City of Huntsville holds news conference about coronavirus

City of Huntsville holds news conference about coronavirus

>>> we are breaking into your normal programming with some breaking news.

>> right now top leaders in madison county are offering the latest information in regards to the county's response to coronavirus.

Let's listen in.

>> there are 215 confirmed cases.

In madison county there are 21 confirmed cases.

We continue to monitor this and respond accordingly.

I would like to bring two additional notes today.

One is, the alabama department of public health has set up a hot line for the general public with general questions related to covid-19.

That number is 1-800-270-7268.

Again, that number is 1-800.

270-7268.

And that hot line will be open from 7:00 a.m.

To 9:00 p.m.

Daily.

Also, just a note on another subject.

I would like to remind everyone that we do have the possibility of severe weather this afternoon.

So we ask everybody to be weather aware as we go through that situation as well.

So with that being said we'll turn it over to dr. pam hudson from crestwood hospital.

>> dr. hudson: good afternoon.

I'm pleased to represent the health care organizations in our community.

As you have heard, there are 21 confirmed cases in madison county.

Those are by and large recovering at home.

The hospitals have very little positive illness burden, positive test illness burden, ranging from 0 to 1 in local hospitals.

The -- again, most of those folks are home recovering and under quarantine procedures from the department of public health.

We can expect more positive tests because more tests are being done.

Yesterday over 600 tests were collected in our community.

So it is expected that these -- the numbers for madison county will go up.

And some of the tests that were positive in madison county actually reside in other counties.

So again, our public health officials are doing what they do best, and that is case analysis, contact tracing, and implementing quarantine procedures to help keep our community safe.

Your hospitals are continuing to identify additional capacity for what we hope doesn't come but we would like to be prepared.

So those things are ongoing.

Those supply procurement is also ongoing with lots of folks helping and making sure that we have what we need when we need it.

Our health care workers are going of great job.

Physician providers, nurses, first responders, law enforcement, all the folks who are out there that have to keep our community safe while everyone is hunkered down, we're very appreciative for their participation in keeping our community safe.

Thanks to everybody for observing the visitor policies as part of the hospital state health order.

And as you have probably heard, the alabama department of public health released new testing guidelines, which are in line with what we've been saying right along in these briefings.

First, not a symptomatic patients should not be tested.

Secondly, minimal ill folks probably do not need to be testing.

The testing focus is prioritized on patients who have -- are over the age of 65 and are significantly ill.

Hospitalized patients, that's very important for us to be able to know who actually is positive so that we can take precautions and keep our health care teams safe.

And then those patients who are immunocompromised and in certain circumstances residents of nursing homes.

Those new guidelines are out there and what i'm hearing today is increased conversations about a self-administered test.

So that's good news coming our way.

I'd like to just share some of the information that we're seeing in terms of really smart people, like who live in the rocket city, looking at models for what we can expect.

And right now the advice is pretty consistent, that sometime in the next 10 to 14 days we are likely to see what the results of our separate and sanitize efforts have been.

The hand washing, the social distancing, stay home, all those things, this last seven to ten days of pushing on this is going to be critical to really have impact on the public health of our community.

So i implore you to stick it out ten more days.

Be rigorous and keep to the hand washing, social distancing, stay away from crowds, follow those public health orders.

We've already sacrificed for the last seven or so days.

Keep pushing.

The race isn't won yet.

And hopefully this is the thing that's going to make the difference in this community.

Thank you.

Jeff?

>> jeff birdwell: thank you, dr. we'll go to mayor paul finley, city of madison.

>> mayor finley: thank you, jeff.

On behalf of mayor tommy battle, chairman dale strong and the madison county commission and madison county city council we wanted to share a few things today.

We'll start with, city hall is still open.

Police are still patrolling.

We're still doing permitting.

Business licenses, and the mayor's office is open to take your phone calls and/or answer your e-mails.

Public works is still out there doing what they need to do, unclogging drains from this morning and being prepared for the incoming weather that may happen tonight.

With that said, we strongly suggest that anything that you can possibly do via phone or via online services, that you please continue to do.

In city hall and maybe some madison specific things we've added a kiosk for our courts where you could come in to the front doors of city hall and simply stay right there to pay any fines or any bills that you might need to, if you don't have internet access.

It is available with internet access.

We had a nine-minute city council meeting last night with everyone listening and watching via tv.

And along those lines, took care of just the essential city business that needed to be taken care of.

We did report yesterday that we had one employee from our engineering department that did test positive.

Happy to report that that employee is recovering.

