PSU Town Hall; 2020-04-30

As we shift toward recovery and a safer opening of the local economy, now more than ever, information sharing is essential. Welcome to a live town hall meeting hosted by Pittsburgh State University featuring Rebecca Addamson, Crawford County Health Officer and Health Department Director and Dr. Sean Nakarato, Chief Strategy Officer for Pittsburgh State University. Thank you so much Tim. I appreciate this opportunity thanks to Tim and to KRPS for hosting this live town hall. It's my pleasure to have here socially distanced from me in the studio, the esteemed Rebecca Addamson. She is Crawford County Health Officer and Health Department Director for Crawford County Health probably the most important position in Crawford County when it comes to public health management during a pandemic. So thank you for doing this Rebecca. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Great and you know it's interesting that when Tim just said Dr. Sean Nakarato let's be clear I'm not a medical doctor. Nothing today will be taken as medical opinion from me. I am here to facilitate

this conversation, an important conversation and really because of Block 22, which is interesting that we're not in Block 22. We can't be in Block 22 right now to do this but as University developed Block 22 we saw that as a place that can help facilitate these sort of conversations and very important conversations indeed as we move into uncharted territory for uncharted territory. So as our listeners hopefully have read and seen Rebecca Addamson in the county have released a draft plan for the safe reopening of the county should the statewide restrictions relax. So Rebecca to start off let's talk a little bit about the development of this plan. Today we're going to focus primarily on phase two which is what we would move into. But let's first talk a little bit about this plan and then what are kind of some of the caveats we want to make sure people understand as we walk into this. Sure. So the development of the plan has been based on guidance from federal documents, the federal government, the CDC have put forth

documents giving guidance on how communities, states and local governments should reopen their economies and their businesses. So the document is based on that. It's also based on a document put out by John Hopkins University, the School of Public Health and that coincides greatly with the federal document. So that's where a lot of this has come from. It's also come from other sample documents from other county governments. It's come from guidance from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. So it's all based on evidence and recommendations from experts in the field on how to go about reopening in the safest way possible while still maximizing our economic abilities in our communities. Okay and how does this interplay with the current stay-at-home order as well as any future executive orders from the state, from Governor Kelly? What is the interaction between this plan and the state level? Sure. So as many of us have seen,

you know, we're planning right now and I just want to make sure that everybody that's listening, all our listeners out there, this is a draft. So we've put that forth in our meetings prior to this during the week that this is a draft. The stay-at-home order is still in place until the morning of May 4th at 12 a.m. So the governor's order that she put out for stay-at-home, also the mass gathering order that's been put out by the governor for limiting gatherings to ten or less, those have superseded our previous orders that we put out at the county level. So what we're wanting to do in our planned approach, if the governor should put something different out that could supersede our orders, then we would follow the governor's orders. So it's really important to remember that anything we put out, I like that most people are like in uncharted territory, you just said, because that is what it is. It is uncharted. We have to remain flexible. So depending on what the governor puts out, these orders and plans could definitely change.

It's all going to have to remain flexible. Right. And in fact, we do know that this evening, the governor will be making an announcement on her plans to, she's framing it as her plans to reopen Kansas. We're assuming that that is going to include some increased amount of control for the local county governments. And so I would say that one thing in working with Rebecca and the county, as we've been able to have these conversations that I've been impressed with, is that I feel like we are ahead of the ball as much as you can be in the situations and really kudos to Rebecca and the entire team there. So now with all those caveats out of the way, that what we're saying today about what this plan is, those business folks that are listening and the community folks are listening know that at the end of the day, if the governor does something different, it changes it. But this is if the county has authority to do so, this is what it would be. So let's start, we're going to talk about the guiding principles a little bit and then about phase two. So on the guiding principles, so these are the things that will dictate moving from one phase to the next.

This is a four phase structure, each phase being two weeks and these sorts of things. Rebecca, once you talk a little bit about the guiding principles that will guide us through each phase, the moving from one phase to the other and things that are consistent throughout all of the phases of this. Basically, pretty much all of the plans for reopening and I've gotten pretty strong indications that the state plan will be in two week phases as well. And that comes down to the fact that the incubation period for the COVID-19 virus is 14 days. So by using the 14 day period, we're able to kind of assess how each phase is going and what we'll be watching for would be a spike in cases. We all have heard that there will be more cases as people are moving around and getting more out into the public. But what's hopefully going to happen is that because we're still going to encourage social distancing and encourage not getting in real large groups,

that that will help to reduce the number of cases. It'll help protect the vulnerable population, those over 60 and those that have underlying health conditions. So we are going to see cases probably go up a bit. But what the hope is is that by continuing some of our guiding principles and that's in the document that we're going to still encourage people to socially distance, work from home, not to gather in large crowds and we'll get to some of those details here in a second. The other thing that we would be watching is if the number of cases that we get would be taxing our health care system. So even at that could be at the state level or a county level, at the county level, if we had enough severe cases where it was taxing the health care system and we were struggling to keep up with care of individuals, that might be an indicator that things would have to become stricter again. Another one would be a rise in deaths. So there's different

