 Good morning, everyone. I will go ahead and get us kicked off. Just want to say happy Friday. I like the call to order the Durham Recovery Renewal Task Force. It's great to see everyone on this Friday morning. It seems like it's been a long, long, long time since we last met and it's only been a month. But a lot has happened over the past month and the timing of this meeting seems just right as we start to see our COVID-19 cases increase. As you look at the agenda, you'll see that the agenda is really focused on us having a conversation around what's happening, particularly in Durham. As these cases arise and how do we respond to the rising cases. As I think about our meeting today, I think our meeting is really focused on how do we, as a Durham Recovery Renewal Task Force, live our mission. And our mission is really centered on how do we advise Mayor Schuyl and Chair Jacobs on keeping Durham safe as we continue to go through our recovery renewal process. So really looking forward to our conversation today and brainstorming on, you know, how do we actually respond to the rising cases. So with that said, I will turn it over to Mayor Schuyl and Chair Jacobs to provide us with some updates. Oh, should I go first, Wendy? Go ahead, Steve. Thank you. Welcome everybody. It's so good to see everybody and especially good to see Rod looking so good. Rod, if I didn't know you were wearing your bow tie, I would have worn my bow tie now. I feel bad. Colleagues, it has been a month since we've been together and it's really good to see you. I'm going to, we all know about the increase in our cases and we're going to discuss that as a major topic of discussion today. So I just want to hit a couple of things that we have done since the, since our last meeting. And these really involve the, the city council at the request of the task force, the city of Durham approved $44,700 for the Duke pandemic response networks green light Durham app. And this funding will support the symptom monitoring and testing support for up to 3,500 Durham workers as part of an initial pilot program. This is representing nearly 1000 workers have already signed up to participate in the green light Durham program. And we, we heard about this program as a task force, not long ago. The city has also approved $240,000 in new grant funds from our cares act funding to support small businesses in Durham. We had talked about an emergency response fund for businesses the city had approved that as part of our cares fund. For various reasons. We turn this into a grant funds, and this is going to be administered by the city's office of economic and workforce development. And here's the key thing that I want to tell you all about that reminds you that we really need to get this money out the door the cares money has to be out the door by the end of the year we lose it. So this $240,000 in grants, please let any small business that is interested to know that they can go on the Durham business 360 website to access. We're talking about these grants the application process opened on November the 12th. And so we are in a hurry. We want to do it well but we do need to get that money out the door. So those are my two updates, and I'm just really glad to see everybody and looking forward very much to today's meeting. Thank you Wendy. Thank you Steve. And great to see everybody miss miss our more not having more frequent meetings with you all. And just to add to what Steve has said that the county has funded our final portion of the back on the bull media campaign which was $32,000. I just want to do a kudos to Susan and her team everyone who's been working on that just been been a great job and as you all may have heard we've been a flattery is the best. As you say copying is the best for a flattery. So Susan can tell you a little bit more about that later on in our meeting. Also to add, we, Steve and I, and other members of the task force had a meeting with Secretary Mandy cone. Last week, and some of her top staff because they were very interested and learning about the back on the bull community health ambassadors program. And so that was a great discussion and I think we'll hear some more updates on that, how that program is going. We also Steve and I, along with Brian and others Nicole Susan and members of the Durham delegation had a meeting with a lot of our small business leaders these were businesses who are doing retail entertainment and dance restaurants, and they really gave us a message of how challenging it is going to be for them to get through the winter, as we are forced to move more indoors. And they really told us about specific things that would that would help them, like outdoor space heaters, help with ventilation devices, things to improve ventilation, help with mortgages, rental mortgage assistance and just rapid a way together employees rapidly to move. And I think this is something that the task force should really talk about. And especially with rods help. This is what we've heard over and over again that when there is, especially in a restaurant, if one employee maybe need to get tested, they need a way to get everybody tested very quickly and get the results as quickly as possible. And that affects how long they have to quarantine or shut down for and I know Rod will talk about. We have some incredible testing resources right now. But I think this is one piece that we really could, could focus in on. Also want to let folks know that the hope funds that we had from the state, which was a great resource. It was up to $6,000 per recipient it closed down all of a sudden. We got notice on Tuesday that it was going to close out the next day at six o'clock. I think it's because they had quickly met their projected funding capacity. The good news is that the what I've heard from our DSS staff. We've had several thousand Durham residents who did apply. And so that's kudos to our, our staff that they were able to do that very quickly. And that it's going to take several weeks to even process those applications so hopefully we have a lot of people covered for the next few months but it means that we do still need a source for for rental assistance in the foreseeable future. So, I know we're going to talk about some other things in the, in this meeting that are really critical. And, and also of course I don't want to forget the national news of the election. The fact that we see our president elect already moving forward with a COVID task force. We've had good news about vaccines and so, so that is, I think, really important positive news for our for overall outlook. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'll go ahead and start with a couple of co chair updates. It is great to see everyone it does feel like it's been a long time. Additional good news this morning so the recovering renewal task force staff has coordinated delivery of nearly a 67,000 free bottles of hand sanitizer for across Durham. And so those bottles were divided among Durham public schools, city of Durham Durham County the hope learning centers, and back on the bull community health ambassadors so great to be getting that out. One of the three W's as we know is is washing our hands and that frequent hand hygiene is really important so getting sanitizer out is terrific. The task force has also supported the city's transportation department as you all know we've been working with the transportation department on getting face coverings out and being able to have disposable face coverings on all of our transit. So far has distributed more than 100,000 free face coverings on go Durham buses and has requested an additional 40,000 and working on coordinating that right now. And then the task force has also distributed more than 10,000 free face cloth face masks to local nonprofits and the Durham courthouse so addition and that is on top of the masks that were distributed. A few months ago so great continued work there, and then private donations continued to come in under Mayor Schultz leadership to scale Durham delivers this winter. And so, we'll be seeking additional funding to really carry that program through the spring and summer. And with that I will turn it back over to Matisha to talk about our budget process. Alrighty, so I just want to provide you guys was an update on the budget process, because as you work on budget proposals and think about so how do we move these forward, recognizing that we're only meeting monthly. So the budget subcommittee is planning to meet by weekly, and that's every two weeks, if needed to review budget proposals. We are not currently aware of any proposals that have come forth so if you're working on something. Please let myself know what Ryan knows so that we can pull the group together. So what I could do as a subcommittee is really start meeting in December. And so, start meeting that first week of December, and then meet every two weeks again meeting as needed. If there's something that comes forward, we will meet, and we will get the proposals reviewed and scored and we will likely have to use email to do some of our communications because we're only meeting on the monthly basis. However, if there are any urgent budget proposals that are brought forward, we will try and align with our guide one of our guiding principles which is acting with a sense of urgency. We will do what we can to pull together the budget subcommittee so that we can keep things going along. If there's any budget proposals that you're currently working on anything that's new, or if there's something that you're revised, and if you're just giving the heads up in terms of when you might think you could get something to admit it then we can go ahead and play in to get that proposal reviewed as soon as possible. Another item I just want to highlight, and I think all of you got this email related to the Task Force website that has been set up so many thanks to Amber for that awesome website. It's great just to have one single place that you can go and get information, and someone reached out to me yesterday outside of the Task Force that wanted to participate in the meeting so I said, here, go to the website. The Zoom information is right here. The Zoom information is on the website. So many thanks to Amber and anyone else that supported Amber and getting the website set up because I think it's going to be a great resource for us as a Task Force and as well as for the public who may want to just take a look at some of the great work that we're doing. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. Alrighty, so I'm going to keep us moving, and I'm going to turn it over to Master who's going to go first to talk about the rise in our COVID-19 cases, but I'm going to turn it over to Rod, Katie, and Ibuken. So if you'd like, I can start with the brief update from the hospitals. Our seven day average is between Duke University Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital is at 46 active COVID patients in our in our hospitals. Last month we were at 42. So we are up some, but we are are managing and and and sort of holding steady on that. I would just mention and Dr. Akinboyo may be able to share additional information on this, but I would mention that we are taught when I give that number that is active cases so that is patients who are currently under isolation precautions for COVID-19. We also have additional patients who are recovering from COVID in our hospitals. And if we add up the recovering patients, many of whom stay for long periods of time, plus the active cases that has us at 66 between the two hospitals. One important note because you will see that change made at a state level in terms of so we are now reporting in with both what we call active and inactive or recovered cases in the hospitals that will you will see an increase in the number of hospitalized patients because of that in the numbers. So I just wanted to at least mention that and Dr. Akinboyo can correct me if I've got any of that information. But that was perfectly right. Okay. And then I would say, since March, we have performed over 150,000 tests across Duke Health. So that is not unique to the two hospitals that is across the health system. As of yesterday we had 12 patients who were requiring ICU level of care, six of those on ventilators. And again across the system since March, we've had almost 2000 who have been hospitalized since March since the beginning of the pandemic. 