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MINUTES - Draft <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH <br />October 28, 2020 <br />S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agenda & Abstracts\2020 Agenda & Abstracts/ October Page 5 <br />now consists of the medical clinic, communicable disease and nutrition teams. The <br />newly created Community Health Services division consists of family home visiting, <br />Family Success Alliance and Health Promotion & Education Services. A new director <br />will be hired for this division. <br />• Ms. Stewart congratulated Victoria Hudson on receiving the Bill Broadway award from <br />the NCPHA. Ms. Hudson expressed her appreciation for being honored with the award <br />and thanked Ms. Frega for the kind words she provided in the nomination packet. <br />• The new Dental Director, Dr. Monica Meng-Haggerty, will be joining the OCHD sooner <br />than expected. She will be starting on November 9th. <br /> <br />D. COVID-19 Update <br /> <br />Quintana Stewart, Health Director, gave an update on the COVID-19 status in Orange County <br />(OC) as well as took questions from the Board. Some highlights are below. <br /> <br />• As of today, <br />o There are 3,088 confirmed cases and 58 deaths in OC. <br />o There were 111 new cases in the last 7 days, an average of 15-16 cases daily. <br />• We’ve seen a steady increase in cases; however, they’re widespread all across the <br />county in both rural and urban areas. There are no potential clusters or indication of a <br />single source that we’re aware of based on the information we’re getting from case <br />investigations. The increase has mostly been with the younger population and working <br />age groups, specifically the 18-24 year olds with the 25-49 year old age group following <br />slightly behind. <br />• There are some new outbreaks in long term care facilities with most of them being <br />employees. <br />• There’s a steady increase in hospitalizations in OC and the state. UNC Main is at 95% <br />capacity. <br />• The percent positive tests percentage for OC is currently at 3% which is below the ideal <br />percentage of 5% or less; however, OC has been as low as 1.3%. <br />• There have been 64,372 tests conducted. This does not translate into the number of <br />individuals tested because some community members have been tested multiple times. <br />Roughly 44% of the population, an increase of 3%, has been tested in Orange County. <br />• We are attempting to make sure there are assessible testing sites in all parts of the <br />county. StarMed consistently sets up a Wednesday testing site in the Chapel Hill area. <br />Through state resources, we’ve also onboarded a new vendor, Optum Health, which will <br />focus on testing in the Efland area. We also have testing in the northern part of the <br />county in Hurdle Mills. The fourth Saturday of the month, we’re testing in Chapel Hill at <br />St. Thomas More. This Sunday, there is a testing event at McDougle Elementary School <br />in Carrboro. This week, we’ve started daily testing at the OCHD in Hillsborough at the <br />Whitted site. All testing is free. We’ve also offered free flu shots at some of the <br />community COVID testing events. So far, 412 flu shots have been administered. <br />• At today’s Governor’s press update, the eviction moratorium was extended until the end <br />of the year for those unable to pay their rent. It was announced last week that the HOPE <br />(Housing Opportunity to Prevent Evictions) federal funds are another resource that can <br />assist with some emergency housing needs. For our community members that are <br />undocumented, they are not eligible for those funds. Our housing director is aware of <br />this and is in the process of requesting some additional resources to support community <br />members not eligible for the HOPE funds.