Health Council COVID-19 Summary – 4/2/20

by Tia Will

Assuming that most of you will not read the minutes of the first remotely held meeting of the Yolo Country Health Council, I thought it might be useful for a brief summary of how our county, the various cities and private organizations are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis. The detailed minutes of that meeting are not yet posted, but will be on the Yolo Country web site along with minutes from the most recent Board of Supervisors update.

Participants were asked to present an overview, an example of a successful intervention, and their biggest current challenge.

Major Overview Points

  1. The county emergency operations team has been efficient in setting up cooperative efforts with cities, schools, and private initiatives within the county.
  2. Weekly virtual meetings are being held with representatives of each city, representatives of the unincorporated areas on Monday’s and with schools on Wednesdays
  3. A county multilingual Dashboard has been developed with access to daily updated information. It is available by entering Yolo County COVID Dashboard into your browser.
  4. Yolo County currently remains below hospital capacity
  5. The UCD Medical School, Nursing School, and Veterinary School are all currently closed
  6. County legal services have transitioned from in person to phone interviews.
  7. Schools are continuing to provide bagged breakfasts and lunches to eligible students through combined efforts of districts, Food Bank, and transportation services.

Best Practices

  1. Housing of unsheltered – with cooperation between the county, city, and private businesses, more than 100 unsheltered individuals have been offered and accepted housing in hotel/motel rooms in the county. Food supplied through the Yolo Food Bank with the hope of ultimately establishing full wrap around services.
  2. Food Bank is maintaining usual distribution processes while arranging for direct to door delivery for those sheltering in place be it private residences or hotel/motel accommodations
  3. Yolo Bus has been instrumental in helping with deliveries.
  4. Schools have been instrumental in providing volunteers to Food Bank and delivery services

Ongoing Challenges

  1. Lack of testing and subsequent inability to effectively trace affected individuals
  2. Noncompliance with social distancing
  3. Assessing and addressing the mental health issues secondary to isolation
  4. Developing and delivering on line classes for every student
  5. Increasing trust between providers and clinic and hospital administrators
  6. Post hospitalization transition to appropriate level of care and isolation
  7. Optimal coordination of volunteers to avoid redundancy of efforts.

It is with regard to the last item, many of you may have good ideas of how to address the ongoing challenges. I would like to offer myself as someone who is no longer a voting member, but has multiple contacts on the Health Council, as a resource. Please feel free to contact me at: tia.will52@gmail.com and I will ensure all novel ideas make it to an appropriate board member.

Postscript.

At the time I made this summary, the issue had been raised about masks or no masks in public. Since then, the CDC has issued a strong recommendation for those who must go outside their home to wear a mask, including cloth masks which should then be washed after each use. President Trump has played down this recommendation stating he will not be adhering to it and that it is voluntary. I would not presume to tell anyone else what to do, but I will share my plan. We will enter public spaces only when masked.


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Author

  • Tia Will

    Tia is a graduate of UCDMC and long time resident of Davis who raised her two now adult children here. She is a local obstetrician gynecologist with special interests in preventive medicine and public health and safety. All articles and posts written by Tia are reflective only of her own opinions and are in no way a reflection of the opinions of her partners or her employer.

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13 comments

  1. This is an excellent summary. Thanks for providing it, and I hope you’ll continue to do so as events unfold.

    To Ongoing Challenges I would add: the collapse of the local economies and impact on the county’s ability to provide health resources in the next 12 – 24 months. Or, to put it another way: how are they going to ramp up services as the money runs out? The current situation calls for increased staffing, among other things. There is going to be a budget emergency at every level of government. 

     

     

  2. more than 100 unsheltered individuals have been offered and accepted housing in hotel/motel rooms in the county

    I doubt the number offered and the number accepted are the same.  How many were offered and how many accepted, 100%?

    1. Am thinking similar… and how many were contacted and offered… seems far short of total (“so-called”, per Alan, previously…) homeless/on the street… I strongly suspect that Alan is also correct that those actually contacted (am guessing 60%), offered, and accepted is more like 80%, tops… 80% of 60% by my off the cuff estimate, based on my many interactions with that community, and my understanding of the range of “issues” they face… and I believe I’ve observed a pretty good cross-section of those, at least in Davis and immediate environs… but, to be clear, those are my observations/impressions, not a statistical study…

    2. I suspect this is a grammatical error. More likely that “…. more than 100 unsheltered individuals who were offered housing accepted it.”

      1. And regular volunteers at a local food bank, have been ‘banned’ if they are 60 or older, regardless of health, personal precautions… real ‘helpful’…

    3. Alan,

      This is a valid point to which I do not know the answer. However, from a purely practical point of view, 100 housed is 100 less out in the open increasing the probability of viral spread.

      1. Bill

        I would stress that these are not my ideas or observations. It is only a summary of points covered in a one-hour Health Council Meeting. Of course, it was not comprehensive, but it is a fairly accurate summary of points covered at this particular meeting.

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