1,619 of those between Duke University Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital. And we are currently again at over 90% capacity we're actually around 94% capacity right now between again both hospitals, and just a reminder that we typically run at very high capacity in our hospitals so I think the bottom line is that, well we certainly are, I think, all very concerned about the rising numbers that we're seeing particularly across the state and nationally. We are still managing very well, we have plans for if we see a surge in patients, if we see a significant increase, I think we are well positioned to be able to continue to care for our community, and, and have all of the plans in place to be able to do that safely. And I will turn it over to Rod. Thank you so much Katie, and good morning to everyone it's indeed good to see everyone it's feel like it's been quite a while, but we continue to press on. I'll start off, I know Susan likes for me to start off with sort of a banner, if you will. And I think the banner will be a quote that I most recently heard from a very wise epidemiologist. And she said to me, people are officially over the pandemic. But the pandemic is not done infecting us. And I think that's the most appropriate banner because what we're seeing in a nutshell ladies and gentlemen is COVID fatigue. There's there's no other way to say it's just COVID fatigue. And with that I'll start off with just the recent numbers if you don't mind. We currently sit at 725 total active cases. The most important number I give you is like the inactive cases or the discharge cases, which is 9275. Since we last met we've had a number of deaths and our hearts and prayers go out to those families since October the ninth we've had about nine deaths due to COVID. And most were advanced age comorbidities hospitalized for quite some time, and they succumb to COVID-19. So again it shows us that COVID-19 is still a real and present danger within our society throughout the global world. We unfortunately are at 105 deaths due to COVID in Durham County, not too long ago we crossed the century mark and that was definitely a number that I was not looking forward to but it's just reality. And unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we've crossed the 10,000 mark of total cases. We currently sit at 10,110 total cases since the pandemic began. And again, don't have to tell you the numbers will continue to accumulate until you know the back the vaccine is in widespread distribution and the pandemic has officially come to an end. In terms of overall case trends, our seven day moving average is 70. This is an increase in our average from 64 to last week and 42 the previous week. So that further kind of explains that you know our numbers are increasing but there's certainly reasons why this is increasing. So far for the month of November as of Monday we were sitting at 590 cases thus far. Suffice to say our trajectory of lab confirmed cases is increasing here in Durham and also in the state of North Carolina. What becomes perplexing is when you look at the race and ethnicity trends and this is something that I've reported on many, many times. But within our Latinx population as of Monday to continue to be overrepresented, but they only represent 21.53% of our cases. That's, that's definitely hats off to Pilar, everybody around the screen, a Latin 19 advocates, you all remember when I reported that cases were as high as posted 79%. And that was this past summer when a Latinx population was hit really hard. As I said to the Board of Commissioners on Monday that probably represents the lowest has been since the beginning of the pandemic so a lot of work went into that. And I'm thankful to everyone. Black or African American community continues to be proportionally represented at 30% of all cases. And our white population in Durham continues to be underrepresented at 34.92% of all our cases so far in the month of November. And as you would imagine is increasing. Last week it was right at 5.9%. The week before it was at 5.4%. We always continue to be thankful for Morgan Jones from Duke who provides us valuable information every Wednesday for Duke's model, which shows that North Carolina's positivity rate is right at 6.3%. Where they have Durham's infection rate growing to 5.3%. So again, being over 5% is not where we want to be. And it just does confirm that positive tests both on the state and local level are increasing. We keep our eyes on COVID-19 impact on daycare and school-age children. And so far for the month of November with 97 cases confirmed under for those individuals under the age of 18, it sits at 16.44%. And we continue to really, really keep a close watchful eye on that because we don't really know what the plans are for next year for schools, but we continue to stay in close contact with Durham Public Schools. And we certainly don't want COVID to impact our most precious, precious children. Continuing on, I don't know whether or not Katie and Matisha, you want me to just kind of dive into it or just take a break. But I know we do have much to talk about. There was a lot of questions that, you know, we want to kind of engage in for dialogue. Any questions for Rod? Because I want to make sure that if there are questions that folks have an opportunity to ask their specific questions. If not, Rod can continue. So are there any questions for Rod? I have a question. Good morning. Good morning. Can you speak to, since we last met, we did all get the good news about the vaccine. Can you just speak briefly to, you know, your understanding of the stage at which the vaccine development is now and any projected timeline for when it may be available? And I will most certainly ask illustrious epidemiologists, Dr. Ibe Kanakin Boyo to chime in, but locally we have submitted our plan for mass vaccine distribution. We did that last month, and it has been approved by the CDC. We got great news from Pfizer, basically indicating that through their clinical trials. Their vaccine has been proven to be 90% effective. That's great news because it is my understanding that anything above 50, 60% is, you know, considered to be great. It has been reported to us a long time ago. As a matter of fact, I think it's, it was Dr. Kanakin Boyo who really reported it that vaccines will probably be available at that particular time. They were thinking towards January 1st quarter of next year. And the initial target population lowest and others has always been those people who truly are most vulnerable. We're talking about individuals with multiple chronic conditions, those individuals who are in long term care facilities and of course, our frontline workers who are taking care of these sick individuals. We're hopeful, very hopeful that at least by next month, they will have vaccine available in limited distribution. Because of the Pfizer announcement. It has been reported that there is sort of a stronger push since 90% efficacy has been reported. There's a stronger push for emergency use authorization for that one. It's important to keep in mind that there are many vaccines that are kind of on the cusp right now there's some out of London England I believe it's Oxford. A couple from Eli Lilly. There's many of them that are out there and the United States is geared up their distribution efforts. They have pre-purchased if you will. There are many, many doses we're talking billions to buy some accounts I've heard that in totality they should be able to provide vaccines for the entire US population four times over. That's very promising. And again, you know, in these days and times when the surges are rapidly increasing we're talking, you know, nationwide 154,000 cases in one day that was yesterday, you know they continue to break records. You know that that's that's very promise. Um, as share Jacobs has mentioned in her intro. It's also promising to see that the new administration is laser focused on COVID-19 mitigation. I cannot express to you laws how encouraging it is for a national response. Everyone, you know, in the words of pressure of Reverend Davis can is can appreciate this. Everyone's singing from the same him. That's what you want. Everyone sing in a unison. And that's simply not what we've not had. We've had sort of a piecemeal type situation we've even had states to just really take it upon themselves to come up with their own plan of action because the let's just say that the word from the CDC has been working. So certainly hope that answers some of your question and I will definitely turn it over to Dr. I can believe you for additional commentary. Thanks for it. It's a great question. I think I agree with everything you said, just a couple of nuances to know the timeline probably hasn't changed much. It's exciting. We think there will be a safe and effective vaccine product on the market by probably January and the distribution process will take a lot of time. There's some subtleties in there. So some of the vaccine options need to be stored at negative 70 Celsius. So what that what that means for everyone to know it is either there has to be a freezer pack going along with the or everyone is to have almost a sub zero temperature type of freezer. It may not be the most. It may not be the easiest way to disseminate a vaccine but we've overcome things like that before and some of them require two doses not one so there's some subtleties in there. That means that this needs to play out over 2021. But it is exciting to have a product. It's not just Pfizer. I think as Rod was alluding to they've been quite a few that have reached they've gone past phase one. So test that out in humans and have had good results. And also are testing broader than just 100 people so testing out in multiple hundreds of people without without seeing adverse effects. I think those are so encouraging. We still have to do everything else we spoke about and the timeline probably hasn't changed all that much. Thank you both. I think as a as we try to respond to and address covert fatigue. I think that messaging around just hold on help us on the way you know there is some light at the end of the tunnel we just have to be vigilant and get there. Yeah, thank you. I have a comment because we've been having some researchers coming to us to get to the community to participate in some trials. And there is a lot of anxiety in our community about this piece and also the vaccine. So I would like to see how we can have some conversations with the community members about these topics because I think it is very important. And talking about coffee fatigue and a hope for this vaccine but also to communicate very clearly with the community. So I would like to see and probably we can talk offline and plan. I don't know some focus, no focus groups but I don't know how to call it but have these meetings with different groups of the community. So we can communicate clearly and from people who really know about all these things. Absolutely, Pilar and I'll talk to you privately but I think you already know how much I'm going to miss you and I certainly wish you the best in your sabbatical. You are three steps ahead of us as usual. Tuesday we did have a very high level important meeting with the state on vaccine distribution plans, and that also included a communication strategy. So the state of North Carolina is already working on this and a part of that strategy also includes the local health departments really focusing on historically marginalized populations and really trying to communicate acceptance and really getting them to understand what the vaccine is about how we derive at the vaccine, helping them to understand everything in an effort to, you know, promote