different things that we're going to look at. And as things progress, the health department and myself will be working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to determine if we are reaching any of those what people call trigger points. And that could also definitely come from the state level as well if they issue some orders in the future because things progress in a way that, you know, in a negative way. So there's five primary criteria that are listed from moving from one phase to the other. And you've gone through some details on that. One of them I think that people probably are interested in specifically would be on the testing side of things, the efficiency, the availability of tests. What right now is a situation on testing in Crawford County? Yeah, we are able to test people. We've been testing individuals at the health department, the community health center of Southeast Kansas has been testing both hospitals in our county are testing and so are multiple physician offices and providers. So we have testing supplies right now. And if there's anybody that feels they have symptoms

of COVID-19, I'd like for them to call the health department and we can get them tested. So we're not we're not short on testing supplies right now. So we are meeting that criteria. And in Crawford County, we've been fortunate that we've only had the seven cases. I think a lot of people I get a lot of questions on the seven cases. Well, that is actually something that we've we got a several questions about. Oh, there's only been seven. So why are we worried? Yeah, we are fortunate. You know, an expert opinion is that there are more cases out in our communities that haven't probably been tested. Some people don't have severe symptoms. They may get mild symptoms and so they never go in and get tested or screened. So we know probably in all communities in our state, there are more cases than that are indicated by the testing results. And then also as people start moving around, there's just concern, you know, with people traveling to other states and other counties and other cities for different things that exposure rates will rise

because we've all been staying at home for the most part for the last month. Which it sounds like you're still recommending. Yes. Stay at home if you if you can. If you're able, stay at home. This notion of travel, I think, is something that we did get a couple of questions on. And I know I had them as well. And we've talked about this notion that we're in somewhat of a unique location in this in the state and the nation. So maybe talk for a moment there about what threats the fact that we are neighboring, you know, almost touching three other states where we sit. What is that? How does that increase concerns for you? And if so, how and how should we address that? Sure. So we are, you know, Southeast Kansas. We are right here in the corner and we're bordering Missouri and Oklahoma. Both states at this point have had more cases than than Kansas and more than Southeast Kansas in the counties around us that are in Oklahoma and Missouri have had cases somewhat higher than what we've seen. So it is a concern when people start, you know,

going back to their normal routines, shopping. We're fortunate that we have the ability to go do those things and it's not very far, but it puts it at a little bit more risk. So that's why we're, you know, we're still encouraging essential travel. We're still encouraging social distancing. We're encouraging wearing the cloth mask when out in public. It does concern us that people could be traveling more and putting themselves at risk of exposure in areas that just have more cases than us. Right. And so they're just going to the general guidelines of when able stay home, still recommended socially distance measures, which include six feet away from anyone else, interact with only people in the same household when possible, and limit non-essential travel. So stop for a moment on the cloth mask because you did reference that, something that we got a question about. It appears from this document that the recommendation would be if any public place wear a cloth mask. Would that include work? So if you're at work, is the recommendation that

staff members, regardless of the type of job wear a cloth mask? In our document, we are encouraging employers to encourage their employees to wear the masks if at all possible. It will just help reduce any chance for exposure. As we all get out, we're moving more, moving around more, traveling a little bit here and there more. We're all going to have a higher risk of exposure. So when you wear the cloth mask, it doesn't really necessarily protect you from someone else, but it protects them. Should you be contagious, but not have any symptoms? So we are recommending even in the workplace. If someone is able to be in their own office all day and not necessarily around others, the risk is very low. So each, each employer is going to have to determine, because they're going to have to determine how close their employees are going to be. We are encouraging social distancing of six feet still in the workplace, but we realize that not all workplaces have that luxury. There are times when people just have to be closer together

than that, and that's where the cloth mask comes in place. It just puts up one more layer of protection. And that's what all of these things are. It's just putting more layers of protection up to reduce the risk of getting exposed to the virus, being contagious, and it will never get to zero. Our risk will never get to zero. It's important for people to realize that. We can do all of these things, but we eventually we do have to go to work, we do have to go to the store, we do have to leave our house. But if you can layer things like social distancing, wearing the mask when out in public, washing your hands, often not touching your face and mouth, and eyes, all of those layers are going to help protect you even more. And especially those at high risk, these types of things are really going to help protect people's lives. Definitely. And want to throw a little pitch in here, I do know that the Pittsburgh area chambers worked with millers who donated 5,000 face masks for local businesses. And I know that's something that

businesses right now can go on and request or register their businesses for some of those masks. These Pittsburgh strong masks. So we'd encourage folks to check that out and thank millers and the Pittsburgh area chamber for doing that. Okay, so let's jump into, let's assume we're in a world where we have relaxation of the state stay at home that the authority on this has shifted to the county that then this plan can be enacted. And let's assume there's a lot of caveats in that. But let's assume that Monday, May 4th, we're in this new world, we're in, we don't have the statewide restriction. Let's talk about that then technically becomes phase 2, correct Rebecca? Right. Okay. And remember, the state may call their phases something different. Some people are calling what they're going to start May 4th phase 1. But for our purposes, May 4th is phase 2. We're calling phase 1 what we're in now. So for our purposes, for our document, we've labeled it phase 2 for May 4th. Okay, so let's let's talk about the broad sort of general

