- October 30, 2024
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Readying for the likelihood that coronavirus COVID-19 will make it to Flagler, Flagler County staff are forming a collaborative pandemic working group to explore ways to prepare.
"We will see impacts on our workforce, I am sure, at some point," County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord told county commissioners at a commission meeting March 2.
The working group includes representatives from fire departments, law enforcement agencies, the school district and AdventHealth Palm Coast, among others.
So far, priorities have included ensuring that first responders and medical staff have what they need and that the county is prepared for the possibility that it will find itself short-staffed and need to reassign some positions and have others, where possible, performed from home.
Lord expects the working group to continue in future years.
"It’s COVID-19 today; it will be something else next year," he said.
In a presentation for the commission, Lord and Bob Snyder, the Florida Department of Health-Flagler administrator, explained that coronaviruses aren't uncommon — the flu is one. But COVID-19, even though most people don't have serious symptoms, has a higher mortality rate.
"What’s interesting is that 80% of individuals with the virus have reported mild symptoms, or they’re asymptomatic," Snyder said. "The mortality rate is less than 2%."
For comparison, the mortality rate of the flu — which killed 80,000 in the U.S. last year, in the worst flu season in 40 years — is approximately 0.1%, he said.
COVID-19 has already been designated a public health emergency in Florida, and is likely to be deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization, Lord said. "Pandemic," in the WHO's use of the term, means that the disease has spread around the world, he said.
As of March 1, Lord said, there have been about 80,000 cases in China, and about 2,800 deaths; and an estimated 62 cases and one death in the U.S. There are two presumptive positive cases in Florida, and those individuals are both self-isolated, he said.
Although the surgeon general has said that risks to the U.S. are minimal, Snyder said, that was before it was clear that there has been community transmission of the virus within the U.S.
Protective measures, Snyder said, involves hand washing with soap for at least 20 seconds, using hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, and avoiding touching your hands to your eyes, mouth and nose.
Sneeze into the crook of your arm: COVID-19 is spread through droplets from a cough or sneeze, and people as far as 6 feet away can be affected. Common symptoms are flu-like, and the incubation period is 2-14 days.
Because there's no treatment and no vaccine, he said, global health efforts have been dedicated to containing the disease.
Anyone who has symptoms and who's traveled to an affected area like Italy or Iran, or who's had close contact with someone who has, should call the Health Department and self-isolate, he said.
Three labs in the state — in Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa — are now testing for the coronavirus, but swabs can be taken by local health providers and the local health department and then sent to the labs.
Most people shouldn't be wearing face masks, Lord added. They're useful for people who have the illness and are trying to avoid spreading it to others, and for healthcare providers who are dealing with ill people constantly, but not for the general public.
County Commissioner Donald O'Brien asked County Attorney Al Hadeed if the County Commission would have the power to make an emergency declaration that would enable it to, for instance, shut down a planned large gathering like a festival that could potentially endanger people, if the organizers could not be induced to cancel it.
That would be possible, Hadeed said: The commission's chairman, David Sullivan, would technically be authorized to do so himself, although best practice would be to convene the entire board, if possible.
Lord said that in Florida, the Health Department takes the lead on responding to public health emergencies, but Emergency Management is also preparing, just as it would for something like a hurricane or a flood.
"We’ll just have to keep on it, like we do any big emergency," he said.
In terms of cost to the department, he said, he doesn't anticipate significant cost aside from buying thing like sanitizing solution.
But he added that employers — including the county — should be advising employees who are sick not to come to work, especially if they're showing a fever. County human resources staff are already looking into how to handle the need to keep ill employees quarantined, he said, and whether the county might need to adjust its paid time off procedures.
If employees are showing symptoms, Lord said, "Do not come in. Don’t medicate to make the symptoms go away and say, ‘I’m healthy.’”