acceptance I think that's the biggest drawback that the operation warp speed, the local level. They are biggest fears not necessarily being able to get the vaccine to us ladies and gentlemen, their biggest fear is people not taking the vaccine. And that's a huge impediment to us being able to really get back to normal if you will so they're definitely going to be a lot of discussion on the local level around that and I look forward to talking to you all. Thank you. So, Rod, I have a question. And this is just for you to share your opinion, because I've heard different things about the why, but why do you think cases are rising so quickly now. What's the what do you think are the main drivers. What I really do think Maticia and others is that it's truly COVID fatigue. There's not clearly defined trends for where cases are currently appearing. You know, on our radar, if you will, if you think back, which kind of seems so long ago, we started off with travelers, people who went to different areas because COVID wasn't really here. It was travelers who really brought it. And then we went from travelers to long term care facilities, speaking dirt from long term care facilities and they were just, you know, cases everywhere and impacting skilled nursing facilities long term care facilities. And then of course, in Durham, our Latinx population really got impacted. And as Doc, Doc and will you once said, once we got that population in control, then we would see a better representation of those populations who were just historically impacted by disease burden, comorbidities, chronic illnesses, and that's what we're seeing now. But what we're seeing really is, you know, people who understand the three W's, but they want to maintain their bubble. And their bubble is more or less like their circle of friends, their family, and what they're not realizing is that they don't know what's going on in everybody else's bubble. So when you let everybody else inside your bubble, and, and you know, you're not giving them temperature checks, you're not giving them nasal swabs and antidechests and PCR tests, then that's where we're starting to see increase in our spreader events. It's the small gatherings, we're talking birthday parties, we're talking gender reveal ceremonies, we're talking funerals, and it could be as, you know, it could be eight or nine people around the kitchen table. And all of a sudden they take that, and they spread it. And that's why the the guidance has come from the CDC, particularly around holidays and everything about, you know, really catering to your own household, because you are most assured of the status of the people in your house. And that's what we're seeing right now. I will also say that we did receive our, our quarterly gift from Butler federal prison. Because of the Durham side, you know, we did. They did have an outbreak if you will. And we did receive well over 60 cases from them. Overall, I do believe, since the pandemic began, we've received well over 300 cases just from Butler alone, when they do mass testing and, you know, and that's good because that's a vulnerable population. And we want to make sure that they're, they're squared away but, you know, we still receive those cases and that has, that has caused our case load to to increase as well but, you know, that that's, that's beyond my control. I will say that COVID fatigue, people are just tired, and they're not staying as vigilant. They're not protecting themselves and others. They're not showing a care and compassion that's needed to mitigate the spread. And we also, I would also be remiss in not saying that when we were on lockdown, of course, you know, people sheltered in place. The minute that we opened up, it slowly started to ticker up. So with every phase increase, we started to see more and more and people, just like you and me anticipate like, we're in 2.5, we're in 2, we're in 3. And that means more liberties, more opportunities to do things. And as a result, they just not, they kind of discounted how dangerous this respiratory pathogen is. So as a direct result, cases are increasing. And somehow or another, it's, it's all about messaging them. We have to make sure that we message that if we don't want to have a dark winter, if we don't want to have to impose restrictions that we're seeing in Chicago, New York, all over the country, then it's incumbent upon us to really, really just stay home. Practice the 3Ws, wear your mask. I mean, nothing's changed. The message is still the same, but we just need to enhance it. Rod, I have a question about Durham's plan, said we have a plan that's been submitted and approved. Can you explain to us what the, what the mass inoculation phase of that looks like? It's a work in progress, George, to be honest with you. It continues to be novel, something that we've never done before, but most of the mass vaccination and most of the vaccine is going to go through two entities. It's going to go through local health departments, and it's going to go through our hospital system. We hope to be able to enroll providers inside. There's authorizations that require them to, you know, sign up. And all of that has to be taken care of by the local health departments. We are prepared to receive, we had to attest that we can, we have the capacity to receive the vaccine. As you've heard many times before, is ultra low cold chain storage. That means that, you know, it's not your typical freezer. It's, it's negative 80 degrees that it has to be kept in. But we at one point in time, George thought we would have to be required to, to buy dry ice to buy additional equipment, but we have been assured that all of that will be provided for us by operation warp speed and all the facilities that are going to have the store, the vaccine. We in turn would, again, through the media campaign through coordination with the state would begin to, you know, inoculate our residents. And of course, the health department can't do it all by themselves, but that's where, you know, we would in turn, partner with doctors offices that's when we were in turn, you know, partner with, you know, different practices to ensure that they have the vaccine and are able to inoculate our residents. No small feat, no small task, it's going to be done in incremental phases, because as mentioned, we're not going to get a whole lot of vaccine at first. But then eventually, you know, as time progresses, you know, and supply becomes more robust, we will be able to provide it to to our entire population. Dr. I can believe you can add anything else you'd like to. I think the dissemination is complete the outside of my realm of expertise, which is sort of focus on the science of the vaccine. I think the only thing I'll add is to my teachers earlier question what what we may not be as cautious about our unmasked moments. So I think Durham has actually done a great job championing masking. And you can see that just walking down the street interacting with people, people are up front about asking or coming into a store or something wearing a mask. But we are having more moments of unmasked activities and our smaller social circles. And so we're in the phase where we are hunkering down for the winter, and people want some type of normalcy. It may be important to pay attention to moments where you are choosing to be unmasked with people that you don't live within the same household. And I think that's that may be the biggest impact in reducing the rate of spread. So that means it's it's it's those moments where you're eating right so a lot of it we're seeing so at a party where you know you're and it may be a very small group gathering but it's people outside your own immediate household. And now we're breaking bread and the mask comes off to be able to do that. And because we can't eat with our masks on or at least I have not figured out a way to do that. But that that is I think where where we're starting to see those those challenges. I concur with that Katie because you know, even when you think about what's coming up in a few weeks Thanksgiving, you know what's the likelihood that you're going to not eat with a mask on and not necessarily be six feet away. Everyone's not going to really want to partake in Thanksgiving outside some people that would be the smart thing to do with social distancing, should you choose to go down that route. But it's not the popular or the most convenient thing to do for most families. So you you see a lot of close contact eating breaking bread, and then you see a lot of the spread. So I've seen cheer Jacobs politely trying to get in and I've seen very sure what raises hand a couple of times. So I'll turn it to cheer Jacobs and then we'll go to visual. Well, I just wanted to add on also I think on a positive note. And Rod if you could talk more about this is also keeping focused on on testing. And the fact that right now, it seems like we're at our best testing capacity that we've ever had in Durham. And I think, Rod you told us on Monday that we've done been doing like 8000 tests a week in the community when we think back at this task force in the beginning. When we were doing like, it was good if we were doing a few hundred tests a week and here we are now having the capacity to do thousands of tests a week and a lot of them are free. You don't need an appointment and are getting also right out into the community so I would ask Rod if you could go into detail about some of those new test testing options that we have. And I think, you know, knowing that people are going to gather for Thanksgiving, I mean, as much as we're going to tell people, don't do that, people are going to do it. And so I think one thing we could really, really emphasize with people is, you know, go get tested before you're going to be with some of your family members. You know, everybody go get tested before you gather together. I think would be, I just would like to hear what you think about that Rod and Dr. Acambuio. And, and also just, I think we're using more surveillance testing and Rod you could talk a little bit about what we're doing now at our detention center at urban ministries we did just have a breakout but it's been contained. We also now we really have places for people to go. The county has, we have funded partnerships with so that we have places for people to go, duplexes and hotel rooms that we've been able to put people into. But also, I know we've had some outbreaks at our congregate, continuing at our congregate sites but so Rod if you could talk a little bit about, about the current testing situation. And what do you think. Yeah. I'm more than happy to madam chair. She hit the nail on the head I mean at one point time testing, not just in Durham but just, you know, at the onset of the pandemic it was just, you know, really a mixed bag at best. And, as, you know, unfortunately, we did not receive testing capabilities as fast as we could. And that was one of the factors that kind of caused the first search to really roar and rage throughout society. Durham, as you can remember, you know I still have a little angst when I talk about this but we were considered to be one of the op nine counties to where we were identified as you know having the most cases and things of that nature when, when in fact, Durham was doing quite well and we were holding our own, however, one of the compliments of being an op nine county was additional resources at no charge to Durham County. Unfortunately, we were identified as an op nine county early in the summer, but we did not receive those resources until October 14. And since October 14 we have been the recipients of additional COVID-19 search testing and testing is the, the one way that you can identify where the pockets and the transmission occurs, and to be able to isolate and quarantine those individuals to further reduced spread. As of lately, we have been able to test just last month we tested an estimated 29,646 total tests for weekly average of about 7,412 tests administered. In the past two weeks alone, we have tested well over 8,000 