**UPDATE** COVID-19 Joint Information Center Update: January 24, 2022

COVID-19 JOINT INFORMATION CENTER BRIEFING

January 24, 2022

The Joint Information Briefing will be distributed on Mondays for the duration of the current State of Emergency.

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER

Washington County continues to experience an extremely high level of community transmission of COVID-19. Although there has been a slight decrease in the positivity rate, the number of deaths continues to increase. Since January 10, 2022, in the past 14 days, 28 Washington County residents have died from COVID-19. Please do your part to keep yourself, your family, and members of the community safe.

WASHINGTON COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Donate Blood, Save a Life

Our community, along with the rest of the nation, is experiencing a chronic, ongoing blood shortage. Blood donations are paramount to supporting the health needs of a community. Donated blood supports trauma/emergency treatment, surgeries, transfusions, cancer treatments, and more.

 

Please consider scheduling time to donate blood via the American Red Cross this month. You could save a life!

 

A Test Worth Taking

We know that easy access to testing is a tool that will help us continue to contain the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

 

Since the beginning, Meritus Health has been committed to offering easy, free testing to anyone in need. We’ve recently improved our processes and flow at the drive-thru testing site off Crayton Boulevard.

 

Last week alone, our teams collected more than 3,000 tests. The average wait time was less than 30 minutes all week!

 

We also expanded our hours of operation, to include Sunday hours from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. We will continue to assess the needs of our neighbors and work to ensure they continue to be met.

 

The Lowest High

This week was a record-breaking week at Meritus Medical Center, but not in a good way. We reached an unfortunate new milestone, the highest number of patients being treated for COVID-19 at the same time at the hospital. Last Friday, our dedicated teams were providing care to 99 COVID-19 patients. These numbers need to take a different turn. Please continue to make informed decisions – wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands, and get vaccinated.

We All Need a Boost:

The COVID-19 booster helps to protect your immunity to COVID-19. Over time, protection from your initial vaccine decreases, and the booster shot helps to “boost” your immunity to COVID-19, especially as different variants develop. Across the country, people are generally having fewer and milder reactions after their third dose and they will be 92% less likely to experience serious symptoms or need hospital care.

The Emergency Operations Center continues to encourage residents that if you have not yet been vaccinated to strongly consider the benefits of getting the vaccination. If you click on the photo above, it will take you to the COVID-19 Vaccine Community Calendar.

Meritus Health continues to experience a significant surge of COVID-19 patients. Beginning on January 14, 2022, Meritus implemented a Crisis Standards of Care due to the unprecedented situation. As mentioned last week, there are several steps YOU can take to help healthcare workers over the next several weeks to keep yourself, your family, and your friends safe:

 

 

Businesses and employers can play a key role in preventing and slowing the spread within the workplace. Employers’ COVID-19 preparedness, response, and control plans should take into account workplace factors such as the feasibility of social distancing in the workplace, ability to stagger employee shifts, the degree to which employees interact with the public in person, the feasibility of accomplishing work by telework, the geographical isolation of the workplace, whether employees live in congregate housing, the proportion of employees at increased risk for severe illness, policies regarding sick leave for staff, and priority for continuity of operations. Employers should also consider the level of COVID-19 disease transmission in their communities.

WHY SHOULD YOU WEAR A MASK?

 

Visit the CDC website to learn more about which mask is best for you.

COVID-19 TESTING SITES IN WASHINGTON COUNTY, MD

 

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 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.