to the individual by this team once they're contacted, and they make every effort for anything that is critical to make sure that those people are contacted.

>> does it worry you knowing that someone who doesn't show symptoms could be a carrier of the coronavirus but don't meet the requirements to get tested?

>> well, yes and no.

And let me be honest.

The treatment is no different whether you get tested or not.

You know, one of the big horrors of this particular virus is there is no vaccine, there is no treatment.

The treatment is based on whatever your symptoms are.

If you are really, really, really sick you need to go to the doctor, you need to go to the hospital.

If you are not, you need to be at home.

One of the issues that we've had, and i'm sure that you all probably know this, we have just within the last day had to change the testing criteria because so many people just wanted to know.

Well, even if you just want to know, you know, the treatment for this is no different.

Send you home, hydration, you know, stay away from folks, take care of yourself, use fever-reducing medication, if you need to use the fever-reducing medication.

But basically the treatment is exactly the same.

Now, the good news is that -- and i'm sure you all have heard on the national news, the hope is that we will have some antiviral or some treatments within six months.

The other hope is that we will have a vaccine hopefully within a year.

The problem we have with this virus as compared to the flu is we have no vaccine, we have no treatment.

And if we did not have that for our regular influenza, our death rates would be tremendously high we're that, too.

We're going to get there, though.

We live in an era where that's going to happen.

We're going to take care of folks.

>> what's the ongoing surveillance plan for act i've cases for our local health department here in morgan county?

>> i'm not sure exactly what you're asking.

But you know, exactly what i have said.

You know, immediately folks will be contacted when they have a positive test.

Let me also mention that even if folks are tested by private laboratories, there is a mandate that within four hours of a positive test, it be reported to the state health department.

Then that immediately is activated to those infectious disease task force individuals who immediately contact that person and say, you know, what have you been doing, and don't do it anymore except day at home.

>> do you have the current number of cases or people that are being investigated right now in our area?

>> the only case that has been reported for this area, for morgan county, is the one.

Now, we have 32 across my 12-county area that have been investigated.

In the state, we are now, as you all well know, well over 200.

>> talk a little bit more about social distancing.

There's people that still think they can go to their friend's house, their neighbor's house, they can do whatever they want.

That still is not social distancing even though you think you're healthy.

>> you know, that's great.

And you're absolutely correct.

They are taking a chance when they do that.

Once again, you take your child to somebody else's house, you can't guarantee that they child is not infected or that has not been infected somewhere.

So everybody has a responsibility for the social distancing themselves.

Now, it's hard on parents.

It's hard on families.

It's hard on our businesses.

But right now i think if we can just get through this period of, you know, getting rid of this virus or at least down playing it, we will be okay.

>> we don't know what's about to hit us this afternoon, we don't know if tornadoes will hit us, how many, if they do, you know, what are your thoughts on people, you know, congregating in storm shelters today?

>> well, you know, you have to do what you have to do.

And if you get killed in a storm shelter, you know, it's not going the do you any good to wait until you get the virus.

Sometimes in our lives we have to take care of issues that is immediately at hand.

And i would say if we have tornadoes to come, people need to go to shelters.

They need to do it.

>> judy, again, thank you for the wonderful knowledge that you bring during this time.

Announcing one confirmed case.

Let's bring it down to two more questions if we can.

Only because we have -- we're trying to have public meetings by way of youtube.

So we will have a planning commission meeting today at 2:00.

And we will use our youtube channel for that.

So we can get two more questions.

>> judy, you represent the whole northern district in alabama.

The state department has been working around the clock to update people in alabama about these cases.

Do you have a message of reassurance for the people in north alabama that, you know, you guys are proactive, you're doing what you can, and this going to be okay.

>> we're doing what we can.

We're teaming together with the people in these communities.

It's up to the individuals to work with public health.

They can't do it alone.

The officials can't do it alone.

It's up to each one of us to take this seriously, protect each other and protect themselves.

>> basic information about the person diagnosed in morgan county would obviously be helpful to others in knowing whether they've been exposed.

You said none of that information is provided for protection of the individual being diagnosed.

I don't understand how that protects that person.

>> and by first responders, having to respond to that area, volunteer -- >> there is a mechanism in process as we speak that 911 is given information that they're allowed to code, contacts that if they get a request from that address, then those first responders can, you know, take extra precaution.

Having said that, first responders are extremely efficient and already know infection control.

You know, regardless of the type person -- regardless of the person they're responding to.

>> my question actually wasn't about first responders.

Why not, say, identify the employer or the church or other information so that other people can see if they've been exposed to the virus.

>> well n all probability folks may have been exposed to the virus, whether or not they're in contact with the person that has been tested.

So, you know, just because there are plenty of people who are sick, that are staying at home, we hope, that may have the virus, they just haven't been tested.

So to identify a single individual or to single them out creates a lot of problems not only, you know, problems for them in terms of -- people have even been threatened.

There was a lady on the news in birmingham that talked about getting death threats because she had it.

So there's a lot of things that play into, you know, contacting -- again, i will say to you the people who have a need to know are being told.

And in some cases it may be that the individual is telling that person.

>> following up.

Is the department of public health encourage the person that has been diagnosed to publicly release the names so that their contacts, even contacts they don't know, are aware of the potential exposure?

>> i guess i don't really understand what you mean by publicly notifying them.

You know, they would notify their employer.

They would notify the people that they've been around.

But in terms of getting on facebook and that kind of thing, that's not encouraged at all.

>> they meaning the person diagnosed or the department of -- >> well, neither one.

>> the public health notify the employeer?

>> the department of public health identifies who has a need to know.

Those folks who have a need to know.

That is determined bity legal division of the state health department once the interview is done.

>> does that include the employer?

>> in some case, yes.

>> there you go.

You got it done.

Good job.

Thank y'all for coming.

And, chief, thank you for being here.

And we'll have another update tomorrow at 10:00.

Okay.

>>> all right.

You've been listening to decatur mayor tab bowling.

This morning the state confirmed the first case in morgan county.

One of now 215 confirmed across the state of alabama.

Health officials saying they're surprised it actually took this long to get a confirmed case in morgan county.

That individual is self quarantine for 1 days.

They would not tell us where the person worked, whom he or she might have hat con talked with.

Judy smith from the health department said the people who need to know that information has been notified.

She mentioned one in five morgan county residences over the age of 65 are at very high risk and it is all of our responsibility to protect each other.

Stressing social distancing, hygiene, staying away from others if you don't feel well.

The mayor said if you need to have work done with the city hall you should do that online.

And please support local businesses through online orders and pickup.

Our team coverage of coronavirus across knot alabama coming up on waay 31 news at 4:00.

Meantime, we're updating our