structure of phase 2 and then we'll jump into the details. So each phase has, I believe, is it 19 categories Rebecca? Yeah, it was 18 or 19. I know it's 18 or 19, but then I knew. 18, but we are, we've already made a few adjustments even since Tuesday. Okay, so this is trying to categorize things and have some consistency across those phases. Again, encourage folks to go to the Crawford County Commission or the Crawford County website to check out this draft. Make sure you're following along because there's a lot of detail there. So let's just go ahead and jump right in. Mask gathering limitations. Yeah, so 10 or less. We're going to be sticking with that. I'm not sure that that's what the state will do. I have some strong indications that it might be. We're not 100% sure yet, but so mask gatherings would still be 10 or less like we're doing now for the first two weeks. Okay, and now can you can you define for us what mask gatherings are because one of the questions that we received was would this have an impact on limitation as to seating

capacity, for instance, in a restaurant or bar? Is there a connection between these two things? So typically, no, what we've seen with past orders and what we're planning to do is that a mask gathering has always been defined as any event that purposefully or accidentally kind of spontaneously brings people together to gather for whatever reason. So that might be your planning some sort of a show, a craft show, whatever, anything that a person deliberately plans to bring people together. And that would be out in public, not in a personal home or, you know, a private property in a personal family setting. So it would be it would be something that's planned that would bring people together. It does not include stores or restaurants, just as we've seen in the past with our with our state gathering orders. Okay, and we did actually receive one specific question with regard to this individual that had apparently had a large family that could they have 50 family members could can they can you get together as a 50 family member family? Sure,

and private homes are exempt. So nothing on mask gatherings would apply to people having family gatherings. Of course, just from a health standpoint, it would be great if people could try to limit it to 10 just to reduce because all of those people getting together have been somewhere before they came to that family gathering. And if it's something where you must be together, where the cloth mass, just to layer that protection against transmission. Okay. All right, so then shifting into and again, this phase will last at least two weeks, depending upon those think those those guidelines we talked about before moving to phase three. So under phase two, essential businesses, the couple of things that were brought were brought out on this that came out to the questions was screening staff for fevers and any symptoms of COVID-19 with a questionnaire at the workplace entrance. The specific question we got on that was to two

two questions. One was, do you have to actually take temperatures? And number two, does the health department have a form questionnaire that they would like used or can suggest? Yeah, it can be by questionnaire. You can just ask someone. It can even be a verbal question. Have you had a fever, have you had any symptoms of COVID-19, which would include the cough, congestion, sore throat, headache, aches and pains, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. So the employers can just simply ask their employees that they can do a piece of paper if they want an actual written questionnaire. And if someone does want an example, they can just call the health department or email me at the health department. My email is out on the county website. So if they want an example, I'd be happy to provide that. Okay. Do now what and the note, so no requirement for actually taking into temperature and obviously we now know that that's according to the latest CDC guidelines of the six most common fever is not even on that list. So it's not fever is not the

only thing. What if someone indicates that they during these questionnaires, someone indicates they have one of those symptoms? Sure. So if you have an employee that has those symptoms, so you can just call the health department and we'll do a screening over the phone with that individual and we can get them in for testing. And then once a person's been tested, they're called what we call a person under investigation or a PUI. So then they do have to go home and they have to quarantine or isolate in their home until we get those test results back. Of course, you know, if it's negative, we still recommend they stay home until their symptoms are resolved. If they're positive, then we get into the whole time frame of being positive for COVID-19 on how long they have to isolate at home. Okay. Additionally, you're suggesting here that work spaces be six feet apart for these essential businesses that will be operating that there should be the wearing of masks as we've talked about and so far as that can happen, staggering of workshops, common areas such as break rooms, lobbies should be closed. One of the questions we got

on that was actually with regard to the banks. Right. So our banks allowed to open their lobbies. So what I would also want people to make sure to remember, essential businesses have already been defined in the stay-at-home order. So banks are an essential business and so their lobbies would need to be closed and they would continue doing what they're doing for the first two week using the drive-through. But if a person's wondering, you know, does this apply to me if you were already deemed an essential business in the governor's stay-at-home order through the KEFF guidelines that were set forth and many people emailed into the state to see if they were essential or non-essential. If you were deemed essential, then your lobby would remain closed. Okay. And then the final piece on that was telecommuting working from home should be maximized. So your recommendation is that those businesses that can do that, it sounds like you're encouraging to continue doing. Yes. You know, if they're able to work from home, the more layers of protection that we can put

up in our community, the better the chance that we will be able to progress through these phases, just like we want to. You know, in two-week increments, one right after another, if we can keep our numbers down and keep people protected from getting sick, then it'll be a much smoother transition for us. Great. So now shifting into restaurants and bars. You want to talk a little bit about the plan in phase two with regard to restaurants and bars? Sure. Yeah. So in our plan, you know, if all goes as we plan after tonight, in restaurant dining would be allowed in restaurants and bars. It would be similar to the first order that came out spacing the tables six feet apart. And, you know, the different restaurants and establishments will have to evaluate how many people they can have in their, depending on the size of the restaurant, when families or parties come in together, they'll be able to set a table together, but then other parties need to be at a table six

feet away. So that's the main thing is spacing them six feet apart so that parties aren't too close to one another. Okay. And I think one thing that's important here to emphasize, because these are questions and also something I think in this document that's important too, is if there are businesses, not just restaurants and bars, but any businesses that want to be more strict, they can be, is that correct? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Businesses can put forth their own policies to be more strict. And then with, you know, with, we had some issues with the self-service beverages, that was finally defined, you know, that employees are supposed to be getting those beverages for customers. And that's what we're going to continue with. So at the, our more strict orders we've had with the stay-at-home orders, any place that has self-surf beverages, really employees are supposed to be helping customers with that. And we're going to continue with that for the first two weeks and also continue, you know, no salad bars or buffet. And a lot of this is just to see how this first two weeks goes. If things go smoothly, I mean, that's going to be great, that's what we

