unified situation report #71 - wa
TRANSCRIPT
UNIFIED SITUATION REPORT #71
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Event Name: BFHD COVID-19
Report Period: 02/04/2021 – 02/10/2021 Mission #: 20-0265 Jurisdictions Impacted:
Benton & Franklin Counties
YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS DENOTE NEW/CHANGED INFORMATION
General Situation/Overview:
On January 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Washington State Department of Health announced the first case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States and in Washington State. As of 3/19/2020 a 24, 48, 72-hour planning projection of the response is being done daily. Friday’s planning projection will encompass Saturday and Sunday, then resume normal planning projections on Monday.
Benton and Franklin County At-A-Glance
Total Case Count 2/10/2021 Benton Franklin
Confirmed* 14173 10543
Deaths** 180 90
*Confirmed: positive test result. **Deaths Due to changes in the Vital Statistics Law (RCW 70.58A) that support increased
security on personal information, access to data for death records is more limited. BFHD will report deaths weekly on Friday’s.
HEALTHY WASHINGTON ROADMAP TO RECOVERY
Health Washington Roadmap to Recovery regional phase update for movement to phase 2 will be announced by DOH
on Friday Feb 12th – fingers crossed the our region, Southcentral region is eligible to move to phase 2.
Healthy Washington – Business Guidance, COVID-19 Reopening Guidance for Businesses and Workers | Governor Jay
Inslee (wa.gov)
Healthcare Readiness by Region link - https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/covid-19-risk-assessment-
dashboard
COVID testing and cases by county link https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/covid-19-risk-assessment-
dashboard
City Case Count 2/10/2021 April OFM Population # of Cases Pasco 77,100 9340 Mesa 495 303
Connell 5,500 532
Kahlotus 165 17
Eltopia - 152
Kennewick 84,960 7932
Richland 58,550 3454
West Richland 15,710 969
Benton City 3,560 619
Prosser 6220 949
Plymouth - 46
Paterson - 34
Not Specified - 369
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Current Hospital Status 2/10/2021 M-F COVID Like Illness = CLI
# Hospitalized Patients
# COVID-19 Confirmed & CLI
% COVID-19 Confirmed & CLI
Current hospitalized patients 413 42 10.2
Case Locations of Interest 2/10/2021
# of Cases
Long Term Care Residents and Staff 816
Please visit Washington State Department of Corrections site for current case counts at Coyote
Ridge Corrections Center. ( https://www.doc.wa.gov/corrections/covid-19/data.htm )
OPERATIONS SECTION:
OUTBREAK MITIGATION & DATA: Identify the COVID-19 spread, including clusters; track any lab confirmed cases and
determine potential exposures. Identify the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care and community living facilities and provide
infection control guidance and resources to those facilities. Input data from Epi into existing systems; WDRS and Redcap
surveys.
Active Outbreaks in the community: these outbreaks meet the definition of an outbreak according to DOH
o General Business Community – 20 with 8 pending investigations
o Long Term Care Facilities – 11 with 1 pending investigations
o HealthCare Settings – 2 with 4 pending investigations
o Childcare Settings –1 with 0 pending investigation
o Schools – 1 with 1 pending investigations
BFHD will be participating in a call with DOH to continue conversations and planning regarding Agricultural worker
testing The BFHD Outreach outbreak team continues to actively work with local Agriculture and H2A partners on
planning for testing and safety precautions for incoming workers.
A list of Agricultural Firms and their subsidiaries is being created to make it easier to identify the ties between various
farms and potential outbreaks
BFHD Long Term Care and Healthcare outbreak teams are reviewing updated long term care guidance, in effect
2/1/21. Long Term Care (LTC) for Safe Start Plan: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/residential-care-services/safe-start-
long-term-care-plan - The Safe Start Plan for Long Term Care is not a suggestion it is a mandate. This message will be
clearly communicated during the LTC weekly call to ensure that all facilities understand following the safe start plan is
a mandate/requirement.
A “Scope of Public Health” paper is being created to provide a guideline and reference when Outbreak Mitigation is
talking to a business/entity that is resistant to understanding the scope of the public health authority.
Call with DOE to review the MOU between DOE and BFHD for contact tracing support of Hanford site workers.
