May 13, 2020 — A traveling nurse from Oregon tested positive for the coronavirus while working at the coast Adventist hospital, and contact tracing has run into some difficulties in Covelo.
Mendocino County is on track to increase its testing capacity by 130 tests a day, according to CEO Carmel Angelo. Angelo said Tuesday evening that the state of California had contracted with OptumServe, a federal healthcare business, for a testing unit that she expects will arrive in a couple of weeks. The county currently has the capacity to do about 700 tests per week, so the additional tests will exceed the 135 per day that the governor requires for loosening the current restrictions. The unit is not mobile, and Angelo said a location had not yet been selected, but it would likely be on county property. The federal government is paying 75% of the cost, and the state is picking up the rest. She expects that walk-in tests will be possible, though appointments are always appreciated. The samples will be sent to Quest labs, and results will be available in four to five days.
Tests were top of mind at the May 12 Board of Supervisors meeting. Public Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan reported that Public Health and Adventist Health are doing more tests this week, in Fort Bragg and Covelo, to track down contacts with people who have been infected with the virus.
Doohan told the board that Ukiah Valley Adventist Health is processing the traveling nurse’s tests and working to determine whom she came in contact with. For public health reporting purposes, the nurse is considered an Oregon case, and does not increase the number of people who have been infected in Mendocino County. The number of known local cases is steady at 12, with all but one fully recovered.
But Doohan fears that the outbreak in Covelo has gone underground, with one contact of an infected party not responding to attempts to get in touch. She reported that an expert investigator from the California Rural Indian Health Board had made the discovery during her interviews with the original seven people who had gotten infected. The contact is reportedly ill, but has not yet been tested. Doohan said that free, anonymous tests would be offered in Covelo on Wednesday, with Public Health only requesting a phone number so anyone who tested positive could be notified. She added that three rounds of surveillance testing in Covelo had not turned up any additional positive results.
Doohan also said that Adventist Health in Ukiah does have a testing machine that could process 70 tests a day if it had reagents, which are in short supply nationally. Seventy is still a long way from 135, which is what the county needs to complete a process called attestation, in order to move into the next phase of emerging from the shutdown. Attestation requires extensive documentation of how the county can test people, trace contacts of those who have been infected; demonstrate that businesses have a plan to operate safely; and that hospitals and healthcare facilities have the equipment they need to handle a surge. Doohan said she expects to be able to file paperwork for attestation in two weeks. This is around the same time that the county will have the required testing capacity, though this information was not yet certain at the time she was making her report to the board.
Guidelines for the process came out Thursday, but the Sacramento Bee reported that Butte and El Dorado Counties had already had their attestation documents approved. That means several sectors in those counties, like retail and restaurants, can open for onsite business, though with significant constraints. The Bee noted that 27 of the state’s 58 counties had already submitted their attestation paperwork. Supervisor John Haschak emphasized that the lack of testing is preventing Mendocino County, and its businesses, from resuming a condition more closely resembling normal, noting that the county is currently in “a testing desert.”
But Supervisor John McCowen returned repeatedly to Doohan’s draft order, which she released last week. That order would have given the green light to several business practices, if the governor’s order had been similarly lenient. However, because the county can only be more restrictive than the state, not less so, the less restrictive measures in her order were superceded by the state’s. “Dr. Doohan, do you no longer believe that in-store retail is safe for Mendocino County?” McCowen asked.
“You know, Supervisor McCowen, I’m really baffled by what you’re saying,” Doohan replied. “I’m so sorry that you do not see my behavior as being appropriately urgent, and your continued questioning is leaving me baffled. I don’t even know how to respond to you at this point, sir. I can only tell you that I’m working night and day for the health and safety of this county, and I will get the attestation done as quickly as humanly possible. So I don’t know how to answer you, sir.”
McCowen rephrased his question, saying, “If in your judgement in-store retail was appropriate eight days ago, has something changed to make that not appropriate today? Other than the governor’s order?” Doohan started to say, “The governor’s order — ” before a series of crackles and clicks cut off the answer and the connection with the doctor was severed.
The board then took up the subject of in-county travel allowances, an agenda item sponsored by McCowen.