individuals, and that's awesome. We continue to reap the benefits of having multiple CVS sites for testing and right now we have about nine CVS sites throughout Durham County. Our trusted partner in Walgreens is doing a fantastic job with testing. And then of course we have the search testing, which is really allowed us to continue our strategy of employing targeted purpose filled testing of our historically marginalized populations. So we still have four testing sites located within Durham Housing Authorities locations, we still are able to, we're able to set up a drive through testing center at El Centro Hispanel, and that operates Tuesday through Saturday. And even on the weekends for Saturdays and Sundays we're able to provide drive through testing at the Health and Human Services parking lot here at the health department. So there is simply no shortage of testing and of course you know you still have Duke, and we still have our crown jewel at the Holton site, which is able to test on Tuesday and Thursdays and Saturdays. So there is absolutely positively no shortage of testing. As far as surveillance. I feel as if, and I think I was talking to the commissioners I feel as if it's a different field because yes, it, the numbers are increasing but we feel so much better prepared because of what we went through in July. So our contact tracing and contact investigation is very robust. Just on Monday, we were expected to receive five additional personnel and I think that brings us to upwards of 70 total people who are able to help us to contact tracing tests and investigate total. In terms of the detention center. Sheriff Burkhead and I have been locked step in as far as not only keeping the detention center safe, but also to mitigating the spread at the courthouse as well, because the courthouse is under the purview of the sheriff. And we have been able to, in partnership with Jody Miller and emergency management, and a lot of other people who've been rolling up their sleeves and working hard, been able to test robustly at the detention center we have had approximately three rounds of testing of detainees. And we, at the public health department, we test the inmates ourselves, because we can contractually obligated to do it and happy to, and then we've contracted with a vendor to test employees. So, we've been able to do that effectively. And as Chair Jacobs has mentioned, you know, we did have an outbreak at Urban Ministries of Durham, and was thankful to Dr. Jake Feigl and our homeless support team, who has been able to go into Urban Ministries and test. And we've been fortunate to not have many positives, but we do, in the spirit of transparency, we do declare that there have been some outbreaks there, and we are continuing to test that population to ensure that they are safe and well. We have partnered and been a tablet creative, you know, of course, ideally, we would love to be able to have the Marriott RTP for long periods of time to protect those vulnerable populations, however, we're thankful that the commissioners thought and not robbery to put that in place, and we've been able to, since then, we have been able to have a set of duplexes to house our COVID positive homes, individuals and families. And then we've also contracted with the Carolina Duke Inn to provide shelter and quarantine spaces for that population as well. So we continue to, you know, think out of the box, very thankful to our partners in emergency management and ELC, and all the different task forces that we have internally to help us with this. Okay. Hey, Rod. Hey, Nicole. How are you? I'm well, hope you are. I am doing wonderful. Thanks for asking. And I don't have a bow type, but you know, maybe I'll get one because yours is pretty snappy. So I do like that. It's colors of my undergrad. So I like it. I had a couple of questions around the testing and related to the businesses of the plate, the sites that you just mentioned. Are they all, can I assume that unless they say walk up walk ups welcome you have to call and make an appointment. I would say that the, the testing sites at a central the testing sites at Durham housing authority, the testing on the weekends at the health department's parking deck is all free of charge. You can just walk up and you can get tested. Okay. Is it that they run out at a certain point or they will they will see however many people are in line and test however many people are in line. The latter, if in fact, you say you walk up, they have the capacity to provide that test. Okay, so what I'm getting at is if a business in downtown had exposure, they could bring their entire staff that worked that night and wait in line and get tested. Yes. Okay. And are these rapid test, they get tested say one o'clock and by five o'clock they'll have results. I wish they were, but they're not unfortunately Nicole. And we certainly wish that they were, however, they do receive the results anywhere from anywhere from 48 to 36 hours. And just before leaving that point, if a business has a positive case, they may not be utility in testing everybody in that business on the same day. I think working closely with the public health department to determine the timing of the test to capture all those that are infected would be important. The main thing is you have to give the virus time to replicate. And we don't want to falsely reassure people that if you know of a case today, and you get tested today and you are negative, you automatically don't have the infection. So I just wanted to be cautious about the timing of tests, but of course tests are available. Ah, that's a good point. So you the so what would be the course of action that Thompson restaurant who last night I had 10 people working this morning I got a phone call from one of those people that work let's say the dishwasher. And he realizes that his girlfriend is coded positive. What recourse when I have what what should I do in that case then for those 10 people that worked with that individual that night and there is a fear that perhaps they have been exposed. Sure. So right under your team has handled a lot of these cases because this is our current reality. Most often it means they if they are exposed. So first of all, you have to check what that exposure definition is where you in close contact where you were in a mask. And if they expose you go under quarantine. And what that means is you're watching for symptoms. Oftentimes what we've done here is if you have been exposed with a couple of days usually about day five or so even if you don't have any symptoms you can be tested. And the decision about when to return to work and who returns to work has to go through the public health department so calling your public health department having a conversation discussing what the exposure is and who amongst those that are exposed need to get tested, and who can either continue working or just have to stay home would be important. Gotcha. All right, do you all do you have a couple of folks that businesses could call, or is there a hotline number that that one could call and get an immediate person or a call back within a reasonable amount of time. And the reason I keep hitting on this. I want to want to work and make sure that we're doing it safely, but the less time that a restaurant is closed, especially as we're in this little bit of warm weather and they can be open and making money to get ready for the winter when we're not quite sure what we're going to do is helpful, I'm not in any way trying to suggest that we cut corners or do anything that would put anybody at risk. So, is there anybody at the public health and I know Chris has been wonderful to work with he has been very responsive to our businesses since we brought him in to have conversations with him with them. I don't know back in April or May, but is there anyone that that they could call that could kind of walk them through this explain what to do how long they need to wait. What they need to do in the facility. We do have a hotline that has been up and running for many, many months. Um, 919-635-8150. And it took me forever to memorize that number but that's the number. The hotline number is the number to call. Staff by nurses and they're extremely adept and familiar with contact tracing contact investigation. They, they, I don't think there's a scenario that they have not come across as of yet. Okay. Alright, thanks. That's been real helpful. I appreciate it. Absolutely. I wanted to make one other comment I know we've talked a lot about COVID and testing today. I'm just COVID transmission. I think Commissioner Jacobs is right. We've tried the abstinence approach and may not be working for everybody. I think that's still the party line sort of if you can stay home, limit your interactions with those outside of your household. However, if you are going to interact with others or if you are going to host, there are some ways to make it a safer option for everyone that's involved. The CDC and the CDC have come out with guidance, which in summary means that if you're going to do something on Thanksgiving Day at this point, everyone that's invited should be in their own self-imposed quarantine, which means they're not going to other events. They're not exposing themselves to people that are unmasked in the 14 days leading up to that event. Also, if it's possible, and I think we're saying in Durham, you have access to test and getting everyone tested within the three days before the event may be helpful. Just remember, a test is a snapshot in time. All he tells you is right this minute. The test we got is negative. However, you could be symptomatic so you could get a cough or fever the next day. And if that happens, anyone that's symptomatic should not attend an event where people would be unmasked or any group events sort of staying home and getting retested if you have a symptom after a negative test. So there are ways to have a safer gathering. I think the first rule still remains the same. If you can limit it to your household, you should. If you're choosing not to, which can be done safely, keep it local, keep it small, ensure everyone is quarantined and masking everywhere else, and limit the duration, the time where people are unmasked. So shorter times to eat, spaced out, outdoors if you can. Sorry, I just looked at my notes and I had one more thing and I just wanted to put it on record that it does appear kids are not driving the infection I know there've been lots of headaches about schools. We've seen ups and downs in our local community, kids and other ones driving this we can safely educate kids, somewhat in person if we do get there. So just reassuring people in your circles that the kids seem to be all right. And that we as the adults have to be the role model for the kids about wearing our masks, washing our hands. I mean, I know it goes without saying but but it really is so important that that we just keep reinforcing those basic principles of prevention. And Katie I just want to jump in I think it's significant the CDC study that just came out this week, which says for the first time for the first time the CDC saying that wearing masks. So overall it promotes community mask wearing as a strategy to prevent future lockdowns and also and just prevent the spread of the virus, but the study shows that mass wearing to prevent it protects the mass wearer, as well as everybody else because the data was showing that it prevented you know wearing masks, you're, you're, you're caring about other people, but now the data showing it actually, it protects both. And I think that's really significant as well. Michelle, Michelle had a question and we never was able to get to. Thank you, Rod. I'll actually you and a book and answered my question I was Wendy and I are going to do some messaging on Monday about Thanksgiving. I've had the guidance from the state but I really wanted to hear what you and a book and said, and I think what a book and just said, actually was a great summary of the things that we need to say so I really appreciate that and I hope that you