Quite honestly, if we didn't have a 14-day quarantine, which i can assure you he is following, he let us know that he probably would have been back to work on monday.

So he is recovering but following the proper guidelines that need to be and, in city hall, as soon as we heard what had happened we made the different plans that we needed to that we had put in place for the rest of the departments that might have been effected.

We also -- i think one of the things that's important, each one of our cities has outside appropriations that we make each year via our budget.

The largest appropriation outside of preparation the city of madison makes is to the emergency management agency.

For times like this.

For times when we have special cases like covid-19 or weather-related events and in this case, jeff, you guys are doing both today.

They do it 365 days a year and plan for this.

And we're very appreciative of the fact you've taken that leadership.

So many positive things are happening to minimize the impact on our emergency rooms using teledoc.

And we want to to please continue to do that i think it's also important to know when it comes to public safety that not every call needs to be made via 911 and each one of our respective cities or counties has non-emergency numbers that you can call.

I wanted to share those.

In madison, non-emergency number is 722-7190.

In huntsville that number is 722-7100.

And the madison county sheriff's number is 722-7181.

They're able to answer your questions or take information that you might want them to have.

Again, not every call is a 911 call but we do want to make sure you have the support that you need there.

Our schools continue to do an incredible job of feeding our kids.

I'm very proud of the food services and lunch lady groups that continue to work with the community volunteers to push these lunches out to the kids who typically would get them at school.

We've talked about this before, but the small business administration's economic injury disaster loan assistance program is now available for all 67 counties, in alabama.

You can get more information from the huntsville, madison county chamber of commerce website, the madison chamber of commerce website and both huntsville and madison's city websites on how to utilize that or sign up for that.

Groceries continue to restock as quickly as they can.

Again, i think one of the things that we would just request is stock as you need to, not 12, 14, 20 days out.

They're going to continue to restock that.

As a matter of fact, one of the areas from an employment standpoint for some of the folks within the restaurant, lodging, or other industries that are impacted is you can go to publix, kroger, walmart's websites and sign up for temporary jobs and in many instances even choose the store that you would want to work at.

It's a great way to get through this time and as dr. hudson talked about, these next 10, 14 days are critical.

But those are areas that need support right now to restock those shelves so we all have what we need.

We're also support our local restaurants for the takeouts that they have in place.

Today takeout tuesday.

Please support those restaurants.

And again, we remind you to tip well.

Many times that's going to help them get through as they need to.

I will remind folks, and we had this happen in city hall today, not everyone is trying to do the right thing.

And we do have folks out there that are using covid-19 from a phishing and from a scam standpoint and reminder remind everybody to please be concerned about what you're getting via the internet.

Not everything is on the up and up.

And please watch.

We're lucky in city hall that we have pieces in place that support that, but please watch for phishing scams and those types of things that are out there.

Redstone arsenal will make some adjustments to gates that are open, lanes that are open, activities that are available on redstone.

You go to the redstone arsenal website for any of the specific changes that are made or any of the social media platforms that redstone has in place.

They're a great partner continuing to keep open with the essentials that are needed for this nation.

And we're very appreciative of the partnership we continue to have with them.

A lot of folks ask us, what can we do?

And mayor battle, chairman strong and i, i'll -- everyone has received a census form in the mail.

And if you're home and you want to help a city, a county, and a state, please fill out your census form right now.

You can go online.

There's a special number that you are given.

It literally takes five minutes.

That will make a difference down the road for funding that receive in all aspects.

The next 10 to 14 days are critical as dr. hudson said.

We're doing the right things by social distancing, by sanitizing, by washing our hands.

And we ask you guys to continue to please do that but also have patience.

You know, it's a tough time right now.

Doesn't help that the sun is not out.

But we will get through this.

And i can tell you from a partnership standpoint and a communications standpoint, we're still so proud to be a part of this.

We're going to work diligently to share information with you guys, too.

With that said, jeff, that's all i have.

>> jeff birdwell: thank you, mayor finley.

Now we'll go to khris anderson from the american red cross.

>> ms. kris anderson: thank you, i'm khris anderson, executive director of the north alabama chapter.

Like everyone who is watching this, the red cross is going through some ifn credible incredible challenges and we're focusing on those mission kri critical areas like service to armed forces.

We're still doing the emergency notifications.

We're still responding to the house fires.

These don't stop just because of what's going on.

I know we've had some weather, you know, predictions or we might have severe weather today.

The storms are not going the stop just because of this event, so red cross is focusing on that.

While we are changing how we do it, we can't do it the same way we did.

