COVID-19 Joint Information Center Update: May 13, 2020

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER

TOGETHER WE RISE. As we begin to prepare for a safe reopening, the County joins together under one common goal – a safe and healthy reopening. The reopening process will be gradual, as we take into consideration those most vulnerable in our communities. Now, more than ever, we will need the support of one another as we regain our traction. From businesses and nonprofits to educational and religious institutions, everyone has been significantly impacted by COVID-19. The time we are living in will be talked about in history books, and we have the opportunity to band together now to shape our future.

The County has established a plan for reopening and will move forward under the direction of the State of Maryland at the appropriate time. If a regionalized approach is considered, the County will release a plan that is safe for our citizens.

A Back-to-Business Toolkit has been established to assist the local business community with planning for the reopening. This toolkit will serve as a guide to business owners as we begin to move forward with the ‘new normal.’ Please click here or on the photo below to download the toolkit.

Stay informed on the recovery and reopening of Washington County, MD by visiting our new website.

To help navigate these new waters, the Washington County Emergency Operations Center has established several response teams to assist in communication efforts across different groups and organizations in the County. Those response teams include: Economic Recovery, Community Planning, and Health and Social Services. During the upcoming weeks, these different response teams will be hosting webinars and listening sessions to help our community make it through the days ahead.

The first webinar on Economic Recovery will be held on Friday, May 15, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. Business owners are invited to a Town Hall Webinar on the Reopening of Washington County. Government officials, business representatives, and local Health officials will be on hand to:

To Register Click Here or on the tickets button below. (If you cannot make the meeting, register and we can provide you with a recorded version to watch at a later time)

WASHINGTON COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Contact tracing is an important public health tool used to stop the spread of diseases. Public health workers use this tool to identify the contacts of a person infected with COVID-19 in order to stop chains of transmission. Washington County Health Department’s dedicated employees are focusing on interviewing COVID-19 positive patients and quickly locating all persons who were in contact with the patients.

This process starts when the health department is notified of a positive case, each positive cases is then contacted by one of our employees. Through our conversations with each person our contact tracers then create a list of places and persons the positive COVID-19 person came into contact with starting 48 hours before illness onset until the time they were isolated. Contacts are placed into two categories household contacts and causal contacts. Our contact tracers do not ask for social security number, credit card or immigration status. We then contact each and every person who might have been exposed and follow up with them through their isolation. During this time we provide education, information and support to understand their risk, how to monitor themselves for illness, how to self-isolate, and the possibility that they could spread the infection to others even if they do not feel sick. In order to protect patient privacy, contacts are only informed that they may been exposed to a patient with COVID-19. They are not told the identity of the patient who may have exposed them.

By staying safe at home and maintaining social distancing measures, you can help lessen the extensive amount of work are contact tracers are preforming. When a positive COVID-19 person only comes in close contact to those who live in their own homes, it considerably shortens the list of people our nurses have to contact and effectively helps stop the chain of transmission.

VIRTUAL VISITS CONNECT PATIENTS AND FAMILIES

Meritus Health is now offering virtual visits to connect patients in the hospital with their families and friends. To setup a virtual visit, please contact the program’s coordinator at 240-313-3163.

The purpose of this page is to help the public distinguish between rumors and facts regarding the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Rumors can easily circulate within communities during a crisis. Do your part to the stop the spread of disinformation by doing 3 easy things; don’t believe the rumors, don’t pass them along and go to trusted sources of information to get the facts about the state of Maryland’s (COVID-19) response.

COMMUNITY RESOURCES & INFORMATION

WASHINGTON COUNTY FARM BUREAU TO HOLD FREE MILK DISTRIBUTION

The Washington County Department of Business Development announces theWashington County Farm Bureau will be distributing free milk to the community on Saturday, May 23, 2020.

The milk distribution will be held in the parking lot adjacent to the Washington County Transit Transfer Center located at 123 Franklin St, Hagerstown, MD. The hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. or until 2,100 gallons of milk have been distributed. This new location allows for easier access to those that may reside in Hagerstown, as the distribution point is now within walking distance of downtown.

The Washington County Farm Bureau is taking advanced orders from local nonprofit organizations, food pantries, and any organizations that have the ability to further distribute milk to clients.  Please share this email with any Washington County nonprofits or food pantries that may benefit from this free milk distribution.

Please reply to Leslie Hart ([email protected]) and Matt Schnebly ([email protected]) by this Friday, May 15, 2020 with the information below. The milk will be held for pick up at 123 Franklin Street, Hagerstown, MD.

The Washington County Farm Bureau is dedicated to this community along with the agricultural community and local dairy farms. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to make a monetary donation to the FREE MILK initiative, please contact Matt Schnebly at 717-360-4699. Please direct any questions to Leslie Hart or Matt Schnebly.

COVID-19 RELATED PHISHING

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security or DHS and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA continue to see indications of Advanced Persistent Threat or APT groups targeting health care, pharmaceutical, academia and medical research organizations, as well as individuals, using COVID-19 related scams and phishing emails.

Examples of Phishing email subject lines may include:

These emails contain a call to action, encouraging users to visit a website that malicious cyber actors use for stealing valuable data, such as usernames and passwords, credit card information and other personal information. Be sure your passwords are strong and carefully monitor your email, texts and phone calls during this vulnerable time.