want. But if things start to get amped up, you know, we just don't want to put people at higher risk for sharing food utensils, you know, touching things that serve food to other people without gloves on. Okay, sure. Okay, let's, anything else on restaurants and bars? No, I don't think so. Okay, let's move into retail businesses. Talk a bit about the approach here and some of the specifics that we want to highlight today. Sure, so many, and I will say many of our retail businesses are already doing a lot of these things, which has been great. And also back to the essential businesses, I think in Crawford County, ours have been great. I've gotten a lot of calls that people are already spacing people apart and letting people work from home. So the retail businesses that, you know, are going to be reopening up, the main thing is to keep customers six feet apart, if at all possible, keeping an eye out to see if your store is reaching capacity, you know, if people are getting too close together and it's just getting too full, you may have to go to a

one out one in basis to kind of regulate the flow of traffic in the store. And also putting up some markers when people check out just to remind people, we all, you know, we all get in a hurry, we need a reminder, you know, stay six foot apart and having the plexiglass up to protect your employees that are at the register. We really want people to do that. That's a recommendation. And just doing that enhanced cleaning every day for high-touch items, it's going to be important to really sanitize everything and keep it as clean as possible. And like I said, I think most of our retail businesses have been doing, have been doing a great job with that. And that probably speaks, I ask you, if you believe this to be the case, that how well folks have been doing that is probably speaks to us now having more than seven confirmed cases. Yeah, I think that, I mean, I don't have proof or data or anything like that around it, but I think we're doing something right in Crawford County that we've kept the cases at seven. I think the community and the businesses have all been diligent to follow the guidelines.

And that's what's kept us as low as we have because in Crawford County, we're part of what's called the lower eight emergency preparedness region. And there are several counties just around us. They're not bigger than us. You know, they don't have more population, but they have more numbers. So I think I'm not saying they're doing anything wrong. I'm just saying that I think we must be doing something right to keep our numbers as low as we have. Yeah, so that's very important point, I think. And it's also in this public health management, it seems to me it's hard to count things that don't happen. It's very hard to analyze that. You can make an educated guess. Anything else on the retail side of things that you think we need to chat about? No, I don't think so. Okay, let's move on to long-term care assisted living facilities. Sure. So the long-term care and assisted living facilities have already been following these rules. A lot is just going to it's going to stay the same for them. They're they're going to be maintaining the social distance for residents in dining areas and common areas.

They're enhanced cleaning daily. They're already doing that. They've already been screening employees because they're a health care setting. And visitors still aren't going to be allowed. And I've talked to several long-term care facilities and assisted living and and they're all on board with that. You know, the first two weeks we've just got to be really careful that things aren't going to get amped back up and we're not going to see some surge because this is our most vulnerable population and actually statewide and nationwide worldwide. This is this is the area the age group of people where we've seen the most detrimental effects of COVID-19. So I know it's difficult, but protecting that population we've got to keep protecting them and make sure things are going to stand or control just for a little bit. And that's and we have seen I think probably folks have seen on the media across the country these long-term care facilities, nursing homes, these sorts of things where you've had significant outbreaks. And that's a concern. In fact, we did get a question specifically asking about this about how important it is to to prevent that

infection breach. And the question was when will regular and repeated testing begin for employees to help identify asymptomatic staff members to protect elderly? Is that something that's in consideration? You know, that's been talked about a lot. It's not recommended right now just because what how we're testing now is within the nasal swab. So a person it could if they have no symptoms it could be negative. There's a high chance that the test would be negative if you have no symptoms. So it would give a false security that people might then not wear masks. So really there's there's no indication that we should test asymptomatic people at this time. We're still waiting for what we call a serum antibody test, which is a blood test to see if you have acute or what I would say like a new or an old infection, previous infection of COVID-19. But there are no FDA serum tests approved yet. We're just waiting.

And once we get that then absolutely I've been wanting to do population testing and testing in high risk areas. We just don't have the serum test that's FDA approved and accurate. The serum tests that are out there right now will actually test positive for other coronaviruses, the human coronavirus that causes the common cold. So if we did that it would give us another false sense of security that a group of people have had it that maybe truly have not had it. They have not had COVID-19. It just cross-reacts with other coronaviruses. So the CDC and the government are working to get an FDA approved test that is very specific to COVID-19 to test blood tests. Okay. All right, so moving away from long-term care facilities next to category's child care. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so daycares have to follow the KDH guidelines all the time and they have been this whole time. We're still encouraging them, you know, not to be on the playground equipment outside just because it's difficult to clean, enhanced cleaning daily. We're encouraging daycares

and facilities to have children in groups of 10 or less and that's been happening in Crawford County. It's been great. Screening the children for fevers and the staff and for COVID-19 symptoms. And then, you know, not having parents or outside people coming in roaming around the building, just dropping kids off, you know, and heading out just to protect, protect everyone in the facility. Some states and actually counties have had outbreaks in child care facilities. And then what happens is you have a lot of people who have to be quarantined and parents get go to work. Kids are not getting severely ill typically with this, but then they can give it to others like grandparents and people who are at higher risk. So it's just going to kind of stay the same for child care during the first two weeks. Okay. Moving on then to personal services. So this is Salon's barbershops, massage therapists, pet grooming, any other personal service provider. I know this is something that a lot of folks have really been missing is getting their haircut.

