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Friday, March 29, 2024

WATCH: Huntsville health, government leaders discuss coronavirus impacts

Credit: WAAY ABC Huntsville, AL
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WATCH: Huntsville health, government leaders discuss coronavirus impacts
WATCH: Huntsville health, government leaders discuss coronavirus impacts
WATCH: Huntsville health, government leaders discuss coronavirus impacts

We'r >>> we're interrupting regular programming right now with breaking news out of madison county.

>> county and city leaders are about to give us a coronavirus update.

Let's go ahead and isten in.

>> jeff birdwell: huntsville area government health care and emergency response agencies we bring you this daily briefing on our community response on covid-19.

Today our speakers will be dr. pam hudson from crestwood hospital and mr. john hamilton, city administrator for the city of huntsville.

You will note that we are sitting six feet apart according to cdc guidelines as well as our own best practices to separate and sanitize.

At this point i'll give you a brief update of the numbers as we know them now.

Currently there are 2603 confirmed cases in the state of alabama.

In madison county there are 169 confirmed cases with 2 confirmed deaths and one death that is currently under investigation.

We will continue to monitor this and provide updates as necessary and respond accordingly.

With that said, we'll go to our first speaker, dr. pam hudson from crestwood hospital.

>> dr. hudson: thank you, jeff.

Good afternoon.

It's a privilege to represent our hospitals, physicians, nurses and all the supporting staff that are working together to keep our community healthy.

Good news today is that our hospital inpatient load of suspected and positive covid patients remains flat and has for the last week.

Congratulations and thank you.

The current flatness is a testament to your compliance with the social distance that went into place several weeks ago and, in fact, today's results are reaping the benefits of what's happened two weeks ago.

So whatever you do today we can look for the results of it in about two weeks.

So the next two weeks hinge j on what we did for the last two weeks and we did even more social distancing and additional measures as ordered by the governor.

And so every day counts at this point.

Do not let up.

We also need to appreciate the good work of our nursing homes, our assisted living facilities and every place where vulnerable populations are.

Their good work has kept us from having outbreaks there that would further tax the hospital systems and lead to more cases in the community.

The supply scramble continues, especially for personal protective equipment and select medications.

But we're making progress and for our current load of patients, i believe that everyone is in pretty good shape.

Also appreciate the local businesses and folks that have stepped up providing either sources or actually making masks, helping us to source gowns and things like that that has been very helpful to the hospitals.

Masks may be the new normal for us all.

And you will see our health care teams at all your local hospitals masking up to protect each other.

Again, remember, you wear the masks, the cloth, social distancing masks are for -- to keep you from infecting other people, so they are masking up to protect each other and to pro teskt their patients.

And remember, i must tell you you must use a mask correctly.

Used incorrectly they can cause harm.

The mask fits over your nose and your mouth.

It isn't pushed up on your forward.

It's not down under your chin.

It only works here.

And so in situations where you have to be out and you can't predictably confirm that you will be able to do that six plus feet of social distancing a mask is a very good way to protect our community.

If you're looking to make your own, my neighbor made that mask and i can tell you i have been the envy of many who are trying to figure out how to make a surgical mask.

Cdc.gov has several patterns to be able to make this with what you might have at home.

Today when i made rounds in the hospital i saw only masks and eyes, which is a very different situation for our health care providers and, as i talked about that with the nurse rs and other staff they shared how they've already had to change their interactions with patients who now can't see their smile.

So again, things that we will be doing differently going forward.

Also during my hospital rounds today i talked with our careful and dedicated environmental services team.

They, like the environmental services workers in every business that's operating now and that will operate in the future, they are going to be -- they are paying very special attention to doorknobs, high touch areas, as well as their cleaning standards elevated to be able to make certain that covid is not hanging around the environment at our hospital and certainly the same, that ask advice is good advice for home.

