BOH Agenda 111820 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Health Director’s Report November 2020 • October 30, 2020 – Orange County Cost Recovery Training facilitated by Haggerty Consulting, Inc. (Virtual) • November 4, 2020- NC InCK Partnership Council Meeting (Virtual) • November 5, 2020 – Orange County Department Directors Meeting (Virtual) • November 5, 2020 – Town of Chapel Hill Emergency Manager & Town Manager COVID Q&A (Virtual) • November 6, 2020 - Partner Information Sharing Group (formerly MAC group) meeting (Virtual) • November 6, 2020- OCHD hosted UNC Public Health Students for the Annual UNC Phield Trip. UNC PHield Trip – a way of introducing incoming public health students from UNC to local governmental public health; Krishnaveni Balakrishnan, Healthy Homes Coordinator, coordinated and facilitated the event this year. There were 23 students and 10 staff in attendance. Due to COVID-19, it was held in a virtual format rather than in person as traditionally done. Krishnaveni gave a comprehensive overview of the Orange County Health Department highlighting the important racial equity work of the department and the impact of systemic racism on health disparities. She made a clear connection of this as evidenced by the impact of COVID-19 on historically marginalized communities. Students had an opportunity to go into breakout rooms to hear from health department staff in an intimate setting to ask questions and hear more about department programs and initiatives. Special thanks to Donna King, Kristin Prelipp, Ana Salas, Asuka Nakamura, Rita Krosner, Cathy York, Jennifer Jensen, Dana Crews, and Angela Sowers for their participation and assistance in making the event a success. • November 9, 2020 – Large/High Impact County COVID-19 Call (Virtual) • November 13, 2020 - NCALHD New Health Director Orientation (Virtual) • November 13, 2020 - Campus & Community Collaborative Fall Meeting • November 13, 2020 –Management Team Meeting; PERFORM training with Human Resources (Virtual) • The team and I continue to work with UNC, both the school districts, and several community agencies to discuss COVID re-opening plans. • We recorded Public Health Chat #2 this month. In addition to the COVID update we featured the School Superintendents from both school districts (Dr. Monique Felder – OCS and Dr. Jim Causby (Interim) – CHCCS to discuss school reopening plans and preparation. • On November 10th, Governor Cooper announced that NC would remain in Phase 3 until December 4, 2020. He also announced that the mass gathering limit for indoors will decrease to 10 maximum. As we see cases increase across the State, it is largely due to social, community and family gatherings. The change to the mass gathering limit is an effort to suppress the spread of the virus as we head into the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday when many may gather indoors to share a meal. • On November 12, 2020 BOCC Chair, Penny Rich, signed an Amendment to the Declaration of State of Emergency in Orange County to align with the Governor’s Executive Order 176 issued on November 10, 2020. • As of Friday, November 13, 2020, NCDHHS will be making a change to the NC COVID-19 Dashboard that will result in an increase in hospitalizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised the criteria for reporting COVID-19 hospitalizations. Previously, the CDC required that hospitals report patients only when they were under isolation precautions, which is typically a maximum of 21 days. Because patients may suffer the effects of COVID-19 for a longer period of time, the CDC now requires that hospitalizations be reported for the entire length of stay.