Yeah. So me as well. I as well. However you want to say it. Right. So what's the what is the approach with regard to to those services? Yeah. So in our plan, we've been we really do want businesses to open up even if we have to have some sort of restriction there. And I just, you know, want to make sure everybody realizes that we do want businesses to open. I don't know if that's going to be what happens. As of Monday morning, it will depend on what the governor discusses. But with the personal businesses, we would want that to be appointment only one on one. If you're say in a salon with multiple salon chairs, have those spaced six feet apart. I did get a good question yesterday asked, you know, well, what if it's a child? Of course, parents would have to be allowed to come in with that child or a disabled individual. Their caregiver would have to. Well, actually, that was not was a specific question that we did all actually receive was with regard to if you have either the caregiver example that you just gave or if you have an individual who, especially if they live in the same home. Right. Can they be in there at the same time?

Yeah. And if it's someone an older child, you know, the parent can and can stay out at a distance and say, you know, this is what I want done or the child's older than old enough to sit and get their hair cut, just the fewer people as possible. If it's an adult, though, that can drive themselves there and be there that then just one on one with the with the client. And of course, enhanced cleaning, we would what we do want people to wear a mask just because there's no way to stay six feet apart with these types of services. So we would want the customer and the service provider to wear a cloth mask. So anyway, you know, I just want people to remain flexible because we want places to open, but I can't absolutely ensure that that will happen. I just don't know what's going to happen, you know, with the different businesses until the governor announces her plans. Right. I mean, let's then we need to reiterate that again. It's probably good as folks are kind of dropping in and out prior to this conversation that this is all dependent upon what Governor Raqueli announces from the state approach. So we will have a difference to that. But this is,

but at the same time, you know, I think there are those who might say, oh, we're being premature to have this conversation. I think, no, not at all because we're actually trying to get ahead of this as much as we can. At some point, we are going to be responsible in Crawford County for this. So anything else on any of those personal services that you want to touch on? No, I don't think so. And I do want people to know. One of the reasons we're, you know, planning ahead is we just want to be as transparent as possible so that if people do have questions, we want to take those. We want to hear those comments. We want that information. We want to do what's best for the community at large. Sure. Exactly. Okay. So moving now on to something that I know is a very important thing that's not just about business. This is also about our faith communities and religious services. So that's something that, and we did get a couple of questions about that. We could talk about specifically after maybe just kind of give a general sense of your approach

on phase two for religious services. Sure. And that's one thing that since this document, this draft document, I just want everyone to remember it's a draft that actually it's kind of changed even since just Tuesday when we first started talking about it, originally going by the mass gathering restriction of 10 or less put forth, you know, from the governor and from the state. That's our was our guidance for religious functions of 10 or less remaining as the guidelines. So some of that also stems from there have been some some fairly large outbreaks in in religious gathering type situations and several deaths in those situations. But the more I've been getting little bits of information over the week on some we have a call with KDHG every day, a webinar. I have no exacts. Of course, none of us really have any exacts of what's going to happen.

But I do think that that is going to turn more towards a six foot distancing requirement. So it would depend on the size of the facility that churches have or religious facilities have as long as people can remain six feet apart. So that's can that was actually the specific question was why would it be that restaurants and bars could open as long as they're doing social distancing, but a church couldn't open and do social distancing. Well, and a lot of that stems from, of course, restaurants haven't been open. They they have been open, but not for dying in. It's been delivery or carry out only. But when you look at stores in general, we haven't seen outbreaks in stores necessarily because people have the ability to move away from one another if they feel someone's getting too close to them. And typically when we're congregating for services, faith services or what have you, it's more of a congregation. You know, we're close together. We're shaking hands. We're hugging or and that's wonderful. I mean,

I love going to my church and doing all of those things and I miss it greatly. So I think that's where originally and then the fact that we've had these outbreaks, fairly large outbreaks in religious settings, maybe not per se church, but conferences and things like that. And that's where the original 10 or less, and I can't speak for the state, but that's just my educated opinion that that's probably where that guidance has come from. And that's the guidance we were using in our initial draft, but I'm getting some indications that that's probably going to be relaxed and it will follow the same as a business, keeping six feet apart. Okay. So we'll just keep an eye on that and how that develops, especially in light of whatever orders come out this evening. So moving then next to recreation commission activities or sports, this is another thing

that's very important to folks. Yeah. Yeah. I've had some questions about this. I've had both sides of it questioned. Our hope would be that we could get back to some team sports in groups of 10 or less where coaches would be able to ask players, you know, have you had a fever? Have you had any of the symptoms? They can ask the parents if it's if it's young kids. And the parents would be waiting in the car so that we could keep people apart as much as possible. Of course, the issue that's going to come down is that can you keep kids six feet apart while playing a sport? I think some sports you can very easily. And also it's important to remember when we say six feet apart, the definition of being in contact with a positive COVID-19 case is within six feet for 10 minutes. So if you're passing someone in the store closer than six feet, that's not necessarily a contact. It has to be for 10 minutes or more. So I think in some sports, you could easily distance others would be more difficult. I've had comments that, you know, if MLB is cancelled,

