Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht gave a Covid update at the 01/20/2021 Common Council meeting.
He reviewed the current number of cases and then remarked that we’re nearing the one year anniversary of when we saw our first cases.
The last time the Common Council met Appleton had been seeing a little rise in cases after the holidays. Those numbers have come back down. They’re really pleased and encouraged to see that and hope it will be an ongoing dip in cases. They continue to monitor
Their case count for the previous 2 weeks was 663 which works out to a Burden of 884. [Note: counting on confirmed cases and not confirmed and probable as the city health department does, the two week case count would have been 514 and the Burden would have been 685.] Appleton is still in the ‘Very High” category for burden. The trajectory is no longer growing and we are back into the “Very High” category for our combined burden and trajectory.
Health Officer Eggebrecht said they were maintaining their key messages of social distancing, mask-wearing, and frequent handwashing, all of which, he stated, are still critical to Appleton’s success.
The National Guard testing site has moved from North Highschool to the Expo Center downtown. They are on their 5th day and have had a total of 721 people get tested during those first 5 days. They’re still seeing a positivity rate of 25%-30% in the people seeking testing.
He also updated the Common Council on vaccine distribution. [On 01/20/2021, the date of the Common Council meeting, the state was in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution which included frontline healthcare personnel, residents in skilled nursing facilities and long term care facilities, fire and police personnel, and correctional staff.] During Phase 1A they started learning about the vaccine, how to prepare it, and how to administer it. They’re continuing to learn how to do it better. He stated that to date they focused primarily on that 1A category of EMS staff, school nurses, support staff within the school district, public health staff, and mental health professionals throughout the community. He also stated that they were able to do a vaccination program with Appleton’s Hmong spiritual leaders. And that week they started focusing on police and any remaining firefighters that became eligible.
The week of the 25th they planned to start working with corrections officers and social workers within the district.
The health department has been working with their local health partners, and they now have a system in the region to connect those within the Phase 1A category who are seeking vaccines with those who have the vaccine.
Health Officer Eggebrecht was pleased with how Phase 1A was going. He thought they would have challenges as they moved into Phase 1B [which started today 01/25/2021]. That will be a larger group of people which will include everyone 65 and older as well as additional categories not yet released. So there will be a lot more people who are eligible.
Health Officer Eggebrecht stated that it was very exciting to see people getting vaccinated, knowing the protection that it brings. He reminded people that there is a requirement for a second dose. All the people he mentioned will have to come back and get a second dose. Then 2 weeks after receiving that second dose they should be fully immune.
There were a couple questions.
Alderperson Smith wanted to know if both doses of the vaccine had to come from the same company or if you could do one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and one dose of the Moderna.
Per Health Officer Eggebrecht, you should stay with whatever brand you got your first dose of. In fact, best practice would be to return to the same location and get your second dose from the same provider you got the first dose from.
Alderperson Otis wanted to know how or if testing levels had changed with the testing site’s move from North High School to the Expo Center.
Health Officer Eggebrecht said that they had 721 people get tested in the first 5 days which is an average of around 140 a day. At the other site they were averaging 300-400 a day; however, he didn’t think that reduction in tests could be attributed to the location change because they’ve seen reductions in testing across the entire state. He said that was kind of a head scratcher for them, and they’ve been talking with their healthcare partners about it. With high positivity rates across the state, one would normally expect there to be a greater demand. They’re interested in why that is not the case, and why they’re seeing a reduction in people seeking tests across the state.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=825730&GUID=A8FC7DB2-4B6A-4CD1-B060-0054C1C683AB&Options=info|&Search=
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