We're implementing social distancing.

We're implementing different ways to deal with our clients.

And so red cross is still here and we're going the continue to be here.

It's very important.

I think never before in my lifetime, ever, have we had such an urgent need for blood.

Blood is a product that cannot be made in a lab.

You cannot make it.

You can't put it in a can and save it for when you immediate it.

Blood is an ongoing need that we have here in our community for our cancer patients, for burn victims, for trauma, for blood disorders.

The list goes on and on.

And right now we are asking anyone who is healthy, anyone who can, to give blood.

The blood industry as a whole has come together to say -- to issue this urgent need.

If you go to redcrossblood.org we're asking you to make an appointment.

Like everyone else we've implementing safety that's going to protect our donors, protect the recipients of this blood and our staff that's collecting it.

So our blood drives look very different than they did, than they have in the past.

So we need you to make an appointment.

One thing to remember is that we have so few blood drives right now that it's going to take you a while to make an appointment.

We are working with everyone, everyone we can to get more blood drives on the books.

So if you're watching and you have a church, you have a large facility, where we could host a blood drive, please let me know.

Khris anderson, call the red cross, we would love to work with you and get this scheduled.

You know, we've had about 3,000 -- i'm sorry, 4,000 units of blood that we've lost in the state of alabama.

That's about 12,000 people that's been impacted just so far.

We know this is going to be a long process.

At the chapter, the red cross, i don't know if you've ever been in there, we have a lot of pictures of heroes during world war i and world war ii and there are a lot of needs issued then.

And i kind of feel like that's what we're going through now.

You know, we're asking you to come out and give blood and we're going to get through this.

We've been through disasters before.

I've worked with so many of you when tornadoes and floods.

So i know that what we're going through now we're going to recover.

Thank you.

>> jeff birdwell: thank you, chris.

Thank you for watching today.

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

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

Stay safe.

Stay separate.

And remember to sanitize.

So at this point we'll take any questions.

We do ask when you come to the microphone, please identify yourself and who you are affiliated with.

And also we will allow one question and a follow-up.

>> chris joseph, wiff, this for you mayor.

In regards to the announcement of the employee who tested positive yesterday, where do things stand with maybe getting the engineering department, the building department and the permitting department back up to feed speed and back rolling?

>> mayor finley: sure, great question, chris.

All three departments are up and going right now in different forms and facets.

Engineering in many instances are working from home because of their direct contact with that employee.

Most of them were social distance.

But again, we want to err on that side.

Most planning and building have made the changes needed based on the interaction with that employee.

All three departments are open and running right now at different levels.

>> how many other employees who maybe enter agent we'd this positive tested employee, have had to quarantine or maybe isolate themselves?

Fens i don't have an exact number, it was minimal because he was on the bottom floor.

I would guess probably less than 12, maybe 13, that number is downstairs.

>> sydney martin with channel 31.

I know in madison county the courthouse has been closed, madison city and the city of huntsville have kept city halls opened.

Now that there's been a positive, is it time to rethink the if you're going to do that or are people going to start working remotely if they can?

>> mayor finley: there's a time to rethink everything.

Our goal in city government is to stay open to support our citizens in every way that we can.

So we had policy in place that were something like this to happen, and again, it happened in the vice president's office, it's happened on redstone arsenal.

You guys probably have policies for you.

Yes, the answer is we will stay open.

The best thing that can happen is if you don't need to come to city hall, don't.

You can do most everything online and by phone.

So best answer i can give you right now.

>> and you talked about a phishing scam.

So can you maybe -- was it an m e-mail that came in?

>> mayor finley: we did have an e-mail that came through this morning that was basically -- and i don't know the specifics of it.

But basically we're here to support you, click on this link and we can help you.

And we didn't because we've been -- part of what we're doing, regardless of whether this is a covid-19 situation or regular situation, we're all very weary of what's happening with that type of thing.

And so they just passed it on to i.t.

Did not open it.

It was directly related with a focus and said covid-19.

>> kelley smith here with whnt news 19.

This question is also if you, mayor finley.

I'm kind of piggyback off of another question here.

What specific guidance is the city giving to employees right now due to covid-19 in terms of social distancing and being safe at the workplace?

>> mayor finley: all of what you just said, to be vigilant, stay in your office if you have independent offices.

If you don't, stay six feet apart.

Minimize your contact.

Right now in the city, if they're not comfortable -- obviously personnel such as police and fire don't have this option.

But if they're not comfortable they can use a sick day to stay away.

So we're giving them the basics of what each and every one of us is to socially distance and be safe.

