County administrator COVID and services updates

1:46:13Thank you, sir. Um County Administrator Biles. Uh

1:46:18yes, sir. Uh so to clarify the mobility fee district, this is in the west. So and I pulled the map up while while Commissioner's talking. Uh the line is between Moon Lake and Sun Coast. Uh so a couple other things. Um From a communications perspective We averaged about Almost two hundred forty thousand people looking at our Facebook page in the month of July alone, so that's a pretty sim significant jump of communication

1:46:48there. Uh obviously a lot due to the pandemic situation we're in, but also the fact that we're now streaming these meetings live over Facebook in addition to YouTube. So there are other ways people to To see the information in in the work that we're doing here at the county. Um And you know, with that there's been almost eighty thousand minutes of video views on Facebook itself. So a lot of people looking and seeing what we're doing, um whether it's board meetings, planning commission meetings, MPO meetings, or the other

1:47:18specific videos we put up on uh the website.

1:47:23Another thing that happened, just kinda update you, uh senior services served almost eleven thousand meals in the month of July uh to uh our feud insecure seniors. So that's about four hundred and fifty seniors. that we serve meals to in the month of July. And again, a lot of that is, you know, a baseline of funding that we had, but there is additional funding that we've gotten down through various sources uh to help add seniors to the list both from through the CARES program, but then there's also been other programs that have sent money down

1:47:53for that. So Uh and then as you heard from Marcy today. We continue to push out different methods to help people with rental and mortgages. So now we have, you know, basically up to three different ways, whether through it's our nonpart Nonprofit partners. through our CARES program or now through the new program Marcy presented to you today. There's significant ways we're trying again to push that money into the community to help people stay in their homes. 'Cause that's im that's important uh in today's current environment. And

1:48:25The only other thing I s have is Chairman if you'd like I I do have some slides I got from DOH today if you want me to go over that data. If not, I can just send it to the board. Just an update on code. It's kind of up to you up to what the board wants. I can just send it out or um Well that's the board. Would you like to see it? Okay. Would we like to see it? All right. Yeah, like I said, I got these probably forty five minutes ago from Mike Napier at the Health Department. And we'll go into slide two. Uh again, this one's hard to read, but

1:48:55it's a screenshot of the

1:49:03We'll get to the right slide.

1:49:14All right.

1:49:19There we go. We

1:49:20get?

1:49:24So I don't know what's going on there. But anyway, uh slide two uh is really just a report that's daily that's posted to the state's website specific to Pasco County. Uh We got thirty-nine new cases yesterday and three reported new deaths. Again, the deaths that the HAIE department reports are not necessarily deaths that reported happened yesterday. They're ones that finally got through the system and reported to them through the ME process. Um On the next slide, what really is kind of probably

1:49:54a better thing is th the screenshot of the positivity rate. The last two days we've been under five percent. Uh there's the running averages later in the slide, so I'll wait to that. But that's good. That means we can get under five percent. the key there is once we go in person school starting on Monday, assuming that still happens. odds are that number's gonna creep back up for a little while until it settles back down. Just the nature of gathering people in groups again. So go on to the next slide.

1:50:23Dan on the on that slide?

1:50:24Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir.

1:50:25They say with the positives, ninety-nine percent of those positives never get sick. Have you verified that? I heard that?

1:50:33No, sir, because our hospitalization rate would say that's more than one percent get sick. Yeah.

1:50:39They also said ninety-nine percent of the sick get better in a week.

1:50:43Okay. I don't know who's saying that. All all I know is these are the positivity rates and right now We have If I remember the number from yesterday, about seventy people in the hospital with COVID. today or yesterday. So I mean it's it's more than one percent. So Um So But the again, positive news, the positivity rate's going down. Again, that means that people are distancing when they can't distance uh they're wearing mask or other protective

1:51:13gear minimize the transmission of the disease one to the other. That's our just an overtime what our case rate is and again our Our seven day running average is about fifty right now, which new cases a day. So go on to the next slide.