There has been a re-classification of the outbreak definition in a school setting to reflect only those outbreaks that
involve student classroom/learning environment transmission. BFHD has received clarification from DOH that this
includes outbreaks in kitchen/cafeteria staff or transportation staff (bus drivers) that may affect students.
COVID-19 Vaccination “Get Ready” plan for school, OSPI and Kaiser Permanente plan to vaccinate school employees
https://medium.com/waospi/state-unveils-covid-19-vaccination-get-ready-plan-for-school-employees-
be21e08ee2d8
Updated guidance from WIAA based on the Health Washington Sport and Activity guidelines
https://www.wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con1911/Healthy%20Washington%20Sport%20and%20Activity%20Guidelines%20(
1).pdf
January 12, 2021 letter from Dr. Amy Person to the Benton and Franklin County School Superintendents
https://www.bfhd.wa.gov/UserFiles/Servers/Server_10765972/File/BFHD%20Health%20Officer%20Update%20to%2
0Schools%20Jan%2012%202021.pdf
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Visit each individual school district website for current information on hybrid learning schedules, safety plans and
COVID-19 Activity Dashboards
updated in-person school guidance https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/inslee-announces-updated-
school-guidance-person-instruction
DOH -Tools to Prepare for Provision of In-Person Learning among K-12 Students at Public and Private Schools during
the COVID-19 Pandemic: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/DecisionTree-
K12schools.pdf
CONTACT TRACING & CARE COORDINATION:
Care Coordination team connects people in Isolation or quarantine to the services they need to stay isolated.
This may be providing a Walgreens Hygiene kit or a Kroger Food box or connecting them with rent assistance,
grocery or prescription delivery or other services. With the increasing case count, Care Coordination is
averaging about over 30 case referrals per day. BFHD/Care Coordination Team has partnered with Within
Reach. Currently they can take 5 cases/day, with the plan to take at least 10. The agreement with Yakima
Valley Farm Workers ended January 8.
Care Coordination team will be conducting an audit of cases past eligibility for case coordination. Cases that
are only pending rent or mortgage payment assistance can be marked as inactive and a final closure of case
completed when rent or mortgage assistance has been fulfilled. This audit will help to “clean-up” the cases in
the care coordination system.
VACCINE PREPAREDNESS:
Mass vaccination site at the Benton County Fairgrounds for eligible 1A-1B1 population. As of today Feb 10th the
site has provided vaccinations to 9132 people. A new hourly vaccination record was achieved today. 307
vaccinations were given in a one-hour time period today.
On Tuesday Feb 9th the mass vaccination site had a visit from the Washington State Secretary of Health, Dr. Umair
A Shah. Dr. Shah toured the vaccination site and was very impressed with the operations and efficiency of the
site. Dr. Shah even administered the last COVID Vaccination for the day.
The Mass Vaccination site also had a visit from a corporate Starbucks representative. Starbucks is one of the
private sector partners in the Governors public-private partner vaccination effort.
2/26/21 the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be reviewed for Early Use Authorization. The Johnson and Johnson
vaccine is a single dose vaccine as opposed to the 2 dose regimen of the Pfizer and Moderna.
The department of health allocation methodology for vaccine distribution statewide is as follows:
o 36% to Mass Vaccination sites
o 19% Community Health Centers
o 23% Hospitals
o 19% Pharmacies
o 3% tribes and Urban American Indian Health Clinics
BFHD Vaccination team is working to identify Home Bound people and those who are transportation dependent
to be able to provide better access to the COVID Vaccine to this identified group.
A link to the registration page can be found here https://prepmod.doh.wa.gov/clinic/search and click on BFHD-
COVID Vaccine Clinic you will also need to present your eligibility certificate which can be obtained here
https://form.findyourphasewa.org/210118771253954.
Please note the registration through PrepMod is NOT an assigned appointment time, people with a registration
are encouraged to come to the site early beginning at 8:30am. There is very limited opportunity to receive a
vaccination on a “walk-in” basis. During the day there may be unallocated vaccine from no-shows and because
sometimes there are “extra” doses in each vial. In an effort to ensure that no vaccine is wasted a “hold-Line” will
be established, there is no guarantee that you will receive a vaccination, and the BEST way to ensure your
vaccination is to make a registration, but around 1:00pm each day there may be a chance to receive vaccine from
these unclaimed doses.