why do we need to have a little league and things like that? So everybody has their opinion, but we do want to try to let kids have some fun this summer, but we still want to be safe. And like I said, it all hinges on the governor's orders whether that will truly be allowed or if we'll have to wait a little longer. Right. And of course, I think many people, probably many of our listeners saw. I think it was last night that actually Dr. Fauci made a comment that sent a little bit of shock waves to the sports world because of the question of whether or not sports would happen at all this year. So I think this is definitely something that people are keenly aware of. It's an important, it's another important thing from a community building standpoint and all those sorts of things. But when you're trying to balance that with health and safety, that's the challenge. And so one of the things, and I think this is consistent, please confirm if this is a case, consistent throughout the phases of this plan that access to bleacher seating. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Bleacher seating, you know, just wouldn't just wouldn't be available.

You know, and in phase one, I will phase one, we're just talking about phase one. I just want to state that. So as you look through these phases, you know, I would, yeah, I would love to be able to have the baseball games and things and people bring their own chairs in socially distance or have it on Facebook live or whatever or on some sort of media platform. But a lot of it's just going to revolve around state guidance and what we are kind of allowed to do. So it's just kind of waiting and seeing, but I can't wait to go to a baseball game myself. I'm excited too. And it will also be dependent again upon what the facts on the ground are at any given moment too, right? So this is the other thing I think of, I think emphasizing with the community is this sort of sense of this could change at almost any moment. If you have a spike, if we have a number of cases, particularly if they had a lot of contacts or those sorts of things. So okay, so let's move

then now on to the next category, which is parks, public spaces and playground equipment. Yeah. So parks and public spaces have been open through the stay-at-home order because we want people getting activity and it so that'll basically stay the same. It's just that the playground equipment and picnic tables won't be open like they like this has been the case all along. Just because of a cleaning aspect for the first two weeks, just to make sure that things kind of stand or control until we see how things are going to unfold. Okay. But we still want people out there active walking. And I will say too, if you're out running and you're not going to be near people, you know, the cloth face mask is more if you're going to be out in public at stores around people, restaurants, you know, if you're out running and it's 100 degrees, you definitely probably do not want to wear a cloth face mask because we don't want anyone passing out. That's another public health issue. Yeah, so. And that is an interesting thing, you're pointing out that this balancing of the managing one outside of the public health but not causing other public

health problems by if you're not exercising and those sorts of things. Sure. So go to the park but stay out the playground equipment and the picnic tables. Okay, speaking of staying in shape, we then shift to gyms and fitness centers. Yeah. So in our county plan, we would definitely like to see those open back up. There would have to be someone a staff member on the premises at all times. That's really the only way to ensure that customers are staying six feet apart and that the equipment is getting clean thoroughly between people. So I know there are some 24 hour fitness centers that that would maybe require an adjustment. But I think most people are happy just to get reopened and be able to have some capacity of some sort. So for the first couple weeks, we definitely just want somebody there monitoring that people are six feet apart. And like I said, this has been another hot topic. So it's just going to all kind of hinge on what unfolds later this evening. And I think another couple of things to make sure we highlight on there. This is that the equipment must be cleaned between uses that the customers are also

to be screened be a questionnaire. Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing too is in some businesses, and I did forget I did I did forget to mention that. And I want to go back to the the direct service industry like the personal personal yeah, personal services like salons and things. And then for gyms, we will be wanting those businesses to keep a list of customers, their name, phone number, and the date they were there. And that would just be for tracking purposes only if we would have an outbreak. Once people start kind of hanging out in smaller environments like that, we're just going to need to have names so that if somebody says, oh, I was at so and so's place exercising. And there was a bunch of people around me, but for 30 minutes, but I don't remember who they were, they will have a list of people who might have been there. You know, if they weren't within six feet for 10 minutes, they're not considered a case. So and then I've had some questions. Well, why don't restaurants have to keep that list? Well,

that would be because people come in as with family or a party like if me and three of my friends go, I'm going to know all their names. I'm going to know all of their phone numbers. And anyone who's not in our party would be spaced six feet away from us. So it's a little different in a hair salon or or a gym. Yeah. So you may not know the person next to you. You may not know their name or phone number or any way to get a hold of them. So we just have to have a way to get a hold of people that they might have been at risk for contracting COVID-19. Okay. Also on the sports and recreation side of things, we have a category here about public swimming pools. Yes. It's a pretty quick answer, right? Yeah. So of course, right now they're not open. So that was an easy one. And I get a lot of questions about that. We really just don't have a lot of guidance on public swimming pools yet. So we'd later down a couple weeks in the plan towards the very end. We do have some guidance that they could be open if they can socially distance six feet

apart. How they'll be able to do that. That'll be a whole other thing that we'll have to work together on if they are allowed to open from the state with the state orders anyway. So we just don't know. Okay. Next category is real estate. Sure. So real estate. This is pretty much how the real estate industry has been operating throughout the pandemic. They've been doing the one-on-one showings. No open houses. Encourage to wear a mask and remaining six foot apart. Okay. So that'll continue. I know they've actually, it sounds like they've actually been quite busy with the low interest rates. Sure. So there are lots of transactions there. So they can continue that. Here's a category. I'll be honest when I saw this as one of the categories. I thought, okay, I didn't know that that was that as popular enough to be a category of its own, but cruising. Yeah. Yeah. Actually on a state level, that is a hot topic. Not like as in cruising on the ocean. This is cruising around the town. Yeah. This is like driving around us enjoying the warm weather,