know just thinking about her about the faith roundtable you know getting that Thanksgiving messaging out and as many other ways in which we can but that it was really helpful to me to hear those things so that was my question thank you. I will add that again, you know, I think the most recent vulnerable populations, workgroup that we had. We were really promoting and, you know, happy about the robust testing and we have but we were reminded that we still have people, people's behaviors that are really affecting it, and we're continuing to work through governmental red tape if you will but we do plan to provide work with the city in terms of messaging and Miss Beverly is working with our PIO. And then we're also trying our best to finalize a contract with Univision for some messaging on Univision. And then most most recently, we will record for radio one to do some radio advertising because we found early in the pandemic that worked out so on the gospel radio station and the hip hop station, if you will, we want to make sure we get the messaging out for that. And back by popular demand is definitely going to be the weekly videos by your health We've gone to every two weeks but since this pandemic is really raging we're definitely going to go back to every week with a nice message based upon what we're hearing and seeing from social media. All right. I'm going to say great discussion, appreciated all the great questions and all the great responses that have been provided. That just just tells me there's just still a lot of work for all of us to do as we continue to deal with this current pandemic and recognizing that there is a lot of fatigue that we're facing as we go forward. I'm going to move us on to our next agenda item, because I think from that agenda item, as we get specific updates there may be things that we want to talk about as a task force about ways that we can continue to respond to, you know, maybe the COVID fatigue that we see in our community. So I'm going to turn it over to Susan Pilar and Ryan to give us an update on the current efforts to support compliance updates on the back on the bull campaign and the community health ambassadors. I'll kick it off and talk about the back on the bull campaign and where we stand as Commissioner Jacobs mentioned earlier the county this week approved the final phase of funding. So the back on the bull campaign will continue running through the end of December. It's over the six month period will have made about 12 million impressions around Durham, across 24 different media outlets which included print TV radio social media billboards bus ads water bills, etc. In English and Spanish. And then there have been a lot of media interviews that have gone along with this also. I would say it's interesting that, despite all of that, there are a lot of people who aren't aware of back on the bull, and one of the moves that has made a huge and very obvious move in people's awareness and participation have been the community health ambassadors who have really done a fabulous job at the door to door work to get people to complete the checklist and participate. Our main campaign messages of course have been encouraging people to do their part to reduce the spread and targeting businesses to get them to do the checklist and to post their signage and just increase awareness of the campaign. Residents have been pointed to the website to find out how they can support the community's desires to say to stay safe and to look for businesses that have completed the checklist. So I do this little summary to say this campaign ends at the end of December, and clearly we are not beyond this health crisis. And so what I wanted to do is have some conversation about this along the way. There are three things on our mind. And from as in a role of communications consultant, there's the question of what we would recommend beyond December, and assuming that there's going to be funding available. If there's not going to be any funding available that brings up another question. But our recommendations if there is more funding is one, there needs to be some baseline level of communication and messaging that we keep going to and try and be creative to keep the fatigue level down message fatigue down. But we also need to be continuing to encourage the right behaviors. Our suggestion would be that we as we move forward that we go with the most efficient media buys to keep this base level of awareness. In our first round we wanted to make sure that we were communicating through all possible channels and with a huge focus on supporting media outlets owned by people of color and going out through print media outlets, which has been good at getting to a lot of small populations it's not necessarily the most financially efficient way to reach people. We may want to concentrate in some TV and radio broadcast that reaches a very wide range of people across the whole demographic spectrum. Social and digital media which are typically very cost effective so we might pull back a little bit on some of the print media and go with some of the more mass media that reach everyone. One of the question open questions to me, especially after listening to this conversation this morning is about how much we may want to communicate to encourage people to take the vaccine when it becomes available. I think it's something we should think about it. I expect that the media will be covering this as news stories on a daily hourly continuous basis. But I think the question there will be a question about what we need to do locally if there's some specific messaging we need to do. Long term we had hoped that by now we would be switching our messaging from back on the bull stay safe and by the way, support your local businesses and serve shifting that pendulum to go out and support local businesses while staying safe. And clearly we're not at that point right now, but we do expect that over the course of the next few months and especially if there's a vaccine available that will be able to do that. So, from a communication standpoint there's still going to be quite a bit of work that this community would benefit by having done. And that's something we need. We're not prepared to work on, but we recognize there's this issue of funding and where that's going to come from so and I feel like there are a number of places, communications being one where we can put steps in place and do some planning with the anticipation that there will be funds. And so that we're ready to go and that happens. I wanted to open a conversation and I also want to give Pilar and Ryan time to chime in on some of the other elements of what's happening from a communication standpoint. But I do think that we, it would be good for us to have some discussion about what do we think the public health messages should be what what do we think our community needs in terms of messaging and and what you see as some of the priorities. And why don't I stop there there's another point I would like to make about the spreading the message and the influencer toolkit but let me turn it over to Pilar and Ryan first to talk about some of these message the communications campaign. Susan I was actually just going to give a very brief update on the ambassador program, just quickly in terms of numbers so the. This is again under the administration of UNC and then Pilar and L center also partners in that we have seven ambassadors that are out in the field currently. They have been operating for maybe three or four weeks Pilar you can let remind me when it started to date they have over to see 280 businesses have participated in the back on the bull campaign as a result of being visited in person by an ambassador, which doubles our numbers on the website you will not see those numbers reflected yet on the website. Because we're working on integrating the data but that's great of those 280 108 were Latinx businesses and I believe prior to that we had only 20 or so businesses and in the Latinx community represented on back in the bulls so something that's been an operation only a few weeks not yet a full capacity it really seems to be doing what we hoped it would, which is providing in person support it's it's making it easier for businesses to learn about and participate in back on the bull. To complete the health and safety checklist ambassadors are taking a number of items when they go. I will share a report that I just received this morning from UNC, but they take disposable mask for customers reusable mask for employees. They're starting to take hand sanitizer, they take recommendations beyond those listed on the back on the bull website advice on how to deal with patrons who may not wear a mask when they're entering the store just to make, you know, help make that less intimidating conversation, and they take posters so I think as you are out and about you will begin to see more and more businesses that have the back on the bull signage. We're also you'll see more businesses that have the floor stickers which have been very popular, the remaining kind of just reminding people to maintain six feet distance. So I think early on the report is it's going really well and in December we'll have our team from UNC, to provide a more in depth report but that's just a quick summary of where we're at and floor I don't know if you wanted to add anything. Thank you, Ryan. I think it's a good summary. And I also think the other important work they are doing these health ambassadors, besides helping these businesses is really cleaning up the list of businesses that are out there and we are learning those who had to close permanently or temporarily because they couldn't open the door. So I think that's another important piece when we talk about recovering, having a more comprehensive list of businesses and what they are facing and how we can support them for recovery. And I think also, thank you Nicole for asking that question because I think it's something they also face when they go out, they get a lot of questions that sometimes we can't respond right away so it's good to have the back to put them to come back and really be more helpful to the businesses. In general, people are receiving very well. The health ambassadors is difficult to get the time to complete the list so they have to come back or make an appointment to come back to do it. And the other thing I want to add is, as central we are having we started a radio show every Friday, one to one 30pm at Lakerwena, which is the Spanish radio station in Durham, and the, and today actually one of our health ambassadors is going to be concentrated in businesses today and the visits we are doing so one of our health ambassadors Rafael will be in the radio talking about the back on the bull campaign and the health ambassadors program, and we invited somebody from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are on also from the Carolina small businesses to give some to talk about resources they have for businesses in Durham. So Susan question around, I think and others probably heard this to cut the end of an NPR segment I think it was on the health report side around how, how, for example, the polio vaccine was marketed or can't big campaigns at a national level many years I raise that because as we anticipate what a new administration might do around prevention, campaigning, you know, vigilance as well as around a vaccine. How are we thinking about not necessarily coordinating efforts but support that may additional support that may come from the federal level and and how to, how that might shape what we do at the local level. I think that in turn, one of the things. Excuse me that I believe we're all hoping is that there will be more federal aid available to accomplish a lot of the things that need to happen from a communication standpoint in general. So that question about what the national, what kind of national level communications there might be in support of the vaccine and in support, frankly, of national mandates that protect our health. I think about what that will look