It's the kind of news Ryan McMahon hopes he never has to deliver but, another person died from compliciations of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. Sunday marked the second day in a row that McMahon had to send out condolences.
"She was in her 60's. She had underlying health issues. And our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family and we grieve as a community for her and everyone else we've lost in this process."
It marks the second day in a row that a woman in their 60's died of the virus. 19 people remain in the ICU. The county currently has 267 active cases and 1,008 individuals are either in community isolation or quarantine. McMahon says it's a very important time to stay home to further starve the virus and be sure we monitor our temerpatures and pay close attention to even mild symptoms. McMahon would not say whether or not he intends to extend his voluntary stay at home guidelines which conclude on Tuesday. He says data shows that the community is doing much better in terms of staying at home and doing out only when necessary.
"The data shows that because of these measures that we've all taken, the impact in our community is not what many experts thought it would be. But, we're still at a point where this virus is a real threat. This virus is still killing people. We still have positive cases. Some of these positive cases have had affiliations that may have been preventable and were being proactive but, even if you take those affiliated away, we still have new cases everyday. So, it's important that we dive into social distancing."
McMahon says the amount of hospitalizations has declined from two weeks ago and he says that needs to continue. The county is in talks with the State Health Department to phase in some elective surgeries that won't impact PPE, Personal Protective Equipment. Patients will be tested to make sure they're notasymptomatic with COVID-19. McMahon shared candidly today about how he's feeling living through these times by acknowledging he's crankier some days and told residents to call 211 for mental health issues. He added they shouldn't be ashamed in doing so, because dealing with our lives altered during the health pandemic, he says, affects everyone.
