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THREAD: CDPHE taking reporter questions now. First question about meat packing plants. CDPHE says it has been testing workers at feedlots and packing plants other than JBS knowing the importance of food supply. #9NEWS
Now a question on grocery store workers not wearing masks. CDPHE recommending that they wear masks and adds that there are multiple strategies to curb spread in grocery stores. Not really any solution offered to ppl not wearing masks.
When does state predict peak of cases will be?: "at this point we do seem to be experiencing slowing." Next couple of days will determine if social distancing is enough to lead to decrease in daily counts.
A question on FDA approved N95 mask sanitizing machines. State working on getting some for HCW's.
CDPHE not releasing information on who in CDPHE team have been exposed to COVID-19. Some were but not saying how many.
On number of people discharged: working with hospitals to gather that info. ( @uchealth released info today, see my earlier tweet). Bookman says info could be released in coming days.
On contact tracing: needs to be paired with widespread, community level testing. State ideally wants to identify someone with symptoms, have them get tested/isolated, then public health works to identify close contacts of that person, telling them to quarantine.
Sounds like timeline on more tracing coincides with widespread testing. State working to increase size of public health work force and respond to as many cases as possible. (This will take lots of manpower).
On scaling back plans for field hospitals in Loveland and Denver: still evaluating but construction continues. May scale back depending on data/info.
Data on effectiveness of stay-home order: again CDPHE says the data is just starting to roll in (virus is always about 12 days ahead of us). expect results in coming days which will guide future strategy. This will be important to watch.
Question about data on race and ethnicity: CDPHE says they know it's important to see who is adversely impacted. AGAIN, they say data is just rolling in....
More on contact tracing: would like to implement automated tech to do more contact tracing. haven't pursued cellphone tracking data yet. But trying to identify strategies that could let them collect data as opposed to manual interviews.
They say protecting privacy is an important component. How many contact tracers needed? Working to hire people to do this work. Local public health agencies working to expand their workforces too. It is time consuming and resource intensive.
What's behind spike in cases in Morgan County: possibly a result of increased testing.
On non-hospital health care facilities and PPE: lack of PPE is a huge challenge for all HCWs. Not enough to go around. Doing everything they can to procure as much as possible.
On nursing home spread prevention: looking at data, trying to find PPE, looking into further interventions. No specifics here.
And that's the end of a 30 minute Zoom lightning round with reporters. I appreciate the updates. Gotta say, as a reporter, it's a challenge not being able to ask follow-ups. It's even tough to get through to CDPHE via email rn. But I think everyone is trying the best they can.