The places you should be addressing are the high touch locations and i am certain that if you just have a conversation with your grandmother, they will be able to instruct you because these public health measures are ones that our grandparents had to adhere to very carefully because of the spread of disease that has been in our history as well as right now.

Covid is still out there, but our community is making it hard for to it do its dirty work.

Its dirty work is making people sick so they can make other people sick around so that sick people can make health care workers sick who can then infect their families and infect other patients.

So we have to continue the fight to make sure that we are not letting the covid virus do its dirty work.

And if i had to have a sporting analogy for this i would say this is like half time in the big time and the score is tied.

So we cannot stop.

We can't say, oh, hasn't this been good.

We're still after this.

There will be a new normal for the summer.

I think that you're starting to hear that now on some of the national -- from some of the national speakers.

The new normal is probably going to look like continued social distancing in some form or fashion, as we will reinvent how we work together in our businesses.

Hand washing, i think that hand sanitizer will be the new desktop accessory and in any meetings that we choose to have, masks, i think we will continue with that.

Certainly in the health care arena, we will have that as an additional opportunity.

And then you're going to see and many questions we get is what about testing.

I think surveillance and testtesting is going to be the thing that we next implement as those supplies improve because we have to use the public health measures to continue to identify cases and separate them, quarantine them so that the virus can't get a foothold in vulnerable communities of people and then spread to the general population.

Research, vaccines, treatment, all of those things are likely to come.

There are lots of very, very smart people working on this.

But those aren't going to come tomorrow.

But that will probably be on the landscape for the summer.

And jeff, that's it.

Thank you.

>> jeff birdwell: thank you, dr. now we will go to mr. john hamilton, city administrator of city of huntsville.

>> mr. hamilton: thank you, jeff.

I want to start with saying thank you.

This fight, as dr. hudson uses the football metaphor, is going to be won with a really, really big team.

It's a lot more than 11 folks on the field at one time.

Between state agencies, the local governments, local agencies, all the health care providers, all of the folks that are keeping things clean, a lot of private organizations that are donating time and resources and continue to do things to help the community, it's a great big team of folks that are going to win this fight and i had the opportunity to observe this partnership now for quite some time and it remains strong and that is greatly appreciated.

Thank you to all of you that are doing those types of things.

The example of sewing masks may sound like something simple but it is a huge part of this fight.

And to the public, as all of our health care providers are continuing to really pound the drum overcome plying with the social distancing order and all the things that are laid out in this state order, i've observed good compliance but there's room for improvement.

We have not yet won this fight.

We've got to continue.

So i would ask you each every citizen, every individual, observe your own behavior.

The intro spective on what you're doing.

The whole family doesn't need to go to the grocery store in most cases.

There may be some examples but the vast majority of the time one person from the family can go to the grocery store.

Go out when you need to go out for essential services.

Don't go out because you're bored or because you want to.

Make sure that we stay disciplined in those things that have been laid out for us.

And we will win this fight.

It looks good right now.

But it is not time for high fives yet.

We have got to continue to work our way through that.

So as i say, i've seen -- i've personally gone out and observed.

We have law enforcement out and other people out helping educate people on the way that they need to comply.

And we've seen that good compliance but we've got to continue to look for ways to improve and we will absolutely continue to flatten the curve and hopefully drive it down to zero some day.

So i would ask you to continue to be disciplined and comply with those things.

From a citier is i haves perspective, like the city of huntsville, the city of madison remains in business.

The mayor has continued to move forward with those things that our citizens need to sustain our community and we're all in a significant growth pattern right now so to continue to grow our community.

Those things are important.

So we will continue to pick up your garbage, we'll continue to provide public safety, we'll continue to fix potholes and those sorts of things.

So all that continues.

Fortunately much of it has been able to move online in terms of the direct citizen engagement so those of you that need to engage with city hall continue to do that online or over the phone to the extent that you can.

And we'll all be able to contribute to the requirement for social distancing.

Thank you for what you're doing.

