County Administrator Biles COVID updates and public comment

1:35:05Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start with a couple

1:35:10COVID in in addition to the how we're holding meetings. Um So our veteran services teams partnered with Pinellas County in empowering Pasco's veterans and Lowe's to donate holiday bills to veterans' families that will be available on the first of April. So that's again our veteran services team working with some partners in the community to have meals available for veterans' families available on the first of April.

1:35:35Um libraries is participating in the neighborhood forest trees program, so children can pick up free trees uh from the libraries coming up shortly and The goal is to be planting those a week of earth day. uh in the in the various you know homes and yards and whatnot. So those two things um with respect to COVID and public participation, I will say the challenge is actually not really this Room that challenges Dave City. in this room it's a little easier to socially distance. We can bring them in to the podium and then right out the side

1:36:06the challenge is trying to replicate that in Dade City. it is not as easy to replicate that process to maintain social distancing in that board room. And so We would prefer not to do one process in New Port Richey and a different process in Dade City. We'd like to keep them combined. But we're working over probably the next few weeks to try to figure out a way to get public back into the boardrooms socially distanced until obviously we get a high enough vaccination rate that we're We have heard immunity, but So we're looking at that. Again, the challenge is not necessarily this

1:36:36room. This room's actually pretty straightforward and easy to to manage. It's Dade City and we don't want to put a process in place in Newport Ritchie that we could not replicate in Dade City or vice versa. So that's we're working through that. Facilities was working on that to try to come up with some options for that.

1:36:50I I did see that our community our number is seven point seven five or something in my newsletter. That what anything above five is community spread. Is e is prevalent, so

1:37:06I

1:37:06was gonna get to that in a second. Uh just real quick on our I was trying to say positive. Um

1:37:12Yeah, I know.

1:37:14As of a couple days ago, and I don't have the numbers from yesterday, uh 'cause the state data lags a little bit from what we've actually done vaccination wise, where over twenty percent of the counties had at least one shot, and again that's significant a buffering even while you're waiting on the second shot. So that's a positive uh number. That's we've now had three times the number of people who have had at least one vaccination Three times more people have been vaccinated in Pasco County than have actually been tested positive for the disease and so continue

1:37:45to make significant progress. in that manner. And that number I don't believe yet includes some of the federal vaccinations because they're on a s separate database that hasn't yet been incorporated into the state database. So So I think we're actually in a in a lot better. Shape there. I do have a regional call tomorrow with the regional health department directors and the other county administrators to kinda talk through where we are data wise and and where we are seeing things going. Um Yeah, obviously the big Spread

1:38:16event that may happen was spring break last week and so we kinda need to see What has come out of spring break and where we are from that and then probably make some decisions how we adjust fire, if you will you know, around the first of April, maybe uh shortly thereafter. from a process in the bordering perspective it's probably gonna take longer just because of trying to figure out how to manage the date city, the date sh the location. Um again. So Uh with that that's uh

1:38:46kinda all I had uh from my perspective uh but I'll take any questions on either of those topics.

1:38:52Any questions?

1:38:55Okay. Mr. Steinsteiner?