Patience with vaccine administration is key, please keep in mind that providers (including the mass vaccination
site) do not know what their weekly vaccine allocation will be until Friday, making it difficult to set long range
appointments
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The mass vaccination site is a joint effort with command from the SE Washington Type 3 Incident Management
team, and assistance from the National Guard, Department of Health, Kennewick Police Department, and BFHD
and public information assistance from City of Kennewick and City of Pasco. This has been a tremendous
community effort. It took a great deal of planning and cooperation between everyone to complete this enormous
undertaking in just a few shorts days – thank you to all.
BFHD continues to engage with DOH regarding deployment of mobile strike teams to assist with vaccinations at
Adult Family Homes. BFHD is also coordinating with local partners to vaccinate Adult Family Homes and identify
gaps in vaccination efforts.
BFHD vaccination team is working with pharmacies and clinics and have provided a listing on their website of
community partners who may be able to provide COVID vaccine appointments COVID-19 Vaccine Information -
Benton-Franklin Health District (wa.gov)
BFHD vaccination team is working to connect local and state partners to facilitate discussions about vaccination
clinics for school staff, Kadlec has agreed to provide vaccination services for schools and discussions are being
held with Tri-City Community Health to assist as well.
The BFHD vaccination team is working with Benton county staff on planning for vaccination of staff and inmates
at the local jail and juvenile detention center.
COMMUNITY TESTING:
CBC-West Test Site: To date the site has administered 65,080 COVID tests. Testing numbers this week are as follows:
Thursday 2/4/2021 –556, Friday 2/5/2021 -515 , Saturday 2/6/2021 -354, Sunday 2/7/2021-326 , Monday 2/8/2021 –
501 , Tuesday 2/9/2021-534 , Wednesday 2/10/2021-468
CBC-West test site will be open on Monday over the Presidents Day Holiday
CBC-West Test Site remains open 7 days a week Monday -Sunday from 8:30am to 4:00pm - pre-registration makes
for a faster experience at the test site – however you may still have to wait in line until you reach the point where the
site breaks into lanes, please be patient. Click the link to be taken to the registration page
www.wacovid19.org/tricitiestesting
Positivity rate for the CBC West Test Site is 18.15%. The 14-day positivity rate at this site is 15.71%
PUBLIC INFORMATION:
NEWS AND INFORMATION OF INTEREST:
On February 8, 2021 Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation providing relief for businesses and workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. SB 5061 will increase minimum unemployment benefits for workers and provide significant tax relief for businesses over the next five years, to support recovery from the economic impacts of COVID shutdowns
Under the direction of the Governor, Counties are being asked to reduce Washington State National Guard (NG)
support for food banks to increase vaccination support. This requires reassigning approximately 150 of the 358 NG
personnel that are currently supporting food banks. To be as fair as possible, an estimated 40% reduction of NG
personnel will be applied evenly across all counties that have food banks being supported by the NG. This will be
accomplished by March 1st, 2021 to ensure that the new teams can begin working the mass vaccination sites.
