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UPDATE: On Tuesday, June 30 there have been 905 confirmed deaths in Alabama from COVID-19 with 5 deaths in Colbert County, 11 deaths in Franklin County and 4 deaths in Lauderdale County.
FLORENCE – On Monday, Florence Mayor, Steve Holt held a News Media update on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it pertains to the City. In general, Holt said that even though the number of cases in the hospital have risen, possibly due to the relaxation of restrictions on business openings and increased public and private gatherings, the situation is still under control. Much of the success was attributed by Holt to the leadership of EMA Director George Grabrian and City Department Heads who have been keeping a close watch on compliance measures, and the increased use of protective masks and social distancing, despite some rare violations of State health Department recommendations. The public was not invited to attend the briefing in order to keep the number of persons in the City Commission auditorium limited. Everyone in the room, except one police officer and 2 other attendees were wearing protective masks. Mask wearing in the City is not officially required.
Media was given a briefing by Fire Chief Jeff Perkins, who informed that his department was operating normally, with the one exception that fire code inspections have been temporarily suspended. Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Jimmy Shaw detailed that the issue of Fall re-openings have not been finalized, pending guidelines from the State of Alabama Department of Education, which are expected shortly.
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Commissioner Kaytrina Simmons spoke for the City Commission and said that every measure is being taken in every District to ensure as safe an environment as possible.
Lauderdale County Commission Chairman, Randy Pettus expressed the Commission’s commitment to work with the City in implementing all lawful measures to contain the spread of the virus in the rural communities.
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Career Public Health Officer, Dr. Karen Landers, with the Health Department presented the Media her assessment of the situation. She has been involved in Public Health for 38 years. She said that her experience with disease mitigation has been very useful in dealing with COVID-19. Landsers said, “We do know that this disease has not changed. It is spread by a respiratory droplets. That is primarily spread by person-to-person proximity. And that is the reason for the rules about 6-foot social distancing, good hand sanitizing and also the discussion now of wearing a cloth face covering when in public.”
Dr. Landers continued, “We have learned quite a lot about this virus. And it does appear that these measures can be very useful in reducing the transmission of this virus. We are also now that there is an asymptomatic group that can spread the SARS-cov-2 (the technical designation of the pathogen). And that’s another reason that all of the sanitation measures that have been put into place. I would like to say that I am very pleased (looking around the room) to see the level of face covering here in public.”
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She continued, “We don’t have much to offer right now with this virus. We have the social distancing, we have the hand sanitizing, we have the face covering. And I just ask, ‘How many people are going to be harmed by wearing a face covering?’ This is medical advice. I’m a doctor. Have been a doctor for 47 years, and this is what I would tell my patients in any setting, to follow my medical advice. This is what I tell my family to do. That’s my medical advice to them, because that’s all we have at this time to offer until we have a vaccine.
We do extensive medical tracing. We use medical students and every available employee to engage in contact tracing. We have a wealth of experience and a lot of people who have done this type of work for a lot of years that are involved in our contact tracing.
Once you have COVID-19, you are in home quarantine until the Alabama Department of Public Health says you’re not. And that can range in the number of days depending on when you had a positive test, the onset of symptoms… A lot of people hear 14 days, but that can vary, depending on the individual case.
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We are testing about 2 per cent of the population of Alabama each month right now. We have done hundreds and hundreds of clinics throughout the State, probably as many as 600 specimen collection clinics throughout the State. Here in our area we have a specimen collection center over on Highway 72 that we co-operate with Helen Keller Hospital. And that is our daily presence in Northwest Alabama, although we do have a specimen collection operation at the Lauderdale County Health Department as well. These clinics are specifically set up for persons who have multiple risk factors.
And finally, I would like to remind people who get tested because of suspicious symptoms to stay at home until the result of their test is known. A lot of people say, ‘Well, I’ve had my test and I feel OK, so I’m going back to work. No! You do not need to go back to work until your test results are completed. And this is a message that we cannot repeat enough. Stay at home until you get your results back.”