Continue to do it.

It is not time to slow down yet.

Thank you.

>> jeff birdwell: thank you, mr. thank you for watching today.

We will be back tomorrow again at noon for another daily briefing.

Until then, critical updates will be posted to the city of huntsville's covid-19 web page as well as the websites of our partners here today.

Until then, stay safe, stay separate, and remember to sanitize.

Again, at this point we will take questions.

As you come to the mic please identify yourself and who you are affiliated with.

And we will allow one question and a follow u up.

>> ryan lawson with whnt.

This is for dr. hudson.

You mentioned hospitalizations.

We had a discussion about this the other day, and inpatient with covid and under investigation.

Can you detail those numbers a little bit, if you don't mind?

>> dr. hudson: sure.

Today the numbers are the combined number for all the hospitals is about the same as it has been each day.

So -- which is 22.

And those are persons under investigation and positives combined.

>> can you break that out?

Is that possible?

>> dr. hudson: yes, it is possible.

We have 11 positives and 11 persons under investigation.

>> the other question.

You talked about half time.

I wondered, how do you tell when the fourth quarter starts?

What does that look like?

>> dr. hudson: no one really knows.

I think that it is going to be different for every community.

And what we have tried to do here in this community with the collaboration that you see every day between health care and public service and emergency management is to make us one of those communities that is not impacted and doesn't follow the models -- some of the very different models to look at in terms of how we're impacted here.

So it's not possible to know when the fourth quarter is.

Although we have an artificial date out there towards the end of april when the governor will either have to extend or remove or relax the orders for social distancing.

>> i don't want to cheat on the follow-up question.

I just wondered, is that acute cases, is that confirmed positives?

I know in one sense it's all of the above.

But can you help us appreciate a little better what that look likes when you say the models differing.

Do you mean run on hospital or just, you know, the numbers of confirmed cases going down and down?

>> dr. hudson: i'm talking about in comparison to some of the national and very difficult data to observe in new york, for example.

We don't want to be a hotspot here in this community.

And everything that we have done collectively has been focused on trying to beat the virus and not be one of those hot spots.

>> thank you.

>> sydney martin with channel 31.

My question is for city administrator john hamilton.

Some small businesses and boutique shops are frustrated because the governor's stay-at-home order forces them to close but the big box clothes that sell essential items such as food, beer, and guns are allowed to remain open and also sell nonessential items such as clothing, jewelry and art.

What do you say to those small businesses and is the deck stacked against them?

>> mr. hamilton: i don't think the deck is stacked against them.

Certainly not intended to be.

I think some of the challenges, while those big box stores sell essential items and it's clearly understandable why they need to be open, i almost physically impossible to not also have access to what might be considered nonessential items. it becomes almost a physical impossibility to partially close a big box store.

Our legal department is working directly with businesses affected by the order and making sure that it's understood what they can and can't do.

I think -- if any of those business owners have questions that i should contact our legal department for clarity.

But there's a number of them that continue to operate or can continue to operate curbside even though they can't allow customers inside.

So we have found some examples where business owners assume the order was more restrictive on them than what it really was.

If they have questions about that they ought to contact the legal department or go through the actual guidance and the legal opinions that have come out of the state and ag's office and things.

So it would be good for them to get clarity.

Obviously we can't sit here and go through every single example.

I've heard those same frustrations you mentioned in your question.

And understand that.

But a store that is both grocery and other items is not really possible to physically segregate them in some cases.

Our legal department is working those case by case.

>> and then how much sales tax revenue do you expect to lose and what's going to happen with the city's budget?

>> mr. hamilton: we're right now having to make assumptions because one of the things is sales tax is a little of a lagging indicator.

So the sales tax payment we received, distribution received from stores here at the end of march was for all the activity that occurred in february, which was largely unaffected by this current situation.

Obviously march is significantly impacted by it.

But we won't know those absolute numbers until the end of april.