having your windows down or Pittsburgh had a cruise night where people drove around. With the governors stay at home order in phase one as the county health officer and as the health department, we have to follow the governor's recommendations and there's a stay at home order. So the stay at home order is essential activities only. So that's pretty much an individual opinion what's essential. So cruising might be a way that people reduce stress. So that might be essential for some people. So cruising is okay to do. And we just asked that people not congregate. So remember the 10, the gathering of 10 or less. If you are out visiting with a few friends stay six feet apart and that could be a great way to explain kind of an unplanned social gathering. I mean it happens, you know, you're all kind of out maybe driving around and you see a few friends and it was like, hey, pull into the parking lot. You know, just maintain that social distancing. So

we're definitely not against people going out and finding ways to relieve stress and have a good time. And also it brings people through our drive-throughs and buying food and things like that for our businesses. So it's something that is definitely allowed. And even with the stay at home order, you know, most communities, most counties did not prevent people from doing that as long as they weren't congregating in large groups. Okay. Next category is community events which also then again, I guess, would tie dovetail from the the 10 or less again anything specific on community events otherwise. Not really. So and some people are like, well, what's a community event? Well, it kind of goes back just to the mass gathering. It could be anything that's planned in the community. So if you're like, well, hey, I want to have a craft show. That could be considered a mass gathering or a community event. They kind of go hand in hand. Sure. It's just keeping people spaced apart. And for the first two weeks, remembering the 10 or less. And also providing that

in a community event, typically a lot of times those are outside, I mean inside, but not always somewhere outside. So making sure there's way for people to wash their hands or have hand sanitizers something just so that people can make sure they're sanitizing their hands. And also, you know, if people are wearing the cloth mask, that's just going to help reduce any possible transmission in any kind of event or workplace. So we're going to still throughout this whole thing recommend people wear the cloth mask if possible. And it's important to note that under this plan, the entity organizing the event that you're saying, what is responsible for ensuring the guidelines are followed? Sure. Sure. And you know, that's just like anything, you know, people need to do what they feel comfortable with. We get a lot of calls and we get a lot of questions about, well, there's so many people in this certain store, you know, but you have to before you go there, if you know there's going to be people and you're at higher risk, you just have to weigh the risk in the benefit. So a lot of times going to the store in large stores, there's going to be more people.

So you have to look at it. Do I want to put myself at higher risk or maybe should I wait till a different time of day or go to a different store or find a way to protect myself? And it's the same with the community event, even if it's limited to 10 or less. And as we progress through the next month, you know, hopefully our sizes of things that we can have people is going to get bigger and we can get together more. But if you're at high risk, you're still going to have to outweigh that risk benefit ratio as to do. I want to go to this. Do I want to wait a few more weeks, even though it's allowed, it doesn't mean people have to partake in it. Just it's a personal decision, even though something's allowed if you're going to do it or not. Sure. Yeah. The next category is primary and secondary education, which is regulated by Kansas Department Education School District Guidelines. So we probably don't need to jump into that. I think any of us with kids right now recognize what it's like to, you know, it's funny. I think about when we started Block 22 and co-working, I never thought that I'd be co-working with my children.

Yeah. And it's interesting challenges on that. But I know everyone's trying their best to get to make it through that and almost in the home. It's an all of a sudden we're all homeschoolers in some way. Yes. Okay. So the next would be acute care and non-acute care medical facilities and clinics. And this would be hospitals, clinics, those sort of things. Yep. And pretty much those are going to continue just like they have. They have always been guided by the CDC. CMS is the Center for Medicare. So Medicare has put forth guidelines and then licensing entities. Every area of healthcare like Dennis, eye doctors, family practice hospitals have a licensing entity and they follow those guidelines. So if you have questions, maybe I've had questions about well, how are the hospitals getting back to their usual activities? I just encourage people to contact their healthcare provider or the hospital if they're wondering, you know, how things will work at those facilities. They have very robust plans in place on how they're going to be

getting back to what we kind of want to call normal or getting back to some of the different things that happened before COVID-19, like different surgeries, visits, dental checkups and things. So call your provider. They'll have a plan on how they're going to be reopening their offices and the hospitals all have plans. Community health has a robust plan. Many physicians have plans. I've talked to a lot of people and they are all planning. So give them a call and I'm sure they'll be happy to fill you in. And I think this is, it is important that we obviously do want to get toward a place where elective or what might right now not be deemed as essential or allowed. Those services need to happen. I actually just saw a report yesterday that 50% of the drop in quarter one GDP was attributed to the healthcare industry. Sure. So it's a little bit of irony that in the middle of the healthcare pandemic, actually healthcare is one of the most hard hit sectors of the economy right now. Well, and I've received a lot of information about the dental offices. They've probably taken the hardest hit because they just haven't been open,

