The citizens of Madison County still have more work to do if they want to get to the head of the class when it comes to COVID-19 safety measures.
At Monday’s daily briefing, Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong and Dr. Pam Hudson, CEO of Crestwood Medical Center, both said they believed the public in their area has earned a grade of C in complying with the state’s new public health order.
Hudson identified what she sees as the area with the biggest need for improvement.
“I’m afraid I have to talk about masks again,” she said. “In my limited travels outside of this room and my own home, I’m noting people not wearing masks.”
She emphasized the effectiveness of masks at preventing the spread of the virus to other people with a saying from her parents.
“Keep your germs to yourself,” Hudson stated. “Wear a mask.”
Strong remarked that on a conference call with other local officials earlier on Monday there were “differing opinions from different locations” on the measures the public is taking to prevent the spread.
Based on those reports, and his own observations, Strong issued an average grade to the citizens of his county in response to a question of how he thought the public was complying with health orders.
“We are giving the best information that we have so people can digest that and do what’s best for their families,” he responded. “I believe we need to do better, there’s no doubt about it. I think a C overall would probably be the grade that I would give.”
Like Hudson, the use of masks — or lack thereof — seemed to weigh heavily in Strong’s grading formula.
“Probably 20% of the people are wearing masks when they are going to the grocery store,” he outlined. “We are still seeing people going in groups greater than one to do grocery shopping. Again, we are going to give the best information that we have. We believe the masks are working. They were well-received today at the courthouse and also at our satellite locations.”
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Strong, who has a background as an emergency medical technician, chairs the commission for a county which now has a total 237 confirmed cases of COVID-19, representing 0.00632% of its population of 375,000.
Madison County has had four reported COVID-19 deaths. It currently has less than 15 COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to Hudson.
She also noted that all hospitals have started elective surgeries, with COVID-19 testing prior to admission in order to keep other departments “as close as we can get to COVID free.”
“I would agree with a grade of C,” assessed Hudson. “The real truth though is in about 12 to 14 days if we see a resurgence. Remember, the exposure can occur, and the incubation period, the time until symptoms, is anywhere from 10 to 14 days. So this is not like having a daily quiz where you can get a grade every day. This is more like one exam at the end, and we’ll be monitoring and tracking that every day those, the hospitalizations, that’s really the people who are seriously ill with this virus, and that’s really what we’re trying to control our risk for.”
During his Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, State Health Office Scott Harris outlined the possibility of tightening restrictions back up if such a resurgence occurred under his new public health order.
“These aren’t steps forward that are just going to ratchet forward and can never come back,” Harris announced. “These are gradual steps, and we certainly will consider dialing things back if we see an increase in cases.”
Strong hopes to see the citizens of his county remaining vigilant in their approach to the virus.
“We’ve still got to be sure to protect,” he concluded. “We’ve only got four deaths in Madison County, and those are four too many. The thing that I see is that what we have done to this point has maintained a low-level of positive cases and also a low-level of deaths.”
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Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia
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