>> and how is that being enforced?

>> mayor finley: when you say that, i don't know -- >> is there any kind of enforcement with that or how is the city making sure that employees are following that guidance?

>> mayor finley: you know, i don't know -- common sense would be one.

We had a department head meeting this morning to talk about each and every one of them.

And that was focused as much on how can we help you continue to make sure the services that we offer in the city are available to everyone.

And then we talked about the fact that we did have someone downstairs, let's make sure that we continue to work together to follow the guidelines that the city has given.

From an enforcement standpoint, we're not policing everything that happens.

We're using our department heads to continue to work with their respective departments and, again, keep essential city services that folks expect from city government open.

What can help us the most is if people continue to do what we've asked.

Take these next 10 to 14 days.

If you need us, use it, by phone or by e-mail.

By online.

If you can't and you have to come, we're doing everything we can to minimize contact.

>> at this point we'll conclude this press conference.

And we appreciate everybody for coming.

Thank you.

>>> and there we have it.

We have yet another update from top leaders in madison county.

Just kind of giving us where they stand as far as response to the coronavirus and how it's impacting us here in north alabama.

We heard first from dr. pam hudson with crestwood medical center.

21 confirmed cases here in madison county, pat.

She was saying that most of those cases are recovering and isolating at home, which is very good news for us.

We are all concerned about what happens when you do test positive for the virus.

That's where that is.

They said yesterday more than 600 samples were collected to be tested for the virus.

So that's a very high number.

That's now going to state departments and to other areas to be tested in labs.

And she said where they stand right now the same thing we heard from david spillers yesterday, with huntsville hospital, the hospitals are preparing for an influx in patients and just trying to store protective equipment in the event they're needed right now.

And all eyes are really -- they say it's a critical time now.

Seven days in to these health guidelines.

They're saying the next 10 to 14 days are the most critical for us to keep going strong, keep abiding by these guideline, washing our hands and maintain that social distance.

>> we also heard the news conference, speaking for both huntsville, madison madison city, all the governments out there, still in operation.

For the bottom line is you heard from mayor finley there, look, if you don't have to be at city hall, just don't go.

They do have a kiosk out there if you need to pay a bill or a fine, fine.

But everything you can do is online so do that.

That's cording to the mayor.

He did also talk about that one engineer, a person that worked in the engineering department that tested positive for coronavirus.

He said they were like 12 to 13 others in close contact with that person.

They're in quarantine.

The other person that did test positive is recovering right now and still in quarantine.

He said bottom line, city hall is still open.

All three of the engineering departments are in operation right now.

So that's not going to change.

But he says, look, if you don't have to go to the city hall, don't go.

And continue to sanitize and continue to practice the social distancing that everybody has been doing.

And also, i want to point out again, too, i think dr. hudson said something about where we've been the last seven to ten days.

Critical in what's ahead of what the next 10 to 14 days.

Right?

>> absolutely.

It's really important for us to stick to those guidelines.

Because we're going to see just how well we've been practicing it when we start seeing these numbers, all of these tests that are now in the labs, we've got 600 of them at least from our area that have to go through these testings.

And hopefully we've all been following the guidelines to the best of our abilities.

>> yeah.

You heard also from khris anderson with the american red cross.

We really can't say this enough.

And she said it bottom line, look, blood donations, they just can't stop.

We're at a critical shortage right now.

No matter what the situation is going on out there, coronavirus outbreak, you name it, we've got severe weather coming up and you're going to talk about in that in a second.

Look, we have safety measures in place.

If you would like to make an appointment go to redcross.org.

Make an appointment.

They're looking for church e urging churches or anybody that has facilities.

Look, we need these blood drives to take place.

Get in contact with khris over at the american red cross and let's get an army.

She was reaching back to like world war i and world war ii where there was big campaigns to give blood, the need is critical right now.

>> and you mentioned, too, we have a threat for severe weather coming our way later on this afternoon.

Meteorologist rob will be in tracking it hour by hour for us.

Plan, plan, plan.

We cannot stress that enough.

I know a lot of you will be hesitant to go to community shelters.

We've been talking to emergency management directors throughout the day.

They say do not hesitate.

Seek shelter.

Bring some cleaning supply it is you if that's going to make you feel better, hand sanitizer, wipes, whatever you need.

But do not hesitate and make sure you and your family have a plan to stay safe this evening.

Again, rob evilington will be track that weather for us.

He will break into news coverage as it's needed, as these storms start to approach our area.

Remember, for the latest on the weather and the coronavirus headlines,