except for emergency procedures. And oral health is a part of our overall health. It's just as important as any other aspect of health. So if we have oral issues, we have all kinds of other issues. So everybody is wanting to get back to be able to take care of their health in every aspect. So it's definitely challenging. But a lot of people kind of want to know if the health department is going to be giving guidance on that. And that does not really come from the health department. It really comes from the licensing entities that oversee those hospitals and clinics. And in the state of Kansas, that's how it's been approached. Okay. Okay. So now moving on to libraries. So now you're your mental health and your education. That's right. That's right. So we do want libraries open. And we do want them space in people out six feet or less. And like I said, the gathering of 10 that may change 10 or less once we see the governor's orders. And also, this could change. We're wanting libraries open. I know everybody wants them open whether we'll

be able to do that in the first phase or this second phase. I guess I should say every opening. I don't know if we'll be able to or not. I'm hoping we can. Some libraries are small enough that 10 would be too many to keep six feet apart. So that may be adjusted as well to coincide more with if you have a very large library, you could have more than 10. We'll see what the governor puts forth later today. And of course, hand sanitizer, enhanced cleaning, all of those things wearing the cloth mask. If you're sitting and reading in the library, and there's other people walking around, I would definitely probably want to wear a cloth mask anywhere. I'm going to be sitting for a long period of time, where I could be exposed to someone around me. But I think that's kind of still open-ended right now as to if it if they'll be completely open, if mask gathering sizes will be in place, or if it will just be each library will kind of have to decide on square footage how many they can have it. Similar to the retail shops. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's still very open-ended,

though, on what's going to actually take place as of Monday morning. Okay. I think the last category that I had here on my notes that was one that was actually brought up during the work session, which we want to make sure everyone knows that 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, there will be a commission, Crawford County Commission work session, another one that especially in light of whatever the governor's announcement is tonight. We know it probably will have some bearing on changes with this plan. So 8 a.m. tomorrow, it'll be live stream, correct? Yes. It will be live streamed on YouTube. You can go to the Crawford County website, and there will be a link that you can click on, and you can send questions in. There's an email address as well on there, and you can send live questions in, and I'll be happy to answer those. The two categories we added. One was bowling alleys and theaters. And theaters. Yeah. And so, you know, of course, in our communities, we want our businesses open. And so a lot will depend on what the governor announces this evening. If it's allowed, I'd like to see those places open

with social distancing and extra cleaning in place, like with the bowling balls and things like that. Maybe be given out, not just out for people just to grab so that they're having enhanced cleaning of some of those items, but that will again depend on what comes out from the governor this evening. Okay. So we did actually just receive one additional question, and I want to make sure that we get since I appreciate folks listening and directing questions. This is going back to the screening and the responsibility for businesses to do screening of their staff with the record. The question is, if a company has communicated to their employees to not come to work, if they have a fever, would that suffice to satisfy the verbal questioning? Or do you still need to, is it really it's only those who are coming to the office or to work? Right. So if anyone has a fever, we definitely want people to stay home until they're fever free. So they really don't have

to screen them in the further if they're at home with a fever, they can stay home. But I think, and I want to make sure that I'm getting the crux of the question my I'm guessing is if this this question is if the business has a blanket policy stating you can't come in if you have a fever, do you still need to question everybody else? Maybe. So let me, I want to make sure I'm understanding this right. So do you have to question everybody coming in? Yes. Because one person has a fever. No. I think actually what it's saying is with the fact of having a policy stating you can't come with a fever and eliminate the need to question. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, okay. So I think it's still important to ask. Even though you have a policy that says, you know, we don't want you to come to work. And I think that's an awesome policy. We want you to stay home if you have a fever. I think it's still important to ask. I just think there's a lot of reasons and I understand that people have to go to work. And we are, we definitely encourage employers to work with folks

so that they aren't missing out on pay and things when they're sick. But I think it's still important to ask every day, you know, do you have a fever? Do you have other symptoms? Because it's not just fever. It's not just fever. And actually the, the guidelines are, are much more relaxed on who we can test. You only have to have two symptoms and a fever is not one of them. You could have fever could be one, but it doesn't have to be one. You used to have to have a fever to get tested. But now it could be any two of any of the symptoms of COVID-19. And it doesn't, you don't have to have a fever. And some people might say, well, I'm 99, you know, or I'm 99.5, well, you know, then you kind of have to decide that's not over 100 or it's not a high fever. But, you know, each employer will have to decide. But as an employer myself, I definitely recommend still asking the question. Because sometimes people might be like, well, I think I might, but I don't have a thermometer. You know, I mean, you can get all kinds of different answers. Right. Okay. Well, Rebecca, we're, we're coming to the end of our time here for this town hall.

You know, this is again, one of those things that when we envisioned Block 22, we thought this would be a great thing for us to help facilitate these sorts of conversations for our community. We, we are talking today about the next phase, this phase two with the hope that by two weeks after that, we could talk about phase three. So we're going to be targeting that week of May 11th. We'll release some information about a follow-up town hall to talk about hopefully moving into the next phase. And so we won't get into that today. But Rebecca, I want to thank you for your time today, for your willingness to be open to questions from the community, particularly from the business community. But, but also even more than that, just to thank you for your leadership on this. And I know that it's sometimes probably feels thankless and you're doing an incredible work for our county. And I'm proud to be from Crawford County. Thank you. Well, I'm glad that I can help. And I just want everybody out there to know that the Crawford County Health Department really does care about the health and wellness of our community. And if you have questions, please call the

health department because we are willing to take phone calls and we want to answer questions so that people feel comfortable. Okay, thanks so much, Rebecca. Thanks again to KRPS for, for allowing us to host this and thanks to all that have been listening.