KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo County health officials provided an update to the state of the COVID-19 spread in the area.
During a virtual meeting Tuesday night, county health officials James Rutherford and William Nettleton spoke with the County Board of Commissioners at length on what is being done.
— Vulnerable Populations —
“We’ve created some relief for our shelters in terms of the River Shelter at the River Church,” Health Officer Jim Rutherford said. “We have opened up, in unison with RHI, a local hotel that we’ve now got about 95 individuals within that facility. We’ve developed a regional quarantine and isolation hotel (Q&I) off-site. At any given time, approximately 30 individuals are within that. The numbers are lower now tonight, we have about ten individuals within that Q&I hotel.”
Rutherford added that the department is continuing to make back-up plans in case more space is needed, and that the hotel itself has about 60 rooms.
“We’re in the process now of building a contingency plan for Q&I that will most likely involve an additional hotel,” Rutherford said. “Hopefully we can look at what we’ve got currently between our Q&I as well as the hotel we utilized for relieving some of the pressure that the shelters are experiencing.”
Rutherford said a contingency plan will hopefully be finalized at the end of this week.
— Re-Opening Plan —
Rutherford then discussed a plan to re-open Kalamazoo’s business economy in the works, with a target date for a complete plan currently projected at Monday, May 11.
“We continue to receive a lot of calls from businesses and individuals wanting to know what they should do to re-open, so we’re working on that,” Rutherford said. “It’ll be a pretty comprehensive document. Last I checked, it was probably already getting to be about 60 pages long, so there’s a lot of information to share.”
Rutherford said there are many factors to consider when formulating a “soft opening” plan.
“What does that look like in terms of the necessity for PPE (personal protective equipment), for retrofitting our entryways, doing health screenings at our doors for staff, things like that,” Rutherford said. “We think about what we’re doing kind of in a microcosm of what we do at the county level, that’s going on all over the country.”
Rutherford also pointed to “essential parts” of reopening, such as getting Metro Transit lines running again, reopening parks and having enough PPE available.
“This reopening is a big train, and it’s leaving the station, whether we like it or not,” Rutherford said. “This is happening to varying degrees all over the world, so I think what we need to do at our local level is be prepared as possible. We get as much information as we can to hopefully make good, educated decisions.”
Dr. William Nettleton also chimed in on the subject.
“As we’ve transitioned to talking about reopening, and the steps to get our community ready, it’s important to acknowledge the uncertainty that our community members feel,” Nettleton said. “I think it’s important to say out loud that the risk is not going to be zero, and our community is gonna need to be ready to adjust our strategies as the coming months evolve, and I really do mean months. We’re not on a timeline of weeks here, our community needs to be thinking in terms of months. It’s important to think about that timeline.”
— Antibody Testing —
Dr. William Nettleton then spoke about using antibodies from plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients to help treat the disease, which Bronson Hospital and Ascension Borgess have already begun.
Nettleton says more research needs to be done on the subject, and is not used to diagnose someone with the disease.
“There is potential for antibody testing to inform future treatments to give us a better idea of disease in the community, and hopefully one day to give ideas if certain communities are immune,” Nettleton said. “But in a nutshell, the science really isn’t there yet. We still need to have a better understanding of when antibodies are produced and for how long they last in a person with COVID-19, we don’t know whether or not if having those antibodies makes a person immune or less susceptible to disease later if they are exposed again, and we need better evidence that these tests actually work.”
Nettleton noted that the data was the most accurate and up-to-date as of May 5, 2020.
— Mobile Testing —
Commissioner John Gisler asked about getting tested for the virus through the Family Health Center mobile testing sites, and how to get signed up for one.
Dr. Nettleton reiterated that essential workers with or without symptoms can be tested at this time.
Those interested must first call the Family Health Center’s testing hotline at 269-488-0804 to register and provide some information about their health insurance. Then they will be transferred to one of the center’s licensed medical providers who will conduct a brief screening regarding exposure, COVID-19 symptoms, and their medical history.
The provider will then offer a lab requisition referral to set a date and time for the drive-up testing.
Individuals approved for testing will be directed to the site, where they will be able to get a nasal swab done by a physician and medical staff while remaining in their vehicle.
The next testing site is scheduled for Thursday, May 7 at Vicksburg High School from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
— Going Forward —
Overall, health officials maintain that citizens should continue to follow all guidelines from the County, State and CDC to help slow the spread of COVID-19. This includes frequent hand washing, minimizing travel as much as possible, wearing a face mask when in public, and practicing social distancing wherever possible.
Health officials also remind citizens that anyone with symptoms should stay at home and avoid being in public.