So we're having to work off some assumptions and models.

We do anticipate sales tax to be heavily impacted.

There are some sectors where it may not be as bad.

Grocery stores, while they might be down some are not going to be impacted a heavily as you might see a sporting goods sector or b boutiques.

Our finance officer working through models.

We do expect, you know, to be down several million dollars.

And all of our departments are working through alternatives, how they can trim their budget.

We're doing a number of things, including slows hiring.

We're taking actions in aanticipation of that.

We kyle into this on very sound financial footing.

So we do have some flexibility in terms of those budgets.

Maybe more so than other communities just because of where we are in terms of growth patterns and things.

If this continues longer, and that's part of it.

Obviously a lot of the questions about when are we in the fourth quarter, you know, our finances will be significantly impacted by this duration.

So if we come out of this quickly, then it becomes much easier to recover.

If this extends for multiple months, then we have to make some tough choices and we'll bring those to city council as the time is appropriate.

>> you talked about slowing the hiring process.

Could it impact construction projects or departments being cut altogether?

Can you talk about that?

>> mr. hamilton: i'm referring to internal hiring within the city.

We have people retiring and their replacements.

You delay a hiring action by two or three weeks and you've saved money in the budget.

We're being prudent about those positions that really need to be filled in order to not slow down a critical services versus one where's maybe we can afford to carry a vacancy for a few extra weeks just to help manage the budget a little bit better.

>> jeff birdwell: all right.

At this point we'll conclude this press conference.

Thank you for coming.

>> we're noticing just the timing difference of these updates that we're getting from leaders in madison county.

That one a much shorter news conference than what we're used to seeing.

Dr. pam hudson with kres wood, john h hamilton talking with thus afternoon.

Going back to dr. hudson, she was talking about what you do today, pat, really impacts two weeks from now.

So they're saying what we are seeing today as far as maybe that curve as she says that it is the -- it's flat right now, remains flat in our area.

She's saying that that's a result of following social distancing and guidelines two weeks ago.

She's saying to continue to do what you can to follow those guidelines that are set in place here at the local and of course the state levels and of course the cdc guidelines across the country.

She also talked about masks again.

Masks, she did note may be the new normal that we see at medical facilities so get used to seeing doctors and staff and patients and other folk there's wearing those masks.

She did say keep in mind that those mask, pat, protect others from you, not you from others.

So if you are going to wear it, it's a good thing but just keep in mind that you still need to maintain that six-foot separation.

>> dan shaffer: much the same as what we've been hearing, marie, obviously.

They're just trying to make sure that they have the public's attention.

Just to say, look, keep doing what you're doing.

Yeah, we have some issues every now and then.

You have law enforcement checking in on some complaints and so on.

But please keep practicing social distancing and those kinds of things.

John hamilton t city administrator, was talking about the city still being open for business, still handling those services out there.

You heard our own sydney martin ask him the question about the budget and how long can you sustain.

And he talked about, yeah, we're going to see a big impact with the budget but, hey, they have been fiscally responsible, at least for now they can handle it.

But depending on the duration of how long we're going to continue to live under the stay-at-home order from the governor is going to be depend on really where they budget stands.

And could be a big, big challenge if we continue this further down the road.

They used a lot of analogies with football and so on, when is the fourth quarter.

The big issue with that is, as you heard dr. hudson talking about, hey, it depends.

When we get closer and closer to the end of april we'll have a better idea.

But in the meantime, let's stay ready for this potential spike that's going to be happening.

Keep doing what you're doing out there and we'll be fine.

They also thanked as we all thank everybody on the front lines right now.

We see you.

We really, really appreciate everything that you're doing.

We'll continue to do.

>> with that being said we have the latest on the coronavirus impacts and response across north alabama and beyond right now for you on waaytd.com.

Our next newscast is at 4:00 p.m.

We will see you back here live at that time.

Until then, we're going to send it back to your regular programming.

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