like and the effectiveness that that can have. I think we would need to take into consideration what it looks like and figure out how to react to that, whether there's an opportunity to just amplify that messaging or if there's something that's more community specific that we were may want to put a finer point on it. Right. Um, just wanted to kind of chime in to just say, I'm hopeful and almost positive that we will receive all the above media campaign from the federal definitely from the state level at that Tuesday briefing they did mention as a part of their external program that there will be external marketing promoting the vaccine. But Lois is right, you know, it's always good to have like an even more local spin for term in terms of promoting how we do things. But, you know, rest assured they're definitely going to be some additional media apparatus around promoting the vaccine. And I could especially see that we might want to communicate specifically where to go or when to go or how to engage. Yeah. So I'd be curious to hear any other thoughts or input on communication messaging going forward and what you see is any critical needs that we ought to be addressing. And I just want to jump in. I think that as you know, we're going to need to, we're going to need to keep supporting the back on the bull campaign because, you know, what what we've seen with integrating the community health ambassadors and project green light that it's really the backbone for really our entire effort to, you know, support our businesses, keep workers safe, keep people in our community safe, and to get resources and information out to people on the grassroots level. So I think it's really critical that we, we keep supporting this program. And Lois as you've just mentioned, it will be a great tool to help promote people getting the vaccine and educating people about the vaccine. And so I, I think that there's no better structure we know than, than, than grassroots we just saw that with the election. That you know it's people to people contact trusted community partners relationships at the end of the day that that are the most important investments that we can make so I think we definitely need to keep building on this. And I, and I think, you know, back on the bull, you know, get back, you know, get back on the bull by everybody get back everyone getting vaccinated. And so, and I want to just throw in something else which is I was going to ask not to be our soft of this but Ryan are how are the community health ambassadors, even promoting the project green light or people joining the pandemic response network, or even Rod we talked about at our meeting on Monday, the slow COVID and see app. So all of the resources that we really have. You know, for workers and employers. Are we are we integrating those, but I don't want to get you get us off the question. Susan just said but if we could be put a pin on even I would like to understand how that's being shared as well. I would say that I do share those resources with the ambassador team so that they can incorporate them in and in fact, yesterday when you send the email about testing sites I made sure to send that right over and they emailed back that they would figure out how to share that information and incorporate it in. But thank you. And if there are no other comments about the messaging specifically what I might do is go on to the next communications point here, and certainly interrupt if you have another comment on that. The next item on the agenda is about the influencer toolkit, and it actually that the the introduction of the influencer toolkit and some feedback that we heard from the restaurant round table this past week, present an interesting communications conundrum, because as far as the influencer toolkit. If you have not yet opened it up take a look, it is a really detailed roadmap thank you so much to my communications team and Margaret pen track who put this together. And it gives you all kinds of ideas things you can copy paste into social media channels. And I think one of the things to to consider is not just your ability to amplify across how many, however many followers you have but you have the opportunity to make this more fun, I'll say, to really focus on you enjoyed going out and seeing things last night and look here's a back on the bull poster in this restaurant that you ate at. I think there's a way to make this a little less heavy feeling while encouraging people to who are who are struggling getting this covert fatigue to to embrace some of these things so I would really encourage you, not only to share the messages to him to support the public health messages but also to just help normalize it for people and help people relate, which would be great. So here's the conundrum because the restaurant round table, one of the things they said to us last week was, there are so many websites now with information about resources for small business that we can't, we can't deal with it. The team took a stab at it and we came up with 11 different websites that have covered resources for small businesses. Some of those are kept up to date some are not some have certain portions of it some have everything they can find. Some still list sources of funds that are no longer open. And I'm including a lot of the websites represented by those of us on the call are the discovered drum one included. And their, their request is could you please narrow that down. So there's this on the one hand there's this message about help amplify the message. And the other is, we've got it so amplified that it's a little bit confusing for some of our small business owners. I don't think that means that we stop putting it on our websites but I do think that there is a and it would be great to have a resource available to help with this. So let's go through these 11 or so websites and figure out what where that where the what's the central point of information in which cases. Does it make sense for us to have all different pieces of information, and in which cases does, would it really be best if we just pointed to the one source of information that is the complete and up to date list of resources that are available so that would be something that I'm Ryan I'm wondering if you and I can work on whether there's a resource of someone who could take a look at that with us and help with it. But I will say we've now launched a couple of new websites in the last week or so. And so I can, we need to be thoughtful about not continuing to spread out the information. Okay, all right, that would be great. So I think to the degree that we can coordinate trying to keep information up to date. Try and point to single sources will be great. While we all use our social media channels to show off how well people are participating and back on the ball. Any other comments so far. I think the next agenda item here was about discussing strategies for promoting best practices over the holidays. Susan, I just have one comment. So thanks for leading that discussion and didn't hear any disagreement that we need to, you know, we need to continue the messaging and you talked about the back and back on the bull campaign funding for that ends the end of this year. You may already be working on this because I think we all recognize we don't have an endless pot of money that we can go to and get things from. But are you already working on or thinking about putting together another proposal a budget proposal, so that we can bet that evaluated and then determine what is or is not available so that we can then plan for how do we proceed forward. I wasn't and I love that question. Thank you, Patricia. I am not sure what kind of proposal to put together, or what we might, it would be helpful to have some parameters to work against but we would be happy to put together something. Is there any guidance. I think it's, but this is just my bias and others could certainly chime in, you know, just recognizing that funds are limited and I'll use your word Susan because I think he used this word before. Not looking for the Cadillac version, but looking for a version of something that we think could be effective. And, you know, again, recognizing that funds are limited so we don't have a tremendous amount of funds available. And I would just rather us put something forward to see what can or cannot be funded so then we can pivot and start planning more well if the funds aren't available then what are the other options that we have to explore, because it's you know it's November 13 then December 31 is going to be here before you know it. So, but certainly welcome any other thoughts that others may have. I'll say one of the great things about it will be that we are no longer going to be paying media rates based on election at advertising so that will help tremendously. Absolutely. It will definitely help. And I agree I agree I think I think coming up with something that's a plan that will have the impact that we want it to have, but, you know, making sure that we keep budget in mind. So, not the Cadillac version but not the kind of something that will certainly have the outcome that we're looking for. I think now you have to say not the Tesla. That's right. I will, I will point out we didn't have the Tesla version before, but yes we'll put together something. And we could look at a proposal that has a couple of different levels on it so that depending on what kind of funding becomes available we have a couple of different approaches to it. I mean, at least from my perspective, I think the making sure that we are continuing to share that important messaging is really important. I mean, it's, I think that's, that's been a big part of what we've done in a big part of our success so I really think that you and the team have done an incredible job with that. And so, how do we extend beyond December. I think the council would be very, you know, very interested, Susan, in terms of funding. And so, you know, we have the, I know the task force has other things still in front of it that are still being vetted and, but I think it's, we all know how important it is so, yeah, go for it. All right, we'll do. So if we want to, I think next on the agenda is an update on current enforcement efforts and I don't know Anna if you have something to share with us on that. I do yes and I can be pretty brief here good morning it's good to be with you. I will just briefly update you on the enforcement efforts since we began phase three, which was on October the second. I was glad to report that the number of citizen complaints or reports about non compliance, have actually decreased substantially since we've been in phase three. I do do do a couple of different reasons one the success of back on the bull the community health ambassadors obviously the good work that Susan just talked about that discovered Durham and DDI everyone is doing to educate and communicate about safety issues I certainly appreciate there is more communication and more work to do. I do think compared to other places in the state Durham understands what needs to be done to a large extent and that is sort of reflected in this decrease of reports were saying I think. The other reason I think reports are down though is because when we entered phase three, the governor placed fewer restrictions and so in phase two we saw more obviously because there were more categories of things that were not allowed and so we of course have reports that were not allowed with that so I think that is probably the other main reason. So in the last six weeks, since we entered phase three, I would say the majority of the reports and complaints I'm receiving are related to employees, not wearing masks and businesses. And grocery stores fast food restaurants, drug stores, places like that either the report is they're not wearing a mask at all or they're not wearing it properly over their nose. I received these reports through the community health ambassadors, as well as directly from citizens who continue to use Durham one call contact the mayor directly or contact