 On Friday, I was joined by Dr. Chris Spitters, Health Officer for the Snohomish Health District, and Dr. Timothy Cavanagh a Veterinarian with All Creatures Veterinary Services. We provided an update on the County’s response to COVID-19 and how to best care for your pets during the pandmeic.
The video is available at: https://www.snohd.org/495/COVID-19-General-Information.
Testing is one of the key elements of the long-term response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and a crucial piece of being able to resume more business and activities. This continues to be the topic of many questions.
Testing options have changed over time and still are changing. There’s no doubt that more testing would be better for understanding and controlling the spread of the virus. Supplies, staffing and other capacity issues for administering the tests, processing them, and notifying people of their results are ongoing challenges.
Efforts to address barriers to testing continue, and things have improved. The turnaround time is shorter than it was even a few weeks ago for most patients, and targeted testing has been launched at long-term care facilities, where it can have an impact on helping prevent infections and deaths among elderly and other high-risk individuals residing in those settings. Testing is not being done at every long-term care facility in the county, but is focused on locations where there appears to be a cluster or outbreak. All staff and residents are tested to identify who is infected and then separate them from those who are not.
This approach of identifying outbreaks and intervening to stop them from escalating is in line with what the long-term public health response for this disease is expected to look like.
To read the full blog, please visit: https://www.snohd.org/Blog.aspx?IID=31#item
As manufacturing ramps up and employees return to their jobs, it is incumbent on employers to provide an environment where employees are safe and where employees feel safe; the latter is as important as the former.
Economic Alliance Snohomish County (EASC) is partnering with Impact Washington (IW) and Snohomish County to present a no-cost, one-hour webinar on how to accomplish this through Return to Work Readiness Assessments. The webinar describes the Assessment, which includes a virtual site visit with an Impact Washington consultant followed quickly by a thoughtful implementation plan and debrief to ensure a smooth restart of your business as soon as possible. IW relies heavily on OSHA guidance, sound manufacturing principles, and assistance from HR professionals when conducting these reviews. The potential for close contact can occur in so many environments – including packaging areas, production lines, locker rooms, restrooms, etc. – and these assessments address those environments and more. The Assessment is also provided at no cost.
This webinar is targeted to manufacturing generally. IW is associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Webinars are scheduled for May 13 and May 18 at 11AM. For more information, visit the EASC website: https://localsnoco.com/educational-resources/.
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