A Conversation With Dr. Landers

WAAY 31 is joined by Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health to discuss ever-changing conditions on coronavirus.

Friday right now.

Live in huntsville.

>> dan shaffer: every night at 6:00 p.m.

We're taking you deeper into the impact of coronavirus.

>> najahe sherman: and tonight we are joined by dr. karen landers with the alabama department of public health.

Thank you so much for being with us this evening.

>> dr. landers: thank you.

>> najahe sherman: we are less than 48 hours away from the safer at home order expiring.

Your perspective, can you highlight some of the cdc guidelines for reopening that people should really just take away from this evening?

>> dr. landers: well, what we want to look at in terms of reopening is we want to continue to look at what our overall trends are in the state of alabama and we also want to look individually at what's going on in our counts.

Although we do recognize that person goes from one county to the next.

But to be aware of overall trends, to be aware of what's going on in e the counties and to be aware as businesses, entities and other facilities open, that they have implemented the prac practices that will be able to keep patrons safe, customers safe, et cetera in order to continue to contain this virus to the extent that we can can.

>> dan shaffer: a lot of public officials testing, testing, testing.

Have we been able to keep up with the demand for retesting here in north alabama?

>> dr. landers: yes, i looked at some data today.

And while it's preliminary, it does appear that north alabama has done a good job in access to testing, not only through commercial laboratories but we do know that the bureau of clinical laboratories with the alabama department of public health has expanded to a capacity of 1350 tests per day.

And in counties in north alabama specifically, the more rural counties, the health department conducts clinics either at the health department or at other sites in the counties where specimen collection.

So it does appear that in north alabama we have had reasonable testing capacity.

>> najahe sherman: the health department's dashboard shows the number of new cases reported yesterday is the highest single day total in the past two weeks.

We reported there were more than 316 new cases just yesterday, so what's the takeaway from this spike?

>> dr. landers: i think the takeaway is you look at the entire state of alabama.

You have to be aware of that the coronavirus, the covid-19 illness, the sars has not gone away and is not going away.

So as we open, persons who are at higher risk for poor outcomes as well as the families of such persons need to continue to practice the measures we've already talked about to reduce this virus and also be very, very aware that these measures will need to be in place for a while.

Again, as we open up we cannot let our guard down in any county in alabama.

>> dan shaffer: let's talk a little bit now about the mortality rate.

Are the number of deaths accurate?

We've heard that any death, heart attack, car crash, old age is counted as a coronavirus death if that person tested positive even though that wasn't the reason the person died.

Is that true?

>> dr. landers: yes, it is.

Actually early on the alabama department of public health criteria for counts deaths related to covid-19 involved the criteria where we reviewed the chart and determined underlying health conditions that the person might have had perhaps -- patients might have even been on hospice.

But with the information that we received from cdc we were instructed to count those deaths as covid-19 if the person had tested positive.

Now, be remiengded that this is still a small number of persons that might have tested positive and not have been counted earlier.

But again, we received this information and we were advised that we should count these patients.

Nd overall, if you look at our deaths on our covid-19, the primary reason for these deaths still is attributable to covid-19 but with those other factors being a small number.

>> dan shaffer: okay.

Thanks.

>> najahe sherman: as the state continues to reopen, what type of increased demand will places like huntsville hospital likely see?

>> dr. landers: well, again, huntsville hospital has been a great partner, as has crestwood in the madison county community related to health care.

And i think it's very important that as we reopen we continue to carefully monitor our numbers so that hospitals can maintain capacity and be able to treat the patients as they come into the hospital.

Again, our overall goal is that we must reduce cases and not overwhelm our health care capacity.

Until we have better treatments for this disease.

>> dan shaffer: i want to ask you about what's happening down in montgomery county.

They were the first to report a case in the state and now the mayor says they're running out of icu beds.

Is that true and should we expect more cases up here eventually?

>> dr. landers: well, certainly montgomery county has had some additional cases to occur.

And their health care system is being strained.

Now, what happens is hospitals have to look to their surge capacity plans, as montgomery county is doing, so that if they need to transfer patients to another county they can do so.

The community there has done a great job in testing and a great job in identifying cases.

And so that contributes to these increased numbers.

But again, the same situation that we talked about earlier, we have to monitor closely what the situation is, hospitals enter their data in the alabama incident manage system on a daily basis.

Actually twice a day.

So we can see what their capacity is and continue to be aware that if we need to respond to support that in terms of mutual aid or additional resources, then we will do so.

>> najahe sherman: is it possible that huntsville hospital would be considered to help shoulder some of that burden of montgomery's coronavirus cases?

>> dr. landers: again, i can't speak to the hospital plan capacity in montgomery county.

Clearly persons would want to use facilities that are closer to montgomery to transfer patients.

But again, hospitals work within their own surge capacity plans and their mous that they have with other hospitals to transfer patients.

>> dan shaffer: is there anything else you would like to pass along to families as these restrictions are eased and people begin to go back to a more normal way of life?

>> dr. landers: well, i think our normal now is going to be a new normal.

And the most important message that i as a physician can continue to provide is that we have to take our individual responsibility and be reminded of our individual activities that we can carry out to reduce this virus.

Again, until such time as we have better treatment and a vaccine.

Each of us must take actions to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

>> najahe sherman: we've noticed that the state's coronavirus dashboard seems to only be updating the numbers once a day.

Why is that?

Will that change again?

>> dr. landers: well, as we continue to add data, and of course you can see that the dashboard is a very busy place.

And as we continue to add data and we have provided some additional information on this, the data has to update electronically.

We want to ensure that the data is accurate.

And periodically we will have to reduce the updating in order to ensure the accuracy.

And specifically as we have more data transmitted.

Again, we get a lot of data from commercial laboratories into our testing.

So we want to make sure that that data is accurate and that it does reflect the position and the situation that we have in alabama at this time.

>> dan shaffer: dr. karen landers with the alabama department of public health.

Thank