the city attorney's office directly. In phase three, I have continued to handle these reports by educating the business. I write a letter I informed them that employees definitely need to be wearing masks. I've learned that the governor passed a law this summer that acts as a liability shield for businesses who are, you know, using their best efforts to limit the spread and that that that can help them in the event of an infection if they're if they're doing the best that they can meeting employees are wearing masks and they could be protected from other location. I would also like to explain that it's to their benefit to not have an investigation by the North Carolina Department of Labor, who is responsible for monitoring workplace hazards, and as well as an employee safety. So, I do get a good response sometimes to my letters, but we do use stubborn actors who know what they need to do, and they are not going to do it. I think, at least in one instance they don't think the government can say that they should. And so when I have these stubborn actors I do a quick analysis of how public facing the businesses. I have a sample of a small small business owner without really a public facing presence without heavy foot traffic said the government can't tell him to do this. My analysis is, it's not extremely public facing so instead I sort of turn my focus to ones that have high foot traffic and really do affect the public and I'd like to give you one recent example. We are near Duke's campus who is repeatedly ignoring the, the advice of the police department. This has been referred to a le. I informed the mayor of this this week and we, we wrote a letter that was a little bit more stern than some of my usual correspondence but the reports that we have from both the police department and residents are that patrons around the campus are out drinking million about without mass, while over the current capacity limits for for bars which is 30% one resident reported that patrons were playing beer pong, writing a mechanical bowl. We are ready to move forward against the this business. We are ready to comply at this point, and just very briefly, what does move forward mean the options available to us are the criminal penalties, which is a misdemeanor citation that governor Cooper has alluded to several times, and there's also the potential for civil penalties and a lawsuit that I could file on behalf of the city. I just want to make mention that whatever enforcement mechanism is used lawyers me will have to shepherd the citation or the enforcement through the court process. Whether it's civil or criminal at this point law enforcement would need to respond to further to be a witness to the, to the violations and to write those citations. I would need to explore and talk to Mr Jenkins about whether the health department is positioned to write these citations are not, but we may need some support in that endeavor. I just want to make mention that it would require significant court time and resources from the city attorney's office to shepherd these through. And if you've got court involvement you've got attorneys and citizens going up to the courthouse where just this week there have been some some infection outbreaks so just so you all are aware I'm the only attorney consistently engaged on the enforcement work. I received some periodic support from my colleagues but this is not my primary job responsibility I do, I do support other departments so in your consideration of how we enforce I just respectfully asked you to consider how we might troubleshoot an attorney staffing reality. So, thank you very much I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you so much for that report are there questions. I have a question first of all Anna, thank you so much you have been doing such an incredible job. I've seen some of the letters that you've been that you've written and they're just brilliant. So, thank you so much for your for your great work. Just to clarify, so you, you do currently have. We do currently have the ability to issue. For instance, just tickets, a fines, things like that, just that basic level. You currently have that ability to do that we don't that's in the order. Oh, I'm sorry, we have the ability through the criminal process to write a citation that that currently exist, whether we have a current ordinance or need to enact an ordinance that would make our ability to write civil penalties a little more clear. We certainly have that authority we just need to think about what what ordinance we would want to move under to enact civil penalties and that's something I think can encourage us would be really helpful to me and kind of thinking through. Okay, because I'm wondering what, if that might be a step, you mean just the just writing a ticket like, you know, we're fine or something like that. If there's a step that it's not as much work for, let's say you come sometime interim step that has some teeth to it, and maybe makes an impression, and it's not, you know, like having to do a lawsuit or take somebody to court or what that, what would be a tool or something we could do that's showing we're serious. I mean, is that something you think that would be helpful. Yes, I do think that would be helpful. Civil penalties that the sample ordinance language I've looked at that it does appear that law enforcement still writes those tickets. And I guess the challenges that the person willing to defy your order and be issued a ticket is probably going to want to exercise their due process rights in court. So we can certainly write write that citation but I would need to be prepared to manage it if they don't just pay it. And is there any indication, because I know there have been other, especially in the beginning there were some more high profile situations where, you know, the idea that you said an example right, so that there is somebody who's being very flagrant. Is there is there any evidence based on your knowledge that when you do take on that one case and it is, is it, you know, does it impact, because you show that you are serious and you are willing to take people to court. Is there any indication that that does help. It will help by depending on how things go in the next couple days with how this bar responds. I think we're at that point where we need to. I mean, I serve with the city's pleasure so as you know the client will let me know how they want me to proceed but it is my opinion that we need at the point we need to be really clear about this. As the infection rates rise and as we go into the to the winter. Yeah. And are we talking about a number of businesses or is this I mean is this a large number is this a small number. Sure, so the number of businesses I have heard about in phase three who talk about, or the employee mask reports I would say that's been about 15 to 18 in the last six weeks. I am not, honestly, I have gotten fewer complaints that are sort of high profiles such as this bar. Since we entered phase three since bars were able to open now in response to the attention that we gave this bar this week and the PD going with a written, you know, notice of violation. The owner said, all the bars and Durham or some of the bars and Durham are not in compliance and so I'm going to go take pictures of those businesses and send them to you. But this is the only, only bar of how many complaints about directly. Thank you. Katie, I just to add that. I think what others have said that Anna has done a great job. These letters she writes are like little masterpieces and she calls she follows up she, you know, corporate headquarters sometimes and you know just does really done a great job. One of the things that Anna suggested in relationship to the bar and she mentioned it was near Duke is that we try to involve the university. And I think that that also we need to let the university know I think that this is going on. I have a, I expect they know what's going on already. But I do think that's important. And, and I do endorse, you know, when we have an egregious violator, who repeatedly refuses to do the right thing. I do think we have to take the next steps and so I certainly endorse that, and will be supporting Anna, moving forward with it. Thank you. And, and Anna, thank you again for just the incredible job you're doing. Mayor shul if I'm certainly happy to help with bringing that back to the university and and so if we want to talk offline happy to help. Yeah, sure that's great. Thank you. Public health I just want to say thank you to Anna and Minerva for putting up with all our emails. We do quite we get quite a bit. Coming into the health director's office and never been an issue with collaborating with you all so we were very grateful. Thank you. Anna, Nicole with DDI, I got I dressed up a little bit I see the mayor changed. I buttoned up my top colors so I'm trying to hang with the with the folks who are trying to bring this task force up a little bit. You know, Rod said I have standard this morning and I know and then you went and you changed and I'm going to put a suit coat on the next time I speak so you'll just be waiting for I'm curious about that bar that's near Duke. I think I might if I'd like to talk offline but anyway that we can help you with any restaurant or businesses not compliant downtown. We can reach out very quickly. I am actually doing that on another issue that has come up. Nothing of concern but pulling together the restaurants to give them a kind of a messaging of some things that they need to take care of and be can be focused on a mindful of as we go into winter. So more than willing to do that for you as well for the downtown businesses or just wanted to offer that if that would help in any way. But we can so much. Thank you and I want to say that I really think the restaurant sector downtown has been doing an incredible job but not. You know at the beginning of this there were a lot of conversations about how to people wanted to do the right thing and restaurants wanted to have guests safely there and I really think they've done that. And this is when we went into phase three and Governor Cooper open the bars. That's what I attribute this to anyway we can help you on that but let me know be more than happy to pull if just that sector we can very quickly get to just that sector in our downtown. So more than willing to help because you've got one bad Apple it then it then impacts all that we're trying to do in downtown so be more than happy to talk with you suit coat next time promise y'all. Thank you. I just have a quick thought it may be Mario can weigh in on this. And even thinking about, you know, working with Duke on this. I mean certainly a message that you know this is a business that is not safe for I don't know. I just don't know about the whole messaging piece to whether. I don't think any business wants to get labeled as being not, you know, being a bad Apple. And for, for, you know, Duke to be telling the students we recommend you don't go there. I just don't know, you know, and I don't even know if that's a good strategy or not legally but you know, certainly the bottom line is. You know, when you don't have the business it's not good for you so I don't know any thoughts about that and I don't know if even that's part of what happens when you do kind of go public with somebody not being compliant so. You know, Mario or Anna your thoughts on that piece. So, so there is a risk of like making it highly public that you also are in a sense licensing other businesses to also be non compliant. So that is a that is a little bit of a risk I think that essentially that is that gets mitigated if you actually show that there are consequences for businesses that don't comply. So I think that if there is a goal of highlighting the fact that that they're not compliant it needs to be paired with the real follow through from legal actions of non compliance I think that's important because what you don't want to do is just rely on shame and driving business down. I do think that it's a very clever thought and a way