More staff needed as COVID-19 pandemic continues, Mecklenburg health director says

Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris said Tuesday her department doesn’t have enough staff, including coronavirus case investigators and contact tracers, to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Most health department employees have been working six days each week since March, Harris told county commissioners Tuesday. While those employees can support COVID-19 efforts now, expanded testing — and in turn, more confirmed coronavirus cases — will require more help, the health director said.

“These folks are working tirelessly,” Harris said. “I’m working with my staff to come up with a staffing plan. It’s not sustainable, and we know we’re going to be in this mode for some time now.”

About 2,500 county residents are tested for COVD-19 daily by Atrium Health and Novant Health. But local hospitals have reached their testing capacity due to staffing constraints, Harris said.

Mecklenburg is working with a combination of private and public healthcare providers to curb testing gaps, Harris said. That includes a partnership with Mako Medical for free drive-thru and walk-in testing at the Valerie C. Woodard Center on Freedom Drive this weekend.

Earlier this month, the state Department of Health and Human Services had asked Mecklenburg to test 20,000 residents daily to quell future coronavirus outbreaks. That target has been scaled back “to some extent,” Harris said Tuesday.

“At this point, providing us with supplies isn’t sufficient,” Harris said of assistance from NCDHHS. “It’s going to take manpower to do this.”

Community spread

Since the pandemic began in March, there have been 8,801 confirmed coronavirus cases and 144 deaths among county residents as of Tuesday evening, Harris said.

Hospitalizations continue to climb in the region, but the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 saw a “slight” decrease over the last two weeks. More patients have needed intensive care, Harris said, though there’s not a “significant increase” in demand for ventilators.

About three in four cases are among younger adults — a trend seen throughout the pandemic, Harris said. Social distancing, based on mobility data, is also on the decline, coming close to baseline levels before the stay-at-home order took effect in March.

“We have widespread community transmission,” Harris said. “We do have some parts of the county that are more heavily affected, but there is no part of our county that is left without COVID.”

County Commissioner Mark Jerrell asked Harris to develop a strategy for masks and coronavirus testing during July 4 festivities. He lamented a lack of planning before Juneteenth celebrations last weekend.

“People were out in droves,” Jerrell said. “Not everyone was masked up.”

Face mask requirement

Gov. Roy Cooper will hold a press briefing at 3 p.m. Wednesday. That’s when the governor is expected to announce where the state stands in terms of entering a new phase of loosened pandemic restrictions. He has said he is considering a mask mandate statewide.

“We just want to really embrace masks and health our community embrace masks,” Harris said. “The point about masks is they work when everybody wears one.”

But County Commissioner Trevor Fuller, worried that Cooper won’t go far enough, urged his colleagues on Tuesday to move forward with a separate directive for Mecklenburg — potentially asking residents to wear a mask whenever they leave their homes.

“We have a very dense population — it’s just different,” Fuller said. “I want (staff) to craft a rule that is expansive.”

Last week, Fuller tasked county staff to return with an official recommendation for mask and cloth face coverings by the commissioners’ July 7 meeting. Fuller’s latest measure specifically calls for a mandate that captures the “extent of our legal authority.”

County Manager Dena Diorio said she can accelerate the process for drafting a proclamation. Yet she emphasized there’s still not unanimous support within Mecklenburg’s six towns to make a countywide action possible.

County Commissioner Pat Cotham voted against Fuller’s motion Tuesday, saying she doesn’t want to confuse Mecklenburg residents.

“I just struggle with the timing of this,” Cotham said.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said Tuesday morning that she asked the governor for a statewide face mask requirement.

”I support this for all of our citizens because it provides additional meaningful steps to help combat the spread of COVID-19,” Lyles said on Twitter. “Protecting the health of our residents is a must do for those of us in positions to make this happen.”

But during Monday’s City Council meeting, Lyles was unsure what action could be taken in Charlotte if Cooper doesn’t implement a mask mandate.

”I don’t know the answer to that, to you tell you the truth,” Lyles told City Council member Braxton Winston, who had pressed the mayor about what conditions could trigger a local face covering rule. “I would just say we have to wait and see.”

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