Officials working around the clock to monitor virus
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Local government and health officials work to trace the origin of local COVID-19 cases. -
Jessica Veelik sews masks for essesntial county employees in between taking calls at the county’s emergency call center. -
Positively Putnam FL
By Sarah Cavacini
Palatka Daily News
scavacini@palatkadailynews.com
Thursday marked day 41 of Putnam County’s state of emergency, and the heart of the county’s coronavirus preparations beats in the Emergency Operations Center in Palatka.
Teams of nurses, emergency staff, law enforcement and dedicated county officials run the epicenter dedicated to all things COVID-19.
As phones rang constantly Thursday morning, nurses answered calls to help people get tested, county officials tracked cases and people were even on-site sewing face masks.
The county’s COVID-19 hotline is available 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily and can be reached at 329-1904.
“We’ve grown to kind of blend ourselves really well as a family,” said Mary Garcia, administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Putnam County.
Caller control
COVID-19 hotline staff members have received more than 2,000 calls since the virus outbreak began in the county, and on top of answering phones, call center operators have been sewing face masks for people who need them.
Employee Sarai Weaver said she takes calls mostly regarding coronavirus symptoms, but if callers need to be tested, she can direct them to a nurse.
Many of the questions staff members answer are to dispel false information callers may have heard elsewhere – there is no curfew in Putnam County, people cannot get arrested just for being on the river and boat ramps are still open.
“Go to the right sources of information because there’s a lot of rumors,” Putnam County spokesman Jim Troiano said.
Weaver said she sees a lot of false information on social media and rumor control is a big part of being a call center employee.
“There’s so much stuff on Facebook, where I’ve really been encouraging people, if they hear something … call us,” Weaver said. “We want (people) to make sure they have the right information.”
Call center staff members have been sewing face masks for people who need them in the county, even as emergency personnel is busy answering phones.
Garcia’s father recently passed away and she donated his shirts to make some of the masks.
“I thought what a great honor for him to be able to have his shirts create a mask to keep people safe,” she said. “It’s hard for me to release myself of those, but what a wonderful way to do so.”
Emergencies amid a pandemic
Although the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest focus of the Emergency Operations Center, other disasters may occur and emergency staff will be prepared, officials said.
“We do a lot of information and planning,” Emergency Management Specialist Bryan O’Toole said. “It’s almost like the equivalent of an intelligence unit.”
Putnam County Emergency Management will handle situations such as the tornado warning issued for the county on April 14.
Communication through the state is funneled through the Emergency Management team and Troiano said it was the center point of the emergency operations center.
The Emergency Management staff averages one day off per week, and of the 41 days in a state of emergency, staff members estimated they have had only four days off.
Results are in
Coronavirus testing in Putnam County rose to 1,126 people tested, with 1,058 of the tests returning negative as of Thursday evening.
Residents who have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19 or is feeling symptoms can call the hotline and set up testing.
To protect people’s privacy, testing locations will not be disclosed until a person is determined to need to be tested for coronavirus, Garcia said. Garcia said some people feel there is a stigma against having to be tested for the virus.
“Just because of a preponderance of caution, the tests are 15 minutes apart so that people don’t even have to see each other as they’re coming in,” Garcia said.
People who test positive must inform staff of the places they visited prior to testing positive. If someone who tested positive visited friends, went to the grocery store or interacted with family, every person who may be affected is contacted.
The War Room
In a room filled with graphs, charts and state news running in the background, officials traced cases of coronavirus to their origins Thursday.
Putnam County Emergency Services Chief Quin Romay said he and other county officials have called at least 3,000 people to follow up on each positive COVID-19 test. The process is called contact tracing.
“Basically, everybody they’ve come into contact with over the previous 14 or 20 days, we’ve got to figure out where they went, what they did, who they talked to,” Romay said. “It’s very tedious and laborious.”
People who are positive are monitored by nurses and staff. Employees call patients every day to check on them during the 14-day quarantine period until they no longer feel symptoms. There is a separate process for the patients to be released from isolation, Romay said.
Airlines as well as family outside of Putnam County – and even outside are Florida – are contacted. The process spans worldwide.
County officials also talk to national and state administration about the latest guidelines and mandates to go in place. Every official in the “war room” echoed the feeling Putnam County is prepared.
“It’s almost on a daily basis that we’re on conference calls, and there are other jurisdictions that are trying to work through issues that we solved months ago because we started planning early on,” Putnam County Sheriff Gator DeLoach said. “The information-sharing we have here in Putnam County is unprecedented.”
Board of County Commissioners Chairman Terry Turner said Putnam is ahead of most counties around the area because the county started planning earlier.
“Our No. 1 goal here in the whole EOC is to stop the spread (of coronavirus),” Romay said. “The more we can mitigate, the more we can get ahead of it and isolate.”
Romay said isolation means staying at home, and the center is encouraging this because it is key to stopping the spread.
“People need to understand that the decisions that are coming out of this room are based on the directives that have been given by the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as well as the governor’s office,” County Administrator Terry Suggs said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis mandated the county to close certain areas of the county such as restaurants, and county officials do not have the option of reopening those areas without the state’s approval.
“We’re not just in here making decisions,” Suggs said. “We’re putting things in place that will certainly limit the spread of this, as well as contain it as quickly as possible so we can get back to business as quickly as possible.”