to, you know, Duke has been very. Duke has been very willing and able to take real action against students that aren't complying. And it does seem like an option might be that Duke could actually leverage some of that to to encourage students to stop going there because it's not safe and that unless they become. More compliant that then that basically Duke students that go there will then get punished. If that's, you know, just kind of thinking in that direction but I would avoid just shame without and saying don't go here without having the legal recourse and showing that that that that is not a socially acceptable approach for a business. Thank you really good discussion really important discussion. I'm going to move us along because we have only about 10 minutes left because I want to give people three minutes for a brief stretch break before their next zooms, because I'm sure we all have other zooms at right after this. So, if we can hear that we now want to have an update from our roundtables. Do we have anything from Jeff, or Susan Nicole Pilar around the economic recovery. Sure, I can give you guys a quick update being, you know, mindful of time and everything. I think the one thing this meeting showed me today is that public health is linked to economic health. And while we continue to monitor our KPIs and they're relatively stable, which is I guess generally good because things are getting worse, but it means the situations for those sectors of our economy that have been hit hardest are further exacerbated I know we've all heard about the K type recovery where the steep cliff off drop off, and then there's been a one ramp on the way up at another ramp and suddenly heading down. And so that's something to keep an absolute track of and be mindful of. I'm really, really pleased to see the city use that cares act funding for additional small business grants. Notice the state expanded their mirror program, the mortgage utility rent relief program for restaurants I think in fact it recently even closed just due to the high demand of that. But we should expect the need for continued relief. And hopefully another like we mentioned here out before today already another big push at some point from from the federal level. What we are seeing is that continued depression of low wage employment opportunities but the other side of that there are also points to some positive signs for wages that need for a continued focus to both up skill and to retrain. Many of our workers that simply aren't going to have jobs to return to post COVID. I'd be, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Durham Tech kind of back to work initiative and spring enrollments going on right now and that window remains open. And we have been really, really pleased to partner with with Durham Tech the state the city in the county on to really significant job announcements just in the past month. Thanks to Commissioner Jacobs. Thanks to city council member Freeman for participating in the bio agiletics and the new botronics conversations new botronics was Friday. Two Fridays ago 150 new jobs and $50 million investment in the bio agiletics just a few days prior was 878 new jobs with the $61.5 million capital investment it's absolutely critical that we align our displace workers and our residents with these opportunities and many of them are the majority of these jobs are actually available without an advanced degree so that's really important work would also like to mention out though with the great work that we've been partnering with the workforce Development Board recently a triangle career that we hosted virtually where 80 different employers from the region saw over 1100 job seekers almost 1700 submitted applications over 12,000 communications or chats virtually and upwards of 17,000 actual booth visits so there are opportunities available. We are pushing them out we can we need to continue to do so so as we get folks back to work that we are doing so such such way that is equitable equitable for the entire community not just the those that are displaced but those that are on the Ascension. I don't want to pick up the entire conversation I know that we've got Pilar Susan and Nicole here that might want to pitch in as well but that was just my high level look on where we are right now. Thank you. My suit jacket on yet so sorry I have nothing to add Jeff you put me on the spot. I just like the fact this is like dancing with the stars where our host have wardrobe changes and I can't wait to see what next month has. Just a quick question. What is the impact of Kobe Kobe it on our employment unemployment rate in Durham. I mean, if we compare now to even a year ago or as when Kobe started is anybody know right off I'm just curious. So Lois it's sort of two answers to that. You know, our employment numbers there are jobs that are available are unemployment is relatively stable because people are taking advantage of the new jobs. The disproportionate fact is that the low wage job rate is experiencing high rate higher rates of unemployment and so you can look at the look at the flat line sort of seeing that but they balance each other out so but it's not actually one line that you can focus on because it is you know the those those lower wage jobs that are most highly impacted. I know that the hospitality sector jobs are disproportionately impacted of course and many of those are in the low wage category so I'm not sure what the exact number is but we're actually working on refreshing those right now. I think last month. And one of you all's reports. The total unemployment in Durham County was around 8.9% and I believe that that was higher than the highest point in the Great Recession, but that that was driven I think by the 35% unemployment among low wage workers. I remember remembering that right, Jeff and Susan. I don't recall those specific numbers that sounds right that's yes that sounds about accurate. Yeah, that's right disproportionately hitting the low wage employment. Right. So to add into the conversation about economic development and if I could I'd like to also talk a little bit about the restaurant round table. One of the bigger programs that we have going on which was mentioned earlier is Durham delivers to help restaurants recover. And I just want to say you have, we have an incredibly generous mayor, who has personally contributed substantially to helping Durham delivers move forward, and has provided enough funding for us to continue into the new year. We're still raising money to fund that program through 2021, which we expect will be needed, but that program has been growing very quickly. We've done $13,000 in orders as of a week or two ago and the trajectory has been good we've got 30 restaurants that are participating now in about 18 communities, and we have a project manager on board who's helping to expand that so we see a lot of promise and we've had a number of restaurants participating who say that this is going to really help make a difference for them and being able to bring employees back and put them to work and then being able to survive. But if I could take that now to talk a little bit about the restaurant round table. Our staff that was part of that on Tuesday said, described it as being grim. There are a number of restaurants that are have gone from a position of a tremendous amount of stability before who have been taking on a lot of debt to try and keep themselves afloat and have been working really hard. And there are probably a number that are not going to make it through the winter. So, this is a, this is critical to so much more than restaurants, because it obviously is a big backbone for Durham's economy. And not only just in terms of the numbers the amount of revenue or the sales tax that it generates those are all important factors, but also in terms of Durham's brand and how it's known and and the overall attractiveness of it to the new companies who come here. So we need to be thinking really seriously about this and how we can provide support. Their feedback was that they appreciate, I think the different programs that have rolled out in the grants and and support systems that have been put in place but it's simply too little. A grant of $5 or $10,000 does not help them make rent for months on end. So they are really struggling. Given that there are not any real new helpful updates or information or resources to share. The thought was that we would stop having these monthly roundtables with restaurants. We can certainly call them back together if there's something we do want to share. Instead we have been, we do have a users group so to speak a group of restaurants meeting who are part of the Durham Delivers Program, and we'll content that group will continue to meet to help build that program up. I think that it raises a question that I think we need to be intentional about these roundtables and my sense is there are a few of them that are that have some real strong things to work on and should continue. And some that there may not be a lot of new things to talk about. And so I just wanted to raise the question of if there are sectors of our economy that we're not hearing enough from. Is there time for us to be intentional in thinking about, are there some that we want to make sure continue. And then if I could I wanted to talk for just a second about the venues and festivals roundtable. We took, we had a two different roundtables, and we have merged those together it's venues parks outdoor events and festivals, and that has been a very engaged group of 40 or more people participating. So we're going to try and figure out how to plan out festivals and events for next year. And there's been a lot of discussions to in a nutshell this is Matisha this is a proposal that we're going to bring back to the funding committee. And Ryan has been fantastic at helping to provide leadership on this as we've talked to different groups and we're going to come back with a three component proposal for how to help these festivals and events plan for next year. So we need to be doing right now, and what kind of support, we might be able to provide that help them have a better chance of being able to pull it off. So that will be forthcoming. And that's my, my part. Excellent. Thank you very much. I have about one minute left. I do want to make sure that we get a quick 30 second update on the upcoming Durham workers town hall. I don't know CC or Ryan if either of you have, or Amber have information on that. But I think that's important for us to hear what's being planned there. Amber and I are working closely with CC on that we're working on getting a survey out soon to Durham workers that that I think CC and some of our community engagement task force team are reviewing now. The goal is to send out that survey as a precursor to the town hall to help inform the conversation and we're looking at scheduling that before December 15 we have not yet set a date for the workers town hall. And we will communicate by email to, to this body to let you know when that data sets you can hold it on your calendars. Great. Thank you CC anything else you want to add on that. I think the only thing to add is that we will be pulling in community groups that work with work with workers labor groups the Durham workers assembly and the task force the city task force for the dead workers assembly. So we're really trying to encourage the workers commission in Durham to be able to push this survey out and then also to, you know, bring folks to the town hall so we're really hoping to really target the industries that are hit hardest by COVID and have good representation throughout the city of Durham and throughout the different industries that exist. Great. Thank you. Thanks so much. Anything else that needs to come before this group today. Great discussion. Thank you so much for all you continue to do, and please stay safe over the holidays remember to wear your mask wash your hands and socially distance so thank you all, and have a great Thanksgiving. Thanks everyone. Thanks everybody.