1:51:30Again there you see the running averages and I'll get these out to everybody. Um you can see we're trending down, that's positive. Um we still aren't to where we were in in April May. It's gonna take a while there. I would say that You know, the two key things that we need to watch for over the next month are what happens with school starts. You know, I would expect to see a a What? a slight rise to the number of new cases over the next two to three weeks, and then how fast that stabilizes then starts to drop off the back

1:52:00end. Uh ultimately where we would like to be is in the mid to low twenties on a new cases per day basis. That's probably sustainable long term because the c this will be with us for a while. Um but today we're in the we're in the low fifties, uh so cut that in half. get through the school, start See what happens with that and then then we can start talking about the different things we can do. But Basically this is showing that fr from a county perspective is

1:52:30it is it the residents and people here are taking it seriously? they are they are maintaining distancing in general and where they can't are or they're in conflict they're they're wearing other protective whether it's mask or shields or whatever they're doing. So go on to the next slide please. Again, this is a fourteen day running average in cases and positivity rate, good trend. getting to where we need to be but not there yet. But we just if we continue to do what we're doing it will continue to drop off the back end and that's positive. So and the last slide I think he has

1:53:00is the deaths over time and again you can see the the spike when I look at this statewide it looks like we peaked probably mid July from a death perspective and now we're coming down. It's kinda hard to tell with the reported deaths. You have to actually go into the data. Um That's a lagging indicator. New cases is a leading indicator. in general it seems like we're on the backside of this, not just locally, but also in the state, and that's positive. Uh again. This isn't gonna go away.

1:53:31Um I think we're probably still at least six months out from a vaccine. So we're gonna still have to continue to watch it, make sure we maintain our distancing, following the Department of Health recommendations with with cleanliness and and washing hands and everything. And you know, as a s and is it going to the last slide. Sorry, there's one more slide. Um As Mike mentioned to me on the phone, we were talking yesterday. Um The positive thing are the same things that prevent and and inhibit transmission of this are the same things that prevent

1:54:01and inhibit the transmission of flu. and cold and all the other nasty things that happen in the winter. So the things that we're doing for this will actually help with those. Um so that's that's positive and we should see a lower uh flu season this year because people are still continuing to wash their hands and and be mindful of all those things. So uh with that just wanted to get you an update. I got this uh probably about an hour ago uh from Mike and wanted to kind of get that out since you're here and we had a chance to do that real quick.

1:54:27Any other

1:54:27questions,

1:54:27comments?

1:54:30Um you know Dan, I think You m you've mentioned it, but it's not on the slideshow, which concerned me a little bit, but like the hand washing. Is probably the most important thing to do as far as transferring. Not the mask where the stuff can go through the mask or whatever, but the hand washing is probably the most critical. The social distancing Does it need to be s six feet? Some say three feet. Actually works. At what point in time do you think that you're gonna look to pull this thing back? And and just go to strongly recommend it as far as that's the same. Well Commissioner,

1:54:59I think as as I mentioned, I think we need to get a month into school and see what happens with cases with respect to being in person if if Y'all may know the number better than me, but I think what I heard was that two thirds of the students' parents prefer them to back be in school versus a hybrid or online in Pasco County and so now I may be off a little bit, but that's the number I have stuck in my head. So we're gonna see kids in classes What w when we're gonna see additional cases because of the now

1:55:29the

1:55:32When you get through that to see how fast that peaks and then off slides off the backside of that. And then if we can get through that over the next thirty days after school starts and then we get back down into the mid twenties with respect to new cases, then that probably is open for discussion. But I mean at to date we have Uh I think we've code has gone out on somewhere in the mid 200s from complaint perspective. They've done over close to

1:56:02three thousand just courtesy education visits and they've issued zero citations. Okay. I mean so that's where we are today with respect to this. So

1:56:11as far as prevention, you know, President Trump talked about hydroxychloroquine. There was a big kickback. Oh, don't do that. Uh it's been shown many times that two hundred milligrams twice a day, uh twice a week. Uh working with zinc it actually works pretty well. Have you given any thought to possibly looking at l letting our own people or even making it more available for folks out there.

1:56:35Yeah. So

1:56:36I know I know doctors have to

1:56:37prescribe. That is a prescription drug. And so you know that's you know, you don't have a medical doctor on staff. Um and so we are not in a position to do that if And as I understand it, that has positive impact early on. in a case, but not necessarily late in a case. So The individuals need to be working with their physician. And again, it's something that a physician can prescribe. It's not uh necessarily on script for that, but

1:57:07they can prescribe it. And that's the way the individuals, if they think they may have symptoms and they may think they may that's the way they need to work that.

1:57:13Thank you, sir.

1:57:15Thank you.