o King – reduce NG personnel by 74 o Pierce – reduce NG personnel by 23 o Skagit – reduce NG personnel by 12 o Chelan – reduce NG personnel by 6 o Franklin – reduce NG personnel by 6 o Okanogan – reduce NG personnel by 4 o Spokane – reduce NG personnel by 18 o Walla Walla – reduce NG personnel by 8
Need support during COVID-19? Call Washington Listens - Crisis Connections helps facilitate a support line called
Washington Listens. Washington Listens will provide non-clinical support to people who feel sad, anxious, or stressed
due to COIVD-19. Washington Listens is free and anonymous. Any Washington resident can call, and a support
specialist will listen and help to guide you to connections within your community. Call Washington Listens at 1-833-
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681-0211. Someone is available to talk from Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
TTY and language access services are available
“Ask Dr. Amy” NBC Right Now - Tuesdays at 5:00pm - provides the community the opportunity to ask Dr. Amy Person,
BFHD Health Officer questions
BFHD weekly Media Briefing for this week has been canceled briefing will resume on a every other week schedule
beginning next week
Heather Hill with BFHD is on Kadlec on Call every other Wednesday on KONA Radio at 6:00pm
BFHD updates Website Twitter and Facebook daily
LOGISTICS:
PPE RECEIVING/DISTRIBUTION:
All PPE requests for either Benton County facilities/agencies or Franklin County facilities/agencies will now go
through Franklin County Emergency Management. Reminder entities should only be requesting assistance for those
supplies they are unable to procure for themselves. Contact for PPE request is Sean Davis at
Updated PPE prioritization guidelines can be found here
https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/PPEPrioritizationofAllocation.pdf
FYI – Nitrile gloves are in very short supply – Washington Department of Enterprise Services has indicated that the
182 million glove contract with manufacturers have increased their prices far above the amounts agreed upon when
the contracts were signed, and they are no longer being honored by the distributors. DES is currently working on
securing new contracts for nitrile gloves. Requests for Nitrile gloves will still be filled at a reduced amount, however
Medical grade vinyl gloves in all sizes are readily available
List of PPE vendors the state uses to procure PPE items
https://des.wa.gov/sites/default/files/public/documents/ContractingPurchasing/covid19/Vendors.pdf
If you are curious to know how much PPE each county has received from the state you can find that information here
https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/personal-protective-equipment/tracking-ppe-distribution
DAILY and FUTURE OPERATIONS:
RECURRING ACTIVITIES:
Daily at 8:00am - Operational Briefing
Tuesday Planning meeting at 4:00pm – Planning Meeting via ZOOM
Dissemination of BFHD weekly Incident Action Plan released Tuesday’s by 5:00
Tuesday at 1:00pm – Region 8 Healthcare and partners call
Every other Tuesday at 2:00pm - BFHD hosts local elected officials and decision-makers conference call
Tuesday at 2:00 - SEOC Unified Command Ops to BFHD Command Ops meeting
Unified Situational Report (SitRep) dissemination once weekly - Wednesday only
Medical Provider Call Tuesday at 5:30pm This is a forum for providers to ask questions about mostly COVID topics
presented by many different medical providers each week.
Wednesday at 10:30am - Local Hospital/Clinic/EMS/EM coordination call via ZOOM
Every other Wednesday at 1:00 PM- BFHD School Team hosts a call with local school nursing staff.
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Every other Thursday at 2:00pm – Call with local agricultural partners. This call will be restarting 1/21/2021. The BFHD Outreach team participates in an Agriculture call hosted by Yakima Health District, hosted the third Friday of every month.
Every other Wednesday at 1:00pm - North Franklin County Community Leadership meeting – call in phone 1-509-
545-3555 meeting number: 5847# access code: 3555# the next meeting will be February 17, 2021
Thursday at 11:30am - Coordination call with the WA State EOC, 1-877-820-7831, password 782831# - State SitRep is
not produced on the weekends it will be sent M-F only
Thursday at 10:00- BFHD School Team hosts a call with local school administration
Every other Thursday at 1:30 - Municipality Advisory Council
Every other Wednesday at 1:30pm - call with BFHD and LTC agencies
FUTURE OPERATIONS:
Mobile vaccination and other community vaccine planning progression into the next phases
Healthy Washington, Roadmap-to-Recovery Plan metrics review every other Friday
CURRENT RISKS:
Vaccine supply and delivery to providers and patience within our community as the vaccines are provided through
the “phases”
Return to in-person/hybrid learning in schools across the two counties for middle and high school students–
monitoring for outbreaks
Flu season and recognition of Flu vs. COVID
WHERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION:
• Benton-Franklin Health District- All News: https://www.bfhd.wa.gov
• Washington State Department of Health: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
• REDI Healthcare Coalition: https://srhd.org/programs-and-services/hcc/eei-
DISTRIBUTED TO:
Local Health Jurisdiction: Management Team, EOC/ECC Staff, all BFHD Staff
Region 8: Local Emergency Response Coordinators, Emergency Management agencies, healthcare partners, Fire/EMS agencies
WA State: Regional Emergency Response Coordinators, DOH Duty Officer
Eastern WA: REDi Coalition Duty Officer
Cross Boarder: Oregon Regions 6 and 9 Liaisons